Outside the Beltway

The defense spending lobby is already engaging in fear-mongering over very modest defense cuts.

A disastrous day for American troops in Afghanistan.

The cuts to Pentagon spending in the new debt deal are further revealing a split in the GOP over foreign policy and military spending.

A take on the conflict that’s probably different from the one you’ve been reading.

Once again, the debt ceiling deal is raising questions about the President’s leadership.

Condi Rice’s speechwriter thinks Huntsman can appeal to the Tea Party.

It is always useful to go inside the numbers.

John Boehner and Harry Reid introduced their debt plans. Now, where do we go from here?

A bomb blast in Oslo’s government center has killed at least two people and a presumably related shooting spree at a nearby children’s camp are being investigated as terrorist related.

The Army is fielding tiny blast sensors to gauge the effects of explosions on individual soldiers.

While it’s true that the South and the Heartland disproportionately contribute to our all-volunteer force, the notion that our forces are mostly Nebraska farmboys is false.

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

Barack Obama’s leadership style may be his undoing.

The draft ended in 1973. It’s effects still linger today.

Tim Pawlenty’s foreign policy speech shows him siding with the hawks, and joining in the neocon distortion of Reagan’s legacy.

One foreign policy analyst argues that President Obama should look to Nixon’s Vietnam withdrawal strategy for ideas on Afghanistan.

Should President Obama do whatever General Petraeus wants in Afghanistan?

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.

A few Republicans have picked up on John McCain’s criticism of critics of the Libya mission as being “isolationist.”

Last night, the President basically announced that America’s longest war had entered it’s end game.

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

Are you better off than you were three years ago? 44% of Americans say no.

President Obama is expected to announce the withdrawal of the 30,000 Surge troops.

For the first time since the end of World War II, the GOP is wrestling with two diametrically opposed visions of foreign affairs.

Contrary to what Senator McCain, seeking realism in military policy does not make one an isolationist.

David Rittgers, a legal policy analyst at the Cato Institute who served three tours in Afghanistan as a special forces officer, laments the militarization of police in America.

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

The debate format was the biggest loser last night, but there were a few memorable moments in New Hampshire.

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

The American public is increasingly skeptical of foreign adventurism. Why aren’t our political candidates reflecting that?