On Wednesday, General Petraeus released an updated tactical directive that offered a fairly nuanced shift in guidelines for on-the-ground action. The unclassified bits were made available. We must continue – indeed, redouble – our efforts to reduce the loss of innocent civilian life to an absolute minimum. Every Afghan civilian death diminishes our cause. If [...]

Via Feral Jundi, ISAF released this video yesterday in which Gen. McChrystal explains eight of his guiding principles in counterinsurgency, much of which will be familiar to observers of the Afghanistan debate. In the spirit of McChrystal’s “imperative” that the force recognized it will be judged “every minute of every day” by what it does, [...]

In Depth in Afghanistan.