New global threats make big boosts to the Pentagon’s budget beyond urgent

Two cheers for Congress for keeping the government funded past the midterms, but zero cheers for dragging its feet on getting the Pentagon the money it desperately needs to face rapidly emerging new threats.

President Donald Trump asked Congress to provide the Department of Defense with a record $1.5 trillion budget the coming fiscal year.

Yes, that figure is staggering — but it’s hard to deny that an unusually large defense-budget boost is urgently needed given the shaky state of the world, and Washington’s failure to provide needed funding for the Pentagon in past years.

The situation has left the military stretched way too thin.

Between supplying our Ukrainian and Israeli allies with munitions to fight their existential wars, and our own war with Iran, America’s missile supply is seriously depleted.

The president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have made headway on expanding industrial capacity to restock, but it’s not clear production is ramping up quickly enough.

Meanwhile, our enemies are probing for weakness.

A July report from the International Institute for Strategic Studies details how Moscow has steadily launched drone incursions into the airspace of more than a dozen NATO member nations, likely as provocations, tests of local responsiveness and surveillance of sensitive military sites.

Though Europe would bear the brunt of a Russian attack, our NATO allies will certainly call on the United States to fulfill its Article 5 collective defense obligations if necessary.

And though Europe must absolutely step up and do its part, it’s also in America’s interest to help keep Russia in check; that was the rationale for NATO in the first place and for US troops in Europe during the Cold War, a conflict Vladimir Putin seems intent on resuming.

As for Iran, its economy and military are massively degraded, but cornered dogs bite.

While the US has used up many of its long-range precision missiles, the Islamic Republic maintains significant missile capabilities.

Our military must be prepared in the event Iran launches a last-ditch salvo at our bases and allies in the region.

A nightmare scenario, however unlikely it seems at the moment, would involve a massive joint attack by Russia and Iran (and perhaps China, too) against US allies and interests.

Even now, fresh reports indicate Russia has been covertly helping Iran develop supersonic missiles to take out US naval ships.

On top of all this, China has vowed to take Taiwan by force, if necessary, with some reports suggesting it could launch an attack in the next few years.

Nothing encourages aggression so much as the appearance of vulnerability in an enemy, and the dwindling supplies of US armaments is a true signal of weakness.

Keeping America strong, safe and ready has always been a bipartisan concern — at least until the Democratic Party became hollowed out by an infestation of socialists.

Congress must step up and preserve America’s security by funding the Pentagon enough to deter enemies.