When Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus wrote it...

it read "Si vic pacem, para bellum".   We know it better as the adage "if you wish for peace, prepare for war".  It's a lesson that the U.S. learned at a tragic price on this day, 71 years ago when the code phrase "Climb Mount Nitaka 1208" was put into effect.  It had actually been broadcast to the Japanese fleet earlier, on December 2nd, but the effective date/time was 5:30 p.m. Tokyo time on December 8th.  That's roughly dawn at Pearl Harbor, when the U.S. Pacific fleet (except for the battleships that were at sea) was bombed into almost total infectiveness.

Over 2,400 people died that day as the result of our not having learned that lesson.  It is a lesson that we failed to learn from by allowing the events of 9/11/01.  Yet again we were subjected to an attack on our soil because we failed to recognize and prepare.

Were we really aware of the impending Japanese attack?  Probably not.  Almost certainly not.  At least not as far as Hawaii is concerned.  History seems to indicate that the U.S. was aware a Japanese military strike was coming, but they expected it to be confined to Asia and the Philippines.  They were wrong and the U.S. paid a heavy price.

Defense spending is viewable in a variety of ways.  The U.S. defense expenditures in FY2012 represent 41% of the world's total military expenditures.  But when viewed as a percentage of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product, it's less than 5%.  On that basis, tiny Eritrea outspends the U.S. at a ratio of 4 to 1.  You can spin numbers in a variety of ways.  But the bottom line is that if we cut defense spending too far, we leave ourselves open to attack.  Most probably a 9/11 type attack rather than another Pearl Harbor.

So in cutting government spending, be cautious in how fast and how far we reduce our military spending.  Unless we want history to repeat itself yet again.