Good missile defense is smart politics

Because the framers of the United States Constitution wanted elected leaders to be held responsible by the citizens of the country, the budget process is a highly political one. It happens every year, which means that voters will know exactly how their leaders choose to spend their tax dollars. The budget that President Barack Obama delivered to the Congress and the American people this week is not only a blueprint for our nation’s spending priorities — it is also a political document.

{mosads}Because the budget has political implications, it is essential that Democrats and the president make smart decisions about what military programs to preserve and which ones to eliminate. This is critical simply because the Republican nominee (if we ever get one) will try to hammer the president if they believe we are threatening to cut or eliminate important programs that our critical for our national security.

That being said, I believe the president’s 2013 budget is a step in the right direction. It reduces the size of our ground force, retires older ships and delays several modernization programs. All of these are examples of sensible, practical steps to reining in defense spending.

Where I worry about the political implications of the president’s budget is in respect to missile defense — especially in light of the situation with Iran.
Late last month Secretary Panetta said that Iran could potentially strike the United States with a nuclear weapon in just a few years — which is why the government should be taking steps to defend our nation against a possible Iranian attack.

To that end, the president needs to seriously rethink his cuts to a missile program known as Standard Missile-3 (SM-3). The newest version of this missile may be the first missile capable of intercepting a long-range weapon aimed at the U.S. from an enemy like Iran. Considering just how dangerous the Iranians seem to be, the right policy is to accelerate enhanced missile development and production, not slow it with a budget ax.

Reducing Iran’s ability to strike the United States with a missile is not just good politics, it also reduces the chances of armed aggression with Iran. If Iran cannot threaten us with these missiles, they will have no choice but to negotiate with words, rather than missiles. This is why our spending priorities should focus on securing a full complement of SM-3 missiles, and as soon as possible.

No president in recent history has done more than Barack Obama to secure our national security. He eliminated Osama bin Laden, has killed more al Qaeda leaders than President George W. Bush and successfully helped to remove Khadafy without a single American casualty. I am confident the president will continue to make sound national security decisions and I expect that smart missile defense programs will be continued.

Shows is a former Democratic Congressman from Mississippi.  He served from 1999-2003.