Outside the Beltway

The “Obama Doctrine,” such as it is, seems to boil down to moral self-certainty combined with a glaring ignorance of reality. That’s a dangerous combination.

One week in to Operation Odyssey Down, public opinion is, to put it as nicely as possibly, ambivalent.

Xavier Alvarez lied about having been awarded the Medal Of Honor. Should that be a crime? The Ninth Circuit Court Of Appeals says no, and they’re right.

The Libyan rebels probably aren’t strong enough to defeat Gaddafi on their own, and the no-fly zone isn’t going to be enough either. Which means this operation is going to be far more extensive than President Obama is willing to admit publicly.

The public, and Congress, are skeptical of the mission in Libya, and the reason for that is because the President has failed to tell us exactly why we’re there and what we’ll be doing.

It has become quite apparent that neither the White House nor our coalition partners have any idea what the path to an endgame in Libya even looks like. That’s not good.

Newt Gingrich on Libya: “This is as badly executed, I think, as any policy we’ve seen since WWII, and it will become a case study for how not to engage in this type of activity.”

When America’s leaders make the decision to engage in military action abroad, has the time for debate ended, or is it more important than ever that those with doubts about the policy speak out?

Jorge Benitez has written a useful Libya Primer: Who is In Charge of Allied Forces? The short answer: No one.

Operation Odyssey Dawn has resurrected the eternal battle over what limits there are, and should be, on the President’s ability to use military force without Congressional authorization.

Is Libya a war? Hell yes, Libya is a war.

There must be a predisposition against war and we should only engage in just wars.

There are many opportunities to go to war. Here’s a guide for choosing between them.

Public support for the war in Afghanistan continues to plummet, but will that hurt the President when 2012 rolls around?

The saga of accused Wikileaks conspirator Bradley Manning continues to get uglier, with the military acknowledging that he was forced to spend the day naked for, well, no apparent reason.

Pfc. Bradley Manning faces twenty-two new charges, including one that could put him before a firing squad, but investigators still can’t prove any direct links between him and Wikileaks.

Critics of Barack Obama’s foreign policy should engage his actual policies — not policies that don’t actually exist.

LTC Michael Holmes, the fellow who accused LTG William Caldwell of ordering him to perform psychological operations on Members of Congress, is not trained in psyops.

Nine years into a war that seems to be without end, it’s time to declare victory and go home.

Did a unit in Afghanistan engage in an IO operation against U. S. senators?

The ongoing saga of piracy off the coast of Somali is about to get Americans’ attention again, as a yacht containing four U.S. citizens has been hijacked.

Democratic Congresswoman Betty McCollum has received death threats after questioning the wisdom of the U.S. Army sponsoring a NASCAR Sprint Cup team to the tune of $7 million a year.

Thanks to the help of a group of Tea Party Freshman in the House. Congress has finally cut off funding for a second engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that the Pentagon never wanted.

Stephanie Guttman, author of something called The Kinder, Gentler Military, takes to NRO to tell us how easy it is to cut the Defense budget. She inadvertently does just the opposite.

European subsidies have given Airbus a competitive advantage over America’s Boeing in commercial aircraft salesboein. The reverse is true on military aircraft.

The American military personnel system works against keeping the best and brightest officers in the service.