Outside the Beltway

A book out today makes an odd case.

Tweets aren’t policy, unless they are.

Nobody even agrees on what baselines to use.

Claims by the President and Defense Department about the Iranian response to the Soleimani raid were untrue.

President Trump’s threat to attack Iranian cultural sites would most likely constitute a war crime if he actually carried it out.

An American drone strike has taken out the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, a move likely to significantly increase tensions across the Middle East.

A new report details the extent to which the eighteen-year Afghanistan War has been marked by mistakes, and lies by the government to cover-up the fact that we went to war without a clear understanding of what we were doing.

Donald Trump’s pardons of soldiers convicted of war crimes sends the wrong message to the military, to our allies, and to the world.

The Secretary of the Navy was abruptly dismissed late yesterday in a dispute over the a case involving a SEAL accused of war crimes.

Against the advice of his top military advisers, President Trump has cleared three American soldiers of war crimes, sending a horrible signal to the world and to the troops in the field.

Suicide has become a bigger threat to members of the military and veterans than combat. That needs to change.

Revisiting a recent post.

The newest branch of the US Armed Forces has made a long-overdue policy change that others should copy.

Defying the Commander-in-Chief’s order will almost certainly ruin a good man’s career.

American negotiators are claiming a ceasefire in northern Syria. The Turks, Syrians, and Russians are the winners, the Kurds are the losers, and we look like schmucks.

Turkish forces advance, American forces retreat, the Kurds seek new allies, and Syria and Russia come out the winners.

President Trump is basically saying he does not care if ISIS prisoners return to Europe to commit terror attacks.

Trump makes a particularly dumb comment about our alliance with Syrian Kurds.

Just days after President Trump agreed to remove American forces from the scene, Turkish forces are entering northern Syria and Kurdish forces say they ar ready for war.

The Air Force’s use of Trump hotels predates his presidency—but is still highly problematic.

The Trump Administration from projects to build on-base schools and daycare facilities to spend on his border wall.

President Trump continues to have an odd obsession with nuclear weapons.

Mark Esper has been confirmed and sworn in as the next Secretary of Defense, ending a period of nearly 100 days during which the Pentagon was headed by a succession of Acting Secretaries.

An Army appellate court has rejected an appeal filed by Bowe Bergdahl that argued that the President’s attacks on him while a candidate unfairly influenced his court martial.

The House of Representatives passed a defense spending bill that seeks to limit Presidential authority when it comes to striking Iran and aideing the Saudi war on Yemen.

In a move sure to ruffle feathers, the President is bypassing all of the Navy’s four-star admirals for the next service chief.

Adm. William Moran had been set to become Chief of Naval Operations in three weeks.

Can the commander-in-chief’s tweets be unlawful command influence?

The Kaine-Udall amendment has met its predictable end.

Another poll is out showing that Americans overwhelmingly oppose the President’s decision to ban transgender troops from serving in the military.

The Pentagon has been headed by Acting Secretaries for an unprecedented period. Does it really matter?

Just days after being named the next Acting Secretary of Defense, the President is appointing Mark Esper to be full Secretary of Defense.

As if the situation in the Persian Gulf weren’t already tense enough, the Iranians shot down an American reconnaissance drone late yesterday

Democrats are trying to rein in President Trump. It won’t work.

Patrick Shanahan is out as nominee to be Secretary of Defense after questions were raised during his background investigation.

Tensions are increasing in the Persian Gulf as the Iran war hawks seem to be winning the battle for the President’s support.

A new report in The New York Times raises both national security and Constitutional concerns.

An idea that’s both long overdue and problematic.

The Democratic-controlled House has settled on the worst possible option.

Thirty years ago, when the veterans of D-Day were still relatively young and still largely with us, President Reagan delivered one of the finest speeches of his Presidency.

The last of the World War II code talkers from the Mohawk tribe has passed away at the age of 94

A misleading, annoying media trope that needs to go away.

The Navy is confirming that it did receive a request from the White House to keep the USS John McCain “out of sight” during the President’s visit to an American base in Japan.

White House aides asked the Navy to keep the USS John McCain “out of sight” while the President visited a Navy base in Japan earlier this week.

Late last week it appeared as if a 90-year-old veteran of the Korean War would be buried without anyone to say goodbye. Then the word got out, and thousands of people responded.

This year’s graduating class at West Point includes a record number of African-American women.

President Trump is reportedly planning to pardon several American servicemen convicted of war crimes, an action that would be an insult to everyone who has ever worn an American uniform.

The way the Navy and Congress have handled this has been abysmal.

One of the last of the Navajo Code Talkers, who provided the U.S. military with an unbreakable code in the fight against Japan in World War Two, has died at the age of 97.

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.