Government leaders are not adequately protecting America and are setting the country on a course toward catastrophe if national security policy is not dramatically changed, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Monday.
In a speech full of dire scenarios and gloomy predictions, the former House speaker argued that no price is too high for the federal government to pay when it comes to shoring up national security.
“We are living at the edge of catastrophe,” Gingrich said while laying out the flaws of the current governmental approach to security as well as his own framework for policy change.
Gingrich said the current defense budgetary approach in Washington is designed to meet an arbitrary budget goal and that over the years the government has failed to “translate the imagination (of potential attacks) into public policy.”
He said terrorist attacks such as those on Sept. 11 were not inconceivable but were inadequately prepared for by a timid federal bureaucracy.
Gingrich’s speech in front of several hundred people at the conservative Heritage Foundation is part of a ongoing program from the think tank called “America at Risk” advocating the government reverse budget cuts in national security programs.
“Our goals are straightforward for the country — safety, prosperity and freedom,” Gingrich said, while observing that lawmakers of both parties often fail in pushing public policies achieving those goals. “I find it very disturbing that (seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks) nobody is demanding a fundamental altering of the war strategy.”
The dour speech went through scenarios in which the United States could be attacked by its enemies and how, in anticipation of these attacks, the country should aggressively pursue policies to mitigate the chances of a successful strike.
Gingrich said that if the current policy structure holds for the next 20 years the country will be fundamentally incapable of quickly producing military assets needed to respond to an immediate threat.
Among other programs, Gingrich advocated the creation of a real-time response system at the Pentagon to immediately begin counter-measures to address threats as they become known. He said quick bureaucratic reaction will be necessary in the coming years.
(Source: Fox News)
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9 Responses
Does Obamacare cover radiation poisoning?
The threat today is economic. The american people sleep while we build China into the economic superpower that will unseat our superiority. The past four presdents have failed to preemt initiatives to maintaining our superpower status for the next century. At this point it is too late. However if they act now perhaps we can get back to where we were. First we must bomb Iran and korea to stop further nuclearization. Then we have to impose heavier duties on china imports. Use those duty monies to stimulate domestic manufacturing on non- labor intensive goods. And as McCain suggested- stop donating to countries that hate us. Get out of Iraq immeditely and wait till they go bad again-surely they will turn against the US- then go in again when the terrorists think they’re safe. Same thing in Afganistan- let the taliban take over the country- then we can bomb their government in the open for 911 – we have every right. If we are really giants -this is the way to fight.
1, no it wont. just like with any govt socalized health “care” program, obamacare will only cover you if you are worth the investment of saving. since people with radiation poisoning will prob die anyway, they will save the money and not pay for it.
zey zullen ala shtarbin!
nfgo2,
you are forgetting history or you are distorting them to meet your agenda so I will help remind you.
it was clinton who was offered bin laden on a silver platter by the saudis but he refused. if/when bush was told about about “an interest” in august it was just about too late to do anything. besides, NO ONE at the time would have thought it would have been to hijack 4 airplanes and crash 2 of them into two the biggest buildings in the country!! the report for the most part blamed the clinton administration. perhaps if your president was more interested in protecting his nation than doing you know what with you know whom, derech ha’teva we wouldnt be in this situation today.
i happen to know some people who speak the languages you mention whom are rumored to work for the feds. of course they wouldnt dare say a word about it.
i dont know about you but under the bush administration i NEVER felt spied upon by anyone. why would you feel spied upon? oif dem ganif brent di hitel maybe???
they left us broke?? and just what has obama done to repair that?? oh, i know, he spent more money in the first 3 months in office than ANY previous president before him did over an entire administration! gee that makes sense! NOT!!
i thank HKBH every day that GWB won the elections in 00 and 04! i think if AlGore was CHV elected not only would things have been way worse but tu b’shvat would have been a national holiday! anyone who felt unsafe under the bush administration was probably nuts or a terrorist themselves!
5 (charliehall),
and dont forget all the other spending the obamanation has brought upon us! if it was only the bank bailout and the war in iraq, it would have been ok but the trillion dollar porkulous bill followed by the cap n tax bill if it gets thru the senate, then the obamacare bill chas v’sholom, we are all in BIG trouble!
If he is discussing the defense budget, I believe the issue is whether we need expensive high tech weapons that a necessary for a war with Russia or China, as opposed to weapons designed to fight small scale conflicts with various radical Islamic groups (such as more special forces). Note that Sen. McCain and President Obama are on the same side on the issue, versus the defense contractors who profit only from preparing from a war against Russia, but not much from fighting Muslim guerillas in Afghanistan.
It is hopelessly impossible to protect the US from attack. At this very moment thousands of tons of illegal drugs are being imported into the country, along many thousands of miles of unfenced and unguarded borders and seas. By untrained smugglers working out of South America.
Any one of those boats or trucks could be carrying any kind of bomb or other threat, Ch’V. By well trained terrorists working with Russian and Korean material at the highest level.
As we saw during the computer crash that Korea effected on Fourth of July, they are extremely sophisticated and the US is hopelessly incapable of protecting itself against even the littlest danger.
Daven. Only Hashem.
Rebshalom: what did marc levin write that was racist? Is all criticism of hussain (that is his name, we know that even without his birth certificate)racist? Or, is it every comment that you don’t have a rebutel for. Don’t worry about bending over backwards so as to not offend our African-American countrymen. We have jews who have given up their lives for the cause. Do you not remember Mississipi 1964, when two hymies xxxsorry two jews were murdered by the clan for recruiting black voters
Thank you #12 for coming to my defense against him but I will allow myself the liberty to answer it as well.
“reb” sholom, can I call you reb?? I read and re-read my post and I came to the conclusion that not only dont you know how to spell you also cant read! I dont know where you are getting that racism thing from. Granted I will be the first to admit that Obama’s actions in totally messing up this country as well the country’s failure to criticize him after all he “doesn’t look like our previous presidents,” has caused me to turn toward the racist I was when I was MUCH younger. Getting back to the situation at hand, there was NOTHING racist in my comment and I have no idea where you got that from.
I will say however, that you are suffering from Liberalism which is a disease. You are suffering from the FACT that GWB beat your lovely liberal candidates AlGore and John F Kerry who by the way served in Vietnam in successive elections. I believe the law says we go by the Electoral College so blame your own liberal for not voting left in the sates where it counted. YOU ARE A SORE LOSER SO FACE THE FACTS SORE LOSER!
Let’s talk about the “legally” elected president of the country, Barack Hussein Obama. Can you PROVE to me that he was born in the USA?? NO YOU CANT BECAUSE HE IS A BIG BABY WHO WONT SHOW US HIS REAL OFFICIAL BIRTH CERTIFICATE! The courts forgot to have guts to request it because the libs were so into having their second black president (Clinton was #1, I heard him say so!) and the media failed to do its job because of feelings running up their legs etc.
The illeagal war in Iraq??? You must be the one that Congress approved including YOUR PARTY!! Yes, senators like John F Kerry who by the way served in Vietnam and Her Thighness Hillary Clinton voted for it too. Of course they forgot about it when they were called on the carpet. WOOPS!
The weapons? You are probably referring to the ones that the democrates were screaming about on TV before the president sent the troops in. Oh yes it was Hillary and John F Kerry who by the way served in Vietnam that were screaming about it. You must CHV have Alzheimers that made you forget about these minor details.
Get over it. In the USA we are allowed to criticize our govt. There is no law yet that says just because Barak Hussein Obama, who is black, is the president that we are not allowed to say anything. I dont care if he was yellow with purple polka dots like a Star Trek character, if his policies are anti American, I WILL open my mouth!