IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 853-10 September 20, 2010 DOD Identifies Army Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Spc. Timothy L. Johnson, 24, of Randolph, N.Y., died Sept. 16 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 851-10 September 20, 2010 DOD Identifies Army Casualties The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died in the Zhari district, Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device. They were assigned to the1st [...]

Gus Bridi observes: In the process of re-building Beirut yet again, in 2008, renovations began and have now been completed on the Maghden Abraham Synagogue located in the middle of newly renovated downtown Beirut in an area known as the “Solidere” which has become the focal point and showcase of Lebanon’s rebirth. This isn’t some [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 852-10 September 20, 2010 DOD Identifies Army Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Sgt. 1st Class Ronald A. Grider, 30, Brighton, Ill., died Sept. 18 at Kunduz province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when he was struck by machine gun fire. [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 850-10 September 20, 2010 DOD Identifies Marine Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. 1st Lt. Scott J. Fleming, 24, of Marietta, Ga., died Sept. 17 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, [...]

Unfortunate turn of phrase from Senator Kauffman: “It’s incredible — there’s no bending. Pick up your morning Washington Post and find out what the Republicans are willing to bend on,” Kaufman said. “This is like a holy jihad to keep the tax cuts going.” Let’s just retire this one, shall we? Too fraught.

Vanity Fair informs us that it’s OK to say a prayer for cancer-struck Christopher Hitchens, if that’s your thing. It’s not his and it’s not mine, either, so this post will have to suffice as a message into the ether for a dazzling writer to survive cancer. Anyone with some experience with cancer — their [...]

Reuters: Iran said on Monday that the U.N. nuclear watchdog was suffering a crisis of “moral authority and credibility,” underlining increasingly strained ties between Tehran and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Oh, it’s just too easy.

Call me crazy, but I’m confident volunteers in today’s military have more discipline and dedication than implied here: Elaine Donnelly, of the non-profit Center for Military Readiness, warns that scrapping “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” could drive people out of the military. “Combined voluntary and involuntary losses of careerists in communities, grades, and skills that are [...]

The single best piece of policy analysis you will read on Iran this week comes from Marc Lynch: More likely than either is a relentless slide towards a replay of the Iraq saga of the 1990′s: a steady ratcheting-up of sanctions, which increasingly impact the Iranian people but fail to compel change in the regime’s [...]