Free Republic

Four consecutive bipartisan defense strategy commissions have looked “under the hood” of America’s armed forces and all issued dire warnings. The Department of Defense is out-matched for the united threats it faces. This is reinforced by the report from the National Defense Strategy Commission, which opens with a sobering declaration: “The Commission finds that the U.S. military lacks both the capabilities and the capacity required to be confident it can deter and prevail in combat.” The report paints a stark picture of the global security environment, noting the threats the United States faces are “…the most serious and challenging the...

Democrats are preparing next year to lift the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on gays in the military, an uneasy culture-war compromise instituted under the last Democratic administration, should Sen. Barack Obama win the presidency. Rep. Ellen Tauscher, the Walnut Creek Democrat, said a hearing Wednesday by a House Armed Services subcommittee is aimed at educating Congress and the public in preparation for a full-scale push to end the policy, first imposed in 1993 under President Bill Clinton, in the next Congress. By then, Democrats expect to have won the White House and to have expanded their House and Senate...