Defense
McKeon is attempting to roll back the defense cuts mandated by the Budget Control Act. The House budget allows for increases in defense by pushing deeper cuts in other parts of the federal budget. – Defense News
Warfighting is becoming more risky as authoritarian regimes modernize their forces. If the United States wants to retain the ability to respond successfully to crises across the globe with a leaner and more cost-effective force, then our leaders must recognize that maintaining control of the air is the starting point for U.S. military supremacy. – The WS
Those suggesting that the United States return to military conscription…surely have honorable intentions. But they should know better. They cast a historical eye toward Vietnam and Korea, but they seem to have forgotten why we resorted to an all-volunteer armed force. The reasons applicable in 1972 are even more compelling today – Washington Post
The War
Tracing clues in the trove [of the bin Laden compound] against developments of the past year has been a focal point for U.S. counterterrorism officials seeking to assess what has become of al-Qaeda since the U.S. Navy SEAL raid on bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The emerging picture is of a network that is crumpled at its core, apparently incapable of an attack on the scale of Sept. 11, 2001, yet poised to survive its founder’s demise. – Washington Post
Killing Osama bin Laden was not a “silver bullet” that destroyed Al Qaeda, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said on Friday, but he asserted that his death weakened the terrorist group and made the United States more safe. – New York Times
Six weeks before the raid by U.S. Navy SEALs that killed Osama bin Laden last May, President Obama’s top national security officials debated various other options, including dropping an experimental small bomb on the al-Qaeda leader inside his Pakistani fortress, obliterating the compound with a B-2 bomber or inviting the Pakistanis to conduct a joint operation. – Washington Post
The president who won the Nobel Peace Prize less than nine months after his inauguration has turned out to be one of the most militarily aggressive American leaders in decades. – New York Times
As the administration looks eastward—a strategy that incorporates China’s rise—underestimating al Qaeda would be a dangerous mistake. With a handful of regimes teetering from the Arab Spring, al Qaeda is pushing into the vacuum and riding a resurgent wave as its affiliates engage in a violent campaign of attacks across the Middle East and North Africa. – Wall Street Journal
