The Trump administration's militarized response to the protests in Portland and it rhetoric of war -- along with the President's threats to deploy federal law enforcement to other major cities -- pose a serious threat to both the American people and our democracy.
The United States narrowly averted the deployment of active-duty service members in America's streets and communities during the recent protests for racial justice. But to the casual observer, and at times even to Army veterans like us, the difference between law enforcement officers and military troops was hardly discernible...
Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have begun considering various proposals to prohibit Confederate commemorations in the military and replace the names of military installations honoring Confederate officers. Unfortunately, one of these measures serves only to undermine this bipartisan effort. With the momentum generated by the justified and remarkably peaceful racial justice protests, the surprising turn in public opinion in support of change on many fronts, and the plethora of...
A wave of Confederate monuments emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries across the American South and beyond. But they had little to do with benign heritage or remembrance. According to historian Karen L. Cox of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, in a piece she wrote for the Washington Post, “They were part of a campaign to paint the Southern cause in the Civil War as just and slavery as a benevolent institution, and their installation came against a backdrop of Jim Crow...
President Trump has made little effort to mask his contempt for the norms guiding the relationship between military and society in the United States, leaving a long trail of events that have risked politicizing the military's ranks and damaging the relationship between the military and society.
In early June 1939, more than 900 passengers-almost all Jewish-sailed near the Florida coast aboard the MS St. Louis. Fleeing persecution by Adolf Hitler's Nazi party in Germany and having just been denied entry by Cuba, they desperately pleaded for safe harbor. The United States turned them away, and the ship was forced to return to Europe.
Some 1,000 West Point cadets from all corners of the country will soon be returning to the academy in New York, summoned by President Donald Trump so that he can deliver an in-person speech. And unlike commencements at non-military universities, where students are not required to follow orders from a commander in chief, cadets will effectively have no choice but to attend the ceremony.
As society continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, most news has been gloomy. But there have been positive developments, and among them is a rare story of accountability for torture. In April, Marshall Billingslea — who promoted torture and harsh and degrading treatment of detainees in U.S. custody during the George W. Bush administration — lost his lengthy bid for a top State Department post that oversees, among other matters, human rights and counterterrorism policy.
Regrettably, the Trump administration has matched its lack of preparedness for a pandemic with a failure to organize and lead a global response. In keeping with an “America First” foreign policy, President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have spent more time focused on assigning and deflecting blame than on building international mechanisms capable of exerting U.S. leadership and minimizing human suffering. The upshot of this abdication has been a vacuum of coordinated action,...
In the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001, the bipartisan 9/11 Commission concluded, among other things, that the United States government's failure to prevent the attack was due to failures "in imagination, policy, capabilities, and management."
Earlier this year, we wrote about an increasingly important statutory provision that requires the executive branch to provide notice and an explanation to Congress within 30 days of any changes the administration makes to the legal and policy framework governing the use of military force.
The Trump administration's decision to kill Qassem Soleimani-Iran's most powerful military leader responsible for numerous attacks against U.S. servicemembers and interests-brought the United States and Iran to the brink of war without a word of debate, let alone a vote, in Congress.
The NDAA includes several measures that build on prior efforts to improve the Defense Department's civilian casualties practices.
His intervention in decisions about war crimes undermines the moral standing of the armed forces.
Veterans Day is an opportunity to recognize those who have admirably served in uniform. It should not be lost upon Americans, however, that many people in foreign lands have also risked their safety and that of their loved ones in defense of American interests.
Donald Trump's decision to abruptly withdraw U.S. forces from northeastern Syria has been a debacle. It has fanned the flames of violence and will likely provide an opportunity for ISIS to resurge. It has further endangered U.S. service members in Syria. It has led to reported atrocities committed by Turkish-backed forces against Kurds.
Donald Trump has made no secret of his penchant for torture. It was, of course, a feature of his 2016 campaign. And while former Defense Secretary James Mattis and other senior foreign policy appointees have rejected the practice as unlawful and inappropriate, Trump has repeatedly nominated figures involved in or supportive of Bush-era torture for positions in both his administration and the federal judiciary.
President Donald Trump's animosity toward the Intelligence Community (IC) and its assessments is not new.
Amidst the multitude of ongoing Trump administration scandals, the United States government has failed to develop a comprehensive approach to bring an end to or accountability for devastating human rights abuses in Myanmar. That country's military has waged a campaign of horror since August of 2017 against Rohingya Muslims. The unfolding human rights crisis includes mass killing, gang rape, razed villages, and hundreds of thousands displaced.
As a cadet at West Point 10 years ago, I found myself immersed in a Muslim-American community in New Jersey. A Jewish future Army officer, I prayed alongside Muslims, engaged in deep conversations with community leaders, and twice slept overnight at the Islamic Center of Jersey City.
Since the United States conducted a military strike on various targets associated with the Syrian government's chemical weapons program last week, prominent voices in the legal community have questioned the legal bases for the Trump administration's decision. One part of this discussion has focused on whether there is any domestic legal authority that would permit the strike.
Democrats can't let Trump use the parade as political ammunition to help Republicans in the November midterms. In January, President Trump ordered the Pentagon to begin planning a large-scale military parade for the streets of Washington. There are very many grounds for criticizing the idea.
Editor's Note: On Friday, we learned that Tripp Zanetis, a recent contributor to Just Security, was one of seven U.S. service members killed in a helicopter crash in Iraq. Last June, we published a piece by Tripp about why it's in U.S.
Donald Trump does not want to let the torture debate die. He was vociferously supportive of torture on the 2016 campaign trail. Once elected president, he nominated Mike Pompeo, a Republican congressman from Kansas, to lead the CIA.
This article was first published on Just Security. The Pentagon has a new National Defense Strategy (NDS), its first in 10 years, and, on Friday, released an 11-page summary of it. Signed by Defense Secretary James Mattis, the NDS flows from the broader national security vision outlined in President Donald Trump's recently signed 2017 National Security Strategy (NSS), and it replaces the formerly required Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR).
Michael Morell was deputy director and twice acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2010 to 2013. Benjamin Haas is a student at Stanford Law School and a former intelligence officer in the Army.
Almost a century ago, a new and deadly strain of influenza spread around the world, shutting down schools and businesses and filling hospitals well beyond their capacity. In the end, the 1918 flu pandemic claimed the lives of approximately 50 to 100 million people, and it infected about one-third of the global population.
This article first appeared on Just Security. When White House Chief of Staff and retired Marine General John Kelly participated in a press conference on Thursday, he delivered an emotional, moving, and ultimately divisive message.
This article first appeared on Just Security. When videos from the mass shooting in Las Vegas began circulating on social media last Sunday night, I immediately recognized the rapid sound of automatic gunfire.
In Federalist No. 68, his pseudonymous essay on "The Mode of Electing the President," Alexander Hamilton wrote that the Electoral College could shield the United States "from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils."
This article first appeared on the Just Security site. West Point, my alma mater, is a source of great personal pride. It always has been, and it always will be. The institution has recently taken several steps worthy of particularly high praise.
This article first appeared on the Just Security site. After thinking about Vice President Mike Pence's remarks last Friday at the United States Naval Academy's commencement, I found one part of his speech particularly alarming: Next is orientation to authority. Nothing I have to explain to those of you sitting before me today.
This article first appeared on the Just Security site. Amidst all of the confusion, the lies and the damaged norms of the Trump administration, one of the best hopes for good governance has been tied to a handful of respected, trusted senior officials with military backgrounds. Indeed, National Security Adviser H.R.
This article first appeared on the Just Security site. The Army inspires its soldiers to embody certain values. Chief among them is the idea that all members of the team should be appreciated for their contributions, dedication to the mission and patriotism.
As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump voiced his support for deliberately targeting the families of terrorists. Fortunately, he has not adopted this policy as president. But he has nonetheless demonstrated a proclivity for eased rules of engagement on the battlefield and intensified military strikes.
When I graduated from West Point in 2009, the war in Afghanistan was one of the hottest topics. President Barack Obama's campaign and young presidency had been defined, in large part, by the debate about what should be done in Afghanistan.
On February 13, Kim Jong-nam-the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un-was killed at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Malaysian investigators have determined that two women, who have since been charged with murder, used VX nerve agent-a chemical weapon-in the assassination.
After his inauguration, President Donald Trump didn't take long to boast of his purported political support from the military. In his speech to the CIA - given in front of the Memorial Wall that honors CIA employees who have died in the line of duty - he claimed that "the military gave us tremendous percentages of votes.
West Point taught me a lot about patriotism and American values. But one of the most important - and currently salient - lessons I learned came not from the academic classes or military training. Rather, I learned this lesson on the risers of the Academy's Jewish Chapel Choir.
He claims to "know a lot about" the military academy, but it doesn't show. When President Donald Trump delivered a speech to a CIA crowd on Saturday, he had an opportunity to act presidential. Instead, he offered a bizarre rant that resembled his campaign rallies.
When I arrived in Afghanistan in 2011 for the first time, I proudly displayed several patches on my shoulders. One was the flag of the United States, the country I love so much. Another was the 10th Mountain Division insignia, representing the unit with which I had been deployed.
Donald J. Trump has so far chosen to receive only one intelligence briefing each week. His decision is an extraordinary departure from the practices of his predecessors who received a briefing every day, with the exception of Richard M. Nixon, who had extensive foreign policy experience before his 1968 election victory.
"George Patton was one of the roughest guys, he would talk rough to his men," Trump noted as he praised Patton in February, lamenting that "[w]e don't have that anymore." Trump also relayed an untrue story about Gen. John Pershing - a "rough guy," according to Trump - allegedly executing Muslim insurgents with bullets that had been dipped in pig blood.
When I was an intelligence officer in the Army serving in Afghanistan, I was fortunate to have commanders who understood the value of intelligence. They carefully considered my analysis before making operational decisions. We had relationships rooted in trust and a shared, unwavering commitment to national security.
Most of the words that issue from Donald J. Trump's lips are disjointed nonsense, and his recent "national security" speech was no exception. Occasionally, however, Trump utters a notion that carries a modicum of truth.
In the aftermath of the ISIS attacks in Paris, 31 governors-all Republican but one-and all Republican presidential candidates have embraced a controversial policy of rejecting Syrian refugees or establishing a religious test for their admission. Setting aside the morality of these positions, the governors cannot legally prevent these refugees from reaching their states.
"You really want to join the Army?" Before attending West Point, I often faced questions like this from the Jewish community. If there is a perception among Jews that military service is for somebody else, this must change.
Does al-Qa`ida still operate primarily as a hierarchical organization, or is it fundamentally a worldwide brand-name for the global Salafi-jihadi movement? This question is the subject of an ongoing debate in terrorism studies. A specific subcomponent of this larger debate is the issue of organizational growth: is al-Qa`ida growing in the United States and elsewhere due to recruitment or to radicalization?