Outside the Beltway

Strikes near the Polish border show the real possibility of escalation.

He’s tanned. He’s rested. Is he ready?

It’s hard to see how this crisis ends.

Actions deemed unthinkable days earlier are suddenly mandatory.

The ferocity of the global reaction to Putin’s invasion is stunning.

Pundits like Thomas Friedman struggle with premature prognostication.

Some of his numbers are worse than even Donald Trump’s.

Putin’s forces are in Kyiv.

The first shoe has dropped.

Two unclassified after-action reports shine a new—if one-sided—light on the evacuation.

How do we know when our government is telling us the truth?

There’s no keeping politics out of these Games.

The American way of war kills a lot of noncombatants.

Expert opinion on the standoff differs sharply.

The United States and its NATO allies are in a dangerous standoff.

Apparently, New York and Oregon are not the same place.

A former classmate is going to be one of the US military’s most senior leaders.

There are no good options, only bad and worse ones.

Children are starving and it’s partly our fault.

What happens if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v Wade?

A possible murder plot in Colombia embedded into a problematic multi-decade narrative.

A depressing magazine piece argues it is.

This man is the face of the post-Trump party.

The President seems to have persuaded the progressives in his party to settle for half a loaf.

The trailblazing soldier-statesman has died at 84.

The convicted criminal has taken his shenanigans to court.

The President’s approval has plummeted, largely because of factors outside his control.

Their case is less than persuasive.

President Biden was advised to keep troops in Afghanistan . . . for no apparent reason.

A follow-up to yesterday’s analysis.

The Islamic Republic is very close to being able to fuel a single weapon.

It’s happening again. This time, it was easily preventable.

The wonders of hindsight.

Humanitarian instincts rightly trumped security concerns.

We may be out of Afghanistan but the ‘war on terror’ is likely to continue indefinitely.

After 20 years, the conflict closes much as it began.

Because Afghanistan and Hurricane Ida weren’t enough for the Biden administration to deal with.

I guess you proved your point about great powers picking and choosing their battlefields.

What we know of the American servicemembers killed.

An unsatisfying first(?) response.

Thirteen Marines and dozens of Afghan civilians are dead in a much-anticipated attack.

Grandstanding in the midst of chaos is a bad look.

The evacuation could soon become a terrorist target.

They’ve got a lot of gall blaming Biden for this mess.

Well, this escalated quickly.

We’re not getting Afghans—or even American citizens trapped there—out fast enough.

A legendary journalist is gone.

A humanitarian crisis made worse by shameful delays.

The collapse is not his doing. But he’s accountable for the poor planning.

The mirage of semi-order faded quickly.