MCRAVEN IS DEFENDING THE USE OF NAVY SEALS in a raid that resulted in 30 U.S. deaths earlier this month when a CH-47 Chinook was shot down by the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan. “There was nothing unusual about this mission” to warrant criticism from some retired commandos and military analysts, who have questioned how the operation was planned and carried out and whether it was an appropriate use of SEALs, McRaven told the New York Times’ Thom Shanker in an interview. Read it here: http://nyti.ms/pd48bo

THE DEATHS HELPED MAKE AUGUST THE DEADLIEST MONTH for U.S. troops in Afghanistan in nearly 10 years of war, with 66 killed. http://bit.ly/nfJX1c