Army Cutting Thousands of Jobs in Preparation for Possible Future War

Army Members

The United States Army is reducing its size by about 5%, cutting roughly 24,000 jobs, as part of a restructuring plan that is ostensibly meant to better prepare for a possible war in the future.

As ABC News reports, the cuts will mostly affect posts that are already empty, such as counterinsurgency jobs that were previously needed in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan but no longer needed today, as well as about 3,000 jobs in the Army special operations forces.

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Commentary: War Is Not Just a Western Notion

Sino-Japanese War

“It is well that war is so terrible; otherwise, we should grow too fond of it.”
– Robert E. Lee

“Wars and rumors of wars,” to borrow a well-known Biblical phrase from Matthew 24, seem all too commonplace these days. Is that because more wars are going on now than in the past, or because mass media brings us word of them ‘round the clock? It’s a debatable point.

This much is eminently clear: War dates back as far as the day when Cain slew Abel. It’s doubtful that there ever was a time on Earth when nobody was at war with anybody. It’s a depressingly familiar curse.

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Poll Finds Americans Worried About National Debt

Congress Spending

Americans are worried about the national debt, according to the results of a new poll.

Americans have the national debt crisis as one of their top concerns along with war, inflation and crime. Those polled think the overspending has a direct impact on their personal security and also has an impact on the security of the United States, according to a recent study commissioned by Main Street Economics, a nonprofit group designed to educate Americans on the nation’s debt crisis.

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AIG Travel Guard Insurance Refuses to Reimburse Families Forced to Cancel Trips to Israel, Claims the Conflict Isn’t an ‘Act of Terror’

Hathaway Family

At least two families were denied reimbursement by their travel insurance company when their trips to Israel were canceled due to the attacks by Hamas. AIG Travel Guard Insurance representatives told the would-be travelers that its policy didn’t cover war, or acts of war, only “acts of terror.” Arizona’s Family On Your Side (AFOYS) interviewed the families and aired coverage of a video showing that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken referred to the violence as a terrorist attack, specifically distinguishing it from war. However, AIG will not backtrack on what it told the families, even after AFOYS contacted the company.

Sheri Hathaway, who was denied reimbursement along with her husband and children, told The Arizona Sun Times that she would never use AIG again. They spent nearly $12,000, excluding airfare. “Hamas is a terrorist organization,” she said. “This happened as a terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas and clearly states in their policy that they do cover terrorist incidents, which this clearly was.”

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Kentucky U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie Says It Is ‘Economically Illiterate and Morally Deficient’ to Send More Money to Ukraine on Episode 45 of ‘Tucker on X’

In episode 45 of his newest production, “Tucker on X,” host Tucker Carlson interviewed U.S. Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY-04) who is against sending more aid money to Ukraine in the country’s fight against Russia.

Kicking off the 19-minute episode, Carlson said the Biden administration and the U.S. Congress will not accept the responsibility for the fact that the U.S. is “measurably weaker” for its support of Ukraine over the past two years in the country’s fight against Putin.

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Top Air Force Leader Warns China Is Prepping for War ‘Specifically’ with U.S.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall gave a stark warning that China is preparing for a war that the United States has “no modern experience with” during a speech at Air and Space Forces Association’s 2023 Air, Space and Cyber Conference on Monday, according to an Air Force press release.

Kendall said that the catalyst for a war with China would likely be Taiwan and evoked Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an example of an international war with no easy solution, according to the press release. Kendall warned in a memo penned last week that, as quickly as China’s military has advanced, the United States is “not optimized for great power competition.”

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Colonel Douglas Macgregor Tells Tucker Carlson About What Is Really Happening in Ukraine

In episode 18 of his newest production, “Tucker on Twitter,” former Fox News primetime host Tucker Carlson sat down with Colonel Douglas Macgregor, the former advisor to the Secretary of Defense in the Trump administration.

During his interview with Carlson, Macgregor said that the war between Ukraine and Russia is happening in a way that is “just not reported in the West.”

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Commentary: A Second Trump Term Can Walk Us Back from the Brink of War

Voters should remember that a President’s role is primarily foreign affairs, which includes trade and border security. In 2016, and today, President Trump is the only candidate that has consistently focused on what the actual job of the president is, rather than what those with outsized influence want it to be.

President Trump is the first president to start no new wars since Jimmy Carter. Like Carter, he also affected a Middle East peace deal with Israel – not just one of them, but four. Arguably the first realist president since Richard Nixon, Trump’s combination of unpredictability enforced by blunt and brutal talk, credible military deterrence reinforced through a more robust military that was less used and overstretched, and a genuine and authentic desire to be a peace-maker created a moment in time for cooperation and peace through strength. Unfortunately, under Biden, the promise of peace has become a Shakespearean tragedy when considering our present dilemma in Europe and East Asia.

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GOP Presidential Candidates Hold Varying Positions on U.S. Involvement in Ukraine

Republican Party Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy recently laid out a plan that he says would end the war in Ukraine while breaking up Russia’s  growing alliance with China.

Newly minted presidential candidate North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum says, “Support for Ukraine is important to stop empowering countries like Russia in the first place by selling US energy to our allies.”

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Republican Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy Lays Out Peace Deal to End War In Ukraine, Sever Russia’s Partnership with China

Speaking at a campaign event Friday in New Hampshire, Ohio businessman and GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy laid out his plan for peace in Ukraine by opening up Russia. The 37-year-old political outsider, who has often said political leaders need to “think on the timescales of history, not on two-year election cycles,” believes a Nixon approach to Russia would curtail the looming threat of communist China.

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At Iowa Foreign Policy Event, GOP Presidential Candidate Nikki Haley Says War in Ukraine is a War ‘We Have to Win’

Republican Presidential candidate Nikki Haley asserts the war in Ukraine is about freedom and “one we have to win.” 

The former South Carolina governor discussed national security and foreign policy with U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) Friday morning in suburban Des Moines at an event sponsored by the Bastion Institute.

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Commentary: Ignoring the Study of War Is a Recipe for Disaster

Liberal bias in higher education extends to academics’ bias against teaching military history.

There are 299 programs in America that offer the MA and/or PhD in history according to the American Historical Association. But only 37 programs allow for specialization in military topics.

This trend is symptomatic of the left dominating universities. Leftists shun military and traditional political histories for post-modern critique in the discipline.

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Poll: Most Americans Worried About War with Russia, See Conflict with China as ‘Likely’

A Rasmussen poll released Thursday found that roughly half of Americans are worried the U.S. will go to war with a major nuclear-armed power in the near future.

The Scott Rasmussen National Survey found that 58% of Americans felt “somewhat” or “very worried” the ongoing war in Ukraine could lead to a conflict between the U.S. and Russia, and exactly half of respondents said they thought it likely that the next decade could see war with China. Roughly a third of respondents said President Biden had done a “good” or “excellent” job at managing the situation in Russia and Ukraine, while 24% rated his performance as “fair.”

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Commentary: Industrial Power in Economics and War

Beginning in the 1980s, the American economy underwent substantial changes. Just as the earlier age of industrialization had transformed a rural and agriculture economy into an urban one focused on manufacturing, the industrial age gave way to the information age, with a greater priority for tasks like management, information processing, and finance. The workforce and concentrations of wealth followed suit, with finance and high-tech companies displacing the old industrial giants with their assembly lines and armies of workers. 

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Commentary: The True Origins of ‘America First’

What were America’s founders and their followers trying to foster and preserve by their conduct among nations? What were they trying to put first? Why did the Progressives turn away from these concerns? What did they put first? How dismissive were they of reality? What have been Progressivism’s effects on how America has fared among nations? How have changes in the world and in America itself made it impossible to continue on the Progressive’s course? How would John Quincy Adams and those following his principles manage America’s present international situation?  

By what principles might today’s statesmen put America First?

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Commentary: Ukraine Has Few Options Against Putin

Even a truncated Russian Federation has four times the pre-war population of Ukraine. It enjoys well over 10 times the Ukrainian gross domestic product. Russia covers almost 30 times Ukraine’s area.

And how does Ukraine expel Russian troops from its borders when its Western allies must put particular restrictions on their life-giving military and financial aid?

The interests of Europe and the United States are not quite the same as those of a beleaguered Ukraine. NATO also wants Vladimir Putin humiliated, but only if the war can be confined within the borders of Ukraine.

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Russia Says Will Reduce Military Activity in Parts of Ukraine

members of Russian military

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Formin said Tuesday his country will “reduce military activity” in the Ukraine cities of Kyiv and Chernihiv in pursuit of an agreement to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The announcement follows what Russians are calling a productive day of diplomatic talks in Istanbul, Turkey, with the invasion now roughly four-weeks old.

Russian state media quoted Formin saying: “Due to the fact that negotiations on the preparation of an agreement on the neutrality and non-nuclear status of Ukraine, as well as on the provision of security guarantees to Ukraine, are moving into practice, taking into account the principles discussed during today’s meeting, by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation in order to increase mutual trust and create the necessary conditions for further negotiations and achieving the ultimate goal of agreeing on the signing of the above agreement, a decision was made to radically, at times, reduce military activity in the Kiev and Chernihiv direction.”

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Newt Gingrich Commentary: Time to Defeat Putin in Ukraine

As President Joe Biden prepares to go to Europe, we must recognize that, unless things change, there are likely to be two outcomes to the Russian war on Ukraine – and both are bad for America and the rule of law. 

First, the terror campaign of destroying cities and killing women and children is having a devastating effect. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, out of compassion for his people, is talking more and more about a negotiated settlement. A negotiated settlement will clearly give Vladimir Putin most of what he wants. It will be a Russian victory – an expensive Russian victory, but a Russian victory.  

A negotiated settlement with Russia winning will be a disaster for the rule of law. It will be a signal to dictators everywhere that with a weak American President and timid democracies, despots can attack their neighbors with virtual impunity. 

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Commentary: 10 Realities of Ukraine

skyline of Kyiv, Ukraine

One. Reassuring an enemy what one will not do ensures that the enemy will do just that and more. Unpredictability and occasional enigmatic silence bolster deterrence. But Joe Biden’s predictable reassurance to Russian President Vladimir Putin that he will show restraint means Putin likely will not. 

Two. No-fly zones don’t work in a big-power, symmetrical standoff. In a cost-benefit analysis, they are not worth the risk of shooting down the planes of a nuclear power. They usually do little to stop planes outside of such zones shooting missiles into them. Sending long-range, high-altitude anti-aircraft batteries to Ukraine to deny Russian air superiority is a far better way of regaining air parity.

Three. Europe, NATO members, and Germany in particular have de facto admitted that their past decades of shutting down nuclear plants, coal mines, and oil and gas fields have left Europe at the mercy of Russia. They are promising to rearm and meet their promised military contributions. By their actions, they are admitting that their critics, the United States in particular, were right, and they were dangerously wrong in empowering Putin.

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Commentary: The Woke War Machine vs. America’s ‘Minutemoms’

Group protesting; "no justice no peace" sign

Critical social justice’s (CSJ) march through America’s institutions is very nearly complete. CSJ, and its woke evangelists, easily penetrated and commandeered U.S. colleges and universities.

Even White House occupant Joe Biden speaks incessantly about “white supremacy.” The Department of Homeland Security tells us white domestic terrorism is the top threat to America.

Not to be left out, corporate America has proclaimed its total fealty to woke ideology. Leaked documents show companies like Coke imploring their employees to “be less white.” Raytheon—whose laser-guided bombs are disproportionally dropped on people of color—tells its white, straight, Christian, able-bodied, English-speaking employees to deconstruct their identities, “identify [their] privilege,” and “step aside” in favor of other identity groups. AT&T offers employees training that says racism is a “uniquely white trait,” telling white employees that they “are the problem.” It’s pure racism, of course. But not a single Fortune 500 CEO has spoken out against it. They’re too frightened to do so.

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Harry Potter Author Slams Police for Allowing Biological Men Identify as Women in Rape Reports

J.K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, criticized Scotland’s government for logging male rapists as “female” simply because they claim to be women.

“War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. The Penised Individual Who Raped You Is a Woman,” Rowling posted Sunday on Twitter, alluding to George Orwell’s dystopian classic, “1984.”

Police in Scotland will record rapes as being committed by a woman in instances where the perpetrator has male genitalia and has not taken any steps to legally become a woman, as long as the rapist insists they are female, The Times reported.

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Commentary: Epitaph for the ‘War on Terror’

Twenty years after the U.S. government declared war on terrorism, it consummated its own defeat in Kabul and Washington, in a manner foreseeable, foreseen, and foreshadowed in 9/11’s immediate aftermath. Fixation on itself and unseriousness about war are the twin habits of heart and mind that disposed the ruling class to defeat. The practical explanation for why and how it accepted defeat is found in the overriding interest each part of the ruling class has in doing what it wants to do. 

On the night of September 11, 2001, Muslim governments strictly forbade public celebrations of the carnage. The Palestinian Authority, anticipating that outraged Americans would destroy them to avenge the day’s events, even called the attacks al nachba—“the disaster.” But as the U.S. ruling class made clear that it was accepting defeat, the Muslim world’s media and streets celebrated.

Two decades later, after that defeat’s logic had worked its way through and transformed American life, and as the government’s self-humiliating exit from Afghanistan consummated it, much of mankind followed Muslim crowds in celebrating—including prominent Americans. 

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Newt Gingrich Commentary: Overcoming Defeat and Denial in Afghanistan

With each passing day in Afghanistan the Taliban grows stronger, and the pro-American government forces grow weaker.  Anecdotally, you can see the momentum building in the news coverage.

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Long War Journal, which has been tracking war in Afghanistan for years, estimates that as of Sunday the Taliban controlled 213 districts. It reports that the government controls 70 districts, and some 115 districts are being contested. Thus, after the United States, NATO, and our Afghan allies spent 20 years fighting to create a post-Taliban country, the evidence is growing that we have lost.

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Commentary: Open Letter to Anti-Nuclear Activists

Biohazard sign

Anti-nuclear activist groups like the so-called Physicians for Social Responsibility, Ploughshares, Union of Concerned Scientists, Federation of American Scientists, and others criticize the U.S. and national security professionals for supposedly wrongly “demonizing” Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.  Hypocritically, these same anti-nuclear activists routinely “demonize” the U.S. national security community and any President and Congress that wants to modernize the U.S. nuclear deterrent to prevent World War III.  More than one anti-nuclear activist has called me and my colleagues the “root of all evil” because we will not “give peace a chance” by engaging recklessly in yet another dangerously irresponsible act of unilateral disarmament—like banning U.S. ICBMs. 

Maybe you have no idea how many times the U.S. has “given peace a chance” with consequences that make nuclear war more likely? 

Under the Presidential Nuclear Initiative (PNI), the U.S. unilaterally reduced tactical nuclear weapons from 15,000 to 180.  But Russia cheated on the PNI and now has at least a 10-to-1 advantage.  (See Dr. Mark Schneider, “Russian Nuclear Force Expansion and the Failure of Arms Control” RealClearDefense October 24, 2019.) 

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‘Operation Warp Speed for Jobs’: Worker Shortage Is Getting Worse, U.S. Chamber Says

Construction workers

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce characterized the worker shortage as a crisis that is hurting businesses of all sizes and slowing the nation’s economic recovery.

The biggest challenge U.S. businesses currently face is the lack of qualified workers to fill open jobs, according to the Chamber of Commerce’s America Works Report released Tuesday morning. The national Worker Availability Ratio (WAR) — or ratio of number of available workers to number of available jobs — has dropped over the last several months, the report found.

The current WAR is 1.4, meaning for every job opening there are one or two workers available, according to the America Works Report. The historical WAR average over the last 20 years is 2.8.

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Commentary: Be Skeptical About War with Iran

by Christopher Roach   Americans are weary of Middle Eastern wars and skeptical of claims from our intelligence agencies supporting such conflict. While the attack on Iraq in 2003 depended on intelligence suggesting an ongoing nuclear weapons program and attacks on Syria occurred after Bashar al-Assad’s supposed use of illegal chemical weapons against civilians, both of these assumptions either were refuted or at least face serious, evidence-based criticism. In comparison, the most recent charge against Iran—a mine attack on a Japanese cargo vessel that caused no casualties—is pretty weak sauce. As far as its magnitude, this is hardly Pearl Harbor. At the same time, the grainy video of an Iranian patrol boat parked alongside the vessel does not prove to the satisfaction of reasonable American skeptics that Iran was responsible for the explosion. War Drums In the Distance The recent incident occurred in a climate of sharpening anti-Iranian rhetoric from the United States, in particular, National Security Advisor John Bolton, as well as our country’s regional allies Saudi Arabia and Israel. The three nations have aligned against Iran in recent years. This focus on Shiite Iran has occurred, even as the most dramatic and deadly terror attacks in Europe, the…

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Commentary: Better Ways to Fight Extremism in Syria Than Endless War

by Austin Mulka   Yesterday I posted a status in unequivocal support of President Trump’s recent decision to pull out of Syria. The post elicited the abhorrent wails of the president’s purported supporters, one of whom denounced me as a supporter of “child killers.” As baseless as the claim was, empathizing with an opponent’s argument is the most efficient means of coming to mutual understandings of disagreement. Ultimately, those in opposition to pulling out of Syria firmly believe that military intervention is a principled position against the murder of children. As such, any opposition to this position, such as my own, must indicate its reciprocal support. Insofar as I am unequivocally against the murder of children, I hope to explain why military intervention is not the most effective means of fighting the Islamic regime and three alternatives to war with proven effectiveness. Journalism First and foremost, I would like to state that I am not a supporter of the Islamic regime in Syria. In The Home That was Our Country: A Memoir of Syria, Arab-American journalist Alia Malek details her first-hand accounts of horrendous acts and grievances by the Syrian regime. Having lived in both Syria and the United States,…

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Commentary: The Numbers Support Trump’s Decision to Leave Syria

by Gunnar Heinsohn   Proclaim victory and pull out! On December 19, Donald Trump tweeted his own version of this classic military maxim as the president announced the withdrawal of America’s 2,000 soldiers from the war against the ISIS caliphate in Syria. Allies reacted with shock. Enemies mocked and gloated. Neither reaction should come as a surprise. The president’s defenders emphasize that America has nothing to show for the $7 trillion it has spent on this war. The United States, they say, has much greater concerns at home and in East Asia. Few analysts, regardless of how they feel about America’s withdrawal from Syria, understand why such conflicts drag on and on, despite enormous losses. Historians and journalists rarely examine the demographic data that explain why deadly wars can last for decades or centuries. Even the killing ground of Europe from 1500 to 1945 escapes their attention. And when it comes to Syria, they are utterly clueless about the link between rapid demographic growth and the long and bloody wars that have devastated this region. Explosive population growth results in explosions on the battlefield. Between 1900 and 2015, Islam’s global population increased by a factor of nine, from 200 million…

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Commentary: Hillary Legitimizes War on Republicans

by Rick Manning   America was shocked by the screaming, temper tantrum and outright threats by those opposed to the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.  However, if anyone had any hope that the so-called adults in the Democratic Party would tell the violent children to cool it, Hillary Clinton put an end to it, telling CNN’s Christianne Amanpour, “You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about.” Let’s deconstruct what Clinton is saying so it cannot be missed. “You cannot be civil” is an imperative that means you have no other choice but to not be civil. There is no equivocation it is a call to continue and expand the street takeovers in Portland, Oregon, the screaming at the Capitol, and yes even the violent threats and direct confrontations against those with whom you disagree. “With a political party” tells us that this is a mass movement war which justifies virtually any action against those with whom you disagree.  Far from the days of “I disagree with what you say, but will defend with my life your right to say it,” Clinton justifies virtually any action…

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The History Russians and Communists Want Us to Forget

by Jarrett Stepman   The Soviet Union did not free the world of tyranny in World War II. It merely helped defeat one evil while ruthlessly attempting to supplant it with another one. But you wouldn’t know that from reading an Associated Press article from early September. The Associated Press originally stated that the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were “allies” at the beginning of World War II. It then issued the following correction:  … In 1939, despite sharp ideological differences, the two powers entered into a non-aggression pact that paved the way for them to carve up Poland and for the Soviet Union to take the Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. That pact was never formally recognized as an alliance, and in 1941 Germany attacked the Soviet Union. It’s noteworthy that according to Haaretz, this correction took place after Russia put pressure on the publication. The Daily Signal reached out to AP about the correction, but it didn’t respond to the request for comment. The truth is that the USSR and Nazi Germany were functionally allies in the early stages of World War II, as historian Timothy Snyder explained in his book “Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin.” The “sharp ideological differences”…

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