Outside the Beltway

There’s no excuse for the former NBC anchor’s lies. But there are reasons.

ISIS apparently now has a foothold in Libya, and is making inroads in Yemen.

Daniel Larison is far less ambivalent about our war on ISIL than me.

Explaining my ambivalence around the latest escalation in our intervention.

Most in the international relations community are not amused by the president’s National Security Strategy.

President Obama will ask Congress to authorize a war he started six months ago.

I don’t Think that Means What you Think it Means (Huckabee Edition)

A big change in an important nation in the most volatile part of the world.

ISIS owns more territory than it did when the US bombing campaign began.

The price of oil is continuing to fall, but it won’t last forever.

Some are criticizing the President for not going to Paris for yesterday’s rally.

David Petraeus provided highly classified secrets to his mistress. Will he be charged?

The men responsible for the Charlie Hebdo massacre are dead, but the problems for France, and the rest of Europe, may just be at the beginning.

The news cycle in 2014 seemed to be dominated by a series of real and phony “crises” that grabbed our attention for short periods of time.

The ground troops that United States has not sent into Iraq to fight ISIL are reportedly in Iraq fighting ISIL.

The costs of more than a decade of war are far higher than many ever thought, and we’re still paying the price for the fiscal irresponsibility of the Bush Administration while they were being fought.

Vice-President Cheney’s amoral defense of torture has come to define how most conservatives view the issue, and that’s a problem.

As expected, the Senate passed the so-called “Cromnibus,” but not before a self-aggrandizing maneuver by Ted Cruz ended up being exploited by Democrats to pass outstanding nominations.

Today is a day for turkey and football, not a day for politics.

The abrupt departure of Chuck Hagel says much more about Administration policy than it does about Chuck Hagel.

A surprising change at the top of the military’s civilian chain of command.

Our supposed Syrian allies seem to have a different idea of who the enemy in Syria actually is.

The shocking has become routine. We’re no safer because of it.

You thought the American combat role in Afghanistan would end on December 31st? Think again.

The idea that the U.S. does not negotiate with terrorists is simply not historically accurate, so should we be reconsidering the policy of not negotiating with ISIS for the release of Western hostages?

The CIA has always separated its core spying and analysis functions; that may soon change.

Some of his party’s leaders want the president to save them.

Another round of election losses is leading Democrats to contemplate the direction they should take going forward.

The latest ISIS video is horrible and barbaric but we should not take the bait they are offering before considering the consequences of our actions going forward.

As things stand right now, there is no legitimate legal authorization for the President’s war against ISIS, and that’s largely because Congress has failed to act.

Outdated rules? It sure seems like it.

Some people didn’t like the song selection at last night’s Washington, D.C. concert for Veterans Day.

Mission creep.

The GOP added to its majority in the House, giving it the biggest majority it has had since Truman was President.

2014 was not supposed to be a wave election, but it clearly qualifies as one.

The Navy Special Warfare community is angry at SEALs exploiting their part in the bin Laden raid.

Quietly, oil prices have been falling for months now. That’s potentially a very big deal.

Politicians on both sides of the aisle like to tell people they’re just “average Americans,” but they’re lying and the American people seem to have figured out that they’re lying.

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul continues to challenge Republican orthodoxy on foreign policy, and that’s a good thing.

We’ve handed off operations in Helmand Province to the Afghanistan army.

It’s been three months, but there’s been no action on the lawsuit that the House of Representatives said it was filing against President Obama.

Yesterday’s apparent terrorist shooting in Ottawa reveals again a phenomenon that seems difficult if not impossible to stop in advance.

Who should own antiquity?

Poor Joe Biden can’t stay out of the news. This time, it’s not one of his gaffes but one by his youngest son.