No matter how long this government shutdown lasts or how many more follow, 2020 will be a national security election. We cannot ignore the world no matter how much some wish we could.
In the wake of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's trip to the Middle East and national security adviser John Bolton's visit to Israel and Turkey, we have to focus on what former NATO supreme allied commander and retired Navy Adm. James Stavridis told me Friday: Conditions in the Middle East right now echo the combustibility in the Balkans in the run-up to World War I.