PICTURE OF DECLINE – AT 11:06 A.M. ET:  Like many of our point of view, I'm increasingly worried about America's military decline.  The left is joyous, of course.  But someone, down the line, is going to pay the price for the recklessness of this administration.  From the online New York Sun: 

The Obama Administration will be adding insult with its cancellation of production of the Navy’s Tomahawk and Hellfire missile programs. These decisions followed by just weeks the decision to reclassify two hospital ships, 10 coastal patrol craft and a ferry boat as “capital warships.”

The Tomahawk decision is particularly troubling, as the cruise missile has for years been the workhorse of presidents seeking to deliver limited, precise, stand-off military responses. During the 2011 Libyan crisis, the Navy flung 220 Tomahawks in support of operations. We launched more than 1,100 at Kosovo.

About 100 of these missiles are used in an average year. That means the Administration’s decision to stop production after 2015 will see the Navy's stock of Tomahawks gone by around 2018. And disturbingly, there is no proven replacement in the development pipeline.

It appears that defense decisions are being driven more by budgetary concerns than policy or world events. The President has said his goal is to reduce defense spending to 2.9% of gross domestic product in 2017 from 4.6%...

And...

How much is enough to sustain an adequately sized, trained, and maintained Navy? More than is currently being budgeted. Under the current plan, our ability to join coalitions, lead them, or take independent action is compromised. A well-funded and prepared Navy offers our chief commander a powerful yet flexible tool with which to formulate and execute foreign policy. It is something no President should be without.

COMMENT:  Unless the president doesn't care.  And a leftist president doesn't care.  Obama is a "sophisticate" who believes a strong national defense is based on 20th-century thinking.  He's right, and the thinking was correct.  Witness one Vladimir Putin, a 20th-century guy.  Gets away with it, doesn't he?

We'll have an excellent essay on this Monday morning from a very knowledgeable Urgent Agenda reader.

Americans don't realize the perils we are facing.

April 12,  2014