Outside the Beltway

One freshman Senator seems to think that war with Iran would be easy, just like Republicans used to think that war against Iraq would be easy.

President George W. Bush had a running battle with the CIA throughout his eight years in office. Now, they’ve given him an award.

Senate Republicans have done more harm to the goal of stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons than they have done good.

Vice-President Cheney’s amoral defense of torture has come to define how most conservatives view the issue, and that’s a problem.

A new report from the New York Times confirms the adage that, in war, the first casualty is the truth.

The Obama Administration’s legal justification for war against ISIS is laughably flimsy.

Once again, Republicans demonstrate why they have problems with Latino voters.

George Will has come under criticism for pointing out what seems to be an undeniable fact.

When it comes to Iraq, the media only seems to be giving Americans one side of the story.

Some questions for the Republicans who would be President about the actions of the last Republican President.

Barack Obama is no Jimmy Carter.

Most Americans now see America’s decade of war as a failure.

An agency has won the Nobel Peace Prize for something that hasn’t happened yet.

:Like his predecessors, President Obama’s speech last night exaggerated the threat that Syria poses in order to sell his plan to American voters.

President Obama’s plans in Syria are as unclear as they were before he spoke last night.

I’ve been up since 3 am and drinking since 6 pm, so my reaction to a presidential war speech at 9 am may not be the definitive word

Heading into an intense week of Congressional lobbying, the odds still seem against the Administration on Syria.

Why are chemical weapons a “red line” in a war where so many have been killed?

A proposed Syria authorization being considered in the Senate places several limits on Presidential authority to act, but it’s unclear if those limits can actually work.

Persuasion is sometimes an important part of being president.

There’s more than one way to look at the civil war in Syria.

We’re almost certainly going to launch punitive strikes against Syria. They’ll almost certainly be ineffective.

The Syrian regime may have used chemical weapons again, this time in an even larger and more deadly attack.

North Korea’s nuclear weapons aren’t going anywhere.

Don’t blame “secret courts” for the government’s expanded spying on American citizens and allies.

Has Bashar al-Assad crossed the red line drawn by President Obama? And does it matter?

A preventative strike against North Korea is a bad idea.

Revisiting an old posting of mine on the subject.

The Dakota Tribal Wisdom Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

Emily DePrang looks back at “‘Baghdad Bob’ and His Ridiculous, True Predictions.”

An American fighting with Syrian rebels faces life in prison for firing an RPG against a government we’re trying to oust.

Second thoughts about the Iraq War

General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, commander during Operation Desert Storm, has died at the age of 78.

An attempt to lay down some basic groundwork for discussing this story.

First in a series of posts looking at the substance of the final presidential debate, ostensibly about foreign policy.

A Bangladeshi man was arrested yesterday in New York for an apparent plot to bomb Federal Buildings. The entire plot was an FBI sting operation.

The argument that the United States should start assisting the rebellion in Syria has many flaws.

The 9/11 attacks and our response to them changed America, and not for the better.

General Martin Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sent a message to Israel last week.

Several key members of the Syrian government were killed in a suicide bomb attack today in Damascus.