Outside the Beltway

Rand Paul calls Mitt Romney out over his comments about Presidential War Powers.

Mitt Romney’s confrontational approach to Russia makes no sense.

Two centuries ago, a war that makes less and less sense with the passage of time began.

Let’s leave Egypt to the Egyptians.

Mitt Romney believes he could take America to war without Congressional involvement.

US Army Special Forces are the best we have at working with far-flung villagers. Are they good enough?

After a decade of war, suicides are surging among American troops.

In March, Janet Wolfenbarger became the first female four-star general in Air Force history. Now, she’s assumed command of all Air Force weapons programs.

NASA was in need of new telescopes and got a helping hand from their good pals at the DoD.

Health care is eating up 10 percent of the Pentagon’s budget and rising fast.

The United States may have slowed down Iran’s nuclear program without firing a shot–not counting the one at our own foot.

The first shots have been fired in cyberspace. How will it end?

You have Martin Luther King’s statue in your office, but you are sending these unmanned drones out, and bombs are dropping on innocent people.

Mitt Romney is criticizing the President over his Syria policy, but his alternative ideas aren’t very good.

Romney comes down firmly on the guns side of guns and butter.

Meet Flame. A cyber threat that makes Stuxnet seem like child’s play.

Political disagreements about war are no reason to dismiss the sacrifices of those who have died for our country.

For the first time in 68 years, neither major party candidate for President has served in the military. Does this matter?

Cave quid dicis, quando, et cui.

In office less than a day, Francois Hollande has already been forced to admit he can’t withdraw French forces from Afghanistan by the end of the year.

Is there a Romney Doctrine?

Another example of Republican foreign policy taking precedence over fiscal conservatism.

Mitt Romney is proposing one of the biggest peacetime increases in military spending in U.S. history.

When Dan Drezner tweeted “I’m not going to read anything dumber than this today,” my inclination was to scoff. He actually undersold it.

My first piece for The New Republic, “Why the Obama Administration’s Drone War May Soon Reach a Tipping Point,” is up.

Osama bin Laden’s death provides Barack Obama with an important political shield during the upcoming campaign.

Wolf Blitzer just observed that the fact that the president has to take these “extraordinary security precautions” to enter Afghanistan proves how far we still have to go in Afghanistan.

Some Navy SEALs are weighing in on the brouhaha.

Five suspects have been arrested in a plot to blow up a Cleveland bridge.

We seldom blame presidents for bold actions that go wrong. We despise them for appearing weak and indecisive.

The Obama campaign’s cheap politicizing of the SEAL raid that took out bin Laden is unseemly. And unnecessary.

Does the Romney campaign know the USSR doesn’t exist anymore? Of course they do, but the language they use still means something.

Should the United States Navy name a ship after martyred gay activist Harvey Milk? This is not a rhetorical question.

My latest for The National Interest,Insurmountable Obstacles in Afghanistan, has been posted.

Lt Gen Benny Gantz says Iran “is going step by step to the place where it will be able to decide whether to manufacture a nuclear bomb. It hasn’t yet decided to go the extra mile.”