Max Cleland: “I want to add some additional comments, if that is all right with my distinguished colleague. Earlier, I spoke about the…”

“I want to add some additional comments, if that is all right with my distinguished colleague. Earlier, I spoke about the mismatch between the goals of American foreign policy and the means we employ in achieving them. Whether one espouses a unilateralist or multilateralist approach, or something in between, most of those with a strong interest in American foreign policy have major goals for that policy, whether in preventing the emergence of global rivals or in promoting the spread of democracy, whether in halting the spread of weapons of mass destruction or in protecting human rights. Yet today we devote a little over 1 percent of the Federal budget for international affairs, compared to over 5 percent in 1962 in the middle of the cold war. Of particular concern to me as a member of the Armed Services Committee, since the 1980s we have gone from providing roughly 25 percent of the budget for national defense to 18 percent today. We have reduced the active-duty armed forces by over one-third but have increased overseas deployments by more than 300 percent. I have often said we have, as a country, both feet firmly planted on a banana peel. We are going in opposite directions. That cannot last. We have a mismatch between our commitments and our willingness to live up to those commitments. We are sending a mixed message abroad. What is the result of all of this? Newspapers reported that last November, for the first time in a number of years, the U.S.…”