Tragic and horrifying accidents happen in the fog of war. Over the past 30 years, the United States has often offered apologies or even cash to the innocent civilian victims of its military strikes gone wrong. Washington expressed regret and paid compensation during the 1999 Kosovo campaign, after the controversial 2001 collision between an American […]

President Trump on Monday seemed shocked—shocked!—at the rapidly growing economic fallout from his war on Iran. U.S. gasoline prices spiked and markets wobbled as  Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE and Iraq announced steeps cut backs on oil and natural gas production. With the Straits of Hormuz effectively closed, France dispatched warships to the region […]

In the aftermath of the horrifying murder of Charlie Kirk, my social media feeds have been filled with video clips of the slain activist’s past speeches and appearances. I found one—a testimony of his Christian faith--doubly powerful. Powerful first because Kirk spoke so passionately about his belief in the gift of God’s grace. Kirk’s words […]

Long before his shockingly disrespectful and clearly illegal campaign video stop at Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, Donald Trump had already established himself as America’s Desecrator-in-Chief. For over 30 years, Trump has ridiculed military service, mocked the U.S. armed forces’ living and the dead, and sneered at the wounded and the captured. And when […]

There is much we still don’t know in the wake of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. The shooter’s motives and mental state remain a mystery. Exactly how the Secret Service and local authorities failed to secure the would-be assassin’s location and prevent his deadly fire is still undetermined. An authoritative ballistics assessment of the […]

Sometimes a little historical context can put current events in perspective. Two weeks after the fall of Kabul, the United States successfully extracted over 120,000 Americans and Afghans from the capital. But thirteen American servicemen and women were killed in a terrorist attack during the high-risk mission to protect the ongoing airlift. Two weeks after […]

It’s amazing how America’s national security landscape changed in just four years. With the Islamic State on the ropes after the fall of Mosul, in February 2017 defense expert Andrew Exum proclaimed, “Donald Trump will defeat ISIS and it will mostly be due to the work of his predecessor.” But with Trump’s successor just weeks […]

That Donald Trump betrayed America's Kurdish allies in the fight against ISIS should come as no surprise; Trump betrays everyone sooner or later. But Trump's treachery in codifying Turkey's ethnic cleansing of the Kurds across the Syrian border is different in kind and degree. After all, agreeing with President Erdogan that the Turks "had to […]

Mitt Romney has never missed an opportunity to be an opportunist. Romney the leveraged buyout pioneer took advantage of the U.S. tax code to pocket tens of millions of dollars from investments in companies that failed. Mitt the mythical Massachusetts moderate transformed himself into the "severely conservative" 2012 presidential nominee by turning his back on […]

By now, most Americans know not to take former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at his word. The Fox News regular and failed GOP presidential candidate, after all, is on his third religion and his third wife. (Callista Bisek, currently Mrs. Gingrich No. 3 and U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, was previously known as Newt's "frequent […]