• Thomas Ricks continues his rant on the dismissal of CENTCOM Commander General James Mattis.
• Ricks’ earlier takes here.
• Some Teaparty folks think Mattis’ dismissal is part of Obama’s longer-term intent to kill Americans.
• Maybe, but at least we know the moon landing wasn’t faked.
• But, really, while Mattis may be a popular and effective leader of Marines, his role at CENTCOM as the face of the American power in the Middle East probably requires a bit more diplomatic polish than he’s demonstrated in the past.
• International Crisis Group on new threats from North Korea.
• The internal political dynamics in Syria suggest that the war  isn’t likely to end any time soon.
• Interesting podcast from America Abroad on the spill-over effects of the Syrian war.
• Daniel Serwer concludes that the longer term trends in Syria also look bleak.
• I haven’t seen the episode of PBS’s NOVA on Drones, but Kevin Gosztola at Dissenter isn’t very happy about it.

And finally:

• Enjoy the weekend.