The men and women who serve our nation are your sons and daughters, your husbands and wives... The money we spend to train and equip them is your money. And the safety and security they protect is yours, and all America's. It is in your name that they fight, and it is you upon whom they rely for support...The men and women who wear America's uniform are a part of a long and proud tradition of ordinary men and women, from city streets and country roads, who showed extraordinary gallantry and bravery...
...Our wisest and most cost-effective actions are those that create an environment which encourages peace and discourages violence and instability. That means being forward deployed in Asia, we are forward deployed in Europe, we are in the Middle East. We are in various areas across the globe establishing cooperative relations with other military forces, and addressing early signs of instability before they turn into full scale war. ...
...We must invest in the new generation of weapons and technology if we are going to maintain our ability to shape and respond to world events in the next century. We must recruit and we have to retain the highest quality personnel and provide them with the quality of life they deserve. That is why President Clinton has asked Congress to begin the first long-term, sustained increase in military spending in some fifteen years.
The Chicago Tribune recently wrote an editorial asking the President and me to take our case for more defense spending to the American people, and, frankly, that is one reason why I am here today. The Tribune observed that "the end of the Cold War does not mean the end of history," of course, calling to mind the brilliant essay written by Francis Fukayama who talked about "The End of History."
It's not the end of history; we are seeing the beginning of a new world, one we hoped would be one of order, and we look across the landscape and see it is one of more disorder than order. So we have a whole landscape of new threats and diverse threats we have to face. We have the menacing instability of Stalinist North Korea launching new and more powerful rockets over Japan. We have Iraq developing and concealing the deadly vessels of chemical and biological weapons. We have a growing list of nations who try to grasp the nuclear genie. We have instability that can flash from Serbia to Central Africa, fueled by those who would prefer to dig fresh graves than heal old wounds. We have the specter of increasingly lethal terrorist attacks, such as those we witnessed last summer at our embassies in Africa. So it's clear that our forces are facing more and more threats in more and more areas.
So as we now praise the peacemaking that is taking place in Bosnia that we are contributing to, we praise our humanitarian work in Central America, or our fight against Iraq's deadly weapons of mass destruction, we know these successes would have been possible - they would have been impossible - without the investments of the past. We have the finest weapons and technology in the world, there is no question about it, but will not retain this technology superiority unless we spend additional resources on the next generation of ships, aircraft, and armor. We have the most skilled, the most highly skilled and best trained people in the world. They will not remain so without significant attention to their quality of life and training. So in short, preserving security tomorrow means we have to make prudent investment today.
First, we've got to give our troops the right tools - that, is the training, the weapons and the infrastructure; what they need to accomplish the many missions that we give them. The defense budget has fallen some 40 percent since the end of the Cold War. ...
I bring a simple message to this distinguished body today. We cannot return to our shores. There are some that we read and listen to who say, wouldn't it simply be easier for us to come back to the continental United States and let the Europeans and the Asian and other simply fend for themselves. I will tell you there is no way that we can return to our shores and slip into a continental cocoon and watch events unfold on CNN, nursing the delusion that we are insulated and secure from all the consequences of events that are taking place out there.
We have to be engaged; we have to be forward deployed; we have to be out there shaping and preparing and responding and showing how good we are. ...So we have an absolute obligation to prepare for the future, and the best way to prepare for that future is to give our full support, moral and financial, to those who will defend us.
It's a solemn duty we undertake. For those who have served, and those who serve us today. ...
These men and women in uniform need more than support from Washington. They need the support of their countrymen....
I want to thank you for your support. And ask that you continue to support those who are defending our country.