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If the Pentagon truly confined itself to providing defense, then presumably we wouldn't need a whole separate government agency to provide 'Homeland Security.'

If you really believe the number one priority of our government is the protection of our people, then the idea of being defenseless against an intercontinental ballistic missile or any other type of weapon system that puts us in jeopardy is not acceptable.

But the federal government, our collective government, has responsibilities that none of these other levels of government can fulfill; and chief among these is national defense.

Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.

The most fundamental purpose of government is defense, not empire.

It's the role of a government to defend its soldiers and its citizens.

We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.

For the vast majority of places in America, there is no way you can build a security system such as we have here because of the high priority this rates in terms of terrorist interests.

The United States has to have the capability to deal with more than one enemy at one time and be able to confront them and win.

The role of government is to steer us in the right direction, not do all the work for us.