Outside the Beltway

Playing two-level games.

An object lesson on the challenges of alliance politics.

A controversial artillery round is being used effectively against Russian forces.

The Army has done the right thing the wrong way.

There’s training on uncomfortable subjects. Oh noes!

A truly bizarre vote.

Shockingly, the Defense Department doesn’t keep up with former employees.

A brilliant national security leader is gone too soon.

The collaboration has been even more robust than advertised.

The threat is not idle and the options for responding are not good.

The Pentagon’s Inspector General is “concerned” over the pace of rejections.

What once seemed to be ‘saying the quiet part out loud’ is now administration policy.

It goes deeper than base names.

It’s much bigger than it appears.

Both sides have had their say and now we wait for a ruling.

While enormous, the commander-in-chief’s control over state secrets is not absolute.

The former President and his supporters are crying “weaponization of the justice system.”

The Speaker’s trip was reckless, needlessly escalating an already tense situation.

The laying out of the case begins.

A wackadoodle colonel is on his way out.

A fascinating report from the WSJ.

The Defense Department shares the worst-kept secret about the war effort.

Another glass ceiling has been shattered.

The BBC checks the facts.

Most of us have suddenly gone from High to Low risk communities.

Even liberal states like California and Massachusetts are moving on.

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?

Media reporting on CDC findings is, once again, unhelpful.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

A lone judge has halted the military’s vaccine mandate.

Some 98 percent of active service members are now vaccinated. The rest will be discharged.

Every now and again, it’s not Mitch McConnell’s fault.

Trump’s last Secretary of Defense is being stymied by preclearance review.

A scary if misleading factoid.

The next boot has dropped.

The politicization of the virus continues.

Is media coverage of experts’ struggles to understand COVID helpful?

While 96 percent of airmen are in compliance, the service is about to get smaller.

Their case is less than persuasive.

A follow-up to yesterday’s analysis.

The President has lost his patience with the unvaccinated.

What we know of the American servicemembers killed.

Grandstanding in the midst of chaos is a bad look.

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

A humanitarian crisis made worse by shameful delays.

It appears to be only a matter of time before the SECDEF orders active-duty troops to get the shots.

The President hit all the right notes.

It’s time for our political leaders to grow a spine.

The country’s largest employer is soon going to be less tolerant of the unvaccinated.