Taliban Releases Video of US Soldier

David Hickman, 23, was last of some 4,500 to die

(NEWSER) - On Nov. 14, just a month before the final US troops left Iraq, a 23-year-old soldier lost his life to an improvised explosive device. David Emanuel Hickman was the last American to be killed in a war that cost some 4,500 Americans their lives, the AP reports. With the US mission over, his family and friends are remembering him as a jokester with the nickname "Zeus" (because, he playfully said, his physique was so impressive the gods would be envious); as an outside linebacker who was the linchpin of a defense so complicated his high school had to scrap it after he graduated because no other teen could figure it out; as someone with a goal of one day joining the Special Forces, and who, in the words of a friend, "didn’t sign up to get his life on track. He wanted to be a physically and mentally elite soldier." More»

He may have been visiting a woman when caught: officials

(NEWSER) - Pentagon officials have confirmed that Bowe Bergdahl, 23, is the captured US soldier seen this weekend in a Taliban video, ABC News reports. Bergdahl says in the video that he was caught after falling behind in a foot patrol, but Defense Department officials say he may have left his Paktika Province base at night with Afghan soldiers to meet a woman. He may have also had past behavioral problems, they said. More»

(NEWSER) - The Taliban says it will execute a captured American soldier if the US does not withdraw from two districts in southeastern Afghanistan, the Voice of America reports. A Taliban rep said today the soldier is healthy but will be killed if operations in Paktika and Ghazni continue. The fate of the soldier, whom the military has classified as "believed captured," will be decided by Taliban leader Mullah Omar, the AP adds. More»

Chris Hayes 'deeply sorry' for not being more respectful

(NEWSER) - The conservative blogosphere apparently got through to Chris Hayes: After sparking outrage Sunday when he said he felt uncomfortable calling fallen soldiers "heroes," the MSNBC host has apologized. The Huffington Post has his statement in full. Highlights:

• "As many have rightly pointed out, it's very easy for me, a TV host, to opine about the people who fight our wars, having never dodged a bullet or guarded a post or walked a mile in their boots."

Chris Hayes, meet the conservative blogosphere

(NEWSER) - MSNBC host Chris Hayes fired up a Memorial Day Weekend controversy yesterday by saying he was "uncomfortable" with calling fallen soldiers "heroes," the New York Daily News reports. “I feel uncomfortable about the word hero because it seems to me that it is so rhetorically proximate to justifications for more war,” he said on his show, Up With Chris Hayes. He approves of "hero" when it comes to acts of heroism, he said, but “it seems to me that we marshal this word in a way that is problematic.” More»