Grassley’s “Peace through Strength” is a series. Access Parts One and Two at the links.
Two or three times lately, I’ve been coming to the floor to have a conversation with my colleagues on the subject of national security.
Remember, all of us, that wars are being waged right now in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and, I presume, elsewhere on this globe.
We have uncertainty and unrest looming on the horizon in the South China Sea and the Horn of Africa.
There are also serious national security concerns right here in the United States.
For the last three years, at our own southern border, hundreds of thousands of migrants from around the world have come to America without our permission – including people on the terrorist watchlist.
Earlier this month, we celebrated the 75th anniversary of NATO, the most successful military alliance in modern history.
Winston Churchill sowed the seeds for the idea of NATO. He did this in the aftermath of the failed League of Nations.
He delivered his speech called “Sinews of Peace”. He did this in America’s Heartland, a famous speech at a college campus in Fulton, Missouri.
Churchill spoke of two great dangers that imperil the hearth and home of common people. Those two dangers [are] War and Tyranny.
In his speech, he called for military coalition to build a “Temple of Peace,” that would be, as he said, “a force for action, and not merely a frothing of words.”
[Churchill’s] blueprint for peace actually worked.
No European NATO member was invaded post-World War II because of NATO.
By contrast, the nations that wanted to be very aggressive during the Cold War, particularly the Soviet Union, turned to instigate conflicts in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
But they didn’t mess around with Europe.
Churchill’s words of wisdom, then, stand the test of time.
I’d like to further quote Churchill: “From what I have seen of our Russian friends and Allies during the war, I am convinced that there is nothing they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for weakness, especially military weakness.”
The fall of the Iron Curtain opened the lane to freedom, symbolizing victory over tyranny that we must never take for granted.
It’s no secret that Russian President Vladimir Putin –remember, a former Soviet KGB officer – wants to resurrect the Soviet Empire from the ash heap of history.
And you can consider Russia’s recent timeline of aggression.
In 2008, Russia occupied the Republic of Georgia. In 2014, Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimean [peninsula] and occupied parts of eastern Ukraine. And three years ago, Putin launched what we now know as a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Appeasement was a key ingredient in Putin’s recipe for Russian expansion.
Let’s not forget that Russia marked NATO’s 75th anniversary, celebrated here in Washington D.C., by launching 40 missiles into Ukraine, targeting a children’s hospital, killing scores of innocent civilians.
So, Putin very much has hitched his horse to America’s foreign adversaries by getting supplies for his war efforts from China, Iran and North Korea.
They are like the 21st century Axis, similar to Germany, Italy and Japan during WWII, and they’re just as dangerous for us now as that other Axis was dangerous and brought great conflict, during WWII.
With global conflicts and terrorist threats in mind, history must inform our nation’s path forward.
And history shows a strong U.S. military is an impenetrable instrument of peace. A weakened U.S. military is, for sure, an invitation for our foreign adversaries to keep pushing the envelope.
Now, make no mistake, Russia’s and Russian allies’ mission is to do whatever it takes to undermine the United States as the leader of the Free World.
We didn’t seek that title, being leader of the Free World, but we learned the hard way that allowing dictators to get away with aggression eventually threatens American freedom.
This brings me back, then, to square one.
The core responsibility of the federal government is national security. And that fundamental responsibility begins and ends with a strong national defense.
An impenetrable U.S. military safeguards America’s food security, energy security, infrastructure security and cybersecurity.
In a nutshell, the U.S. Armed Forces are the nucleus for peace and prosperity at home and abroad.
So, when the Senate takes up the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act and the Defense Appropriations Bill I urge my colleagues to invest in America.
Doing so will cement our national security interests for generations to come.
First, we must enhance pay and benefits for members of the military and their families. Next, we must restock America’s arsenal and boost our military preparedness.
In recent decades, Washington has allowed our Armed Forces to lose its wartime footing.
When we lose our footing on any one of those rungs, know that our enemies are circling the waters to take us down a notch.
My colleague from Mississippi, Senator Wicker, serves as Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
I’ve reviewed his plan that outlines where the U.S. military’s most need of defense dollars exists.
As it stands, the United States is ill-equipped to meet the emerging global threats to our national security.
Senator Wicker’s blueprint would put us back on the right path to secure Peace Through Strength.
The plan estimates that the annual defense budget needs to grow to five percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Our defense spending as a share of GDP has been falling and is nearing an historic low.
Meanwhile, many of our European NATO allies have been dramatically increasing defense expenditures because they see how dangerous the world has become.
Another key NATO metric is the percentage of defense funds going toward equipment – in other words, warfighting capability.
The United States is in the bottom of the pack among our NATO allies on this very score.
It’s no coincidence that the United States became the leader of the Free World by leveraging its commitment to peace around the world though unassailable military power.
In the first quarter of the 21st century and a key period in history, America stands at the crossroads.
We cannot bury our heads in the sand when China’s spending on defense is on pace to match our own country, according to estimates from our intelligence community.
Now, to be sure, China is plotting to leapfrog America as the global superpower, leveraging every tool at its disposal. China is infiltrating our education system, China is manipulating our data on TikTok, China is deploying debt trap diplomacy and, finally, China is unleashing military exercises in the Taiwan Strait and even close to Alaska, in the Bering Sea.
We can’t afford to ignore the obvious.
A diminished military puts our national security at risk and our troops very much in harm’s way.
Today, I call upon my colleagues in Congress to stand by our duty and our constitutional obligation of national security being the number one responsibility of the federal government.
We must stand shoulder-to-shoulder to meet this moment.
In fact, we have a responsibility to do so on behalf of our constituents and, more importantly, protecting future generations – and that is a long-term responsibility.
So, as Senator Wicker’s report details, we must modernize U.S. nuclear programs; revive homeland defense sites; restore the U.S. Navy and fleet readiness; bolster the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force; bring cyber command up to speed; and provide our service members better training, technology and modernized munitions to fulfill their missions.
There’s no time for dilly-dallying.
Right now, our foreign adversaries are cobbling alliances to skirt sanctions, undermine freedom, and secure their own self-interests.
In closing, I’ll finish with three messages.
First, we can avoid war by anticipating war.
Second, preparing for war does not mean writing a blank check to the Pentagon. You can be sure that I’ll continue my oversight work to get the most bang for our defense buck.
And then, thirdly, we must respond to the writing on the wall.
If we allow ourselves to be lulled into a false sense of security about our military power, historians will write about America’s twilight, instead of an American-led 21st century.
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