Defense desk: The Navy’s Drone Dilemma
After Houthis “closed to within a mile of the destroyer USS Gravely before being batted down by the vessel’s close-in weapon system,” it’s clear the “naval revolution” has “gone into overdrive” via “plentiful, lethal drones and guided missiles,” argues James Holmes at The National Interest.
The ordnance needed to beat an “outclassed antagonist like the Houthis” while preserving American life “is beyond pricey.”
And “industry struggles to manufacture precision munitions in large numbers and with dispatch.”
The solution? “Rebuild the U.S. defense-industrial base, replicating the manufacturing prowess that mass-produced the matériel necessary to prevail in two world wars and the Cold War.”
And “correct the lopsided cost-exchange ratio between cheap threats and pricey defenses” with “soft-kill” weapons that disable but don’t need to destroy.
From the right: Blue State Dystopia
After “Massachusetts’s sanctuary laws this week forced Gov. Maura Healey to close a community recreation center to house migrants,” and “Gov. Tina Kotek declared a state of emergency to address a health and safety [crisis] unfolding . . . because of Oregon’s decision to decriminalize drugs,” snarks the Washington Examiner’s editorial board, it’s clear why blue states “are losing residents to Republican-controlled states.
“People shouldn’t have to tolerate their community centers being closed to house migrants and their downtowns filled with dead and near-dead drug addicts,” but “Democrats think they can manage harmful behavior with generous services rather than deterrent punitive measures.”
Sadly, “not everyone has the means to escape Democratic governance.”
Schools beat: Ban Phones, Not Just TikTok
“A bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing to curb students’ access to social media sites while at school,” note Bloomberg’s editors, but they’d “be better off taking a simpler and more effective approach: banning mobile phones from schools altogether.”
Data show “allowing kids to have phones in the classroom harms academic performance” and boosts rates of “depression, emotional distress and self-harm.”
Most schools ban “mobile phones during class, but enforcement remains weak. A recent survey found that 97% of US adolescents used their phones at school, with most of it spent on social media, YouTube and gaming platforms.”
So stop “trying to control what students do with their phones,” and focus “on removing them entirely.”
From the left: Dems’ Rose-Colored Glasses
“Ordinary Americans” are not “rating the economy as ‘poor’ ” thanks to “a dystopian view shaped by conservative media and politicians,” warns pollster Stanley B. Greenberg at The American Prospect.
Inflation dropping to 3.5% “means that the rate of increase in prices is still much higher than it was under prior presidents.”
And prices are still 17% “higher than before the pandemic.” Liberals like Paul Krugman are wrong there, and in making “the same case against MAGA Republicans on immigration and crime.”
In fact, “my polling already showed an open border to be one of Americans’ top fears if Joe Biden were re-elected.”
On crime: “Democrats lead most major Americans cities, and their citizens have lived through three years of growing homelessness and violent crime. That made crime nearly the top problem for Blacks, Hispanics, and others in our base.”
Conservative: ‘Tower 22, You’re on Your Own’
The US soldiers who died at Tower 22 in Jordan “never had a chance,” fumes The Wall Street Journal’s Matthew Hennessey.
And President Biden vowed a swift response, yet a “week ticked by,” then Team Biden “telegraphed its punch.”
US airstrikes ultimately “hit mostly evacuated Iranian and militia positions. It was a fireworks show.”
How many “millions” worth of munitions did we detonate to get the prez “out of a tough news cycle?” This administration is simply “too willing to let Iranian-funded militias and proxies kill Americans.”
Every Western has “a scene when the hero realizes he’s outnumbered and alone. Nobody’s coming to his rescue. That’s what America’s fighting men and women must be feeling these days.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board