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David Sterman

@davidsterman.bsky.social
1.4K followers 371 following 1.9K posts

Deputy Director, New America Future Security program “All the Presidents’ Wars: Twenty-Five Years of America’s War on Terror” www.amazon.com/All-Presidents-Wars-…

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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 9h
Just want to note that Hegseth is not the only one who bears the moral violation of this execution. Both Trump and acting Army Secretary Adam R. Telle by regulation had to sign off and organize it. I get the focus on Hegseth but important to name the others.
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Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 15h
There's a through line between the celebratory footage of detainee abuse from CECOT, the boat strikes videos, and this planned snuff film of the Nidal Hasan execution.
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 15h
In a just society live-streaming an execution - the killing of a defenseless man under full state control - in this way would be fully recognized as cruel and unusual because the live-streaming is. And because capital punishment is.
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Hakeem Jefferson @hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · 16h
Fort Hood Shooter’s Execution Will be Public and Streamed Live, Pentagon Says www.nytimes.com/2026/10/08/u... “The practice of filming and releasing video of an execution is more common with terror groups like the Islamic State…” A barbaric administration full of absolute goons.
nytimes.com
Fort Hood Shooter’s Execution Will be Public and Streamed Live, Pentagon Says
If carried out, the public execution of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan by firing squad set for Dec. 3 would be the first in modern U.S. history.
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 16h
Holding space for thoughts for Nidal Hasan’s larger family in this moment. I haven’t yet seen any comment from them on the gross announcement today, but I can’t imagine what this kind of hateful display must feel like. Frankly recalls hostage propaganda videos in being torture aimed at families.
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B. A. Friedman @bafriedman.bsky.social · 18h
I really don’t think a public execution by firing squad of a guy in a wheel chair is going to look how they expect it to look.
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 16h
Gross. Though usually I’d say public execution is not necessarily less moral than secretive ones, this specifically reeks of politics which makes it doubly gross. It also further amplifies my view that in addition to being immoral, it undermines principles that underlie opposition to terrorism.
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Dan Silverman @dmsilverman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Some posts: “Jew, get the fuck out of my country” “Jew pig, get the fuck out of Lower Merion” “@[Victim] Eliminate the jewish cockroaches. Exterminate the jewish state. You will have nowhere to go. Your family has no future in the US. Give it another 10 years, and you shall see a true holocaust.”
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Between this and watching people who have been dismissive of campus antisemitism and protestor actions finally see some of the horror because it targeted Mamdani, just have had it today. So much has been excused. And too many have allowed overreach to blind them. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/07/u...
nytimes.com
Religion Professor Accused of Harassing Colleague With Antisemitic Posts
The professor at Haverford College in Pennsylvania was charged with cyberstalking in connection with what federal prosecutors say was a series of threatening messages to a co-worker.
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Dan Silverman @dmsilverman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Pretty upsetting story A Haverford religion professor named Guangtian Ha posed as a MAGA anon on X to harass a Jewish colleague with dozens of virulent antisemitic posts and personal threats
nytimes.com
Religion Professor Accused of Harassing Colleague With Antisemitic Posts
The professor at Haverford College in Pennsylvania was charged with cyberstalking in connection with what federal prosecutors say was a series of threatening messages to a co-worker.
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W. W. Norton & Company @wwnorton.com · 07/10/2026
The reviews are in for Peter Bergen's new book! ALL THE PRESIDENTS' WARS is essential reading to understand America’s devastating war on terror and to avoid the mistakes of the past. wwnorton.com/books/all-th...
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Deeply worrying towards the bottom - one of the things he seems to have censored was reporting of warning from Israeli military figures about potential violent escalation in the West Bank. Politicized interruption of warning intelligence is extremely dangerous. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/08/w...
nytimes.com
How a U.S. Diplomat Suppressed and Altered Reports Critical of Israel (Gift Article)
A top aide to Ambassador Mike Huckabee skewed information to portray the Netanyahu government in a favorable light, according to multiple officials and documents obtained by The Times.
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I’d be very wary about explanations of the anti-Mamdani 10/7 protest that don’t view it as representing some real organized muscle that has real reach both physically (and not just online) but also in some more established left media spaces. It’s dismissive and often self-exculpatory.
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lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
This is indeed very frustrating and I find it hard to respond to. But to some extent it is just the price one pays for being decent when others are not. I would really rather not be like those people, I do think on net I'm happier with the state of my soul this way.
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Just saying if there was a different word, sure. But words always come with history. In practice I think critiques often reduce analysis down to just being about civil war with external support. And as such silo conflict geographies and miss things that flow from a state using a proxy strategy.
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Funny how most criticisms of this kind don’t come with a different word or get wrapped up in vague circular wording debates. Instead it operates as a way not to see the phenomena or reduce it down to methods and siloed fields of analysis.
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Given the extent of work done on this I really struggle to see here critiques as more than CYA for a trend of analysis that has deep failures but continues to cite cases they often got wrong.
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I think there’s some of that but also some of this is posturing by people who spent years writing x can’t be part of an Iranian proxy strategy because they aren’t literally controlled by Iran like robots only to repeatedly miss how Iran’s strategy works or basic academic/policy definitions of proxy
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
If anything as I’ve argued it’s the view that proxy does merely mean taking part in a sponsor’s proxy strategy and not an identity beyond that, that opens space to discuss local agency, its impact on the relationship, and in its own right.
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Also rich when people cite Yemen as example bc many Yemen analysts who took that critical frame failed repeatedly to rightly analyze the situation because they had created a view that the Houthis (and others) can’t be acting as a proxy bc they aren’t fully controlled. As if that was ever the def.
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
People like to talk about how the concept of proxy-ness dismisses local agency. But in practice it’s often been critics of the idea who set up false binaries that did not hold room for agency while analysis of proxy war increasingly focused on these interactions.
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Lawfare @lawfaremedia.org · 06/10/2026
On Lawfare Daily, Daniel Byman talked to Peter Bergen, author of “All the Presidents' Wars,” about counterterrorism in the 25 years after 9/11, reviewing the many mistakes the U.S. and al-Qaeda made, as well as some of the surprising successes. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/lawf...
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Again I reiterate that the death penalty is immoral and the supposed exception for terrorism and related extremist violence some make just highlights the core principle at issue - it is wrong to kill people fully under your control. abcnews.com/US/army-sets...
abcnews.com
Army sets date for Fort Hood mass shooter Nidal Hasan to face firing squad
The 2009 mass shooting left 13 people dead and wounded 32 others.
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Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 07/10/2026
you know the onion was funnier when they tried to be funny
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Joe Stieb @joestieb.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Well if it isn’t the consequences of my own actions
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Adam Baron @adammbaron.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Le Monde's latest on the regional tensions and escalation in Yemen, featuring some thoughts from my end. (FR). www.lemonde.fr/internationa...
lemonde.fr
L’Arabie saoudite, le Pakistan et la Turquie posent le premier acte de leur accord de défense mutuelle face aux houthistes
Mis en difficulté par les houthistes du Yémen, qui visent ses pétroliers et ses infrastructures, Riyad a activé lundi, avec ses deux alliés, le « pacte de La Mecque » conclu le 7 août. Tout en…
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Max Boot @maxboot.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
The lack of self-awareness is something else. As if the Trump administration has any credibility lecturing any other country about its international obligations. One of the first things Trump did was pull out of the WHO. www.wsj.com/world/russia...
wsj.com
Exclusive | U.S. Escalates Pressure on Russia Over Siberia Lab Death
The U.S. has warned Moscow that its failure to disclose details about the death violates international health obligations.
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Joe Stieb @joestieb.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
doing this on the third anniversary is certainly a choice
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Daniel Sugarman @danielsugarman.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
To keep track, the proposer of the Green's "Zionism is Racism" motion: - Wants Hamas de-proscribed - Said that God willing, a time will come when Zionists "are hunted in the same way as Nazis...We will retake freedom, it won't happen without force" - And this - www.jewishnews.co.uk/zionism-is-r...
jewishnews.co.uk
'Zionism is Racism' motion creator described as 'close friend' of Al Qaeda terrorist - Jewish News
Lubna Speitan confirmed she is still close to Minh Quang Pham, who plotted to murder hundreds at Heathrow airport, claiming that he had been "demonised"
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Want to be careful re representation of meaning of character witness testimony for defense. But this seems not great and especially given it reeks of hypocrisy given the kind of assumptions and baiting of the motion. www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2...
telegraph.co.uk
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Relatedly, think there’s issues with how it denies the Iraq 03 case or at least its theoretical possibility depending on one’s aims by suggesting imo a rather false continuity between the state and the later insurgency/civil war.
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I love this article. I do think there’s a bit of an issue where it treats the aims of all wars as unlimited and thus concludes an enemy’s ability to resist in some way inevitably means there’s no victory. www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
foreignaffairs.com
The Myth of Military Victory
The dangerous idea driving today’s wars of choice.
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Brad Duplessis @bradduplessis.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Always read Stephen Biddle. He and his co-authors discuss the assumption that war ends in mil victory — and its implications for strategic decision-making, employment of the force, force design, and mob. of the industrial base to support protracted conflict. www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Link here. www.newamerica.org/insights/an-...
newamerica.org
Areas for Further Inquiry
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Another effort in Norway to move to having a terrorism designation list. We covered Norway as an example of how designation practices often depend on politics and can change over time in our 2023 report surveying practices globally. www.jpost.com/internationa...
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AkivaMCohen @akivamcohen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
And yes, it's great everyone was like "fuck you, no". But once that's been said, you don't fucking show up to a protest together with that person when they insist that they're bringing their gun. Again, my takeaway is these people are idiots not terrorists. But could a jury convict on this? Yeah.
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Currently reading.
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Mike Walker @newnarrative.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
U.S. Sends Reaper Drones from Fighting Terrorists in Africa to Colombia and Ecuador to Hunt Cartels www.nytimes.com/2026/10/06/w...
nytimes.com
U.S. Sends Reaper Drones to Colombia and Ecuador to Hunt Cartels
MQ-9 Reaper drones — known for high-profile deadly strikes — have been shifted from Africa to Colombia and Ecuador, U.S. officials said.
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Adam Baron @adammbaron.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Yemen overnight update: -Houthi/AA hit back at Riyadh -Houthi/AA continue gains in Taiz interior -Reports of government takeover of Mokha prove--as suspected--greatly exaggerated -KSA naval ops against Hudayda In short: signs continue to point to an extended mutual war of attrition.
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Mike Walker @newnarrative.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Threat of Iranian Drone Attack Prompted U.S. to Pull Bombers From U.K. Base, WSJ Reports www.wsj.com/politics/nat...
wsj.com
Threat of Iranian Drone Attack Prompted U.S. to Pull Bombers From U.K. Base
The planned attack was part of a broader Iranian plot to target the aircraft and kill American pilots at RAF Fairford, officials said.
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Can’t help but note that Drop Site article about CIA Israel assessment in addition to supposedly being re a red team analysis and being very vague about the sources or if it even saw the doc, does not have quotes around its most major wording and where it does it’s just “civil conflict.”
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Kai Ryssdal @kairyssdal.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
If your newscast says Hastert was 'tied to' a child sex abuse scandal, you're failing your listeners.
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The Green Party resolution would appear to both ditch commitment to international law in calling for single state and commitment to opposition to ethnonatuonalism in prescribing an ethnic character of that state as Palestinian.
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Follow up on a U.S. civilian casualty case by @mohamedgabobe.bsky.social Also cites our data on U.S. strikes. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
theguardian.com
Guardian readers fund life-changing surgery for Somali boy injured in US airstrike
After Guardian investigation uncovered drone strike that killed 12 civilians and injured many more, seven-year-old Abdiqadir Salah underwent vital operation in Mogadishu
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
US appears poised to mark 5 months w/ no declared strikes vs the Islamic State in Somalia tomorrow. Though Drop Site reported a strike AFRICOM denies. This always gets less attention than large strike counts and that’s a shame. I wrote on why it matters in Aug www.newamerica.org/insights/thr...
newamerica.org
Three Months Without a Strike Against the Islamic State in Somalia
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Alex Ip 葉清霖 @alexip718.com · 05/10/2026
All prisoners should have the right to vote while in prison
Norman Rockwell's Freedom of Speech
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Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
"The version of Zionism the Israeli government put forward is racist" is a completely defensible and true statement. But that's not what the resolution says, is it?
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Ugh typo. “Of 2025” that first post should say.
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
As always a focus on civcas monitoring/incident referral brings different focuses and methods and less restrictive inclusion criteria can be valuable. I wouldn’t claim certainty here. But it does raise qs when you have a U.S. coded civcas strike before what most sources say was the 1st US strike.
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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
4) a fair coding should mean 2 or more credible sources with likely or confirmed near actions by a belligerent. But there’s only 1 questionable source for attribution and certainly no confirmation of US strikes. I’d say calling it likely is a stretch.
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