Outside the Beltway

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

The US handing Libya over to NATO is “like Beyonce saying she’s ceding control to Sasha Fierce!” – Jon Stewart

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been released on his own recognizance and freed from house arrest after credibility issues surfaced with the woman who alleged sexual assault.

Remember Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the arrogant French aristocrat whose career was ended by a courageous chambermaid, shedding light on a corrupt social system? A funny thing happened on the way to the slammer.

Our good ally Pakistan has publicly ordered us to leave a base used for “covert” CIA drone attacks.

The selective application of international law is here to stay.

Australia’s ABC News has video smuggled out by an activist showing widespread famine in North Korea, including filthy children begging in the streets and evidence that even soldiers are not getting enough to eat.

Is Gaddafi offering a way out?

The normally loquacious Chávez has been almost silent since emergency surgery in Cuba on June 10th.

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

Florida Today’s Jeff Parker offers this take on President Obama’s Afghanistan “drawdown,” which will culminate in getting American forces down to Bush era levels by the end of 2012.

Coca cultivation is down in Colombia! But guess what is true about Peru?

As the President prepares to announce his plans for the future in Afghanistan, a majority of Americans want the troops home now.

When everyone can record video at any time and post it to for all the world to see, is there such a thing as privacy anymore?

Is it reasonable to state that countries with less guns are more likely to become tyrannical than countries with more guns?

Trevor Phillips, chairman of the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission, says fundamentalist Christians are a far bigger problem than Muslims. And, no, he’s not anti-religion.

The Netherlands is considering a new animal cruelty law that would effectively ban kosher and halal slaughter practices.

An ex-CIA agent says that someone in the Bush White House tried to use the agency to “discredit” Iraq War critic Juan Cole.

Despite one headline to the contrary, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger did not endorse Jon Huntsman as our next president today.

Ousting evil dictators is harder than it looks.

The ISI appears to have shown a special interest in informants that helped the CIA find bin Laden.

The House GOP and the White House moved one step closer to a constitutional confrontation, but is it much ado about nothing?

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

My latest piece for The Atlantic, “Is the U.S.-European Relationship Really in Decline?” is posted.

The US spends a lot on defense relative to, well, the rest of the world.

Turkey has had elections, and the ruling AKP has retained a majority in parliament. The next major issue appears to be constitutional reform.

The War Powers Act’s 90 day limit is in sight. Will Congress force the president’s hand?