Foreign Podicy

Some might think of veterans issues and national security issues separately, but they are intricately intertwined. There's a moral imperative to care for those who have risked their lives to defend freedom. There's also a national security imperative to do so.

This fact raises several questions: How are America’s veterans doing? How well are we taking care of those who have served our country in uniform? How can we do better?

To discuss these questions and more, as well as some new research, guest host Bradley Bowman is joined by Marcus Ruzek and retired Navy Captain Dan Goldenberg.

Marcus Ruzek

Marcus is Senior Program Director at The Marcus Foundation. The Marcus Foundation is a leader in philanthropy, specifically in the areas of military and veterans’ support. He has worked at The Marcus Foundation for over 10 years, supporting its Free Enterprise initiatives, National Security/Foreign Policy, and Free Market Ideals programs. An infantryman and combat veteran, Marcus deployed to both Afghanistan and Iraq. He commanded a Special Forces “A Team” which partnered with Kurdish Peshmerga in the fight against Islamic State terrorists (aka: ISIS).

Dan Goldenberg

Dan had led the Call of Duty Endowment or CODE since 2013. During his tenure there, the Call of Duty Endowment has become the largest philanthropic funder of veteran employment, backing more than 150,000 high-quality job placements and driving more than $9 billion in economic value for veterans and their families. Dan is a retired Navy Captain. His military service includes four tours as a commanding officer, as well as serving as a carrier-based naval flight officer, and special assistant to four Secretaries of the Navy. He also has two decades of business experience.

Discussed in the episode

CODE Report

H.R. McMaster's article "Preserving the Warrior Ethos"

President Trump – now also President-elect Trump – has named the team he wants to advise him on foreign policy and national security. How will they fare in facing challenges like the Islamic Republic of Iran's war on Israel (and America), Russia's war against Ukraine, and the threat from China’s Communist rulers?

Host Cliff May is joined by his FDD colleague Richard Goldberg to discuss.

As the Israel Defense Forces appear to have almost completed their mission to defeat Hamas terrorists in Rafah, a Gazan city along the Egyptian border, the Islamic Republic of Iran is utilizing Hezbollah, its proxy in Lebanon, to attack – even more aggressively – Israel’s northern territories. Behind Hezbollah, behind Hamas, behind Islamic Jihad, behind the Houthi rebels in Yemen, and multiple Shia militias in Syria and Iraq is an expanding jihadist empire whose metropole is in Tehran.

Seth Cropsey, former naval officer and deputy undersecretary of the Navy, recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal that Israel faces a tough choice: to go to war directly against the Tehran regime now, or to go war against the Tehran regime later.

He joins host Cliff May along with FDD’s RADM (Ret.) Mark Montgomery to discuss his article and Tehran’s war strategy, the Houthi chokehold on commercial shipping, and Beijing’s threat to Taiwan.

South Africa has been in the news lately. Most recently, it had elections. There’s also this: The government of South Africa has filed a lawsuit under the Genocide Convention to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
The indictment is not against Hamas whose terrorists invaded Israel and massacred more than a thousand men, women, and children last October, and which vows to repeat such massacres. Nor is it against Hamas’ patrons in Tehran who openly vow to exterminate Israel and Israelis, and are using multiple proxies in pursuit of that goal.
No, the South African lawsuit is against Israel, the world’s one and only Jewish-majority state.
To understand the motivations behind this blood libel, host Cliff May is joined by Dr. Frans Cronje, former CEO of the South African Institute of Race Relations, and current chair of the Social Research Foundation, who described the South African lawsuit as a significant contribution to the “ideas war” being waged by Iran’s jihadist rulers. Also joining the conversation is Connor Pfeiffer, Director of Congressional Relations at FDD Action.
They also discuss how South Africa has evolved since the end of apartheid and its possible future trajectory.

In 2019 after serving as deputy national security advisor to President Donald Trump, Victoria Coates was promoted to Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for the Middle East and North Africa, overseeing the Maximum Pressure campaign against Tehran and initiating the negotiations for the Abraham Accords. She joins Cliff to discuss her new book: “The Battle for the Jewish State: How Israel—And America—Can Win.”