NJ Topics Iraq War

Edward Snowden

Government Privatization Paves the Way for Crony Corruption

Norm Ornstein | 5:30 p.m.
It's dangerous business when private contractors recruit top government employees and then effectively lease them back to the government.
Syria

Slip-Sliding Toward Obama’s Third War

Michael Hirsh | June 14, 2013
The president "owns Syria now," but does he realize it?
SERVICE

Legislative Comrades-in-Arms Tend to Put Politics Aside

Tim Alberta | June 12, 2013
A long line of former active-duty military personnel have sought an Armed Services Committee post after winning election to Congress. Each brings something that can’t be taught to nonveterans: first-person knowledge.
MILITARY

A Hollow Military Again?

James Kitfield | June 12, 2013
The looming postwar drawdown of the U.S. armed forces will prove the most challenging of modern times.
Syria Civil War

How America Lost Its Nerve

Michael Hirsh | June 6, 2013
Policymakers used to believe in a forceful projection of American authority. But after Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, they are turning inward. 
Vietnam Veterans Memorial

How We Could Do More For Our Vets

Major Garrett | May 28, 2013
We need to go into debt to pay our debt to U.S. veterans to make sure they get the care and services we owe them.
Syria Body Bags

Washington’s Other Scandal: Syria

George E. Condon Jr. | May 23, 2013
The obsession over the IRS, hacked reporters, and Benghazi has overshadowed a very real, and increasingly urgent, problem. 
Obama

Obama Distances Himself From Bush Foreign Policy Legacy

George E. Condon Jr. | May 23, 2013
Even though he followed many of his predecessor's counterterrorism policies, Obama wants to move on.
Guantanamo detention facility at dawn

Obama’s 20 Steps to Counterterrorism

Matt Vasilogambros | May 23, 2013
Unpacking the president's hour-long (with heckling) speech on drones, Gitmo, and everything in between. 
Barack Obama

Insiders: Syrian Chemical Weapons Use Does Not Yet Justify U.S. Military Intervention

Sara Sorcher | May 6, 2013
Even though President Obama acknowledged chemical weapons use in Syria, nearly two-thirds of National Journal's National Security Insiders believe the American military should not yet intervene in the bloody fight against Bashar al-Assad.
Syria civil war

5 Charts Showing Why Americans Aren't Eager for Intervention in Syria

Elahe Izadi | May 3, 2013
President Obama is acting cautiously on Syria -- and Americans aren't feeling so hawkish, either.
Syria

Iraq and Libya Haunt Obama's Syria Policy

Michael Hirsh | May 2, 2013
Weighed down by memories of Iraq and Libya, the president stands his ground.
Accompanied by health care professionals, President Obama speaks about health care

Obama's Legacy: A Health Care Law That Hurts His Party

Josh Kraushaar | May 2, 2013
Like the Iraq war tarnished the Republican brand, ObamaCare could be a long-term political millstone for Democrats.
President Barack Obama

Obama Is Still Fighting Bush's National Security Legacy

George E. Condon Jr. | April 30, 2013
The president's hesitance to intervene in Syria and eagerness to close Guantanamo Bay underscore how different he is from his predecessor.
Boston aftermath

In Boston as in Baghdad, Tragedy Cannot Be Ignored

Lara Jakes | April 18, 2013
Friends and colleagues ask why, and how, this was possible. Perhaps this is the way the world already is, and has been for some time.
Syria civil war

The Paradox of Syria's Chemical Weapons

Sara Sorcher | April 4, 2013
The surest way to keep the arsenal safe is to leave it in the hands of a murderous dictator.
first days iraq

A Decade of War: What the U.S. Military Learned

James Kitfield | March 22, 2013
The 10-year anniversary of the Iraq war has rightfully prompted extended soul-searching about a conflict that cost the nation dearly in blood, treasure, and international prestige. 
stealth combat drone demonstrator Neuron

When the Whole World Has Drones

Kristin Roberts | March 21, 2013
The precedents the U.S. has set for robotic warfare may have fearsome consequences as other countries catch up.
Iraq invasion

My Iraq War

James Kitfield | March 21, 2013
Fear, death, and even elegy—one witness’s recollections from a decade of war.
McCain and Graham

On the Anniversary of War in Iraq, Who's Rooting for War in Syria?

Ron Fournier | March 19, 2013
McCain, Graham are pushing president Obama down a bloody slope.
first days iraq

The First Days of the Iraq War, as Seen Through National Journal Correspondents

Brian Resnick | March 19, 2013
Journalists were getting a sense of how this invasion would (for better or worse) begin to define the decade and the Bush presidency.
U.S. servicemen queue to board a bus

The Legacy of the Iraq War? Anti-War Democrats and Rand Paul

Michael Hirsh | March 18, 2013
The most enduring impact of the invasion is a neo-isolationism that will be with us for a long time.
Arab Spring in Egypt

The Next Arab Challenge

Michael Hirsh | March 14, 2013
Two years after the Middle East revolts, the Obama administration has mounted no real effort to understand the dynamics of political Islam.
Rand Paul

Why John McCain Doesn't Matter Anymore

James Kitfield | March 14, 2013
The GOP is now more open to isolationists and deficit hawks like Rand Paul than to traditional pro-defense Republicans.
Joe Lieberman

Former Sen. Joe Lieberman Back in Washington for ‘Internationalism’ Project

Christopher Snow Hopkins | March 12, 2013
In recent years, a number of prominent lawmakers have either renounced their party or been excommunicated.
MANDA BAY

Outsourcing the Fight Against Terrorism

James Kitfield | March 7, 2013
The United States is using local soldiers to fight al-Qaida allies in East Africa.
Iraq

The Iraq War, Nearly 10 Years Later

James Fallows - The Atlantic | March 1, 2013
This month marks ten years since the U.S. launched its invasion of Iraq. Why that's important, and what you should think about now.
Hagel

Chuck Hagel, Strategic Thinker

Michael Hirsh | February 19, 2013
It looks awfully likely that Chuck Hagel will squeak through confirmation as President Obama's Defense secretary. But it is also likely that he'll enter the Pentagon a damaged figure, a nominee tainted by the lingering impression that he is not ready to handle the vast complexities of a defense budget slated for slashing.
Reid

6 (More) Reasons Why Americans Hate Washington

Ron Fournier | February 15, 2013
In a moment of eloquence almost unprecedented in the malapropistic career of Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader said Thursday, “Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, it gets worse.”
Hagel

Hagel Not Withdrawing, Despite Renewed GOP Opposition

Michael Hirsh | February 14, 2013
Hagel spokesman acknowledges he could be defeated, but insists the former senator is not withdrawing. 
BUSH

Bush's Paintings and the Art of Projecting Guilt

Jill Lawrence | February 8, 2013
Bush's art reveals a man we didn't know, and one reviewers speculate is trying for absolution through painting.  
Hagel

The Winter of the Neocons’ Discontent

Michael Hirsh | February 4, 2013
Like Richard III, the hawks fear that Obama, Hagel, and Brennan will make all the wars go away.
Drone Strike funueral

Targeted Killings: Obama’s Endless War

James Kitfield | January 31, 2013
Even as it pulls forces out of Afghanistan, the Obama administration wants to continue high-tech targeted killings in the war against terrorists.
Hagel

Is Chuck Hagel Failing?

Michael Hirsh | January 31, 2013
Honest but slow to answer at his committee hearing, Obama's pick for Defense secretary fumbles badly on Iran, Israel.
McCain

If You Want a Friend in Washington…Don't Call John McCain

Ron Fournier | January 31, 2013
At Hagel's confirmation hearing, the Arizona senator hammers his "old friend" in a ritual display of D.C. hypocrisy.
Syria Violence

Kerry’s Task: Closing the Arab ‘Pandora’s Box’

Michael Hirsh | January 24, 2013
His tenure at State may well be defined by how he handles a vast new jihadist haven.
Afghans burn an effigy depicting U.S. President Barack Obama

Obama to World: Drop Dead

Michael Hirsh | January 22, 2013
In a speech devoid of foreign commitments, the president tells the world to keep away.
Obama and Hagel

Vast Majority of National Security Insiders Want Hagel, Brennan Confirmed

Sara Sorcher | January 14, 2013
Washington is abuzz with speculation about whether hawks’ opposition will derail the confirmation of former Sen. Chuck Hagel as Defense secretary. But 82 percent of National Journal’s National Security Insiders support it.
President Barack Obama greets U.S. troops at a mess hall at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, March 28, 2010.

What Obama's Missing in Afghanistan

Michael Hirsh | January 14, 2013
More than troops, the president needs a strategy in the region--and a diplomat.

Insiders Split on Hagel Nomination

Alex Roarty and Naureen Khan and Peter Bell | January 13, 2013
A majority of Democrats think President Obama's selection of Chuck Hagel to run the Department of Defense was -- politically speaking -- the right choice, according to the latest National Journal Political Insiders Poll, but confidence in the nomination was nonetheless far from unanimous.  Fifty-eight percent of Democratic insiders said the choice was the smart one politically, while 15 percent said it wasn't. Twenty-seven percent said it was too early to tell. Republicans, meanwhile, regarded the nomination as a mistake. Fifty-two percent of Insiders said the nomination was the wrong one, while 32 percent said it was too early to tell. Only 16 percent said the nomination was the right one. Politically speaking, was President Obama's nomination of Chuck Hagel to the post of Defense secretary the right one?   Democrats (109 votes) Republicans (102 votes) Yes 58% 16% No 15% 52% Too early to tell 27% 32%
Oil Can

Obama’s Betting on Chuck Hagel, Unlike With Susan Rice

Jim O'Sullivan | January 10, 2013
The president is fighting for the war hero and former senator in a way he didn’t for his first pick for secretary of State.
Woman and Karzai poster

Can Obama and Karzai Avoid Iraq Redux?

James Kitfield | January 10, 2013
Friday's meeting will focus on the last two outstanding issues concerning America’s longest-ever war: how fast to withdraw the remaining troops, and what, if any, residual U.S. force to leave behind.

Whipping the Hagel Vote

Hotline Staff | January 9, 2013
Former Sen. Chuck Hagel has a tough confirmation fight ahead of him. Both Democrats and Republicans have expressed concern over Hagel's positions on the surges in Iraq and Afghanistan and gay rights. His first challenge: Making it through the Senate Armed Services Committee, which will hold hearings on his nomination in the coming weeks.
Chuck Hagel

The Neocons vs. Chuck Hagel

Michael Hirsh | January 9, 2013
The attacks on the Defense nominee reflect an old struggle—and a philosophy that’s in eclipse.
Hagel -- Defense

Who is Chuck Hagel and Why Is He Being Nominated as Defense Secretary?

Brian Resnick | January 6, 2013
Hagel is no easy choice for Obama.
Chuck Hagel

In the 'War on Terror', Hagel Hasn't Gone with the Crowd

Michael Hirsh | December 27, 2012
The truth about Chuck Hagel is that he saw before most that America was embarking on an unparalleled strategic disaster.
Former Senator Chuck Hagel

White House Wavers on Hagel, Considers Others for Defense

Michael Hirsh | December 23, 2012
Besieged by criticism from right and left, and considerable skepticism from his former Senate colleagues, Chuck Hagel appears to be following the path of Susan Rice as a trial-balloon nominee who finds himself quickly losing altitude in Washington. And as happened with Rice, the White House is now signaling that it may soon puncture Hagel's hopes.  

Full Text: President Obama Nominates John Kerry as Secretary of State

National Journal Staff | December 21, 2012
The White House released a transcript Friday of President Obama's nomination of Senator John Kerry as Secretary of State. Read the full text below:
Hagel

With Hagel At Defense, What a Senate 'Team of Mentors' Might Mean for Obama's 2nd Term

Michael Hirsh | December 18, 2012
In the summer of 2008, while the two of them were on a trip to Afghanistan, then-Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., gave a bit of advice to then-presidential candidate Barack Obama. "I told Obama he should pick [Joe] Biden as his running mate," Hagel recalled in a 2010 interview. "I said, 'He understands governance better than anyone else. In particular he understands Congress. He understands how it fits together like no one else you could get. He's got the political piece. He 's got the policy piece. There's nobody in his league.'"

FOREIGN AFFAIRS - The Army's Gamble

March 29, 2003
V CORPS FORWARD TACTICAL COMMAND, Central Iraq-The sound came with such suddenness and ferocity that all heads craned skyward as if in supplication: An Iraqi Scud missile was boring back through the atmosphere at terminal velocity. Just to the right of the 110-vehicle convoy, a Patriot anti-missile battery answered, with the sparkling contrails of two missiles clearly visible as they soared toward an impact point nearly six miles overhead. Along the shoulder of the road, hundreds of soldiers scrambled to don chemical protection suits as a multiwheeled Fox detection vehicle ran down the column "sniffing" for lethal chemical agents. Within minutes, the Patriot battery reported a successful intercept and confirmed that the Scud would have hit the ground less than a third of a mile in front of the convoy.

MEDIA - The Fog of Journalism

March 29, 2003
Is there too much war news? When the cruise missiles had just started flying and every shred of news seemed meaningful, the question would have seemed ridiculous. On a story this big, it goes without saying that information is good, and the more information the better. Right?

FOREIGN AFFAIRS - Reinventing Iraq

March 22, 2003
A country called Iraq has existed only since 1919. But some cities in that land were already 16 centuries old when the nearby Egyptians built their pyramids. Bureaucrats in Mesopotamia, as the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers was known, began keeping written records in 3400 B.C. And despite three decades of political repression, economic mismanagement, and military disaster under Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, Iraq today-unlike Afghanistan in 2001, Yugoslavia in 1995, and Germany in 1945-is not a "failed state." (See "Occupational Hazards," this issue.) From food-distribution systems to local police forces, essential institutions and infrastructures have survived Saddam, albeit barely, and they will survive a war that successfully ousts him. So the good news is that Iraq will not have to start over from scratch. Unfortunately, the bad news is also that Iraq will not be able to start over from scratch.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS - Collateral Damage

March 15, 2003
The first American war against Iraq, fought a dozen years ago, produced an overwhelming, if transitory, U.S. victory, while also popularizing several phrases that slipped almost lightheartedly into the world's lexicon. But if the U.S. military's new "smart bombs" helped make a mockery of Saddam Hussein's bluster about winning "the mother of all battles," there was nothing funny about "collateral damage," the Pentagon's time-honored euphemism for the killing and wounding of everyday Iraqi people with cruise missiles and airpower.

POLITICS - As Bush Does Balancing Act, His Ratings Keep Slipping

March 15, 2003
As war with Iraq increasingly appears inevit-
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