Outside the Beltway

The Pentagon is considering making military retirees ineligible for civil service pensions.

The Defense Department would like to get a handle on how it spends its money by 2017 but the Navy won’t go along.

The military has declared that Playboy and Penthouse don’t violate its standards but banned them from its exchanges, anyway.

Megan Welter served as a Signal Corps officer in the Iraq War. Now, she’s an Arizona Cardinals cheerleader.

Bradley Manning was acquitted of the most serious charge against him, but is still likely to spend most of his life in prison.

The Defense Department may have found the money to furlough its civilian workers fewer than 11 days.

Bradley Manning will learn his fate at 1 pm tomorrow. He’s guilty.

The Army is fielding a new uniform to make ladies feel more soldierly.

Colonel Bud Day, who earned a Medal of Honor leading Vietnam POWs, had died, aged 88 years.

Sequestration is even dumber than we thought.

In response to North Korean saber rattling and the rise of China, Japan is reassessing it’s military posture

The two ends of Pennsylvania Avenue are clashing on defense appropriations.

Lindsey Graham is playing cynical political games with a dangerous part of the world.

Senators John McCain and Carl Levin have demanded answers from General Martin Dempsey on Syria. Can they handle the truth?

Last month, a retired Navy SEAL came out as transgender. Those still in uniform, however, must serve in silence.

Fort Belvoir blocked its workers from accessing the Washington Post website over concerns about classified information published there.

Some classes at the service academies have been canceled due to the sequester.

A Federal Judge wasn’t very pleased when Administration lawyers told her that she doesn’t have jurisdiction to hear a lawsuit over the President’s drone policy.

A late-night announcement that Gitmo detainees will get hearings raises more questions than it answers.

Marine Harriers dropped four unarmed bombs into the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park last week after missing another target.

My first piece for RealClearDefense, “Enough with the QDR Hype,” has published.

President Obama is rightly outraged by a wave of sexual assaults in the military. He unwittingly made them harder to prosecute.

The Pentagon has canceled a popular air show even though it operates at a profit and takes place next fiscal year.

The US Navy is moving transport ships near Egypt. Just in case.

A state of perpetual war is incompatible with good mental health and stable family relationships.

The US military’s lavish new headquarters in Afghanistan has been completed just in time for our exit.

Frustrations with the mercurial leader of Afghanistan may increase the pace of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Michael Donley announced he was stepping down as Secretary of the Air force in April and did so in June. No replacement has been named.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says revealing that the United States is spying on its allies has undermined their trust.

Words don’t always mean what you think they mean.

The conviction of Marine Sergeant Lawrence Hutchins III for war crimes in 2006 has been overturned.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has wasted no time issuing a full-throated statement endorsing today’s DOMA ruling

The Navy is building a ridiculously expensive robot spy plane.

When Glen Coffee abruptly retired from a promising NFL career, most wondered what he was up to. Now we know.

For two centuries, British sailors have toasted their “wives and sweethearts.” No more.

Two polls indicate that most Americans oppose the President’s latest moves on Syria. This makes sense considering actual policy there seems to be entirely incoherent.

Did President Obama’s comments about taking a tough stand on military sexual assault constitute “undue influence” on specific cases? One military judge says that they did.

The infamous VA backlog is finally dwindling. Much of it was a function of good intentions.