Unless Congress acts, March 1 will trigger a $55 billion-per-year ($43 billion in 2013, as the fiscal cliff deal delayed the cuts for two months) cut in national defense, known as sequestration, which will weaken the United States’s ability to defend itself. But this does not have to happen; Congress …
Yesterday, Islamist militants seized a foreign-owned gas field in Algeria and took dozens of Western hostages, including several Americans. This attack was allegedly in response to Algeria allowing French warplanes to transit Algerian airspace to strike militants in neighboring Mali. Even though U.S. citizens are being held at gunpoint in …
“The readiness of our Armed Forces is at a tipping point.” That’s how General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, began a letter to the Senate Armed Services Committee while discussing the Department of Defense’s (DOD) budget woes. He cites “budget conditions unfolding right now” as the …
Last month, The Heritage Foundation compared the Senate and House versions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) with Heritage’s policy positions on national security and defense. Now that the final version of the NDAA is available, it is possible to analyze which of Heritage’s national security and defense interests …
By delaying defense sequestration two months, President Obama and Congress have shown their unambiguous recognition that sequestration’s automatic and indiscriminate cuts to the U.S. military pose clear dangers to national security. However, America’s leaders must now match their recognition of this reality with the resolve required to definitively stop defense …
General Norman Schwarzkopf, the man who led U.S. troops during the first Gulf War in 1991, died at 78 years old yesterday. Schwarzkopf was residing in Tampa, Florida, the location of his last military assignment: commander of United States Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base. He died of complications …
The threat of sequestration—the half-trillion dollar cut to defense set to occur January 2, 2013—has been debated and prevention plans have been discussed since before it was even written into law. The budgetary measure was written to be so unpalatable that Congress and the Administration would have to find a …
Rumors are swirling that included in their negotiations to avert the “fiscal cliff,” President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R–OH) may add an additional $100 billion in cuts as an alternative to the roughly $500 billion in defense budget cuts over nine years required by sequestration under the Budget …
The Pentagon’s strategic shift to the Asia-Pacific has come under increasing scrutiny as conflicts continue in the Middle East, particularly in Israel. Former Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul McHale recently contributed to this debate at the annual El Pomar Conference in Colorado Springs, saying, “The Administration’s strategy fails because it …
