In the 13 seconds between explosions at the Boston Marathon, dozens of the city's first responders were already on the move. Among them were Thomas Lee and David Carabin, veteran officers in the city's police force. Lee and Carabin had something in common beyond being two of "Boston's finest." Both hold graduate degrees from the Center for Homeland Defense and…

They pitched their tents in orderly, military fashion. All was quiet on the windswept plain, except for the sharp bark of guard dogs. But the sign tacked in front of the tents sent tremors through capitals around the world. It read, simply: "You are on Chinese Side." That changed last week. Chinese troops withdrew from their advanced positions on the India-China border,…

After 9/11, the words “immigration,” “border security” and “terrorism” were often linked in the same sentence. That was unfortunate. In America, terrorism is a “retail” problem. Terrorists are a small percentage of any group: visitors from overseas, immigrants, All-Americans, criminals—you name it. Border security and immigration are “wholesale” issues. They affect the…

Build a bomb. Stash it in a backpack. Go to a major sporting event. Drop the bag. Walk away. It was a simple plan, and it worked. Some people died. Many more were injured. Panic ensued. The president called it "an act of terror." And a wild manhunt was on. The year was 1996. The terrorist was Eric Robert Rudolph, a carpenter, handyman and extremist who had no training…

Our current vice president has had some not-so-good ideas. In 2006, the then-senator from Delaware proposed portioning Iraq into three separate autonomous regions. Each state, he argued, would have "room to run." Most likely, they would have run in opposite directions making an already messy situation even messier. Fortunately. his advice -- and his disregard for the…

As the confrontation with North Korea heated up, President Obama reversed course on one missile-defense decision, even as he proposed a defense budget that trimmed another half-billion dollars from the enterprise. This self-contradictory behavior on missile defense reflects the president’s ambivalence about a program that he doesn’t want, but knows he needs. As a…

A bomb exploded in a Bangkok apartment. Both apartment and bomb turned out to belong to a man who had planned to attack the Israeli Embassy. Israeli officials ultimately linked the plot to Hezbollah. Hezbollah translates to "Party of God," but the group is know internationally more for its terrorist attacks than its religious or political activities. The U.S. State…

Say what you will about the Red Sox, the Bruins, or Boston politicians, the city’s people sure know how to respond to an act of terror. There are textbooks on how to respond to attacks at large public events like the Boston Marathon, and what happened in Massachusetts — from the first response to the investigation to the pursuit of the perpetrators — is strictly by the…

She had an honorable discharge ... and an eviction notice. She also had marketable skills. In the Army, she had been a personnel management specialist. She could do event planning and outreach. She had all the makings of a top-notch employee. All she lacked was a job. Luckily for her, America Works knows talent when they see it. When she went to them for help, they saw…

They called him "Cap the Knife." Big budgets didn't intimidate Caspar Weinberger. After all, he'd been the state finance director for California. Washington ran pretty much the same way. "You just had to add about nine zeros to everything," he said. Weinberger earned his nickname during the Nixon administration. As head of the Office of Management and Budget and then…

One leader was a confirmed interventionist. The other held that multiple treaties and binding arbitration were the surest path to world peace. These divergent views on foreign affairs -- and other issues as well -- split the Right in 1912 and landed the "progressive" Woodrow Wilson in the White House. Will that same scenario play out in 2016? In today's foreign policy…

Every generation of war has its signature weapon, from the English long bow that felled French knights at Agincourt to the big bomb that destroyed Nagasaki. Today, in the era of post–9/11 warfare, that weapon is the armed unmanned aerial vehicle—the UAV in military vernacular, but just “drones” to the rest of us. Drones have certainly made a big impression in Washington.…

The wall fell, and Washington couldn't cash the "peace dividend" fast enough. People were the Pentagon's most expensive asset, so people had to go. Next on the chopping block: equipment. The brass started dumping inventories and cutting corners on maintenance. Training took a hit, further hurting readiness. Then, they sold out the future: postponing and even cancelling…

Following World War II, half of Europe fell under the iron grip of Stalin. Those nations remained captured for decades. Whole generations were lost to freedom. America spent untold wealth fighting the Cold War and risked global nuclear devastation. If 10 years after, America's newspapers had asked "Was WWII worth it?", most Americans would have shriveled their brow in…