Center for a New American Security

Okay, this is one of the funniest things I have seen in a long time. This is such a post-DADT military...

I was on a plane to the Middle East on Sunday evening when I spotted these lines from Leon Panetta's op-ed in the Washington Post:

Great, great photoessay following a soldier through two years in the U.S. Army from enlistment to return from Iraq. (h/t AS)

Not good. That sniper at Bragg in 1995 only killed one, I think:

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) -- The U.S. Army has closed its massive Army base at Fort Hood, Texas, amid reports that several people have been shot and killed at the post.

 

The Web site of the base in central Texas has posted an alert that says, ''Effective immediately Fort Hood is closed.'' The Web site said that units at the base have been ordered to account for all personnel.

 

Greg Jaffe is one the nation's leading defense correspondents, has won the Pulitzer Prize, and had the good sense to marry a girl from East Tennessee.

James Dao is now covering what is known as "the Jaffe beat" for the New York Times, examining things like the cultures of the services and the military removed from its combat environment. (Greg Jaffe used to cover U.S. Army culture in particular ridiculously well for the Wall Street Journal. He is now at the Post.) Today's story is on older recruits:

For the cadet readership out there...

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Again, I am not the best source of news on Iran, a country about which I know very little. But as a non-expert spectator, I have been riveted by the news coming out of Tehran. I have been especially impressed by the good old fashioned wire services as well as the blogs which have collected all the reporting done by both the wires and newspaper and television journalists -- to say nothing of the YouTube videos sent in by Iranians. Cable news, no suprise, has dropped the ball, and people are mad as hell at CNN in particular.

Tom Ricks and I were just sitting around the office wondering what Tommy Franks was doing these days when Nate Fick piped up to mention that he is running a stud farm in Oklahoma in addition to overseeing something called the Tommy Franks Leadership Institute and Museum. I swear I am not making this up -- nor am I making up the fact that two of the prize stallions on the Franks stud farm are named "Shock" and "Awe."

I have been in a meeting for the past hour and a half and returned to read my comments and discover that John McHugh, a Republican congressman from upstate New York, will be the next Secretary of the Army pending confirmation. My initial thoughts on this are, first off, relief that a defense industry executive such as Arnold Punaro was not named. (No disrespect to Mr.