Less than three weeks from election day, the nation faces threats as dangerous and more diverse than September 11, 2001. This predicament can be directly traced to the misguided, reckless, and naive policies of the Obama administration.

The threat of ISIS arose from President Obama’s abandonment of Iraq. In the vacuum that his own military leadership warned him of, ISIS seized much of Iraq and moved into Syria. Americans are all too familiar now with ISIS’ barbarity in the form savage beheadings paraded over the internet. Compounded by gross negligence at the nation’s borders and immigration policies imposed by fiat from the administration that subvert the will of the people, Americans find themselves facing everything from the prospect of terrorists entering the nation illegally, to the spread of Ebola in the United States from foreign travelers.

American weakness has not gone unnoticed. Russia brazenly annexed Crimea from Ukraine earlier this year with no consequences other than superficial sanctions. China proceeds with a break-neck military build-up while denying free elections in Hong Kong and threatening its democratic neighbor Taiwan. North Korea brutally represses its people and conducts ballistic missile tests to taunt the US and its allies. And Iran, in the face of unenforced “red lines” (one drawn on Syria by Obama on the use of chemical weapons, the other by Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu on the Iranian nuclear threat), continues its nuclear program and sponsorship of terrorists, unconcerned.

All the while, Obama and his lieutenant in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, relentlessly demoralize the US military. With the 2011 sequester, they have led the shrinking of our military to force levels not seen since before World War II. America must control spending, but doing so on the backs of servicemembers who have already borne more than half of the $2 trillion in cuts mandated by the sequester breaks faith with them and threatens our security. The All-Volunteer Force has been transformed into a social-engineering laboratory with the repeal of the law on gays in the military and a headlong rush to force women into combat positions. Obama trades away terror leaders in Guantanamo for a deserting soldier, but seems unmoved by the plight of a US Marine held by Mexico, ostensibly an ally. And most outrageously, he has yet to be held accountable for the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya on the anniversary of 9/11 two years ago. Personnel on the ground as well as other sources in the region that night have said assets were either left unmobilized or delayed in assisting Americans under siege. Intolerable.

The foregoing litany demands a return to the tried-and-true Reagan policy of peace through strength. And keeping faith with our troops and remaining a constant and true partner to our allies. As voters consider their choices for the House and Senate, the following is offered as an essential list of policy positions to judge them against:

Endorsement of these prescriptions should represent a non-negotiable test for voters with growing concern about national security leading into this midterm election–no doubt driven by their extreme distaste for impotence on the world stage and the breaking of faith with our military. The dereliction of this administration will not stop unless confronted, and that will take leaders guided by American interests, not the failed policies of an unworthy Nobel Peace laureate. America can indeed achieve peace. Through strength.