"A virtue of having coalition partners with a legacy of shared sacrifice during difficult military campaigns is that they can also share candid observations. Such observations are understood to be professional exchanges among friends to promote constructive discussion that can improve the prospects of the coalition successes for which all strive. It was in a constructive spirit, then, that this article was made available to Military Review. The article is a professional commentary by an experienced officer based on his experiences and background. It should also be understood that publishing this article does not imply endorsement of or agreement with its observations by the Combined Arms Center leadership or Military Review. Indeed, some comments are already dated and no longer valid. Nonetheless, this article does provide Military Review readers the thought-provoking assessments of a senior officer with significant experience in counterterrorism operations. And it is offered in that vein--to stimulate discussion.--Editor"

The Editor is the editor of Military Review, an in-house U.S. army journal. The note introduces an article by British Brigadier Nigel Aylwin-Foster that is sharply critical of U.S. counter-insurgency tactics in Iraq. Read it and weep, but also give credit to the army for being willing to run it and read it.

Check out the article yesterday in the Washington Post on General Geoffrey Miller, former commander at Gitmo sent to Iraq to teach American interrogators "more effective methods," taking the fifth in response to claims by soldiers being prosecuted for using dogs to frighten prisoners that they were following orders.

"We have long since made clear that a state of war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens." That is from none other than Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, writing in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld and quoted in a good article by Adam Liptak in yesterday's New York Times on how the scope of executive power looks to be the central issue in the Alito hearings, presaged by Arlen Specter but strongly supported (at last) by Democrats on the judiciary committee. Many America Abroad readers have raised this issue, on their own and most recently in response to Ivo's post on Bush's claim in the teeth of purportedly accepting the McCain Amendment that he could still constitutionally order torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment in extreme circumstances using his power as Commander in Chief.

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