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Nearly every single award that American soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines fight, bleed and sometimes die to receive can be bought by everyone else on the Internet — even from the same company that makes them for the U.S. military. With the lone exception of the Congressional Medal of Honor, it’s all perfectly legal. It’s even legal to wear them now, unless the person is using his fraudulent medals to gain something of value.

Political reaction to the announcement that the Army plans to cut 40,000 soldiers within the next two years was predictable in Arizona. With Fort Huachuca scheduled to lose 114 soldiers by 2017, local Congresswoman Martha McSally issued a statement Thursday warning that the force reduction was “short-sighted,” and properly reminded people that the local post is conducting some of the military’s most important missions at a time when national security has never been more threatened. Arizona Sen. John McCain said the aggression of ISIS in the Middle East and events in the Ukraine have “overturned” any conceivable strategic rationale for...

Two words: Boondocks Saints.

So why do we have them in the first place? Tomorrow, negotiations on the Iran nuclear deal will run up against another deadline. Then the deadline will be ignored, talks will continue, and a new deadline will probably be set. Eventually, we’ll hit that deadline, and we’ll do the same dance all over again. HTML5 video is not supported! That’s because John Kerry has just informed the world that these “deadlines” are pretty much meaningless. As the Free Beacon reports: Secretary of State John Kerry informed reporters on Thursday that nuclear talks with Iran would continue past any deadline and...

What kind of a man negotiates nukes with the most prolific sponsor of terror in the world, Iran? What kind of a man stands with the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood, even giving them aid and comfort through the United States Government? What kind of man skips the international show of solidarity in Paris following the Charlie Hebdo terrorist massacre? What kind of a man stands in front of the United Nations General Assembly and declares that free people should not be allowed to criticize “the Prophet Mohammed?” What kind of a man lies to the American people daily, and never bats...

Calling Iraq and Syria a "single battle space," Sen. Lindsey Graham said he'd place around 10,000 troops in Syria today if he were president, in order to eradicate the heart of the Islamic State group's attempted caliphate. That call amounted to one of the most aggressive proposals by a 2016 presidential candidate regarding dealing with Syria, which has been engulfed in years of fighting between the government, rebels and Islamic militants. In remarks before The Atlantic Council on Wednesday, Graham, R-S.C., said half-measures like arming the Kurds to fight the Islamic State group were insufficient, and name-checked two of his...

It is unlikely that the Civil War amendments would have been proposed and ratified if Confederate leaders hadn’t precipitated the Civil War. The fact that the civil rights amendments were an inadvertent result of the Civil War doesn’t detract from the fact that the war resulted in ratification of constitutional amendments that outlawed slavery and would eventually guarantee all black Americans equal protection of the laws and the right to vote. Blacks should embrace the Confederate flag to show their gratitude for the benefits blacks received from the Civil War.

This colossal screw up is primarily Obama’s fault, Obama + Maliki + Hillary = Islamic State. This is the inescapable reality. Backing the Arab Spring, gun running from Libya to Syria, this whole thing is their mess Yesterday American Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter and General Martin Dempsey, revealed millions of tax payer dollars yielded America only 60 Syrian anti Assad fighters. Thusly conservatives world wide, feel vindicated by left wing press articles that seem to echo nearly every warning conservatives have been prognosticating for months. We see articles that contain a somber almost cryptic infomercial quality to them. Bad...

They flew home from Iraq together on a spring day in 2010 on a C-17 cargo plane, the dog in a metal kennel on the floor at the soldier's feet. When they reached the United States, the soldier went home to his farm in Fountain, Colo., and the dog was transported to the Army's military kennels at Fort Carson, about 12 miles north. Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Bessler and the Belgian Malinois named Mike had been part of a canine tactical team with the 10th Special Forces Group based at Fort Carson. On the ground in Iraq, their work had...

Mainly because he refuses to really fight. Please note that there is a difference between the confident language of victory and the smug language of triumphalism. Barack Obama’s got the latter down pat. With a smirk on your face and your nose in the air, you remind everyone that you won, and you’re going to do what you want to do - and even if you’re not supposed to do it, who’s going to stop you? We’ve always known he can talk like that. But the language of victory? Sure, you can cite the whole oceans-rising-planet-healing thing, but even there...

Obama: You don’t defeat ideologies like ISIS with guns; rather with “better ideas”. Did pacifists with “better ideas” defeat the Japanese Empire or Nazi Germany: schizophrenic nationalism that slaughtered 2,400 Americans at Pearl Harbor, exterminated 6 million Jews and accounted for over 20 million Russian casualties? Did “better ideas” stop Saddam Hussein from gassing thousands of Kurds, ravaging Kuwait, or indiscriminately sending missiles into the Israeli populace? Did it prevent 9/11 and save 3,000 innocent lives…the worst terrorist attack in our nation’s history? No? I’m all for dispelling a culture of hate, reforming a bloodthirsty plague on humanity, but considering...

German-owned Patriot missiles stationed in Turkey were briefly taken over by hackers, according to media reports on Tuesday.The attack took place on anti-aircraft ‘Patriot’ missiles on the Syrian border. The American-made weapons had been stationed there by the Bundeswehr (German army) to protect Nato ally Turkey. According to the civil service magazine, the missile system carried out “unexplained” orders. It was not immediately clear when these orders were carried out and what they were. The magazine speculates about two weak spots in the missile system which could be exploited by hackers. One such weakness is the Sensor-Shooter-Interoperability (SSI) which exchanges...

International warfare has created some of the most profound advances in technology and concepts, and the underwater arena is no exception. Following up on last issue’s look at the pistols of combat divers in Russia’s, Germany’s and America’s navies, we dive here into long guns of frogmen. APS Underwater RifleThe APS or Avtomat Podvodnyj Spetsialnyj Underwater Rifle was developed during the early 1970s by the Soviet Central Institute for Precision Machine Building (TsNIITochMash plant). The inspiration for this was that Russian combat divers only had knives and the SPP-1 underwater pistol (see American Shooting Journal, June 2015 issue) as their...

Treating the Confederate Flag as a hated enemy because some low life racists have misused it conflicts with Dr. Martin Luther King’s teaching that we should love our enemies. Instead of trying to ban the flag, black leaders should be embracing it so they can turn it into a symbol of racial harmony. Turning the Confederate Flag into a symbol of racial harmony would rob racists of an opportunity to misuse a popular southern symbol to further their goals

The heritage of the South, symbolized by the Confederate Battle Flag, is so important to many Like nearly all South Carolinians, I was deeply saddened upon learning of the senseless murders at the Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C. At the time, I was serving (military duties) outside the state when I also learned one of the slain was related to a fellow soldier. I continue to pray for the families. Their Christian witness after the tragedy impacted us all. For the sake of respect for the victims and their families, I did not believe it appropriate to write an...

Lee Greenwood sang his iconic “God Bless the USA” between periods of the NHL’s 2015 “Winter Classic” outdoor game in Washington, DC on New Year’s Day, but the real treat came off-stage in a concourse at Nationals Park. Fortunately, it was recorded on a smart phone, so you can enjoy it this Independence Day. Gabrielle Dube, an intern for the event, posted it with this description: “After Lee Greenwood’s performance during the intermission, he met with the Military Choir to take pictures and it sparked an impromptu a cappella version of ‘God Bless the USA.’ Amazing!”

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Many families look forward to Fourth of July celebrations that typically include delicious food and fireworks. While there's nothing wrong with observing the day, it's important to keep those who served in mind, as they might struggle with post-traumatic stress. The nonprofit Military with PTSD is hoping to raise awareness about the effects fireworks can have on men and women who served in the military. Unfortunately noisemakers and firework displays used to commemorate our nation's independence can oftentimes be the very things that cause emotional distress on combat veterans.

WeÂ’re just a week away from the fourth and final industry day where handgun manufacturers will meet to discuss the U.S. MilitaryÂ’s requirements for the XM17 Modular Handgun System (MHS). The XM17 project winner will be a replacement for the venerable, but now worn-out M9s made by Beretta that have been the nationÂ’s top military pistol for 30 years. The meeting will take place on July 7-8 at New JerseyÂ’s Picatinny Arsenal. The winner of the MHS contract is expected to be awarded the contract for roughly 280,000 full-size handguns for the Army, more than 200,000 for the Navy, Air...