Outside the Beltway

Ron Paul is again making the argument that American foreign policy has contributed to terrorism. He’s more right than wrong.

The U.S may be on the verge of committing the next decade to the future of Afghanistan.

Success in Libya does not make the American mission any less unjustified than it was on the day President Obama announced it.

The U.S. and its allies are calling on Bashar Assad to step down, but there’s little we can do when he says no.

Rick Perry declared, “One of the reasons that I’m running for president is I want to make sure that every young man and woman who puts on the uniform of the United States respects highly the president of the United States.”

Iraq has become so dependent on Iran for its survival that it is endorsing the brutal tactics of Bashar Assad.

Last night’s debate was definitely more combative than previous renditions.

Examining the impact of current events requires stepping back from them just a little bit.

The defense spending lobby is already engaging in fear-mongering over very modest defense cuts.

The world is starting to denounce the crackdown in Syria, but the reaction seems unlikely to go much beyond strongly worded statements.

The cuts to Pentagon spending in the new debt deal are further revealing a split in the GOP over foreign policy and military spending.

It is always useful to go inside the numbers.

President Obama is polling at 46.8 percent, below the level needed to win re-election.

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

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

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

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.

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.

President Obama doubled down in his speech before this year’s AIPAC conference. Why he did so only he understands.

Once again, an American President thinks he can bring peace to the Middle East.

President Obama’s approval numbers shot up after Osama bin Laden was killed two weeks ago. They’ve already settled back to where they were

Matt Eckel’s takeaway from my Atlantic piece on How Perpetual War Became U.S. Ideology is that we need a peer competitor.

The 60 day deadline for Presidential discretion under the War Powers Act will expire next week. Congress won’t do anything about it.

Sunday’s announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden was the latest example of how Twitter has become the go-to source for “Breaking News.”

Events in Syria, and the world’s response to them, are revealing the moral bankruptcy of the justification for the war in Libya.

President Obama’s signing statement on the allocation of funds to Presidential “czars” sets a potentially dangerous Constitutional precedent.

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.

President Obama says he acted in Libya to avert an imminent genocide, but there’s no evidence that any such thing was about to occur.

President Obama has pledged no slaughter and no ground troops for Libya. He may well be forced to pick one.

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.

Amnesty International is drawing attention to capital punishment in the United States, with bad math and a credulous media on its side.