Stevenson’s army, September 4

Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg cites 4 unnamed sources to report disparaging remarks Pres. Trump made about US military personnel, including calling war dead “losers.”
 AP has confirmed the story. [Since Goldberg is close to Jim Mattis, I suspect Mattis and John Kelly as likely sources.]

WSJ says WH is likely to nominate Koch Institute analyst who favors rapid US withdrawal as ambassador to Afghanistan. Previous ambassadors were career diplomats.
FP says political appointee to USAID conflict prevention bureau has done damage there.
SAIS prof Ed Joseph has background on Serbia-Kosovo conflict with WH meeting today.
A student in Congress class shares a “reform Congress’ article from the late John DIngell [D-Mich].

CJR editor explains how ratings drive TV news coverage at CNN and MSNBC
Reuters reports US troops to Lithuania because of Belarus unrest.
More from Military Times poll: troops want to rename bases.

My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).