The United States and the West are unprepared for today's challenges. Considering our National, State, local, and personal debt load, our propensity to spend without limit, and the lack of foresight into the real and present threats of those who are not our friends, significant changes in thought and action must take place very soon or there will be little hope for our future. How can we continue to send our national treasure to China and Arab states that only seek our demise? We must wake up to their threats or there will not be time to prepare once our enemies take advantage of our weakness. We were caught unprepared for World War 2. Fortunately, we were isolated from our enemies enough to produce a fierce army and overthrow those that meant to destroy us. Those countries of Europe and Asia that were closer in proximity to Japan and Germany did not have that luxury. They too did not prepare for the rising threat. They were unprepared just as the United States was and is in this day. They were quickly overtaken by their enemies.
The following is an excellent summary of where the West is today in relation to those that would seek its destruction, a "must read":
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Brian T. Kennedy - Imprimis We are often told that we possess the most powerful military in the world and that we will face no serious threat for some time to come. We are comforted with three reassurances aimed at deflecting any serious discussion of national security: (1) that Islam is a religion of peace; (2) that we will never go to war with China because our economic interests are intertwined; and (3) that America won the Cold War and Russia is no longer our enemy. But these reassurances are myths, propagated on the right and left alike. We believe them at our peril, because serious threats are already upon us.
Islamic authorities of all the major branches of Islam hold that the Koran must be read so that the parts written last override the others. This so-called theory of abrogation means that the ruling parts of the Koran are those written after Muhammad went to Medina in 622 A.D. Specifically, they are Suras 9 and 5, which are not the Suras containing the verses often cited as proof of Islam’s peacefulness.
[C]onsider a 2007 survey of American Muslim opinion conducted by the Pew Research Center. Eight percent of American Muslims who took part in this survey said they believed that suicide bombing can sometimes be justified in defense of Islam. Even accepting a low estimate of three million Muslims in the U.S., this would mean that 240,000 among us hold that suicide bombing in the name of Islam can be justified.
China is building an advanced army, navy, air force, and space-based capability that is clearly designed to limit the U.S. and its ability to project power in Asia. It has over two million men under arms and possesses an untold number of ICBMs—most of them aimed at the U.S.—and hundreds of short- and medium-range nuclear missiles.
[I]t is widely held in China that America is on the decline, with economic problems that will limit its ability to modernize its military and maintain its alliances.
[C]onservatives have been basking in the glow of “winning the Cold War.” But in what sense was it won, it might be asked, given that we neither disarmed Russia of its nuclear arsenal nor put a stop to its active measures to undermine us.
On our part, we have not even tested a nuclear warhead since 1992—which is to say that we aren’t certain they work anymore. Nor have we maintained any tactical nuclear weapons. Nor, to repeat, have we built the missile defense system first proposed by President Reagan.
[C]an any government claim to occupy the moral high ground when it willingly, knowingly, and purposely keeps its people nakedly vulnerable to nuclear missiles?
We spend our resources developing modest defense systems to deal, albeit inadequately, with these so-called rogue states, and meanwhile forego addressing the more serious threat from Russia and China, both of which are modernizing their forces.
[T]he American people have proved capable of forcing a change in direction when they learn the facts. Americans do not wish to be subjected to Sharia law, owe large sums of money to the Chinese, or be kept vulnerable to nuclear missiles. [I]t is now time for us to remind our representatives of the constitutional requirement to provide for a common defense—in the true sense of the word.
