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Keeping Americans Safe

Page history last edited by Mike 5 years, 9 months ago

We should seek Death Penalty for Terrorists:

 “In December 2004, Romney announced plans to file a death penalty bill in early 2005.

 

We should Keeping Americans Safe at Home and Abroad

 

We must strengthen our military by increasing the size of our military by 100,000 troops and dedicating at least four percent of our gross domestic product to defense. We must transform our domestic civilian international efforts to meet a new generation of global challenges and ensure that our intelligence and law enforcement efforts are able to address threats before they reach our shores.

 

CHALLENGE: After President George H.W. Bush left office, in 1993, the Clinton Administration began to dismantle the military, taking advantage of what has been called a "peace dividend" from the end of the Cold War. We took the dividend, but we did not get the peace.

 

Meanwhile, we lost about 500,000 military personnel and about $50 billion a year in military spending. The U.S. Army lost four active divisions and two reserve divisions. The U.S. Navy lost almost 80 ships. The U.S. Air Force saw its active personnel decrease by 30 percent. The Marines' personnel dropped by 22,000.

 

"They took the dividend, but didn't get the peace. It seems that we had come to believe that war and threats and evil men were gone forever. As Charles Krauthammer observed, we took a 'holiday from history.'" (Governor Mitt Romney, Remarks At The George Herbert Walker Bush Presidential Library, 4/10/2007)

 

CHALLENGE: In our civilian agencies, a more pervasive problem exists: bureaucratic inaction. Today, there is no unity among our international nonmilitary resources. There is no clear leadership and no clear line of authority. Too often, we have to struggle to integrate our nonmilitary instruments into coherent, timely, and effective operations.

 

We removed barriers to unify efforts across the services. This included establishing 'joint commands' with individual commanders fully responsible for their geographic region...

 

Our non military resources enjoy no such jointness, no such clear leadership, no such clear lines of authority and responsibility. Too often we struggle to integrate our military and civilian instruments of national power into coherent, timely and effective operations.

 

 

CHALLENGE: During the Clinton Administration, our intelligence community was critically weakened. The CIA workforce was slashed by almost 20% and recruitment was reduced dramatically, undermining effective human intelligence. Unfortunately, Washington's response has focused on creating a new, expanded and duplicative bureaucracy in the Directorate of National intelligence.

 

A Stronger military. We must increase the size of our military by 100,000 troops. In addition, we should increase to at least four percent of our gross domestic product to defense. This kind of investment will make up for critical gaps in the modernization of our equipment, personnel and health care efforts. However, as we invest in our military, we must ensure that funds are used to address critical needs of the men and women of our Armed Forces, not political or contractor interests.

  1. Transform And Strengthen Our Domestic Civilian International Efforts To Meet A New Generation Of Challenges. Building on the Goldwater-Nichols military reforms of the 1980s, we need to ensure that our civilian instruments of national power have the ability to build joint efforts among our civilian agencies and empower Regional Deputies with clear lines of authority, sufficient budgets and the responsibility to develop and execute regional plans and strategies. We must also constantly challenge bureaucratic "group think" and revitalize our national security structures so we have the capabilities needed to meet 21st century challenges.
  2. Strengthen Strategic Planning. Many of our civilian national security and foreign policy structures were created decades ago. Today we need strengthened capabilities to strategically integrate all elements of national power. National Security Council staff must be empowered and accountable for reaching out to divergent viewpoints and challenging policies and proposals.
  3. Protect The Homeland. While there has been much emphasis on protecting facilities and responding to attacks, a key priority must be prevention. Today, protecting the homeland must begin far from home. intelligence and law enforcement efforts able to address threats before they reach our shores must be a priority for U.S. and international action. This will demand new U.S. capabilities, stronger international alliances and integration of our federal actions with international, state and local efforts.

 


 

Issues

 

 

 

  • "I support our troops overseas and recognize that families across Massachusetts are making sacrifices by having their loved ones away defending our nation. We don’t want them to also worry about paying their bills. This will help ease that burden for state employees."
    • Governor Mitt Romney, 11-28-2003 Press Release

 

  • “Through their service, National Guard and Reservists play an important role in our efforts to advance democracy, peace and freedom across our nation and around the world. This week, we ask employers to recognize their sacrifice and commitment.”
    • Governor Mitt Romney, 11-14-2003 Press Release

 

  • “A key part of our homeland security efforts rests on the state’s ability to collect and analyze information on potential threats. By putting more money into intelligence gathering, we’ll give the State Police the tools they need to be more effective.”
    • Governor Mitt Romney, 01-29-2004 Press Release

 

  • "The threat of modern terrorism poses new challenges for law enforcement across Massachusetts and around the nation. These new homeland security funds will allow Bay State communities to work as a coordinated force to collect, analyze and distribute critical terrorism related intelligence and act when necessary."
    • Governor Mitt Romney, 03-09-2004 Press Release

 

  • “We want to reinforce the message that an informed, vigilant public is the best defense against terrorism. The bottom line is, if you see something, say something. By working as partners, we can win the war on terror and help create a safer, more secure Commonwealth.”
    • Governor Mitt Romney, 05-04-2004 Press Release

 

 

  • “In Massachusetts, a license to drive shouldn’t become a license to steal or commit mayhem.”
    • Governor Mitt Romney, 10-20-2004 Press Release

 

  • “When it comes to homeland security, our new driver’s license is only as good as the issuance process beneath it. That’s why we are actively developing ideas and technology to thwart the potential of terrorist activity.”
    • Governor Mitt Romney, 10-20-2004 Press Release

 

  • “It is physically impossible to protect all targets that a terrorist might attack. The biggest lesson we learned from the September 11th tragedies is that intelligence sharing between our local, state, and federal law enforcement officials is absolutely necessary to the security of our nation and the citizens of the Commonwealth.”
    • Governor Mitt Romney, 05-11-2005 Press Release

 

  • “Soldiers willingly sacrifice to protect and defend our freedoms. We can do our part by honoring their hard work, commitment and sacrifice by passing the Massachusetts GI Bill.”
    • Governor Mitt Romney, 05-24-2005 Press Release

 

  • "From the day that the colonists in Massachusetts took up their arms to secure their liberty to the present day, Americans have had to fight to protect the freedom that makes our country great. The men and women who have volunteered and who are now serving our country in the global war on terror deserve our support."
    • Governor Mitt Romney, 08-26-2005 Press Release

 

  • “Our men and women in uniform carry on a brave and noble tradition of service to their state and country. They sacrifice much through their service, and I’m pleased that through this package of benefits our state has properly recognized all that military families do to keep us safe.”
    • Governor Mitt Romney, 08-26-2005 Press Release

 

  • "The president is right to point to an international jihadist movement aimed at the collapse of the United States. He has gone after that threat in the right way and with great energy and vigor, and I applaud the fact that he has taken it on very seriously and has not considered it just a criminal action but instead a war action, which requires a military . . . response."
    • Governor Mitt Romney, Interview with James Taranto (December 2005)

 

 

  • ``Well, I think it shows a complete lack of understanding of the kind of enemy that we're facing. This is not a small group of whackos in the hills that all we have to do is go find one person and it suddenly goes away. This is, instead, a movement. It's a jihadist movement. It's an extreme wing of Islam. It includes people, hundreds of thousands, potentially millions of people throughout the world that are intent on bringing down America, bringing down civilization as we know it. It's going to be a long-time fight against these people. And that's why the president has called it a war. Iraq is one front in that war. And there will be other fronts in this war, I'm sure. But the idea that somehow if we just go home and sit back quietly that it'll all go away is just pollyannish and not realistic. After all, what did we do to deserve 9/11? They attacked us also on the USS Cole, they attacked our embassies and we sat back and negotiated."
    • Governor Mitt Romney, August 11, 2006 on MSNBC

 

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