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Address To The Graduating Class Of The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York - March 6, 1974 Since I am a fiction writer, let us start with a short short story. Suppose that you are an astronaut whose spaceship gets out of control and crashes on an unknown planet. When you regain consciousness and find that you are not hurt badly, the first three questions in or mind would be: Where am I? How can I discover it? What should I do? You see unfamiliar vegetation outside, and there is air to breathe; the sunlight seems paler...

"The international order we seek is one that can resolve the challenges of our times,'" he said in prepared remarks. "Countering violent extremism and insurgency; stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and securing nuclear materials; combating a changing climate and sustaining global growth; helping countries feed themselves and care for their sick; preventing conflict and healing its wounds." "Yes, we are clear-eyed about the shortfalls of our international system. But America has not succeeded by stepping outside the currents of international cooperation," he said. "We have succeeded by steering those currents in the direction of liberty and justice -- so...

BREAKING: President Obama will replace his Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, POLITICO has confirmed. "We expect Admiral Blair to offer his resignation tomorrow," an official said. "We have been interviewing several strong candidates to be his replacement. "

The nation's top intelligence officer, director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, announced his resignation Thursday after months of friction and repeated duels with White House officials. WASHINGTON — The nation's top intelligence officer, director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, announced his resignation Thursday after months of friction and repeated duels with White House officials. The retired Navy admiral gave no reason for his departure in his public statement, nor did he express thanks to President Obama for the opportunity to serve in his administration. A U.S. official indicated Obama had asked Blair to resign, saying a job search was well...

The U.S. Air Force is looking to align its work with “a new National Security Strategy, the Department of Defense Quadrennial Defense Review, and strategic reviews of the Nation’s space, nuclear and ballistic missile defense postures,” according to testimony presented to the Senate Committee on Appropriations. During a hearing earlier this week, Michael B. Donley, Secretary of the Air Force, and General Norton A. Schwartz, Chief of Staff, testified before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense on the Air Force’s FY2011 Budget. The budget, a proposed $119.6 billion, is spread out between meeting the current and future needs of the...

This weekend, the secretary of defense called for additional spending cuts to keep the defense budget flat for the future. But flat budgets aren’t always smart budgets — or even an effective way to cut waste. The defense budget doesn’t need simple cuts. It needs true reform. The Heritage Foundation has long argued that internal defense-budget imbalances continue to threaten the modernization of America’s military equipment. Real reform — beyond weapons system cuts — must be enacted to funnel money back to this priority. Unfortunately, Sec. Robert Gates continues to let the defense tail wag the foreign-policy dog. His Kansas...

The 53 hours from the primed-to-explode Nissan Pathfinder in Times Square to the nick-of-time arrest of Faisal Shahzad underlined the single undeniable truth of 21st-century terrorism. The best defense against a terrorist attack is not the CIA, the FBI, Predator drones or Jack Bauer, but the New York Police Department. The FBI lost Shahzad on his way to Kennedy International Airport on Monday night and his name on the do-not-fly list failed to prevent him from initially boarding an Emirates jet to Dubai. But from the moment a street vendor alerted a mounted police officer in Times Square about white...

(CNN) -- In the hours following the Times Square car-bombing attempt, some in the media -- as well as some public officials -- insisted we shouldn't rush to judgment about the identity or motives of the person responsible for the failed attack. He could be, they insisted, just a homegrown nut job.

At this point, the Department of Homeland Security might want to reconsider the proposition that veterans, gun rights activists and people upset about illegal immigration pose the greatest threat of domestic terrorism. A DHS intelligence assessment released to law enforcement agencies last year warned that right-wing extremist groups were advancing their recruitment efforts among such crowds. Not that white supremacists and militia goons don't deserve close scrutiny. Given their rhetoric and propensity for violence, it would be foolish not to keep a wary eye on them. But it would be even more foolish if you were a president or a...

WASHINGTON, May 5, 2010 – The Pentagon’s top policy official told Congress today she’s “cautiously optimistic” about progress in Afghanistan as the new strategy there begins to show signs of success. “I believe we are achieving success. We are on the right road for the first time in a long time in Afghanistan,” Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy told the House Armed Services Committee. “I would argue for the first time, we finally have the right mission, the right strategy, the right leadership team in place. And we have marshaled both the international and Afghan resources, civilian and...

OBAMA NATIONAL SECURITY POLICY: HOPE THEIR BOMBS DON'T WORKMay 5, 2010 It took Faisal Shahzad trying to set a car bomb in Times Square to get President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to finally use the word "terrorism." (And not referring to Tea Party activists!) This is a major policy shift for a president who spent a month telling Americans not to "jump to conclusions" after Army doctor Nidal Malik Hasan reportedly jumped on a desk, shouted "Allahu Akbar!" and began shooting up Fort Hood. After last weekend, now Obama is even threatening...

The White House is moving closer to finishing a sweeping review of U.S. development strategy that aims to put development on par with diplomacy and defense as a "central pillar" of U.S. national security, according to sources familiar with the issue. The Cable has obtained a draft copy (pdf) of the review, which is titled "A New Way Forward on Global Development" and is known internally as the Presidential Study Directive on Global Development or PSD-7. "The Obama Administration recognizes that the successful pursuit of development is essential to our security, prosperity, and values," the draft document reads. It promises...

The Gates’ Pentagon will make significant changes to the language used in its National Security Strategy, dropping: the controversial concept of preemptive attack, also known as preventive force; the idea of a “war” on terror; and the identification of Islamists as the root of terror. An NSS is always one of the most important defense policy documents of any administration is its National Security Strategy. While it may not guide every action, an NSS — required by the Goldwater-Nichols law — serves as a template, a broad statement of how and why an administration will go to war and what...

The U.S. Army has commissioned a study that concluded conventional ground forces would be required to battle the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah. The Rand Corp. has relayed a study to the U.S. Army that analyzed Israel's 2006 war with Hizbullah. The report, titled "Military Capabilities for Hybrid War," concluded that Israel's air combat strategy against Hizbullah was flawed and that infantry and armor would be required to fight the Lebanese-based militia, trained by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. "Finally, heavy forces — based on tanks and infantry fighting vehicles — are key elements of any force that will fight sophisticated irregular opponents,...

President Obama's push for health care raised more than a few hackles, including the ire of 19 state attorneys general. "On behalf of the residents in Florida, and the states joining our efforts," declared Bill McCollum, who is spearheading one of the lawsuits, "we are committed to aggressively pursuing this lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary to prevent this unprecedented expansion of federal powers, impact upon state sovereignty and encroachment on our freedom." Questioning the constitutionality of Obamacare raises another question: Is flouting the law a pattern for how the president plans to govern? By law, the Pentagon...

The U.S. Army and the Comedy Channel – which broadcasts the cartoon “South Park” -- share a common fear: alienating Muslims. And, giving in to that fear, last week both exorcised views that threatened to alienate Muslims. Those actions empowered Islamic radicals, trampled freedom of speech and ignored legitimate criticism of Islam that endangers American security. The Army rescinded an invitation for Christian evangelist Franklin Graham to speak at a Pentagon National Day of Prayer event. That decision was a reaction to criticism from groups like the Council of American-Islamic Relations that complained Graham “calls Islam evil and claims Muslims...

The signs all point to an imminent release of President Obama's National Security Strategy. The administration has prepped the battlefield with a flurry of puff pieces fed by exclusives and on-the-record quotes about the administration's strategic dexterity (see here, here, here, here and here. The high-profile events of the past few weeks -- an arms control treaty signing and a mega-summit on nuclear proliferation -- nicely tee-up the roll-out of a Big Think Piece. And not a moment too soon. The National Security Strategy is technically overdue (under the provisions of the Goldwater-Nichols Act, it was supposed to be handed...

Speaking of Jim Jones, President Obama’s national security adviser, his speech to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy last night also offered an early glimpse of the administration’s long-awaited National Security Strategy. (I hear it’s going to actually come out the week after next, but the broad contours have been in place for a while.) Longtime Obama-watchers won’t really find it surprising to hear what Jones outlined: "In the coming weeks, we’ll be releasing a new National Security Strategy that formalizes the President’s approach—an approach that is rooted in and guided by our national security interests. These interests are...

Gates Says U.S. Lacks Policy to Curb Iran’s Nuclear Drive By DAVID E. SANGER and THOM SHANKER April 17, 2010 WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has warned in a secret three-page memorandum to top White House officials that the United States does not have an effective long-range policy for dealing with Iran’s steady progress toward nuclear capability, according to government officials familiar with the document. Several officials said the highly classified analysis, written in January to President Obama’s national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones, came in the midst of an intensifying effort inside the Pentagon, the White...

Gates Says U.S. Lacks Strategy to Curb Iran’s Nuclear Drive By DAVID E. SANGER and THOM SHANKER WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has warned in a secret three-page memorandum to top White House officials that the United States does not have an effective long-range policy for dealing with Iran’s steady progress toward nuclear capability, according to government officials familiar with the document. Several officials said the highly classified analysis, written in January to President Obama’s national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones, touched off an intense effort inside the Pentagon, the White House and the intelligence agencies to...