Jake commanded special operations and knows what the U.S. military is capable of—and what it is not. Congress must repeal the post-9/11 Authorization for Use of Military Force and end the failed Forever Wars. In tandem, Congress should use its power of the purse to direct the president to:

• Reduce the size of conventional ground forces and invest the savings in green infrastructure and clean-energy R&D;
• Match naval, air, cyber, intelligence, and special operations capabilities to the imperatives to
  • defend the U.S. homeland & strategic infrastructure
  • safeguard allies and multilateral institutions
  • protect the global commons
  • contain Chinese influence in the Pacific theater, and
  • intervene to stop humanitarian catastrophes
• Emphasize foreign aid, robust diplomacy, and U.S. leadership on transnational threats like climate change & pandemics over the projection of military might