Once the U.S. and NATO walked away from Libya, a chaotic, lawless state in the soft underbelly of Europe arose.
Succeeding against an army of strawmen might feel good as a speech, but in reality, the world is filled with extraordinarily difficult challenges and very real consequences as a result of how we face them.
Gadhafi opponents included many 'good guys,' but they never received the support necessary to govern a new Libya after he was gone.
A wounded Qaddafi still in power would be an ongoing threat and menace to the rest of the world.
The Islamic State has proven that terrorists can seize and deploy modern military equipment on lesser-armed opponents.
Boko Haram, by itself, has destroyed large areas in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger.
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.
As a member and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee during the 2000s, I met with civilian and military officials in Kurdistan, Libya, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, and Yemen. They shared many of the same international defense priorities as the United States. We acknowledged our differences, but we worked from where we found common ground.
Complying with requests from Congress is not optional. It is mandatory.
Nobody will ever agree with everything everyone says, especially once an issue or speaker becomes politically charged. But as tolerant and civilized Americans, we should at least have the decency to hear them out.
House Speaker John Boehner and presumed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell understand the art of politics.
Western Europe has been redefining the nation state since 1945 when it formed the European Union following World War II.
Accepting Syrian refugees into the United States is an emotional issue.
America needs to fully grasp the lessons learned from our history of fighting radical jihadists. There have been successes and failures.
The U.S. cannot survive another four years of the Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton regime.
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.
The West needs leaders with the courage and the will to fight the scourge of radical Islam.
A real possibility exists that we will be forced to confront, contain, and ultimately defeat radicalism and al-Qaeda alone, or at least with far fewer allies in the region than we had before.
An issue that really concerned me when I was on the House Intelligence Committee was the quality of analysis.
Americans must step back and realize that an effective foreign policy is very difficult to devise, and we must present a united front to make it work.
