Extensive tests of the U.S. Navy’s Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system, designed primarily to defend our overseas troops, friends and allies, also demonstrate an inherent capability to defend the U.S. homeland from several important threats. The Pentagon, especially the U.S. Navy, should be encouraged to fully develop this inherent capability, especially in responding to a congressional mandate. Read Full Story
While the international community seems singularly focused on unrealistic diplomatic initiatives to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons, other threats and associated dangers continue. Forgotten is the President’s promised retribution for Assad’s crossing a “red line” by using these weapons while an international gabfest proceeds and Russia’s influence grows. Promises of success in the Syrian enterprise are much overstated and related dangers are being understated. And more Middle East problems may be coming, especially concerning Iran. Read Full Story
In the wake of the President’s exchanges at the G20, an off-hand comment by Secretary of State John Kerry in London and a Russian initiative, we have kicked the can on whether to attack Syria in response to Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons (this time) and have embarked on a diplomatic course apparently led by Russia. The President’s speech offered little clarity and the administration’s muddled policies continue to unfold, now in a more dangerous world than before. Read Full Story
Remember the fable about the frog that gave a scorpion a ride across the river assuming he would be safe because if the scorpion stung him they would both die? But the scorpion stung him anyway, because that was “in his nature.” There’s a bit of an analogy to the dangers of dealing with most of the states of the Middle East. Read Full Story
For years, I misquoted Churchill as saying “Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” . . . He may have, but if he did he surely would have credited Ralph Waldo Emerson who wrote a century earlier, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen, philosophers and divines” apparently to argue against too much consistency and for new thinking and self-reliance. Whatever . . . recent U.S. policies will never be criticized for being too consistent—except in their inconsistency. Read Full Story
In 1785, Robert Burns wrote To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough, which contained these famous words: “The best laid schemes of mice and men go often awry, and leave us nothing but grief and pain for promised joy!” Those words aptly describe the misplaced confidence in the Obama administration’s touted “reset” strategies on a number of fronts—and lay a challenge for new “resets” to replace them. Read Full Story
General Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s 2006 Army War College Thesis on Democracy in the Middle East is worth a read to help understand how events in Egypt may unfold. While the military’s support for the moderate faction of the Egyptian body politic that protested against Mohammed Morsi’s rule is a welcome sign, his thesis includes some troublesome statements that raise questions about the future. Read Full Story
When Benjamin Franklin exited the 1787 Constitutional Convention, he was asked what sort of government the delegates had created. His answer: “A republic, if you can keep it.” This is still our challenge today, since many seem uninformed of critical differences between a republic and a democratic government, which historically has eventually failed the nations that adopted it—as we just witnessed in Egypt. To preserve our way of life, we must return to the views of our founders, and shore up all three legs of Ronald Reagan’s stool—economic conservatives, social issue conservatives and foreign policy/defense conservatives. All three legs need help, especially our defenses because existential threats are more eminent than most realize. Read Full Story
Earlier this week as part of the EMP Coalition, I carried the High Frontier flag to The National Council of State Legislators (NCSL) Legislative Summit in Atlanta. Legislators from all over the country were in attendance. We were there especially to call attention to the initiative by Andrea Boland (D-Maine) to begin hardening the electric power grid in Maine. She led numerous panel discussions of the existential EMP threat from natural and man-made causes, and how other representatives can follow Maine’s lead as the first state in the nation to take matters into its own hands, given the failure of federal leaders “to provide for the common defense,” per the oath they swore to Constitution. The prospects look promising! Read Full Story
As is clear from a recent video, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is proud of shepherding a major expansion of Iran’s uranium enrichment programs, a decade ago while leading Iran’s negotiations with the West—consistent with the continuing objectives and policies of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. These policies call for destroying the “little Satan” Israel and the “great Satan” America. His implied approach, which many describe as “moderate,” actually promises more of the same under Khamenei, as Iran approaches—possibly within months—a uranium and/or plutonium nuclear capability. While a softer diplomatic approach from than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s bombastic pronouncements, Western leaders should expect no different bottom lines as time runs out on preventing a nuclear armed Iran. Read Full Story
We will be adding key policy briefs as we progress.