Sixty-two legislators sit on the House Armed Services Committee, the largest committee in Congress. Since January, 2011, when Republicans took control of the House, the committee has been chaired by Howard P. McKeon, who goes by Buck. He has never served in the military, but this month he begins his third decade representing California’s Twenty-fifth […]
Killing Osama bin Laden (or rather, signing off on the ongoing military operation that killed him) might have given Barack Obama a great electoral pitch, but what exactly did it accomplish for the security of the United States and its interests? Al-Qaeda is back – big time. As a man who knew something about indefatigable […]
When Barack Obama held his first prime-time news conference as president, the financial crisis was at its peak and not a single Republican had voted for his economic stimulus bill. So he pleaded for their partnership. “I am the eternal optimist,” he said Feb. 9, 2009 in the East Room of the White House, wearing […]
On Monday, as Barack Obama is sworn in again as President, his allies in the West will ask themselves the same nervous question they posed four years ago: how much does he care about us? The British, in particular, are worried. War looms in Mali, yet Washington seems happy to let the French take charge, […]
Here’s a bit of advice when considering Barack Obama second inaugural address on January 21: Don’t take anything he says very seriously. For all the hype they receive, inaugural addresses rarely foretell what a president will accomplish in office. In fact, the men who utter grand principles and make big promises every four years often contradict […]
President Barack Obama is likely to name deputy national security adviser Denis McDonough his next chief of staff, replacing Jack Lew after his nomination to be treasury secretary, according to sources familiar with the matter. McDonough, a longtime Obama foreign policy adviser who worked on the Democrat‘s 2008 presidential campaign, would bring a strong working […]
While the U.S.’s foreign wars wind down, the body count at home keeps rising. The Pentagon said this week there were 349 suicides by active-duty members of the armed services in 2012, as opposed to 311 combat deaths. Before you jump to conclusions about the plight of battle- traumatized veterans failing to readjust to life stateside, consider […]
The global economy was not the only casualty of the 2008 financial collapse. The crisis also soiled the reputations of many in the financial industry and of the regulators, political leaders, and media outlets that were supposed to keep them in check. So William Silber’s new biography of Paul Volcker, one of the last remaining […]
When the Pentagon launched its much-anticipated “Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace” in July 2011, it appeared the US military was interested only in protecting its own computer networks, not in attacking anyone else’s. “The thrust of the strategy is defensive,” declared Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn. The Pentagon would not favor the use of […]
As US President Barack Obama begins his second term, he needs a simple way to express his vision and policies for the economy – a metaphor around which support for his policies might crystallize, thereby boosting his administration’s political effectiveness. So, what makes a successful metaphor work? The 2008 Obama campaign used the slogan “Change […]
looking beyond borders 