Harlan Ullman

Perhaps the best thing that happened to America last week was Congress abandoning Washington for a five-week break deferring all the major issues and problems. Will anything improve when Congress returns?  The answer is not reassuring. Prior to the break, the Defense Department sketched out the impact of budget sequestration on the nation’s military strength to Congress.  Disastrous is not an unsuitable description.  But, in addition to the lack of specifics about the looming dilution of American military power, other flaws in our national security posture have been ignored. First, within a broken government, America’s national security organization is based on the obsolete National Security Act first passed in 1947.  [...]

This column advances what the U.S. must do to get its domestic house in order. There are probably a million reasons why this will not work. Yet, if America is to emerge stronger and future generations made more secure, there is no alternative except to act no matter how much the political system resists. America was once known as a “can-do” country.  Much of that probably stems from World War II.  As the motto of the U.S. Navy’s Construction Battalions aka “Sea Bees” went (“the difficult is easy; the impossible just takes a little longer”), a can-do attitude was part of the American psyche that won the war and the [...]

A specter is haunting the United States. That specter is one of American decline.  But this specter is not merely exaggerated.  It is poppycock.  Those who see in America the conditions that led to the fall of the Roman Empire or the catastrophic Grecian wars between Athens (read America) and Sparta (read China) are simply wrong. The United States or any other state could never remain the world’s colossus and singular dominant power forever.  The end of World War II with the destruction of Europe and Asia granted the United States a unique moment in history.  However, an ascending Soviet Union ultimately checked the unilateral authority and influence of the [...]