Doyle McManus

The appointment of Susan Rice as national security adviser sends an important signal about the kind of foreign policy President Obama wants to pursue for the remainder of his second term: activist, assertive, occasionally even pugnacious. With three...

 As President Barack Obama contemplates his many bad options in Syria, he may want to consider the Aspin Doctrine, an argument for intervention abroad made by President Clinton’s first secretary of defense, Les Aspin.  In 1993, the Clinton...

Who exactly is the enemy in the continuing U.S. war against terrorism? In some cases, the answer is: It's a secret. When the United States began its war against al-Qaida after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the identity of the enemy was clear: Osama...

The civil war in Syria is heading in the wrong direction. In the last year, rebels had won control of big slices of territory, including much of the country's largest city, Aleppo. But those gains prompted a surge of military aid to Syrian President...

Customized TV Listings are available here: www.latimes.com/tvtimes Click here to download TV listings for the week of May 19 - 25, 2013 in PDF format This week's TV Movies     -------------------- SERIES Invasion In this new series, wildlife...

What is it about presidents' second terms that makes them seem so scandal-ridden? Simple: The iron law of longevity. All governments make mistakes, and all governments try to hide those mistakes. But the longer an administration is in office, the more...

TO SOME READERS, the Op-Ed page is a bit mysterious. I'll be at a cocktail party, or in the bleachers at a Little League game, and the guy next to me will begin asking questions about just what it is we're trying to do, and how we get it done. Who are...

For the last two months, President Barack Obama has been mired in Washington's inside game, caught up in backroom congressional politics as he tried unsuccessfully to pass a bill on gun control and nudge Republican senators toward compromise on the...

Customized TV Listings are available here: www.latimes.com/tvtimes Click here to download TV listings for the week of April 28 - May 4, 2013 in PDF format This week's TV Movies     -------------------- SERIES Fashion Star In this new episode...

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the most frequently heard forecast was: "This changes everything." Americans would live in constant fear of the next attack, many pundits predicted. The desire for safety would spawn a security state that...

Military intervention in the Muslim world seems to bring the United States nothing but grief. Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya: None looks much like a success story now. Yet the Obama administration is edging reluctantly into a civil war in Syria, aiding rebels...

Ten years have passed since the United States invaded Iraq, a decision that almost everyone now ranks as one of the worst foreign policy blunders of our time. Why "almost"? Former President George W. Bush and his top aides still maintain that the invasion...