Outside the Beltway

There are even higher obligations than taking care of Marines.

The legendary figure was in charge of strategic forecasting at the Pentagon for decades.

President Trump will get his Space force, but it won’t exactly be what he wanted when he first proposed that idea.

As threatened late last year, the Trump Administration has withdrawn from the Intermediate=Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. This is a mistake.

Nancy Pelosi is “suggesting” to the President that the State of the Union be rescheduled for a time after the government shutdown ends, but it clearly seems like more than just a suggestion.

In what clearly appears to be a rebuke of the President, Defense Secretary James Mattis is retiring as Secretary of Defense.

Losing the midterms is not going over well with the President.

Claiming it was because of the weather President Trump chose to skip a visit to a cemetery at the site of one of the bloodiest battles involving Americans in World War One.

My latest for War on the Rocks.

My latest for The National Interest.

President Trump is preparing to scrap a thirty-year-old treaty that marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War. It would be a foolish mistake.

The American public is not sold on the idea of a ‘Space Force.’

President Trump is at the center of controversy again after video emerged of him returning the salute of a North Korean General.

There is no obvious strategy and even the expressed rationale makes no sense.

President Trump wants to send the military to the Mexican border. This is both unnecessary and a bad idea.

The President issued an incredibly confusing order that contradicts the advice of his generals and is probably illegal.

H.R. McMaster appears to be on the way out as National Security Adviser. The important question is, who replaces him?

There won’t be any tanks, but it looks like President Trump will get his military parade.

The Defense Department will reportedly recommend to President Trump that transgender members of the service currently serving in the military be allowed to continue serving.

National Security Adviser H.L. McMaster is the latest person rumored to be considering moving on from the Trump Administration.

Of course Donald Trump wants a military parade, it would be consistent with his delusions of grandeur.

Is it time to reexamine Presidential authority to launch a nuclear strike?

The capital of the purported caliphate declared by ISIS has apparently fallen, but that doesn’t mean the end of ISIS. In fact, it may make the group more dangerous.

Donald Trump continues to be as astoundingly ignorant about the most powerful weapons the U.S. military possesses as he was as a candidate.

A new poll shows, unsurprisingly, that the vast majority of Americans see Donald Trump as a divider rather than a uniter

Donald Trump went there again, and in the process reopened a wound that was starting to heal just a little bit.

At a time when our alliance is more important than ever, President Trump is responding by attacking our ally.

Contrary to reports, Secretary of Defense Mattis is not defying the President on his order to bar transgender Americans from serving in the military.

Another Cabinet member rebukes the President for his comments about Charlottesville.

Donald Trump’s Secretary of State is refusing to defend his response to the violence in Charlottesville.

Just about two weeks after being announced, the President’s proposed ban on military service by transgender troops is being challenged in Court.

Another escalation on the Korean peninsula.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff are making clear that President Trump’s tweets are not official policy. At least not yet.

President Trump has actually made a good pick for National Security Adviser. As with the rest of his foreign policy team, though, the question is if he’ll listen to him.

Steve Bannon is in. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Director of National Intelligence are out. Sort of.

Clinton is getting no special treatment by the standards of her high-powered peers.

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

My latest for The National Interest has posted.

Michael Bloomberg announced today that he’s not running for President, but he came awfully close to getting into the race.

The United States and South Korea are hinting at increased military cooperation in the wake of last week’s North Korean nuclear test.

Another day, another military escalation in the Middle East.

After an eleven hour day on Capitol Hill, it was Hillary Clinton 1 House Benghazi Committee 0.

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.

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

The Army’s investigation of the disappearance five years ago of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has been referred to a top General, who will decide if a court martial should be convened.

A surprising change at the top of the military’s civilian chain of command.

As things stand right now, there is no legitimate legal authorization for the President’s war against ISIS, and that’s largely because Congress has failed to act.

Elected representatives, not soldiers, make policy. But there are times when generals should make a stand.