IRAQ
US Teams Start Work Of Restoring South - Ernesto Londoño, Washington Post
Ambassador Crocker: Al-Qaida Close to Defeat in Iraq - Associated Press
Violence in Iraq Falls to Lowest Level in 4 Years - Reuters
Iraq PM Rides High on Successes - Associated Press
Iraqi Security Forces Approach Full Manning - AFPS
Soldiers Fill Sadr City, Militia Fighters Wait - Alexandra Zavis, Los Angeles Times
Iraq's Sadrists Say Crackdowns Endanger Truce - Reuters
Congress vs. Iraqi Success - Washington Times editorial
Defeated... or Laying Low - Dr. iRack, Abu Muqawama
A Surge in Airstrikes - Dr. iRack, Abu Muqawama
Iraq Status Report - Iraq Status Report
AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN TRIBAL AREAS
Afghanistan Adds Hunger to Its Worries - Pamela Constable, Washington Post
Taliban Chief to Send Fighters to Afghanistan - Associated Press
Pakistani Taliban Leader Vows Jihad in Afghanistan - Reuters
Pakistan Militant 'Holds to Deal' - BBC News
IRAN
Israel 'Would Consider Strike' - Annette Young, The Scotsman
THE LONG WAR
Terror Attack Seen to Follow '08 Vote - Rowan Scarborough, Washington Times
Defending 'the Most Hated Man in the World' - Josh Meyer, Los Angeles Times
The Torture Scandal's Heroes - Washington Post editorial
Either Allah Isn’t On Their Side... - Rod Liddle, London Times opinion
Retrospective - Richard Fernandez, The Belmont Club
Jihadi Suicide Bombers: The New Wave - Ahmed Rashid, New York Review of Books
US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Rewarding Patriotism - Washington Post editorial
The Proud, The Few - Donnelly and Kagan, New York Post opinion
Military Mettle - Oliver North, Washington Times opinion
New MilBlogs... - Greyhawk, Mudville Gazette
US INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY
The Real Intelligence Failure? - Mark Lowenthal, Washington Post opinion
MEMORIAL DAY 2008
Fallen But Never Forgotten - Blackfive, Blackfive
Reflections by Frontier 6 - Frontier 6, CAC Blog
Reflections by Frontier 6 - Jack, DoD Live
Memorial Day 2008 - CJ, A Solider's Perspective
Mullen Cites Importance of Remembrance in Memorial Day Message - AFPS
To Live with Honor - Joseph Morrison, National Review
Memorial Day 2008 - Austin Bay, Washington Times
Forgotten Heroes - Ed Sherwood, Washington Times
Mystic Chords of Memory - Mackubin Thomas Owens, National Review
A Weekend to Remember Them - Joseph Rehyansky, Human Events
Returning Meaning to Memorial Day - Bret Schulte, US News & World Report
Burial at Arlington - Douglas Stone, Human Events
Let Us Remember Them - Colbert King, Washington Post
Protesting the Antiwar Protestors - Kevin Ferris, Wall Street Journal
Ross McGinnis: Medal of Honor - Chuck Simmins, America's North Shore Journal
Where They’ve Been, What They’ve Done - Cannoneer No. 4, CIIDG
Memorial Day - Herschel Smith, The Captain's Journal
Why Didn't We Listen to Their War Stories? - Edward Lengel, Washington Post
Washington Set to be 'Thunder'-Struck - Jennifer Harper, Washington Times
Vietnam Wall: Personal, Searchable - Washington Times
AFRICA
Fighting Lays Waste to Disputed Sudanese Town - Associated Press
Djibouti and Eritrea in Face-Off Over Border - Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times
Opposition Leader Returns to Zimbabwe - Washington Post
Flawed but Enduring Leader Returns to Zimbabwe - Celia Dugger, New York Times
Opposition Leader Tsvangirai Returns to Zimbabwe - Associated Press
Tsvangirai Says Mugabe Wants to Decimate Opposition - Reuters
Tsvangirai 'Confident of Victory' - BBC News
Ethiopia, Uganda Deny Breaking UN Somali Arms Ban - Reuters
Thousands March Against South Africa Violence - Reuters
Former DR Congo Leader Arrested - BBC News
Congo Ex-rebel Chief Bemba Arrested for War Crimes - Reuters
Guinea-Bissau: Route of Evil - Kevin Sullivan, Washington Post
Uganda Grooms its Future - Boston Globe editorial
My New Olympic Dream - Joey Cheek, Washington Post opinion
AMERICAS
Top Colombian Rebel Dead of Heart Attack - Juan Forero, Washington Post
Colombian Guerrilla Leader Is Reported Dead - Simon Romero, New York Times
Colombia Says Rebel Leader May be Dead - Associated Press
FARC Leader 'Dead' Says Military - BBC News
Colombia's Top FARC Commander is Dead - Reuters
Mexico Drug-related Killings Soar - BBC News
Mr. Chávez’s Unsavory Friends - New York Times editorial
ASIA PACIFIC
UN Secretary Surveys China Relief Efforts - Fan and Drew, Washington Post
UN Leader Praises China’s Quake Response - Howard French, New York Times
Ban Praises China Quake Response - BBC News
Chinese Left to Ask Why Schools Crumbled - Jim Yardley, New York Times
Novice Workers Struggle in Burma - Amy Kazmin, Washington Post
Burma Matters. Context Matters.- World Impact Now
Filipino Marines Battle Muslim Militants - Associated Press
Taiwan's Inaugural - Richard Halloran, Washington Times opinion
EUROPE
Go-It-Alone France Shifts Military Stance - Molly Moore, Washington Post
MIDDLE EAST
Hezbollah's Army Survives Under Lebanon Peace Deal - Associated Press
Lebanon's General Suleiman Set to Become President - Reuters
Hamas: Israel PM Too Weak to Talk Peace with Syria - Associated Press
Abbas Fears Olmert Probe May Hold Up Peace Talks - Reuters
Olmert Questioned on 'Corruption' - BBC News
Misreading the Arab Media - Pintak, Ginges and Felton, New York Times opinion
SOUTH ASIA
Constitutional Reforms Unveiled in Pakistan - Laura King, Los Angeles Times
Pakistan: Zardari Unveils Plan to Drive Musharraf From Power - Reuters
Move to Slash Musharraf's Powers - BBC News
37 Killed in Caste Riots in India - Associated Press
8 Combatants Killed in Sri Lanka - Associated Press
Nepal's PM Asks Former Rebels to Form Government - Associated Press
WORLD
Merchants to Murderers? - Tsotne Bakuria, Washington Times opinion
UNITED NATIONS
Growing Food Crisis Strains UN - Colum Lynch, Washington Post
Might the Europeans want ElBaradei Out at the IAEA? - Westhawk, Westhawk
RECOMMENDED READING
Whose Face to the World? - Marc Lynch, Abu Aardvark
Adding to My “Antilibrary” - Mark Safranski, ZenPundit
UK CT & COIN Features - Will Hartley, Insurgency Research Group
EVENTS OF INTEREST
29 May 2008 - Occupational Hazards: Success and Failure in Military Occupation (Public Event). Washington, D.C. Book forum hosted by The Cato Institute. Featuring the author David M. Edelstein, Assistant Professor, Georgetown University, with comments by Robert M. Perito, U.S. Institute of Peace and Christopher Preble, Cato Institute. What makes military occupations more or less likely to succeed? Drawing on 26 cases since 1815 where outside powers have seized territory without a claim to its sovereignty, David Edelstein attempts to determine why some occupations succeed and why so many seem doomed to failure. Edelstein combines detailed case studies with a theoretical approach and concludes that occupations face a paradox: Success requires a long-term and massive commitment of resources and attention; however, such large-scale occupations can elicit nationalist responses from the occupied populace. Further, as the occupier faces difficulty, discontent grows at home, and pressure builds to remove occupying forces. Examining the history of occupation as a component of grand strategy, Edelstein offers warnings for today’s policymakers, who seem tempted to include military occupations as part of the approach to countering terrorism. Please join the author and our distinguished commentators for a discussion of this timely and pathbreaking book.
4-5 June 208 - 2008 Joint Symposium - Strategic Re-Assessment: From Long-Range Planning to Future Strategy and Forces (Public Event). Washington, D.C. Sponsored by the Institute for National Strategic Studies, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and US Joint Forces Command. Fundamental to the development and implementation of a successful future defense posture is a foundation comprised of a well-reasoned assessment of the future security environment, a clear understanding of the “realm of the possible” for and limitations of military forces, and an understanding of the nation’s security objectives. Developing an appropriate assessment of the future security environment is not something done in a vacuum as it is impossible to fully separate purely military or national security issues from other elements of the national and global environment. This is particularly true for the United States. Technical innovation and adaptation, the rise and decline of other actors on the international stage, domestic politics, globalization and its effects on trade, migration, communications, and the power of nonstate actors all, bear heavily on any security assessment. There is no shortage of assessments of the future security environment. In the last decade, National Defense University itself has produced several, most recently, Strategic Challenges – America’s Global Security Agenda. The objectives of this symposium are to examine some of these strategic assessments, to review our success at incorporating their key elements into strategic and operational plans, and to propose ways to institutionalize best practices into the process for future force development and joint force planning. We will explore these issues through a series of panel discussions and keynote addresses. Featured speakers will include military officers, government officials, and experts from research institutes.
17-19 June 208 - 3rd Annual North American Security Colloquium: Wars Without Borders (Public Event). Kingston, Ontario. Sponsored by the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College, Queen's Centre for International Relations, and Defence Management Studies at Queen's University, and the Canadian 'Forces' Land Doctrine and Training System. The conflicts today in Iraq and in Afghanistan are examples of what some leading scholars and many commanders have termed “continuous wars among the people.” This type of conflict is developing or occurring in other regions of the world, in Africa and in Latin America for example. In many of these situations traditional and legal borders no longer define or contain the conflict, nor do obvious sovereign entities control belligerents. International commitments to control these conflicts necessarily demand complex, multi-dimensional diplomatic, military, police, and humanitarian responses. What has been learned about such conflicts from operations in Iraq and Afghanistan may to some degree be transferable to conflicts in other regions. Assuming that the international community may well face future operations characterized by regional, borderless “wars among the people”, the centres at Queen’s University and their partners propose convening a distinguished group of approximately 200 experts from academic, military, governmental, and international institutions to examine how best to prepare commanders, military units and governments to plan for and conduct complex, multi-dimensional stability campaigns in this new environment.
16-18 September 2008 - The U.S. Army and the Interagency Process: A Historical Perspective (Public Event - Conference / Call for Papers). Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Sponsored by the U.S. Army Combat Studies Institute. The symposium will include a variety of guest speakers, panel sessions, and general discussions. This symposium will explore the partnership between the U.S. Army and government agencies in attaining national goals and objectives in peace and war within a historical context. Separate international topics may be presented. The symposium will also examine current issues, dilemmas, problems, trends, and practices associated with U.S. Army operations requiring close interagency cooperation.
