Why boost the defense budget as 2 long wars are finally ending (at least for us)?

That's
the question I asked the other day on NPR's "Morning Edition." Want to know my
response? Very well then, here's the transcript. (And,
in case it is confusing, yes I also did an interview with
the same outfit about my new
book.)

More
thoughts on the subject: I don't understand Governor Romney's insistence that
we need to move to spending 4
percent of GDP on defense. 
I mean, at the height of the British Empire, the British spending on
defense was between 2 and 3 percent of national income. Nor was the size of the
Royal Navy key to maintaining the Empire: It went from about 80 ready ships of
the line in 1817 to 58 in 1835, Paul Kennedy tells us in his wonderful Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery.