Read it and weep, Sophocles. The war in Vietnam is the American tragedy of our lifetimes. The saddest part of the story is that it’s not over yet. Long after the last bombs dropped and the shooting stopped, the war we lost has profoundly influenced American foreign policy. This new volume, Haunting Legacy: Vietnam and [...]

Obama’s attack in Libya is as ill advised and mismanaged as his Afghanistan surge or his domestic stimulus-spending circus. Without the approval of the US Congress, President Obama sent 110 Tomahawk Missiles into Libya. President Obama’s claimed political goals were to force Gaddafi out of power. His words mean little, because almost everyone in the [...]

David Wood contributed to this report. WASHINGTON — On Sunday, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) raised questions about the economic costs of U.S. involvement in Libya. Speaking on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Lugar insisted that the U.S. has no vital national security interest in Libya and argued that additional military spending will exacerbate the nation’s budget [...]

David Wood contributed to this report. WASHINGTON — On Sunday, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) raised questions about the economic costs of U.S. involvement in Libya. Speaking on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Lugar insisted that the U.S. has no vital national security interest in Libya and argued that additional military spending will exacerbate the nation’s budget [...]

WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) responded on Sunday to a report that he was the target of “psychological operations” by the U.S. military to pressure him on Afghanistan, defending the general at the center of the controversy and saying he was “skeptical” of the accusations. On Thursday, Michael Hastings of Rolling Stone reported that [...]

WASHINGTON — While many are still debating whether Saturday’s tragic shooting in Arizona was politically driven, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the suspected gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, was clearly “motivated by his own political views.” “Based on what I know, this is a criminal defendant who was in some ways motivated by his [...]

WASHINGTON — Vice President Biden told reporters at a press conference in Kabul on Tuesday that the United States is willing to stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014 if the Afghans want the assistance, seeming to depart from comments he made last month that U.S. forces would be out by that time “come hell or high [...]

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is holding the door open to having combat troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014, undercutting a promise made by the Vice President. Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Monday to meet with President Hamid Karzai. He also met with Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. and NATO forces [...]

NEW HAVEN — There was, with really no notable exception, an absence of discussion of the Afghanistan war during the course of the 2010 campaign. But that may have been more a product of the electoral landscape (congressional races often don’t lend themselves to foreign policy debates) and strategic timelines (the start date for withdrawal [...]

WASHINGTON — Vice President Biden promised Sunday that the United States will withdraw from Afghanistan by 2014, “come hell or high water.” Last week, the Obama administration issued its strategic review of the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, assuring the public that it is still on target to begin withdrawing U.S. troops in July 2011 [...]