Outside the Beltway

Gary Weddle, a schoolteacher from East Wenatchee, Washington, has cut his beard after waiting almost ten years for Osama bin Laden to be killed.

Changing our relationship status to Complicated.

Osama bin Laden is dead, but he’s succeeded in changing America for the worse.

Rush Limbaugh heaps praise on President Obama for the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

The impact of the death of Osama bin Laden on the domestic politics is likely to be minimal at best.

Bin Laden spent the last half-decade in a compound where his only contact with the outside world was a few couriers.

How exactly was the most wanted man in the world able to hide in this house without anyone in Pakistan knowing about it?

A Pakistani man named Sohaib Athar unwittingly became part of history in the early hours of Sunday morning when he started telling twitter about some odd events in Abbotabad, Pakistan

I don’t feel the jubilation that came with Saddam Hussein’s capture in December 2003. Sadly, I know better this time.

Keith Urbahn, chief of staff of former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, broke the news.

Another case of TSA groping has hit the media.

CIA director Panetta to take over Pentagon; Petraeus to be nominated for CIA

The Pentagon is frustrated that the Obama administration doesn’t “seem to understand what military force can and cannot do.”

What ever became of Private Robert H. Lister of the 165th Infantry?

The CIA has declassified the last six documents from the World War One era.

America’s war colleges have some problems but we can’t close them.

A Pentagon investigation was unable to verify some of the comments attributed to General Stanley McChrystal in Rolling Stone last year. That doesn’t mean he’s been cleared, though.

It may be time to change rules keeping women out of combat roles. But “fairness” isn’t the right question.

The law of war is not fully clear when applied to modern conflicts.

Stephen Walt doesn’t expect Obama’s foreign policy to change along with the names on the org chart.

David Petraeus’ 1987 PhD dissertation:After all, if a country with relatively few public opinion concerns or moral compunctions about its tactics cannot beat a bunch of ill-equipped Afghan tribesmen, what does that say about the ability of the United States — with its domestic constraints, statutory limitations, moral inhibition, and zealous investigative reporters — to carry out a successful action against a guerrilla force?

My first piece for The American Conservative, which they’ve titled “War Isn’t for Everyone–The military needs civilian control, not citizen soldiers,” is in the May issue.

Should transparency stop at the water’s edge?

Defense Secretary Gates hinted this week that the U.S. would stay in Iraq if the Iraqis wanted. It doesn’t seem like they do.

Continuing problems with the coalition operation in Libya reinforce an old military adage: You fight like you train.

Remember when President Obama said there would be “no boots on the ground” in Libya? You didn’t actually believe that, did you?

The duty to defend “hateful, extremely disrespectful, and enormously intolerant” expression.

The Obama Administration has given up on the idea of trying the September 11th suspects in a civilian court. Considering how much that trial would have perverted the justice system, that’s a good thing.

Department of Defense (DOD) employees moving into a new building this fall may start their days walking past a sculpture of a toad with a ten-foot fairy on its back.

A NATO airstrike killed 13 rebel fighters, who were mistaken for Gaddafi’s forces. Apparently, they were shooting at NATO planes.