1: Any “national defense strategy” that’s actually about national defense would indeed involve “centering the Pentagon on perceived threats to the homeland, narrowing U.S. competition with China and downplaying America’s role in Europe and Africa.”Fact No. 2: In a time of massive government deficits and debt, re-centering “national defense strategy” on, you know, “national defense” instead of constant, dangerous and expensive military adventurism around the globe makes financial sense. Current U.S. “defense” spending officially hovers at just below, and likely actually exceeds, $1 trillion per year. 3 ... but the proposed “national defense strategy,” if it’s as described, would tend to reduce opportunities for lawless military conduct. But meanwhile, we should welcome even the slightest reorientation of U.S. military policy toward “national defense” rather than foreign meddling.