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) 2012 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