Defense Policy
The purpose of the armed forces is to protect the United States from hostile external forces. A Libertarian administration will defend America in an efficient, inexpensive manner, keeping in mind both Ben Franklin's dictum 'Penny wise, pound foolish' and President Eisenhower's reminder "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. "
The cold war is over. The Soviet Empire has ceased to exist. America now spends more than half of all defense expenditures, and our allies and other friendly nations spend most of the rest. This absurd overspending impoverishes our people, weakens our industry, and in the long run leaves us weaker and less able to defend against foreign threats, should they arise.
The military establishment created in the last century to defend against the Soviet Empire has outlived its purpose. It should be honorably retired.
We should deploy an army appropriate to our actual defensive needs, an army far smaller than that which we now deploy. This change recognizes that the Iraq War should end as rapidly as possible. We must maintain the full 21st-century military skill set, because some day we may need those skills again. The force structure of the army should reflect credible threats, which do not include fighting other peoples' civil wars for them. Our superb airborne, ranger, and special forces are shining stars of military excellence; however, officer training for these branches should be limited to officers who will command them. This modest economy also represents a radical change in how we select our senior military officers.
While we are mindful of Mahan's demonstration of the enormous importance of naval superiority, which under modern conditions includes long-range air power, deploying a navy that is far more powerful than all of the other navies in the world, combined, is wasteful and irrational, particularly when most of those other navies belong to our friends and allies.
No plausible opponents border the Atlantic or Indian oceans, efforts to stir up paranoid fears of Iran notwithstanding. Our surface forces on those bodies of water should for the most part be mothballed. The Pacific Fleet is still much stronger than needed to meet credible contingencies. It should therefore be significantly reduced. Amphibious landing ships are of value to conduct invasions of foreign countries. Because we do not intend to invade foreign countries, these ships and their support groups should be put into long-term storage.
We should be planning for the future, not maintaining a living museum to the past. In planning for that future, we should recognize that satellite reconnaissance and long range homing missiles leave surface forces decreasingly effective against major powers. Submarine and shallow-diving auxiliary craft, including radical designs such as the 'arsenal ship', will be increasingly important in naval warfare. Their research and development should be emphasized.
Piracy suppression, however archaic it sounds, remains a significant mission in the 21st century. The custom of arming freighters against pirate attack remains important in several parts of the world. We should vigorously pressure our allies and trading partners to permit armed merchantment to use their ports. Piracy suppression operations are the first and sometime best line of tool for defense of property on the high seas.
Our Air Force enjoys enormous technical superiority over any credible foe. Investments to expand this superiority should be limited to small-scale testing. The manufacture and deployment of new aircraft decreases American security by reducing the capital and engineering talent available to civilian manufacturing. In large parts of the world, any war will rapidly lead to American air supremacy. We should carefully analyze options for using inexpensive low-tech aircraft under these conditions.
Service academies were a brilliant innovation at a time when America lacked engineering schools. This time is past. Service academies risk propagating a false message of separation between our citizens in the military and the remainder of the American people. We should reconsider how our military officers are trained.
The Iraq War has shown the Root Reforms of the militia to be extremely unwise. Under those reforms, the National Guard supplies autocratic Presidents with additional military forces that can be used abroad in foreign adventures. State Militias should be returned exclusively to the states. As an intermediate step, states should avail themselves (and nearly three dozen already have) of the option under current law to institute a State Defense Force as a replacement for the National Guard.
The founders of this country justly and vehemently condemned the use of mercenaries. Because mercenary forces are one of the greatest threats to the liberty of a free people, the American government should neither use nor subsidize mercenary forces, nor should it permit such forces to enter the United States.
We should eliminate restrictions on the private participation of American volunteers in foreign wars on foreign soil. Such volunteers should be advised that they are removing themselves from the protection of the United States and that they may be at risk of trial, imprisonment, or execution by foreign governments as spies, pirates, or traitors.
We can and will reduce the cost of national defense through sensible mutual defense agreements with other free nations
Recalling that electronic warfare is a part of warfare, warrantless wiretaps are felonies. Federal officials and private co-conspirators who committed these crimes should receive fair trials and, if convicted, extended prison sentences. Federal officers who urged the performance of these deeds and participated in putting them into effect levied (electronic) warfare against the United States, and should be tried for that crime.
The title 'Commander in Chief' refers purely to the Presidential power to give orders to members of the armed forces. Legal advisors to the President who claim that the President gains extraordinary powers to violate the law in wartime, if followed by acts putting these claims into effect, should be prosecuted for their criminal acts.
The primary terrorist threat to the United States is the domestic threat of religious extremists who attack abortion clinics and members of minority religions. Over the past several decades, these attacks have numbered in the hundreds, including assassinations, attempted assassinations, bombings, arsons, and uses of chemical and alleged biological warfare agents. Attacks on minority religions have included not only the actual use of biological warfare but also attempts to subvert the armed services via vigorous propagation of a specific religious belief by persons in a position of authority in a Military Service Academy. The Federal government should act vigorously to protect Americans against these real threats to their rights of privacy and freedom of religion.
A credible campaign requires serious analysis of real issues. I'm George Phillies, Libertarian candidate for President. I urge all Libertarians to compare my analysis of our military situation with the words of my opponents, and decide for yourself which of our candidates can run a serious campaign on serious issues.
