Head of Joint Chiefs: Deficit is Our Greatest Security Threat

 

scary

scarier?

This is the mind-set that makes it difficult to get the jobs we need, or the other decisive actions that can help us out of this crisis. Hard to believe, but here it is:

America's highest-ranking military official thinks the U.S. has bigger security problems than al-Qaeda, suicide bombers and an increasingly deadly nine-year war.

"Our national debt is our biggest national security threat," said Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a "Tribute to the Troops" breakfast on Thursday morning, according to two staffers at the gathering. He also noted a troubling trend -- that veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq are becoming homeless at four times the rate the country witnessed in the wake of Vietnam.

I would’ve have thought unemployment, poverty, homelessness, and the resulting deprivation – which kills thousands of people per year – were greater threats to our national security than the deficit. And as for those homeless vets, you're not going to care for them by obsessing about deficit reduction in a devastated economy.  That will just lead to more joblessness, more untreated illness (including psychiatric disorders), and fewer jobs.  

Oh, well ... that’s why some of us are admirals and some aren’t.  Not that it isn’t important to control the deficit … but is it more important than other economic issues? 

Not to mention those other national security concerns - like, oh, let’s say, loose nukes…