Outside the Beltway

Getting to the heart of the problem from my POV (plus historical numbers).

The Afghan Surge announced by President Obama in December 2009 is over. By any objective measurement, it was a failure.

Because some things are worth reinforcing.

Mitt Romney is a deeply flawed candidate, but that doesn’t mean the President is any better.

The Administration’s decision to stick with the meme that the Benghazi attack was about a movie becomes more puzzling.

With Mitt Romney and Barack Obama basically saying the same things about foreign policy, it’s time to take a look at an alternative.

The Romney campaign’s critique of the President’s foreign policy record is weak, and based on bad history.

For the fourth day, American and other embassies became the focus of mass protests in many Muslim nations.

The Romney campaign is doubling down on bizarre foreign policy pronouncements.

One Professor suggests we sacrifice yet more of our freedom in the wake of the embassy protests in the Middle East.

The GOP still hasn’t dealt with the legacy of George W. Bush.

Based on its recently passed platform, the Democratic Party has given up any pretense of putting civil liberties ahead of “national security.”

President Obama didn’t blow the doors off the Time Warner Cable Arena last night, but he didn’t need to.

General Martin Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sent a message to Israel last week.

A new IAEA report may make an Israeli strike on Iran in the near future more likely than it has ever been.

My latest for The Atlantic, “Stop Feeling Sorry for American Veterans, has posted.

After three days of buildup to a “mystery speaker,” the closing night of the Republican convention featured a rambling performance by Clint Eastwood and an empty chair.

Left with a choice between their hawkish foreign policy and their supposed commitment to fiscal conservatives, Republicans will, without fail, spend the nation into debt.

Today’s convention activities will include the opening salvos of an attack on the President’s foreign policy. This strikes me as a mistake.

An Atlantic story on veterans returning to college is both poignant and miscast.

A graph on public debt making the rounds is being used to misdirect rather than clarify.

To much fanfare, President Obama announced a shift in Afghan War policy in December 2009. There’s little evidence it’s worked.

A former Obama official says government should learn from business, but is private industry really more efficient?

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs has a message for those who wear and have worn our country’s uniform: “We are not elected to serve; rather, we elect to serve.”

The candidates aren’t talking about the war in Afghanistan very much, but that’s mostly because the American people don’t want them to.

The people trying to undo the Defense Budget sequestration cuts are making some pretty weak arguments.

Once again, a pundit has come up with the boneheaded idea of reinstating the draft.

Rand Paul calls Mitt Romney out over his comments about Presidential War Powers.

The President’s comment that the private sector is “doing fine” continues to be a topic of discussion.

After a decade of war, suicides are surging among American troops.

Republicans apparently think that re-running the 2008 campaign, just more efficiently or more ruthlessly, will work this time. Here’s why it won’t.

The factors influencing Russian policy in Syria are many, and some of them are quite ancient.

The president has come a long way from his days as a “liberal law professor who campaigned against the Iraq war.”

The United States may have slowed down Iran’s nuclear program without firing a shot–not counting the one at our own foot.

You have Martin Luther King’s statue in your office, but you are sending these unmanned drones out, and bombs are dropping on innocent people.

Political disagreements about war are no reason to dismiss the sacrifices of those who have died for our country.

For the first time in 68 years, neither major party candidate for President has served in the military. Does this matter?