We station 28,500 soldiers in South Korea. South Korea's economy is 38 times bigger than North Korea's. Why does America need to pay to protect it?

Since America is going broke, I thought defense was one area where Democrats might make cuts. But Democrats rarely cut anything. Obama says our troops won't start leaving Afghanistan until 2014, and we'll still be involved for years after that. We should have learned from the Russian debacle and Britain's three lost wars there.

Advocates of America-as-world-policeman rarely grasp that their conception of "defense" endangers us by creating new enemies. Fired Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who led NATO forces in Afghanistan, once said, "For every innocent person you kill, you create 10 new enemies." Bombing Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia with drones creates new terrorists -- some of whom may seek revenge.

One goal of U.S. policy is to create stable, democratic societies -- but it is a fatal conceit to believe that we as foreign central planners can build nations.