Dempsey to Senators: Can You Handle the Truth on Syria?

RealClearDefense July 24, 2013 Senators John McCain and Carl Levin have demanded answers from General Martin Dempsey on Syria. Can they handle the truth? In open hearings before the Armed Services Committee last Thursday, McCain asked the Joint Chiefs chairman, “Do you believe the continued costs and risks of our inaction in Syria are now…

Enough with the QDR Hype

RealClearDefense July 18, 2013 Writing at the newly-launched Defense One, CNAS vice president Shawn Brimley proclaims, “The next nine months will be the most important period for United States defense strategy since the end of the Cold War.” That’s highly unlikely. First, the bar is rather high. The nine months following the collapse of the Soviet…

McCain is Wrong About Dempsey on Syria

Defense One July 19, 2013 Sen. John McCain is blocking a second term for Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after a testy exchange in a hearing Thursday. His grounds? The refusal of Dempsey to “respond to legitimate questions” from the senior senator from Arizona. McCain’s question:  ”Do you believe the continued…

Ignoring the Hagel Hearing Farce

The National Interest February 1, 2013 The Senate confirmation hearings over Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be the next secretary of defense were a classic case of garbage in, garbage out. Sadly, they were par for the course in the American national-security debate. The hearings literally broke Twitter in the early going, and the tweets with…

A Drone Strike on Democracy

New York Daily News December 6, 2012 As a theoretical matter, remotely piloted vehicles are simply a tool of warfare, morally indistinguishable from manned aircraft. The more efficiently the U.S. can target and kill its enemies, the better. And drones are cheaper to operate, carry far less risk for American military personnel and make it…

America’s Scandalous Drone War Goes Unmentioned in the Campaign

The New Republic, September 26, 2012 *Republished by The Australian  as “Drones Backfire as Civilian Toll Mounts,” October 3, 2012) A new study released this week by researchers at Stanford and NYU has found that American drone strikes in Pakistan are killing far more civilians than advertised, taking out few high value targets, and have become the…

The Day We Lost Afghanistan

The National Interest September 19, 2012 Afghanistan has been unwinnable has been obvious to most outside analysts since well before the so-called surge of 2009. Now, the United States government has finally admitted the obvious in deeds if not words. Following the  murder of six NATO troops in yet another “green on blue” attack in which Afghan…

Oversight or Not, Drones Are Here to Stay

World Politics Review July 27, 2012 In “The Imperial Presidency: Drone Power and Congressional Oversight,” Michael Cohen argues persuasively that the U.S. Congress has abdicated its constitutional and statutory responsibility to reign in the executive branch in matters of national security policy. Then again, few who have been paying attention this past decade — some…

How Perpetual War Became U.S. Ideology

The Atlantic May 11, 2011 The United States has found itself in a seemingly endless series of wars over the past two decades. Despite frequent opposition by the party not controlling the presidency and often that of the American public, the foreign policy elite operates on a consensus that routinely leads to the use of…

Back in the Saddle: How Libya Helped NATO Get its Groove Back

Foreign Policy April 15, 2011 (Republished by NPR as “NATO Is Back In The Saddle” April 18, 2011) NATO’s operations in Libya got off to a rocky start. Although the venerable treaty organization’s member countries — principally Britain, France, and the United States — were dropping bombs on Muammar al-Qaddafi’s military as soon as the ink…