Defense and the National Interest

<body background="_themes/copy-of-topo-2-/toptxtr.jpg" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" vlink="#330033" alink="#006600"> <font face="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"></font> <div align="center"> <font face="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"></font> <center> <font face="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"></font> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="80%"> <tr> <td width="75%"> <font face="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"></font> <p align="left"><font face="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"><b><font face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" size="3">Military action is important to the nation—it is the ground of death and life, the path of survival and destruction, so it is imperative to examine it.—Sun Tzu, <i>The Art of War</i>.</font></b></font></p> <p align="left"><font face="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"><b><font face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" size="3">Machines don't fight wars.  <a href="FCS_Folder/people.htm">People do</a>, and they use their minds.—John R. Boyd</font></b></font></p> </td> </tr> </table><font face="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"></font> </center> </div> <div align="center"> <font face="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"></font> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="90%"> <tr> <td width="80%"> <font face="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"><font size="2"><br> <a href="FCS_Folder/military_and_society.htm">Military and Society</a></font></font> <p><a href="FCS_Folder/strategy_and_force_employment.htm"><font face="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"><font size="2">Strategy and Force Employment</font></font></a></p> <p><a href="FCS_Folder/people.htm"><font face="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"><font size="2">People</font></font></a></p> <p><a href="/FCS_Folder/military_and_society.htm"><font face="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"><font size="2">http://d-n-i.net/FCS_Folder/military_and_society.htm</font></font></a></p><font face="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"></font> <p><a href="/FCS_Folder/strategy_and_force_employment.htm"><font face="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"><font size="2">http://d-n-i.net/FCS_Folder/strategy_and_force_employment.htm</font></font></a></p> <p><a href="/FCS_Folder/people.htm"><font face="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"><font size="2">http://d-n-i.net/FCS_Folder/people.htm</font></font></a></p> <p><font face="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"><font size="2"> Did you know that we are spending nearly as much on defense as we did during the height of the Cold War?  Yet many of our military leaders tell us they don't have enough money and that we need to buy more modern and expensive weapons to assure our national security.</font></font></p><font face="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"></font> <p><font face="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"><font size="2">Are they right?  It is true that many of our current weapons were designed in the 1970s (or earlier—most of the C-130 transports flown by the active-duty Air Force fought in Vietnam).  And our fighting men and women deserve the tools they need to do their jobs with minimum loss of life.  On the other hand, our new fighters and ships were designed to defeat the Soviet Union, a threat that no longer exists, and may be do no better than their predecessors in the emerging "<a href="FCS_Folder/fourth_generation_warfare.htm">fourth generation warfare</a>" that has caused us such problems in places like Vietnam and Somalia.</font></font></p> <p><font face="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"><font size="2">There are many other issues.  Has the Department of Defense become so concerned with buying sophisticated weapons that it is neglecting the people, training, and ideas that actually produce victory in battle?  Is the pressure to preserve programs and facilities having a corrosive effect in other areas of our society?</font></font></p> <p><font face="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"><font size="2">This site is intended to be a resource for all citizens concerned with the roles of armed forces in the modern world, the resources we devote to them, and the effects on the rest of our society.  Please send us your feedback via our <a href="contact_us.htm">contact page</a>, and we invite you to post your public comments in our <a href="guest_book.htm">Guest Book</a>.</font></font></p> </td> </tr> </table><font face="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"></font> </div> <p><font face="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"> </font></p> </body>