While it may have seemed fitting at West Point's Eisenhower Hall last week that President Obama chose to quote Ike in explaining his decision to expand U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan, the choice was, on a deeper level, revealing of the contorted reasoning with which the President and his advisors...

Though the future is yet unknowable, let us for a moment imagine that when we wake tomorrow it will be a new day in America.

Let us appreciate the poetry that once upon a time, a one-term congressman from Illinois became President of the United States and freed four million...

For anyone seeking real reform of America's foreign and defense policies in the years ahead, Obama's introduction of his national security team was a mixed bag. Set against an increasingly worrisome national security environment -- from the mounting tensions in India/Pakistan to Sunday's New York Times front-page story about...

In recent months, I've written several editorials examining the challenges we face leading up to and beyond the election. I've expressed more than a little skepticism that any meaningful improvement can come from any candidate from within America's corrosive two-party system. Rather than over-relying on our representatives, I've argued...

Now I'm not one to kick a man when he's down, nor even to hit him when he's wobbly. But
watching John McCain's poll numbers stay strangely resilient despite the virtual disintegration of his campaign, I feel compelled to share a cautionary tale of my own firsthand experience with...

Yesterday, I had a revealing exchange with Peggy Noonan on MSNBC's morning program "Morning Joe" that highlighted a growing confusion on Ms. Noonan's part (and presumably others who share her political leanings) about John McCain's candidacy. To be fair, Ms. Noonan distinguished herself some weeks ago from toeing the party...

Last night, I appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and one thing struck me above all else. Apart from being insanely funny (so much so that I totally forgot what I wanted to talk about), Jon Stewart does something so valuable for America. Over the past eight years...

Lucky for me, I am going on Jon Stewart tonight to talk about my new book The American Way of War. The Daily Show is a national treasure and, in an age of such cynicism about the media, I think a whole generation of Americans will look back at these...

At the risk of seeming flip or Pollyannish, I'm compelled to remind myself amid this economic emergency that crises can indeed be therapeutic. When the body politic of the American system takes a shock like that currently affecting the country, pain, as it were, can lead to gain. But only...

Eisenhower figures prominently both in my 2006 film Why We Fight...

61 years ago this week, the United States became the first and (to this day) only nation ever to use a nuclear weapon. It happened twice. First "Little Boy" was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later (before the impact of Hiroshima could fully reverberate), "Fat Man"...

My mother rang early this morning. "Your movie's on the cover of Time!" she exclaimed. Why We Fight, my film about the forces that drive American war-making has just come out on DVD, and my mom knows that every bit of coverage the film gets keeps Americans thinking about the...

Today, Vice President Cheney will deliver a speech to the state legislature in his home state of Wyoming. It's familiar turf - every morning news report today has been carefully designed to inform the public that the visit was a pre-arranged engagement, lest any of us see it as a...

Dick Cheney's America is a place so cutthroat that a 78-year old man gets shot by his own friend and the dominant response across the country is laughter.

Now I don't know Mr. Whittington. But I have never laughed at anyone being shot in my life before. Let alone someone...

Recently, as the release of my new film Why We Fight approached, I visited Washington for a follow-up visit with one of the Senators who appears in the film. Security at the Russell Office Building being lighter than I expected, I found myself searching the halls for the Senator's...

At a time of war, scandal, and national disunity, people across the American family are increasingly wondering how we got here. 45 years ago this week, departing President Dwight Eisenhower gave us our answer.

It was in his 1961 farewell address to the American people that Eisenhower coined the...