A Military Designed for the 21st Century
During the last century, America has successfully created the most powerful,influential, and expensive military force in all of human history. However, since September 11th, 2001, it has become apparent that the national security threats America is being presented with in the 21st century are very different from those of the 20th century. Consequently, the time has come to overhaul our nation’s national security apparatus. In light of this need, American Millennials is proposing a reduction in military spending to no more than twice that of total global military spending by all other nations by 2020, while simultaneously placing a greater focus on the types of intelligence and operations necessary to counter international terrorism.
Ending the Era of Nuclear Weapons
America also needs to proactively work to buy all loose nuclear weapons and materials by the end of this decade, and reprocess such materials for peaceful energy purposes, reduce our own nation’s stockpile of nuclear weapons to 300 within five years, and pass an international agreement to a permanent global ban on nuclear weapons by 2025.
To better understand the importance of why American needs to bring an end to the age of nuclear weapons, watch the following clip from John Oliver’s HBO show Last Week Tonight:
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
During the past decade there has been a significant increase in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to commit military strikes on foreign soil. While the advantages posed by UAVs in modern warfare can’t be understated, serious questions have been raised about the manner in which they’re used.
On one hand, UAVs have provided the U.S. military with the ability to observe enemies, track their movement and activities in real time, analyze battlefield conditions, and execute missions without any physical threat to the lives of U.S. servicemen. Although some argue that the use of UAVs has dehumanized war by turning lethal attacks into little more than a video game, UAV remote pilots have also explained how the close-up perspectives of targets being hit have in ways actually made the horrifying reality of war more real than it was to pilots who couldn’t witness the suffering that would unfold in the aftermath of their attacks.
On the other hand, America’s UAV program has been operated with a stunning lack of oversight, shrouded in secrecy. While hard data on drone strikes is hard to come by, the information that has made its way to the public suggests our nation’s use of weaponized drones has resulted in significant numbers of civilian casualties, including some incidents that Amnesty International has identified as possible war crimes.
In light of these accusations, it’s become clear that America needs to have an open and frank discussion about how our military uses UAVs and similar technologies, which are sure to be developed in the near future, and establish reforms to the drone program that will:
- Define the conditions under which the use of weaponized drones may take place, when no formal declaration of war has been issued.
- Establish legislative and judicial oversight of the executive’s use of UAVs in any nation that the United States is not formally at war with, to ensure that any military use of weaponized UAVs is appropriate, necessary, and executed in a manner that minimizes any threat to civilian populations.
To better understand why America needs to have a formal discussion about our military’s use of UAVs, watch the following clip from John Oliver’s HBO show Last Week Tonight:
A Humanitarian and Peacekeeping Armada
American Millennials supports the creation of a new division of the military that operates exclusively as a humanitarian and peacekeeping force, capable of rapidly responding and providing assistance wherever needed around the globe.