Obama Announces 30K More Troops for Afghanistan

In a decision that may define his presidency, Barack Obama on Tuesday night announced the deployment of 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan by next summer in the hopes of bringing a deteriorating war in its ninth year to an acceptable conclusion, calling that goal vital to “the common security of More…

Afghan Human Rights Official Criticizes McChrystal ‘Tribes’ Initiative

An official with the Afghan government’s human rights commission is blasting an important new U.S. military initiative in Afghanistan as a potential road to warlordism.

The new program, known as the Community Defense Initiative, seeks to aid Afghan local or tribal leaders who control paramilitary forces outside of the U.S.-sponsored More…

Once a Renegade, Counterinsurgency Retiree Represents Iraq Norm

In the spring of 2006, with sectarian violence in Baghdad claiming hundreds of lives every week, an officer with the First Cavalry Division submitted an essay to a counterinsurgency writing competition on how the U.S. military needed to adapt for a confusing war. Drawing on the writings of the obscure More…

Just Read ‘The Gamble’

Now that Tom Ricks, the best military reporter in the country, has published the second volume of his politico-military history of Iraq, The Gamble, my temptation is going to be to blog nearly every word of it. My copy is still on its way from the publisher, so I’m More…