As I’ve said in class, most leaks — other than authorized trial balloons — come from those who are losing the interagency debate. Now that President Biden has decided to wityjdraw from Afghanistan regardless of conditions, the other side is telling it story. To WSJ, which says Biden rejected military advice. To NYT, which details meetings where they made the case for staying. To WaPo, which warns about finding ways of fighting terrorists.
David Ignatius has the saga of Kash Patel, the unconfirmed boss of CIA & DOD.
Embassy staff withdrawn from Chad.
IISS analyst reviews Solar Winds.
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).
Surrender of the strait to Iran and retreat from the Middle East will weaken the…
The Iranians will try to impose unilaterally a permanent toll on passage through the strait…
Trump is in peril of losing all but his most loyal voters. No wonder he…
Trump is stuck in a war of his own making. But it is the rest…
Trump wants to pull the plug. The Israelis don't. And the Iranians are demanding outcomes…
A year from now, we are likely to be remembering a highly effective military operation…