Op-Ed

After ten tours with SOF, I saw women prove on the battlefield what history already shows: when we hold everyone to the same mission-driven standards, merit wins and the force gets stronger.

Slicing off pieces of Ukraine to placate Putin is not a peace plan; it is a surrender that rewards aggression, betrays our allies, and invites a wider war.

Trump’s cease-fire, built on wishful thinking that Hamas would police itself, stripped away Israel’s deterrent, let a hostile force regroup, and proved that without regional ownership of security and accountability, “peace” is a photo op and a pause before the next round.

Peace through strength works only when strength shakes hands with diplomacy, because ruling by unilateral muscle is a bandage on a battlefield wound that bleeds away the trust needed to win tomorrow.

Lincoln led through crisis by aligning decisive action with a long horizon, turning the fight to save the Union into a moral campaign that advanced freedom and set the nation on a path toward equality.

While we served beside Ukrainians under fire, Charlie Kirk framed disengagement as “peace” and treated their struggle like a talking point.

In Gaza’s shadow war, anti-Hamas clans aligned with the Palestinian Authority quietly gather intelligence, trade fire when necessary, and risk being branded traitors as they gamble that limited cooperation with Israel might carve out a sliver of stability for their families.

Celebrate the hard-won hostage releases, but keep your eyes on the harder fight ahead, where seasoned diplomats tackle root grievances, sideline spoilers like Hamas, and stitch a real path to security, dignity, and peace.

Planting a Qatari military foothold at Mountain Home is not partnership; it is a sovereignty leak that risks intelligence, invites threats, and sets a reckless precedent that does nothing to strengthen American security.

Basing foreign troops on American soil surrenders a piece of our sovereignty, puts partner politics ahead of America First, and invites risks that communities did not ask for.

Unregulated capitalism, blessed by the Reagan Revolution and cemented by Citizens United, has turned our democracy into an auction for the highest bidder while the American dream withers.

The gravest threat to American national security is not abroad but in the slow collapse of truth, faith, and confidence in the institutions meant to serve us.