Free Republic

Allowing North Korea to keep nuclear weapons would send a terrible message to other countries seeking to gain leverage in global politics, former U.S. national security adviser and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger warned Thursday. “If North Korea still possesses a military nuclear capability in some finite time, the impact on the proliferation of nuclear weapons might be fundamental,” Kissinger told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill. “Because if North Korea could keep its capability in the face of opposition by China and the United States, and the disapproval of the rest of the … world, other countries...

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Jim Mattis declared Monday that he was "shocked" upon his return to the Pentagon by the poor state of the U.S. military's readiness for combat. He put most of the blame on Congress for its inability to approve budgets on time or repeal a law that strictly limits defense spending. Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, Mattis said Congress has "sidelined itself from its active constitutional oversight role" by failing to deliver a steady stream of funding to pay for new weapons and other critical gear. "It has blocked new programs, prevented service growth, stalled...

From the Air Force to the Army, America's military service branches are busy preparing ambitious proposals to expand, as President Trump renews his pledge to rebuild a fighting force he says has become "depleted." "Our country will never have had a military like the military we're about to build and rebuild,” Trump said at last week’s press conference. “It won't be depleted for long." The president made rebuilding the military a centerpiece of his campaign, and sent a fresh signal of his intentions with his choice for national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster – who for months has sounded...

Three brothers who managed office information technology for members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and other lawmakers were abruptly relieved of their duties on suspicion that they accessed congressional computer networks without permission. Brothers Abid, Imran, and Jamal Awan were barred from computer networks at the House of Representatives Thursday, The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group has learned. Three members of the intelligence panel and five members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs were among the dozens of members who employed the suspects on a shared basis.

Full Senate confirmation vote to come as early as tomorrow.

Col. Timothy Wagoner has been an Air Force chaplain for 20 years, serving a denomination — the Southern Baptists — that rejects same-sex relationships. Yet here he was at the chapel he oversees, watching supportively as an airman and his male partner celebrated a civil union ceremony. “I wouldn’t miss it,” Wagoner said at the McGuire Air Force Base chapel, days later. “I don’t feel I’m compromising my beliefs … I’m supporting the community.” Wagoner didn’t officiate at the ceremony — he couldn’t go quite that far. But his very presence at the gathering was a marker of how things...

What a creative and stirring tribute to our brave men and women who have served and are serving. It will bring a tear to your eye.WVU Marching Band Armed Services Salute

The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, in a harsh attack on the Obama administration Monday, accused the president of viewing American military power as a negative force in the world, and planning to “gut” defense spending through the congressional deficit-reduction committee. “It is my suspicion that the White House and congressional Democrats” designed the supercommittee process “for one purpose: to force Republicans to choose between raising taxes or gutting defense,” said California Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, the House Armed Services Committee chairman.

I first learned of John Bernard through Diana West (“ROE Are Merely Symptom of ‘Hearts and Minds’”) and the Stars and Stripes blog entry, “Photo of dying Marine forces a difficult decision.” Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan murdered Mr. Bernard’s son, Lance Corporal Joshua Bernard. Media outlets ignored his wishes and the wishes of the Department of Defense by running a photograph of his son as he lay dying from his wounds. This initially outraged me but because our nation bombards us with insult after insult, my outrage has subsided and now I simply keep this action in mind as the...

Like pensions and insurance, defence is one of those subjects to which too many people only pay attention when things go wrong. You might think, in the light of the past decade, that this would have changed. But you would be sadly mistaken. Even today, even after Iraq, few mainstream MPs without an immediate personal or constituency interest in the subject turn up in the Commons for defence debates. Many politicians who are thoughtful about a range of domestic issues still pass by on the other side when the conversation gravitates to the military. In this they reflect the British...

God Bless Our Troops and Merry Christmas

FORT WORTH – Congresswoman Kay Granger Friday announced before a meeting of Downtown Rotary that she has launched a campaign to name one of the U.S. Navy’s new ships the USS Fort Worth in honor of the City of Fort Worth. Granger made her request in a letter to Secretary of Navy Donald Winter. The Secretary of Navy has personally selected the name of all new Navy ships since 1819 when Congress designated that responsibility to the secretary. “Fort Worth has a long history with the U.S. military as it protects America and defends freedom,” Granger said. “During the course...

WASHINGTON, April 4 (UPI) -- Republicans in the U.S. Congress have protested the removal of the phrase "war on terror" from a defense budget bill. But the Democrat who heads the Armed Services Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives has denounced their protests as a "tempest in a teapot." The Navy Times reported Tuesday that a memorandum for the staff of the House Armed Services Committee, or HASC, that was distributed last week recommended that the language in the House version of the 2008 House Defense appropriations bill ought to "avoid using colloquialisms" and should therefore eliminate the use...

In Iraq and Afghanistan, there are no holidays. Every day is a duty day. Military service always entails self-sacrifice, ranging from the loss of holidays to the rugged test of a year-long deployment away from family, to the greatest of all, one's life. Self-sacrifice is precisely why America's uniformed military personnel, their families and veterans merit special respect. I am frequently asked the question, "What can we as individual Americans do for our troops, particularly those serving overseas?" I have two answers and a recommendation. The two answers are to pray for them and to say, "Thank you," when you...

Last week I was in Atlanta , Georgia attending a conference. While I was in the airport, returning home, I heard several people behind me beginning to clap and cheer. I immediately turned around and witnessed one of the greatest act's of patriotism I have ever seen. Moving thru the terminal was a group of soldiers in their camo's, as they began heading to their gate everyone (well almost everyone) was abruptly to their feet with their hands waving and cheering. When I saw the soldiers, probably 30-40 of them, being applauded and cheered for it hit me. I'm not...

Well, just like clockwork, new Hardball talking nutcase Russ "tiny" Tice is out again and is heading to Congress: "Russ Tice, an NSA intelligence analyst fired last January in the wake of revelations about the agency’s warrantless eavesdropping program, is finally getting his chance to tell what he says are even more explosive secrets to Congress.Rice said that the Senate Armed Services Committee has invited him to testify sometime next week about “very sensitive programs and operations at NSA and DoD (Department of Defense) that likely have violated the law and the constitution.” The ultra-secret NSA operations are called special...

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the 9-11 Commission), an independent, bipartisan commission created by congressional legislation...is chartered to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, including preparedness for and the immediate response to the attacks...

This is a vanity post, but trust me, a well sourced one. (I'm an old network newsie and have about 8 more good sources on this than Rather had for his typeface fiasco.) Here are the details: A SF SGT E-5, James Stewart, will be buried in St. Petersburg, Florida on July 4, 2005. It's wholly appropriate that he be buried on our nation's birthday, because Sergeant Stewart gave his life for our country.... and all of us. He was killed in Iraq by a roadside bomb, call an IED in MilSpeak. IED is short for "Improvised Explosive Device." It...

During his speech at Fort Bragg Tuesday night, President Bush urged young Americans to consider a career in the military, saying "there is no higher calling than service in our Armed Forces." But if Senator Hillary Clinton has her way, it's going to be even harder for the military to meet its recruitment goals. In a statement posted to her official Senate web site, Clinton blasts the Pentagon for "infringing on the privacy of high school students" by trying to find out if any of them might be good candidates for voluntary military service. In an apparent blast at the...

America's military bases are under siege by an army of financial predators known as "payday lenders." Legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives, H.R. 97, called The Service Members Anti-Predatory Lending Protection Act, would protect our military from these fiscal parasites by capping outrageous interest rates. Unfortunately only a handful in Congress take the threat seriously. You'll find payday lenders in storefront offices and check-cashing outlets up and down East 22nd Street in Tucson right outside Davis-Monahan Air Force Base. They line the highways near the big Navy bases in Norfolk and Hampton, Va. And they surround the Camp Pendleton...