L’Shana Tova to you, Senator Joe Lieberman: “I appeal to people who are planning to burn the Quran to reconsider and drop their plans because they are inconsistent with American values and, as General Petraeus has warned, threatening to America’s military. “We are at war against violent Islamist extremism, as propagated by al Qaeda, its [...]

AP reports that “Albert,” the former CIA officer who held a drill to Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri’s head in a black site, has been rehired by the agency as a contractor. Ah, impunity.

From the New York Times‘s must-must read expose of the Karzai dynasty, a subsidiary of Kabul Bank: …Initially, Mahmoud Karzai, the president’s brother, had no stake in the bank. That changed at least three years ago, when the bank’s leaders, including Haseen Fahim, decided to lend Mahmoud Karzai at least $5 million in order to [...]

And fight they do in Marja. The New York Times: The first police station has been opened in Marja, seven months after United States Marines started operations to take control of that Taliban stronghold in southern Helmand Province, military officials said on Wednesday. “We have all seen the past of Marja,” said Marine Corps Maj. [...]

Dawn: The Taliban said Tuesday they would continue to target Pakistani security forces with suicide attacks as they claimed responsibility for the latest blast that killed 19, its spokesman said. “We are targeting Pakistani security forces because the government has allowed America to launch drone attacks on us,” Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Azam Tariq told [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 808-10 September 07, 2010 DOD Identifies Marine Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Lance Cpl. Ross S. Carver, 21, of Rocky Point, N.C., died Sept. 3 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 2nd [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 807-10 September 07, 2010 DOD Identifies Army Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Capt. Jason T. McMahon, 35, of Mulvane, Kan., died Sept. 5 in Bagram, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with indirect fire in Jalalabad. [...]

The legend of the Flophouse expands, thanks to Vanity Fair’s Juli Weiner. All five original residents have since vacated, moving on to more comfortably middle-class dwellings in our advanced age, though I heard yesterday that I left a box of  graphic novels in the basement. Speaking for myself, I appreciate the idea that our infamy [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 806-10 September 07, 2010 DOD Identifies Army Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Pfc. Diego M. Montoya, 20, of San Antonio, Texas, died Sept. 2 in Laghman province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with indirect fire. [...]

I have to admit I didn’t think he was — I thought it was lame to adopt an argument from authority against burning the Koran, but not that he was damaging civilian-military relations — but Michael Cohen makes the argument here. Now I would imagine that Petraeus is correct, but there is something deeply disquieting [...]