The Washington Examiner reports today that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has announced that the military will be closing the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk–with the loss of at least 5,000 jobs–and also begin making drastic cuts to overall defense expenditures.  One proposal in particular: cutting contractor budgets by 10 percent will hurt Northern Virginia especially hard.   With the nation still at war and the economy in dire straits, this announcement is not only bad for Virginia, but bad for national security.

America derives its safety from a worldwide forward projection of military strength.  The Roman and British Empires started to crumble as soon as their armies retreated from distant provinces after an embarrassing defeat or two.  When those Empires could no longer bear the expense of blood and treasure to maintain their military power, the decline of their society, their laws, and everything else followed soon after.