James Carafano

James Carafano: Why 1978 was a very bad year

He followed an unpopular president. He received a strong election mandate. He changed the tone in Washington. He said that Human Rights mattered. That America's image in the world had to be remade. He would receive a Nobel Peace Prize. As the end of his presidency's first year drew near, the future looked bright. He had brought change -- change that mattered. It was 1977. The next year was very bad. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter negotiated the Camp David Accords, formalizing peace between Israel and Egypt. (It's what won him the Nobel.) He also signed a bill that legalized the home-brewing of beer. Almost all the other news that year proved uniformly bad. A Soviet-backed...

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James Carafano: Web 2.0 has anti-social networking, too

Spies! They were all over Washington. Yes, they liked us. They were British, after all. But they had a mission: to get their American cousins into the war against Nazi Germany ... even if they had to play dirty. They did. Part of Britain's World War II spy network was the "Rumor Factory." It manufactured only two products: half-truths and misleading stories designed to whip up anti-Nazi and pro-British sentiment. The factory had rules for spreading rumors on the Potomac. Jennet Conant cataloged them in "The Irregulars," her fascinating history of wartime Washington. The list included advice like "a good rumour should never be traceable to its source" and...

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James Carafano: Immigration reform kept behind closed doors, under wraps

Call it an after-action review. The Bush administration's attempt to craft a "comprehensive" immigration reform bill had crashed and burned. As the legislative rubble still smoked, a high government official met with conservative groups that had balked at the White House proposal to grant amnesty to illegals. He began his remarks with one word. "Ouch." He went on to concede that the administration had made several mistakes fatal to the bill: » They had tried to ram it through without open debate. » They had ignored or pooh-poohed legitimate concerns over how the proposal might affect other policy goals, ranging from sovereignty to security. » Their approach...

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James Carafano: In guns vs. butter, butter is winning

H. Rowen Gaither Jr. advised the great men of his era. He helped found RAND, the original U.S. think tank. He headed the Ford Foundation and served on numerous presidential committees. Ultimately, President Eisenhower tabbed him to chair an independent assessment of America's national security needs. For once, Ike got more than he asked for. The Gaither report argued for an astronomical increase in defense spending to fight the Cold War. As if to underscore its recommendations, the Soviets launched Sputnik just weeks before Gaither delivered his report to the Oval Office. After watching the Soviets win the "space race," many Americans believed Moscow's military power might soon...

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James Carafano: Home, Homeland security on the range

Chicago's 1893 World's Fair was a 600-acre celebration of American exceptionalism. There, amid the wonders and marvels of the modern world, the American Historical Association held its annual meeting. Among the learned papers heard at the conference was "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," an essay by Frederick Jackson Turner that later earned a Pulitzer Prize. The Turner thesis held that life on the frontier shaped the unique American character. Turner's reflections were said to have been inspired by a 1890 declaration from the director of the U.S. Census. The American West, the director observed, "had been so broken into by isolated bodies of...

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James Carafano: Homeland Security's blind spot

By James Jay Carafano More than just the Twin Towers crumbled on 9/11. The terror attacks that day acted as a weapon of mass destruction among New York City's small-business economy. On Sept. 10, 2001, Manhattan was something of a small-business paradise. The borough was a magnet for high-paying jobs. And all those suits needed lattes, shoe shines, pressed shirts and a morning paper. That changed in a single day. Just ask Robert Garber. In 1997, he started a downtown eatery called Bits, Bites and Baguettes. Sept. 10, 2001 was his busiest day ever. The next day he found his restaurant barricaded. It remained so for more than two months. When Garber finally reopened, he had almost no...

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James Carafano: What really remains of the day

It was July 4, 1916 ... or so the story goes. The world was at war. Americans weren't in the fight yet, but they knew whose side they were on ... and it wasn't Germany's. That day, four Hun-hating refugees met at a Coney Island hot dog stand. Arguing over who was prouder to be in America, they decided to settle the matter with an eating contest. An All-American eating contest. One in which they would devour -- not the hated frankfurter -- but the All-American "hot dog." Legend holds this was the origin of Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest. This year 40,000 people watched. ESPN covered it live. Now, some sports fans may get excited watching Joey...

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James Carafano: Obama's dirty missile defense secrets

While campaigning for president, Barack Obama promised to support missile defense that was "pragmatic and cost-effective" and "does not divert resources from other national security priorities until we are positive the technology will protect the American public." This measured support for missile defense, coupled with his pledge to combat terrorism and follow through on the mission in Afghanistan, was meant to reassure America's voters. The intended message: A President Obama would not be negligent on national security. Once in the White House, he would protect Americans. That was the promise. Americans believed it. And it helped carry him into the Oval Office with...

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'Buy America' is bad for national security

Willis Hawley and Reed Smoot thought they had a great idea. Hawley chaired the House Ways and Means Committee. Smoot oversaw the Senate Finance Committee. Faced with a national economic meltdown, they brainstormed ways to jump-start the economy. Their solution was new tariffs. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 slapped duties on about 20,000 imports. Rather than spur consumption and production of American goods, it sparked an international trade war. By 1932, American exports to Europe were just one-third of what they had been in 1929. Worldwide trade fell two-thirds as other nations retaliated. The protectionist measure protected nothing. Jobs evaporated. The stock market crash of...

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James Jay Carafano: Uncle Walter's ghost is still with us in Afghanstan

On the Vietnamese holiday of Tet in 1968, U.S. troops in Saigon woke not to the pop of firecrackers, but to the riddle of machine gun fire. The enemy attacked throughout the city and across the country. Veteran CBS Evening Newsman Walter Cronkite witnessed the Tet Offensive, and it shook him. He returned stateside and, on Feb. 27, ended his broadcast with an unprecedented “editorial opinion” in which he concluded, “We are mired in a stalemate.” Upon hearing the broadcast, President Lyndon Johnson reportedly declared, “That’s it. If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.” Thus, birthed the legend that the press lost...

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James Carafano: Robert Gates: 21st century cold warrior

It is 50 years in the future. America’s most distinguished historians (all arriving in carbon-free rocket cars) gather for a conference assessing “the secretary of defense who best exemplified Cold War thinking.” Their subject: Robert Michael Gates. It might seem odd that future chroniclers would pick a man who ran the Pentagon 20 years after the fall of Communism as the defense leader who most typified the era of hyper-superpower competition. But Gates’ approach to the defense authorization bill recently pushed through Congress is riddled with “old think.” The quintessential Cold Warrior belief was they faced a predictable enemy. Planners assumed...

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James Carafano: An EMP attack: Thinking the unthinkable

When the 9/11 Commission issued its report, it complained that federal agencies had a colossal "failure of imagination." Nobody could accuse Newt Gingrich from suffering that shortfall. When he delivered a major address on national security last week, the former Speaker of the House went after Defense Secretary Robert Gates for planning for the future the Pentagon wants, rather than dealing with the many serious problems it may actually face. Gingrich mentioned one challenge that many find too terrible to contemplate -- which is why our government should spend a lot more time doing exactly that. I'm referring to the Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP). This method of attack is...

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James Jay Carafano: "Smart and tough" immigration enforcement fools no one

In his diary, the president wrote, "Immigration bill now in conference committee. Decided we could not acceptÉbill will probably die. Too, bad, because we've lost control of our borders." The president was Ronald Reagan. The year was 1982. Four years later, he took another shot at solving the problem--and got the bill he wanted. Reagan's three-piece solution to comprehensive reform was: * a mass amnesty, * followed by serious workplace and border enforcement, * paired with effective temporary worker programs. As it turned out, we got the amnesty--and nothing else. At the time of the '86 reforms, the illegal population was about 3 million. Now it is around 11 million. In...

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Newt gnaws on nation's security

He was a fixture of national politics for decades, a commanding presence on the national stage. He led conservatives out of the wilderness to the pinnacle of power. But at the height of influence, he suffered a crushing political defeat. Resigning his leadership post, he returned to his great love-writing. History, however, wasn't done with Winston Churchill. One of his most memorable and important speeches was yet to come. In 1946, he embarked on an extended American tour. His itinerary included a stop at a small college in Fulton, Missouri. There, he challenged the United States to exercise global leadership. "To reject it or ignore it or fritter it away," Churchill warned,...

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Killer pigs and politicians

When Mexico reported an outbreak of swine flu last April, fear of an epidemic quickly spread. One member of Congress claimed he knew exactly how to handle the situation. "We need to close our borders to Mexico immediately and completely until this is resolved," said Rep. Eric Massa, D-NY, a Naval Academy graduate and Gulf War veteran. Nobody listened to him. Now the science is in. And guess what? It makes the Congressman and all the other seal-the-border alarmists look foolish. Dr. Kamran Khan at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto leads a research team that studies international air travel to help predict the spread of infectious diseases, like the swine flu (officially called...

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Our dumb and dumber Congress

Something extraordinary will happen at Washington, DC's Newseum on July 3. There, on the day before Independence Day, those who suffered through the Sept. 11 attack on the Pentagon will tell their stories. For the ages. It's part of an oral history project sponsored by the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, in partnership with StoryCorps. Attack survivors, members of victims' families, first responders, volunteer rescuers and other witnesses will record the horrors and heroics they witnessed that day. Their interviews will be maintained at the Library of Congress and become part of the permanent collection at the 9/11 memorial in New York. (While the interviews are being...

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Next-up in the terrorist-batter’s box

It was called “the terrorist attack of the century.” The last century. In 1905, former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg was dynamited. The bomb (the WMD of its day) was strapped to a gatepost on his garden fence. The authorities arrested “Big Bill” Haywood, a labor organizer for the Western Federation Miners. J. Anthony Lukas chronicles the crime, investigation and trial in his book Big Trouble. Few history books even mention the turn-of-the-century terror incident. But at the time, it was huge. Headlines heralded it as the harbinger of everything from an age of anarchism to a populist revolt. The incident remains important because it tells us...

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What comes after Afghanistan?

“Victory deserves a future.” That thought was a guiding light for one of the 20th century’s greatest leaders—Winston Churchill. He lamented the “wilderness years” that followed his resignation from government during World War I. Out of political power, he found himself impotent to shape the future, unable to stem the descent into another global conflict. That disappointment, however, was nothing compared to what Churchill experienced in 1945, when British voters rejected him at the polls. Having led the nation through its darkest hour and on to victory in World War II, Churchill was heart-broken at being shunted from his post as prime...

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What Scoop Jackson knew

There may never be another Scoop. Once upon a time Washington had many leaders who put national security before their politics. Henry “Scoop” Jackson stood at the top of the class. Serving in the Senate from 1953 to his death 30 years later, no one worked harder than the Democrat from Washington State to provide for the common defense. “His core convictions about foreign policy and national security affairs derived largely from the lessons of World War II,” wrote biographer Robert G. Kaufman, “the folly of isolationism and appeasement, the importance of democracies remaining militarily strong and standing against totalitarianism, and the need for the United...

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Contracting for the common defense

As first governor of the Louisiana Territory, Meriwether Lewis – yes, of Lewis and Clark fame - asked Washington for money, weapons, and supplies. He needed to raise a militia to guard the nation’s new frontier. What he got was the cold shoulder. The administration could not afford it, he was told. Still, “providing for the common defense” remained the most fundamental obligation of government. The governor was determined to find a way to fulfill his responsibility. He did. Lewis contracted with a private company for military services. He caught hell for that. But the border was secured. It was the start of a long American tradition: Public officials...

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Being Green is not the job of the U.S. military

It was a momentous year. In 1973, CBS sold the Yankees to some guy named George Steinbrenner… the Supreme Court issued it Roe v. Wade ruling... America quit Vietnam.... President Nixon declared, “I am not a crook”… and, on Yom Kippur, the Arab states launched a short but vicious war against Israel. The Arabs lost. In retaliation—and overnight—the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) doubled the price of oil. Washington leapt into action and promptly made matters worse. New federal programs sprang into being. The best were ineffective; some were completely counterproductive. Spot shortages morphed into gas lines nationwide....

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U.S., Canada bordering on stupidity

America’s wide-open US-Canadian border seemed to beckon the terrorists. The hated enemy was so close. It would be so easy to strike, then slip back. A simple matter, really, to blow up the entrance to the Welland canal. It would seal the bottleneck connecting Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, tying-up barge traffic for months, creating economic chaos. At the last minute, secret agent Horst von der Goltz and his team of saboteurs lost heart. They abandoned their plan to leave their base in Buffalo, NY, and attack Canada. Their September 1914 plot, now an obscure footnote to history, turns how we think about our border on its head. It should. The way most Americans think about our...

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A REAL homeland security test

Congressional commissions come and go. Few make history. The 9/11 Commission was a remarkable exception. Its report became a bestseller. Its recommendations became “the” top priorities for the new, Democratic-led Congress. In 2007, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared it was essential for the House to “keep the promise to the 9/11 families and honor the work of the 9/11 Commission.” But Congress did not have to address one key recommendation … because it was already on the books. Passed in 2005 with bipartisan support, the REAL ID Act sets national security standards for driver’s licenses. One provision requires states to assure that any...

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Free speech in defense of liberty is no vice

History often books a room at Washington, D.C.’s Mayflower Hotel. It was there that Franklin Roosevelt penned “nothing to fear but fear itself” for his first inaugural address. Harry Truman lived there for most of his first 100 days as president. Last summer, after ending her run for the White House, Hillary Clinton booked the Mayflower to introduce some 300 of her top donors to Barack Obama. Last week, the venerable hotel may have hosted some history again. More than a dozen top talk radio hosts and producers gathered there to discuss what to do about various plans emanating from Washington. Plans to throttle talk radio. The talkers are worried. And they...

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The ultralightness of smuggling

On the border, you expect strange things to happen. When the Yuma County Sherriff’s Office got the call to report to a crash site—a lettuce field just north of San Luis—officers didn’t know what to expect. New Mexico had its legendary UFO encounter at Roswell—maybe this would put Arizona’s San Luis on the map. What they found was pretty strange indeed. Responding officers had lots of company on the scene: Border Patrol, San Luis police, local firefighters… a dead body, a strange craft—and over 140 lbs of marijuana. The dead man was the pilot of an ultralight aircraft. It had crashed on a dark, November night, as the pilot made a drug...

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Obama’s penny-wise, pound-foolish defense budget

KEY FACTS: • Missile Defense Cuts: The $1.4 billion cut ends the Multiple Kill Vehicle Program and cancels the second Airborne Laser prototype aircraft--a disturbing retrenchment given the recent pace of global missile advances. • F-22 Fighter Gap: The F-22 fleet is capped at 187, although the Air Force insist it needs at least 60 more to maintain air dominance well into the future. • CG(X) on Hold: The Navy's next-generation cruiser program will be delayed, perhaps indefinetely. Excessive delay will leave the fleet and U.S. forward bases unnecessarily vulnerable to emerging air and ballistic missile threats. • C-17 Shut-down: The C-17 airlifter...

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How to keep America safe from Mexico's drug wars

KEY DATA: - About 90 percent of all the cocaine consumed in the U.S. enters through Mexico. It's a multi-billion-dollar business, with most of the trafficking controlled by organized, well-armed cartels. - Drug-related violence claimed more than 2,500 lives in Mexico 2007. That toll rose to more than 4,000 last year. TAKE HOME: - Border security requires cooperation among all levels of government. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI have less than 25,000 agents combined. In comparison, state and local governments field more than 1 million law enforcement officers. - Border security also requires effective use of national security funds. Citizens...

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U.S. must avoid half-measure wars

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