Do not mourn the defense secretary. Mourn his victims. There were nearly too many to tally, but his Pentagon refused to count anyway.

In Afghanistan there is a history of parents dressing their daughters up as boys (until they reach their teens) in order to avoid embarrassment and scrutiny of a culture that values sons and treats women like shit. Fascinating, unfortunate, and like one of the article's interviewees says, just a small part of a huge web of human rights issues plaguing the nation.

On the situation in Afghanistan and how, step-by-step and with troops we already have, we can start to fix it. "It's still winnable, but only just."