We’re heading for the decisive moment with President Obama and Gen. McChrystal. To clarify the circumstances that either McChrystal will face if he stays in command or his successor will face — on the presumption that Obama didn’t decide yesterday morning to chuck a strategy it took him three months to forge — I put [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 523-10 June 22, 2010 DOD Identifies Army Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Spc. Jacob P. Dohrenwend, 20, of Milford, Ohio, died June 21 at Balad, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the [...]

The decision on Gen. McChrystal’s fate, the president said last night, will be  ”determined entirely on how I can make sure that we have a strategy that justifies the enormous courage and sacrifice that those men and women are making over there, and that ultimately makes this country safer.” That, however, begs the question: stay [...]

For some funtime reading to close out #McClusterfuck Day, you really want to check out the new paper on the Taliban from researcher Antonio Giustozzi, the man who brought you Koran, Kalashnikov and Laptop: The Truelife Adventures of How The Taliban Came Back From The Dead. (Shout to Mike Hanna.) It’s ostensibly a paper about [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 522-10 June 22, 2010 DOD Identifies Marine Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Lance Cpl. Timothy G. Serwinowski, 21, of North Tonawanda, N.Y., died June 21 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, [...]

So I asked Gen. Mattis’s crew at Joint Forces Command what to make of the speculation that Mattis could step into Gen. McChrystal’s position. Here’s what I got: The general declined my interview request, but his chief of media operations at Joint Forces Command, Kathleen Jabs, issued me the following statement: “General Mattis serves at [...]

We can all agree on that, right? No matter what anyone’s take is on the merits of the administration’s strategy or any alternative strategy for Afghanistan? Pro, con, nuanced, conflicted, etc.: Strategy is what matters most? Then check out Robert Gibbs’s press conference. There is no indication from the briefing that Obama intends on changing [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 521-10 June 22, 2010 DOD Identifies Army Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Spc. Scott A. Andrews, 21, of Fall River, Mass., died June 21 at Forward Operating Base Lagman, Zabul province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when insurgents attacked his [...]

This is something that I’ve been seeing in emails and in other people’s comment threads, and since right now I have nothing more useful to offer I thought I might as well say: No, McChrystal did not say all that stuff to Michael Hastings and Rolling Stone because he was trying to get fired as [...]

I explain at the Washington Independent. McQ at Blackfive explains the depths of McChrystal’s unforced error: Dumb, self-inflicted wound. And regardless of how any officer or member of the military feels about Obama or the rest of the civilian leadership, or how true they feel the sentiments expressed are, they have no business airing them [...]