An unusually deadly month for U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan
13 deaths, and two job notices
Lost in the commotion over ISIS's invasion of Sunni territories in Iraq: the other theater of war, Afghanistan, has seen an upsurge of violence against NATO troops. It is the summer now, but the annual Taliban "spring offensive" continues, with fierce fighting in the Helmand province.
Yesterday, a NATO soldier died in an as-yet-unspecified combat incident.
On June 20, three Marines from Camp LeJeune — one just 19 years old — died in combat in Helmand province.
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A week before, five special operations forces soldiers operating in Zabul province died during a friendly fire incident; air support they ordered to help them escape misidentified them as enemy forces.
That brings to 13 the number of combat fatalities this month in Iraq. That's the most since last December.
And the U.S. continues to plan for a robust strategic deception role after the end of the year. I've come across the following job postings for information operations specialists and electronic warfare planners. The contractor is Leonie:
The war continues.
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Marc Ambinder is TheWeek.com's editor-at-large. He is the author, with D.B. Grady, of The Command and Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry. Marc is also a contributing editor for The Atlantic and GQ. Formerly, he served as White House correspondent for National Journal, chief political consultant for CBS News, and politics editor at The Atlantic. Marc is a 2001 graduate of Harvard. He is married to Michael Park, a corporate strategy consultant, and lives in Los Angeles.
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