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Daniel Gallington

Articles by Daniel Gallington

Illustration on Obama and Hillary's legacy by Alexander Hunter/The Washington Times

DANIEL GALLINGTON: Donald Trump: A future free of Clintons and Bushes

When national security was the main concern of voters in past presidential elections, Republicans had a leg up. This was mostly because of the perceived and historical expertise Republicans had with national security matters, especially during the Cold War.

December 29, 2015
Foreign Policy Triple Whammy Illustration by Greg Groesch/The Washington Times

DANIEL GALLINGTON: Explaining Donald Trump

Many Americans believe our entire government is dysfunctional and can't — or won't — correct itself. While this may be true, the thesis here is that "we are where we are" mainly because of specific national security leadership failures going back more than 20 years — through both Democratic and Republican administrations.

December 20, 2015
Illustration on our national security intelligence deficiencies by Alexander Hunter/The Washington Times

DANIEL GALLINGTON: The unknown terror threats

"No known terror threats." This could have been said a minute before the mass shootings in California. When we hear these same kind of words from our senior officials -- most recently in the context of the Thanksgiving holiday and the president's recent Oval Office address -- we really should be alarmed at the literal meaning of them.

December 8, 2015
illustration on Chinese cyber-espionage by M. Ryder/Tribune Content Agency

DANIEL GALLINGTON: The Chinese hack of OPM

According to a recent report, "Chinese hackers are using information gained from the breaches of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, as well as intrusions into the Anthem and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield health insurance networks, to build a complete profile of federal employees."

September 21, 2015

Investigate everyone who knew?

We have the media, the Obama administration and members of Congress all using the word "torture" but skipping over the real issue: whether what actually was approved, what actually was reported to Congress or what actually happened was really torture as the word is defined by applicable law.

August 23, 2009

GALLINGTON: How capitalism corrupts

Karl Marx believed that capitalism corrupted everything it touched - including governments that enabled it. Ironically, what happened recently to our economy was the result of the same dynamic - in the form of financial sector political influence on our government not to regulate the markets.

March 4, 2009

GALLINGTON: ‘Official secrets’ seepage

In what has become a regular, but unfortunate practice, the New York Times has again published highly classified information - this time in an article describing U.S. intelligence activities undertaken to thwart the Iran's nuclear weapons development program. The Times attributed the information to "current and former American officials," none of whom - of course - "would speak on the record."

February 8, 2009

GALLINGTON: Panetta’s role

A lot of politically snippy things will be said of President-elect Barack Obama's choice to nominate Leon Panetta as the next CIA director. However, the one we'll probably hear most often is that "the CIA should be led by someone with intelligence experience."

January 12, 2009

GALLINGTON: Remember the DeSoto?

General Motors and Chrysler are borrowing billions of our tax dollars to fix their business models and - hopefully - return them to profitability. They have 90 days to submit a plan on how they are to do it. I'm not a “car guy” - not by a long shot - but when the auto execs came to town in their executive jets to beg for public money, I decided my ideas on what they needed to do were at least as good as theirs. Then seeing these excessively paid execs bob and weave at the witness table convinced me they haven't a clue about how to do much of anything, except take money out of the company for their bonuses. This is not at all a kind description -- What I saw was the car salesman's image created by William Macy's character in the cult movie “Fargo.”

December 28, 2008

GALLINGTON: Bush Doctrine: Half a bad rap

In his recent speech at West Point, President Bush defended what has been called the "Bush Doctrine" - the policy known best because of the question ABC's Charlie Gibson sandbagged Sarah Palin with. (By his awkward demeanor with the scripted question, Mr. Gibson clearly didn't know the answer, either). Sad, because part of the doctrine - "preemption" - will continue to be U.S. policy, however it may be described by the Obama administration. Ironically perhaps, it's the "democracy" part of the Bush Doctrine that has failed under the Bush administration, primarily because of fuzzy thinking and poor execution at the senior policy level.

December 23, 2008

GALLINGTON: The Clinton coup

The big news from the Obama transition was the announcement of the new "national security team." But that's not the big story. The big story is how Hillary Clinton - as the next secretary of state - will impact on the bureaucratic struggles over U.S. foreign policy and national security affairs in Washington.

December 2, 2008

GALLINGTON: We conservatives blew it

The Obama victory shouldn't surprise anybody - most of all the "Reagan Republicans and Democrats" among us. Nevertheless, it's instructive to examine how it all happened. The short answer is that - especially with the recent economic downturn - the foreign policy failures of the past several years made it inevitable that the Democrats would win big this year, no matter whom they ran. As it turned out, we elected for our president a decent person from the far left, but someone who has never had a "real job." Well, times are tough for everybody, so let's hope he continues to be lucky for all of us.

November 6, 2008