I move the ball forward on that story like, I guess, five or ten yards in today’s Washington Independent. Only built for defense-wonk links.

The U.S.-Israel military-to-military bonds are strong as ever, Robert Gates said at a press conference this morning. He wants people to stop acting like what the right is calling “linkage” is controversial. “The U.S. has considered peace in the Middle East to be a national security interest for decades,” Gates said at a press conference [...]

Does this math work for you? Hatred of arms control + Obama political priority + widest-ranging arms-reduction deal in 20 years + pretext of missile-defense-for-Eastern-Europe objections + re-demonization of Russia + election year = seven or eight GOP votes for the U.S.-Russia New START arms control treaty?

This is the first time I felt like I see eye-to-eye with people making Mideast policy for the Obama administration. According to the Washington Post, Obama and Netanyahu have nearly come to terms on a series of confidence-building measures to get back to direct talks with the Palestinians. We don’t know their terms (or at [...]

No apologies for the double-dipping, but I updated my newsbreak today about Gates relaxing DADT enforcement. So: According to a knowledgeable source, Gates will effectively limit enforcement to those cases where a servicemember actively outs himself or herself and “leaves the chain of command no legal choice but to proceed” with an investigation while the [...]

And it arrives a week from Thursday at the U.S. Institute of Peace: “Peace vs. Human Rights? Implications for a Peace Settlement with the Taliban.” From the description: What are the implications of a peace deal with a movement previously known for oppressing women, ethnic and religious minorities? Will protection of rights be weakened on [...]

What, you thought having a kid would make Noah Shachtman calm and serene? The pressures of parenthood would distract him from penetrating national-security analysis? Here Noah argues that cybersecurity requires the demolition of the NSA. #shotsfired. I will not pretend I have any insight into the NSA. Of all the intelligence community’s components, I find [...]

Actually, Daily Beast, not every incident of plate glass broken in anger is like Kristalnacht. In fact, very very very few are. John Avlon writes, “The parallels, intentional or not, to the Nazi’s heinous 1938 kristallnacht, or ‘Night of Broken Glass,’ so-named for the 7,000 storefront windows that were smashed, are hard to ignore.” Like [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 231-10 March 24, 2010 DOD Identifies Army Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Sgt. 1st Class Carlos M. Santos-Silva, 32, of Clarksville, Tenn., died March 22 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with [...]

Bereft and forlorn, I must pass on the news that New York will be spared a Senator Senor. The smug sneer now flares a nostril at our dreams. At least I’m going to get money from reviewing your book.