Sometimes a little historical context can put current events in perspective. Two weeks after the fall of Kabul, the United States successfully extracted over 120,000 Americans and Afghans from the capital. But thirteen American servicemen and women were killed in a terrorist attack during the high-risk mission to protect the ongoing airlift. Two weeks after […]

It’s amazing how America’s national security landscape changed in just four years. With the Islamic State on the ropes after the fall of Mosul, in February 2017 defense expert Andrew Exum proclaimed, “Donald Trump will defeat ISIS and it will mostly be due to the work of his predecessor.” But with Trump’s successor just weeks […]

In his 2007 book The Assault on Reason, former Vice President Al Gore warned about what he saw as a dire threat to American democracy. "The 'well-informed citizenry,'" Gore fretted, "is in danger of becoming the 'well-amused audience.'" In a presentation on Super Tuesday 2008 ("That's Entertainment: Politics as Theater in Campaign '08"), I elaborated […]

When it comes to defending their party against scandals, no one gets in line like Republicans. That's why it's no surprise that GOP leaders in Congress are doing their best to head off any independent probe into President Trump's rapidly propagating Putin problems. Last week, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus called allegation of Team Trump […]

Three weeks after he expanded the role of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, President Obama on Wednesday he would maintain troops levels at 8,400 for the duration of his term. But to make sure the previously planned reduction to 5,500 did not take place, Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) launched their own preemptive […]

In the wake of the terror attacks in Paris that killed 130 and wounded hundreds more, there is little doubt that the U.S., France, the UK and other American allies will step up their strikes on Daesh targets in Syria and Iraq. Beyond that, the questions about what the coalition should--and shouldn't do--to combat ISIS […]

In the aftermath of the bloody attacks in Paris, conservatives are hopping mad that President Obama isn't mad enough. During Obama's G20 press conference, an incredulous CNN's Jim Acosta asked, "Why can't we take out these bastards?" s, Apparently unaware that the President's would-be GOP successors have offered little more than the steps Obama is […]

During the 2012 Republican National Convention, Jeb Bush proclaimed of his brother George, "He is a man of integrity, courage, and honor, and during incredibly challenging times, he kept us safe." In the face of the inconvenient truth that Dubya presided over the slaughter of 3,000 Americans on U.S. soil on 9/11, deadly anthrax and […]

Stung by Donald Trump's self-evident truth that history did not begin on September 12th, 2001 and end at noon on January 20, 2009, Jeb Bush asked, "Does anybody actually blame my brother for 9/11?" As it turns out, this is hardly the first time the former Florida governor complained about the unkindness the calendar has […]

By now, most Americans can probably recite the conservative arguments against the Senate torture report by rote. After seeing Dick Cheney on TV, watching the parade of vein-bursting Republicans on the Senate floor or reading virtually identical columns from the likes of Charles Krauthammer, Rich Lowry and former CIA clandestine services boss Jose Rodriguez, the […]