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

Vol. 15 · No. 124 · Sunday, 18 October 2026

OpFor

Iran condemns US plan to livestream execution as barbaric

Tehran questions whether America has completely abandoned standards of human decency

Vetbro apparel company pivots from stupid shirts to aggressively homoerotic ones

AI deemed ‘too smart’ to replace infantry

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Vol. 15 · No. 124

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Vol. 15 · No. 124 · Deployed worldwide

Sunday

18 October 2026

0916 Zulu

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· Page 2

US wins second place in Afghan war

Filed · 1550

WASHINGTON – Continuing a streak of top five finishes that dates back to the country’s founding, America formally announced its second place victory in the Afghan War on Wednesday.

“From the moment the War on Terror began, we knew we would settle for nothing less than a podium finish” said Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. “Today, after 19 years of blood and sweat, we are able to finally declare absolute and total second place victory.”

The Secretary went on to point out that since American troops first entered the country, their mission has been to secure a victory for the Afghan People. The fact that the specific Afghan People who finished in first place happened to be members of the Taliban “is immaterial,” Esper said..

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