David Cozad
is a Green Dog Democrat!
David believes there is a Green Industrial Revolution just around the corner. He wants that revolution to happen in the 6th District. There will be Green jobs for the people in this district.
He will use the skills developed over the years to bring high paying jobs and opportunity to keep those jobs.
is a Green Dog Democrat!
David believes there is a Green Industrial Revolution just around the corner. He wants that revolution to happen in the 6th District. There will be Green jobs for the people in this district.
He will use the skills developed over the years to bring high paying jobs and opportunity to keep those jobs.
Paid for by Cozad for Congress
National Security
The Problem:
Two major wars and many minor military commitments has stretched the nation’s military forces to the breaking point. Military units are cycling through overseas tours so quickly that down time for family, training, and maintenance are being sacrificed to keep enough troops in the field.
Solution:
We must first break the idea fostered by the Republican Neocons that we must constantly increase our military commitments every time someone says “Booo” to us. When the civilian leadership is considering the mission of the military, they must have the Sec. Of Defense, the Sec of the Treasury, and the Director of Budget Management. As you noticed, President Obama has his Director of Budget Management seating only two seats away during the final stages of his deliberations on the direction of the Afghanistan War.
Background:
My family has a history of military service for several generations. Prior to my commissioning as a US Marine Corp officer, my family served as enlisted men for most of the last century. This family background combined with my personal experience and studies has given me an interesting perspective on national security.
I don’t have the idol worship by the far right of the military nor the irrational hatred by the far left of the military. I was trained in the military (even before I made it to the Marines) to analyze threats in a rubric with dimensions of time, probability, and capability. I believe that threats to this nation and to humanity should be evaluated in like manner. Our intelligence services, our military forces, and our industrial capability should be funded and sized according to the real threats that face this country and not on the basis of fantasies, looking over our shoulders at the last war, or a military contractor that needs a boost to their bottom line or a bonus for the CEO.
When I took my oath as a Marine officer, I swore to defend this country from threats, both foreign and domestic. During the time I was on active duty, the threat was foreign, namely the Soviet Union and Communist China. However, my studies of military history indicated that internal or domestic threats were the ones that weaken a nation to the point that an external threat could succeed in defeating that nation.
For all the claims by the Republicans since the Reagan administration that they are the stronger national defense party, the Republican Neocons have come the closest to bringing this nation to its knees since Herbert Hoover fell into the Great Depression. The Republican Neocons got it wrong in every area of national security. I will take each area, examine it at the philosophy and implementation level, detail what went wrong, and how we will have to fix it. Luckily for this nation, President Obama and his administration have already started this process. But it will not be done by the time I take office in 2011. There is just too much damage and it will take a long time to fix.
After what I have recently seen in the media about Afghanistan situation, I fully support President Obama’s review of the high level strategy before making any troop commitments. I will spell out what I see as the problems in Afghanistan during the last year of the Bush administration and why the review in March 2009 did not constitute a new strategic direction or philosophy to win the war. It was instead a realization just how badly the Bush administration had managed that war and how close we were to losing that war. I fully support and agree with the strategy President Obama has decided to implement to defeat or permanently neutralize the Taliban and Al Qaeda. With the reluctant help of Pakistan, we can grind down the effectiveness of the Taliban and Al Qaeda to the point where the Afghanistan government can stand on its own and we can get out.
Two major wars and many minor military commitments has stretched the nation’s military forces to the breaking point. Military units are cycling through overseas tours so quickly that down time for family, training, and maintenance are being sacrificed to keep enough troops in the field.
Solution:
We must first break the idea fostered by the Republican Neocons that we must constantly increase our military commitments every time someone says “Booo” to us. When the civilian leadership is considering the mission of the military, they must have the Sec. Of Defense, the Sec of the Treasury, and the Director of Budget Management. As you noticed, President Obama has his Director of Budget Management seating only two seats away during the final stages of his deliberations on the direction of the Afghanistan War.
Background:
My family has a history of military service for several generations. Prior to my commissioning as a US Marine Corp officer, my family served as enlisted men for most of the last century. This family background combined with my personal experience and studies has given me an interesting perspective on national security.
I don’t have the idol worship by the far right of the military nor the irrational hatred by the far left of the military. I was trained in the military (even before I made it to the Marines) to analyze threats in a rubric with dimensions of time, probability, and capability. I believe that threats to this nation and to humanity should be evaluated in like manner. Our intelligence services, our military forces, and our industrial capability should be funded and sized according to the real threats that face this country and not on the basis of fantasies, looking over our shoulders at the last war, or a military contractor that needs a boost to their bottom line or a bonus for the CEO.
When I took my oath as a Marine officer, I swore to defend this country from threats, both foreign and domestic. During the time I was on active duty, the threat was foreign, namely the Soviet Union and Communist China. However, my studies of military history indicated that internal or domestic threats were the ones that weaken a nation to the point that an external threat could succeed in defeating that nation.
For all the claims by the Republicans since the Reagan administration that they are the stronger national defense party, the Republican Neocons have come the closest to bringing this nation to its knees since Herbert Hoover fell into the Great Depression. The Republican Neocons got it wrong in every area of national security. I will take each area, examine it at the philosophy and implementation level, detail what went wrong, and how we will have to fix it. Luckily for this nation, President Obama and his administration have already started this process. But it will not be done by the time I take office in 2011. There is just too much damage and it will take a long time to fix.
After what I have recently seen in the media about Afghanistan situation, I fully support President Obama’s review of the high level strategy before making any troop commitments. I will spell out what I see as the problems in Afghanistan during the last year of the Bush administration and why the review in March 2009 did not constitute a new strategic direction or philosophy to win the war. It was instead a realization just how badly the Bush administration had managed that war and how close we were to losing that war. I fully support and agree with the strategy President Obama has decided to implement to defeat or permanently neutralize the Taliban and Al Qaeda. With the reluctant help of Pakistan, we can grind down the effectiveness of the Taliban and Al Qaeda to the point where the Afghanistan government can stand on its own and we can get out.
Ver 00.02