What I always find amusing is that whenever the Democrats get back into office the first thing they want to do is find some sort of “Peace Dividend” and reduce the size of our military, especially the Navy. After all, since most of them don’t really know what our Navy does, then who needs it, right? Current projections in the Democratically controlled Congress is for the Navy to be reduced in size with more emphasis to be given to land forces (such as the Army and the Marine Corps) for the war on terror (sorry, that’s the war on “Man Made Disasters,” which is what the Director of Homeland Security is calling it these days). In any case, land is in and ships, which are expensive to build, man, and maintain, are out. Yet what are some of the very first military operations authorized by the Obama administration? Oh, that’s right, rescuing an American captain from Somali pirates and shadowing (and possibly boarding) a North Korean merchant ship suspected of carrying contraband materials. Hmmm, sounds a lot like naval operations to me. And where did we get the assets to immediately project American naval power at a moment’s notice to far-off regions of the world (in this case off the coast of Somalia and China)? Oh, that’s right, it’s the US Navy. Silly me. Now that Obama actually needs a navy to enforce a blockade on North Korea or to rescue American nationals off the coast of Africa, those expensive American warships don’t look so expensive anymore. In fact, they even come in useful from time to time, right? And there’s also a reason every President since Harry Truman asks “Where are the carriers?” whenever a global crisis occurs. President Obama, don’t do the usual Democratic dance and trash the Navy just because you are spending money like a drunken sailor. Cut the funding for a road that nobody needs in California or a boardwalk at Rehoboth Beach in Delaware. Warships have an uncanny knack for become really, really, important at the most inconvenient times. It’s a pity Democratic Presidents have to re-learn this lesson every time they get back into office.
