Keep U.S. defense strategy independent
The Fiscal Year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act is must-pass legislation, and within it, Section 224, if passed, would make a foreign country an integral part of our defense research and production capabilities. Section 224, titled the “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative,” would do something Congress has never done before. It would structurally merge American and Israeli defense industries at the supply-chain level.
The current relationship is large and controversial, but it is at least transparent. Congress can debate it annually. Constituents can understand what is being spent. Section 224 would move that relationship out of the foreign-aid framework entirely and give Israel integration with U.S. military procurement, research and acquisition programs.
The mechanism is a newly created Pentagon “executive agent,” a person empowered to override other Defense Department components. That individual would synchronize American and Israeli defense research, development, testing, and co-production across areas that include artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, cybersecurity, and directed energy weapons. No Senate confirmation required. No meaningful congressional check.
Once Israeli technologies are written into U.S. programs of record, removing them becomes practically impossible. Future administrations inherit those dependencies whether or not U.S. and Israeli strategic interests remain aligned. And as Vice President Vance said recently and as history shows, they do not always align.
The FY2027 National Defense Authorization Act is must-pass legislation, and it is being used as a vehicle for a structural policy change that would otherwise never survive open debate. Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, a Democrat and a Republican, have each raised objections to this far-reaching section. The rest of Congress should listen. The American public deserves an honest conversation about this, not a fait accompli buried in a 1,000-page defense bill.
John H Wolfe, Longmont
Manny Rutinel vows to stop ICE
On the front page of the June 27 edition of the Times-Call we see that Manny Rutinel is committed to stopping ICE, and he won the Democratic primary for Congress in a landslide. Rutinel is the successful son of a proud immigrant, and I wish him well.
JD Vance explains why we can’t afford more immigrants. “I always find it interesting when socialists tell me that they really stand up for working people, and they want to protect working people, but they want to abolish ICE,” Vance said. “That means a flood of low-wage immigrants coming into this country, competing for wages against the working people — Black, White and Brown — of the United States of America” he said, adding, “You do not care about working people if you refuse to enforce the border. Stop pretending that you do.”
Manny, our wealthy elite praise the diversity of immigrants because they provide the cheap labor you want to supply to their businesses, and our wealthy elite will donate to your campaign. But don’t pretend that you care about “Black, White and Brown” working Americans.
Michael McNeil, Mead