Two quotes on the subject of national defense....
(1) Whatever enables us to go to war, secures our peace. - Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Monroe, 1823
(2) It should therefore be difficult in a republic to declare war; but not to make peace. - Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833
They're both right; Jefferson because the easiest way to keep peace between nations is to deter aggression and the easiest way to do that is prepare at every opportunity. Story is right because it is criminally or almost criminally easy to "War war," as Winston Churchill once said, but its very hard, in Churchill's words, "to Jaw Jaw."
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