Section: The Daily Signal (USA)
4 Things to Know About ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis, Trump’s Pick For Defense Secretary
President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, retired four star Marine Gen. James Mattis, is worried that the U.S. is retreating in a chaotic world. “Right now we have an America that is starting to reduce its role in the world,” Mattis said in a speech at the Heritage Foundation last year. “That’s not good.”...
‘We Need to Know We’re Not Alone’: Ukraine’s Soldiers Carry the Burden of a Nation at War
MARINKA, Ukraine—As the war in Ukraine nears its third calendar year, Ukrainian troops remain entrenched along a static front line in eastern Ukraine where they exchange small arms and artillery fire with combined Russian-separatist forces every day. More than 21 months after it was signed, the cease-fire is a charade. The war may be at a lower...
The Top Foreign Conflicts Trump Will Inherit
When Donald Trump becomes president in January he will inherit challenges beyond America’s borders. Trump ran a campaign opposing the internationalism promoted by predecessors from both parties, and now he must decide how to deal with the realities of foreign policy and national security. Under President Barack Obama, the U.S. is engaged...
Ex-Georgian President Saakashvili Says Ukraine Is ‘Running Against the Clock’ to Prevent Another Revolution
KYIV, Ukraine—Mikheil Saakashvili sits at a desk devoid of any photos or personal memorabilia. On this day, the 48-year-old former Georgian president has only been on the job for four days as leader of a startup Ukrainian opposition political party called Wave. This is the next chapter of Saakashvili’s anti-corruption crusade following his...
What I Learned About War by Having a Cup of Tea With a Taliban Veteran
KYIV, Ukraine—In July 2010, I left a decade-long career in the Air Force, which included combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan as a special operations pilot. I was 29 years old and set to begin studies at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism the following January. Rather than idle away the intervening months, I had a plan—I...
With Trump Win, Ukraine Hopes to Score a US Presidential Visit
KYIV, Ukraine—Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko congratulated Donald Trump on his election win by inviting the newly minted U.S. president-elect to visit the war-torn, Eastern European country. “This is a symbol of true democracy when nobody knew the results of the elections until the very last moment,” Poroshenko told U.S. Ambassador to...
Taxpayer Groups Call on UN’s Anti-Tobacco Convention to Allow Media Coverage
Taxpayer advocacy groups around the globe are calling on the World Health Organization to open this week’s anti-tobacco convention in New Delhi, India, to the news media. Since the proceedings could not take place without taxpayer funding, journalists should not be prohibited from covering public policy deliberations that could have...
Eastern Europe Arms Itself Against Russian Military Aggression
KYIV, Ukraine—Countries across Eastern Europe are militarizing to defend themselves from Russia, underscoring how Kremlin brinkmanship could spark a regional conflict. “If you’re in Estonia, or Latvia, and Russia’s sitting there on your border, it’s scary,” Jill Russell, teaching fellow in the Defense Studies Department at...
On the Edge of a Forgotten Conflict, Ukraine’s Humanitarian Crisis Simmers
KURAKHOVO, Ukraine—More than two and a half years after the war in Ukraine began, a cease-fire has failed to stop the fighting. And it’s still too dangerous for many of Ukraine’s 1.7 million internally displaced persons to return home. For those who fled the conflict, they’ve had to adapt to life as de facto refugees inside...
‘Hope Is Not Enough’: Ukrainian University Students Prepare for War
KYIV, Ukraine—The young man never told anyone he was going to war. The 20-year-old student at Kyiv’s Taras Shevchenko National University slipped away in June 2014 to join a civilian paramilitary group fighting in eastern Ukraine. The young man, whose name was Sviatoslav Horbenko, was a star pupil at the university’s Institute of...
