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

    Remembering Frank Carlucci, Reagan’s Secretary of Defense
    Frank Carlucci III, who served under every president from Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan, died June 3 at his home in McLean, Virginia. He was 87. Carlucci, who dedicated much of his adult life to serving the American people and became well-known for his bravery, conservatism, and problem-solving approach, served as the 15th national security…
    Luc Sasseville | James Di Pane
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  • news

    If Russia Invades, US Special Operations Forces Have an Unconventional Plan to Liberate the Baltics
    DOLASZEWO, Poland—In less than 72 hours, U.S. special operations forces transformed a nondescript reserve base at this village in the bucolic Polish countryside into the headquarters of a simulated, special operations war to liberate NATO’s three Baltic countries from a land invasion. Looking in from outside the perimeter wire, however, you’d never know it. Only…
    Nolan Peterson
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  • opinion

    Pentagon’s New Transgender Policy Strikes Right Balance for Military
    More than 100 lawmakers have signed a letter calling on Defense Secretary James Mattis to rescind his recently announced transgender policy for the military, as USA Today reports. Mattis’ policy largely returns the military to the transgender policy in effect prior to 2016, when President Barack Obama enacted sweeping changes based on political considerations and…
    Thomas Spoehr
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  • opinion

    Trump Official Affirms Commitment to NATO Allies in Major Speech
    President Donald Trump’s vision for European policy is a welcome change from the muddled approach taken by the Obama administration. That was the assessment of A. Wess Mitchell, the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, in a sharply focused major policy address Wednesday at The Heritage Foundation. Mitchell’s speech came against a…
    Nile Gardiner
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  • news

    Obama Administration Allegedly Let Iran Access US Financial System Because It Was ‘Desperate to Get a Deal’
    The Obama administration secretly allowed Iran to access the U.S. financial system to convert assets to U.S. dollars, despite repeated assurances that it would not permit such transactions, a new Senate subcommittee report alleges. “The Obama administration misled the American people and Congress because they were desperate to get a deal with Iran,” Sen. Rob…
    Ryan Pickrell
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  • opinion

    Here Are 5 New Signs Social Security Is Going Insolvent
    The Social Security Administration released its annual trustees report this week, and the prognosis is not good. Trust fund depletion—the date when Social Security’s reserves will be exhausted and the program will only be able to spend what it receives in payroll taxes at that time—is approaching at a rapid pace. This year, Social Security will…
    Romina Boccia
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  • news

    Opioids Are Now Behind 20% of Deaths Among Young Americans
    A new research study suggests opioid abuse in the U.S. is now responsible for 20 percent of deaths among young adults. The study, published Friday in the journal JAMA Network Open, reveals that young Americans are dying at a far greater pace than any other group. While 1 in every 65 adults in the U.S. suffered…
    Steve Birr
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  • opinion

    Venezuela’s ‘21st-Century Socialism’ Is an Unmitigated Disaster
    The sham re-election of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on May 20 has made it clear that the humanitarian crisis in that country will only get worse. Maduro has been running a dictatorship since the election of the constituent assembly in July of 2017, and Venezuelans are suffering because of it. Many on the left have…
    Julia Howe | Patrick Tyrrell
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  • opinion

    Why Capitalism Is Morally Superior to Socialism
    Several recent polls, plus the popularity of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., demonstrate that young people prefer socialism to free market capitalism. That, I believe, is a result of their ignorance and indoctrination during their school years, from kindergarten through college. For the most part, neither they nor many of their teachers and professors know what…
    Walter E. Williams
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  • opinion

    Pro-Amnesty Republicans Would Undermine Border Security and US Law
    With some Republicans pushing for a vote on amnesty for those brought illegally to the U.S. as children, Congress should remember why such policies hurt, rather than help. In addition to giving short shrift to other needed immigration reforms and being unfair to both Americans and legal immigrants, the current immigration efforts will likely only…
    David Inserra
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  • opinion

    To Vietnam, Freedom of Expression Is a ‘National Security Offense’
    “In Vietnam, there is no such thing as a ‘prisoner of conscience,’ and there’s no such thing as people being arrested for ‘freely expressing opinion,’” Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang told reporters in April. The exact opposite is true. A recent report by Amnesty International listed 97 known prisoners of conscience in…
    Sang Hyuk Park | Olivia Enos
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  • news

    Trump Issues Commercial Space Policy Directive on Eve of Anniversary of JFK’s Space Program Speech
    President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a space policy directive, calling for “updating and refocusing” those policies in a bid to promote innovation and modernize American commercial space policy. The White House said the move “reforms America’s commercial space regulatory framework, ensuring our place as a leader in space commerce.” This is the second space…
    Ginny Montalbano
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  • opinion

    Social Justice Warrior Accuses Conservative Women of ‘Appropriating’ Feminism—but We’re Not Having It
    Fake news, move over—there’s a new con (wo)man in town. It’s called fake feminism, and according to a woman on the left, conservative women are the culprits. Liberal feminist writer Jessica Valenti, author of books such as “Sex Object: A Memoir,” and “Why Have Kids?”, took to The New York Times Sunday to argue Republicans…
    Kelsey Bolar
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  • opinion

    Senators Need to Stop Asking Judicial Nominees Their Personal Views
    On Thursday, in the Senate Judiciary Committee’s business meeting, Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, addressed efforts to force judicial nominees to express personal views on issues or cases in their confirmation hearings. Senators routinely press nominees, for example, to say whether particular Supreme Court precedents, such as Brown v. Board of Education or Roe v. Wade, were correctly decided….
    Thomas Jipping
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  • news

    California Officials Back Trump on Crackdown on ‘Sanctuary’ Policies
    California law enforcement and local officials gathered at the White House on Wednesday to make it clear that Sacramento doesn’t speak for them on illegal immigration. The Democrat-controlled state Legislature passed and Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, signed a “sanctuary state” law that prohibits state and local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities…
    Fred Lucas
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  • opinion

    Homeland Security Secretary Nielsen Shows That She Truly Understands Border Security
    Testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen schooled senators with her strong grasp of immigration enforcement and border security issues. Before what would become a heated exchange over her opposition to illegal immigration—because, you know, it’s the law—Nielsen in her opening statement explained what should be obvious to all:…
    David Inserra
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  • news

    6 More Judicial Nominees Advance in Trump Bid to Reshape Judiciary
    President Donald Trump is completing a strong week, and is set to kick off a strong next week, in his push to reshape the federal courts, with Senate Republicans forcing votes on six more of his judicial nominees. Despite the Democrat minority in the Senate using procedures to delay many confirmation votes, Senate Majority Leader…
    Fred Lucas
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  • opinion

    Right Side of History: Special Counsels Hunting Presidents Nothing New
    “The Right Side of History” is a podcast dedicated to exploring current events through a historical lens and busting left-wing myths about figures and events of America’s past. On this week’s episode, we discuss investigations by special prosecutors, which didn’t start with Robert Mueller’s probe of President Donald Trump. In 1875, President Ulysses Grant named…
    Fred Lucas | Jarrett Stepman
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  • opinion

    Military Families Want Better Schooling, but Special Interests Stand in the Way
    “Dems warn school vouchers for military families could ‘derail’ annual defense bill,” Politico reported last week. At the same time, special-interest groups, such as the National Association of Federally Impacted Schools, are holding Capitol Hill briefings suggesting that empowering military families with school choice would “defund Impact Aid.” These objections, however, are without merit, and…
    Lindsey Burke
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  • opinion

    Democrats’ Universal Job Plan Would Be a Socialist Disaster
    Sen. Bernie Sanders is set to announce a plan that guarantees every American “who wants or needs one” a lifetime government job paying at least $15 an hour, with health insurance and other perks. This new progressive workforce will then, according to The Washington Post, build glorious “projects throughout the United States aimed at addressing…
    David Harsanyi
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