Strong Military Needed to Fend Off 'Existential Threat,' Ex-Senator Says

"Declaring that the United States faces an 'existential threat,' a former senator said Friday the military should be expanded and its funding increased so that the nation's defense forces can be prepared.

Jim Talent, a former U.S. senator from Missouri, said in a speech at the Heritage Foundation that the United States must 'be prepared even for threats that we do not immediately see because the one thing we know is that we are going to face threats that we were not able to foresee.'

Talent said he believes the United States is 'in at least as dangerous a situation as we were during the Cold War.'"