Outside the Beltway

The Obama Administration has given us a peek at its legal arguments for targeted killings and they are troubling to say the least.

Andrew Bacevich bemoans the social impact of the all-volunteer force.

Is America’s focus on defense weakening the country?

My latest for The National Interest, “Ignoring the Hagel Hearing Farce,” has posted.

The office working to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba has been closed.

Greg Jaffe has an outstanding feature titled “In one Army family, women in combat evokes two different perspectives.”

My latest for The National Interest, “Obama Doctrine, Reagan Doctrine,” is out.

The notion that guns prevent tyranny is based on fantasy and movies, not reality.

In “Veterans and Senate Buddies, Until Another War Split Them,” Elisabeth Bumiller profiles the relationship between Chuck Hagel and John McCain:

The first seven men to be awarded the Medal of Honor for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan received it posthumously. Clinton Romesha will be the fourth in a row that’s lived to meet the president.

The idea of completely pulling out of Afghanistan after 2014 is very compelling.

Killing their leaders doesn’t seem to be impacting the ability of jihadi groups to recruit and motivate more terrorists.

Would a formal guarantee of Israel’s security deter Iran from whatever nuclear weapons development program it has?

Arab news giant Al-Jazeera is buying Al Gore’s failing Current TV network, hoping to get a bigger presence in the US cable market.

General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, commander during Operation Desert Storm, has died at the age of 78.

John Cornyn tells Jennifer Rubin that he’ll oppose the confirmation of his former colleague, Chuck Hagel, for Secretary of Defense.

Recent comments from Russian officials suggest that the nation may be preparing to cut its longtime ally loose.

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates is bemused that the generals who worked for him lived more lavish lifestyles than he did.

It’s okay to criticize military veterans–even if you never served in the military.

The Republican Party needs a new message on foreign policy that is true to the conservative principles of the base and yet has a broad appeal to the American public.

Guess who’s back?

Are two-term Presidencies the new normal?

Fareed Zakaria declares “America’s election process an international embarrassment.” He’s right.

The scandal now surrounding David Petraeus should lead people to reassess his past record.

A surprise Friday resignation at the CIA.

If the Romney campaign looked shocked on Election Night, that’s because they didn’t believe the polls either.

Without question, Barack Obama won the foreign policy debate in the 2012 campaign.

First in a series of posts looking at the substance of the final presidential debate, ostensibly about foreign policy.

President Obama seems to have given away the store when it comes to the defense sequestration cuts.

President Obama is keeping the conflict in Syria at arms length. That’s a good idea.

The President has yet to tell us what he would do with a Second Term.

The worst elements among the Syrian rebels seem to be the ones getting the arms.

Don’t blame the Defense Department for following a bad law.

The argument that the United States should start assisting the rebellion in Syria has many flaws.

One of Mitt Romney’s own supporters didn’t like his foreign policy speech very much.

Where’s the beef?