The Safety of America
We have become confortable in our daily lives feeling we are in a country believing that we are as safe today as we were in the past. Sadly this feeling seems to be dissipating with the many threats we are now seeing surfacing around us. This not meant to imply that there is nothing we can do about this situation for we can but it will take bold actions not only by ourselves but our elected representatives across all government entities.
In the past we were a country well respected by other countries but the numbers are getting fewer. Granted we have commitments to our allies but our resolve in several instances seems to be political in nature rather than standing firm for the principles on which this country was found.
Keeping America safe involves a number of things not the least of which is a strong military organization. In these times our military is being reduced when it should be growing in numbers. This is partly a result of budget reductions and while I agree that technology has had an impact on the capabilities of our military branches it does not mean we should be reducing the number of our troops. Someone once said that when we negotiate we need to do it from a place of strength not weakness. While our military organizations are one of the best if not the best in the world it is stretched thin to say the least. There are presently many fronts and on which our military needs to active and this is what our enemies want. We must and should not give those who want to do us harm this satisfaction. This is no time to weaken our military. It’s time to strengthen it. We can eliminate waste and bureaucracy inside the Pentagon, but we must have more resources for our troops. We need to defeat terrorism not manage it which currently appears to be the case. What will it take to take bold action to make our country more secure and punish those who have or will do us or our allies harm.
One of the areas which need to be addressed is our import of oil from countries who do not like us. Being dependent upon a source for a portion of our energy needs is not a position in which this country should find itself and action needs to be taken to make our country more energy independent. Some states have taken up the gauntlet to use a term and have initiated action to tap our energy reserves over which they have control. With the rise in production of oil from our vast energy reserves for which the scope keeps increasing has seen a drop in the price of oil. It perhaps has also impacted countries to reduce the price we must pay for a barrel of oil.
Another aspect of states taking this action is a robust economy and significantly reduced unemployment rates where states have tapped these reserves.
The security of our borders is one of the primary responsibilities of the federal government. We need to secure our borders to keep undesirable individuals from entering our country illegally. We need to have a process where individuals crossing our borders are checked to ensure they are not criminals, individuals wanting to do us hare or bringing disease for which we will experience health issues which we may have never seen. The responsibility of the federal government is no greater than keeping us safe, if we or our families are not secure, nothing else matters.
