The Snowden Movie Does Not Get to the Truth
We still do not know the full Edward Snowden story, and the new Oliver Stone movie about the former NSA contractor makes getting at the […] More
Walter Pincus
Trump's Temperamental Tirade
The real Donald Trump appeared last Saturday evening near the end of a Colorado Spring, Colorado airport rally. The new, teleprompter-controlled persona Trump has become, […] More
Is Trump “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing?"
Donald Trump is selling himself as a businessman, so let’s see how much he knows about budgets, particularly when it comes to defense. In his […] More
The Potential Danger of Classified Intel Briefings in a Bitter Campaign
NBC’s Wednesday night “Commander-in-Chief Forum” gave some insights into how Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump might handle the job, but I first want to deal […] More
Trump’s Statements: More than Just Words Abroad
What presidential candidate Donald Trump says on the spur of the moment about foreign events – without understanding, or perhaps caring about its impact overseas […] More
Why Nation Building is Needed to "Halt the Spread of Radical Islam"
Before Donald Trump speaks out again on the subject of nation-building, I suggest he – or his staff – study what the Pentagon terms “Building […] More
The Budget Certainty Congress Denies the Pentagon
“Superficial and emotional” was the way retired Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey described the current presidential campaign discussion of military affairs in an interview […] More
Trump's "New Approach" to the Mideast is Already Going On
Listening to the U.S. presidential campaign, you would hardly know there is a real war going on in the Middle East, involving thousands of American […] More
Stirring Up His Audience
Donald Trump is a provocateur as well as a mythmaker, two qualities that should disqualify a presidential candidate and would be extremely dangerous if he […] More
Intelligence Briefings for Candidates have become a Political Football
The intelligence briefings scheduled for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, perhaps as early as this week, may cause some serious reality to be injected into […] More
Do Facts and Logic Count in Donald Trump’s World?
For the more than 16 years, Donald Trump has thought about running for president and in that time repeatedly talked about the U.S. being “ripped […] More
Shutting Down ISIS' Digital Platforms
One day before Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, the 31-year-old Tunisian immigrant who killed 84 people by plowing a rented refrigerator truck into the Bastille Day crowd […] More
Some National Security Lessons from the Past
At a June 23 National Security Council meeting, according to notes once marked EYES ONLY, Top Secret, “The President said if he knew any way […] More
ISIL: You just can’t take them out and it’s over
The United States is involved in a “global, and long-term effort to defeat ISIL (the Islamic State), and ensure that other violent extremist groups, such […] More
Financing Nuclear Modernization: Tough Decisions for the Next President
The next president, Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, will have to make hard decisions about whether to go ahead with the current, enormously costly, U.S. nuclear […] More
The Affordability Challenge of Nuclear Modernization
The White House and some Republicans in Congress are taking a second look at the need for, and the $1 trillion cost of, the planned, […] More
Trump vs. the GOP on Foreign Policy
How will Republicans paper over the sharp foreign policy differences between Donald Trump and the party’s congressional leadership? That problem was vividly illustrated when one […] More
How Clinton and Trump Differ on National Security
The Defense Department under a President Hillary Clinton will for the most part continue in the direction it’s been going under President Barack Obama. Don’t […] More