Outside the Beltway

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.

Does Hillary Clinton remember that she was Secretary of State for four years?

Iraq’s problems cannot be fixed by the United States.

President Obama doesn’t seem to have any idea what he wants to do in Iraq.

For the second time in just over ten years, the United States is involved in military action in Iraq.

Viet Xuan Luong pins on a brigadier general’s star today, becoming the first Vietnamese-American officer to achieve that rank.

Once again, Republicans demonstrate why they have problems with Latino voters.

My latest for RealClearDefense: “Senator Walsh’s Unrepresentative Black Mark on Professional Military Education”

The South and Southwest have a much higher military enlistment rate than the Northeast.

My latest for War on the Rocks: “Don’t Believe Everything You Read in the Papers.”

My latest for The National Interest, “Europe’s Free Ride on the American-Defense Gravy Train,” has posted.

My latest collaboration with Butch Bracknell, “Ahmed Abu Khattala and the Miranda-Rights Question,” has posted in The National Interest.

And odd report from Washington Post and Stars and Stripes.

For some reason, President Obama wants to arm so-called “moderate” Syrian rebels.

Is ISIS about to make the situation in the Levant even worse?

Native American names are everywhere.

My latest for The Hill, co-authored with Butch Bracknell: “Explaining the Sinclair demotion.”

The Kentucky Senator and former Vice-President are at the front of a battle that will unfold inside the GOP as we head toward 2016.

Retired General Keith Alexander is hawking his services to banks at princely sums.

Stephanie Kwolek was looking for a way to improve tires. She invented a life-saving material.

The Army is sending a strong message on sexual assault. It picked the wrong poster boy.

Recent events in Iraq have opened up old domestic political arguments in the United States.

If President Obama does decide to use military force in Iraq, he should be required to seek Congressional approval beforehand.

Iraq is falling apart for reasons that have nothing to do with President Obama or his policies.

Retired Marine lawyer Butch Bracknell and I tackle the subject for The Hill.

My latest for War on the Rocks, “HAGEL: CLIMBING OUT FROM UNDER THE BUS,” has posted.

Thanks largely to Administration mistakes, the Bergdahl deal is not going over well.

Mostly because of politics, the hopes of some and fears of others will never be realized.

There’s essentially no analogue in the civilian justice system. Here’s why.

The President’s well-intentioned campaign against military sex crimes has backfired.

Trying to make some sense out of a week of outrage.