Romney Keeping Americans Safe At Home And Abroad

CHALLENGE #1:

Keeping Americans Safe At Home And Abroad CHALLENGE: After President George H. W. Bush left office, in 1993, the Clinton Administration began to dismantle the military, taking advantage of what has been called a “peace dividend” from the end of the Cold War. We took the dividend, but we did not get the peace.

authority and responsibility. Too often we struggle to integrate our military and civilian instruments of national power into coherent, timely and effective operations.” (Governor Mitt Romney, Remarks At The George Herbert Walker Bush Presidential Library, 4/10/07)

Meanwhile, we lost about 500,000 military personnel and about $50 billion a year in military spending. The U.S. Army lost four active divisions and two reserve divisions. The U.S. Navy lost almost 80 ships. The U.S. Air Force saw its active personnel decrease by 30 percent. The Marines’ personnel dropped by 22,000.

CHALLENGE: During the Clinton Administration, our intelligence community was critically weakened. The CIA workforce was slashed by almost 20% and recruitment was reduced dramatically, undermining effective human intelligence. Unfortunately, Washington’s response has focused on creating a new, expanded and duplicative bureaucracy in the Directorate of National Intelligence.

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: “They took the dividend, but didn’t get the peace. It seems that we had come to believe that war and threats and evil men were gone forever. As Charles Krauthammer observed, we took a ‘holiday from history.’ (Governor Mitt Romney, Remarks At The George Herbert Walker Bush Presidential Library, 4/10/07)

Clinton Administration Defense Cuts Between 1992 and 2000, the Clinton Administration cut National Defense by more than half a million personnel and $50 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars.

ARMY Lost 4 Active and 2 Reserve Divisions

AIR FORCE Active Personnel Decreased by 30%

1990s Intelligence Cuts

Former CIA Deputy Director of Operations, James L. Pavitt: “The 90s were lean times for the human intelligence business. We were vastly underfunded and we did not have the people to do the job.

Personnel “Our clandestine ranks were reduced by 20%

Funding “The entire intelligence community, not just CIA, lost billions of dollars”

Recruitment “They simply stopped recruiting people”

Source: James L. Pavitt, National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, U.S. Government, Testimony, 4/14/04 George Tenet, At The Center Of The Storm, 2007, p.14

NAVY Number of Ships Decreased from 393 to 316

Source: U.S. Navy photo by Paul Farley

MARINES Personnel Dropped by 22,000

Source: The Heritage Foundation

CHALLENGE: In our civilian agencies, a more pervasive problem exists: bureaucratic inaction. Today, there is no unity among our international nonmilitary resources. There is no clear leadership and no clear line of authority. Too often, we have to struggle to integrate our nonmilitary instruments into coherent, timely, and effective operations. GOVERNOR ROMNEY: “[We] removed barriers to unify efforts across the services. This included establishing ‘joint commands’ with individual commanders fully responsible for their geographic region… Our non military resources enjoy no such jointness, no such clear leadership, no such clear lines of

8

www.MittRomney.com

Bureaucracy Does Not Equal Security Need to Slash the Size of the Bloated Directorate of National Intelligence (DNI) to Put Officers in the Field

Current Personnel Estimate at DNI Initial Personnel Estimate for DNI

■ A Stronger Military. We must increase the size of our military by 100,000 troops. In addition, we should increase to at least four percent of our gross domestic product to defense. This kind of investment will make up for critical gaps in the modernization of our equipment, personnel and health care efforts. However, as we invest in our military, we must ensure that funds are used to address critical needs of the men and women of our Armed Forces, not political or contractor interests. ■ Transform And Strengthen Our Domestic Civilian International Efforts To Meet A New Generation Of Challenges. Building on the Goldwater-Nichols military reforms of the 1980s, we need to ensure that our civilian instruments of national power have the ability to build joint efforts among our civilian agencies and empower Regional Deputies with clear lines of authority, sufficient budgets and the responsibility to develop and execute regional plans and strategies. We must also constantly challenge bureaucratic “group think” and revitalize our national security structures so we have the capabilities needed to meet 21st century challenges. ■ Strengthen Strategic Planning. Many of our civilian national security and foreign policy structures were created decades ago. Today we need strengthened capabilities to strategically integrate all elements of national power. National Security Council staff must be empowered and accountable for reaching out to divergent viewpoints and challenging policies and proposals. ■ Protect The Homeland. While there has been much emphasis on protecting facilities and responding to attacks, a key priority must be prevention. Today, protecting the homeland must begin far from home. Intelligence and law enforcement efforts able to address threats before they reach our shores must be a priority for U.S. and international action. This will demand new U.S. capabilities, stronger international alliances and integration of our federal actions with international, state and local efforts.

ROMNEY

Keeping Americans Safe At Home And Abroad: THE ROM NEY Plan GOVERNOR ROMNEY: “[W]e need to increase our investment in national defense. This means adding at least 100,000 troops and making a long-overdue investment in equipment, armament, weapons systems, and strategic defense. ... [W]e are going to need at least an additional $30-$40 billion annually over the next several years to modernize our military, fill gaps in troop levels, ease the strain on our National Guard and Reserves, and support our wounded soldiers. ... The next president should commit to spending a minimum of four percent of GDP on national defense.” (Governor Mitt Romney, “Rising To A New Generation Of Global Challenges,” Foreign Affairs, July/August 2007) GOVERNOR ROMNEY: “We need to fundamentally change the cultures of our civilian agencies and create dynamic, flexible, and task-based approaches that focus on results rather than bureaucracy. ... For every region, one civilian leader should have authority over and responsibility for all the relevant agencies and departments, similar to the single military commander who heads U.S. Central Command.” (Governor Mitt Romney, “Rising To A New Generation Of Global Challenges,” Foreign Affairs, July/August 2007) GOVERNOR ROMNEY: “The key to effective homeland security, in my view, is intelligence, finding the attackers before they attack, gathering and analyzing tips, monitoring suspects, wiretapping, surveillance, all of the tools associated with intelligence work. It’s aided measurably by the Patriot Act, perhaps our most effective new tool. It is also dependent on effective delineations of responsibilities between and among federal agencies, across federal and state lines and state and local lines.” (Governor Mitt Romney, Remarks At The National Press Club, 7/14/04)

www.MittRomney.com

9