National Security News

The Daily Signal provides reports on national and homeland security issues, including military readiness, intelligence operations, border protection, and global conflicts. Featuring news, analysis, and commentary, this section explores how security policy decisions affect America’s national defense and freedom.
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    • Opinion

    If Jeremy Corbyn Wins, Britain Will Move in a Socialist Direction

    The outcome of the British Parliamentary elections on Dec. 12 may not interest very many Americans. But it could have a measurable impact on U.S. presidential politics. If the Labour Party wins a majority, its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has promised to move Britain in an openly socialist direction, undoing many of the Margaret Thatcher privatization reforms…
    Lee Edwards
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    • Opinion

    Native Venezuelan, Now Proud American, Warns of ‘Fruits of Socialism’

    In the 1980s, Patricia Rucker’s family left Venezuela, planning that her father would work for a time in the U.S. “Venezuela to me was the most perfect country you could have on this earth,” Rucker recalls. “Not only beautiful weather—beautiful people, very moral, very safe, very free, never had an income tax. The Constitution of…
    Daniel Davis
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    • Opinion

    Was It Terrorism in Pensacola? What We Know, and What’s Next

    Family members are grieving after a shooter killed three Navy servicemen at a Pensacola, Florida, Navy base. Details are just starting to emerge about the shooter, 2nd Lt. Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, a Saudi Arabian air force pilot training in the U.S. Heritage Foundation scholar Cully Stimson discusses possible motives and the FBI investigation. Read the…
    Daniel Davis
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    • Opinion

    The Case of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher: Trusting the Military Justice System and Its Essential Role in National Security

    The case of Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer Eddie Gallagher, which ultimately resulted in the firing of Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, should have been handled differently.  The prosecution mishandled the case, President Donald Trump intervened prematurely, and the Navy secretary got caught between trying to do the right thing, an unorthodox president, and keeping the…
    Thomas Spoehr
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    • Opinion

    Hollywood Socialism

    Hollywood is now obsessing about increasing ethnic and gender diversity. Good. There’s been nasty racial and gender discrimination in the movie business. Unfortunately, Hollywood has no interest in one type of diversity: diversity of thought. In most every movie, capitalism is evil. Greedy miners want to kill nature-loving aliens in “Avatar.” Director James Cameron says:…
    John Stossel
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    • Opinion

    Rise of Social Liberalism Disproportionately Hurts Lower-Income Americans

    This week, Paul Krugman of The New York Times posited a theory: Red states cause depression and suicide. In a column titled “America’s Red State Death Trip,” Krugman wrote: “In 1990, today’s red and blue states had almost the same life expectancy. Since then, however, life expectancy in Clinton states has risen more or less…
    Ben Shapiro
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    • Opinion

    The Pentagon Auditing Process Is Expensive, Inefficient, and in Arrears

    Many months and about $1 billion in taxpayer funds later, the U.S. Department of Defense recently announced that it had failed its second comprehensive audit, chalking up another “F” on its audit report card. The 1990 Chief Financial Officers Act requires extensive annual audits of U.S. federal agencies, but the Pentagon was only required to…
    Thea Dunlevie
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    • News

    Trump’s ‘Diplomatic Persistence’ Spurs Decline in Illegal Border Crossings, DHS Deputy Says

    The president’s “diplomatic persistence” has deterred illegal migrants and led to a sharp decline in unlawful border crossings, a top U.S. immigration official said Wednesday in an interview with The Daily Signal. “Previous administrations were unwilling to push as President Trump has,” said Ken Cuccinelli, acting deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.  “In…
    Fred Lucas
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    • Opinion

    How Pentagon’s ‘Trusted Capital’ Program Can Secure Financing for Defense Industrial Base

    The Department of Defense this month partnered with Texas A&M University to co-sponsor Drone Venture Day, the first event of the Pentagon’s new Trusted Capital Marketplace initiative. The Nov. 13 event brought American manufacturers of unmanned aircraft and counter-unmanned aircraft systems together with trusted capital providers, with the hope that the connections made might lead…
    Jack Penders
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    • Opinion

    I Left England Because of Socialized Medicine. My Life Depended on It.

    Imagine strapping your infant child into a car seat, only to see his body suddenly jerk forward or backward, arms and legs stiffening, and eyes rolling back in the head. Alarm quickly turns to panic, which turns to frantic weaving through traffic to get to the hospital. Within minutes of arriving, the child is rushed…
    James Schmitz
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    • News

    Feds Hosted Meditation, Massage, and Social Justice Retreat for 450 Employees, Including IRS Workers

    The federal government hosted a “Mindfulness & Resiliency Summit” in August where 450 employees from the IRS and other agencies spent two days receiving new-age wisdom, learning to meditate, and receiving on-site massages, photos of the event and a website show. Participants sat through an hour of talks before taking a half-hour “stretch and self-care…
    Luke Rosiak
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    • Opinion

    The Judiciary Loses When Judges Get Political

    Politics is like mud wrestling. No one comes out clean. And as recent comments by Senior Judge Paul Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia show, that holds especially true for judges. Friedman jumped into the political mud pit on Wednesday to wrestle President Donald Trump, saying that Trump’s criticism of…
    GianCarlo Canaparo
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    • Opinion

    Young People Might Reject Socialism If They Knew These Facts

    A recent survey conducted by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and polled by YouGov, a research and data firm, found that 70% of millennials are likely to vote socialist and that 1 in 3 millennials saw communism as “favorable.” Let’s examine this tragic vision in light of the Fraser Institute’s recently released annual study…
    Walter E. Williams
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    • Opinion

    Socialism Is Rising and Now So Is Soviet Revisionism

    The collapse of the Berlin Wall 30 years ago was one of the most momentous days in history.  It represented the last gasp of a wicked regime that destroyed the lives of millions, and a new beginning for the many people held under the thumb of communism for generations. It was a triumph of freedom…
    Jarrett Stepman
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    • News

    Socialism All About Inclusivity and Kindness, These Students Say

    The word “socialism” has left behind its past of breadlines and beatings and has come to mean something like “kindness” for some students at Georgetown University, The Daily Signal found in campus interviews.  Many millennials would agree with the positive feelings these university students have for socialism.  According to a new YouGov survey commissioned by…
    Jackson Elliott
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    • Opinion

    The Decline of America’s Military, and Why It Matters

    None of us want to think about another attack on America. But nor do we want to be unprepared if such an attack occurs. Dakota Wood, the lead editor of The Heritage Foundation’s Index of U.S. Military Strength, explains that right now the military’s readiness status is “marginal.” In other words, between aging equipment and…
    Katrina Trinko
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    • Opinion

    How You Can Celebrate Veterans Day the Right Way

    “Word to the nation: Guard zealously your right to serve in the Armed Forces, for without them, there will be no other rights to guard.” President John F. Kennedy, 1962 On Monday, Veterans Day will be celebrated across the United States. The holiday, originally named Armistice Day, marked the end of fighting in World War…
    Thomas Spoehr
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    • Opinion

    Next Generation of Americans Will Embrace Socialism If We Lose ‘War on History’

    As young Americans are losing an understanding of civics and American history, they increasingly embrace socialism. An annual poll conducted for the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation again found that the younger generations have a far sunnier view of socialism and communism than their elders. Some of the findings from the YouGov survey, released Oct….
    Jarrett Stepman
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    • Opinion

    Liberal Policy Failures Are the Reason for Socialism’s New Appeal

    Multiple forms of socialism, from hard Stalinism to European redistribution, continue to fail. Russia and China are still struggling with the legacy of genocidal communism. Eastern Europe still suffers after decades of Soviet-imposed socialist chaos. Cuba, Nicaragua, North Korea, and Venezuela are unfree, poor, and failed states. Baathism—a synonym for pan-Arabic socialism—ruined the postwar Middle…
    Victor Davis Hanson
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    • News

    Marco Rubio Says Americans Don’t Need Socialism to Find ‘Dignified Work’

    Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., criticized both the unrestricted free market and socialism in a speech Wednesday to a business class at The Catholic University of America.  America should work to build an economy where businesses and workers have both rights and obligations to each other, Rubio said.  “Does our country exist to serve the interest…
    Jackson Elliott
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