Outside the Beltway

We can draw a rather direct line from the Iraq war to the rise of ISIS.

France’s President blames ISIS, vows response, as death toll from Paris terror attacks stands at at least 127.

Reports of at least up to sixty dead, a hostage situation, and attacks at multiple locations in Paris.

Ben Carson displays incoherence and ignorance on foreign policy issues that disqualify him from being considered a serious candidate for President of the United States.

President Obama is set to sign a military spending bill that effectively guarantees that his 2008 campaign promise to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba will go unfulfilled.

A Federal Judge has ruled that the N.S.A. metadata collection program is unconstitutional, but it’s unclear if the ruling will have much of an impact.

The investigation continues, but the consensus seems to be growing that Metrojet 9268 was taken out by a bomb.

President Obama has apparently come to the same realization as many of his predecessors, that trying to craft a legacy by single-handedly bring about “Middle East Peace” is largely a waste of time.

American intelligence officials are saying that a Russian passenger jet that went down over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula was most likely brought down by a bomb.

President Obama came to office inheriting the legacy of one unnecessary war, and another that had faded from memory. He will leave office with Iraq and Syria in crisis, Europe uneasy, Yemen and Libya unstable breeding grounds for terrorism, and China doing whatever it is they’re doing.

After an eleven hour day on Capitol Hill, it was Hillary Clinton 1 House Benghazi Committee 0.

As the House Select Benghazi Committee continues to question Hillary Clinton, a new poll finds that the vast majority of Americans view its work as political rather than part of an objective investigation.

What will likely be the apex of the House Select Committee’s investigation of the Benghazi attack begins and ends today with the testimony of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The U.S. and Russia have reached a much-needed deal to avoid inadvertent confrontations over the skies of Syria.

Another Republican Congressman has said that the Select Committee investigating the Benghazi attack is primarily concerned with scoring political points against Hillary Clinton.

In the wake of yesterday’s shootings in Oregon, President Obama took the airwaves to offer the same empty rhetoric he has on this issue in the past, and to make the false claim that there are simple solutions to what is a very complex problem.

The man who will likely be the next Speaker of the House accidentally acknowledged the real motivation behind the Select Committee investigating, yet again, the Benghazi attack.

When did “politics” become a dirty word?

The final effort to block the Iran Nuclear Deal failed in the Senate yesterday, meaning that the deal will now move forward.

A Texas 9th Grader named Ahmed Mohammed was arrested because school officials and police refused to believe that the clock he built wasn’t a bomb.

A controversial article arguing prominent war critics should be targeted as enemy combatants is worth discussing.

In an interview, Donald Trump reveals that when it comes to foreign policy he has no idea what he’s talking about.

Prosecutors in South Carolina announced that they will seek the death penalty for Charleston shooter Dylann Roof.

Donald Trump is leading in Iowa, and very few things make sense anymore.

Dylann Roof has been indicted in Federal Court for completely unnecessary reasons.

The Afghan Army isn’t doing so well against the Taliban right now.

Any discussion of the Iran deal has to be about realistic alternatives, not fantasies.

Tragedy in Tennessee.

For the first time since 1961, there will soon be an American Embassy in Havana, and a Cuban Embassy in Washington. It’s well past time that this happened.

The people who continue to claim that the Confederate Flag is about anything other than hatred, racism, and a nation that celebrated slavery are lying to you and to themselves.

Good for her.

The Administration announced changes to the way the government handles hostage situations, but it really doesn’t amount to much.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev appeared in public for what is likely the last time in his life, apologized for the crimes he committed, and was unsurprisingly sentenced to death by a Federal Judge.

David Frum calls for several measures to reduce gun violence.

PolitiFact rates President Obama’s claim that other countries don’t have mass shootings at rates comparable to America”Mostly False.”

The debate is ultimately academic.

A word that has come in recent years to be used to refer chiefly to Muslim fanatics obviously applies to a man who murdered nine people because they’re black.

Marine special operations forces have called themselves “Raiders” for years. Now it’s official.

The Supreme Court ruled that states don’t have to grant license plates that display the Confederate flag. Their decision has the potential to seriously harm the First Amendment.

A well-founded fear of ISIS seems to be drawing many of the former Soviet Republics in Central Asia closer to Moscow.

Hillary Clinton opened a new phase in her campaign for President yesterday with a speech in New York City.

Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us.

A Federal Appeals Court In Washington has ruled that the military tribunal convictions of one group of Guantanamo Bay detainees was unconstitutional.

The American people don’t believe that liberty should be sacrificed in the name of security, but their leaders largely don’t care.

An Air Force general is bragging about a targeting technique being used against ISIS.

Many provisions of the Patriot Act lapsed at midnight, but apparently the world hasn’t ended.

The Senate returns tomorrow to try to pass an extension of the PATRIOT Act before it expires, but it may not be able to do so.

Another step forward toward ending a U.S. policy regarding Cuba that was outdated twenty years ago.