The Cost of Bush-Cheney on COIN

What happens when you start late...:

The events provided another example of how fragile relations between Afghans and Americans have become, and how ready Afghans angered over civilian casualties are to blame American forces in virtually any circumstance.

While the first reaction to the explosion was shock, within a few hours an angry crowd gathered, chanting anti-American slogans. The crowd blocked the road to the border for several hours to protest the episode.

-NYT

If this can be generalized, then "long, hard, slog" was just a prelude to "long, hard, slog"...

Imunity for Murder

US Federal Judge Ricardo Urbina dismissed the charges against the five [Blackwater defendants], saying prosecutors violated their rights by using incriminating statements they had made under immunity during a US State Department probe.

Cheney's no-blame zone is apparently bigger than anyone could dream ...

Civilian Self-Pity Meet Command Performance

O'Donnell, 29, stood at attention yesterday as the litany of broken bones was read off — then bounded up onto a makeshift stage as if none of that had ever happened, as he took command of about 290 soldiers that make up Headquarters and Headquarters Company.

Interesting because ...

..the injuries that Capt. Ray O'Donnell suffered in a 2007 Humvee rollover in Afghanistan.

... included facial fractures, traumatic brain injury, a crushed pelvis, spinal damage, a fractured hip, dislocated femur and severe nerve damage.

Yup, Once Again, We've Got Nothing

When is someone - anyone - going to admit that the USA just cannot (and never has) been able to 'do intelligence right'?

latest recognition of failure

Is "the" reason that we play too much politics with our intelligence, both outside and inside the agencies? Probably.

Everyone's a fly-boy

OPERATION ENDURANCE

The price tag, by Newsweek.