Germany's the Problem

Want A Good Ally? Then Be A Good Ally, Newsday, June 4, 2017. "Trump isn’t entirely in the right in this clash. But he’s more right than wrong. His idea that trade surpluses are always good and trade deficits are always bad is wrong. In the end, trade is an exchange of goods among individuals. If our government attempts to make it harder for us to buy what we want from abroad, it’s trying to tell individual Americans what we should do with our own money. That’s wrong."

Neither Submission Nor War

Obama’s Furious Battle Against Straw Men, Newsday, May 2, 2014. "We can go well beyond his toothless sanctions on Russia without going to war. And far from loving war, Obama’s critics want to prevent it by making it clear to regimes like Russia and Iran that we will – calmly and resolutely – defend our allies and interests. By encouraging autocratic regimes to take chances, Mr. Obama actually risks encouraging wars.

Go Where The Going (Might Be) Easier

A Ground Game That Could Favor the U.S., Newsday, January 3, 2014. "As in the previous decade, freedom made little headway in 2013. Throughout that period, the United States has labored unsuccessfully to build free governments in the Middle East and Africa. In 2014, we should seek to promote freedom where the going may be easier."

A Question of National Honor

When We Leave, Friends Suffer First, Newsday, November 22, 2013. "My bottom line on U.S. foreign policy is to keep faith with our friends. Once we make a promise, we uphold it. Now, if a friend breaks faith with us, the deal is off. We're called upon to be true to our word, not to be suckers."

No Staying Power

Dictators and Despots Call Obama’s Bluff Over His War of Empty Words, Yorkshire Post, September 16, 2013. "The Russian role in the Syrian crisis is thus not the really dangerous part of the affair. The true danger lies in the fact that, once again, President Obama has shown that he has no staying power at all. He quit in Iraq, because that was supposedly the wrong war. Afghanistan was, he said, the right one. Well, we are quitting there too."

The Coming Slaughters

What About All the Other Massacres?, Newsday, September 15, 2013. "The Taliban will return, and they will take vengeance. Today, you can easily find savage videos of Taliban atrocities online. When they are back in power, they will be worse. And when they execute people for the crime of being friendly to the United States, we should remember that — as across the Middle East — we had the power to make a difference. We just chose not to use it."

Instant Response to the 2013 SOTU

Foreign Policy in Retreat, Heritage Foundation Foundry, February 12, 2013. "What was striking about Obama’s remarks was how strongly his foreign policy vision contrasted with his domestic policy prescriptions. At home, it seems that very little does not qualify as an “investment”: by his way of thinking, the government exists to start programs, spend money, tax the rich, and do things. But abroad, the government exists mostly to stop doing things."

Rapid Debate Responses

LIVE BLOG: Biden, Ryan Square Off in Vice Presidential Debate, Heritage Foundation Foundry, October 11, 2012. Instant reaction on various subjects, including Afghanistan, Libya, Iran, and the economy, raised in the debate.

Stolen Valor and the Origin of the 'Crazy Vet'

Re: The ‘Crazed Veteran’, Contentions, September 13, 2012. "The virtue of Stolen Valor is the way that it methodically and systemically uses documents obtained by Freedom of Information Act requests to reveal fraud after fraud, fake after fake, and lie after lie from supposedly traumatized veterans who in reality rarely even served in the military or saw combat at all."

What the Summit Should Have Done

At Obama-Cameron Summit, U.S. and Britain Should Take Action to Rebuild Alliance, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #3533, March 8, 2012. "The U.S. and Britain face a number of serious issues at home and abroad. But the most important need is for the U.S. to demonstrate that Europe matters, that the institutions of the EU are no substitute for—and are in fact inferior to—the legitimacy of democratic and sovereign European nations, and that, instead of seeking to reset relations with autocracies like Russia, it will give the highest consideration to the concerns of its allies. The U.S. and Britain are close enough and important enough to each other to disagree on occasion, as they have in the past. But if Britain decides to continue the downgrading of its security role or the U.S. continues to care less about transatlantic security and political cooperation, the problem will not be an Anglo-American disagreement. It will be the slow disappearance of the Special Relationship."

On the 2012 SOTU

American Leadership AWOL Again, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 24, 2012. "The President’s remarks in his State of the Union Address on foreign policy were formulaic. This Address was about domestic policy and, ultimately, about the 2012 election, which the President clearly believes will be won or lost on the basis of his record at home. Unfortunately, that does not absolve him of his responsibility to do more than slot token references on events abroad into his remarks."

Whatever It Is, It's Not Strategy

Biden on the Taliban: They Call It ‘Strategery', Contentions, December 21, 2011. "The problem is not that Obama and Biden are uninterested in the evidence of our failed efforts to engage the Taliban. The problem is that – as Max notes in another context – they want to get out of Afghanistan, and they believe that they can facilitate this in the American political context by depicting the Taliban as irrelevant to our security interests. And sadly, the evidence of the steadily-declining popular support for the war over the past year suggests that, politically, this calculation is correct."

On 9/11, A Decade On

9/11 Reflection: Ted Bromund, Yale Daily News, September 9, 2011. "I wasn’t scared by 9/11. What scared me after 9/11 was the reaction I saw at Yale."

NGOs and Neutralism

Why There Is No Neutral, Contentions, March 28, 2011. "Nadia Schadlow has a fine essay at Foreign Policy which points out that many of the NGOs on which the U.S. and its allies are relying to contribute to the “Build” phase of the counterinsurgency strategy proclaim that they refuse to take sides in the conflict. It’s not just the Red Cross that believes it is “essential to provide neutral and impartial assistance to all populations.” Most of the others follow suit. Many NGOs go beyond simply providing aid to all civilians, and – in the words of the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office – argue that NGOs have “nothing to gain and much to lose” by interacting with ISAF, which in their view only wants to “[leverage] advantage from [NGO] activities.” This is not the neutralism of helping the poor, no matter who they be: it is political neutrality."

A Very Brave Aussie

Australian Courage in Afghanistan, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 27, 2011. "An Australian member of the Special Air Service Regiment, Corporal Ben, has received the Victoria Cross For Australia, the nation’s highest military honor."

Response to State of the Union

Reaction Roundup: Heritage Responds to the State of the Union, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 25, 2011. "In the opening section of his address, the President referred to the need to “sustain the leadership that has made America not just a place on a map, but a light to the world.” Those are certainly words that conservatives can endorse and respect, just as they will agree with his statement that America is “the first nation the be founded for the sake of an idea.” As Matthew Spalding has stated, the American creed 'is set forth most clearly in the Declaration of Independence, . .. a timeless statement of inherent rights, the proper purposes of government, and the limits on political authority.' Unfortunately, this was not the creed that the President proclaimed in his speech."

British Defense Cuts Are Too Deep

Spending Cuts in British Defense Review: Less Than Expected, But Still Damaging, Heritage Foundation WebMemo #3039, October 22, 2010. "On October 19, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced the results of Britain’s Strategic Defense and Security Review. This review, the first since 1998, has resulted in substantial reductions in Britain’s defense spending that will have dangerous long-term consequences."

What Cameron Should Say (Or Have Said)

Britain’s David Cameron Must Tell Obama the Truth, Foxnews.com, July 20, 2010. "In a relationship, troubles never come one at a time. The Anglo-American Special Relationship is no different. Obama’s early discourtesies – the ejection of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office, the gift of incompatible DVDs to Gordon Brown, who is partially blind – were minor in themselves. But they were a token of the president’s belief that Britain is just like any other European country – easily wooed, and hence of no real account."

Dr. Liam Fox and the US-UK Defense Trade Cooperation Treaty

Unfinished Business: The U.S.-U.K. Defense Trade Cooperation Treaty, Heritage Foundation Foundry, July 6, 2010. "In an important speech at the Heritage Foundation on Wednesday that demonstrated the new British government’s commitment to standing shoulder to shoulder with the U.S., Dr. Liam Fox, the British Secretary of State for Defense, issued a blunt warning that the U.S., Britain, and its allies in Afghanistan need to 'hold our nerve' and 'see the job through.'"

The British Parallel to Gates' Proposals

British Example Shows Danger Facing American Forces, Heritage Foundation America at Risk Memo #10-05, May 26, 2010. "In a recent speech at the Eisenhower Library in Kansas, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stated that “Given America’s difficult economic circumstances and parlous fiscal condition, military spending on things large and small can and should expect closer, harsher scrutiny.” Secretary Gates is right to point to the dangers of America’s soaring budget deficits, but his implication that the U.S. defense budget contributes significantly to the problem is incorrect. The measures that he and the Administration propose are the same ones that have already been tried, and failed, in Britain. The British example shows the danger facing the U.S. forces."