Illicit weapons have always been available to those who can afford them, but they have not generally been the latest state-of-the-art equipment, which requires experience and expertise to use.
The danger of having the military take over intelligence is that the military has a very different perspective on the world.
Accepting Syrian refugees into the United States is an emotional issue.
Radical jihadists hate Americans for who we are. They cannot be managed. They cannot be trusted. Engaging them is a tragic fool's errand. We need to realize that they are at war with us and that we cannot control their motivations. We instead need to confront them, contain them, and ultimately defeat them before they defeat us.
I will never forget standing with fellow members of Congress on the steps of the Capitol to sing 'God Bless America' on the night of 9/11.
We need to recognize the reality of the threat from radical Islam: that it will be an enduring conflict, that there are no easy decisions, and that mistakes have and will be made.
Any customer of government - whether it's with education, taxes, housing, or health care - understands the frustrations when they have a bad experience. They're stuck and can't go anywhere else.
The Obama administration notoriously refuses to acknowledge that Islamists commit Islamist terror, so it logically follows that a Christian victim of Islamist violence should not address the issue lest it challenge accepted political orthodoxy.
Hard work, years of sacrifice, and dedication are necessary to succeed in the real world. Snowden's most notable accomplishment was lying about his military service, his experience, and education to procure a job with the NSA in the first place.
The Panetta/Petraeus combo is a powerful tandem. I've seen both of them up close and personal at the CIA and in Iraq.
The overall feckless strategy against ISIS in Syria and Iraq enabled the Islamist organization to expand its domain and drive out more religious minorities.
America is the freest country on the planet, but for Snowden, this isn't enough. He is a state diplomat in Snowden land.
ISIS has stated that it intends to infiltrate the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing the barbaric ISIS terrorists, using their families as cover.
World leaders need to approach the problems in the Middle East and northern Africa with imaginative ideas such as those that created the E.U.
