Free Republic

Marco Rubio slammed Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin for arriving in the Philippines wearing both a mask and a face shield despite being fully vaccinated, calling it “embarrassing COVID theatre.” "Our @SecDef is vaccinated But he arrives in the Philippines wearing a mask AND a face shield Embarrassing COVID theatre" With a face shield on top of a mask, how do they even know it’s him??? Seriously, you’d think we were back in March of 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic the way he looks. Rubio, of course, is right. If the vaccine is effective then what’s the point...

Rookie cornerback Cameron Kinley has been granted his request to play in the NFL for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced Tuesday. Austin announced in a statement that he approved a plan by the Department of the Navy to enlist Kinley in the Inactive Ready Reserve "for the duration of his football career." The news comes after Kinley's request to delay his Navy commission to play in the NFL had initially been denied. "Upon completion of his playing time, we look forward to welcoming him back inside the ranks as a naval officer," Austin said in...

Sec. of Defense James Mattis, known for his frank quotes about the realities of war, offered up a line befitting his nickname, “Mad Dog,” during an interview airing Sunday. “What keeps you awake at night?” CBS “Face the Nation” host John Dickerson asked Mattis. “Nothing,” a stonefaced Mattis responded. “I keep other people awake at night.” WATCH: (Video) Mattis’ remark is sure to join a long list of the former Marine general’s most memorable quotes. “When you men get home and face an anti-war protester, look at him in the eyes and shake his hand. Then, wink at his girlfriend

Current law says no one can serve as Secretary of Defense if he has served in the military at any time in the past seven years When even Trump-hater David French loves the choice, there must be something awfully special about Defense Secretary designee James Mattis: He is clear about the Iranian threat, has worked closely with Israel, and has served as the supreme allied commander of transformation for NATO and the chief of Central Command. In other words, few men have been as closely involved in American military planning and war fighting as Mattis. His speeches and statements are...

America knows Gen. James Mattis as a character, Mad Dog Mattis, the font of funny quotes and Chuck Norris-caliber memes. Those of us who served with him know that he is a caring, erudite, warfighting general. We also know that there is a reason he uses the call-sign Chaos: he is a lifelong student of his profession, a devotee of maneuver warfare and Sun Tzu, the sort of guy who wants to win without fighting—to cause chaos among those he would oppose.

Jim Webb is, at least in a nominal sense, a Democrat. Last year, he briefly pursued the Democratic nomination for president, a run best remembered for his joke about killing the Vietnamese soldier who threw a grenade at him. Now Webb is singing Donald Trump’s praises, and may have his eye on a cabinet job. “I would like to salute Donald Trump for his tenacity and for the uniqueness of his campaign,” Webb during a speech to a hundred or so attendees at a foreign policy symposium in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday. To hear Webb tell it, in fact, he...

Women who pass SEAL training will likely be able to participate in the same military missions as their male counterparts, beginning in 2016. The U.S. Naval Special Warfare Command put out a report saying the physical standards currently demanded of SEAL trainees should not be lowered, but that women who meet these standards ought to be given the chance to head into combat, Fox News reported. The study will likely press Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to advance the cause for women in combat, with the effective date of January 2016, Fox said. Carter has opened up 20,000 new positions to...

Several senators returning in 2015, among them Diane Feinstein, John McCain and Joe Manchin, have already announced that they support President Barack Obama's nomination of Dr. Ashton Carter for secretary of defense. Sen. Feinstein welcomed "Dr. Ash Carter's nomination" and urged her colleagues to "move his nomination" expeditiously. Sen. Manchin, noting he "enjoys credibility" with Congress, added a caveat: Carter "will face hard questions ... about the military and security policies our government should pursue." "Should pursue" suggests to me that Manchin may harbor doubts regarding the wisdom of current Obama administration policies. Sen. McCain, who in January becomes chairman...

President Obama on Friday announced former Pentagon official Ashton Carter as his choice to lead the Defense Department, calling him one of America's top national security leaders who has a "relentless dedication to our armed services." The president's selection of Carter, 60, who was deputy defense secretary from October 2011 to December 2013, was widely rumored but not confirmed by the White House until now. If confirmed by the Senate, Carter would be Obama's fourth Pentagon chief in his roughly six-year administration.

Editor's Note: This column was coauthored by Bob Morrison. Nearly two years ago, these writers urged President Obama to “Chuck Hagel.” Today, it seems, the hapless Secretary of Defense is on his way out. We wish him no ill. And we certainly don’t rejoice in his forced resignation. The timing of his dismissal could hardly be worse. It comes on the eve of another “deadline” in our dealings with an Iran bent on acquiring nuclear weapons. Secretary Hagel never overcame his stumbling debut. A recent poll of national security personnel gave him an abysmal 26% approval rating. And while we...

James R. Schlesinger, a Republican economist who advanced rapidly to some of the highest positions of government power in the 1970s but whose abrasive leadership style led to conflicts with presidents, bureaucrats and the American public, died March 27 at a hospital in Baltimore. He was 85... Mr. Schlesinger specialized in the economics of national security, which helped propel his rise during the Cold War from academia to influential jobs in the federal government, including CIA director, secretary of defense and the nation’s first secretary of energy...

Former White House officials on Wednesday rushed to defend President Obama against scathing criticism from former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. In his new memoir, Gates wrote the president did not believe in his own strategy in Afghanistan, and that for him, it was “all about getting out.” Former White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley said Gates shouldn’t have released his memoir while the war in Afghanistan is still being fought. “It’s one thing as historians look back on an administration, but in the middle of it, when you’re pursuing a war at the same time, and one that...

The Senate is embroiled in another dog fight this week. For the first time in American history, it appears we will have a filibuster of a Presidential nominee for Secretary of Defense. The full Senate is expected to vote on the nomination of Chuck Hagel this Friday. Democrats are claiming to have enough votes to confirm Hagel, but Republicans are planning to block the vote with a filibuster. The filibuster is being led by Republican Senator James Inhofe from Oklahoma and is supported by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina along with other Republican senators. Republicans have raised serious...

Washington continues to talk, but only talk, about the danger of Bashar al-Assad's increasingly desperate regime in Syria distributing its arsenal of high-tech or even nuclear weapons to terrorists throughout the Mideast. Meanwhile, the Israelis continue to act. Five years ago, they took out a nuclear reactor the Syrians were building without seeing any need to noise it about, realizing that action speaks louder than words -- and that much of the world, especially the Bush administration back then, would discreetly approve. This time the Israelis aren't saying anything official about what seems to have happened to a convoy of...

I subscribe to the general theory that a President - Republican or Democrat should be able to have the people running his Departments, Commissions and Agencies that he wants. Unless there is some overriding disqualifying reason to reject him or her, the Senate should abide by the terms of Article II, Section 2 that says the President, "shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint … Officers of the United States." The nomination of Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense is an excellent case in point. I may not agree with Hagel...

It should be interesting, the confirmation hearings on the nomination of Charles Hagel to be the next secretary of defense of the United States. . . A lot more interesting than the hearings on John Kerry's nomination as secretary of state or John Brennan's nomination as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. There may have been a time when those nominations were supposed to be controversial, but compared to the choice of Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense, both look like cinches to sail through the confirmation process. . . Mr. Hagel's qualifications to head the Defense Department begin with...

We’ve spent plenty of time covering the litany of complaints being raised against Chuck Hagel’s nomination for SecDef based on various policy positions he’s taken or past comments he’s made. But now a different and less discussed – though already well known – aspect of his past is bubbling back to the surface. During the round of Sunday morning shows, Senator Bob Corker weighed in, asking whether Hagel has the proper temperament for an upper level management position. Raising concerns about former Sen. Chuck Hagel’s nomination as defense secretary, Sen. Bob Corker said Sunday the former Nebraska senator’s temperament should...

Editor's Note: This column was co-authored by Bob Morrison. President Obama’s choice of former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel for Sec. of Defense is a dangerous choice that telegraphs weakness toward Iran. In the Senate, Mr. Hagel compiled a worrisome record toward the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism. It is Iran that backs Hezbollah in Lebanon. We haven’t heard much about the Cedar Revolution in that war-torn country. That’s because Hezbollah murdered the democratic leaders for reform. Iran is behind Hamas in Gaza. Hamas defeated the corrupt regime of Mahmoud Abbas in elections in Gaza that soon degenerated into civil war....

Barack Obama, we have been told by his admirers on the left and right, is an instinctive centrist, a moderate always ready to negotiate compromises, a politician deeply interested in the nuances of public policy. His image as a centrist took hold at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, where he gave a speech hailing not the blue states or the red states but the United States of America. But over the course of Obama's first term, this analysis increasingly sounded like wishful thinking. And never more than during the past week, with the nomination of Chuck Hagel to be secretary...