Outside the Beltway

While it’s true that the South and the Heartland disproportionately contribute to our all-volunteer force, the notion that our forces are mostly Nebraska farmboys is false.

Our good ally Pakistan has publicly ordered us to leave a base used for “covert” CIA drone attacks.

Barack Obama’s leadership style may be his undoing.

The draft ended in 1973. It’s effects still linger today.

Tim Pawlenty’s foreign policy speech shows him siding with the hawks, and joining in the neocon distortion of Reagan’s legacy.

One foreign policy analyst argues that President Obama should look to Nixon’s Vietnam withdrawal strategy for ideas on Afghanistan.

Should President Obama do whatever General Petraeus wants in Afghanistan?

Ppartisan politics no longer stops at the water’s edge. This is a bad sign for the Republic.

Florida Today’s Jeff Parker offers this take on President Obama’s Afghanistan “drawdown,” which will culminate in getting American forces down to Bush era levels by the end of 2012.

A few Republicans have picked up on John McCain’s criticism of critics of the Libya mission as being “isolationist.”

Last night, the President basically announced that America’s longest war had entered it’s end game.

As the President prepares to announce his plans for the future in Afghanistan, a majority of Americans want the troops home now.

Are you better off than you were three years ago? 44% of Americans say no.

President Obama is expected to announce the withdrawal of the 30,000 Surge troops.

For the first time since the end of World War II, the GOP is wrestling with two diametrically opposed visions of foreign affairs.

Contrary to what Senator McCain, seeking realism in military policy does not make one an isolationist.

David Rittgers, a legal policy analyst at the Cato Institute who served three tours in Afghanistan as a special forces officer, laments the militarization of police in America.

WaPo’s Jackson Diehl asks, “Will the GOP nominate a dove?”

The debate format was the biggest loser last night, but there were a few memorable moments in New Hampshire.

My latest piece for The Atlantic, “Is the U.S.-European Relationship Really in Decline?” is posted.

The American public is increasingly skeptical of foreign adventurism. Why aren’t our political candidates reflecting that?

Charging soldiers $200 for an extra bag on their way home for war? Really Delta?

Are you better off than you were four years ago?

The Anthony Weiner reveals once again the odd American obsession with the intersection of sex and politics.

Despite what appear to be the fond hope of European central bankers that it will just all go away, something needs to be done. But what?

Army Sergeant First Class Leroy Arthur Petry will become the ninth Medal of Honor recipient for actions in Iraq or Afghanistan–and one of only two who lived to tell the tale.

Commander Dave Koss, the head of the Navy’s Blue Angels, has “voluntarily” resigned after repeated unsafe maneuvers.

Allen West says Congressmen who oppose the war in Afghanistan should go over and “get shot at a few times and maybe they’d have a different opinion.”

While President Obama has had some amusing gaffes on his trip to London, including getting the year wrong in the guest book and an awkward toast to the Queen, his speech to Parliament today hit all the right notes.

Comparing Obama to Carter on foreign policy (especially in terms of electoral politics) doesn’t make sense.

“Our records indicate that your annual income for the 2011 taxable year was $2,170,000,000,000. You have requested a credit limit of $17,000,000,000,000. These figures exceed the American Public’s guidelines for credit issuance”