special operations

I wrote today about the problems inherent with ad-hoc relationships between civilians and military officers during wartime, but I confess I didn’t think about another, more problematic ad-hoc arrangement — the dangers of treating global manhunts like a deadly game of pick-up basketball. I swear to God I’m serious.
Noah Shachtman at Danger Room has come [...]

Small Wars Journal has a copy of Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s guidance to NATO’s International Security Assistance Force troops on how the Afghanistan war ought to be conducted. It’s reminiscent of Gens. David Petraeus and Raymond Odierno’s messages to the troops about counterinsurgency and what the missions in Iraq under their commands were. (And probably self-consciously [...]

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan – Lots of soldiers walk through Bagram’s main strip, Disney Drive, in various stages of uniform.
Then there’s a contingent that’s out of uniform and wearing neither contractor lanyards nor carrying Defense Dept. civilian badges. They’ve got beards – thick, grody ones – and tattoos, their heads covered with baseball caps, outfitted [...]