IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 662-10 July 26, 2010 DOD Identifies Marine Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Lance Cpl. Frederik E. Vazquez, 20, of Melrose Park, Ill., died July 24 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, [...]

What? Me? No way. But pal Clayton Swisher of al-Jazeera is there and passes along this dispatch of Afghan police opting to smoke marijuana before going on patrol in Argandab district. (You remember, that place in Kandahar Province.) Another encouraging sign. The sergeant whom Swisher interviews provides a great this-shit-is-exasperating quote.

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 660-10 July 26, 2010 DOD Identifies Marine Casualties The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two Marines who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. The following Marines died July 22 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. Lt. Col. Mario D. Carazo, 41, of Springfield, Ohio. Maj. James M. Weis, [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 661-10 July 26, 2010 DOD Identifies Army Casualties The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of four soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died July 24, at Qalat, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when insurgents attacked their military vehicle with an improvised explosive device. Killed were: Staff Sgt. Conrad A. [...]

Look past the spin in this anonyquote to the WaPo on Pakistan’s relationship with the Taliban: “The key thing to bear in mind is that the administration is not naive about Pakistan,” an Obama administration official said. “The problem with the Pakistanis is that the more you threaten them, the more they become entrenched and [...]

I’m deep in the weeds for Danger Room on this, but Wikileaks is publishing over 90,000 documents about the Afghan insurgency and Pakistani sponsorship of it. Holy crap. Huge. Update, 8:40 p.m: Not to be a stickler about this, but here’s one of the Guardian’s ledes: The Nato coalition in Afghanistan has been using an undisclosed [...]

Via Yglesias, Robert Wright has a pitch-perfect piece about the tragedy of demonizing the Cordoba House/Ground-Zero-Mosque: No doubt Osama bin Laden, if apprised of the situation, would hope that Rauf will cave in to these demands and ritually denounce Hamas. Because the Muslims who are most vulnerable to bin Laden’s recruiting pitch are, it’s safe [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 658-10 July 24, 2010 DOD Identifies Army Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Pfc. James J. Oquin, 20, of El Paso, Texas, died July 23 in Orgun-E, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident when he was swept [...]

Two U.S. servicemembers may have been captured by the Taliban in Logar Province. Reports appear unconfirmed right now. I’ll be on al-Jazeera during the 9 p.m. EST hour to talk about these last two trying months in Afghanistan, something I’ll have at the forefront of my mind when I return to the troubled country after [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 657-10 July 23, 2010 DOD Identifies Army Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. 1st Lt. Michael L. Runyan, 24, of Newark, Ohio, died July 21 in Balad, Iraq, of injuries sustained when insurgents attacked his convoy vehicle with an improvised [...]