UNITED STATES: STEVEN BUCCI
The Defense Sequestration Is Only Part of the Pentagon’s Woes

As most commentators are focusing on the impending massive defense cuts that will devastate the military readiness of America, is it possible that this is only a part of the problem? The Department of Defense (DOD) is facing other symptoms of leadership failure.

UNITED STATES: AMY M. PAYNE
Barack Obama’s Second Inaugural Address, Translated

Members of Congress—who are about to debate raising the debt ceiling tomorrow—should have paid attention yesterday. The President was very clear that he sees no urgency about reducing the debt and cutting the deficit.

UNITED STATES: TED BROMUND, PH. D
Can the U.N. Grab Americans’ Guns?

For much of the past two weeks, I’ve been attending the U.N.’s Arms Trade Treaty conference in New York and blogging on the craziness of Turtle Bay. A number of comments on my blogs—and many external commentators—have raised the question of whether the ATT is, pure and simple, a “gun grab” treaty.

WORLD: DR. RAY WALSER
Venezuela and Chavez: President Obama Should Read His Intelligence Brief

In an interview with a popular Miami TV station, President Obama was asked yesterday about the danger Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez poses to U.S. security. The President responded: “My sense is that what Mr. Chavez has done over the last several years has not had a serious national security impact on us.”

UNITED STATES: DR. MATTHEW SPALDING
Imperial Presidency

The United States was born when rebellious colonists declared their independence from an imperial ruler who had vastly overstepped his bounds. “The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States,” they wrote in their Declaration of Independence...

UNITED STATES: SARAH TORRE
Obama Administration Puts Politics Before Trafficking Victims?

This morning, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a full committee hearing to investigate claims of gross politicization of a grant process that stripped funding for a group effectively serving human trafficking victims...

UNITED STATES: HELLE C. DALE
The U.S. in the Obama Era: Superpower or Doormat?

Sometimes the writing on the wall is 10 feet tall, and you have to be willfully blind not to see it. The September attack on the U.S. embassy in Kabul on September 13, which has now been linked to Pakistani secret service officials, is surely such an instance.