What exactly is our strategy in Cuba? The administration has increased pressure with little discussion about what outcome this pressure is intended to produce — or why ordinary Cubans must bear the cost. My latest in the Los Angeles Times. PDF in the first reply. www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

‘The Navy should be able to tell the difference between honoring a visitor and dishonoring the dead… It should be able to look at a request like this and understand, instantly, that some things must not be done.’ Via @joncduffy.bsky.social www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

The USS Arizona is a tomb. That should have been enough.   My latest in the LA Times looks at Kash Patel’s “V.I.P. Snorkel” there. The deeper disgrace was the Navy’s decision to accommodate it. PDF in the first reply. www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

"Hello daddy. I hope you are OK. Tell everyone from my class hello." here's some of what I saw and learned this week when I visited the Dilley ICE family detention center in Texas.

I wrote on Monday about Pete Hegseth and Gen. Francis Donovan ramping up lawless boat strikes, which amount to extrajudicial killing. This week there have been 3 more strikes! Truly out of control. Awful that the US military is doing this and the world barely notices. wapo.st/4tOygA5

A blockade is an act of war. My latest in the Los Angeles Times argues that Congress cannot keep pretending the Iran war belongs to Trump alone while refusing to either authorize it or stop it. (PDF in the first comment) www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

The U.S. is still killing people at sea. It refuses to explain how that’s lawful. My latest in the LA Times: www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Strategy is judged by outcomes, not bravado. Whatever damage has been done to Iran, America has been diminished by this war militarily, diplomatically, economically and in its global standing. My latest in the @latimes.com: www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Trump won’t accept his failures in Iran. What began as a show of force has turned into a search for smaller and smaller signs of progress. That is how strategic failure plays out. My latest in the @latimes.com: www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

The crisis in the Strait of Hormuz is about more than control of a waterway. It exposes a deeper and more familiar problem: the repeated failure of the United States to match military power with equally serious strategic thought. My latest in @latimes.com www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

War is not content. Killing is not branding. And the voice of the U.S. military should not sound like Pete Hegseth. My latest in @latimes.com: www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

The U.S. and Israel don’t agree on what “done” looks like in Iran. That’s how “limited” wars lose their stopping point. My latest in @latimes.com: www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

It’s not clear what this war in Iran is actually meant to achieve. As American casualties mount and operations expand, the absence of a defined political end state matters. My latest in @latimes.com: www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Using military force as leverage in negotiations is not self-defense. Air strikes can impose costs, but they cannot dictate how a determined adversary recalculates survival. My latest in @latimes.com on Iran, force and constitutional process: www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Here's a dirty little secret that isn't talked about much: we DO NOT currently have capability for a prolonged campaign against Iran or anyone else really. In 2017 I wrote the piece below explaining why the US, to use the term of art, are out of Schlitz. Nothing's really improved much since. 1/

Culture-war applause lines don’t win wars. Decision quality does. My latest in @latimes.com: Hegseth’s war on diversity is eroding America’s military edge www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

We’re building military power faster than we’re defining what it’s meant to achieve. That should sound familiar. My latest in the @latimes.com on Iran, Iraq, and the cost of mistaking force for strategy: www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

We’re building military power faster than we’re defining what it’s meant to achieve. That should sound familiar. My latest in the @latimes.com on Iran, Iraq, and the cost of mistaking force for strategy: www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

If you don’t understand why ordinary people stand nonviolently in the face of unaccountable force — you don’t understand service or sacrifice. My latest op-ed in the @latimes.com: www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

When scrutiny of state force is treated as betrayal, American democracy is in serious trouble. Minneapolis marks a line in the sand. My op-ed in @latimes.com: www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

When legality is left unresolved, the burden doesn’t disappear — it gets pushed downward onto those ordered to act. My new piece for @latimes.com on why “refuse illegal orders” is not a substitute for leadership or accountability. www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

My new @latimes op-ed: “Trump just removed the last restraints on presidential power.” U.S. military action in Venezuela this weekend bypassed Congress entirely. This piece is about war without consent and why this moment matters. www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

In today’s developments in the Article I Crisis. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

I wrote this for @latimes.com after reading reporting I couldn’t shake about a three-year-old appearing alone in immigration court — and what that says about power, responsibility, and character. www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Sen. Mark Kelly is the tip of the iceberg. DoD has many speech investigations underway that have led troops to scrub their own social media and watch what they say: www.businessinsider.com/military-tro...

Hoooooooo boy www.wsj.com/politics/nat...

Reporting now confirms that U.S. forces fired second missiles at survivors of our own strikes. This is no “gray area.” It’s illegal — and it morally injures the very people we ask to serve. My op-ed in the LA Times on why killing survivors is neither legal nor moral: www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

The Defense Department’s Law of War Manual specifies: “Orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal.” These are actions that you would expect from the Islamic State or the Russian army — not from the armed forces of a democracy. wapo.st/49LrEvh

Exclusive: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave an order to “kill everybody” in the first strike on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean. After two men survived, the mission commander ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, according to two sources.

Pleased to share my new essay in @foreignaffairs.com on the broader implications of the Trump administration’s killing spree at sea. www.foreignaffairs.com/central-amer...

We’re killing people at sea without trial or oversight. A secret memo now promises immunity. This is what happens when a system built to obey forgets how to take a moral stand. My LA Times op-ed: “Do our military leaders have the backbone to disobey illegal orders?” www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Unless they’re being gunned down in their classroom…

The strike in the Caribbean wasn’t about drugs. It was about power unbound from principle. In Defense One (@defenseone.bsky.social), I explain why this is a warning to all who serve: remember your oath. www.defenseone.com/ideas/2025/0...

Fairness and trust keep the Navy strong—not performative outrage. We’re failing that test, and it’s costing good people and hurting the mission. I wrote about it in Defense One: www.defenseone.com/ideas/2025/0...

I wrote for Defense One (@defenseone.bsky.social) on why banning books at the Naval Academy is a betrayal of everything we’re supposed to stand for: www.defenseone.com/ideas/2025/0...

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas, BlueSky friends 🎄