Outside the Beltway

The destruction of Syria’s stockpiles will be slow and laborious even if all goes according to script.

I’ve been up since 3 am and drinking since 6 pm, so my reaction to a presidential war speech at 9 am may not be the definitive word

My latest for The National Interest has posted.

Given that the vote count seems to be heading that way, this is a question worth examination.

The President has admitted that there is no imminent threat to the United States in Syria.

A proposed Syria authorization being considered in the Senate places several limits on Presidential authority to act, but it’s unclear if those limits can actually work.

The president’s public dithering on Syria is drawing jeers from friend and foe alike.

Raymond Pritchett longs for the good old days of Tom Donilan, Hillary Clinton, and Leon Panetta.

Presidents have gotten away with ignoring Congress when it comes to foreign military adventures for a very long time.

Humanitarian wars have their own grammar but not their own logic.

An Example of How Institutions Matter.

Some Members of Congress are calling for a debate before any strikes on Syria. They’re absolutely right.

There’s more than one way to look at the civil war in Syria.

In both Egypt and Syria, it’s damned if we do and damned if we don’t.

As President Obama’s red line has been crossed more brazenly, he continues to sound reluctant to intervene in Syria while positioning forces to do just that.

The Pentagon is considering doing away with two combatant commands—and no longer calling them combatant commands.

Al Qaeda may be up to something, so take no chances.

CNN reports that CIA is going to great lengths to keep operatives from talking about what happened at Benghazi.

Time to “pivot to the economy” again.

North Korea’s nuclear weapons aren’t going anywhere.

Libya continues to teeter on the brink of chaos.

President Obama’s poll numbers seem to be suffering under the weight of nearly two months of scandals and/ media attention.

Former President Bill Clinton says President Obama should ignore the polls and intervene in Syria.

Has the West inadvertently handed Iran a victory in Syria?

Turkey has had along and ongoing struggle with democratic consolidation.

I have for months taken it as a given that she went on five Sunday morning talk shows and lied about what happened there. Did she?

How would the addition of Susan Rice and Samantha Power to the President’s foreign policy team affect policy toward Syria’s civil war?

Syria isn’t Libya.

Denied her chance at being Secretary of State, Susan Rice will be moving to a position that is arguably just as important in shaping American foreign policy.

Dr. Keith Ablow lays out the case that President Obama is conducting psychological warfare on us.

So far, three weeks of bad news hasn’t really had much of an impact on the public’s view of how President Obama is handling his job.

The Obama Administration’s response to the Benghazi attack is approaching critical mass. It’s not going away any time soon.

Would more information about the Benghazi attacks have changed the outcome of the Presidential election?

The talking points prepared in the immediate aftermath of the Benghazi attack were heavily edited at the request of the State Department.

ThinkProgress’ Hayes Brown reports that, contrary to his claim that he was demoted for speaking up on the Benghazi attacks, Gregory Hicks was instead demoted for being a bad manager.

Republicans looking to Benghazi for political ammunition are likely going to be disappointed.

Yesterday’s hearings shed more light while also raising yet more questions to which we’ll likely never get a satisfactory answer.

My latest for The National Interest, “Never Again, Except This Time,” has posted.