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In the August issue of Townhall Magazine, where this column originally appeared, RedState director Bryan Pruitt makes the case for why it's far past time for Arizona Republicans to find a real conservative to represent their state.

It seems that you can’t go a day lately without Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) appearing on television advocating the United States invade another country. On a recent particularly snarky appearance, when asked to name one country we absolutely shouldn’t invade no matter what the circumstance, an answer eluded him. Not even Canada, really?

Now of course, the context for the conversation was the Middle East, but it is illustrative of his worldview that he was left speechless when introduced to the idea of not using our military might. He would never think of such a thing.

The good senator may be a war hero, but even heroes sometimes lose their way when they have spent decades basking in the glow of their own heroism. It seems the senator didn’t learn the many lessons of that war, or the two in our most recent past. If left to his own devises, the sun would never set on John McCain’s American Empire. That was once said about Great Britain, and we see how well that turned out. But I guess those royals sure are fun to keep track of in the tabloids.

Conservatives encounter the world as it is, and take as fact that we cannot create mini-Americas around the globe with brute force. Our military strength is valuable, and as such, should be reserved and only deployed strategically when absolutely necessary. It is called the Department of Defense for a reason, not the Department of Attempt to Create a Perfect World.

Has McCain even spoken to many troops lately? These courageous men and women are ready to come home, recuperate, and prepare for the next battle that will face us someday down the road. There will be another challenge, most likely bigger than we now imagine. We need a military ready to do its job, not weighed down by never-ending peacekeeping and democracy-building missions in countries whose people never wanted us there in the first place.

Defense spending is not far behind, and this is where many Republicans, led by the Pied Piper senior senator from Arizona and his friends, tend to lose their way. The simple fact is that our fighting force can be the strongest, most agile in the world without bankrupting our children’s children. Too many Republican lawmakers, wooed by maintaining outdated military bases that guarantee government jobs and reliable voters, try to equate rightsizing defense spending with a weaker military. The two are not one and the same.