Not Exactly "Give Peace a Chance" But Time for a Change

I am not a war monger. I am certainly no peace nick. I believe that when the United States is pushed into a situation where war is the only answer we should go in 100%, win with devastating force, and then get out after we have accomplished our objectives.

I am also a realist and understand that the United States has finite resources. Our cash resources are becoming more finite every month. Our access to seemingly endless credit is thankfully drawing to a close. This is cause for great angst and consternation for citizens, investors, and patriots.

I think the time has come to wind down both the Afghanistan and Iraq campaigns, not because they are not worthy and noble, but because we have not gone in with everything we have to win decisive victory and hence have costly years-long struggles in which we are playing by self imposed "rules" so we do not upset local leaders, other nations, and "independent" voters. Mostly however, I believe we have to draw down our resources in Afghanistan and Iraq with all haste because we simply do not have the cash to pay for these endeavors in nation building. It is time for America to decide what it can afford and what it cannot. Two foreign campaigns with less than clear final resolution have become something we simply do not have the cash to support.

I realize that we have to plan for as orderly a transition as possible, but I would plan to cut funding for both Iraq and Afghanistan by 75% in 12 months. Our foreign campaign should then shift into a large scale, new-century warfare. I would invest heavily in Drone attacks, intelligence operations, special forces, and cyber attacks against our enemies. A massive investment in these new tools of war would cost far less than our traditional deployments of hundreds of thousands of troops across the globe. The objective would be to keep Al Qaeda, the Taliban, et al off balance by continually and aggressively striking at their leadership and infrastructure assets killing and destroying whomever and whatever we have to without reservation.

I recognize that this change in US policy is not without national security risk. However, as the nation begins to realize that there is not an infinite source of cash to fund endless social programs and entitlements, we are a the point where everything that is a cost to the United States government has to be on the table for review. Our investments in Iraq and Afghanistan have been costly, with questionable hard returns. These are investments we cannot continue to fund, so we need a swift exist strategy and a massive shift to more cost effective ways of fighting those who would destroy us, before we do it to ourselves.