Sources close to Blackwater and its secretive owner Erik Prince claim that the embattled head of the world's most infamous mercenary firm is planning to move to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Middle Eastern nation, a major hub for the US war industry, has no extradition treaty with the United States. In April, five of Prince's top deputies were hit with a fifteen-count indictment by a federal grand jury on conspiracy, weapons and obstruction of justice charges. Among those indicted were Prince's longtime number-two man, former Blackwater president Gary Jackson, former vice presidents William Matthews and Ana Bundy and Prince's former legal counsel Andrew Howell....

 A four-year employee of Blackwater, identified in his declaration as "John Doe #2," stated that "it appears that Mr. Prince and his employees murdered, or had murdered, one or more persons who have provided information, or who were planning to provide information, to the federal authorities about the ongoing criminal conduct."....

Even if prosecutors believed they had enough evidence to charge Prince with a crime, because of the classified nature of some of Blackwater and Prince's work for the CIA and other agencies of the US government, prosecuting him could prove challenging. Prince has deep knowledge of covert US actions that the US government or military may not want public, which could be revealed as part of a potential defense Prince could offer. Blackwater--and Prince specifically--long worked on the CIA's assassination program.

Final thought on the U.S. world cup game - I really liked that at the end of the game, Tim Howard was in the opposing team's box going up for a header on a corner kick trying to score a goal.  There was some discussion about whether soccer teams ever go "empty net" like in hockey, and here the U.S. team did.

CNN goes for the headling "Blow up the well" but that's not a very good summary of what Clinton has to say.

I have to laugh at people touting civilian deaths in Afghanistan because I know quite a bit about that.  Take for instance the current rules of engagement.  We know where a house is that is building IEDs, but the enemy knows us now.  They now usually put these facilities next to plenty of other houses and the whole place is rigged to go up in an instant if it is raided.  Someone is there 24/7 prepared to throw that switch.  When they do they do everything they can to take out as much of the neighborhood as they can, and then those deaths end up in Americas column with the people and the Taliban will actually claim it was our ordinance that blew everything up.

So we simply watch most of these places for now, and they keep making IEDs and we don't catch every one they plant.  It is so frustrating for soldiers on the ground.  Because of Bush's Iraq, fighters in Afghanistan know so much more about us.  They know what matters, they know how we will do our best to execute COIN.

I think it is conceiveable that Obama could have to face being called on the ROE, and I don't know how he can change them, but he could deal with a soldier revolt.  We could end up with soldiers refusing to deploy a year from now and the anti-war left could end up splitting the party taking sides with refusing soldiers.

You said:

I have to laugh at people touting civilian deaths in Afghanistan because I know quite a bit about that.

Why in the world would you laugh at people who are alarmed by the civilian death toll in Afghanistan, or Iraq, or any other war zone? We all know the civilian death toll is higher in guerrilla warfare when "our enemies" are embedded within a civilian population. Are you suggesting this somehow absolves the US military of responsibility for civilian deaths?