The 200+ year history of government in the United States has essentially revolved around two questions: What is the government responsible for and what should it be able to control? In one form or another, these two questions have been debated at every level of government, every working day, right up to the present time. It’s the essential question of democracy. But, during all of this time, there is one point that politicians and citizens have always agreed on. Regardless of how big or how small people think the government should be, virtually all of them believe that the government is responsible for national defense.

Defense is, after all, the reason most governments were formed in the first place. Today the word “defense” has increasingly been replaced with “homeland security”, reflecting a sense that the threats to America are changing. America now sees