Myths: “CO2 emissions are the greatest threat to America’s national security.” Barbara Boxer
Truth: National Security is one of the primary reasons for the creation of the federal government. The Declaration of Independence reminds us that all people have inalienable rights—among them, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To secure these rights, the U.S. Constitution creates a government of the people to “establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”
National Security is the first and last defense of freedom for the United States, and in most cases – the entire world. The Constitution states (Article 4, Section 4) that the “United States shall guarantee to every State a republican form of government and shall protect each of them against invasion.” Thus National Security is a mandatory duty of the federal government. James Madison writes in Federalist 41:
“Security against foreign danger is one of the primitive objects of civil society. It is an avowed and essential object of the American Union. The powers requisite for attaining it must be effectually confided to the federal councils. Is the power of declaring war necessary? No man will answer this question in the negative. It would be superfluous, therefore, to enter into a proof of the affirmative. The existing Confederation establishes this power in the most ample form. Is the power of raising armies and equipping fleets necessary? This is involved in the foregoing power. It is involved in the power of self-defense.”
To this end the Constitution (Article I, Section 8) gives Congress the specific authority to declare war, raise and support an army and navy, and organize as well as arm state militias. The President is made Commander in Chief of the armed forces (Article 2, Section 2). According to Alexander Hamilton, the President’s control over the military is limited to when it is called into service by Congress – the President is more akin to a “general-in-chief.” The military was intended to protect our rights, but the Founder’s realized that it could also be used to usurp rights. To prevent this, they divided control of the military and kept if powerful and non-abusive.
National defense is a mandatory function of the federal government. The Founders believed that in order for the nation to maintain that the rights of the people of America were secured, the nation would have to have the power to defend itself through the ability to make war, when necessary. To claim that carbon emissions or similar actions are the U.S.’s greatest security threat is to misunderstand completely what it is that national security is meant to secure. Our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are not in danger of being attacked by CO2 emissions, but there are many people around the world who would like to destroy those rights. Preventing that from happening is the purpose of national defense. The Joint Chiefs say debt is the greatest threat to national security. While this is obviously not a military threat, the dangers posed by foreign debt and the limitations that debt places on defense spending constitute a clear threat to national security. We need to protect ourselves and our Constitution from all enemies – foreign and domestic.
