The foundation of any country's military strength is the productivity of it's economy.  Without  a strong and vital economy, wars and defense expenditures will ultimately bring a country to its knees by bleeding it of its sustenance.   History has proven this repeatedly.

To this danger we are not immune.  Judging by the state of our economy, America's ability to produce the wealth necessary to pay for an effective defense has been weakened.   The details may be different, but today we are treading down a dangerous path, one which history has warned us of. The Soviet Union in the 1980's and 1990's perished as it's economy died, crippled by military expenditures which soared beyond the capacity of the primitive Soviet economy.   The British Empire, fractured after two world wars and the cost of a global military force, drained England of its economic might .  China exited a bankrupting civil war and entered a violent, communist dark age which continues  to haunt any progress they have made in recent years.
 
I recognize the present 'shadow' War on Terrorism and the open wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have certainly had some successes.  But we cannot ever forget the necessity of keeping our country strong and our enemies weak.  The best way to attack Islamic extremism is to remove the financial foundation for building terrorist networks, as well as to address the root causes of terrorism.  

Since much of our long-term interest in the domestic policies of Middle Eastern nations revolves around energy issues, and since occupation and foreign interference have been found to be the root causes of terrorism in any society, we must resist the temptation to control energy markets and interfere with the internal structures of other nations. We must acknowledge that some elites in the nations which we involve ourselves and come to depend on are the primary financiers of terrorism.  These elites use our presence in the Middle East, especially our support for authoritarian regimes, as recruiting tools for future terrorist footsoldiers.

To end our reliance on those who terrorize us, attack the wealth of those who seek our destruction, and remove the motivation of their potential recruits, we must develop substitutes for the oil we purchase from those very countries which finance terrorism.  The quickest ways to reduce the price of oil, and therefore the wealth of our enemies, are to utilize nuclear power, drill for oil domestically and on our continental shelves, and to allow the market to react to the current high energy prices by developing cheaper substitutes for oil.   A free market cannot work its magic if government officials of dubious ability are constantly trying to micro-manage it.
 
When we are attacked we must respond in self defense.  However, we must also take a long and patient view.  The Muslim countries that finance terrorism are rapidly depleting their wealth and they have nothing with which to replace this golden goose.   We must allow this process to occur more rapidly by developing the energy resources already available to us.  In the meantime, we must allow our economy to rebuild itself based upon true free market principles, not the government-manipulated corporatism which is the immediate cause of the current crisis.  

As our economic vitality increases and our enemies' economic circumstances deteriorate, we will wipe out the means of those who fund terrorism. Once America can no longer be associated with heavy-handed Middle-Eastern dictators, popular support for radical Islamic icons will wain and the pool of recruits for terrorism will have dried up. As with the economy, I will work to end the government policies which perpetuate the cycle of energy dependence, foreign intervention and terrorist threats against American people.