Outside the Beltway

American forces will continue to stay in Afghanistan well after Barack Obama leaves office thanks to a new policy announced today.

The wave of Ramadan attacks continues, including a strike near the second holiest site in Islam.

My latest for The National Interest has posted.

A third major terrorist attack inside of a week.

The Senate has passed an amendment to a military spending bill that would require women to register for the draft.

Donald Trump has insinuated that President Obama is not fighting the War On Terror aggressively because he somehow identifies with terrorists.

Donald Trump responded to the attack on the Pulse nightclub by renewing his call to ban members of an entire religion from coming to the United States.

A respected scholar has an interesting suggestion for fighting the Forever War.

Bowe Bergdahl’s Court Martial has been delayed until 2017, which raises the possibility that comments by Donald Trump could result in Bergdahl getting off scot-free.

My latest for RealClearDefense, “The Forgotten Veterans of Desert Storm,” has posted. The headline belies the argument.

The U.S. is poised to send troops to the front lines of yet another war we have no reason to be involved in.

American forces will be deployed to a combat area in southern Afghanistan, reversing current policy and calling the President’s promised withdrawal date into even further doubt.

The Army Chief of Staff and Commandant of the Marine Corps told Congress that women should be required to register for the draft just like men are.

Get ready for an expansion of the war against ISIS into Libya, because it’s probably not far away.

The Humphrey The Camel Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

The execution of a prominent Shi’ite cleric has led to a rapid deterioration of the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will face a Court Martial for the circumstances that led to his being capture and held captive by the Taliban for five years.

Some analysts are already suggesting that Russia’s two month old intervention in Syria is becoming a quagmire. That seems to be a premature judgment, but it’s not accomplishing much more than anything the West is doing.

As we deal with the fall out from the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, we need remember the years after September 11th, 2001 and avoid holding an entire religion responsible for the actions of fanatics.

The German Parliament has approved expansion of the nation’s involvement in the campaign against ISIS, but that doesn’t make the current campaign any less incoherent.

Disturbing reports over the weekend that American leaders may not be getting the kind of unbiased intelligence analysis about ISIS that they need to make decisions.

Even the people hired to advice Ben Carson on foreign policy seem to recognize that he is clueless on the subject, and has no apparent desire to educate himself.

Much more so than in the past, the race for the Republican Presidential race has become a battle to define what it means to be a ‘conservative.’ Especially on issues like immigration and national security, one side seems to be winning the battle.

The initial responses of the Republican candidates for President to the attacks in Paris are about what you’d expect, but it’s far too early to tell what impact the events of the weekend will have on the race for President here in the United States.

We are legally, morally, and practically obligated to respond. Let’s not do so stupidly.

A Saturday night debate wasn’t likely to get much attention to begin with. A Saturday night debate in the wake of a major terrorist attack, and a major football game for Iowa’s premier college football team, likely got even less attention. That’s probably good news for Hillary Clinton, and bad news for her two remaining rivals.

Ben Carson displays incoherence and ignorance on foreign policy issues that disqualify him from being considered a serious candidate for President of the United States.

In the wake of President Obama’s to send Special Forces to Syria, a new poll finds the public doesn’t like the idea very much.

President Obama is set to sign a military spending bill that effectively guarantees that his 2008 campaign promise to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba will go unfulfilled.

America’s much touted international coalition against ISIS is, essentially a Coalition In Name Only.

President Obama came to office inheriting the legacy of one unnecessary war, and another that had faded from memory. He will leave office with Iraq and Syria in crisis, Europe uneasy, Yemen and Libya unstable breeding grounds for terrorism, and China doing whatever it is they’re doing.

Another day, another military escalation in the Middle East.

President Obama is reportedly considering a plan that would put American forces much closer to the ground war in the war against ISIS.

A political earthquake north of the border.

The plan to withdraw nearly all American forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2016 is being put on hold.

President Obama is reportedly considering a plan that would keep up to 5,000 American troops in Afghanistan past the withdrawal date he had already set.

Your tax dollars at work.

The Taliban dealt a major defeat to a numerically superior Afghan Army force, raising questions about just how well Afghanistan can defend itself on its own.

With the exception of Rand Paul, the foreign policy discussion at last night’s debate was about as bad as you’d expect.

The buffoonish billionaire is tapping into something real.

Lindsey Graham recently retired as a colonel in the Air Force Reserves after 33 years of service. He missed most of the last twenty.

The Afghan Army isn’t doing so well against the Taliban right now.

The nine-year-old ‘Army Strong’ ad campaign is ended.

A well-founded fear of ISIS seems to be drawing many of the former Soviet Republics in Central Asia closer to Moscow.

A thirty-seven year long drought is over.

Lindsey Graham is the latest entrant into the Presidential race, but it’s hard to see how he gets out of the bottom of the polls.

If a Russian solider dies, it’s now a secret thanks to a new decree signed by the Russian President.

President Obama is taking steps to reduce police militarization, but there’s much more that needs to be done.

Final justice, but far from the end of the road.