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Few people, including Stanley McChrystal himself, appear to be held accountable for a Rolling Stone magazine interview that scuttled McChrystal's career, The New York Times is reporting.

I know none of the actors in this case. I've never met either Michael Hastings, the Rolling Stone writer, or McChrystal, But I've had my doubts about how this whole thing happened. One piece of evidence that Rolling Stone didn't know what it had was how it was played in the actual magazine. It blew up on-line but you could barely find the story in the newsstand version.

I met former CNN Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre at a conference last week and he has a different take on events. He's now a blogger on military issues and his thoughts on "off the record" and McChrystal are here.

The Minnesota National Guard announced today that 80 soldiers from the St. Cloud-based Company B, 2nd General Support Aviation Battalion, 211th Aviation Regiment, will deploy to Iraq in support of Operation New Dawn.

Operation New Dawn is the drawdown phase of US military operations in Iraq, and Minnesota aircrew members and support personnel will play an role in the conclusion of military operations in Iraq.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty has scheduled a news conference this afternoon to announce his selection to head the Minnesota National Guard, replacing Adjutant General Larry Shellito, who will retire later this year.
Earlier this month, Pawlenty’s office indicated the two finalists for the position were Major General Richard C. Nash, commander of the Guard’s 34th Infantry Division; and Brigadier General Joseph Kelly, director of the Joint Staff of the Guard.
The new head of the 14,000-member Guard is likely to face increasing demands with overseas deployments, particularly in Afghanistan. A large group of the Guard is now preparing for a deployment to Iraq and Kuwait as part of the wind-down of U.S. military operations there.
Shellito, who presided over an enormous expansion of Minnesota National Guard responsibilities in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, officially announced his retirement in June. Shellito, a Vietnam veteran and former president of Alexandria Technical College in north-central Minnesota, took over the reins at a time when Guard units were dispatched with greater frequency to Iraq and Afghanistan. He was at the helm when members of the Guard’s 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 34th Infantry Division were deployed. It holds the record for the longest service of any unit in the Iraq war.

I watched the other night as MSNBC brought us live coverage of the last combat troops leaving Iraq, complete with the final Stryker unit driving into Kuwait and the gate behind it closing. The whole thing seemed to ring hallow. There are, after all, 50,000 American troops remaining in Iraq, just under a different description. The thirst for symbolism often pushes us in the wrong direction. Remember the toppling of Saddam's statue in Baghdad?

The Washington Post has this excellent examination of what the exit of combat troops does, and as importantly, does not mean.

New regulations about tobacco products and the mail caused some consternation among folks sending smokes to the troops. Looks like there's an effort to fix that.