America has much to be proud of and many heroes to be thankful for. President Donald Trump took the opportunity during his State of the Union address Tuesday night to make that point. While his words and honors given channeled a surging popular patriotism, much hard work remains to deliver peace through strength.
In the short span of a year, this new administration has made historic achievements and started the long process of reversing decades of defense industrial decay.
But people respond quickly to positive leadership. A military recruitment crisis during the last administration appeared on an irreversible path to collapse, but a renewed focus on competency and lethality has seen all military branches meeting or exceeding their recruitment goals.
In perhaps the most important statement of American resolve, the president unequivocally made clear that he will never hesitate to confront threats.
In a dangerous world, this is vital—narco-cartels are engaged in open violence in Mexico targeting Americans, Iran is headed toward conflict over its illicit nuclear weapons program and mass killings of 32,000 protesters, and the unmentioned looming threat of China’s rapidly growing arsenal appears aimed at our homeland.
Echoing the recently released National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy, the president repeated what his strategy is in simple terms—Peace Though Strength. This is urgently needed given the explosion of wars under the previous administration from Ukraine, Gaza, the Red Sea, and Afghanistan.
But the military strength required will not come cheaply nor quickly.
That said, American resolve demonstrated around the world in the last 12 months has galvanized our allies to action.
Like the seizing of dark fleet oil tankers, with the U.S. successful interdiction of these ships beginning in December, France, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, and others have joined in acting against this illicit trade.
In time, the success of targeting narco-cartel smuggling boats, which has effectively cut the at-sea illicit drug trade to America, may likewise see more partners acting to cut narcotics smuggling across the Pacific and Atlantic.
With over 25,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers killing each other every month in combat, the reality of war has shaken many out of their post-Cold War stupor. But only the forceful and straight-talking diplomacy from this administration has galvanized our friends and allies in Europe to begin the process of regaining their strength as well. This is needed and overdue, and by meeting their obligations for 5% of gross domestic product on defense spending, Moscow will see the futility of its war and attempts to divide our NATO alliance.
And, a ninth conflict hopefully can be ended in this still new administration’s tenure.
Executing missions like the spectacularly successful Operation Midnight Hammer that massively degraded Iran’s nuclear weapons enterprise, or operation Absolute Resolve to bring Venezuela’s narco-dictator Nicolas Maduro to justice, require significant investment to achieve.
It demands intensive training, weapons that our enemies cannot evade, aircraft and warships armed at numbers to deter our biggest threats—like China.
During his speech the president honored our nation’s heroes, on whose shoulders peace through strength is carried, thereby elevating the value of service and patriotism.
He awarded a legion of merit to Coast Guard rescue swimmer Scott Ruskin, who saved 165 lives (many of them young school children) from Texas flash floods. And Trump connected past acts of valor with today’s by awarding the Congressional Medal of Honor to Korean War Navy pilot Royce William and Army Warrant Officer Eric Slover for his selfless actions in the raid to capture Maduro.
When it comes to paying the bills for the defense the nation needs, the administration is delivering—$1 trillion in the current budget and $1.5 trillion anticipated in the next defense budget. On this there has been bipartisan support, let’s hope this spirit of common cause in our national defense endures—it is needed to keep Americans safe.
The legacy of American heroism and patriotism lives on, thanks to Trump. The nation was reminded of this fact as he honored those on whose shoulders we rely for our security.
