Flit

Captured terrorist warns of pending plots, U.S. refuses to torture

Unfortunately for whomever the next attack injures or kills, Scott Roeder isn't a Muslim, so they can't go all "24" on him, apparently.

"It couldn't have been too preventive if we're still at it eight years later"

Good piece from Eleanor Clift in Newsweek, worth the read, if only for this:

They had fun parsing [Obama's] words, especially when he talked about spreading democracy but not imposing it. How different is this from President Bush's pro-democracy agenda? "If I spread butter on my toast, I'm not imposing butter," suggested one participant.

Also, if you read anything on the issue this week you must read Andrew Exum's new AfPak report, Triage, written with the advice and support of Kilcullen, Nathaniel Fick, Registan's Josh Foust, Ghosts of Alex's Christian Bleuer, and Josh Schmidle, experts all of whom I have recommended/linked to at one point or another on this blog*. It's the new CW.

Also, this encouraging news:

[Afghanistan's] Agriculture Minister Asif Rahimi said that he was expecting the best wheat harvest for 32 years.

Electioneering? Maybe. Still promising, though.

*With the unwarranted exception of Fick, so far. Generation Kill was a really good series, though. (/tongueincheek)