They’re not the same thing and the overlap is not perfect. But the National Security Strategy reflects many of the insights that the counterinsurgents developed in FM 3-24 and beyond. In the shared understandings of the relationship between legitimacy and power — with the correlative focus on the relationship between institutions and respect of rights [...]

I contend over the course of 1000 words that that’s the focus of President Obama’s National Security Strategy. I’ll be circling back to a bunch of these themes throughout the day. But you can really anticipate the Gallagher-like explosion of Glenn Beck’s melon-head when you read the section about how a strong and integrated domestic [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 438-10 May 26, 2010 DOD Identifies Army Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Sgt. Edwin Rivera, 28, of Waterford, Conn., died May 25 at National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., of wounds sustained May 20 when his unit was attacked [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 436-10 May 26, 2010 DOD Identifies Army Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Maj. Ronald W. Culver Jr., 44, of Shreveport, La., died May 24 in Numaniyah, Iraq, when insurgents attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. He was [...]

Fuck. I’ll quote myself here. I’ve been hearing for days that key Pentagon leaders, despite Defense Secretary Gates’ begrudging support for the legislation, were embittered by the White House’s Monday pledge to LGBT activists to acquiesce to the legislative push. Regardless of the amendment’s substantive respect for the Working Group’s timetable, those leaders thought that the [...]

The speech Brennan gave at the Center for Strategic and International Studies today — man, it had some high notes. He always looks visibly disgusted by al-Qaeda, and he talks about its operatives like you would talk about a child molester. (The Bronx/North Jersey accent helps.) Counterterrorism debates incline toward overbroad generalizations. Brennan likes precision. [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 435-10 May 26, 2010 DOD Identifies Army Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Pfc. Christopher R. Barton, 22, of Concord, N.C., died May 24 in Khowst province, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire. [...]

Why is tomorrow my favorite wonky day of the month? Because the National Security Strategy finally gets released. For years, I’ve attempted to understand and interpret the grand strategy emerging from the Obama administration, and this is the long-awaited emergence of a foundational text. In advance of its release, I thought it would be appropriate [...]

It’s not so much that Rep. Skelton opposes the DADT repeal that Rep. Murphy is going to put in the defense authorization during the House floor vote later this week. It’s how he’s opposing it: “In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee this spring and in a recent letter, Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen [...]

My pal Ezra Klein is junketeering in China, and so he riffs: Americans don’t necessarily like funding the military and aid expenditures that go along with being the world’s single superpower, but they’re pretty into the idea of being that superpower. That’s why the conflict with China that’s implied in American political rhetoric is that [...]