President Obama likes to say that a strong America abroad rests on a strong America at home. What he and his administration continue to ignore, however, is that a prosperous America at home has in no small way rested for decades on America’s global military preeminence.  

It’s preeminence that has kept the great powers at peace and ambitious rogue states from disrupting the international order. But unless the Budget Control Act of 2011 is in some fashion overridden or amended, the automatic “sequester” (cut) of $500 billion in defense spending mandated by the law will definitely put that preeminence at risk. Coming on the heels of over $800 billion already having been sliced from the military’s budget the past three years, the new cut will likely result in the smallest ground force since 1940, the smallest fleet since 1915, and the smallest tactical fighter force in the history of the Air Force.