And we are losing ground — I heard a very apt observation some years ago from the wife of then Maryland Congressman Roscoe Bartlett. In response to some question in the waning days of Bartlett’s tenure, Ellen Bartlett noted that if you don’t represent your district, you won’t represent your district. …

Here are three recent examples of those who thought otherwise — Nearly every pursuit in life at some point, in some way, requires a calculation of costs versus benefits. …

Russia retreats somewhat east; NATO moves further east — Considerable intellectual energy has been invested in what Russian President Vladimir Putin expected to achieve with his terribly misguided invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The conventional wisdom, which I agree with, is that he expected to quickly conquer Ukraine; to replace the government of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with…

That and incompetence are their actual competencies — Sometimes during the middle of major events what one remembers best are the small moments. Perhaps that’s because small individual gestures best reveal who we actually are as people — and, in a larger sense, as a people. In March of 1991, I was commanding an American artillery unit that…

The Russian army is seriously over-rated — Nearly everyone I have spoken with possessing a professional military background is of the same view: the performance of the Russian military in Ukraine is surprisingly poor and borders on incompetent. A few old colleagues had offered the view even before Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s invasion this past February 24th…

Erratic leadership is best ended internally — I have always liked the old southern aphorism that “even a blind dog finds a bone every now and then.” And in contemporary American politics there is no dog more blind than South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, despite competition that is disturbingly stiff. Graham recently called on someone in Russia…

You can’t negotiate with terrorists or compromise with insurgents — Some fifty years ago, the late Yale University political scientist Charles E. Lindblom coined the concept of “Partisan Mutual Adjustment.” …

Or when you are born — Like many, I suspect, I was quite disappointed in the performance of Louisiana Senator John Neely Kennedy in the recent confirmation hearings for Dr. Saule Omarova, President Joseph Biden’s nominee for Comptroller of the Currency, a senior position within the Treasury Department. Since Dr. Omarova was born in the Soviet…

At best it was Obama 2.0, at worst Hoover 2.0 — A few years ago one of the senior acquisition officials in the Pentagon had a wonderful sign hanging outside his office. It read: “In God we trust — All others must bring data.” …