Revitalize our national security system to meet 21st century threats by restructuring and adequately funding our security agencies to function within a grand strategy for victory over those who seek to kill us or to limit American freedom.
 

The current leadership of the United States is severely out of touch with the escalating dangers that threaten our security.

As American presidents have traditionally found, our nation’s peace and safety is best maintained through a robust military capacity, tireless vigilance, and a clear strategy for identifying and countering potential threats—a policy widely known as “peace through strength.” Adherents of such a policy do not seek confrontation. To the contrary, America leads the world in spending on the military and on national security precisely to ensure that our wars are as rare and as swift as possible.If the people’s security cannot be assured, the unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are meaningless, which is why the first responsibility of government is to defend the nation. In the preamble to the Constitution, providing “for the common defense” is identified as a primary reason for forming the new government. 
 

This world is in danger of becoming dramatically more dangerous in the not-too-distant future, and we need to overhaul our entire strategy now if we intend to continue being the safest, freest and most prosperous country in the world. 
 

It is very dangerous for Washington to consider dismantling key parts of our national security structure during a time of war. When we convey weakness and confusion, we become most vulnerable to attack. As Ronald Reagan warned in 1980, “We know only too well that war comes not when the forces of freedom are strong; it is when they are weak that tyrants are tempted.”
 

General John Abizaid, former Commander of the Central Command, points out that in America “there is a bigger strategic deficit than the fiscal deficit.”
 

We need to be able to discuss the threats that face us in a clear and open manner. The courage to be free is only sustained by the moral capacity to distinguish between good and evil. If evil cannot be called by name, we will not be able to deter—or even recognize—threats to our nation. Likewise, if we cannot proclaim the righteousness of our values, then we won’t be able to mobilize the spirit necessary to defend America. 
 

The next Administration and Congress must decisively address the following realities:
 

1. There are very, very different challenges emerging simultaneously and each requires a fundamentally different strategic response.
    
2. The bureaucracies of national and homeland security, intelligence, diplomacy and space activities are all decaying in their effective implementation capability and are wrapped up in red tape and inefficiency.
    
3. Our military infrastructure has become dangerously outdated, with our arsenal and equipment in urgent need of new investment.
    
4. There are new emerging technologies endangering us – for example, electromagnetic pulse weapons, cyberwar, and lawfare, which we are not prepared to deal with.
    
5. American leaders are tired after seven decades of being the world’s preeminent power, and are very resistant to putting in the time and energy it will take to understand the emerging threats and the necessary responses.
    

We need a new strategy that is as decisive and comprehensive as our bold and unprecedented response to the rise of the Soviet threat after World War II.  It will streamline our security, intelligence and diplomatic departments, and recapitalize our military infrastructure. 
 

This bill would be the beginning of that process, not the end.