Outside the Beltway

The Chinese are hacking Washington institutions to unearth the secret plan under which the town operates.

George Will declares solitary confinement tantamount to torture.

Here we go again.

For the moment, Republicans appear to be blocking Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be Secretary of Defense but they don’t seem to know why they’re doing it.

The smear campaign against defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel has taken a bizarre turn.

It’s easier for your government to kill you than strip you of your citizenship.

Chuck Hagel will be confirmed, but the campaign against him tells us much about the current state of Republican foreign policy

Tim Kane continues his campaign against the US military’s antiquated personnel system.

The Obama Administration has given us a peek at its legal arguments for targeted killings and they are troubling to say the least.

I joined the Army so I could travel, fight, and go on adventures. Just like Bilbo and Frodo Baggins.

Conservatives complaining about biased coverage from the liberal media should instead look in the mirror.

Andrew Bacevich bemoans the social impact of the all-volunteer force.

Is America’s focus on defense weakening the country?

Ross Wilson, former US ambassador to Turkey, says yesterday’s suicide attack on our embassy in Ankara “was no Benghazi.”

My latest for The National Interest, “Ignoring the Hagel Hearing Farce,” has posted.

The “I” in DIA apparently does not stand for Intelligence.

The office working to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba has been closed.

Greg Jaffe has an outstanding feature titled “In one Army family, women in combat evokes two different perspectives.”

Despite some tough questions, Congressional Republicans didn’t land a glove on Secretary of State Clinton.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta ordered a lifting of the ban on women in ground combat.

My latest for The National Interest, “Obama Doctrine, Reagan Doctrine,” is out.

The first seven men to be awarded the Medal of Honor for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan received it posthumously. Clinton Romesha will be the fourth in a row that’s lived to meet the president.

Basically, it’s inconsistent with the strategy.

The idea of completely pulling out of Afghanistan after 2014 is very compelling.

Killing their leaders doesn’t seem to be impacting the ability of jihadi groups to recruit and motivate more terrorists.

More people have been to space than have flown in a B-2 stealth bomber.

General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, commander during Operation Desert Storm, has died at the age of 78.

John Cornyn tells Jennifer Rubin that he’ll oppose the confirmation of his former colleague, Chuck Hagel, for Secretary of Defense.

Bob Dole isn’t in the best of health but he nonetheless treked to the Capitol to pay his final respects to an old friend.

From the Department of What The Hell Were They Thinking, I present Air Force Chief of Staff Mark Welsh’s new ceremonial uniform:

After an independent investigation blasted State Department leadership for lax security in Benghazi, three officials have resigned.