In late 1861, Union soldiers in Bloomfield, Missouri, found the local newspaper’s office empty and decided to put it to good use. Stars and Stripes covered the activities of the three Illinois regiments. Their commander in chief, of course, was US president Abraham...
“President Donald Trump’s decision to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea,” Matthew Lee and Ben Finley write for the Associated Press, “does not just slight a longtime ally but raises broader concerns about the security interests of the United States...
On June 11, the US House voted down — on a bipartisan basis, with 19 Republicans joining most Democrats — the latest attempt to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Absent some kind of mid-June legislative miracle, Section 702 will expire on...
$1.5 trillion. With a “t.” That’s how much US president Donald Trump wants Congress to appropriate for military (falsely called “defense”) spending in 2027. And that number — there’s no other way to put this — is insane. The only proper date for such a spending...
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wants $200 billion for the Trump administration’s illegal, ill-advised, undeclared war on Iran. Well, maybe. “That number could move,” he says, to get “properly funded for what’s been done, for what we may have to do in the future,...
Let me bury the lede just a bit: In December of 1862, Union troops under the command of Ambrose Burnside crossed the Rappahannock river by pontoon bridge and occupied the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia, in an attempt to come to grips with Confederate forces under...
On February 28, US president Donald Trump took the United States into a de facto, but not de jure, state of war with Iran. That is, he ordered the US armed forces to strike targets in Iran (the de facto part) without first securing the constitutionally required...
On January 14, a “war powers resolution” went down to defeat in the US Senate on a 50-50 vote, with vice president JD Vance breaking the tie. The resolution, which would have required US president Donald Trump to at least casually mention to Congress that he planned...
On December 17, surrounded by festive holiday decorations, US president Donald Trump delivered an upbeat — one might even say manic — address to the nation, preempting — and enraging fans of — network TV shows such as Survivor, The Floor, and Christmas in Nashville....
“A top Justice Department lawyer,” the Washington Post reports, “has told lawmakers that the Trump administration can continue its lethal strikes against alleged drug traffickers in Latin America — and is not bound by a decades-old law requiring Congress to give...
