I’m several days late on this, but whatever Blackwater’s relationship is/was with JSOC, company founder Erik Prince had a snide parting shot for Gen. McChrystal on CNBC: Gen. McChrystal’s a great warrior. Very well respected by the troops, as is Gen. Petraeus. Politically acceptable to do the mission, he was CENTCOM commander. It’s not like [...]

Kind of a goofy piece here about Gen. McChrystal’s post-military career by Seth Fiegerman that quotes my pal Michael Noonan from Philly’s Foreign Policy Research Institute. This, however, is inspired: Batman In all the fuss about the Rolling Stone article, you may have missed the line in the piece where the writer brilliantly describes McChrystal as [...]

I have officially entered the Danger Room. Noah Shachtman is Professor X. Katie Drummond is Jean Grey. For now, I suit up for Cannonball and Mirage’s New Mutant team. I aspire to be more Warlock than Cypher. So tomorrow expect some slow blogging as I’ll be at Wired’s NYC home offices, learning the how the [...]

I’ve been running around for the past two days and haven’t had time to dissect this important New York Times piece about the Afghan and Pakistani governments nearing the contours of a peace deal for the Afghanistan war. The basic contours of the apparently-emerging deal are this: President Karzai agrees to a power-sharing deal of [...]

Do you know how you can tell that Stanley McChrystal is an honorable man? Because within hours of learning about the Rolling Stone piece that ultimately sealed his fate as commander in Afghanistan, he took responsibility for what he and his aides were quoted as saying and apologized. He didn’t equivocate. He didn’t blame reporter [...]

One of my closest friends and most cherished colleagues was railroaded today. I am not worried for his professional future, since he reports his beat like no one else — in fact, that’s the reason why he fell into the crosshairs — and will do so tomorrow and the next day like he did yesterday. [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 536-10 June 24, 2010 DOD Identifies Army Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Pfc. Russell E. Madden, 29, of Dayton, Ky., died June 23 at Charkh district, Konar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his vehicle with rocket [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 535-10 June 24, 2010 DOD Identifies Army Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Pfc. Anthony T. Justesen, 22, of Wilsonville, Ore., died June 23 at Ganjkin village, Pusht Rod district, Farah province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when insurgents attacked his [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 534-10 June 24, 2010 DOD Identifies Marine Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Cpl. Joshua R. Dumaw, 23, of Spokane Valley, Wash., died June 22 while supporting combat operations in Nimruz province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 2nd Marine Aircraft [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 532-10 June 24, 2010 DOD Identifies Marine Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Cpl. Claudio Patino IV, 22, of Yorba Linda, Calif., died June 22 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 7th [...]