A response to Kelly Scoles' letter:

Hi again, Kelly,

Any past hyperbolic comments aside, I wish you a very happy Christmas and New Year. It's been enjoyable crossing swords with you over the years!

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Didn't have time for a short column today, but I'm trying to cut it down.
Your commendation to the Republican House "for finally voting with Democrats to approve funding for our allies...", I think is misplaced. "WASHINGTON ― The Biden administration has notified Congress it will authorize a $1 billion tranche of Ukraine military aid at the end of the month, but it will be the last package Kyiv can expect if lawmakers do not pass additional funds to continue supporting the embattled country against Russia’s invasion." This is an enormous betrayal of Ukraine, now starved of ammo. It pulls the rug out from under its defense and immensely bolsters Russia in this life-and-death struggle - properly described as "kneecapping" Ukraine in the middle of the war. As for Sen. Tommy Tuberville's release of military pay raises for 11 top generals, I would like to know just who those generals are. One I would never have promoted is General Charles Q. Brown, Jr., Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, black man who has stated there are too many white people in the Air Force. A bad apple with a sharp chip on his shoulder. Another Woke mistake.

I also await, with great trepidation, the Supreme Court's decision on whether Trump is immune from prosecution for acts now alleged to have been criminal when he was in office. If he is found to be liable today for such past activity our system of checks and balances will be crippled, and future presidents will have to constantly be looking over their shoulders when making critical decisions; more of Obama-Biden national deconstruction. Pretending Trump acted as King, or exerted omnipotence in office here is simply a ridiculous non sequitur. Biden appointments to SCOTUS will determine how much honor remains in that body. I greatly miss Antonin Scalia, the gold standard for character and intellect. How far we have fallen with Ketanji Brown Jackson, who would not define a "woman" during her hearings, camouflaging her Trans- LGBTQ (etc) agenda.
On Biden impeachment activity, you claim proof of criminality is "ephemeral or absent"? ...“Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. Matthew 13:13. Proof is so massive here, even a Justice Department of unprecedented corruption, like Attorney General Merrick Garland's, will be forced into an historic show and tell. I suspect that the denouement of the Biden saga will happen at a time when America is being attacked by enemies to whom he sold out long ago. "Elaboration" of this heinous criminality occurs daily on FOX - while the episode on Hunter's laptop remains hidden to CNN viewers. That may be the larger scandal.

Whether or not you accept the onrushing exposure of Biden culpability, Kelly, I would suggest that you store-up some emergency food and water, because those cold, hard things called facts tell us that America will be kinetically challenged by enthusiastic enemies (I believe in 2024). I hope our citizens are ready, even if our defense forces are not. Here's why: "USA smallest military in 80 years..." "Moscow glows triumphant as front freezes and Western aid for Ukraine stalls..."
Ashish Vazirani, the Defense Department’s acting undersecretary for personnel and readiness, told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that the individual services missed their recruiting goals in fiscal 2023 by a combined 41,000 people. With the exception of the Space Force — which was stood up in 2022 — all of the Defense Department service branches have seen significant cuts in active-duty numbers since the end of 2020. (Because no one is signing-up). "The Marine Corps is poised to be 8,900 active-duty service members smaller than in fiscal 2021, a 4.9% reduction. The Air Force is set to be down 13,475 airmen, 4% lower. The Navy is expected to have 10,000 fewer sailors, down 2.9%."

"The final end strength targets for the services decreased not only from last year but also from last summer, when the House and Senate Armed Services committees first proposed their goals for fiscal 2024. Senators had proposed 11,000 more personnel in the early draft of the bill. House members initially voted for almost 21,000 more. However, after the Army, Navy and Air Force all missed recruiting targets this fall, the end strength hopes for next year were dropped in the final compromise legislation. Robert Greenway, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for National Defense, believes that is a mistake." [Really?] Greenway said too few active-duty troops sends a worrisome message to would-be adversaries such as China and Russia at a time when many European allies are also shrinking the size of their fighting forces.

“Instead of addressing the problem, the answer has been to move the goalposts and reduce the positions in the services,” he said." “So they are institutionalizing the problem, and that’s not a good approach.” "Service officials said they expect to face difficulty meeting their recruiting goals for next year, even with the lower targets."

"Russia was [is] hiking its weapons production considerably to sustain its invasion of Ukraine, while also threatening the Baltic states, Georgia and Moldova, Boris Pistorius was quoted as saying in an interview with Welt am Sonntag." China, Iran, and N. Korea brag of new weapons as well.

Nov 30, 2023 — "Faced with the prospect of a protracted war, the Russians are rearming and the West is questioning its next step. Published on November 30, 2023 ..."

WARSAW — "Poland is building one of the West’s most muscle-bound militaries, on course to deploy more battle tanks than Britain, France, Germany and Italy – combined."

"Credit Warsaw with a baseline of strategic sanity. It faces a revanchist enemy in Russia, which invaded Poland in 1939 and subjugated it for decades after World War II. This month, a top aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to eliminate “Polish statehood in its entirety.”

"In 2022, China had the largest armed forces in the world by active duty military personnel, with about 2 million active soldiers."

I'm out of space. I'm concerned that America is asleep. Certain verses keep nagging me: “For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,”
WASHINGTON—For the first time, The Heritage Foundation’s Index of U.S. Military Strength finds that as currently postured, the U.S. military is rated “weak” and at significant risk of not being able to meet the demands of a single major regional conflict while attending to various presence and engagement activities. Heritage released the 2023 Index of U.S. Military Strength on Tuesday. The release comes as the military faces a full-blown recruitment crisis and two successive years where the Biden administration submitted defense budget requests below the rate of inflation. The military has seen a general erosion of capacity, capability, and readiness, but readiness and capacity issues across the force, particularly in the Air Force and Navy, have become so significant that the military’s ability to fulfill its primary mission is in jeopardy. Worsening the challenges for the force further are inflation and budget cuts, which account for a total loss of $59 billion in funding between 2018 and 2023 and are compounded by the limited assistance American allies can contribute to our shared security interests. Meanwhile, America’s key adversaries—China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea—are advancing their military capabilities and intimidating U.S. partners. This can be seen by Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and China and North Korea’s continued intimidation of neighboring countries such as Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea. Beware China, Russia, N. Korea, Iran, and other terrorist Islamic nations - all at once.

Everyone should read the full report. Remember Pearl Harbor? "This is not a drill. I repeat - this is not a drill."