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TO DEFENSE SECRETARY ROBERT GATES for a fiscal 2012 budget request that falls woefully short of the serious cuts that are essential and unavoidable.

Despite his long insistence that he would rein …

The strategic risks of U.S. debt and how to avoid them

U.S. federal government finances are on an unsustainable path — that is the unmistakable message from the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction commission …

Foreign interpreters earn the right to be fast-tracked to U.S citizenship

Patrolling the desert plains of Eastern Zabul province, Afghanistan, my gunner spots 10 civilians walking with AKs and PKMs.

I immediately …

TO CONGRESS for its failure to pass the fiscal 2011 DoD spending bill. Almost half of the way through fiscal 2011, the Pentagon is still operating under continual resolutions. Forcing federal agencies …

In “Goodbye, JFCOM” [AFJ, November], retired Col. Bob Killebrew argues convincingly for the elimination of U.S. Joint Forces Command as a four-star-led combatant command. He notes correctly that what is really happening …

Defense spending doesn’t equate to national security

Much of what I am about to discuss here may be unpopular with many in the defense community. But there comes a time when one …

Joint education is the key to effective joint operations

A major finding of the April report from the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) indicated an increasing need for additional joint and service-specific …

TO REP. HOWARD P. ‘BUCK’ McKEON for his rash response condemning the new defense cuts. The new House Armed Service Committee chairman rushed out a heated response to Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ …

Washington’s think tankers can play a double game through the media

Thinktankdom is a field in which research, analysis and commentary have shaped everything from the Marshall Plan to the Iraq War …

In their presidential debt commission report, released in December and ominously titled “The Moment of Truth,” co-chairs Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson point out that the federal debt has soared from 33 …