Free Republic

Retired Marine Gen. James Mattis was approved on Wednesday by the Senate Committee on Armed Services to serve as secretary of defense in Donald Trump’s administration. Mattis sailed through the committee, which voted 26-1 for him to lead the Pentagon. Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.) was the only member of the Senate panel to vote against the retired four-star general, who enjoys bipartisan support to head the Defense Department under President-elect Trump. Gillibrand has previously said she would oppose confirming Mattis because he only retired from the Marine Corps in 2013, while federal law requires a seven-year break between military...

With the recent nomination of Ashton Carter to head the Department of Defense many observers are not only wondering how Mr. Carter will differ in style from his predecessor, outgoing Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, but also how they will differ in substance. One area in particular is the vocal commitment to which Mr. Carter, assuming his nomination successfully navigates U.S. Senate confirmation, will give toward missile defense as a significant element of the nation's broad national security apparatus. The Missile Defense Agency (MDA), responsible for conducting "research, development, and acquisition" of ballistic missile defense systems for the Department of...

Robert Gates isn't just our secretary of defense -- he's our national damage-control officer. The closest thing this love-your-enemies administration has to an indispensable man, Gates is fighting the good fight in the worst of times. Ever since signing on as President George W. Bush's SecDef in early 2005, Gates has fought to reform the Air Force, improve the Pentagon's dysfunctional acquisition system, give our troops in the field what they really need and cut through the red tape that's paid for in red blood. The greatest sacrifice any top-echelon public figure has made in decades was Gates' agreement to...

- In his recent unequivocal vote of confidence for Secretary Rumsfeld, President Bush said, among other supportive comments, that Secretary Rumsfeld sometimes presents a rough and gruff demeanor. Sure he does….shouldn‘t he? What demeanor should a Secretary of Defense have, that of a girlie-man? He won two wars for cripes sake and is already on his way to seeing through the exceedingly difficult mission of assuring that elections take place in Iraq at the end of January. Most of the criticism comes from the political left, all of those military experts, who have the answers to everything. Not a word...

SOME SELF-AGGRANDIZING schmuck masquerading as a journalist found an unassuming soldier in the desert and proceeded to demand that the fatigued GI harangue Don Rumsfeld into quick thinking on an ever-changing issue. Then the reporter bragged, the press smirked, and Rumsfeld, an heroic leader, was suddenly transmogrified into the villain. Even Trent Lott, not exactly a favored member of the Republican Party, has opened his yap on the Rummy Question. "I'm not a fan of Sec. Rumsfeld," he said, recently. "I'm not calling for his resignation, but I think we do need a change at some point." The last time...

A good friend of mine once pointed out to me that the first thing liberals do, after someone commits a crime with a gun, is try to disarm everyone who didn't do it. I found his words to be both insightful and troubling, and it's the same sort of pretzel logic to which he referred that has become evident over the past few years in the actions of the many left-wingers seeking to defame Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Apparently, leftists believe that Mr. Rumsfeld is somehow responsible for our military's lack of optimum preparedness, which is sort of like blaming...

Among the many distinctive expressions Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has offered as gifts to the media is the following: “I don’t do quagmires,” referring to the mantra-like repetition by some war critics that Iraq has become a quagmire. The media, however, especially its Official Rumsfeld-Hating Clique, remains mired in the viciously viscous putrid muck of all-consuming loathing of the Secretary of Defense. That same media currently has its puerile knickers in a twist about President Bush awarding Tommy Franks, Paul Bremer and George Tenet the Medal of Freedom. Or, as liberal columnist Richard Cohen, speaking for many media colleagues,...