Measuring how safe we are, in our homes, towns, and nationally is an imprecise science, but measuring the wrong thing is a sure failure. National security has been redefined as everything, climate, population, not enough “safe spaces,” gender neutrality, pronouns. It is none of that. It is about deterrence, readiness for war, real threats, internal and external. And … time runs short.
For my money, while making everything a national security threat seems appealing, weather to world migration, saving seals to how we “feel” – national security is more serious. To get real, we need to identify the top dozen issues that could end the Republic, and focus on them.
Of course, some issues are tied together, but still, the time for belly gazing and handwringing is over. Leaders must lead, grow up, build a consensus, protect our nation, and just get after it.
Another caution on national security: Avoid easy, abstract targets, the sort no one gets blamed for missing. Accountability matters, from border security to military readiness, internal security to infrastructure. If no one is on the hook, no one responsible, things slide. Do the hard stuff, first.
What is the hard stuff then? What are our top national security threats? Realistically, they flash read, and most of us know it: Military readiness, diplomatic engagement, no border security, infiltration of communities by foreign crime groups, cyberattacks on infrastructure (power grid, transportation, communication, food and medical), national debt, drug deaths, civic division, poor education, no government accountability, lost civil liberties, public corruption and abuse.
Other than those dozen abject failures, we are fine. So, seriously, we have gone for too long missing the big things. We are losing ground. We need to sober up, get back to basics, and secure things within and without – against threats kinetic, cyber, economic, ideological, and public.
How? Three steps: Assess, accept, and measure these threats. Build a consensus, using facts politicians cannot duck. Do the hard things to rebuild our national security, like it mattered.
If we can tightly focus on key issues, and forget the rest, all the weird, woke, hysterical, hypersensitive, self-oriented, supercilious, senselessly selfish stuff, we can and will restabilize. If we look away from this core threat – pretending national security does not matter – we will lose.
At home, we must restore predictability, normalcy, and confidence in the safety of our homes, children, schools, streets, government representatives, and constitutional order; abroad we must restore a sense that America is what we have always been, brave, undeterred, ready, a leader.
Historically, we understood what mattered, which was not “feelings,” divisive identities, imaginary genders, and pretending international evil was good and good evil. Nonsense was not coddled. Diplomacy was intelligent, forward-leaning, and not reactive but defined the world, and made it more stable. We were not defined by others’ definitions of public order; we defended our border.
Close to home, we wanted kids learning critical skills, and life skills, not political activism and moral depravity; we wanted a centered, patriotic, appreciative, well-informed teaching pool, populated by those who unabashedly loved America, the American Dream, upward mobility, our founding philosophy, history, and exceptional record of achievement. We knew to discourage defeatism, relativism, Marxism, alienation, drug use, and the like, and encourage bravery, leadership, and strength.
We understood the values – personal, national, fiscal, moral – of responsibility, values like honesty, ethical behavior, faith in a loving God, the idea that being offended is fine, as it always carries the chance of getting us closer to truth, permits self-correction, fosters reflection.
When these things slip at home, in families, schools, towns, cities, and civic venues – we lose a sense of personal and community security, start defaulting to distrust and doubt, and slide sideways.
Final point: These dozen top issues – real threats – are tied together. External threats rise with internal division, distraction, poor leadership, and stumbling. It is a one-for-one, with more internal friction, and more external vulnerability. Moral, economic, cultural, and material threats, including unaccountable, abusive national and state leadership, entice adversaries to strike.
So, what is the answer? As indicated above, we need to narrow our definition of national security to real threats, educate ourselves on how they undermine us, and then hit them all – hard.
Can it be done, in these highly divided times? Yes, we all need national security, something we must agree on because time is truly running short. As the philosopher, astronomer, diplomat, and author of The Canterbury Tales, Jeffery Chaucer, wrote: “Time and tide… wait for no man.”
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.
