Outside the Beltway

Once again, politics is dictating military policy.

The Navy’s Blue Angels demonstration team has canceled the rest of its 2013 season in response to budget cuts.

A theory on why Benghazi will not die as a political issue.

Here we go again.

American troops may now earn the fourth highest combat medal from the comfort of their desk chair.

Chuck Hagel will be confirmed, but the campaign against him tells us much about the current state of Republican foreign policy

John Cornyn tells Jennifer Rubin that he’ll oppose the confirmation of his former colleague, Chuck Hagel, for Secretary of Defense.

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates is bemused that the generals who worked for him lived more lavish lifestyles than he did.

One of West Point’s first female graduates has married her long-time girlfriend at the Cadet Chapel.

If nothing else, the Petraeus affair is teaching us a valuable lesson in just how extensive the Surveillance State has become.

President Obama seems to have given away the store when it comes to the defense sequestration cuts.

The Pentagon considers those killed by Nidal Hassan at Fort Hood three years ago victims of workplace violence, not terrorism.

Don’t blame the Defense Department for following a bad law.

Mitt Romney is once again making completely false claims about the status of the United States Navy.

A new book by one of the Navy SEALs involved in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden differs significantly from the official version put forward by the government.

A former Obama official says government should learn from business, but is private industry really more efficient?

In calling for the sequestration cuts to be delayed, Republicans are demonstrating their lack of seriousness on the issue of fiscal responsibility.

The White House and the Pentagon are buildings, not unitary actors.

The people trying to undo the Defense Budget sequestration cuts are making some pretty weak arguments.

Another example of Republican foreign policy taking precedence over fiscal conservatism.

The body of Corporal Patrick R. Glennon will be returned to his family for burial, 52 years after he was declared missing in action in Korea.

A Reserve Specialist who endorsed Ron Paul’s presidential candidacy in uniform will only be reprimanded, not court martialed.

The military promotion system does not reward top performers rapidly enough.

As they did four years, ago the New York Giants will get a parade in New York City today. Some are wondering when Iraq War vets will get theirs.

Not surprisingly, Republicans are trying to reverse the automatic cuts to defense spending agreed to in August.

Mitt Romney is making claims about Naval readiness that are, at best, misleading.

A Washington Post fact check calls this “true but false.”

Michael Hastings has yet another credulous story attempting to smear the United States military.

Don’t believe the fear mongering about the coming decreases in the growth of defense spending.

Are Republicans mostly to blame for the supercommittee failure?

With the Super Committee dead, 2012 is likely to see a fight over the defense cuts set to take place starting in 2013.

“Democratic” pollsters Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen argue that President Obama should decline to run for re-election.