“I think that cutting the defense budget in significant ways right now is a serious mistake. You know, when we’ve cut the budget before—at the end of the Cold War, at the end of Vietnam and at other times, it’s been because we thought the world was going to be a safer place . . . at least we thought so temporarily at the time. No one can make that case right now. You look at the situation in Ukraine and our relationships with Russia. You look at the tensions between China and Japan and in the South China Sea. You look at Iran and North Korea. These guys are operating on the 20th century model of nation states, boundaries matter, strategic interests matter, zero sum game, I win, you lose. This is the way these countries look at the world. It’s different than the way the West Europeans and we look at it, and frankly the pace at which both the Europeans and the United States [are] cutting their defenses, regardless of what the facts on the ground in terms of the number of ships and number of planes, it certainly sends a signal that we are not interested in protecting our global interests.” . . . Former Defense Secretary Bob Gates, March 9, 2015 Read Full Story