People talk about the “forever wars” and the costs of war associated with them to our US Government and the US economy. During the height of the Afghanistan war, when we had 100,000 men and women in uniform fighting, we were spending about 100 billion $ a year. A BBC article talks about these financial costs

But what about the price of peace? You start to realize the importance of peace when you lose it. What would you pay to ensure your security? The answer, of course, is a lot. Our U.S. Defense department budget boggles the mind. But it has one mission — to ensure the peace.

If you look at recent history, ancient history — if you read the bible — you can see that civilizations have constantly been threatened by sudden and scary wars, and conquests. The price of peace is eternal vigilance. I am sorry but our commitment has to be forever, if we want to keep the peace.

To talk about an across the board cut of 10% is sheer lunacy. There are opportunities for saving, and I know that there is waste at Defense. But don’t kid yourself, it is naive to think that pruning 10% of anything is a good idea.

The Chinese are flying incursions over Taiwan ADIZ daily. The Soviets have deployed hypersonic missiles. There are lots of nations with atomic weapons, or in the process of getting them. There are nations committed to state sponsored terrorism. We lost Afghanistan in a month. I could go on and on, with scary threats that would keep you up at night.

But trying to shame nations to a peaceful path doesn’t always work. Really, it is easier to negotiate from a position of strength. And it takes strength to overcome mistakes.

When GH Bush succeeded in slashing the nuclear stockpile in 1990, we ended up in fighting in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.

We must remain a nation able to keep the peace.