Good JBA post on meeting Abu Mazen: Finally, he quoted back to the group the old adage that the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. While that may have been true about the Palestinians at one time, he said, today it’s the Israelis who are missing the opportunity – not simply for [...]

Now’s a bad time to be part of Iraq’s anti-Iranian/pro-Saddam cult known as the Mujahideen-e-Khalq. For the first time since 2003, the U.S. is no longer offering it protection from Iranian or pro-Iranian reprisal attacks, like last year’s Iraqi Security Forces-driven bloody wild-out.

Zach Rosenberg, in Kabul and looking at Kandahar for War is Boring, tries to make sense of the state of the U.S.-Karzai relationship. Karzai, who appointed one of Afghanistan’s most notorious warlords to chair the Peace Jirga, has never seemed especially enthusiastic about either the planned Kandahar offensive or the good governance meant to follow [...]

Meet the new National Alliance, a re-consolidation of the major Iraqi Shiite political parties. They don’t know who they want as prime minister, but they like power, and along with the Kurds, they’ll be able to wield it in the next parliament. Is it 2004 in here again? Or 2006? What kills me is that [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 480-10 June 10, 2010 DOD Identifies Air Force Casualties The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of four airmen who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died June 9, near Forward Operating Base Jackson, Afghanistan, in a helicopter crash. Killed were: Staff Sgt. Michael P. Flores, 31, of San Antonio, Texas, [...]

Something else from Gen. McChrystal’s Brussells chat today: the commanding general of NATO forces in Afghanistan mused on his Special Operators and actually gave a body count. I’ve never heard him do that. And it’s a fairly rare occurrence for a flag officer to mention the kill-or-capture total, as no one wants to be accused [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 478-10 June 10, 2010 DOD Identifies Army Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Sgt. Erick J. Klusacek, 22, of Calcium, N.Y., died June 8 at Gerda Serai, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to [...]

Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times reported there were early discussions between U.S. and Afghan officials to “carve out” some U.S. use of the Parwan/Bagram detention facility near Kabul so as to serve as some kind of neo-Guantanamo. Parwan is to be handed over Afghan government control by early next year. But in a Brussels briefing [...]

I got asked yesterday whether I thought there was value to liveblogging anymore, and I found myself thinking that there isn’t. Live-tweeting an event, I think it’s fair to say, has replaced it: social media has meant a more horizontal, distributed approach to delivering immediate impressions. It’s more captivating to follow a hashtag for what [...]

Mahmoud Abbas: When asked what he could offer Israelis to show that he was serious about peace initiatives, Abbas reminded the participants that he had addressed the Israeli public in an interview on Channel 10. “Why wouldn’t Bibi go to Palestinian TV and do the same?” said the Palestinian president. “I would never deny [the] [...]