Free Republic

On 19 October, about 4 p.m. in Enos, Oklahoma, Michelle Slaughter was attacked by a pack of five large dogs. She was bitten repeatedly. The dogs refused to stop the attack until an armed neighbor shot one of the attacking dogs. Then the other four dogs ran off. The dogs had escaped from their pen. The owner, a firefighter, was in the northwestern part of the state, battling a wildfire. From kxii.com: Otis Arnold was on his way home from work, and stopped to help right after one of the dogs, a Belgian Milnois, was shot and killed by...

Against the backdrop of an upcoming presidential meeting with Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Discovery Institute’s Stephen Meyer has a striking proposal. Writing with Arthur Herman in the Wall Street Journal, he concisely argues for a cheap and technologically very attainable alternative to waiting passively to see what comes of North Korea’s growing ICBM collection.Yes, this is Steve Meyer of Darwin’s Doubt and Signature in the Cell fame. Herman and Meyer argue for the use of drones to intercept missiles at boost phase: Our existing ground-based missile-defense systems are designed to intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles during the later phases of flight....

It seems not have occurred to the viewers of CNN, to Anderson Cooper and to the endless guest commentators who form the anti-Trump media that, if they are successful in paralyzing this presidency via some form of legal jeopardy, their own lives could be imperiled. They appear utterly convinced that Trump must be stopped for a myriad of reasons but especially before he can order a preemptive strike on North Korea. Yet it seems that their abject hatred for Trump has blinded them from seeing that we are rapidly moving toward a new Cuban Missile crisis where, in addition...

Secretary of Defense James Mattis dispelled reports Tuesday that he was apprehensive about working with President Trump’s incoming National Security Advisor John Bolton. "I'll tell you right up front, it's going to be a partnership, we are going to go forward," Mattis told reporters during a news conference at the Pentagon. When asked about his differing world views with Bolton, Mattis responded, "I hope that there's some different world views. That's the normal thing you want unless you want group think." Mattis acknowledged that the two hadn’t met yet but said Bolton was coming to the Pentagon later this week...

President Trump tweeted something very suggestive this morning, indicating that he may use the powers of the executive to work around the $1.3 trillion abomination’s limitations on the border wall: Because of the $700 & $716 Billion Dollars gotten to rebuild our Military, many jobs are created and our Military is again rich. Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 25, 2018 “Build WALL through M” sounds like a plan that John Salisbury outlined in a...

On the Internet, and in print, many people claim that pistols lack efficacy in defending against bear attacks. Here is an example that occurred on freerepublic.com: “Actually, there are legions of people who have been badly mauled after using a handgun on a bear. Even some of the vaunted magnums.” OK, give us a few examples. As you claim “legions”, it should not be too hard. I never received a response. I believe the claim was made in good faith. There has been much conjecture about the lack of efficacy of pistols for defense against bears. A little searching...

My uncle John is a retired Los Angeles police officer. He doesn’t like to talk about it, but if I buy him enough drinks, he’ll tell how he captured an armed bad guy on the streets of LA, although my uncle was off-duty and unarmed.The story involves car chases, foot chases, and a shotgun—and the guy holding it wasn’t my uncle. Fortunately, everything worked out that day, and a dangerous criminal was off the streets because my uncle risked his life—off the clock. I think about my Uncle John every time I read an all-too-frequent report like this one: “The...

Why are we not looking to our military for strategies on how to defend our schools? They are the ones who have the training - no one else does. Shouldn't our focus be on the defense of our schools? How many military personnel have been on TV to be interviewed? None. Some areas to be assessed: 1) location 2) building lay-out 3) who has access (list of problem individuals) 3) personnel available to look, listen, report 4) response to an invasion Every school community has a large pool of willing individual volunteers who could give some hours to patrol each...

In a recent rampage school shooting in Benton, Kentucky, a 15-year-old boy killed two classmates and wounded 14 others. One student said that the worst part was hiding and waiting 45 minutes before the police appeared. This illustrates the problem of relying on centralized police to handle rampage shootings.  A Sheriff's Department School Resource Officer was at the school at the time. It is unclear what effect the School Resource Officer had on the shooting, if any. The shooter was taken into custody without a struggle. Senator Steve West, (R) SD-027, of Kentucky, has introduced the same bill he introduced...

Supersonic Round Features 100-Mile Range The Department of Defense recently announced plans to test-fire a hypervelocity projectile or HVP that will reach speeds of Mach 6 (4,600 mph) with the ability to hit targets up to 100 miles away. In development for more than a decade, it was initially developed for use with the infamous railgun. However, with that weapon system facing cost and application issues, the new HVP could be fired from 155 mm howitzers or the deck guns found on Navy destroyers and cruisers. Described as a defensive weapon, some analysts think it could be a low-cost alternative...

Presidential Memorandum on the Delegation of Certain Functions and Authorities under Section 1238 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 Issued on: February 5, 2018 MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE SUBJECT: Delegation of Certain Functions and Authorities under Section 1238 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 301 of title 3, United States Code, I hereby delegate...

Anyone over the age of 30 has lived through a rather profound shift in federal priorities. A half-century ago, defense accounted for 45 percent of federal outlays at $405 billion. Medicare and health, combining for $45 billion, constituted five percent of the budget. Granted, the budget disparity occurred at the peak of the Vietnam War. But a review of federal budgets during non-war postwar years generally shows defense dwarfing health-related expenses. The entity eating up the largest portion of the federal budget remains the well-fed Department of Health and Human Services, which devours roughly $1.1 trillion. Social Security ($1 trillion),...

The Pentagon’s new defense strategy calls for aggressive steps to counter Russia and China, directing the military to retrain its attention on great-power competition after nearly two decades of focusing primarily on Islamist militants and "rogue" nations. The Obama-era Quadrennial Defense Review called for “preserving strategic stability” with Moscow and Beijing and took a rosier view of the prospects for further nuclear arms reductions in partnership with Russia. Now, the new document asserts in blunt language, both Russia and China must be the U.S. armed forces’ "principal priorities." “The erosion of our military advantage is the problem that the strategy...

Islamabad, Jan 10: Pakistan has suspended all intelligence and defence cooperation with the United States (US), said its defence minister Engineer Khurram Dastgir Khan on Tuesday, reported The News International. The Pakistan minister came down heavily on the US for questioning Islamabad’s role in bringing peace in Afghanistan and said the suspension of military aid by the US has no importance.“US military aid suspension to Pakistan has no importance. At the same time, strategic dialogue between the two countries has also faced suspension for last two years. High-level dialogues with the US would not work until resumption and consistency in...

....Justice Department has made clear its proposed ban on transgender military recruits is on hold, meaning their enlistment can start Monday. ...Justice Department isn’t dropping its court fight to institute the ban on transgender enlistment but said Friday it would wait for a Pentagon study... ...Pentagon said then that it would allow transgender enlistment to start...

“America First” is officially all grown up. President Donald Trump unveils his National Security Strategy (NSS) today in a big set-piece speech at the Reagan Center. There is a lively debate about the utility of these documents among experts and I am squarely on the side of those who argue that they provide an important window into the thinking of an administration. As I explain below, such windows may be especially important for this administration and so this is a document worth studying. Such deeper reflection may change my assessment, but I have a more-positive-than-expected reaction, however, as reflected in...

“No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.” ~ Article I, Section 9, Clause 7, The US Constitution On July 26, 2016, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued a report “Army General Fund Adjustments Not Adequately Documented or Supported”. The report indicates that for fiscal year 2015 the Army failed to provide adequate support for $6.5 trillion in journal voucher adjustments. According to the GAO's Comptroller General, "Journal...

Thirty-three minutes. That’s all the time we’d have to respond to an incoming intercontinental ballistic missile from anywhere in the world. Roughly half an hour to avert disaster – if we’re lucky. Sure, that isn’t the most cheerful thought to entertain, especially at Christmas time. But with all the saber-rattling coming from North Korea these days, not to mention other global hotspots, we don’t have the luxury to pretend this threat doesn’t exist. A successful nuclear strike would carry an unthinkable toll. The bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945 had an explosive yield of 15 kilotons of...

Pentagon to boost U.S. weapons under nuclear posture review Russia is aggressively building up its nuclear forces and is expected to deploy a total force of 8,000 warheads by 2026 along with modernizing deep underground bunkers, according to Pentagon officials. The 8,000 warheads will include both large strategic warheads and thousands of new low-yield and very low-yield warheads to circumvent arms treaty limits and support Moscow's new doctrine of using nuclear arms early in any conflict. In addition to expanding its warheads, Russia also is fortifying underground facilities for command and control during a nuclear conflict. One official said the...

New Delhi -- The reach of a weapon possessed dictate the size of a nation's "area of influence". Every country also attempts to acquire technologies and weaponry to keep pace with its "area of interest" in pursuance of the larger national aim. And the effort of matching the "area of interest" with the "area of influence" is considered as balanced growth in military modernization. The great visionaries of Indian Defence Forces along with the scientific fraternity, fully supported by the Government, have constantly been making efforts to remain prepared to march ahead with the growing national ambitions. The Indian Air...