‘I Do Not Belong to Any Tribe’ – W. Thomas Smith Jr., National Review
Iraqi soldiers can fight. That’s something Americans serving alongside them have not always said with complete confidence. At the individual and small-unit level, Iraqis have been fighting well for close to three years. But only now are U.S. troops seeing the dramatic kinds of improvements and capabilities among the brigade and division-sized Iraqi units that one might expect from similarly trained Western forces.
Much of the success of the Iraqi army is a result of training and operational leadership on the part of coalition forces, primarily — at least from my vantage point while there — U.S., British, and Australian soldier-instructors. But there’s another factor: One that has only been a variable in the mix for less than two years: The new Iraqi officer corps.
Iraqi officers today are — by and large — hard-working, battle-seasoned, and generally incorruptible. There are exceptions, (as in any army), but as Iraqi Brigadier General Ishmayil Shihab Muhammad says, “We will deal with them.” …
Why We’re Winning Now in Iraq - Frederick Kagan, Wall Street Journal
Many politicians and pundits in Washington have ignored perhaps the most important point made by Gen. David Petraeus in his recent congressional testimony: The defeat of al Qaeda in Iraq requires a combination of conventional forces, special forces and local forces. This realization has profound implications not only for American strategy in Iraq, but also for the future of the war on terror.
As Gen. Petraeus made clear, the adoption of a true counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq in January 2007 has led to unprecedented progress in the struggle against al Qaeda in Iraq, by protecting Sunni Arabs who reject the terrorists among them from the vicious retribution of those terrorists. In his address to the United Nations General Assembly Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki also touted the effectiveness of this strategy while at the same time warning of al Qaeda in Iraq's continued threat to his government and indeed the entire region.
Yet despite the undeniable successes the new strategy has achieved against al Qaeda in Iraq, many in Congress are still pushing to change the mission of U.S. forces back to a counterterrorism role relying on special forces and precision munitions to conduct targeted attacks on terrorist leaders. This change would bring us back to the traditional, consensus strategy for dealing with cellular terrorist groups like al Qaeda--a strategy that has consistently failed in Iraq…
Runaway (Spending) Train – New York Times editorial
If, as he says, President Bush is going to start withdrawing troops from Iraq, why on earth does he need vastly more money from Congress to wage war? The staggering, ever escalating numbers tell the real story: As long as it’s up to Mr. Bush, the American presence in Iraq will be endless and ever more costly, diverting resources from other national priorities that are being ignored or shortchanged.
The administration showed its cards on Wednesday when it asked Congress for an additional $42.3 billion in “emergency” funding for Iraq and Afghanistan. This comes on top of the original 2008 spending request, which was made before Mr. Bush announced his so-called “new strategy” of partial withdrawal. It would bring the 2008 war bill to nearly $190 billion, the largest single-year total for the wars and an increase of 15 percent from 2007…
Private 'Rambos' in Iraq Warrant Greater Scrutiny – USA Today editorial
Last Christmas Eve, an American working for the private Blackwater security company in Iraq allegedly got into a drunken argument — and shot the guard of the Iraqi vice president dead. The American was hustled out of the country. No charges were filed.
Unusual? Not really. The United States employs tens of thousands of contractors in Iraq, including about 30,000 armed security guards. They are all but immune from prosecution. Blackwater personnel, who guard U.S. diplomats and others, are among the most visible and, by many accounts, obnoxious, with a tendency to wave guns as if in a Rambo movie.
The Christmas Eve shooting is one of many events that inform an Iraqi government threat — rescinded for now — to bar Blackwater from Iraq. The immediate reason is that Blackwater guards killed at least 11 people in a Baghdad neighborhood Sept. 16. The facts are in dispute, but the point is that this showdown has been a long time coming.
This latest episode should be a wake-up call to the downsides of outsourcing so much of the Iraq war — and should prompt better regulation and oversight. Until now, it's as if the Bush administration and Congress have averted their eyes as the role of private contractors has exploded to the point that the U.S. military can't function without them in Iraq. Their numbers — in roles from cooks to reconstruction experts — approximate those of the formal U.S. military presence…
The Bad Guys You Don’t Know - Olivier Guitta, Weekly Standard
While al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood have become household names, another Sunni Islamist group of nearly equal importance--Hizb ut- Tahrir (HT), or the Islamic Liberation party--remains little known in the United States. That may be changing. HT's activities in places as far-flung as Britain, Germany, Indonesia, and the Palestinian territories have been cropping up in the news, and HT has lately entered the social networks of cyberspace, posting propaganda videos on YouTube to troll for recruits to its campaign for uniting Muslims worldwide in a new caliphate.
One of HT's goals is to destroy Israel and "liberate Palestine from occupation, racism and impurity by going back to the strict practice of a true Islam." In August, an HT rally in the West Bank city of Ramallah drew some 10,000 people under the banner "The caliphate, a force for the future." Although the man who founded HT in 1953 in Jerusalem, Sheikh Taqiuddin al-Nabhani, was a Palestinian--a qadi (Muslim judge) and an ex-Muslim Brother seeking a more radical alternative to the Brotherhood--HT was until recently an insignificant player in Palestinian politics. Not anymore…
Al Qaeda on the Ropes? - Arnaud de Borchgrave, Washington Times
Osama bin Laden "is a man on the run, from a cave, who is virtually impotent other than the tapes" he releases from time to time. That was the mid-September assessment of Frances Fragos Townsend, top adviser to President Bush on Homeland Security, terrorism and counterterrorism.
Mrs. Townsend was a former Coast Guard assistant commandant for intelligence and a counsel to the attorney general for intelligence policy. The best and the brightest in the Bush White House, she was deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism before her rise to czar, or czarina, for transnational terrorism.
For a terrorist darting from cave to cave, the world's most wanted terrorist wasn't as impotent as he apparently appeared in top secret e-mails speeding into Mrs. Townsend's computers. The view from cyberspace told a different story about al Qaeda. For bin Laden, it is high noon on the electronic frontier…
Terrorism Double Standard? - Samuel Assefa, Washington Times
Imagine for a moment that a military group — aligned with al Qaeda and supported by a bordering hostile nation — slaughtered 74 workers at a business in America or Europe.
How long would it take for this group to be declared a terrorist organization by Western governments and widely condemned in the media?
On April 24, 2007, my country, Ethiopia, suffered just such an attack. Yet Western governments have not labeled the perpetrators as terrorist and the media has been largely unsympathetic. Is there a double standard in what constitutes terrorism depending upon whether the victims are Western? …
The Wrong Way to Pressure Iran - Karim Sadjadpour, Washington Post
The Bush administration, following its own pronouncements as well as House and Senate legislation, is expected to decide soon whether to classify Iran's most formidable military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as a terrorist organization. This would be a serious mistake. By labeling all 125,000 Revolutionary Guards untouchable "terrorists," Washington would forgo the possibility of exploiting the organization's internal divisions and further decrease the likelihood of diplomatic progress with Tehran.
Instead of making a disastrous military option more likely, the United States should seek to tip the balance within the guard in favor of pragmatists, rather than hard-liners who thrive in a state of isolation and confrontation…
France Flips While Congress Shifts – Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post
Ahmadinejad at Columbia provided the entertainment, but Sarkozy at the United Nations provided the substance. On the largest possible stage -- the U.N. General Assembly -- President Nicolas Sarkozy put Iran on notice. His predecessor, Jacques Chirac, had said that France could live with an Iranian nuclear bomb. Sarkozy said that France cannot. He declared Iran's nuclear ambitions "an unacceptable risk to stability in the region and in the world."
His foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, had said earlier that the world faces two choices -- successful diplomacy to stop Iran's nuclear program or war. And Sarkozy himself has no great hopes for the Security Council, where China and Russia are blocking any effective action against Iran. He does hope to get the European Union to join the United States in imposing serious sanctions…
America’s Friend Again: France! – James Gaines, Christian Science Monitor
With a certain high-school-like insecurity, Americans have been changing their answer for two centuries. That's understandable. After all, the US has alternately been at war and in love with both countries.
In the last presidential election, the answer was quite clear. Republican attempts to smear John Kerry as "French" showed where America's affections lay. The beginning of the Iraq war had made British Prime Minister Tony Blair a stateside hero and turned French fries into Freedom fries.
Today, in the 2008 campaign, one Republican campaign strategist is trying to use the French insult again, this time against Hillary Rodham Clinton. It's tempting for a GOP operative to pin the tail on the Socialist, cheese-eating surrender monkey.
It's also totally out of step, because in the past year, France and Britain seem to have started trading places in America's heart…
A Mideast Real Estate Deal – Boston Globe editorial
A tiny, disputed parcel of land called Shebaa Farms, located where Israel, Syria, and Lebanon converge, has long been used as a pretext for armed confrontation. But Israel may now have a chance to remove this sliver of real estate as a source of conflict. This is an opportunity that should not be missed.
Shebaa Farms is currently occupied by Israel but claimed by Lebanon. When demarcating the border between Lebanon and Israel in 2000, after Israel ended an 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon, the United Nations ruled that Shebaa Farms was part of the Golan Heights, a part of Syria annexed by Israel. The fate of Shebaa Farms, then, would have to be determined in peace negotiations between Israel and Syria…
Pakistan in Turmoil – London Daily Telegraph leader
General Pervez Musharraf yesterday filed nomination papers for a second presidential term at the start of what promises to be a tumultuous political period in Pakistan.
Apart from the president, the protagonists are the Supreme Court, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. The court is due to rule today on whether Gen Musharraf can run while remaining in uniform.
If it says yes, he hopes to be voted back into power on October 6 by an electoral college comprising members of the National Assembly, the Senate and provincial assemblies.
In the event of his winning, he has said he will step down as head of the army before a general election due to be held by January. If the answer is no, Gen Musharraf could give himself breathing space by dissolving parliament and calling elections within 90 days, or even declare martial law…
A Diplomatic Revolution? – Austin Bay, Washington Times
America needs a "revolution in diplomatic affairs." Even the State Department's chardonnay and brie brigade suspects we have entered a new era of grimy, street-level foreign policy. It's an era in which effective diplomacy starts with long days in bad neighborhoods, as culturally-savvy diplomats identify the hopes, fears and trends that seed future crises, and — preferably — create American-influenced opportunities to positively shape events.
Rudy Giuliani's essay "Toward a Realistic Peace" (in the most recent issue of Foreign Affairs) recognizes the need to implement the integrated, coherent policymaking and policy-executing system Washington has lacked since the Eisenhower administration. Crediting the Eisenhower administration may also be a bit of a stretch, but Dwight Eisenhower's five-star general's brain was the strategic ringmaster that occasionally united America's disjointed foreign policy circus…
This Silence on the Army Speaks Volumes - Allan Mallinson, London Daily Telegraph
General Sir Richard Dannatt must seem an increasingly turbulent priest. Warning of a growing gulf between the nation and its Army, and calling for an outward and visible sign of public esteem in homecoming parades, he risks the sword.
But he does so through hard-headed professionalism. Recall what he said when he became Chief of the General Staff: "I want an Army in five years' time."
The words of Churchill, who was first a soldier of exceptional bravery, best explain: "The Army is not like a limited liability company, to be reconstructed, remodelled, liquidated and refloated from week to week as the money market fluctuates…
Regional Power Soft on Junta – Michael Costello, The Australian
What can the world do when it sees oppression and widespread civil rights abuses in countries across the world? What can we do about Darfur? Or North Korea? Or Zimbabwe?
The answer is usually not a lot in the short term, but something significant in the long term. Burma is an example of this. The military has governed Burma for many decades. It refuses to implement earlier undertakings on democratic reform, and in 1988 it slaughtered 3000 of its citizens who were engaged in demonstrations protesting against the military's refusal to accept the results of an election.
In the past few weeks, unrest about a huge increase in the price of fuel has transformed into mass demonstrations for democracy, led by Buddhist monks: a potent force in a nation where 97 per cent of citizens are Buddhists. The military regime has carried out its threats and warnings, killing demonstrators, beating and imprisoning its citizens and reportedly removing the 1988 election winner Aung San Suu Kyi from her 12-year house arrest to an extremely unpleasant prison.
So what can the rest of the world do? The widespread view is that we should put pressure on China, the regime's close ally, to in turn apply pressure for restraint and dialogue leading to democratic change…
Burma’s Revolt of the Spirit – Michael Gerson, Washington Post
The great virtue of Buddhism is serene courage in the face of inevitable affliction. That courage is on display now in Burma -- a nation caught upon the wheel of suffering.
The sight of young, barefoot monks in cinnamon robes quietly marching for democracy, amid crowds carrying banners reading "love and kindness," is already a symbol of conscience for a young century. On closer examination, these protests have also shown that nonviolence need not be tame or toothless. The upside-down bowls carried by some of the monks signal that they will not accept alms from the leaders of the regime, denying them the ability to atone for bad deeds or to honor their ancestors. These chanting monks are playing spiritual hardball…
Trade Away Tyranny – The Australian leader
At first glance, John Howard's announcement yesterday of targeted financial sanctions against the Burmese regime seems like a welcome development. Australia has a long and inglorious history of offering little more than lip-service in support of Burma's brave democrats. There has been bipartisan agreement that sanctions would be no more than symbolic, and despite the fact that we have been happy to ostracise odious regimes further afield, in Zimbabwe, for example, we have not been prepared to do it closer to home, in Burma. Yet watching 100,000 protesters led by tens of thousands of barefoot Buddhist monks and nuns, it seems apt to ask whether there is another way for the West to hasten the death of this brutal military dictatorship.
The tragedy of the Burmese people is both political and economic. Burma, the richest country in Southeast Asia at the time of independence in 1948, was a functioning democracy until General Ne Win seized power in a coup d'etat in 1962 and turned the resource-rich nation into one of the poorest countries in the region under the banner of the Burmese Way to Socialism. Since then, an army of 400,000 has dominated 50 million Burmese, violently suppressing dissent, most prominently in 1974 and 1988. Having destroyed the economy, the military has tried to modernise its infrastructure in an archaic way, forcing up to 8 million citizens, particularly those from ethnic minorities, to work as slave labour…
Burma's Saffron Courage - Toronto Star editorial
The blood of Buddhist monks beaten by soldiers ran red yesterday at the Ngwe Kyar Yan monastery in Yangon, Burma's capital. Troops mowed down protesters in the city core, killing several on the spot.
Yet amid the chaos and the carnage, an old man dared to face down the army, shouting: "You eat food given to you by the people. Yet you kill people and you kill the monks." He spoke for a nation.
Many of Burma's 50 million desperately poor people feel they have little left to lose, after an era of military rule that dates back to 1962.
Gen. Than Shwe's incompetent junta triggered the "saffron revolution" the army is now trying to crush, by raising prices last month on diesel fuel, natural gas, chicken, eggs and cooking oil. People who earn less than $1 a day were driven to desperation in a country flush with oil, gas, minerals and timber...
Burma’s Ghosts Rise to Confront the Generals - Pascal Koo-Thwe, London Daily Telegraph
"They are killing the monks again," a Burmese friend of mine greeted me unceremoniously as soon as I arrived at her flat in south London. "What can we do?" It seemed she had been crying her eyes out – they were as red as the monks' robes.
She and her husband had recently returned from a short visit to Rangoon, just before the demonstrations started, and they didn't like what was happening there. "Rangoon nowadays is full of beggars, soldiers, thugs and sad faces. Our country is in the hand of alien powers," they said sorrowfully…
Troubled Future for Burmese Generals - Ben Macintyre, London Times
The fate of the Burmese junta is written in the stars. That, at least, is what the Burmese junta believes. For one of the odder and most revealing aspects of the brutal military gang that rules Burma is its faith in astrology.
When the junta moved the capital from Rangoon to a malarial town deep in the jungle, it did so because an astrologer employed by Senior General Than Shwe had warned him of an impending catastrophe that could only be averted by moving the seat of government. The same astrologer asserted that the most auspicious moment for the move would be November 6, 2005, at 6.37 in the morning. Sure enough, at that precise hour on the ordained day, the bullet-proof limousines of Burma’s generals started to roll towards their new home on the road to Mandalay…
What is Putin’s Plan? – Andrew Kuchins, Washington Post
Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin surprised everybody when he named the relatively unknown Victor Zubkov as his new prime minister. For months, many observers anticipated the naming of a new prime minister with great expectation, as conventional wisdom has held that this person will become the next Russian President. Nobody expected Zubkov. Once again, the unpredictable Mr. Putin zigged while Kremlin watchers zagged.
I had the privilege to be close to the action in Moscow two weeks ago while with the Valdai Discussion Group, an annual gathering of mostly Western journalists and scholars who are granted extraordinary access to meet with key members of Russia's political elite, including Putin. The forum is sponsored by the Russian News Agency, RIA Novosti and serves as part of the Kremlin's public relations efforts.
Upon arriving in Moscow I was struck by the many new billboards around town covered with the phrase "Putin's Plan, Victory of Russia." What is the plan? What is the victory? And over whom? …
Hear, Hear – Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal
You don't want to judge Christ by Christians, someone once said. He is perfect, they are not.
In a similar way you don't want to judge capitalism by capitalists, or the legitimacy of democracy by the Democrats, or the vitality of our republic by the Republicans. You have to take the thing pure and in itself, while allowing for the flaws and waywardness of its practitioners.
I say this because here in America we have reached a funny pass. People are doing and saying odd things as if they don't know the meaning of the thing they say they stand for. In particular I mean we used to be proud of whom we allowed to speak, and now are leaning toward defining ourselves by whom we don't speak to and will not allow to speak. This is not progress…
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