Thanksgiving Wishes

I'm going to take a break from blogging for the next twenty-four hours, but before I go dark, I want to wish Lawfare readers all over the world a wonderful holiday. In particular, in light of Brig. General Mark Martins' amazing posts this week (here and here and here and here and here, for those who missed them), I want to send a special shout-out to the men and women--the soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and civilians alike--of the Rule of Law Field Force-Afghanistan and their Afghan partners. I trust I speak for a great many readers in expressing enormous gratitude for their efforts. I also want to take this opportunity to thank Lawfare readers for their devotion to the site and their engagement with its authors. Lawfare has now been live for three months. Its readership remains small but is growing quickly; on an average weekday, we now receive about 1,000 visits--including many readers in the press, on the bench, and in the executive and legislative branches. While our readership is overwhelmingly from the United States, we have had visits from 111 different countries. We are now being carried by Google News, which promises to spread the word farther and wider than word of mouth alone. The response to the blog has powerfully vindicated the impulse that gave rise to it: That there is a hunger out there for non-ideological, useful commentary on America's hard national security choices--commentary conducted with civility towards and engagement with those of opposing views. My gratitude goes out to all who are reading this.