Daniel Gallington

Remembering when Flight 77 struck

Most everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing on September, 11, 2001. It was one of those days never to be forgotten, like Pearl Harbor or the day President Kennedy was assassinated.

September 10, 2019

Why Trump will prevail in 2020

Donald Trump wins again in 2020, no matter who runs against him. This even if the Republicans rip themselves apart as they did with Ross Perot in the 1992 Clinton- GHW Bush election. By the way, this was the same election — we should recall — that started the tawdry "Clinton Dynasty," which has thankfully come to an end.

March 12, 2019

Why Trump’s new space directive resonates

President Trump's recent executive order, "Establishment of the United States Space Force," represents a major positive turn in U.S. national security policy. In many ways, this new order is as significant as was President Reagan's famous March 23, 1983 "Star Wars" speech leading to his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) that "got the attention" of the Russians — and was cited by many as a basic reason for ending the Cold War.

February 26, 2019

How withdrawal from the Intermediate Nuclear Force arms treaty may lead to more effective defense

President Trump has announced that, unless the Russians reverse their violations of essential and "material" provisions of the 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Force arms control treaty (INF) signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987, we will withdraw from the treaty in six months.

February 6, 2019

Taking on China’s intellectual property theft

The Trump administration is taking seriously the entire spectrum of economic challenges related to China that impact our nation. For decades, prior administrations have either ignored the issues or accepted Chinese lies, fabrications and excuses without any pushback. Fortunately, there are no internal political battles over this area — so we can expect the excellent team President Trump has assembled to "work these issues" will succeed.

February 5, 2019

U.S. national security does not depend on keeping troops in Afghanistan

The Trump administration inherited the "Afghanistan problem," now going into its 18th year. The U.S. presence in this conflict consumes some $45 billion to $50 billion of taxpayer dollars annually as well as the lives of our service men, women and contractors.

January 30, 2019

Why Trump’s Missile Defense Review must be supported

Immediately following President Trump's rollout of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Review (MDR), Russia responded that the new U.S. strategy was proof "Washington's desire to ensure uncontested military domination in the world will inevitably start an arms race in space with the most negative consequences for international security and stability, will not strengthen security of the U.S. and its allies and will have the opposite effect and deal another heavy blow to international stability."

January 28, 2019

Weighing the dangerous consequences of key national security decisions

The national security talking head and op-ed circuit these days is full of "clucking" about how we can recover lost ground from the Russians and Chinese in the post-Cold War competition of world powers. Not surprisingly perhaps, there is little discussion of how we got ourselves into this mess — this because many of the op-ed authors and talking heads were complicit in our great power demise.

January 16, 2019

Why an ‘Arab NATO’ must keep Israel in the mix

The Trump administration is quietly pushing ahead with a plan for a new security and political alliance with six Gulf Arab states, Egypt and Jordan, in part to counter Iran's expansion in the Middle East. The plan, which some in the White House and Middle East are calling an "Arab NATO" of Sunni Muslim allies can clearly be seen as one way to counter expansionism by Shi'ite Iran and referred to as the Middle East Strategic Alliance (MESA).

August 6, 2018

Dealing with Kim Jong-un and China

Where do we go from here?

June 18, 2018

Kim’s nukes and the giant in the room

Assuming Kim Jong-un has — so far — agreed to "complete denuclearization," whatever that means, in exchange for the suspension of U.S.ROK military exercises. Where do we go from here?

June 12, 2018

Did Comey’s FBI and Lynch’s DOJ target Trump?

No Washington establishment — especially the party in power — took Donald Trump seriously as a presidential candidate. Accordingly, the early decisions made in the imbedded intelligence bureaucracies — often called the "deep state" — were clearly made with the assumption that there would never be any review or accountability.

June 4, 2018

FISA judges need to examine their own procedures for avoiding political bias

Story after story comes out about the extent to which partisan politics played a key role in the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ), intelligence community and FBI during the 2016 presidential campaign. It's especially so in the context of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, and the more recent suggestions of a "mole" or "spy" inside the Trump campaign.

May 23, 2018