Cord Byrd: “the security of this nation in an increasingly insecure world remains the highest priority of the United States…”

“the security of this nation in an increasingly insecure world remains the highest priority of the United States government. To that end, we support and finance the most powerful military in the world. Our troops have the most advanced weapons available. We have gifted and dedicated military strategists at the helm. And yet we remain vulnerable, in some ways perhaps more so today than we were at the height of the Cold War. The increased sophistication, radicalization, and financial acumen of terrorist organizations have escalated the threat of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. The increased interdependence and complexity of computer networks has intensified the threat of potentially devastating cyber attacks on critical defense and domestic communications systems. And despite the end of the Cold War, the proliferation of nuclear weapons technology, particularly among rogue states, has brought with it a renewed threat of nuclear attack on our homeland. North Korea, Iraq, and Iran are all working furiously to produce nuclear weapons systems that could threaten the sovereign territory of the United States. To our dismay, we have discovered that North Korea, one of the most belligerent outlaw nations in the world, is much further along than previously thought in its efforts to produce a nuclear warhead capable of reaching our shores. The threat from North Korea is sooner rather than later; here rather than there.”