Outside the Beltway

President Obama’s new rules for killing Americans with drones are proving inconvenient.

Democracy was nice while it lasted.

The U.S. position on China’s new air defense zone is exceedingly clear. The question is where it goes from here.

China sends a message, and the U.S. responds. What happens next is anyone’s guess.

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

As Congress eyes the Defense budget for cuts, some are drawing attention to the lavish housing of our top brass.

The military’s finance and accounting system has been dysfunctional for decades and is getting worse.

Words don’t always mean what you think they mean.

The sequestration cuts are two months old, and it seems pretty clear that the claims of doom we heard before they went into effect were heavily exaggerated.

We treat violence by lone individuals differently than organized violence. Race, religion, and national origin have nothing to do with that.

American troops may now earn the fourth highest combat medal from the comfort of their desk chair.

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

The Pentagon considers those killed by Nidal Hassan at Fort Hood three years ago victims of workplace violence, not terrorism.

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

A group of former special operations and intelligence officers are criticizing President Obama for “Dishonorable Disclosures.”

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

My first piece for the Christian Science Monitor, co-authored with my Atlantic Council collegue Barry Pavel, has been posted.

We seldom blame presidents for bold actions that go wrong. We despise them for appearing weak and indecisive.

Another chapter in the annals of American Politicians as Royalty:

The CIA’s drone war in Pakistan has gotten so out of hand that the Pentagon and State Department are reigning it in.

Gaddafi is dead, but it was still wrong for the United States to get involved in Libya.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta gave the strongest signal ever that there will be some U.S. military presence in Iraq after December 31st.

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.

Leon Panetta has been brought in to oversee significant cuts to the U.S. Defense budget. Meanwhile, we’re in six wars.

Congress had a chance to send a strong message to the Executive Branch today. They failed.

Ppartisan politics no longer stops at the water’s edge. This is a bad sign for the Republic.

Is Congress set to vote to authorize military action in Libya?

Contrary to what Senator McCain, seeking realism in military policy does not make one an isolationist.

WaPo’s Jackson Diehl asks, “Will the GOP nominate a dove?”

American drone strikes in Yemen are intensifying. Is this a new war. or just the same one we’ve been fighting since October 2001?

It has now been 60 days since American involvement in Libya commenced. Congress has failed to act, and that’s their fault.

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

A lot of people appear confused at to what the debt ceiling is and why it has to be raised.

And when did it know it?

One can almost hear the pitter-patter of American boots in the distance.

To borrow a phrase: budgeting is the science of muddling through (with an emphasis on the “muddling” far more than the “science.”

President Obama’s grand coalition against Libya is a lot less than meets the eye.

It has become quite apparent that neither the White House nor our coalition partners have any idea what the path to an endgame in Libya even looks like. That’s not good.