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The Duffel Brief · the free edition, Monday, Wednesday and Friday

Vol. 15 · No. 133 · Sunday, 8 November 2026

Pete Hegseth picks wrong week to stop drinking

Pentagon staffing delays leave secretary sober for worst 48 hours of his career

Pentagon confident U.S. will be ready for 2027 war with China by 2035

Hegseth wears Eisenhower's globe as Halloween costume

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Vol. 15 · No. 133

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Vol. 15 · No. 133 · Deployed worldwide

Sunday

8 November 2026

1313 Zulu

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· Page 2

Obama touts legacy of renaming wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, saying he would close Gitmo

Filed · 1537

WASHINGTON — President Obama sought on Sunday to reshape the controversy over the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the fully operational Guantanamo Bay prison by asking the American people to remember that he tried really hard.

Speaking at an event for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), Obama strongly touted his legacy as the only president to semantically end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and reminded the American people that he has been talking serious about closing Guantanamo Bay, “since like, the 2008 election."

When pressed to explain the current military operations against ISIS in Iraq and a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, Mr. Obama responded with “I said I ended the wars didn’t I? There’s no more war. What’s going on now is more like ‘kinetic foreign advising.’”

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