From the Right
/Politics
National Security Considerations Demand Exceptions Be Made
In a recent post discussing shifting U.S. domestic political views, John Hinderaker of Powerlineblog.com noted "that many conservatives have changed their ideology ... in response to events. Pretty much all of us grew up as doctrinaire free traders, but events since the 1980s have convinced many -- including me -- that while free trade is the ...Read more
Defended Borders Fundamental To US National Defense
It's simple, and everybody with common sense gets it. A national border isn't a line on a map. A border is a door -- a door to your nation. Your nation is your home in the broader sense of the term, especially if you respect your state and national laws.
The door to your home, in commonsense terms, means you -- the homeowner with loved ones ...Read more
Free World Air-Space Defense Must Defeat Super Fast and Very Slow
On Oct. 13, a Hezbollah-launched unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) evaded Israel's air and space defense system. The slow suicide bomb struck a troop mess hall on an Israeli base about 40 miles from the Lebanon-Israel border.
In this attack, Hezbollah launched two drones -- "wingmen," in airpower slang. Israeli defenders shot one down over the ...Read more
Helene's Appalachian Hell Another FEMA Failure?
The destruction wrought by Hurricane Helene floods in Georgia, the Carolinas and eastern Tennessee is appalling.
So are the documented complaints and shortcomings (they are more than anecdotal) that federal disaster relief responses have been slow, uncoordinated and ill-planned.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is supposed to "manage"...Read more
Time to Fix the Pentagon's Recruitment and Retention Problems
Successfully recruiting and retaining skilled uniformed military personnel is absolutely essential to America's defense.
Superior military technology matters -- witness Israel's air and space defense systems smashing Iran's Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack. However, testing, controlling, repairing and employing the hi-tech gear and weapons in ...Read more
Discrete Mass Offensive Warfare: Israel's Grim Beeper Attack
Reuters reports the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has begun inspecting all its equipment for "evidence of explosives." If accurate, that's a fascinating but understandable reaction -- scrutinizing not just communication equipment and other electronic devices but all equipment, including vehicles and, I suspect, ammunition stocks.
Why the ...Read more
The US Election's Dirty Issue: Undisciplined and Corrupted Security Agencies
The list of American security agencies stained by bureaucratic incompetence, dreadful leadership and outright political corruption just keeps getting longer.
Let's start -- but not finish -- with the erstwhile elite of the elite in the bodyguard business: the U.S. Secret Service.
On Sept. 16, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) released his "...Read more
Will the Next President Defeat Communist China's Slow War of Attrition Against the World?
How will the next president deal with communist China's slow war of attrition against the world?
The question is serious but too complicated for TV talking heads to ask presidential candidates, assuming the talking heads understand the threat is much more than a headline.
In the Sept. 10 debate, China's threat was treated as an economic ...Read more
Venezuela: Iran, Russia and China's South American Proxy?
On Sept. 2, the U.S. Department of Justice reported American agents had seized a corporate jet "owned and operated for the benefit" of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. The agents seized the French-made Dassault Falcon 900EX in the Dominican Republic and then flew it to Florida.
DOJ's website added context. Attorney General Merrick Garland ...Read more
Trump and Harris Should Debate the 2024 Quemoy and Matsu Crisis (JFK and Nixon Did in 1960)
As I write this column, the Pentagon says the U.S. has no deployed aircraft carriers -- zero -- in the western Pacific Ocean. Two Pacific carriers have moved to the Middle East. The other carriers "in the region" are in U.S. West Coast ports -- not deployed at sea. Naval News reported Aug. 25 the carrier "gap" will continue for three weeks in ...Read more
The Biden-Harris Afghanistan Bugout 3 Years On
August 2024 marks the third anniversary of the Biden-Harris administration's most consequential international policy action: the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal.
Why Biden-Harris? Vice President Kamala Harris has said on several occasions she was "in the room" -- meaning in the decision loop -- when Joe Biden ordered a withdrawal based on ...Read more
Let's Kick-start US Naval and Commercial Shipbuilding
The Pentagon is seeking short-term "fixes" for an old problem that has reached the point of crisis: the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard's warship and support vessel shortage -- their "hull deficit" in military jargon.
In a moment, I'll list four "semi-quick fix" proposals. The interim options buy time. They don't answer the interconnected ...Read more
Milley and Schmidt Consider Wars of the Future
The think piece has this compelling title: "America Isn't Ready for the Wars of the Future." Foreign Affairs published it on Aug. 5.
The noted authors: former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
Give the article this big plus: The messengers' notoriety means major media will notice. Pray the ...Read more