Joe Klein's latest (paywalled) article focuses on veterans who have committed to public service after returning home. Joe teases the article over at Swampland:
I spent the past few months traveling around the country, finding veterans who are using the skills they learned in Iraq and Afghanistan for the betterment of their communities. Any given rifle company Captain had to be, in effect, the mayor of a town in Iraq or Afghanistan–and had to develop political skills like the ability to deal with local shuras [councils of elders], the ability to find out from the local population what sort of construction projects they favored, the ability to put people to work on those projects with a minimum of fuss…as well as the ability to make important decisions under incredible pressure.
(Photo: Lt. Col. William Huff of the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division, battalion commander of Task Force Professional, sits and talks with local Afghan leaders on June 22, 2010 in the Khushi Khona area of Afghanistan, in Herat Province near the Turkmenistan border. Informal meetings with important local tribal and government officials are a crucial part of the counter-insurgency strategy that the American military has adopted in Afghanistan. By Chris Hondros/Getty Images)
The Dish 