Continually reassuring our allies is a pillar of our national defense strategy, yet next year’s proposed defense commitments make the European Reassurance Initiative (ERI) only temporary. The President’s Fiscal Year 2017 Defense Budget includes $3.4 billion for ERI, which will strengthen NATO’s conventional capability near the Russian border, more than quadrupling the $789 million allocated […]
The 2016 Presidential Candidates on Nuclear Issues
With implementation day for the Iran nuclear agreement around the corner, implicit nuclear threats from Russia, an expensive nuclear weapons modernization program in the U.S., striking revelations of attempted nuclear smuggling, and threats of weapons testing from North Korea, nuclear weapons policy is receiving more attention during debates on U.S. foreign policy.
Pentagon Profligacy: Five Egregious Examples of Wasteful Pentagon Programs
The United States spent over $600 billion on the Pentagon this last year. That’s more money than the next seven countries combined. It’s also more than every other U.S. federal agency combined. Despite this extravagant budget, the Pentagon is the only agency that has never passed an audit, as required by law. What does that mean: the Defense Department can’t account for how it is spending all of its money.
Former SecDef Gates and the Future of Defense Reform (Fingers Crossed)
The Army JLENS blimp fiasco, the $43 million Afghan gas station, the fumbling F-35 program, the NDAA veto, government shutdowns, the Syrian train-and-equip program, etc. These are just some of the issues that have come up in recent times that highlight the desperate need to work towards defense reform in the United States. And the work should start now.
The U.S. Needs to Stop Throwing Weapons at Problems
The survival of the Iran nuclear agreement in Congress sent countless members of Congress scrambling for new ways to demonstrate their opposition to the deal and to throw sand into the gears required to carry out the agreement. One of the more preposterous ideas put forward was to send Massive Ordnance Penetrators (or MOPs) to Israel. MOPs are essentially really, really big bombs that have the capacity to penetrate up to 200 feet into the ground.
