National Security

Trump rips guy he chose as his national security adviser

Featured image To no one’s surprise, President Trump lashed out at John Bolton today. He said of Bolton: You know, John’s known as a tough guy. He’s so tough, he got us into Iraq. That’s tough. Actually, Bolton didn’t get the U.S. into Iraq. President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and Secretary Rumsfeld did. It’s true that Bolton favored intervening in Iraq. But so did Trump, though he falsely claims he didn’t. In »

On Bolton’s bolt

Featured image As Scott notes below, John Bolton is out as President Trump’s national security adviser. That much is clear. There’s a dispute, though, over whether Bolton left voluntarily, as he says, or was sacked by Trump, as the president insists. Trump may be telling the truth. However, while there a few people in the world I would disbelieve if their account of events differed from Trump’s, John Bolton is not among »

Andrew McCarthy: Afghanistan and the pre-9/11 mindset

Featured image In the post below, Scott presents Andrew McCarthy’s discussion of a federal judge’s decision invalidating the Terrorist Screening Database. McCarthy sees the decision as part of “the turn to a pre-9/11 mindset” in America. McCarthy also perceives the turn to that mindset in the Trump administration’s efforts to reach a “peace” agreement with the Taliban. He discusses these efforts in the same column from which Scott quotes. Here is what »

Mike Pompeo: The U.S. has delivered on its mission in Afghanistan

Featured image The Trump administration is on the verge of agreeing to pull out of Afghanistan. In defense of this decision, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the United States has “delivered” on its mission to oust al-Qaeda from Afghanistan and to deter terrorist attacks plotted there and in Pakistan. Pompeo’s statement is mostly true, and has been for many years. And, although this was not really part of our mission and »

Trump cuts Bolton out of decision on Afghanistan

Featured image The Washington Post reports that John Bolton, President Trump’s national security adviser, has been excluded from discussions about an Afghanistan “peace deal” between the U.S. and the Taliban. Bolton apparently doesn’t favor such a deal. This is a president who rages against Fox News because people who appear on that network occasionally say things he doesn’t like hearing. So we shouldn’t be surprised that Trump doesn’t want to hear from »

Report: ISIS is gaining in Syria and Iraq

Featured image The New York Times reports that ISIS is gathering new strength and conducting guerrilla attacks across Iraq and Syria. Observers are confident that ISIS won’t reclaim anything like its former physical territory, a “caliphate” that was the size of Britain and controlled the lives of up to 12 million people. However, if it continues to gain strength, ISIS may soon become a force to be reckoned with and could control »

Ratcliffe replaces Coats as Director of National Intelligence

Featured image Dan Coats announced yesterday that he will resign as Director of National Intelligence. Coats did not see eye-to-eye with President Trump on some important national security issues. Coats’s replacement will be Rep. John Ratcliffe. He’s a three-term congressman and a former terrorism prosecutor who served as a U.S. Attorney in George W. Bush’s administration. He has also served on the House Intelligence Committee. In the paper edition of today’s Washington »

The indoctrination of Monica Witt

Featured image I don’t believe we’ve written about Monica Witt, the former U.S. Air Force intelligence specialist accused of espionage for Iran. Witt, who now resides in Iran, out of our reach, is said to have caused significant damage to America. She is suspected, among other things, of revealing the names of double agents run by the United States. Why did Witt become a traitor? Douglas Wise, former deputy director of the »

U.S. moves towards exit from Afghanistan

Featured image Ryan Crocker, the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan (among other hot spots, has published an op-ed in the Washington Post. In the paper edition, his op-ed is called “The U.S. is surrendering to the Taliban.” It looks that way. The U.S. is negotiating with the Taliban. The Afghan government has been cut out of the negotiations at the Taliban’s insistence. The two parties — the U.S. and the Taliban — »

Revoking Brennan’s clearance: The right move for the wrong reason

Featured image Andy McCarthy argues that there were excellent reasons to revoke the security of John Brennan, but that President Trump revoked it for the wrong reason. Trump, McCarthy says, revoked the clearance as an act of revenge for Brennan’s harsh criticism of him — an improper basis for taking such action. I think Andy is probably right about Trump’s motive and certainly right about the propriety of revoking a security clearance »

Trump revokes Brennan’s security clearance

Featured image President Trump has revoked the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan. The White House cited “erratic conduct and behavior” by Brennan. I have mixed feelings about this move, but favor it on balance. We certainly shouldn’t want to see former officials lose their security clearances just because they criticize the president robustly. For example, the Trump administration reportedly is reviewing the clearance of Michael Hayden, former director of »

The smearing of Fred Fleitz

Featured image Fred Fleitz has been appointed chief-of-staff of the National Security Council. Power Line has frequently linked to Fleitz’s work, particularly on Iran and the nuclear deal. We welcome his appointment. Naturally, those who view foreign policy from a vastly different perspective don’t welcome it. And that’s fine. They have every right to attack Fleitz’s positions and the way he has expressed them. But as is its wont, the left has »

Michael Anton speaks

Featured image Michael Anton is the author of the famous “The Flight 93 Election” article, a powerful statement of the case for supporting Donald Trump’s candidacy. Until recently, he served as deputy assistant to the president for strategic communications on the National Security Council. When Gen. McMaster was replaced as NSC head, Anton left the White House to return to teaching and commentating. “The Flight 93 Election” piece appeared in “American Greatness.” »

An “unbelievably small, limited” strike?

Featured image In 2013, when the Obama administration was trying to convince Congress to authorize an attack on Syria to enforce its “red line’ against Assad using chemical weapons, Secretary of State John Kerry promised that the attack would be an “unbelievably small, limited kind of effort.” He often used the word “degrade,” rather than “destroy,” to describe the impact of the contemplated attack on Syria’s chemical weapons program. Kerry received plenty »

Joltin’ Bolton

Featured image I tend to be an early riser, and I hate wasting time in traffic. Combine these two facts, and you’ll see why it was typical that during my many years in Washington I would arrive at the office in the morning sometimes as early as 6:45 am. And invariably I would be the second person to arrive. Always there ahead of me was the person in the office right next »

Military service by transgender individuals, Gen. Mattis speaks

Featured image The Trump administration has overturned the policy of its predecessor on military service by transgender individuals. The reversal of policy, including the limited instances in which the prior policy will be honored, strikes me as sound. However, I lack the expertise to have a view that should be taken seriously by others. The same is true of the judges who, in another sign that the country is headed in the »

Tom Cotton to CIA?

Featured image John noted last night that, according to strong rumors, Sen. Tom Cotton will resign from the Senate and succeed Mike Pompeo as head of the CIA. Pompeo, according to the same rumors, will become Secretary of State. I’d rather see Cotton in the Senate than at the hornets nest across the river in Langley (and, frankly, the hornets nest of the Trump administration). However, I think I understand why he »