Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is seen during an interview with The ... more >A U.S. defense official said another problem for the Poles on missile defense has been the head of the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency, Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly, whose leadership style has alienated allies in Europe and Asia who are seeking to cooperate with the U.S. in building missile defenses.
GOP defense platform
The Republican Party platform made public this week highlights a return to Reagan administration defense policies that called for “peace through strength.”
“We are the party of peace through strength,” states the platform, which was released Tuesday. “The Republican Party is the advocate for a strong national defense as the pathway to peace, economic prosperity, and the protection of those yearning to be free.”
It criticizes the Obama administration for “weakness” in responding to growing national security threats, including the spread of terrorism, belligerence by North Korea, Iran’s pursuit of nuclear arms, Chinese hegemony in Asia, Russian “activism” and threats posed by cyberespionage.
It notes the administration’s plan to cut defense by $487 billion over 10 years and opposition to Republican efforts to block another $500 billion in “devastating” cuts through congressional sequestration set to occur in 2013.
The platform also criticizes the administration for “contemptible” leaks of classified information that endanger national security.
The platform states that the administration’s most recent national security strategy report reflects “the extreme elements in its liberal domestic coalition.”
“It is a budget-constrained blueprint that, if fully implemented, will diminish the capabilities of our Armed Forces,” the platform says. “The strategy significantly increases the risk of future conflict by declaring to our adversaries that we will no longer maintain the forces necessary to fight and win more than one conflict at a time.”
On strategic weapons and defenses, the platform states that the administration has reneged on plans to modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal and undermined missile defenses.
“A strong and effective strategic arsenal is still necessary as a deterrent against competitors like Russia or China,” the platform states.
The platform lacks specifics on the threat posed by China, which is building up both conventional and strategic forces.
The only reference to Beijing’s arms buildup is as part of a sentence that notes China’s “pursuit of advanced military capabilities without any apparent need.”
The mild tone on China is said to reflect differences among Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s advisers on Asia, who are said to be split between those who favor a more muscular tone on the threat from China and those who favor continuing pro-trade policies and avoiding mention of threatening military developments.
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Bill Gertz is a national security columnist for The Washington Times and senior editor at The Washington Free Beacon (www.freebeacon.com). He has been with The Times since 1985.
He is the author of six books, four of them national best-sellers. His latest book, “The Failure Factory,” on government bureaucracy and national security, was published in September 2008.
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