Security begins, ends with us

The first line of action is the voting booth

By Tom Howe Iowa Chapter, National Security Network

Each of us has our own images of what it means when the term "national security" is read or heard.

It might mean Pearl Harbor, 9/11, a public park filled with people peacefully picnicking, or a church. A few see the battlefield through which they once crawled amid unspeakable horror.

No matter the images of our personal experiences, national security ultimately begins and ends with us.

It begins with us at the polling booth. How forcefully we challenge and how carefully we select our potential leaders determines the essence of our national security. When we do our job as citizens well, studying issues, policy options and candidates, our potential for success in achieving national security (among a myriad of other issues) is significantly enhanced. If we sit back, uninformed and don't study and demand responses from candidates before they are our elected officials; if we don't vote, we undermine a fundamental strength of our democracy, and weaken our national security.

National security ends with us in successful policy and peace, or, alternatively, in failed policy, war and the aftermath of war. The scars of war last for generations in the bodies, minds and spirits of those who serve, and those who worry from afar during deployment and carry the burden of the lost and the injured when the fighting ceases.

National security eludes us when we fail to elect sound leaders, when we forfeit leadership to those who transfer their inadequacies into failed policies and actions.

We further erode our future security, as well as our moral credibility, when we fail to care for the veterans and their families -- those who serve as gatekeepers of our national security. By not meaningfully caring for and respectfully embracing veterans and their families, we allow the erosion of our sense of honor in service, and the vulnerability precipitated by our failure.

At its very core, our freedom doesn't rest with those who wear the military uniforms of our country. They are our traditional last resort when policy options fail. Over time, we have become too complacent with our seeming security to notice the changes occurring in the world. In recent decades, we have become too accepting of sending in the military to solve problems. There have been 30 U.S. military interventions since 1977.

Our complacent inattention has lead to our slow descent into class-based roles which define our economic, political and military relationships. When those in uniform represent one class and those in office another, national security is endangered by agendas lacking in the moral and constitutional connections to what it means to serve our country, and in whose interest that service is legitimately employed.

Freedom is not once won and then forever enduring. Freedom is not something others provide for us. It requires our daily vigilance and willingness to stand up to any threat, foreign or domestic.

Domestic threats include politicians who are unprepared, who channel their fear into unsuccessful national security policy, and who use secrecy and fear to hide failed policy.

As we again prepare to elect our political leaders, we must diligently challenge all candidates who are afraid to answer any American's question. Their fear exposes a lack of transparency and openness, and we need to walk away no matter what they might otherwise say that we want to hear. Any politician who is afraid of us cannot lead when the fluff of political rhetoric wears off and their true character is exposed by the substantive reality tests of the responsibilities of political office.

National security is not solely the charge of those in uniform or those in public office. It is at times temporarily entrusted to them. We are the ultimate guardians of our nation, and national security belongs to us; it begins and ends with us.

Howe is vice president and CEO of Kane Howe Appraisal Services. A Marine Corps Vietnam veteran, Howe is also a member of the Dubuque Area Committee on Foreign Relations, Iowa Democratic Veterans' Caucus and Veterans and Military Families for Progress.