In today’s From the Front: (Click on link to read stories highlighted below) This post is courtesy of The Thunder Run Dispatches: A Little Pink in a World of Camo:My Heaven Old Blue: Fable Illustrated Stephen Farrell: Embedistan The Canada-Afghanistan Blog: The Senate Commitee Witnesses Fraser From Iraq: Institutionalized Habits Free Range International: Petraeus Comes East HERMANEUTICS: AFGHANISTAN: Faith Bill Wilson: Troops’ Funding Held Hostage by Public Sector Union Politics IraqPundit: Political World Cup IraqPundit: Amusing Things Jalalabad Fab Lab blog: Bagrami school Jamie McIntyre: In Defense of “Off-The-Record” JD Johannes: The Times Aren’t a Changing Kit Up!: SOCOM Cancels Mk-16 SCAR OPFOR: Problems at the Top Rajiv Srinivasan: The Last Patrol Red Bull Rising: The Loudest Quiet Place in the Army Red Bull Rising: Our Eyes in the Skies Nathan Hamm: Lying Satellites and Kyrgyzstan’s Course Guard Wife: Perspective From the Flipside Sarah: A Hobby Is Not the Answer For Me Either Texas Music: Poolside The Unknown Soldiers: Forever young What? Mermaids?: two enthusiastic thumbs up! Wings Over Iraq: You realize they’re mocking us, right? Spencer Ackerman: 9 Years In, U.S. Finally Tries to Get a Grip on Warzone Contractors Katherine Tiedemann: Daily brief: nearly 100 NATO soldiers in Afghanistan killed in June The Captain’s Journal: The Side Effects of the Afghanistan Rules of Engagement Gian P. Gentile: Freeing the Army from the Counterinsurgency Straightjacket Jules Crittenden: All The Rage News from the Home Front: Army Announces Conversion of Brigade to Stryker Configuration A Year at War, Chronicling Soldiers’ Deployment in the Afghan Surge One Battalion’s Wrenching Deployment to Afghanistan News from the Front: Iraq: Hundreds displaced by Iranian, Turkish bombardments of Kurdish rebels Baghdad’s Green Zone also to suffer electricity blackouts 4 Shop Owners Die in Iraqi Robberies In Iraq, Divvying Up the Spoils of Political War Muqtada Sadr’s Mahdi Army militiamen slowly resurface Afghanistan: Talks with Taliban anger minorities Karzai nominates key cabinet positions Miliband for peace deal with Taliban Northern Afghan airstrike kills 8 militants NATO death toll climbs in Afghan war 15 insurgents killed by their own bombs in Afghan mosque McChrystal’s Afghan rules of engagement won’t change despite shakeup, U.S. tells Karzai Alpha Company Provides Medical Care to Now Zad Residents Shadow Over Afghanistan Afghan-international Force Precision Airstrike Targets Insurgents in Kunduz Panetta says Afghan insurgents show no real interest in reconciliation talks Panetta says Afghan progress slower than expected U.S. officials say Karzai aides are derailing corruption cases involving elite Obama Cites ‘Obsession’ on Afghanistan Timeline NATO says increased military ops behind death toll Hamid Karzai given timetable by G8 to tackle corruption in Afghanistan NATO, civilians give 2 accounts of fatal operation The Thunder Run’s From the Front is a daily series that highlights news and personal dispatches from the front and the home front.