Does the United States Want Defense or Security?

• Position: Brief Article

Marine Commandant Gen. James L. Jones, speaking to reporters at the Fifth Annual Expeditionary Warfare Conference, in Panama City, Fla., drew a distinction between national defense and national security. "If you invest only for defense, then that is just what you get," he said. "National security is another matter."

Strictly speaking, he said, national defense means protecting U.S. territory and U.S. citizens, he suggested, while national security involves looking out for U.S. interests in the world in a larger sense. "We have to ask ourselves what it means to be a global...