America has evolved as the most sophisticated and magnanimous nation on the face of the earth. It is not naivete that brings tens of thousands of refugees and other immigrants to our borders each year. We continue amid all of our social problems to be the promise land for the peoples of much of the rest of the world. Students in Beijing risked their lives by the thousands demonstrating for a form of government like ours. We are currently witnessing civil attempts to dismantle the Soviet Union. In the Baltic States, there are mass demonstrations by citizens who are laying down their lives so that they may have a form of government such as ours!
Of course, the citizens of our own nation who make a career out of criticizing America and the traditional values that make our country strong and permitted it to grow to its current status as a supreme superpower, will deny assertions of good being generated by those values and policies which support them. And, while we do have to assure that every American has an opportunity to work as well as enough food and shelter, we must be equally mindful that technological growth is imperative, not only to protect our nation, but to create the jobs and subsequently the tax base necessary to care for those who cannot care for themselves.
Desert Storm was a success because of the high tech defense system that was lampooned and criticized for years by the pundits and social welfare zealots. On the other hand, thousands of American lives were saved, an innocent nation was liberated and the volatile world economy, in a time of international recession, was not further threatened. It was not threatened because the leadership of this nation continues to take the heat for a military budget that every social special interest group wanted a piece of.
I was as appalled as anyone else at the Pentagon’s purchase of $600 hammers and $900 toilet seats. Have experienced military management first hand in my youth, there is no question, in my mind, that the Department of Defense requires ongoing monitoring. That will, however, never negate the necessity for increased research and development. It is naïve to assume that there will never be another threat against this nation. As I write these words, the situation in the Soviet Union is extremely volatile. A military coup in the near or distant future is a real possibility. Beyond that, who can predict what peril may surface that currently seems beyond the realm of possibility.
Further development of SDI will continue to stimulate the economy and peripherally provide revenues to assist with many of our needed and necessary social programs. Beyond that, it is necessary to have a defense system that minimizes the casualties of our young Americans and, at the same time, has the propensity to bring a swift resolve to anyone who would consider threatening our families and friends and families and friends of our allies.
The very least that we owe to the memories of those who died in Desert Storm, Vietnam, Korea, and on the battlefields of World Wars I and II, is that we assure that their descendants when called upon to bear the burden of battle, do so with the full knowledge and security that we as a civilized nation have evolved to the point that the protection and survival of our own troops is our first objective in time of war.
It is important that “We the people…” continue the Strategic Defense Initiative, so, to paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt, we can continue to walk softly and carry a big stick.