Dennis Kucinich: “The U.S. can spend tens of billions of dollars less and do a far better job of protecting our Nation. The…”

“The U.S. can spend tens of billions of dollars less and do a far better job of protecting our Nation. The defense-industrial complex follows a misguided strategy of buying weapons that provide Americans with no increased safety; buying ever more expensive fighter jets, massive naval ships, and a missile defense system that provides no additional protection for our Nation. There are no fighter jets or naval ships that can challenge our Air Force or our Navy. Furthermore, the claimed ballistic missile threat is grossly overexaggerated. Terrorists do not possess ballistic missiles and the few nation states that do have no desire to face the understood retaliation of our ballistic missiles. This defense-industrial complex wrongly believes that the $270 million F-22 fighter is an important new weapon system. However, the current F-15 remains unchallenged and inexpensive upgrades can keep our Air Force supreme. The F-22 cannot bomb away the beliefs of a small number of radical fighters. The advocates of advanced weapons systems fail to understand these new systems do not match up an effective defense capability with the terrorist threats. Only a new approach to foreign policy can effectively mitigate the terrorist threat.”