President Obama and Gen. Stanley McChrystal began their decisive one-on-one talk in the Oval Office at 9:51 a.m., according to ABC’s Jake Tapper. Whether or not McChrystal loses his command, all signs point to Obama sticking with his current Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy. If so, that means that operational and More…
In a remarkable display of contrition from a military officer who operates far from public visibility, Vice Adm. William McRaven, chief of the Joint Special Operations Command, visited an area in Gardez to apologize personally for the killing of five civilians during a February raid. McRaven brought with More…
Nuclear Posture Review stuff kept me from blogging this when the release went out during Secretary Gates’ press conference, but an initial report from the NATO command in Afghanistan describes an extraordinary effort in the northwestern Afghan province of Baghdis. Apparently about 50 insurgents ambushed a joint patrol of Afghan More…
In February, U.S. Special Operations Forces raided a house in Gardez, in the eastern district of Paktia, searching for Taliban militants. They killed two men they believed to be insurgents. A NATO statement at the time said that soldiers also “found the bodies of three women who had been More…
Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.) asked why the Taliban won’t simply reconstitute itself in the parts of Afghanistan that Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s population-security battle plan won’t flood with U.S. troops. It’s the Taliban version of the tried-and-true baseball strategy of hittin’ ‘em where they ain’t. Gen. David Petraeus’ sotto voce answer? More…
Jeremy Scahill, Blackwater’s most dogged journalistic pursuer, has an absolute monster story in The Nation about the Joint Special Operations Command contracting out very sensitive drone-strike spotting and terrorist-snatch operations to Blackwater. It’s a huge piece, so read the whole thing. There’s a ton of detail in here, and More…
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