Stevenson’s army, August 6

The Senate is all tangled up this morning. No wonder several majority leaders have used the same metaphor for their job — “herding cats.” Leader Schumer is using the allure of an August recess to force action on the infrastructure package and a budget resolution that will allow a filibuster-free package of other measures. But since so much is done by unanimous consent, any Senator can slow things down. And the budget process leads to all-nighters. with meaningless vote-a-ramas.  We’ll sort this out in class.

Politico says China is worried about US withdrawal from Afghanistan. But State reminds us that there is a great power venue for Afghan policy.

Australia is launching a reparations program for indigenous people.

Book note: I’ve just finished reading Alexander Vindman’s memoir, a chapter of which was published last week. It’s a typical military memoir — lessons learned at key points in his career, one of which was a willingness to “start over and start over again.”  Besides the impeachment-related story, he describes normal NSC staffer work. Most troubling to me is his tale of punishment by his colleagues after his testimony and the ways the Army misled him and then failed to protect him from White House retaliation.

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).