Outside the Beltway

The planes were apparently in the air, and the ships in position, for an American attack on Iran last night. Then the order to pull back came in.

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg laid out his foreign policy platform in a speech this week. It’s certainly an improvement over the current President.

Expanding on events that have been going on for months, two oil tankers were attacked today near the entrance to the Persian Gulf

John Walker Lindh, the so-called “American Taliban,” has been released from prison but the war in which he was captured goes merrily along.

Taiwan has become the first nation in Asia to legally recognize same-sex marriage.

The White House claims to want to talk to Iran but the President’s actions make clear that negotiation is the furthest thing from his mind.

President Trump’s foreign policy has largely been a failure, and there are specific reasons why.

Other than confirming a lot of Trump Judges, the Senate has not been getting much work done so far this year.

While he campaigned on a message of restraint, Donald Trump has largely adopted the interventionist foreign policies of his predecessors.

Its explanation for why its paywall is coming down 3 days leads us to an obvious question.

Former Vice-President Joe Biden is calling for an end to American support for the Saudi war on Yemen.

The Trump Administration’s policies toward Iran aren’t going to work, but that’s because they aren’t supposed to work.

Sunday’s attacks in Sri Lanka make it clear that the claim that ISIS has been defeated are nowhere close to being true.

The Wall Street Journal tries, and fails, to defend President Trump’s indefensible veto of the Congressional resolution regarding the war on Yemen.

President Trump has not surprisingly vetoed a Congressional resolution to limit American support for the Saudi war on Yemen. His defense for doing so is utterly absurd.

The Constitution’s invitation to struggle over foreign policy continues.

The Saudis tortured an American citizen, but the Trump Administration doesn’t care.

The Trump Administration continues to drive a wedge between the United States and Europe, can it ever be repaired?

In a rare display of assertiveness in the foreign policy arena, the House voted yesterday to bar U.S. assistance in Saudi Arabia’s genocidal war on Yemen.

The Trump Administration is reportedly preparing to withdraw the small contingent of American troops from Syria. If it actually happens, this would be a good move.

In a small, but meaningful, step, the Senate has rebuked the Administration’s policies toward the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The evidence against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi continues to mount. Will the Trump Administration care?

In what has to qualify as one of the most horrifying displays of moral depravity on the international stage, the Trump Administration is saying it doesn’t really care if the Saudi Crown Prince is a murderer or not.

The C.I.A. has apparently concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. What will the Trump Administration do about this?

As the Saudis continue to dissemble and put forward an utterly implausible explanation for the death of Jamal Khashoggi, the Trump Administration shows no sign of having a spine.

It’s been a month since Jamal Khashoggi disappeared after entering the Saudi consulate in Turkey. The Saudis are continuing to lie about it, and the Trump White House is letting them get away with it.

The investigation of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi is inching closer to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, but it seems unlikely to impact his hold on power.

The Saudis are now apparently getting ready to push out a fall guy for the death of Jamal Khashoggi, an explanation as absurd as all the others they have offered to date.

Jamal Khashoggi’s final column includes a message that should resonate far beyond the Arab world it was addressed to.

Several of the men apparently tied to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi have close ties to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Saudi Arabia is reportedly developing an explanation for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi that defies credulity.

The Saudis have been awful for generations. Why this?

President Trump is choosing money and moral cowardice over human life in his response to the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi.

American involvement in the genocidal Saudi war on Yemen is getting more complicated. This is a bad idea.

Not surprisingly, it appears that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salam, who effectively runs Saudi Arabia under his father’s rule, is behind the apparent plot against Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.

Last Tuesday, Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain a document he needed. He hasn’t been seen since.

Seventeen years ago, America was thrust into a war that seemingly has no end.

Through our so-called allies in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the United States is helping to destroy Yemen. It’s time for our support for that war to come to an end.

The Trump Administration has taken the latest step in a process that began in May with the withdrawal from the JCPOA. Where it takes us is anybody’s guess, but the probability of something going wrong is quite high.

In a ruling that largely relies on the authority granted by Congress to the President to regulate immigration on national security grounds, the Supreme Court has upheld the final version of the Administration’s travel ban.

Echoing the Obama Administration, the Trump Administration is arguing that it did not need Congressional authorization to attack Syria earlier this year.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a bombastic speech on Iran yesterday that reveals just how empty and dangerous the Trump Administration’s policy toward Iran actually is.

As expected, President Trump has withdrawn the United States from the nuclear deal with Iran. There was no rational basis for doing so.

French President Emmanuel Macron is in the U.S. hoping to lobby President Trump to keep the United States in the nuclear deal with Iran. He’s got his work cut out for him.

The United States can’t do any good in Syria, but we can do a lot of bad.

Without Congressional authorization, any attack on Syria would be illegal, but don’t expect Congress to do anything about it.

The United States has several options in Syria. None of them are good and one of them would be disastrous.

President Trump is talking about pulling American troops out of Syria, but his own White House is contradicting him.

President Trump seems intent on walking away from the nuclear deal with Iran. If he does, he’ll be handing a gift to Iran and harming American national interests significantly.

A package exploded in San Antonio overnight. It was believed bound for Austin. It would be the fifth in a spree of bombings in the city this month.