Outside the Beltway

Steve Benen has coined the phrase “Thank America Last” to describe those avoiding praise of President Obama for success in Libya.

On reflection, the nature of Marcus Bachmann’s influence over his wife is indeed a legitimate question in a political campaign.

A disastrous day for American troops in Afghanistan.

The cuts to Pentagon spending in the new debt deal are further revealing a split in the GOP over foreign policy and military spending.

News that Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik was a fan of anti-Islamist sites, including Robert Spencer’s Jihad Watch and Pamela Geller’s Atlas Shrugs has opened a big can of schadenfreude.

So the CIA organized a fake vaccination drive in Pakistan in an attempt to get bin Laden family DNA. What could possibly go wrong?

President Obama came close to endorsing same-sex marriage last night, but stopped short yet again

Last night, the President basically announced that America’s longest war had entered it’s end game.

As the President prepares to announce his plans for the future in Afghanistan, a majority of Americans want the troops home now.

Are you better off than you were three years ago? 44% of Americans say no.

President Obama is expected to announce the withdrawal of the 30,000 Surge troops.

The ISI appears to have shown a special interest in informants that helped the CIA find bin Laden.

David Rittgers, a legal policy analyst at the Cato Institute who served three tours in Afghanistan as a special forces officer, laments the militarization of police in America.

WaPo’s Jackson Diehl asks, “Will the GOP nominate a dove?”

American drone strikes in Yemen are intensifying. Is this a new war. or just the same one we’ve been fighting since October 2001?

Are you better off than you were four years ago?

President Obama comfortably leads all Republicans but one.

A system designed to protect the innocent has instead become a menagerie to imprison them. A legal code designed to proscribe specific behavior has instead become a vast, vague, and unpredictable invitation to selective enforcement.

Glenn Greenwald asks two questions about the cases of Osama bin Laden and Ratko Mladic. Helpfully, the second answers the first.

Allen West says Congressmen who oppose the war in Afghanistan should go over and “get shot at a few times and maybe they’d have a different opinion.”

While President Obama has had some amusing gaffes on his trip to London, including getting the year wrong in the guest book and an awkward toast to the Queen, his speech to Parliament today hit all the right notes.

The Eats, Shoots and Leaves Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

Marc Thiessen claims Khalid Sheikh Mohammad mocked the CIA interrogators who waterboarded him.

President Obama’s approval numbers shot up after Osama bin Laden was killed two weeks ago. They’ve already settled back to where they were

If former President George W. Bush has any bitterness that Osama bin Laden was finally killed under his successor, he’s not showing it.

Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who will enter the Presidential race tomorrow, says he wouldn’t have tried to have Osama bin Laden killed.

John McCain thoroughly dismantles the argument that Osama bin Laden’s capture vindicates the use of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques.”

Video of the Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden

I’ve begun to wonder about the future of U. S. security policy. This isn’t a serious analytical post; it’s just what I call “musing”—committing disorganized thoughts to writing.

Not surprisingly, having ordered a successful mission to kill Osama bin Laden is being highlighted on President Obama’s re-election tour.