It’s at Fort McNair at 6 p.m. and I’ll be covering it for Danger Room. Marc Ambinder and Tom Ricks have some good advance thoughts on Gen. McChrystal’s interrupted career. According to Marc, McChrystal turned down a lucrative consulting offer from Booz Allen. More complete thoughts will come after the ceremony. But whether you were [...]

Good post from Michael Cohen about people’s increased understandings of the limitations of counterinsurgency, keying off a talk from Dave Kilcullen. Apparently, Kilcullen gave a talk in New York about COIN and Afghanistan, and where he once might have said, “COIN is the least bad choice in Afghanistan so we have to find some modified [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 651-10 July 22, 2010 DOD Identifies Marine Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Cpl. Julio Vargas, 23, of Sylmar, Calif., died July 20 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion, [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 652-10 July 22, 2010 DOD Identifies Marine Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Cpl. Joe L. Wrightsman, 23, of Jonesboro, La., died July 18 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 3rd [...]

Slow posting today, as I’ve got a couple Danger Room deadlines I need to hit. To everyone who gracefully offered on that earlier thread to guest post for me while I’m in Afghanistan: thanks, I’ll be sending you emails soon with specific information.

What happened today? Over at Danger Room, that is? Couple things. We looked at the weekend’s U.S.-South Korea naval/air exercise in the East Sea/Sea of Japan. Checked out the Air Force’s solicitation for an intelligent robotic cargo pallet. Examined the intersection of drone strikes and the CIA’s new top operations official. And reported on the [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 648-10 July 21, 2010 DOD Identifies Army Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Staff Sgt. Brian F. Piercy, 27, of Clovis, Calif., died July 19 in Arghandab River Valley, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when insurgents attacked his unit using an [...]

I wasn’t able to make it, but Nick Baumann of Mother Jones was, and here’s his writeup of Carol Rosenberg (et al)’s discussion of the GTMO ground rules for reporters. David Schulz, who represents the Miami Herald, the Associated Press, Dow Jones, the New York Times, Reuters, and the Washington Post, said he was “hopeful” that the media [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 647-10 July 21, 2010 DOD Identifies Marine Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Cpl. Paul J. Miller, 22, of Traverse City, Mich., died July 19 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 3rd Combat Engineer [...]

According to David Axe, a handbook on Fifth-Generation Warfare is currently available, and he wrote a chapter on Somalia & Piracy. How does it differ from Fourth-Generation Warfare? I’ll have to read the book to learn. I’ve tended to stay out of these debates, but they’re interesting me more and more.