General Stanley McChrystal told journalist Michael Hastings that he wanted to be on the cover of Rolling Stone and so he was. The resulting story—describing an alcohol fueled dinner in Paris and the General’s staff mocking the Obama Administration—ended McChrystal’s tour as the commander of US forces in Afghanistan and his military career.

From the time of his appointment, some of us have been calling for a closer look at McChrystal the Special Ops guy, who commanded the rogue troops of Camp NAMA where access by the International Red Cross was blocked, where the treatment of prisoners was so out of control that other DOD commands banned their troops from operating there – and his claims to be concerned about civilian casualties.

Gen. McChrystal continues to speak about the importance of protecting Afghan civilians for the “success” of his “surge” – and continues to fail to deliver that protection. Isn’t it time someone asked him to answer why?

If you have a much better memory than most of our media, you may remember the really big – in fact “decisive” – battle the US announced for the important Afghan city … oops, village … oh pardon me, collection of farms called Marja. Complete with a planned “government in a box,” Gen. McChrystal’s always [...]

Obama will not withdraw US Special Forces from Iraq when “all combat forces” leave this summer and Gen. McChrystal, who keeps claiming to be getting control over SOF and civilian casualties, has had command over them all along.

It is good that we are taking notice – and that once again an attempted cover-up of a horrific crime has been revealed. Someday we may also face up to what these incidents say about our military and their “leadership,” and someday we may actually demand a stop to these war crimes.

It’s unclear whether Obama’s displeasure with the McChrystal options actually represents an unwillingness to send more troops or simply a desire for a different escalation timeline or additional conditions on the Karzai government, but Eikenberry’s cable and its leak suggests a significant shift in policy may be developing.

Jane Mayer has an important article in The New Yorker, The Predator War, in which she reports on the increase in deadly unmanned drone strikes in Pakistan: During his first nine and a half months in office, he has authorized as many C.I.A. aerial attacks in Pakistan as George W. Bush did in his final [...]

There’s an expansion of bodies dedicated to military efforts in Afghanistan, but it’s not clear who’s given the orders.