Outside the Beltway

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

An effort by the Federal Government to prosecute Wikileaks founder Julian Assange raises serious First Amendment issues.

The Trump Administration is attempting to bypass the Circuit Courts of Appeal and get immediate Supreme Court review of the President’s ban on transgender Americans serving in the military.

A filing in an unrelated case has apparently revealed the existence of a sealed indictment against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

Amazon has reportedly decided to split its second headquarters between an already urbanized area of Northern Virginia and the outer boroughs of New York City.

As the midterm campaign draws to a close, Donald Trump is returning to the message of xenophobia and fear that dominated his Presidential campaign.

President Trump wants to send more troops than we have in Syria and Iraq combined to the border to deal with a non-existent threat.

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 Trump Administration is preparing a policy change that will essentially define transgender Americans out of existence.

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

American involvement in the genocidal Saudi war on Yemen is getting more complicated. This is a bad idea.

Fifty years ago, a young college student who would become one of the most influential women in Washington was sexually assaulted by a Senator. She didn’t come forward with her story for more than fifty years, and the reasons why strike close to what we’ve been talking about for three weeks now.

Reports about tension between Defense Secretary James Mattis and President Trump are becoming louder, and it’s being suggested that Mattis could be out of office after the midterms.

In the past, President Trump has threatened to shut down the government if the doesn’t get what he wants in the budget. The latest budget deal effectively dares him to do it.

Just how far should White House staffers and civil servants go in protecting the public from an erratic president?

A new book by legendary Washington reporter Bob Woodward appears to contain explosive revelations about the President and the operation of the White House.

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.

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

Donald Trump’s vanity-seeking military parade has been postponed amid reports that the estimated cost has increased dramatically.

A Federal Judge in Washington State has, at least temporarily, blocked the release of files that would allow anyone to make a 3-D printed gun. The First Amendment seems to clearly indicate that this ruling is wrong.

To the surprise of nobody other than, apparently, the President of the United States, the North Koreans are dragging their feet after getting what they wanted out of the Photo Op Summit in Singapore.

Donald Trump’s military parade will cost roughly the same as military exercises in South Korea he has previously called “tremendously expensive.”

We still don’t know what President Trump and Vladimir Putin talked about or agreed to during their two-hour meeting on Monday.

The situation isn’t as awful as portrayed by the AP—but it’s still pretty bad.

America promised immigrants who volunteered to serve in our military a fast track to citizenship. Now, we’re throwing them out.

There is a general anti-immigrant current in this administration.

The Presidents of the United States and Russia will meet next month and there’s reason to worry about what Trump might give away.

A thinly-sourced report says Yes.

Seemingly out of nowhere yesterday, the Commander-in-Chief ordered the Pentagon to create a fifth service.

Frank Carlucci, who served as President Reagan’s last Secretary of Defense, has died at 87.

A long-overdue overhaul of the way the United States vets those who access classified information is underway.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a bombastic speech on Iran yesterday that reveals just how empty and dangerous the Trump Administration’s policy toward Iran actually is.

After the Ronny Jackson disaster, President Trump has made a new selection for Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

Not surprisingly, the North Koreans are pushing back against American efforts to force them into a corner on denuclearization.

For some reason, the President wants to help a Chinese company that has been accused of being a security risk by American intelligence services.

When a President lies with the ease and regularity of Donald Trump, it’s the responsibility of all of us to call it what it is and not hide behind weasel words like “misleading.”

Seven years after deactivation, the U.S. Second Fleet will be patrolling the North Atlantic again.

The Vice-President’s personal physician accused Ronny Jackson of misconduct back in September, according to new reports.

Despite the fact that President Trump’s continues to praise him, Ronny Jackson will not be returning to the White House as the President’s personal physician.

A Federal Judge has struck down the revised version of the ban on transgender members of the military from serving openly, and the ruling has significance that goes well beyond the issue at hand.

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

Without Congressional authorization, any attack on Syria would be illegal, but don’t expect Congress to do anything about it.

A response to one of the most deadly chemical attacks in the Syrian civil war has come, probably from Israel. What’s next?

President Trump’s call for National Guard troops isn’t going over well even with Republican Governors.

President Trump is talking about pulling American troops out of Syria, but his own White House is contradicting him.

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

As a general rule, Presidents are entitled to have a Cabinet and advisers he is comfortable with, but a Cabinet full of “yes men” is not ideal with any President, and certainly not with this one.

Descriptions of Robby Jackson as “Trump’s personal physician” mischaracterize his qualifications for the job.

Fourteen months into his presidency, he has no idea how the federal budget works.

The President’s new attempt to ban transgender Americans from serving in the military is as legally defective as the original ban was.