National Security

VETPAC is committed to strengthening American security by maintaining the world's strongest military. We recognize, however, that America's security requires more than military strength. It requires economic and industrial strength, energy security, public diplomacy and political ideals to forge strong alliances and international support.  We need to join with other nations to defeat the global challenge of terrorists as well as other global threats from nuclear proliferation, to climate change, to pandemics. The American people cannot and should not be asked to bear the burden of combating these long-term global problems alone.  To do so will ultimately weaken our economy and undercut our security.  America should be the leader of a broad alliance to share the burdens and sacrifices of the 21st century.

VETPAC supports:

•    Maintaining the globe’s strongest military, structured to meet the threats of the 21st century through a sufficient but not bloated defense budget.
•    Recruiting, training and supporting the highest quality all volunteer force.
•    Ensuring that procurement and research and development are aimed at capabilities needed for future threats, not Cold War legacy systems.
•    Increasing intelligence capabilities, especially in the area of human intelligence.
•    Melding all the aspects of power, including the ability to deploy “soft power” into our strategies and plans.
•    Putting energy security in the top echelon of national priorities in order to protect our independence and dry up funds to supporters of terrorism.
•    Considering financial strength to be a necessary element of national security by adopting a policy of “shared sacrifice: to reduce our national debt even if it requires reductions in defense spending and asking veterans to once again sacrifice for the good of the nation, along with the rest of their fellow citizens.
•    Developing strong working relationships with our allies to gain from their knowledge and experience and to share the burdens of a common defense.  This should also include modernizing and streamlining our formal alliances such as NATO.
•    Realizing the critical importance of moral strength as a key element in leadership by renouncing torture and abiding by international agreements.
•    Continued reeducation of the threat of nuclear weapons by verifiable arms control agreements and enhanced non-proliferation efforts.