How to Fix It: Rethink National Security

“It might be useful for the next president to take a broad look at the scale and thrust of our defense efforts. There’s something troubling about a condition in which one country alone, which has roughly 5 percent of the world’s population, spends more than 50 percent of the world’s defense budgets. I have been struck by the pervasive frequency of pompously patriotic ads for the defense industry, usually accompanied by deferential salutations to our men and women who are heroically sacrificing their lives in our defense. We are the most military-oriented country in the world today. Do we really need all of that for our security?”