Stevenson’s army, July 29

Mike Mazarr, my former NWC colleague now at Rand, urges dropping scenarios as the basis for defense planning.
Iran’s supreme leader casts doubt on deals with West.
AP details how much we’re promising Afghanistan, while Task & Purpose warns of the deterioration of Afghan air forces.
Kevin Drum says the  evidence points to Fox News as the source not only of US political polarization, but actual hate:

The Fox pipeline is pretty simple. Fox News stokes a constant sense of outrage among its base of viewers, largely by highlighting narratives of white resentment and threats to Christianity. This in turn forces Republican politicians to follow suit. It’s a positive feedback loop that has no obvious braking system, and it’s already radicalized the conservative base so much that most Republicans literally believe that elections are being stolen and democracy is all but dead if they don’t take extreme action.

Margaret Sullivansays the press’s bothsidesism is also to blame. My own view sees multiple coinciding causes,with special mention of Newt Gingrich.

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).