Military Budget Dissent

Rich Lowry echoes Max Boot,

In unveiling his priorities for the future of the defense budget, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates talked of "matching virtue to necessity." What "necessity"? Gates is the skeleton at the feast, the only Cabinet member whose budgetary problem isn't figuring out how to spend money fast enough...

When the operating theory in Washington is that deficit spending on every possible priority is conducive to economic growth, there's no justification for slamming the brakes on the defense budget. The world hasn't gotten any less dangerous, a fact to which Capt. Phillips can attest. If we ever tip below the level of capability necessary to enforce a rough global order, we -- and the world -- will regret it.