Antique laws endanger America.  It's as if, in the age of the automobile, we relied on traffic laws from horse-and-buggy days.  Absent appropriate legal codes, our government turns to lawyers without laws.

Cyberassaults go on, 24/7. Security leaks haunt the Internet (and our amoral media). Terrorists kill, then sue us. In the first case, we take our beatings and slap on bandages. In the second, we huff, puff and do nothing. In the third case, an apprehended terrorist gets better medical care than an out-of-work American.

Even the civil laws and military codes we do have on the books are not enforced. If found guilty, that Army private who allegedly passed over 90,000 classified documents to WikiLeaks should get the "full Rosenberg," a shortened life and a hot exit. Instead, he'll do a few years at most -- at most -- then get a book contract. (Can't wait for the movie!)

Congress is AWOL in these undeclared wars us.  Legislators in both parties play for short-term political advantage, while our enemies act with impunity. If a cyber-Pearl Harbor -- on a far-greater scale than that savage attack -- hits our country, don't blame our military or call it an intelligence failure.

By 2006, the Republican majorities we sent to Washington to champion our country’s founding principles had failed, and they got kicked out.

John McCain failed to articulate a clear and confident assertion of our founding principles, and he lost the presidency by a hefty margin – it wasn’t even close.

The Republicans in the last decade not only failed, but they failed spectacularly. Believe it or not, that failure may be the best thing that could have happened to our country.

Because we learn much better from failure than we do from success; and we remember what we learn from failure for a long, long time, in contrast to what we learn through success.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates raised eyebrows and ruffled feathers Aug. 9 when he announced plans to shut down Joint Forces Command, a headquarters in southeastern Virginia at which more than 6,000 military personnel, civilians and defense contractors work.

The closure will devastate the economies of the Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Hampton Roads area, so Mr. Gates’ announcement brought the predictable squeals from Virginia’s politicians.

There is something that doesn’t seem right about cutting defense spending when we’re in the midst of two wars.  But even though I look askance at how the administration circumvented the rules with regard to base closing, I can’t be critical of the decision itself.

Our military is, by far, the most efficient part of the federal government.  But that is, alas, damning with faint praise.  The Department of Defense, too, is bloated by bureaucracy.

Joint Forces Command does some useful things.  But it does them at considerable expense.  I suspect it exists more to provide billets for otherwise superfluous senior officers than to fulfill a vital defense need.  (Since 2001, flag officer positions in the military have increased by more than 100; senior civilian slots in the Department of Defense by 300.)

We’re in a fiscal emergency.  We have to watch what we spend even on vitally important things.  So the question isn’t: Why cut defense spending?  It’s why cut ONLY defense spending?  Why aren’t the other Cabinet secretaries scouring their departments for cuts?

After all, the Constitution requires the federal government to “provide for the common defense.”  Nothing in it requires the federal government to bankrupt farmers in California’s Central Valley on behalf of the delta smelt.

Why would someone as smart as President Barack Obama is reputed to be behave as stupidly as he has in the affair over the ground zero mosque?  Bloomberg’s Margaret Carlson thinks she knows.

“He is so supremely confident in his intellect that he forgets, on his way to the correct decision, to slow down and pick up not-so-gifted stragglers,” Ms. Carlson wrote Aug. 18.

Yet Mr. Obama has said things -- that America has 57 states; that “Austrian” is a foreign language; that Arabic is spoken in Afghanistan; that Canada has a president -- which if George W. Bush said them, would have had journalists like Ms. Carlson chortling about what a dunce he was.

You can, I suppose, have a superior intellect without demonstrating it in any way.  But it could be the reason why Mr. Obama has made so many political mistakes, and has been so unpersuasive in his public speaking is because he isn’t nearly as smart as his admirers imagine him to be.

Or will Barack Obama and the Democratic party abandon Iraq prematurely, as the Democrats did South Vietnam?

Our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have done their job.  But Iraq needs energetic American diplomatic and political engagement to finish the job.

Iraqis have begged us to help them.  They've pleaded with this administration to stay in the ring and referee their pols.  But President Obama has disengaged.

A sweetheart deal between a corrupt French president and Saudi Arabia has hurt the U.S. defense industry.

Former French President Jacques Chirac (1995-2007) is almost certain to be accused of overcharging Saudi Arabia for French military equipment. The Saudis overpaid for 100 French military helicopters through a deal worked out by a Saudi fixer, Khalid Bugshan of the Bugshan Group. The overpayments apparently were spread liberally to French politicians.

The trial is likely to provide at least a partial open window to some of the corrupt practices in international arms dealings. Khalid Bugshan and his group had their agreement with the French, and their contacts included French government officials and some in the inner circle of the Saudi ruling family. One of the interesting questions is: “How much did the Saudi ruling family know about the overpricing - or was Bugshan primarily running a rogue operation?”

If the Saudi royal family knew, were they doing it to purchase political influence and/or tilt French foreign policy?

When the Pew Research Center released a poll with awkward results for the White House, the Associated Press raced to do what it could to help.

“Americans are increasingly convinced -- incorrectly -- that President Barack Obama is a Moslem, and a growing number are thoroughly confused about his religion,” the AP said.

According to Pew, 18 percent of Americans (up from 11 percent last year) think Mr. Obama is a Moslem; 34 percent think he is a Christian, and 43 percent say they don’t know.

On what basis does the AP declare the 18 percent are wrong?

Dear TTP Family,

My Marines and I cannot thank you enough for the dozens of care packages you have sent us here in Afghanistan.  At least 50 have come in so far and more arrive almost every day.  They have been an immense morale boost, and we are able to use, eat, and drink everything.  Everything you sent is so appreciated.

Just as appreciated are your prayers and spiritual support.  We are a long ways from home, and to know that people back home are praying for us every day means so much to us all.

Be assured that the Marines are proud and strong.  We have the best training in the world and it is paying off here.  We are fighting every day, getting grenades thrown at us, RPGs shot at us, and engaging in intense firefights.  Despite all of this, the Taliban are running scared.

Simultaneously, we are able to protect the local population who hate and fear the Taliban.  We are engaging and employing villagers here who often live just a couple of hundred meters away from Taliban positions.  Know that every day, the US Marines are making progress on moving forward a culture that has neither running water nor electricity, that hasn't progressed in 2,000 years.

I wish I could be with you at the TTP Rendezvous this November in Washington.  But I will still be here with my Marines.  Thank you all so very much once again.

Ethos anthropos daemon

1^st Lt. Brandon H. Wheeler
United States Marine Corps
Afghanistan