Defense- and Homeland Security-related spending came back into the news this week, as Maine companies jockeyed to capture a piece of the billions spent each year on safeguarding the nation.

Early Monday, Adm. Jay Cohen, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's undersecretary for science and technology, met with 18 Maine manufacturers with products to sell during a visit at the University of Maine.

In the afternoon, members of Maine's Congressional delegation announced that the Navy had decided to purchase a third Zumwalt-class destroyer after all and that the $2.6 billion vessel would be built at Bath Iron Works.

Almost always, stories like these are framed primarily as being about money. The national security aspect of these decisions usually is a subplot to the question of how many dollars and jobs will be coming to the local area.

This election year, though, money and national security are intersecting in an interesting way.

Americans tell pollsters that the economy is their chief concern, but geopolitical events are pretty close to the surface too, with the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan; the ever-present threat of terrorist attack within the United States, a shooting war between Russia and Georgia, and potential threats such as the growth of China on the world stage and North Korea's effort to acquire nuclear weapons.

Already, protesters are trying to drum up opposition to events such as the air show coming up next month at Brunswick Naval Air Station, even as local chambers of commerce and merchants will be talking about all the money such events bring into the area.

Academics are producing reports about whether defense-related spending is really the best use of the nation's funds.

All this is a worthy part of the discussion that needs to occur before voters select the next president and Congress. But let's hope that there's also some discussion about what the country really needs to defend itself, amid all the crowing about job creation and complaining about the military industrial complex.

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