The creation of U. S. Northern Command on 1 October 2002 brought up concerns by civil libertarians and others about the implications of using American military combat forces inside the borders of the United States and raised posse comitatus questions. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 prevents military forces from taking on law enforcement roles [...]
Today we read a story datelined in San Francisco about a group of war veterans who are protesting the existence of Junior ROTC in the high schools, arguing that there should be "no more military recruitment in our schools." At the core of their argument seemingly is an assumption that being in the military is [...]
Military personnel see civil society as more dishonest, more self-indulgent, more corrupt, more disloyal, less disciplined, and more materialistic than military culture. This highlights the sense military people have that the general population does not really understand them and, despite supportive gestures and words, does not understand the sacrifices they make for America.
When asked [...]
It is becoming more and more certain that Barak Obama will be elected President of the United States. Along with that, the Democratic Party will control Congress to levels not seen since the 1930s. They will have a near filibuster proof Senate, if not filibuster proof, and a strong 250 (57%) vote majority. The question [...]
A recent CBS/New York Times poll found that 68% of Americans trust the military leadership more than the President (5%) or Congress (21%), to successfully resolve the war in Iraq. In data we are just now obtaining, about 88% of military personnel believe that non-military people getting too involved in military affairs either hurts [...]
We are going to go out on a limb and predict that the military will vote Democrat over Republican this year by a ratio of about 1.2 to 1. This prediction is based on demographics, historical military voter turnout, and the evident excitement about Barak Obama among black Americans. If military blacks turnout to vote [...]
There appears to be growing interest among the press about the political behavior (read, how do they vote) of our American military personnel, particularly the enlisted ranks. We have known for some time that officers, particularly senior officers, tend to be overwhelmingly conservative in attitude and identify with the Republican party. The problem is that [...]
We are beginning to get a better picture of the politics of the American enlisted person. Conventional wisdom would appear to paint them as more conservative and more likely to vote Republican than the average American citizen. Such may not be true. Early evidence from data beginning to come in seems to indicate that our [...]
A sign that our Congress may be starting to retake its constitutionally mandated role of watching over the military is a particularly hard-hitting op-ed piece in the Washington Times by Republican Senator Richard Shelby. In it he described the Air Force acquisition program as full of politics with parochial interests taking priority over national defense. [...]
The Navy’s recent decision to drop the DDG-1000 program and restart the DDG-51 program harkens back to something we talked about on these pages last year. We recommended the Navy do exactly that, as the DDG-1000 is not the vessel required for the future…too expensive, too hard to make in numbers, too many unproven technologies…not [...]
