Outside the Beltway

Terrorists aren’t walking across the desert to get here. Flying is so much easier.

The Pentagon is being ordered to draw up plans to withdraw roughly one-half of the American forces remaining in Afghanistan. It’s about time.

The Trump Administration is reportedly preparing to withdraw the small contingent of American troops from Syria. If it actually happens, this would be a good move.

American troops have been in Afghanistan for seventeen years now, it’s time to bring them all home.

President Trump is choosing money and moral cowardice over human life in his response to the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi.

Seventeen years ago, America was thrust into a war that seemingly has no end.

Through our so-called allies in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the United States is helping to destroy Yemen. It’s time for our support for that war to come to an end.

Kofi Annan, who served as Secretary-General of the United Nations at the dawn of the “War On Terror,” has died at the age of 80.

Donald Trump continues to do something that Russian and Soviet leaders likely only thought possible in their wildest dreams, drive a wedge between the United States and its NATO allies.

Echoing the Obama Administration, the Trump Administration is arguing that it did not need Congressional authorization to attack Syria earlier this year.

President Trump has issued another controversial pardon.

At least one red state Democrat will be voting against Gina Haspel.

Gina Haspel faced some tough questions from Democrats regarding her role in the C.I.A.’s post-9/11 torture programs, but she’s likely to be confirmed anyway.

With the start of her confirmation hearings just days away, Gina Haspel’s nomination to be C.I.A. Director is by no means secure.

The United States can’t do any good in Syria, but we can do a lot of bad.

A package exploded in San Antonio overnight. It was believed bound for Austin. It would be the fifth in a spree of bombings in the city this month.

ProPublica has retracted an explosive but erroneous report about the nominee to be the next CIA Director.

By all accounts, Gina Haspel is exceedingly well qualified to be the next C.I.A. Director, but she has a troubling past that the Senate will need to at least force her to answer questions about.

Next up: Pompeo

Service members deployed to Algeria, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Niger, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Tunisia, and Uganda qualify.

A disturbing report in the Miami Herald highlights the farce into which this trial has descended.

Donald Trump’s dereliction of duty in response to clear evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election is a staggering and flagrant dereliction of the duties he agreed to take on when he took the Oath Of Office more than a year ago.

My latest for The National Interest takes a contrarian view on the new National Defense Strategy.

Another day, another Trump lie.

Now Donald Trump is using the death of American soldiers to tell lies about his predecessor.

Based on initial reports, Trump’s Afghanistan policy looks a lot like what we’ve seen for the past sixteen years.

America’s longest war is still going on, and President Trump’s advisers want him to continue his predecessor’s policies of continuing to re-expand American forces in a war that has seemingly no end.

It’s not at all clear that there is a useful strategy at work here.

Despite American air strikes, ISIS is expanding its power amid the chaos in Libya.

Trump appears to undervaluing existing bureaucracies listening more to hacks and ideologues.

Today in “Alternative Facts.”

A potentially controversial commutation from President Obama today.

What is the deal with the love-fest for Julian Assange?

Ambassador Karlov is mostly likely not a modern day Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

As America prepares for a Presidential transition, an old conflict with a history of turning dangerous rears its head.

Just about two days after setting off bombs in New Jersey and New York City, a suspect is in custody.

The sense of national ‘unity’ that existed in the wake of the September 11th attacks didn’t last for very long.

The United States and Russia have reached an agreement to end fighting in Syria, but it seems unlikely to succeed given that it doesn’t involve the parties actually doing the fighting.

For largely irrational reasons, French police are arresting women on the beach for wearing swimsuits that are compatible with their faith.

President Obama’s ISIS policy has been far from perfect, but to call him a “Founder” of ISIS is to ignore both history and reality.

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.

A third major ISIS-inspired or planned attack in three weeks.

A massive attack hits Istanbul’s airport.

Stopping the next Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Syed Farook, or Omar Mateen is likely to be a lot more difficult than the politicians on either side of the aisle are leading us to believe.

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

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