Outside the Beltway

In the wake of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on C.I.A. torture, some have suggested that eight years of Jack Bauer helped make torture more acceptable to the American public.

The costs of more than a decade of war are far higher than many ever thought, and we’re still paying the price for the fiscal irresponsibility of the Bush Administration while they were being fought.

Vice-President Cheney’s amoral defense of torture has come to define how most conservatives view the issue, and that’s a problem.

A dark and regrettable time in American history is finally seeing the light of day.

The Navy has stripped Navy veteran Bill Cosby of an honorary promotion in the wake of unproven sexual misconduct accusations.

The abrupt departure of Chuck Hagel says much more about Administration policy than it does about Chuck Hagel.

A surprising change at the top of the military’s civilian chain of command.

The shocking has become routine. We’re no safer because of it.

The House Intelligence Committee has concluded that the conspiracy theories regarding the 9/11/2012 attack in Benghazi are not supported by the evidence. That’s unlikely to change anyone’s mind, though.

You thought the American combat role in Afghanistan would end on December 31st? Think again.

The latest ISIS video is horrible and barbaric but we should not take the bait they are offering before considering the consequences of our actions going forward.

Some people didn’t like the song selection at last night’s Washington, D.C. concert for Veterans Day.

Mission creep.

Always as many military personnel identify as Independents as with the GOP.

Poor Joe Biden can’t stay out of the news. This time, it’s not one of his gaffes but one by his youngest son.

A new report from the New York Times confirms the adage that, in war, the first casualty is the truth.

The Turks have entered the conflict in Syria. Unfortunately for the United States, it’s not on the side we would prefer.

The U.S. Air Campaign Against ISIS Is Much Bigger Than You Think

Germany’s new defense minister has promised a more robust role but lacks the ability to back her words with action.

Corporal Jordan Spears died in a V-22 accident in operations against the Islamic State.

Newly released documents reveal that Henry Kissinger wanted to attack Cuba in the mid-1970s.

Speaker Boehner wants to delay a vote on the ISIS war until January, but any such debate will be meaningless because Congress has already abdicated responsibility.

Apparently, the buck doesn’t stop in the Oval Office these days.

The American public’s support for the President’s war against ISIS has its limits.

The Administration’s policy in the President’s war against ISIS has no coherent plan, and that virtually guarantees escalation.

The war against ISIS continues to silently escalate, with little input from the people’s representatives in Congress.

As we head into a new conflict, perhaps we ought to give more thought to fiscal issues than the President is to overall strategy.

President Obama has opened a new front in his “war” against ISIS

President Obama is still insisting that his war against ISIS will not require American ground troops. He’s not being honest with the American people.

So much for the President’s promise about ‘no ground troops.’

Iran and the United States are on the same side in the fight against ISIS, whether they like it or not.

After keeping his distance from them for three years, President Obama is placing much misplaced hope in the “moderate” Syrian rebels,

The Army brass is worried about its diversity in critical mid-level posts.

Despite the President’s assurances of an international coalition, the rest of the world doesn’t seem all that interested in joining the fight.

The Obama Administration’s legal justification for war against ISIS is laughably flimsy.

Congress seems ready to avoid having to vote on expanded attacks against the Islamic State

It would appear that someone needs to introduce the Air Force to Article VI of the Constitution.

Massive US intervention has for now liberated Amerli, averting humanitarian disaster. Another crisis looms.

As talk begins of expanding the war against ISIS into Syria, it is becoming long past time for Congress to exercise its Constitutional function.

The General Accounting Office confirmed what seems clear to anyone who can read a statute.