Kelley B. Vlahos

Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, a Washington, D.C.-based freelance writer, is a longtime political reporter for FoxNews.com and a contributing editor at The American Conservative. She is also a Washington correspondent for Homeland Security Today magazine. Her Twitter account is @KelleyBVlahos.

Let’s Do 1989 All Over Again

How many times have we heard that the United States cannot abandon Afghanistan to the mercy of armed militias and thugs like we did in 1989? So, why, pray tell, are we doing it? After the U.S. helped to fund the Afghan mujahideen that led to the Soviets’ legendary defeat and withdrawal of its forces … Continue reading “Let’s Do 1989 All Over Again”

Iraq: No Comfort in Being Right

In 18 days, the last of the remaining U.S. forces will have left Iraq. So far, no fanfare has heralded this significant event, which has been quiet and orderly — nothing like the “shock and awe” of the initial invasion in March 2003, or the furor and tumult that marked the nearly nine-year occupation afterward. … Continue reading “Iraq: No Comfort in Being Right”

Bradley Manning Finally Gets a Hearing

Next week, as the country’s Christmastime frenzy is in full swing, a 24-year-old American Army private will be on trial for his very life. His supporters say “we are all Bradley Manning,” and perhaps they are right. His first hearing since he was arrested in May 2010 and put in military custody takes place on … Continue reading “Bradley Manning Finally Gets a Hearing”

Don’t Be a Tool This Christmas

Early Friday morning, shots rang out to herald the first days of the holiday season. Men were shot in Walmart parking lots in California and Missouri, and gunfire was reported outside of a Fayetteville, N.C., mall as shoppers were gathering to enter. Newscasters were almost giddy in their reaction to the wave of “shocking” stories … Continue reading “Don’t Be a Tool This Christmas”

Gingrich the Thanksgiving Turkey

Everyone knows that when you overcook a Thanksgiving Turkey it makes for a dry, overdone meal. Let’s be honest: no amount of gravy is going to mask that disappointment. Kind of like Newt Gingrich, who’s been cooking so long he’s as appetizing as an old leather shoe. And gamey too. A bad bird. Maybe, just … Continue reading “Gingrich the Thanksgiving Turkey”

Hawks Lose It Over Supercommittee

Mass hysteria in Washington over the possibility of real belt-tightening for the Department of Defense reached a fever pitch this week when the secretary of defense suggested the country could be attacked if Congress cut his budget. If the so-called supercommittee fails to come up with the prescribed deficit-reduction measures by Turkey Day, then it … Continue reading “Hawks Lose It Over Supercommittee”

Occupy Veterans Day

If only Marine Scott Olsen had behaved himself. If only he had been a “good” Marine, believing in the “correct” universal truths and keeping his mouth shut. He may not have gotten shot. The right-wing blogomob, not to be outdone by its past displays of repulsive reasoning — like saying humanitarian aid worker Marla Ruzicka, … Continue reading “Occupy Veterans Day”

No Party for Smart Men

There is no room in the Republican Party today for a noninterventionist conservative, at least in presidential politics. This flies in the face of many hopeful signals and predictions over the last year among conservative and libertarian writers — including some on these pages — that the Tea Party zeitgeist, combined with a federal budget … Continue reading “No Party for Smart Men”

City of the Living Dead

Anyone covering Capitol Hill knows that congressional hearings can be deadly — deadly boring and deadly predictable. But when a reported Iraq war veteran exploded into a House Armed Services Committee hearing this month as Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta was reading his prepared remarks, for a split second it was like a test to … Continue reading “City of the Living Dead”

Winslow Wheeler Shrugs Off ‘Gadfly’ Epithet

This is the second profile in an occasional series about individuals taking on the Goliaths of war from inside the belly of the beast — Washington, D.C. Not many former staffers on Capitol Hill could say that they were fired for calling out that the emperor wears no clothes — especially when the “emperor” in … Continue reading “Winslow Wheeler Shrugs Off ‘Gadfly’ Epithet”