GWOT was a success compared to this and that’s not a hot take

I know it sucks, but Dems have got to be prepared to inherit a munitions-and-readiness hole that is going to be expensive to fill, but which will need to be filled. Hardly the only such hole, but it will be a big one.

Secretary of Defense Rock@sodrock.bsky.social · 3h ago

Who knew ridiculously long deployments and demanding op tempos run a ship and crew into the ground!

Debt is ok as long as MAGA Republicans are hurting the right people” Major quiet part out loud moment.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 20h ago

BREAKING: Republicans are no longer worried about deficits and debt Bessent: "I'm not as bothered by it ... if '26 is flat to slightly up, this isn't wasteful social spending "

noted this in morning piece. like any winning candidate in a rough primary, AES needs to coalesce Ds behind him. Involves outreach, etc. But one of the best ways to consolidate Democrats is to land punches against Republicans. Not just going on the attack but showing that your punches are landing.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 4h ago

El-Sayed: "If all Mike Rogers got is that 'his name is Abdul, and my name is Mike,' you're gonna be surprised how many people are like, 'Yeah, but that's the Abdul who wants to bring down the price of my groceries and make sure I got healthcare. So yeah, I like Abdul over your Mike from Florida.'"

Fascinating that UBL, as evil and misguided as he was, believed that American democracy would prevent a quagmire. A testament to “branding” we’ve since lost. But to this day, I believe the light footprint strategy in AFG = original GWOT sin, and the war should have ended w/ success at Tora Bora.

Joe Stieb@joestieb.bsky.social · 5h ago

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202... Interesting piece that cites scholars who refute the myth that in doing 9/11 UBL intended to draw the US into a series of quagmires rather than spark a Beirut-like bugging out of the Middle East.

Looks like a 10-15 point polling miss in Michigan regardless of who wins. And people have been writing a lot of electability takes using this data. It’s dangerous out there folks be safe

this is clickbait garbage a) it wasn't ~dronez~ stuff, it was the same vanilla GPS jamming that has occurred at WSMR for decades b) a crew should *absolutely* be capable of conducting a nonprecision approach to an ILS, *ESPECIALLY* if there's a NOTAM out for PNT jamming

Katie Drummond@katie-drummond.bsky.social · 6d ago

A routine medical flight, on a clear night, ended with a plane crash that killed all four people onboard. Investigators say it's the first known US civilian plane crash tied to electronic warfare. This won't be the last story of its kind. A must-read from @jeffwise.bsky.social for @wired.com

“Mr. Trump is hardly the first U.S. president who has struggled to read Iran… Most have come up short; some have been burned badly. A rare exception is President Barack Obama, whose 2015 nuclear deal with Iran was a 20-month diplomatic effort.” I can’t argue with the Times on this one.

Brian Finucane@bcfinucane.bsky.social · 22h ago

Foreign leaders can be so difficult when you kill their families and launch surprise attacks on their countries. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/u...

My sense is reuters has sources (again) conflating in theater with global stocks and also kind of comingling ATACMS and PrSM fwiw the amount of people who actually know what they're talking about wrt muns stockpiles is very small, not bc it's some big secret but bc most people don't pay attention

Ah yes, the Senate, famous for not giving individual senators the power to put a hold on a nominee. Nothing he could do 🤷‍♂️

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterday

Cornyn: "There's nothing we could do to rein in the president"

If Kaine is calling it murder then I think some folks in Tampa ought to be getting increasingly sweaty.

CNN@cnn.com · 2d ago

The US military’s strikes on alleged drug boats have likely illegally killed “individuals who are not involved in narcotrafficking,” Sen. Tim Kaine told the White House, following “a careful review” of classified information he has seen so far.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) carried out an attack on a US base in Kuwait using three drones, according to a source familiar with the matter.-i24 News

You'll definitely get purged but legendary respect for whichever Troop® emails Hegseth the JCPOA.

Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 2d ago

PENTAGON: Anyone got any ideas? @cnn.com www.cnn.com/2026/08/03/p...

Continuing my Korean War/Halberstam posting: It’s hard to convey how malignant Douglas MacArthur was, how anti-democratic, what a persistent threat to civil-military relations. Conversely, George Marshall was a man of towering integrity and wisdom.

They got what they paid for

Shipwreck@shipwreck75.bsky.social · 3d ago

Behind the scenes, Gulf countries are frustrated with what they see as a lack of a clear strategy from the U.S. as the war drags on, subjecting their territories to frequent Iranian attacks, people familiar with the matter said.

Appropriate air quotes because the most infuriating part about Americans debating "lockdown" is that it simply never happened. Having to pick up your Applebees and eat it on the sectional does not count. There wasn't even a brief moment where "everything" was closed. That's not real.

Melissa Gira Grant@melissagiragrant.com · 3d ago

if you hated covid "lockdowns" try long covid

To add on to the history here. Much of the "bioweapons panic" comes out of 1990s testimonials after the fall of the Soviet Union. In the aftermath, many in the West (not least in the National Security establishment and the prestige journalist space) went looking for the next big scary thing.

Calliope@calliope5431.bsky.social · 3d ago

The breathless coverage is almost more insulting than the book itself, including a *New Yorker* article which cheerfully talks about the doomsday scenario of "smallpox bacteria" (it's a virus) being spliced with other pathogens, and the "horror" of a 2019 fire at VECTOR (which did nothing).

Next up: CENTCOM to establish JWICS podcast, will "be really unconventional" and a "must listen" says J-3 staffer who organized it

Ian TB@iantb.bsky.social · 2d ago

Well, crowdsourcing a war plan is certainly a first: www.cnn.com/2026/08/03/p...

It seems relevant that the thing Isaiah is being sent to do in that passage is to deliver a prophecy of doom to his own people for having fallen away from the path of righteousness. So if these guys were like, Isaiah, that would be robustly bad news for...the United States.

Matt Thiessen@mattthiessen.bsky.social · 3d ago

American Christianity in one social media post.

Still can’t over the fact that the president of the United States just told an entire state to pound sand after getting cyberattacked by a foreign adversary because they didn’t vote for him and it was treated like a Tuesday lol

“No one wants to be subject to a whipsaw foreign policy that doesn’t know its limits, and that is a strategic defeat.”

John Sipher@johnsipher.bsky.social · 3d ago

A crisis of credibility www.nytimes.com/2026/08/01/w...

“Sandwich guy case” “Harvard clawed frog embryo smuggling case” “Olympic canoeist reflecting pool vandalism case” “James Comey seashells Instagram post case” New rule: If the case sounds like a Mad Libs story, it’s probably about to implode.

Who would be surprised to learn that Trump's outrage over Hearn's dropped charges influences decisions he's making about Iran tonight? Pretty big problem.

Josh Marshall@joshtpm.bsky.social · 5d ago

3/ blue. That’s not any strategy about consolidating autocratic power. It’s running in circles trying to support one of presidents weekly tantrums.

here we go again

The planner in CENTCOM that had been forgetting to add the word “decisive” to the CONOP slides this whole time.

Drake & Lil Yachty Looking at Laptop

ALT: Drake & Lil Yachty Looking at Laptop

static.klipy.com

Remember when one of Trump’s biggest critiques of Obama was that the Pentagon’s “shelves were empty”? Looks like he’s gonna make it a reality on his watch.

Shipwreck@shipwreck75.bsky.social · 5d ago

President Trump has ordered a fresh attack on Iran aimed at getting Tehran to surrender that could begin as soon as this weekend and would last a few days, U.S. officials said.-WSJ

If you really want to get a look on where European govs are on immigration take a look at the media and political reactions to Ceuta

This is a man that would love to start a war with his countrymen. 10+ years of consistent behavior. I believe, at this point, that the only thing that stops him is fear (and I don’t see that changing).

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 5d ago

Trump: "We heard in Minnesota there was a cyberattack and they blame it on Iran. I don't think so. I blame it on Minnesota because they're grossly incompetent. Iran's got bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota."

100%. PhDs are desperate to slap a political theory on this administration because the current style of politics causes their life's work to go up in smoke.

E Jones@eofchi.bsky.social · 6d ago

I reject entirely the assertion that this Administration or Trump himself is operating under a strategy underpinned by Madman Theory Few FP-tasked advisers in this admin are IR-studied, & I don’t think there’s a shred of evidence for a Nixonian-like approach. His “strategy” is merely reactive chaos