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Defense
We believe that the defense of America's territory, citizens, and vital interests are the paramount responsibility of the federal government and the single most important reason for a national government. A government that fails at that has no reason to exist.
We believe it is important to engage in a national debate and referendum to define America's truly "vital interests". The referendum would list proposed "vital interests" along with an estimate of the cost of their defense; then, voters would officially designate them during the presidential election year. We believe that truly vital interests are the vital interests of every American, not just those with access to, and influence over, political leaders. Americans should not go to war, or spend lives and money, defending what are, essentially, private interests as has sometimes occurred during American history.
We believe that there should be a national draft lottery to require a portion of young men and women to join the national guard and reserves to supplement a professional army. We believe that all physically fit men and women, aged 18 to 30, should be registered for the draft and that all of them should undergo at least rudimentary basic training at local installations for six weeks in the summer before their senior year of high school and for four weekends per year thereafter.
We believe that much of the threat to America's military comes from the sales of sophisticated weaponry by arms dealers here and abroad. We believe that foreign arms sales of sophisticated weaponry should be banned, outright, by both the United States and its allies for a period of twenty years from the date they are first placed in service with American forces so that American and allied weaponry remain superior on the battlefield. We believe that arms dealers who violate the ban should be sought out, vigorously prosecuted, and imprisoned.
We believe that the best defense relies on the best intelligence. We call upon a portion of the national defense budget to be used in grades six through twelve to advance foreign language programs so that Americans with high school diplomas are fluent in at least one foreign language; to support foreign social and cultural studies programs; to provide high school and college students who have demonstrated exceptional ability with study abroad; and, to fund a National Council on Foreign Languages and Cultures that will permits students to obtain free post-graduate studies in foreign languages and cultures at the university of their choice.
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