Washington, D.C. – Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney today delivered an address on American defense priorities at the U.S. Navy Memorial which was sponsored by The Heritage Foundation as part of its “Protect America Month.” The following are excerpts from the speech:

 

 

Freedom is threatened not just by those who aspire to world leadership, but also by the rogue and malevolent. North Korea has made it abundantly clear that they are not only intent on perfecting nuclear weapons, but they are contemptuous of the concerns of the United States and the world at large. It was no accident that they launched their missile while the President was addressing nuclear non-proliferation, and executed their nuclear test to coincide with Memorial Day. The message is clear: the on-again, off-again talks and diplomacy and agreements have been nothing but stalling maneuvers. While diplomats celebrate yet another agreement, convinced that all their work has made the world safer, North Korea continues down the nuclear path Kim Jong Il has long pursued.

 

Arrogant, delusional tyrants can not be stopped by earnest words and furrowed brows. Action, strong bold action coming from a position of strength and determination, is the only effective deterrent.

It is time to apply comprehensive, regime-crippling sanctions to North Korea. Assets should be seized; international financial capabilities terminated. North Korea should be recategorized as a state sponsor of terror. And, most importantly, the President should immediately reverse his recent decisions and strongly support completing our ballistic missile defense system.

 

Missile defense is a non-nuclear, entirely defensive system designed to protect not just America but the world from a catastrophic attack. Yet the President plans to cut the missile defense budget by 15 percent, cut funding for missile defense sites in Europe by 80 percent, and reduce the number of planned interceptors in Alaska. That is a grave miscalculation, given the provocations from North Korea, Iran’s near-nuclear status, Pakistan’s instability, and the complete failure of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

 

 

In light of both the long term challenges to our leadership and the immediate threats to our security, I am also deeply concerned about the President’s broader plans for our military. At the most fundamental level, our military might depends on the long term strength of our economy. The President’s planned budgets and multi-trillion dollar deficits, financed by a level of borrowing never before attempted by any nation, puts our whole economy in jeopardy. He may take us past the tipping point and create a crisis of confidence in the dollar that would burden us for years. The President should instead rein in his plans for massive new spending and reform entitlements. But I fear instead that he will look to the military budget to find the biggest cuts and finance his domestic priorities.

In real terms, President Obama is planning to shrink the defense budget every year over the next decade; from 3.8 percent of our economy today, he would take it to 3 percent.

 

 

As a simple matter of budget mathematics, we cannot fulfill our military missions without an increase of $50 billion per year in the modernization budget. Admiral Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, has repeatedly said that such an increase is necessary. That is why I support defense budgets, excluding the cost of Iraq and Afghanistan, that are at least four percent of GDP, not three percent. It’s not that 4% is a magic number. It’s that I can see no reasonable scenario by which American can spend less and still provide our servicemen and women with the modern equipment and resources they need to defend us. The Administration is intent on spending less, but I urge pro-defense members of Congress – Democrats and Republicans alike – to hold firm, and to make the case for a military that is second to none.

 

The current leadership in Washington is hardly in a position to complain about the cost of the defense budget. Over the last few months, it has passed measures that will add almost $4 trillion to the national debt in the short term and then over $3 trillion over the next ten years. None of that money was spent on increasing the defense modernization budget—a failure that history will never understand or excuse. For a fraction of the money that was spent on various domestic and social programs, Washington could have given our servicemen and women the tools they need to defend us for a generation.

 

After all, the first and highest duty of government is to provide for the common defense. Backing away from missile defense, and depleting the defense budget to fund new social programs, particularly in the face of global turmoil, would put America and Americans at risk.

 

 

America sacrificed the blood of its sons and daughters and sent treasure abroad, helping nurture democracy and human rights all over the world. We sustained a network of alliances and built military prowess that at first contained and then defeated Soviet communism. Because of what America did in the 20^th century, there are hundreds of millions of people around the world who now live in freedom – who, but for the price paid by the United States, would have lived in despair. I know of no other such example of national selflessness in the history of mankind. That is why America is the hope of the earth.

 

That is also why, with all due respect, I take issue with President Obama’s recent tour of apology. It’s not because America hasn’t made mistakes—we have—but because America’s mistakes are overwhelmed by what America has meant to the hopes and aspirations of people throughout the world.

 

The President also claimed on Arabic TV that America has dictated to other nations. No, America has sacrificed to free other nations from dictators. Britain’s Guardian newspaper noted that Mr. Obama has been more critical of his own country, while on foreign soil, than any other president in American history. That would be a most unfortunate distinction at any time. But it is particularly so today: with all that is transpiring in the world, in Iran, North Korea, Georgia, Somalia, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, this is the time for strength and confidence, not for apologizing to America’s critics.

 

 

More than 180,000 of our people in uniform are still deployed to theaters of war. And any discussion of America’s national security has to begin with those wars, and the absolute necessity of winning them. The missions in Iraq and Afghanistan don’t receive as much attention as in years past. It wasn’t long ago that most politicians and pundits had pretty much decided Iraq was a lost cause. But our former president was undeterred, and instead of retreating he moved forward with a surge of operations. The astonishing success of our soldiers has silenced the critics. And most importantly, it has preserved freedom for millions of people, denied Jihadists a base from which they could finance and launch attacks, and eliminated the threat Iraq represented to the region. Events have proven the critics wrong, and the coming victory in Iraq will be to the lasting credit of the American servicemen and women who have fought in the finest tradition of the American military.

 

 

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