Next Tuesday, the contenders for the GOP presidential nomination will square off in another debate, this time focused on foreign policy. If the last few months are any guide, at least one of those debaters will argue that if America just withdrew its military and stopped taunting other countries, then peace would be more likely. Take Iran, for example (as one candidate has), which recently attempted to carry out a targeted bombing in Washington, D.C.: What about just “offering friendship to them” instead of trying to keep them from acquiring …
In this week’s Heritage in Focus, former Attorney General Ed Meese and graduate fellow Marion Smith discuss the Constitution and providing for the common defense. Click here to listen. Were the Founders isolationists, who believed in non-interventionism? What relevance does their understanding of providing for defense have today? And what are the proper roles of each branch of government during times of war? Listen to answers to those questions and more! To get regular updates on Heritage in Focus podcasts, visit our RSS feed or subscribe on iTunes. To listen …
Progressive Presidents love war in the shadows. During World War I, Woodrow Wilson wanted to spy on all Americans. FDR created the OSS during World War II under “Wild” Bill Donovan. Both JFK and Lyndon Johnson set records for numbers of covert operations under the CIA. The attraction is obvious. On the one hand, they can spout “we are the world” rhetoric. On the other, they can play at war with operations that lack transparency and accountability—where failures can be swept under the rug away from the media glare and, …
Catching you up on clips, commentary and news of the day. Sign up for the daily email update from Scribe. What would the founders do about welfare? – David Weinberger Law of Sea Treaty Could Cost U.S. Trillions – Steven Groves Obama’s Soft Socialism Herarlds a Gutless New World – Brian Darling Obama’s Medicare plan is an open secret – Robert E. Moffit Man Without a Plan: Obama’s Short-Sighted View of U.S. Politics – Michael Kazin Freedom as a Bargaining Chip? – Tom Messner & Kathryn Jean Lopez Lies, Damned Lies …
The Washington Post reports today that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, U.S. commander in Afghanistan, apologized for an upcoming article in Rolling Stone magazine that portrays him and senior officials on his team as dismissive of top Obama administration officials. As a result, General McChrystal has been summoned to the White House to explain his comments. It is a case of poor judgment on the part of the general and his staff to air comments on the character of senior civilian leaders to a reporter, but both the White House and the …
This weekend, President Obama will skip Memorial Day services at Arlington National Cemetery, and instead he will take his family to Chicago for rest and relaxation. The gesture has rankled many on the right and caused the left to swing into full ‘defend Obama’ mode. However, the fact remains that during a time of war, it is extraordinary that the Commander in Chief of our Armed Forces would choose not to be at Arlington on this solemn occasion. First, it must be said that the president is not skipping out …
The United States is a maritime nation. The military is the nation’s guarantor of freedom of the seas and protector of global sea lines of communication. The military ensures the safe transit of international commerce along trade routes that allows our local grocery store and Wal-Marts shelves to remain stocked everyday. Protection of the sea lines allows all of us to use the internet at will and on demand, as well. As Heritage highlights in “The State of the U.S. Military,” this week , the U.S. Navy’s fleet today contains …
In a report titled, “Long-Term Implications of the Fiscal Year 2010 Defense Budget,” the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) points out that this year’s Department of Defense (DoD) budget will exceed the real dollar equivalent of the Pentagon’s budget at the time of the defense build-up in the 1980s. Specifically, CBO calculates that this year’s defense budget will total $664 billion, compared to roughly $500 billion in 1985 — an increase of one-third. This comparison is no surprise to Congress or the American people because the U.S. is currently fighting two …
The Pentagon’s top intelligence official this week indicated that although Iran has been developing the means to build nuclear weapons, his agency has discerned no sign that Tehran has made a final decision to do so. Lt. General Ronald Burgess, the chief of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the Voice of America in an interview that “We have not seen indication that the government has made the decision to move ahead with the program. But the fact still remains that we don’t know what we don’t know.” Given Iran’s long …
Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower once said: “Morale is the greatest single factor in successful wars.” So why did President Obama choose last night’s address to further disintegrate what morale is left in the fight in Iraq? Choosing the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York was on first blush a wise decision. These are the young men and women who will put their lives on the line, or may have already, to defend the President’s decisions. This is not the “enemy camp” as MSNBC’s Chris Matthews described …
