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

    E15’s Not the Problem. Special Treatment for Ethanol Is.
    The Trump administration’s intention to authorize year-round sale of gasoline blended with a 15 percent ethanol mixture, announced Monday, perpetuates bad energy policy, both economically and environmentally. Having more options in what you buy is usually a good thing. However, E15, as it’s called, wouldn’t exist without mandates, subsidies, and preferential treatment from the federal…
    Nicolas Loris | David Grogan
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  • opinion

    On a Slippery Slope, Canadian Hospital Unveils Physician-Assisted Suicide Plan for ‘Sick Kids’
    Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children recently unveiled a plan for how to terminate the lives of terminally ill kids—with or without parental consent. This next step for physician-assisted suicide in Canada is shocking, yet unsurprising, given international trends. European countries that have legalized physician-assisted suicide frequently expand the practice from the elderly or terminally ill…
    Monica Burke
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  • opinion

    Filipino Leader Is Pushing a Socialist Constitution. It Makes a Mockery of Liberty.
    As U.S. politics heats up this fall, across the Pacific Ocean a political battle is unfolding in the Philippines that should interest citizens here in the United States. In 2016, Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte began speaking of federalism as a means to calm unrest in the island nation. In January of this year, he appointed…
    Taylor Fischer
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  • news

    Poll: Almost a Third of Millennials Identify as Socialists
    Thirty-one percent of millennials identify as a democratic socialist or socialist, according to a study by Maru/Blue and BuzzFeed News released Thursday. Participants were first asked what description “best reflects your current political leanings,” before being given options ranging from “Strong Democrat,” to “Strong Republican” or “Independent.” A total of 22 percent identified as “Strong Democrat,” versus 10…
    Joe Simonson
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  • news

    Rating of US Military Strength as ‘Marginal’ Is Worrisome, Sen. Joni Ernst Says
    The military strength of the United States is rated as only marginal in a new report from The Heritage Foundation, and the first female combat veteran elected to the U.S. Senate finds that disturbing. “As the index indicates, the United States is facing increasing global threats in all domains of warfare,” Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa,…
    Rachel del Guidice
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  • opinion

    As Congress Rebuilds the Military, Tracking Progress Is Vital
    In recent years, perhaps no one has felt the pinch of budget cuts more than the U.S. military. Though Congress must remain responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars, injudicious cuts to defense did unnecessary damage to our armed forces. Thanks to recent action from Congress, however, the military has cause for optimism. Congress took the first…
    Anna Macdonald | Rachel Zissimos
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  • opinion

    Why Leftists Feel Entitled to Block Highways, Shut Down Speakers, and Harass Public Officials
    When I was in graduate school, I learned a lot about the left. One lesson was that while most liberals and conservatives abide by society’s rules of order and decency, most leftists do not feel bound to live by these same rules. I watched the way leftist Vietnam War protesters treated fellow students and professors….
    Dennis Prager
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  • opinion

    Brexit Is Around the Corner. Here’s a Key Step to Renew the US-UK Special Relationship.
    It is undeniable that the United States and the United Kingdom have a “special relationship.” Throughout periods of global change, and in times of tumult and war, the Anglo-American relationship has been constant. We have stood beside each other through two world wars, the Cold War, and now in our confrontation with global terrorism in…
    Sen. Mike Lee
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  • opinion

    Ideal US-UK Free Trade Agreement Supports the Special Relationship
    A group of 11 conservative and libertarian think tanks on Sept. 18 launched “The Ideal U.S.-U.K. Free Trade Agreement: A Free Trader’s Perspective.” Published by the Cato Institute, and its primary authors, Dan Ikenson and Simon Lester of Cato, it is not a plan for a free trade area, or a plea for one. It…
    Ted Bromund
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  • news

    Congress Joins President, First Lady in Focusing on Opioid Epidemic
    After the Senate passed the Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018 on a near-unanimous vote of 99-1 on Monday evening, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., described the measure as “a big additional step to help combat this nationwide epidemic.” The Senate has just passed the landmark Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018. This legislation…
    Ginny Montalbano
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  • opinion

    New York City Just Sent Its Transportation Industry Back to the 1930s
    At 5 o’clock on Aug. 14, New York City turned its clocks back to the 1930s. The Taxi and Limousine Commission officially stopped issuing licenses to most for-hire vehicles, effectively declaring war on Uber and Lyft in an effort to protect taxis from competition. This is the first of many steps that aim to constrain…
    Jason Snead
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  • opinion

    Some Are More Equal Than Others in Socialist Venezuela
    It’s amazing how similarly “real” socialism turns out, every time it’s tried. In George Orwell’s book, “Animal Farm”—essentially the story of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, told through farm animals—there is an incredible moment where the animals, who suffer under the system of communism that they’ve created, come to a horrible realization that everything has…
    Jarrett Stepman
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  • opinion

    I’m a Pediatrician. Here’s What You Should Know About a New Study on Transgender Suicide.
    A new study is out that examines the risk of suicide among transgender teens. The results confirm a long pattern of data: Transgender teens attempt suicide more frequently than adolescents generally. Unfortunately, this data may be used to pressure parents to put their children through radical transition-affirming therapies. This would be a serious mistake. The…
    Michelle Cretella
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  • opinion

    We Hear You: Bad Apples at the IRS, State’s Security Breach Under Hillary, and Other Runaway Agencies
    Editor's note: Poorly run government programs prompt many a comment from the audience of The Daily Signal. We've got some of those in this roundup. Be sure to write us at [email protected].—Ken McIntyre Dear Daily Signal: The federal civil service system needs to be changed to make it less difficult to terminate employees for cause,…
    Ken McIntyre
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  • opinion

    A Federal Court Just Limited Your First Amendment Right to Freely Associate
    Should you be forced to disclose your charitable donations to the government? Is it an invasion of your privacy and a violation of your First Amendment rights if the government requires nonprofit membership organizations that you join and contribute to—such as the NAACP, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the National Right to Life Committee, or Americans for…
    Hans von Spakovsky | Ashley Vaughan
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  • opinion

    Special Interests Are Getting Rich Off Our Politics. Here’s How.
    The next time you feel the urge to join a major protest to condemn the elite, powerful forces who are supposedly making your lives worse, don’t bother. The event is most likely organized by elite, powerful forces who are getting rich off your activism while you don’t make a dime or a dime’s worth of…
    Bill Walton
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  • opinion

    TSA Needs Reform. Here’s What My Bill Would Change.
    In the 17 years since its inception, the Transportation Security Administration has managed to incorporate itself into the American way of life, both as a topic of news coverage and as a punch line for comedians. Now that an entire generation of Americans can’t remember the pre-TSA era, most people who fly can recall a…
    Sen. Mike Lee
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  • opinion

    Bolton Is Right to Repudiate International Criminal Court’s Jurisdiction Over US Military, Government Officials
    National security adviser John Bolton didn’t mince words in a speech on Monday as he outlined U.S. policy toward the International Criminal Court. In that speech, before the Federalist Society, Bolton said: The United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens, and those of our allies, from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate…
    Brett Schaefer
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  • opinion

    The Ugly Culture Legalizing Physician-Assisted Suicide Would Create
    On World Suicide Prevention Day, Sept. 10, we recognize suicide as the tragedy it is. Yet at this very moment, activists are agitating to expand—not to prevent—physician-assisted suicide. This practice promotes the idea that some lives are more valuable than others, an idea that rips apart the social fabric of our nation. No one should…
    Monica Burke
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  • opinion

    An Obama Judge Said Michigan’s Voting Law Was Racially Motivated. A Higher Court Disagrees.
    Sanity has prevailed in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A three-judge panel of that court, in very strong language, has stayed the absurd decision of an Obama-appointed judge, Gershwin A. Drain, who threw out the Michigan Legislature’s decision to eliminate straight-ticket voting for supposedly violating the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act. Michigan…
    Hans von Spakovsky
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