Adam Weinstein

Yeah, so, hey! Been awhile. Turns out my day job pulled me away from posting as much as I’ve wanted to of late, which is terribly impolitic for a guest blogger. But, seriously, it ain’t my fault. And what do you care? Karaka, Mikey, Jenn, and Lewis have been ricking the casbah, and Ack’s thrown [...]

MEMORANDUM TO: Cadet 2nd Class K. Miller, USA FROM: Midshipman 2nd Class A. Weinstein, USN (Ret.) Subj: SEPARATION I’m an editor for Mother Jones magazine in San Francisco, specializing in military and defense affairs. But once upon a time I was Midshipman Adam Weinstein, USNA class of 2000…until, like you, I resigned from an Academy [...]

When I was in the Navy, I loved me some TOP GUN, even though (or perhaps because) that movie was gay as all get-up. I even had me a call sign: At first, as the soberest guy in the unit, the one who always walked or drove the drunken shipmates back in time for taps, [...]

… is here, thanks to Drew Conway. Is it just me, or is the cancer metastasizing?

So here’s the Monday morning story you’re all going to be talking about: The New York Times goes deep on the background of Private Bradley Manning, the Baghdad-based Army intelligence specialist suspected of passing all that data to WikiLeaks. It’s an emotional, fascinating read. But the story doesn’t answer the one question that a lot [...]

Apropos of Mikey’s last post on terrorist tactics, I have a new piece on MoJo about the Afghan Taliban’s new public affairs push…specifically, its messaging on the recent Time magazine cover. You know, the one with Aisha, the mutilated 18-year-old Afghan woman? According to a Taliban press release, she would have found satisfaction in a [...]

@GlobalistHulk: FOLKSY WAR ADDICT NEED DECLARE IR PARADIGM AT OUTSET! OR YOU BE FOLKSY STRAW MAN! @FolksyWarAddict: Gee, I guess I’m not sophistimicated enough for that. I just believe in a STRONG America devoted to LIBERTY. And to ALL CAPS. @GlobalistHulk: YOU SO FOLKSY, WHY NOT BE FOLKSY FOR SOFT POWER? ALL SMASH ALL TIME [...]

…in my Wonkette-ish weekly link roundup, “This Week in National Insecurity,” now posted on MoJo. Can I get a Howard Dean “YEEEEAH”?

As an ex-squid, I should probably hate Marines. But the smartass in me has always liked them: Notwithstanding their hoo-rah, “kill kill” reputation, the jarheads have a greater tolerance than most military organizations for nonconformity, innovation, and out-of-step thinking. See also: “semper gumby.” Nowhere has this tendency been more evident than in counterinsurgency: The Corps [...]

Who says hippie freaks and war hawks can’t live in mutual understanding and harmony? In a guest post today for The Atlantic’s estimable Ta-Nehisi Coates, author Ayelet Waldman writes of her experiences as the token liberal female Hebraic Berkeleyite at an Army War College seminar. And she comes away with one of the most important [...]