Peace through strength

HOBNOBBING WITH THE NATIONAL SECURITY ELITE at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California. I find myself drinking a beer next to the Director of the National Security Agency and constantly saying excuse me after bumping into defense contractors.

I spot Senator Lindsey Graham and text my wife that he’s two feet away. Strangely, an alert hits my phone from Google Photos, reminding me where I was exactly 18 years earlier: loading up the Humvee before another patrol in Afghanistan. In the frame, Doc P. and G. are hunkered down in the back of a thin-skinned truck before we head outside the wire into the mountain snow.

I take a selfie. Now out of camouflage and unblemished by the windblown dust of Khost Province, I’m wearing a suit jacket and tie as I mingle with the masters of the military-industrial complex.

It’s easy to spot the generals and admirals, always followed by six or seven people as they walk past. Aides of generals, aides of aides, uniformed drivers, and people holding papers of vital national interest. Marines and soldiers in uniform. Marines and soldiers in suits. Sailors of the Year flown in from a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier. Junior ROTC guards holding the door open while saying, “good evening, sir.” Air Force officers looking at me suspiciously. Civilian public relations types and think tankers. Karl Rove. And was that a Space Force guy?

We are gathered here to close out 2022 and talk about the trials and tribulations of the national security establishment. The humiliating U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 punched a hole through the heart of the military and veteran world. At the top, perhaps a brief period of soul-searching occurred: What does the United States do now? What is our role in the world? Do we look inward and become more isolated?

Those questions will persist. But Feb. 24, 2022, largely ended such debate for most people in this room, now sipping whiskey and wine underneath the plane that spirited President Ronald Reagan around the world to bring a message of peace through strength. Russia’s rapid blitzkrieg into Ukraine earlier this year has morphed into a modern-day version of the Soviet nightmare in Afghanistan. And the