Category: US Politics

From Kabul evac fallout to a deadly ambush in Abyei and the mess of armed factions in Gaza, these stories all point to the same truth: rushed decisions and fragile ceasefires always get paid for by people standing post. Whether it’s Guard troops at home, peacekeepers abroad, or IDF units hunting bomb-makers, the work is still dirty, dangerous, and done without applause.

Trump’s National Security Strategy isn’t isolationism, it’s a hard pivot toward a narrower, transactional worldview where borders and identity politics drive the threat picture, “Western civilization” becomes a tribal banner, and allies are left wondering if they’re partners or just the next line item to be renegotiated.

America is not collapsing from outside pressure but hollowing itself out from within, trading shared civic responsibility for grievance, celebrity worship, and the comforting lies of a cult that mistakes cruelty for strength and ignorance for conviction.

Hard-nosed realism that trades away our commitment to democracy in favor of cutting deals with dictators is not strength; it is strategic blindness that will cost America both credibility and security.

When we order troops to carry out morally questionable strikes, we don’t just risk the target, we plant moral injury that spreads through the force, wrecks morale and trust in leadership, and creates long-term damage to the institution unless we face it honestly and care for our people.

Ukraine is plugging more women into the drone fight on the front line, while back home Pete Hegseth is pushing U.S. industry to crank out weapons faster for the next war, and Poland is set to grab about 250 U.S. Strykers for a buck each to beef up NATO’s eastern flank.

If senior officers learn that asking hard questions is a career risk, not a professional duty, we will not need an enemy navy to sink us; we will do it ourselves from the inside out.

If the bombing of that vessel is ultimately judged to have targeted civilians or used grossly disproportionate force, then everyone in the chain of command, from the trigger-puller up to President Trump and his Pentagon leadership, must answer for it as a potential war crime rather than dismiss it as routine business of war.

We can secure our nation without blanket bans by fixing our vetting, honoring our Afghan allies who bled for us, and working together on practical solutions instead of scoring political points.

Congress is tightening bipartisan oversight on the Trump administration’s Caribbean counter-narco strikes even as the White House keeps pressure on cartel networks and Maduro’s inner circle. At the same time, Maduro is trying to project calm from behind blacked-out glass in Caracas, while New York’s anti-ICE protest at Federal Plaza crossed from lawful dissent into street-level disorder and drew a firm NYPD response.

In the end, the tracks we queue up when the pressure hits say as much about how we lead as any memo, briefing, or stump speech.

If the American Dream is dying, it is because a self-anointed New Nobility has quietly rigged the system to fatten its portfolios while telling the rest of us to admire the yacht.