On Saturday, Mike Huckabee told “A Tale Of Two Superpowers,” reacting to the Ukrainian crisis in the context of the proposed defense cuts. He said we have been warned by prominent figures throughout our past that it was foolish to believe the world would be a safer place “if we just holstered our guns and sheathed our swords.”
“It’s folly to believe such nonsense. The best way to keep the peace and ensure our security is to have a military that is so overwhelmingly power that no one on earth would want to poke it into action,” Huckabee said.
As the former Arkansas governor noted, it matters not a smidgen if nations like us, but rather if they fear us. “But here we go again fooling ourselves into thinking that we can protect ourselves on the cheap,” asking a shrinking number of volunteers to pick up the slack on a growing number of deployments, while at the same time a growing number of people live off of entitlements.
The Obama-Hagel proposal that chooses to look for deficit reduction via defense cuts, has started a national debate on the topic of entitlements vs. defense spending.
Huckabee just returned after spending eleven days in Israel, a nation he noted where each 18 year-old male gives three years of military service, and every 18 year-old female gives two. Subsequently, Israeli citizens give another twenty years of reservist duty to their nation, and for the rest of their lives they must spend every minute ready “to spill the last drop of their blood” to defend a nation others would love to see destroyed.
Meanwhile, in America, less than one percent will ever serve in defense of their country, yet they must bare the burden of an out-of-control entitlement budget. The Obama-Hagel proposal cuts housing allowances, reduces the rate and frequency of pay increases for military personnel, and requires military men and women to pay more for their own health care, even as Democrats push to require nothing for the most unproductive of our society in order to get the same.
“We are willing to defend the nation with what he [Obama] calls OPK, other people’s kids,” Huckabee said, visibly disturbed. “Instead of recruiting or even drafting enough people to at least staff our defense readiness, we just send a dwindling number of willing volunteers to second and third and even fourth deployments. And we treat the national guardists and reservists as if they are full-time.”
As the governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee saw those serving in the National Guard deployed three or more times oversees, an unfortunate occurrence aimed to pick up the slack of those who aren’t willing to make any sacrifice for their nation. However, requiring such stresses on those who do have the honor and duty to answer the call, has terrible consequences.
“When more of our soldiers are lost to suicide than are killed by the Taliban, it’s time to use our brains, instead of asking other people’s kids to get their’s destroyed,” Huckabee said, adding that over 3/4 of the proposed cuts are targeted at those who are assuming the most risk.
If we have to make cuts, which nearly all conservatives and Republicans understand we must do soon to avoid a financial crisis, then Mike Huckabee proposed we “cut the desk-jockeys. Cut the government contracts that make the pals of the politicians get rich. Even cut the payouts to able-bodied people who take a government check, but have never offered anything back in return. And if we have to give them a check, give them a uniform to go with it.”
The idea of at least offering those who are on long-term welfare and are able-bodied citizens a chance to perform and serve military duty, was once and still is a very popular proposal among the American people. The difference now, however, is that we simply do not have politicians serving the public who have the courage to propose it, any longer.
That lack of courage and principled leadership has and is costing our nation greatly, and we are running out of both time and treasure while we wait for another true leader to step forward.
“In the meantime, protecting our nation is not just the business of the Army, Marines, Air Force and the Coast Guard. It’s all of our business. And we ought to ground Air Force One before we ground a fighter squadron.”
