W. Thomas Smith Jr. is the author of six books, and his articles have appeared in USA TODAY, George, U.S. News & World Report, BusinessWeek, National Review Online (NRO), CBS News, and The Washington Times. A former U.S. Marine infantry leader, parachutist, and shipboard counterterrorism instructor, Smith writes about military/defense issues and has covered conflict in the Balkans, on the West Bank, in Iraq and Lebanon. He has served on the adjunct faculty at the University of South Carolina's School of Journalism, and he is a military technical consultant for The New Technology of War, a documentary film series produced by Popular Mechanics magazine. Smith is director of the Counterterrorism Research Center of the Family Security Foundation, a contributing editor with NavySEALs.com, and a former executive editor of World Defense Review. He is one of the founding writers for NRO's The Tank. Visit W. Thomas Smith Jr. online at uswriter.com http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr http://media.townhall.com/TownHall/icons/TH-feed-icon-128x128.gif http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr TownHall.com, Where your opinion counts. 128 Copyright (c) 2013 Townhall.com, A Salem Communications Web. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED jim.dearras@townhall.com (Jim De Arras) Sat, 26 Nov 2011 05:01:00 GMT Sat, 26 Nov 2011 05:01:00 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ The recent setback for the U.S. Intelligence Community – specifically CIA – wherein scores of operators working for the Agency were seized by Iranian security forces in Iran and Hezbollah... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2011/11/26/intelligence_experts_say_cia_penetration_by_terrorist_group_is_"catastrophic" 3c61fe59-0b23-454d-92bf-bec091eabb03 Sat, 26 Nov 2011 05:01:00 GMT This is the 10th anniversary of what some have said is a seminal event in our national history. I would argue it was less a seminal event, and more an awakening as to the danger posed to the West since the 17th... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2011/09/11/where_was_god_on_sept_11 b332ce6e-e451-47c7-a686-47190b03eeee Sun, 11 Sep 2011 22:29:55 GMT As we Marines - active, Reserve, retired, and former - celebrate the 235th anniversary of our birth in a Philadelphia alehouse during the American Revolution (specifically Nov. 10, 1775), three things come to... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2010/11/10/boasting_about_marines dfc19c3b-a842-4aa0-91e1-a86bb9fd3a22 Wed, 10 Nov 2010 05:01:00 GMT "Come in, come in, buddy," said the broad-shouldered, barrel-chested man with thinning white hair and a big happy-to-see-me smile, as I stepped inside his room at the Mills House Hotel in Charleston, S.C., last week.... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2010/10/06/superman's_medal 8fec9fcb-167b-4021-b048-84af20c94e46 Wed, 06 Oct 2010 17:01:23 GMT Exclusive interview with Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, U.S. Army (Ret.), former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. William G. "Jerry" Boykin, a former Delta Force commander... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2010/08/23/fmr_lt_general_boykin_islam's_primary_objective_is_conquest 6d273e1c-1979-43a4-b7c9-555d82d7d669 Mon, 23 Aug 2010 04:00:36 GMT We Americans far too-often take our staunchest allies for granted, forgetting that we are not the only ones who - over the past 200-plus years of our relatively short existence - have been the standard bearers of... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2010/04/10/poland_will_survive_this_day 010157ac-4a28-4754-bb2b-5970598572ac Sun, 11 Apr 2010 01:07:37 GMT In April 1945 Nazi Germany was on the ropes (Hitler would in fact put a bullet in his brain on April 30), and a half-starved 19-year-old Polish prisoner-of-war, Ryszard Kossobudzki, had escaped his Nazi captors and was http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2010/01/25/rita_cosby_tells_story_of_her_father's_wartime_service_in_the_polish_resistance a739d3c9-3c47-468a-8886-a0de7a76a06f Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:36:30 GMT Speaking to some 500-plus Marines and their families on Saturday evening in Columbia, S.C., retired Marine Col. Myron C. Harrington explained in simple terms why on Apr. 22, 2008, two young Marines - Cpl. Jonathan... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2009/11/11/americas_defense_rests_in_her_legacy 66ad7d10-c0f9-4017-8853-fa842f253ab0 Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT Whoever believes, "All men are created equal," never stood face-to-face with Michael E. Thornton. Of course, I'm being facetious: All men are indeed created equal in the eyes of God and the law. But I do stand by... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2009/09/07/all_men_are_not_equal e42ef37b-7ca5-44e2-bcca-b8df241374ab Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:13:31 GMT The violent crackdown continues in the wake of Iran's disputed June 12 presidential elections in which - according to the Wall Street Journal - "hard-line clerics have rallied behind Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2009/06/29/violence_in_iran_what_the_west_needs_to_know 303a81cc-5bfe-4ec7-a182-c3af0d8ae70b Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:37:47 GMT The Gadsden Flag - perhaps the most-famous of America's pre-Independence banners (a revised, striped version of which presently flies on all U.S. Navy warships) - may soon be branded a symbol of "extremism." In fact,... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2009/05/14/the_snake_in_the_flag 2e124905-c355-4880-a734-e1f6d82c5c83 Thu, 14 May 2009 19:11:30 GMT During a recent commercial flight from Jacksonville (Fla.) to Baltimore, a flight attendant offered free drink coupons to any of the 150 passengers who could name just one of the five Medal of Honor recipients from the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2009/03/23/america's_ignorance_of_her_heroes 0e3c04b0-5ae9-4efe-b359-f9c3ed8b8c75 Mon, 23 Mar 2009 04:00:41 GMT Union Army Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman - the man responsible for laying much of my family's homeland to waste in the final year of the American Civil War - once said, "War is all hell." He was right: There is no way... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2009/01/02/israel_must_fight_and_win 4317ba2d-d8f6-4bd0-ac5a-760ba1db57d3 Fri, 02 Jan 2009 19:06:27 GMT COL. JOHN W. RIPLEY, U.S. MARINE CORPS (ret.), recipient of the Navy Cross and for years one of my personal heroes, has passed away. Ripley, 69, was awarded the Navy Cross - the nation's second-highest award for... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2008/11/03/"hold_and_die"_-_legendary_marine_passes_on bf2da372-e17c-4fc1-a39d-9ecad61d91ba Mon, 03 Nov 2008 05:00:41 GMT Thirty-six years ago this month I was a 13-year-old junior high school student: playing a little soccer, chasing a few girls, listening to Black Sabbath albums, and pestering my parents to buy me a motorcycle (which Mom... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2008/10/13/a_gift_from_a_navy_seal 7d470c11-7571-446d-9329-c156ede258cd Mon, 13 Oct 2008 04:00:44 GMT Hezbollah has "brazenly attacked the Lebanese Army" - in its Thursday shooting-attack on an army helicopter, killing 1st Lt. Samer Hanna and wounding several others - so say the leaders of Lebanon's pro-democracy... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2008/08/28/hezbollah_kills_lebanese_army_officer 054baa6b-8d99-48a5-9936-91dce258e3f4 Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:00:40 GMT Years ago, my then-girlfriend urged me to read John Gray's Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. So I did. It was an interesting read. But it was really nothing I and any other red-blooded American male didn't... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2008/07/25/kathleen_parkers_quest_to_save_the_males 25d1cecc-6f07-4f68-9f62-2d3989a04a8b Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:48:49 GMT In their new book, FLEECED, political pundit Dick Morris and attorney-coauthor Eileen McGann (yes, Morris and McGann are married), expose companies - both foreign and domestic - U.S. media powerhouses, an ineffective... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2008/06/26/dick_morris_on_the_fleecing_of_america b1c966b2-95aa-484a-a594-43a09c03e732 Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:56:18 GMT Hezbollah - the Lebanon-based terrorist organization - has scored another victory: This one, political. It's barely been a week since Hezbollah's campaign of terror against the Lebanese people ended with a victory for... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2008/05/21/hezbollah_scores_political_win,_but_resistance_groups_forming cf07d8d2-2fef-4bfb-a0e2-cce236709ce9 Wed, 21 May 2008 14:29:48 GMT Hezbollah - Iran's Lebanon-based terrorist legion - may have bitten off more than it can chew in its recent attacks against pro-government forces in Lebanon. They've certainly underestimated the tenacity of the latter... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2008/05/13/bloodying_irans_foreign_legion a8ccee00-8e6e-4982-8c09-2665a95997f3 Tue, 13 May 2008 15:48:36 GMT [Saturday marked one of the most important anniversaries in our nation's history. Following is what I had to say about it three years ago at World Defense Review, and it is just as relevant today.] April is a month... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2008/04/20/"disperse_ye_rebels,_ye_villains,_disperse!" 80faffd4-bdf2-435f-ab34-106bfc26279c Mon, 21 Apr 2008 01:09:25 GMT In the summer of 1968, 31-year-old U.S. Navy Lt. Commander John S. McCain III - a prisoner of war in a North Vietnamese POW camp - was offered by his captors a chance to go home. McCain's father, Adm. John S. McCain... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2008/04/06/why_the_msm_is_dumbfounded_by_mccain's_refusal_to_go_home d17a6240-b45a-4f0f-b5c3-12f4571374c8 Mon, 07 Apr 2008 01:43:48 GMT Analysts with MI6, Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, believe an elite force of Hamas fighters in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon will launch a coordinated attack against Israel within a few months, says author and... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2008/03/18/jihadisms_dangerous_liasons e4f893e7-5936-490c-87df-4585f952adba Tue, 18 Mar 2008 04:01:00 GMT In what the Jerusalem Post refers to as "an uncommon act of journalistic contrition," the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has issued a public apology "to anyone who was offended" by its reference of... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2008/02/19/turning_a_terrorist_into_a_cult_hero 0e2999ab-034d-4efa-b8de-c0461b5fa2ab Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:47:34 GMT Arrest warrants were issued Saturday for 11 Lebanese soldiers over the shooting deaths of several Hezbollah and Amal rioters during last week's clashes in Beirut (the clashes instigated by Hezbollah, which also spread... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2008/02/03/hezbollah_trying_to_demoralize_the_lebanese_army d78b4a5c-c623-458f-8ac8-6f6b4c691d97 Sun, 03 Feb 2008 20:57:44 GMT For years it's been reported that Hezbollah - the Lebanese-based Shiia terrorist organization that by any military standards fields one of the world's most formidable "terrorist armies" - has been receiving money from... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2008/01/28/hezbollah's_bags_of_cash 3fded9e1-70bc-4c61-a470-2a56e418842b Mon, 28 Jan 2008 05:00:00 GMT On the morning of October 21, 1805, a force of some 33 British warships sailed in two columns toward a 41-ship French-Spanish fleet - the teeth of Napoleon's Navy - off Spain's Cape Trafalgar. The allied fleet... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2007/12/26/"duty"_as_a_new_years_resolution 5c810807-b9e9-4034-af4b-2a3aadf8d871 Wed, 26 Dec 2007 15:22:57 GMT It's one thing to be embroiled in the recent media circus surrounding my reporting from Lebanon; it's quite another to learn that in the midst of that circus - though having nothing to do with it - one of my... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2007/12/14/they_killed_general_hajj e405352e-fdae-4a10-b4e9-dcfdcf12efff Fri, 14 Dec 2007 17:26:32 GMT Lebanon is a "wild place," so-said a counterterrorism expert in a personal conversation with me days before former Lebanese president Emile Lahoud stepped down and declared the army in charge of that troubled... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2007/11/26/lebanon_is_a_wild_place db58b7a4-25fe-4550-b614-ff9867876d90 Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:59:22 GMT Lebanon - one of the most critical fronts in the war on terror - is on the brink of a full-blown shooting war. Few Americans living or traveling outside of that country seem to have any prescient understanding of... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2007/10/26/lebanon_inching_closer_to_war d6c42ab4-e28f-44cf-b844-9b5defd78901 Fri, 26 Oct 2007 04:01:00 GMT Dear Michael, Watching you grow into a man has been nothing less than humbling: joyous in ways almost impossible to describe, yet somehow wishing you were still the little boy who once traipsed with me through the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2007/06/11/advice_to_my_nephew_on_becoming_a_man 3fad0249-1ad6-43ca-ab14-d4ba2427a873 Mon, 11 Jun 2007 04:02:57 GMT This Memorial Day week - I say week, because Monday was MD observed, Wednesday is MD actual - we remember lives lost in all of America's wars since 1775. But I personally feel it is especially important to remember the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2007/05/29/for_the_families 22108e6b-4762-454d-9406-e6516c2d34ad Tue, 29 May 2007 04:00:46 GMT The Virginia Tech massacre has spawned countless questions: Everything from why would student Cho Seung-hui gun down 32 fellow human beings, to why was campus security not able to prevent him from committing the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2007/04/26/va_tech_students_under_fire_why_didnt_someone_stop_cho a06335cb-32ea-4ef1-adad-170bc222dd57 Thu, 26 Apr 2007 04:01:00 GMT Sean Hannity has - pardon the cliché - hit the nail on the head. This past Sunday on his new program, Hannity's America (9:00 pm Eastern on FOX News), he took to task CBS's recent 60 Minutes piece that featured a handf http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2007/03/06/disgruntled_soldiers_were_"cherry_picked" ed7f7f96-ef60-4c90-b2f3-b3872ba9e403 Tue, 06 Mar 2007 05:03:23 GMT We've seen it countless times: The stirring photograph snapped 62-years-ago of five U.S. Marines and one Navy Corpsman raising the second (larger than the first) American flag atop Mount Suribachi on the Japanese-held... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2007/02/26/the_new_york_giant_who_died_on_iwo_jima d17bc235-8b5a-4fe7-825c-7cd15e526561 Mon, 26 Feb 2007 05:00:13 GMT A joint statement issued by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), on the evening of President Bush's State of the Union address, says, "The OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of Americans, MILITARY... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2007/01/29/false_claims_undermining_us_troops b8209d30-2832-4be8-ace3-36ba6e45f662 Mon, 29 Jan 2007 05:00:46 GMT Continental Army General George Washington's celebrated "Crossing of the Delaware" has been dubbed in some military circles, "America's first special operation." Though there were certainly many small-unit actions, raid http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2006/12/22/the_great_christmas_night_raid 20e9048c-d351-402f-9d39-94ce7918a7fa Fri, 22 Dec 2006 05:25:15 GMT In his latest book, America's Victories - Why the U.S. wins wars and will win the war on terror, national defense and economics historian Dr. Larry Schweikart describes the performance of U.S. troops during the 2003... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2006/11/10/the_magic_of_"a_few_good_men" 138284ed-a11b-4027-add6-0a97c6b9cab0 Fri, 10 Nov 2006 05:00:26 GMT Party politics have always made me uncomfortable - I'm an issues man - and when discussions of such have cropped up, I've usually gone to great lengths to focus instead on ideologies that cross party lines because most... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2006/10/16/democrats_don't_know_how_to_fight e38d75d1-cb57-471f-9e53-ac1c77a81f45 Mon, 16 Oct 2006 04:01:03 GMT The African continent - vast, remote, and perhaps strategically unimportant in the minds of many unknowing Americans - is one of the most critical fronts in the global war on terror. And it is for a variety of reasons... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2006/10/02/global_danger_from_the_dark_continent 754e23b7-8d01-43f6-8c85-c2154d544b75 Mon, 02 Oct 2006 04:00:17 GMT I know how to fight. Like most American boys - and perhaps a few girls - I learned the very basics of fighting on the playground in elementary school. I'm not talking about specific fighting techniques, those... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2006/08/28/we_must_not_lose_this_fight d6116252-661b-4e8d-856d-748aae3ccc47 Mon, 28 Aug 2006 04:00:00 GMT So I receive a phone call from a reporter at ABC News. They are working on a story about Haditha, and the reporter's comments to me go something along the lines of; "I am particularly interested in your recent pieces on... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2006/06/26/spinning_haditha 416127f7-b3e1-4a7d-bb17-4de338167d1f Mon, 26 Jun 2006 19:00:58 GMT Retired Marine Colonel and serving Congressman Jack Murtha (D-Penn.) has sold his soul: Not to the devil, but to his constituency. And I urge him now to do the only honorable thing: relinquish his sword and his Eagle,... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2006/05/25/"in_cold_blood" 51a177e7-09e4-4563-a055-4c1e7f2730ba Thu, 25 May 2006 18:35:31 GMT Ten years ago, as a journalist covering the Israeli-Palestinian clashes on the West Bank, I found myself on patrol with an Israeli Airborne squad in the ancient town of Hebron. As we moved down a narrow alleyway... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2006/05/01/"israel_must_live!" 8bcca807-6a84-42f6-baab-a738837acf48 Mon, 01 May 2006 18:29:59 GMT "I hate Bill Clinton," my now 17-year-old nephew Michael told me (when he was only eight). It was an offhand remark by a child, who today is far more politically savvy than many adults twice his age. But his comment... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2006/04/24/dissent_or_sedition 1dece4d0-f78c-4a5e-b04b-c990689cc7dc Mon, 24 Apr 2006 18:25:30 GMT Myths abound when it comes to military personnel in the modern American armed forces. Most are in some way related to recruiting new soldiers, and who's fighting and who's dying. Five of the biggest myths... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2006/04/12/the_big_five 1f9e1e9d-cfd8-4894-84df-9046d52384cf Wed, 12 Apr 2006 18:12:06 GMT Qubad Talabani, son of Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, believes the power of a centralized government in Baghdad should be "lessened," and more autonomy given the 18 provinces that comprise Iraq. It's a relatively new c http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2006/04/10/son_of_the_iraqi_president_speaks c2c3dc18-82ee-406b-895d-17adae27c356 Mon, 10 Apr 2006 18:02:14 GMT Reflecting on his childhood, Brigadier General Dean Carlton DuBois, Sr. recalled his mother's quip: "You look like you're full of enthusiastics." Though he remembered the phrase as awkwardly charming, it would define... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2006/04/03/the_passing_of_a_friend fb67805f-455a-450a-9380-87bc275a3e5c Mon, 03 Apr 2006 17:56:16 GMT Perception is everything. And when applied to the war in Iraq; perception, public opinion, and a far-reaching press are all variables that could ultimately have a hand in any setback or defeat for U.S. and coalition... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2006/03/27/altering_perception 11a5ab6d-a12d-4d7d-be02-fcfec1d1a580 Mon, 27 Mar 2006 18:54:41 GMT Just after nine o'clock - 186 years ago this very morning - two men armed with dueling pistols faced each other on an isolated field in Bladensburg, Maryland. The field, known as the "Valley of Chance," was located just... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2006/03/22/"our_country,_right_or_wrong" 5d3f4b46-b4ce-49e6-84c9-6f12b89684a6 Wed, 22 Mar 2006 18:47:40 GMT