Best Defense

Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Tom’s dog of the week: A photo I like

Rebecca is too big a phenom nowadays to write her column, so I am filling in. If you buy her book (a good Christmas present for anyone who likes dogs), maybe one day she will come home. And if you don’t, she may wind up with a TV show or something.

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Best Defense is in summer re-runs. This item originally appeared on October 31, 2014.

Best Defense is in summer re-runs. This item originally appeared on October 31, 2014.

Rebecca is too big a phenom nowadays to write her column, so I am filling in. If you buy her book (a good Christmas present for anyone who likes dogs), maybe one day she will come home. And if you don’t, she may wind up with a TV show or something.

I like this photo because it reminds me of the use of therapy dogs. They are pretty common now back home. But we tend to forget that the working dog can have a pretty therapeutic effect on the battlefield.

Meanwhile, a military dog handler got in trouble for maltreatment of a subordinate human.

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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