PBS will debut their new reality series Carrier on Sunday night. The show features an unvarnished look at life aboard the USS Nimitz and includes some scenes that may reflect poorly on the Navy according to the Los Angeles Times. But the paper also reports that Adm. Gary Roughead emailed "approximately 1,000 senior active, reserve and retired officers, and civilian executives, earlier this month to explain why the Navy agreed to the series, and to allay fears about the program’s potential negative impact." It should make for interesting television one way or another, and at least one Navy blogger thinks the gamble is likely to pay off.

Some unconventional wisdom from the Australian:

THE US war in Iraq has strengthened its strategic position, especially in terms of key alliances, and the only way this could be reversed would be if it lost the will to continue the struggle and abandoned Iraq in defeat and disarray.

Eli Lake reports on the latest developments in the Syrian/North Korean reactor story. He quotes David Frum, "It's Almost Like They Formed An Axis or Something."

Allah posts the definitive takedown on today's Times editorial: "The MSNBC-ization of the editorial page is thus complete."

Hillary lays down the gauntlet, challenging Obama to a Lincoln-Douglas style debate.

Counterinsurgency guru David Kilcullen returns to the blogosphere with a new post at the Small Wars Journal.

And Michael Weiss has a good piece up at PJM on Obama's arrogant new strategy.