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They risked everything for it, not for some idea or abstraction but for the piece of fabric itself. The American flag’s place in our culture is beginning to look less unassailable. The symbol itself is under attack, as we’ve seen with Nike dumping a shoe design featuring an early American flag, Megan Rapinoe defending her national-anthem protests (she says she will never sing the song again), and protesters storming an ICE facility in Aurora, Colo., and replacing the U.S. flag with a Mexican flag. U.S. soccer had a pretty good statement a while back setting out, in response to Rapinoe,...

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The WhatsApp group would eventually lead to formal allegations that Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher fatally stabbed a wounded Islamic State captive in his care and shot civilians in Iraq in 2017. Gallagher, 40, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. A jury of mostly combat Marines will ultimately decide the fate of the 19-year-veteran and Bronze Star recipient charged with murder, attempted murder and conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline for posing with the corpse for photographs. No matter the outcome, the court-martial at Naval Base San Diego has provided a rare view into the insular Navy SEAL...

A San Francisco-based federal appeals court ordered a judge Friday to reconsider her ruling against President Trump’s decision to ban transgender people from the military. In a unanimous, unsigned order, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals told a federal district judge in the state of Washington to take into account executive privileges in reweighing her decision. The U.S. Supreme Court put a hold on the judge’s nationwide injunction in January, allowing the ban to take effect while the government appealed to the 9th Circuit. Friday’s decision continued that hold. Gay rights lawyers who brought the...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was right to call the world’s attention Thursday to Iran’s unprovoked attack on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman earlier in the day. Pompeo said the U.S. holds Iran responsible for this dangerous aggression – a clear warning to the mullahs who rule the Islamic Republic that the U.S. will ensure they face consequences. It would be irresponsible for the Trump administration to turn a blind eye to what Pompeo called Iran’s “blatant assault.”

The "unindicted co-conspirator" Council on American-Muslim Relations ("CAIR") and its Islamist allies are "outraged" because the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa. has invited me to give a lecture on my recent book, Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West. On May 28, CAIR's Pennsylvania leadership — namely, Jacob Bender, Timothy Welbeck, Ahmet Selim Tekelioglu — sent a letter to USAWC commandant Gen. John Kem and provost Dr. James Breckenridge urging them to revoke "the decision of the US Army War College to invite Mr. Raymond Ibrahim to deliver the prestigious 50th Annual Lecture...

Retired Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army Allen West (Screenshot) It is the day after Memorial Day and pools are open, sales are over, and those hot dogs at the baseball parks are still awfully expensive. And yes, those who we honored yesterday still lie in their final duty stations. But the question is, what shall we do for the next 364 days until the next Memorial Day? I have shared a simple theme over the past week where I have spoken. These two words come to us from a memorable film depicting the utter heroism and courage...

Charlies Daniels in Iraq in 2016. (Charlie Daniels Band Photo) In my youth, the holiday we celebrate this weekend was known as Decoration Day, which started in 1861 when a bouquet was placed on a Civil War veteran’s grave and continued as America paid homage and tribute to the men and women who paid the ultimate price in defense of America by “decorating” or placing flowers on the graves of fallen heroes. The name was changed to Memorial Day and became a federal holiday in 1971. America has lost over one million in our combined wars, and, by whatever...

China is threatening to take the trade war to the next stage: cut off rare earth metal supplies to US technology and defense industries. That’s according to a couple of Globaltimes editorials.” US faces squeeze on rare earths,” says one editorial. “US need for rare earths an ace on Beijing’s hand,” goes another. “Without a reliable domestic supply, the US must rely on rare earths from China to supply industries of strategic importance,” acknowledges Hu Weijia, author of the second editorial. “Rare earths are vital to many modern technologies and a wide array of weapon systems used by the US...

We have a good news-bad news situation on our hands when it comes to defense spending. The good news is, it’s heading in the right direction: up. The bad news is, it remains too low to fix the spending holiday that afflicted our military for years — a failure to fund that has seriously compromised our readiness levels. Budget numbers released by Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, look impressive at first glance: $622 billion for the base defense discretionary budget. That’s an increase of 2.3 percent over the last budget the House passed. Unfortunately, it’s not enough. Once...

The U.S. Air Force has deployed at least 20 missiles that could zap the military electronics of North Korea or Iran with high-power microwaves, rendering their military capabilities virtually useless without causing any fatalities, DailyMail.com has learned exclusively. Known as the Counter-Electronics High Power Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP), the missiles were built by Boeing's Phantom Works for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and tested successfully in 2012. They have not been operational until now. The microwave weapons are fitted into an air-launched cruise missile and delivered from B-52 bombers. With a range of 700 miles, they can fly...

Following an incident involving a pair of lightly armed U.S. soldiers and a squad of more heavily-armed Mexican troops in Texas earlier this month, POTUS Donald Trump announced Wednesday that in the future, American soldiers will also carry additional arms. In addition, the president opined that perhaps the Mexican troops were not really interested in securing their country’s border as they were assisting a drug cartel. “Mexico’s Soldiers recently pulled guns on our National Guard Soldiers, probably as a diversionary tactic for drug smugglers on the Border. Better not happen again! We are now sending ARMED SOLDIERS to the Border....

ST. LOUIS — Boeing is preparing to build F-15 fighter planes for the U.S. Air Force at its St. Louis County plant even though the military branch hasn’t bought the jet in over a decade. The Chicago-based company began ramping up its F-15 production line near St. Louis after the Air Force submitted a nearly $8 billion budget request last month that included eight F-15s next year and 72 in the following four years. The request came as a surprise to many since the U.S. military has moved toward stealth fighters, such as Lockheed Martin's F-35, in recent years. Prat...

While meeting with the German Minister of Defense, Ursula von der Leyen, Acting Secretary of Defense Partick Shanahan told reporters the U.S. Department of Defense is prepared to send even more troops to the southern border. “First of all, it shouldn't come as a surprise that we'll provide more support to the border,” Shanahan said. “The way I tend to frame that is: Our support is very elastic, and given the deterioration there at the border you would expect that we would provide more support.” Shanahan revealed he has not received another request for more service members from the U.S....

Donald Trump’s three-quarters-of-a-trillion-dollar defense budget request submitted to Congress last month contains a dirty secret, one that should make us all think twice about perpetual war and public support for it. The youth of America don’t want to serve in the military any more. The situation has become so dire that just to maintain America’s ground forces – the army and Marine Corps – the two services are resorting to unprecedented pay raises, bonuses and socialist trappings. And things are going to get worse. This year, for the first time ever, Americans born after 11 September 2001 will be able...

A close adviser to ex-Defense Secretary James Mattis has written a "sometimes shocking" book detailing the "complicated relationship" between Mattis and President Donald Trump, and describing how Mattis worked to block some of Trump's proposals, according to a press release obtained by NBC News ahead of the book's official distribution. Written by the secretary's former communications director, retired Navy Cmdr. Guy "Bus" Snodgrass, "Holding the Line: Inside the Pentagon With General Mattis" is scheduled for publication by Sentinel in October. The press release describes the book as "an insider's sometimes shocking account of how Defense Secretary James Mattis led the...

A federal appeals court finalized Tuesday its ruling to lift an injunction against President Trump’s transgender military ban, allowing the policy to take effect April 12 as planned. The Pentagon announced this month it will enforce a policy banning most transgender people from serving in the military starting April 12. The announcement came after courts ruled to lift all four injunctions that had been placed on the ban. But the Trump administration and transgender groups continued to fight over whether one of the injunctions remained in effect. Lawyers for transgender troops suing the administration argued the injunction was still in...

The Pentagon announced Tuesday night that a directive has been signed to implement President Trump's policy barring most transgender people from serving in the military. Under the policy, transgender people would have to serve in the gender they were assigned at birth. Service secretaries would be allowed to grant waivers on a case-by-case basis. The policy will go into effective in 30 days, according to the memo signed by acting Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist. The directive is being issued after a court last week lifted the last of the orders preventing the transgender military policy from taking effect. A...

(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Cory Booker sent out a Tweet on Saturday night that transgenders who serve in the U.S. military are heroes and that President Donald Trump’s policy of banning transgenders from the military is a national security threat. Booker’s Tweet was linked to a Tweet by the Human Rights Campaign that featured a video of transgender former service members speaking about their experiences in the military. “Transgender servicemembers are heroes, just like all other servicemembers risking their lives for their country,” Booker said in his Tweet. “President Trump’s effort to ban them doesn’t just fly in the face of...