Top Republicans call for return to Cold War

McKeon agreed and harkened back to the days when he said Russia and China could be depended on to keep their client states in line.

“When we used to have superpowers, they would let things go until it looked like it was going to spill over. Then they would step in and stop it,” he said. “We can’t get any help from Russia now with Iran or Syria, they are just pushing us all over the place. It’s a dangerous world and we are making it more so, because by cutting defense we are totally eliminating Reagan’s line ‘peace through strength.’”

In McKeon and Inhofe’s view, the 2015 defense budget to be released by the Obama administration next week, which would shrink the size of the active Army force to 440,000 troops, the lowest levels since before WWII, would increase the risk of armed conflict and endanger soldiers’ lives.

“We are weakening ourselves and that it how you get into wars. You don’t get into wars if you are strong,” he said, adding that Russia’s aggressiveness is in part a response to Obama’s policies. “This is a very dynamic system and I think what’s happening… Putin’s not a dummy. He says hey, America’s cutting back on their defense, I can push here.”