Outside the Beltway

The first shots have been fired in cyberspace. How will it end?

You have Martin Luther King’s statue in your office, but you are sending these unmanned drones out, and bombs are dropping on innocent people.

Mitt Romney is criticizing the President over his Syria policy, but his alternative ideas aren’t very good.

Romney comes down firmly on the guns side of guns and butter.

Meet Flame. A cyber threat that makes Stuxnet seem like child’s play.

Political disagreements about war are no reason to dismiss the sacrifices of those who have died for our country.

For the first time in 68 years, neither major party candidate for President has served in the military. Does this matter?

Cave quid dicis, quando, et cui.

In office less than a day, Francois Hollande has already been forced to admit he can’t withdraw French forces from Afghanistan by the end of the year.

Is there a Romney Doctrine?

Another example of Republican foreign policy taking precedence over fiscal conservatism.

Mitt Romney is proposing one of the biggest peacetime increases in military spending in U.S. history.

When Dan Drezner tweeted “I’m not going to read anything dumber than this today,” my inclination was to scoff. He actually undersold it.

My first piece for The New Republic, “Why the Obama Administration’s Drone War May Soon Reach a Tipping Point,” is up.

Osama bin Laden’s death provides Barack Obama with an important political shield during the upcoming campaign.

Wolf Blitzer just observed that the fact that the president has to take these “extraordinary security precautions” to enter Afghanistan proves how far we still have to go in Afghanistan.

Some Navy SEALs are weighing in on the brouhaha.

Five suspects have been arrested in a plot to blow up a Cleveland bridge.

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

The Obama campaign’s cheap politicizing of the SEAL raid that took out bin Laden is unseemly. And unnecessary.

Does the Romney campaign know the USSR doesn’t exist anymore? Of course they do, but the language they use still means something.

Should the United States Navy name a ship after martyred gay activist Harvey Milk? This is not a rhetorical question.

My latest for The National Interest,Insurmountable Obstacles in Afghanistan, has been posted.

Lt Gen Benny Gantz says Iran “is going step by step to the place where it will be able to decide whether to manufacture a nuclear bomb. It hasn’t yet decided to go the extra mile.”

The commander of Fort Knox has canceled a Ted Nugent concert after the rocker’s recent rant about President Obama.

Some Marine women are going to Infantry Officers Course. Here’s how to make it work.

The consequences of ten years of war?

The story of Ensign Chuck Lord may be the greatest—or perhaps only—prank in Pentagon art history

The Atlantic’s Max Fisher reflects on “What America Can Learn From Norway’s Anders Breivik Trial.”

American revolutionary leader George Washington has been voted the greatest enemy commander to face Britain, lauded for his spirit of endurance against the odds and the enormous impact of his victory.

Alan Dershowitz says the prosecutor who charged George Zimmerman with second degree murder of Trayvon Martin was “irresponsible and unethical” and politically motivated.

The Secretary of State is ignoring a hold by the House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman.

Facts are stubborn things.