IRAQ

General Credits Success in Iraq to Various Surges - Michael Carden, AFPS

As violence levels maintain a steady decrease across Iraq, coalition forces and the Iraqi government are able to focus their efforts on reconstruction and civil issues, a senior coalition military official in Iraq said today. Iraqi forces are improved, and the government continues to develop and progress, Army Brig. Gen. David Perkins, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman, said in a news briefing from Baghdad. “Government, security and economic institutions continue to surge forward” throughout Iraq even as the last of the initial five surge brigades – 3rd Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team – redeployed this week, Perkins said. Military officials credit the past year’s five-brigade troop surge as the foundation for the country’s recent progress, the general said, but that wasn’t the only surge that took place. “The coalition surge was one of many surges that have come to produce programs and progress across Iraq,” Perkins said. “The coalition surge has been accompanied by a surge in Iraqi security forces, a surge of support by the Iraqi people, a surge in political and governance progress and a surge in the revitalization of the economic sector.”

Surge Successful By Any Measure - Jim Garamone, AFPS

The surge in Iraq has been a success by any measure, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said during a news conference today. The surge has allowed Iraq to make improvements from security, political and economic standpoints, Morrell said. The last of the five surge brigade combat teams recently left Iraq. The policy, announced by President Bush in December 2006, pushed the brigades in to Iraq to provide a security umbrella so the Iraqi military could build and the country’s government could grow. “By every metric that we measure violence in Iraq, there has been a dramatic improvement from where things were before the surge,” Morrell said. “I'll just point to one, and that is [that] in July of last year, we had 79 US [servicemembers killed in action] in Iraq. We have four thus far this month.” The dramatic security gains have provided room for political and economic successes. “You name it, it is happening in Iraq,” Morrell said. “Do you want to talk about political gains? We've had basically all the major benchmark legislation passed.” The Sunni bloc has returned to the government, 10 of 18 Iraqi provinces are under local control, and Najaf International Airport has reopened. “You see a $300 million luxury hotel opening up in the Green Zone [and] $50 million in refurbishment of the airport road,” Morrell said. “There's economic investment, and there's political progress. There's increased security. All those things are undeniable, and they are attributable to the fact that we plussed up forces in there.” There were, of course, other factors at work in the security improvement, Morrell said, but the surge and the change in US counterinsurgency strategy made all else possible. The “Anbar Awakening” that allied formerly insurgent Sunni Muslims with the coalition and influential Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s cease-fire were other factors, he said, but he noted they didn’t happen independently of other events.

Iraqi President Vows Veto of Election Bill - Amit Paley, Washington Post

President Jalal Talabani said Wednesday that he would veto a measure governing provincial elections scheduled for this year, making it all but certain that the balloting will be delayed until 2009. The announcement was a setback for both the Bush administration and the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, which hailed a preliminary election law passed earlier this year as evidence of political progress in Iraq. The ongoing disagreements over the polling have instead highlighted the sectarian fissures that still divide the country.

Provincial Voting Measure Vetoed - Tavernese and Muhammed, New York Times

Iraq’s president vetoed legislation on provincial elections on Wednesday, sending it back to lawmakers for revisions as political leaders continued to try to strike a deal that would allow the vote to be held this year as planned. Provincial elections are seen as central to political progress in Iraq, but their timing was thrown into doubt on Tuesday when Kurdish lawmakers boycotted the parliamentary vote on the legislation, insisting that it be rewritten.

Iraqi Presidential Council Rejects Elections Law - Associated Press

Iraq's presidential council on Wednesday rejected a draft provincial elections law and sent it back to parliament for reworking - a major blow to US hopes that the vote can be held this year. The decision was likely to delay the elections until next year because there would not be sufficient time to make the necessary preparations. US officials have pushed hard for the polls, which had been due by Oct. 1, as a key step toward repairing Iraq's sectarian divisions.

Keep an Eye on Those Kurds - Marc Lynch, Abu Aardvark

Keep an eye on the special meeting of the Kurdish Parliament called for today over Kurdish outrage over the Kirkuk provisions in the just-passed provincial elections law, which Kurdish leadership is calling a "coup against the Constitution." The Kurdish bloc is calling for a re-vote, which might make sense but would be of dubious legality. Some (overly excitable?) Arab and Iraqi reports suggest that in addition to Talabani vetoing the provincial election law (over which the Kurds walked out of Parliament) the Kurds could pull out of Maliki's government and potentially even bring it down.

Don't Call Us - We'll Call You, Al-Rishawi - Steve Schippert, Threats Watch

The leader of the Iraq Awakening is still waiting for that call from an interested US broadcast news organization. Crickets… No major broadcast anchor lifted the phone to contact Sheikh Ahmad al-Rishawi, who met with Senator Obama, to inquire about the discussion from his perspective. He has a number and can be reached. But it is as if his views as the head of the Iraq Awakening - an important Iraqi living an Iraqi reality - just don’t matter. How else to explain it?

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN TRIBAL AREAS

Military Revisits Afghanistan Plan - Gordon Lubold, Christian Science Monitor

The success of the surge of American troops in Iraq is putting pressure anew on the Pentagon to build a surge plan to counter a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan. But experts warn that it will take more than just additional troops to turn things around there. US military officials are scrambling to devise a plan to send as many as three brigades to Afghanistan by next year, with Defense Secretary Robert Gates saying last week that he would send more forces "sooner rather than later." Presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain have in the past week voiced support for an Afghanistan surge, with Senator Obama, who just visited the country, calling the requirements there "precarious and urgent." But a surge for Afghanistan, analysts say, must also recognize that the insurgency there – as well as the NATO command structure – is not like that in Iraq. And without a new strategy, the deployment of more forces won't mean much, they say.

NATO, Afghan Forces Launch Offensive in Eastern Afghanistan - Voice of America

NATO and Afghan forces have launched an offensive against militants to regain control of a remote district in southern Afghanistan. NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) says troops began an operation Wednesday in Ghazni province, after militants took over the Ajiristan district on Monday. ISAF says some militants in the area were killed during a coordinated airstrike. In Washington, a Defense Department spokesman said the decision to send more US troops to Afghanistan will be left to the next presidential administration. US commanders have been asking for three more combat brigades, or about 10,000 troops, to help confront rising violence in Afghanistan. On Tuesday, the top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, said the US does not have the man-power to send urgently needed military reinforcements to Afghanistan. He said US troops are all heavily committed in Iraq.

Most Senior Taleban Leader in Helmand Arrested - Hussain and Page, The Times

Pakistan’s security forces have arrested a senior Afghan Taleban commander in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, according to British officials, who hailed it as a significant breakthrough yesterday. Mullah Rahim, the most senior Taleban leader in Helmand province, gave himself up on Saturday, a statement from British Forces in Afghanistan said. The US and Britain have often complained that Pakistan is not doing enough to arrest or kill top Taleban leaders who are sheltering in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan, or its lawless northern tribal areas. That, combined with a build-up of NATO troops near the Afghan border, has sparked fears among Pakistani officials that NATO troops might launch a unilateral strike on Taleban positions inside Pakistan.

Pakistan Reaffirms Support for Dialogue with Militants - Barry Newhouse, VOA

Top Pakistani political leaders representing the ruling coalition government are reaffirming their support for dialogue, not military force, to deal with Taliban militants. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani convened the meeting of top party leaders in the coalition government to discuss security issues, mainly the Pakistani Taliban presence in western Pakistan that is blamed for strengthening the insurgency across the border in Afghanistan. Military officials briefed the meeting about the situation with Taliban militants in Pakistan's tribal regions. The military has launched operations against a few militant groups in recent weeks, but lawmakers said that overall they still support striking peace agreements. US officials have expressed concern that such agreements could strengthen Taliban strongholds in Pakistan.

Is Afghanistan a Narco-State? - Thomas Schweich, New York Times

I met Hamid Karzai for the first time. It was a clear, crisp day in Kabul. The Afghan president joined President and Mrs. Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Ambassador Ronald Neumann to dedicate the new United States Embassy. He thanked the American people for all they had done for Afghanistan. I was a senior counternarcotics official recently arrived in a country that supplied 90 percent of the world’s heroin. I took to heart Karzai’s strong statements against the Afghan drug trade. That was my first mistake. Over the next two years I would discover how deeply the Afghan government was involved in protecting the opium trade - by shielding it from American-designed policies. While it is true that Karzai’s Taliban enemies finance themselves from the drug trade, so do many of his supporters. At the same time, some of our NATO allies have resisted the anti-opium offensive, as has our own Defense Department, which tends to see counternarcotics as other people’s business to be settled once the war-fighting is over. The trouble is that the fighting is unlikely to end as long as the Taliban can finance themselves through drugs - and as long as the Kabul government is dependent on opium to sustain its own hold on power.

Royal Marine Given George Cross - Marcus Leroux, The Times

A Royal Marine who is to be awarded the George Cross for saving the lives of his comrades by throwing himself on top of a grenade has spoken of the agonising moments after he set off a Taleban booby trap. Lance Corporal Matthew Croucher, 24, said he was certain that he was going to die after he triggered the device during a mission in the Helmand region of southern Afghanistan. He said: “I felt the tripwire hit my shins. You know immediately what that means. All I could do in the moment was shout out, ‘Grenade’ before diving on top of it.” For five “agonising” seconds he lay on his back, certain he would be killed or seriously injured, before the device went off. He was thrown into the air by the force of the explosion but survived with minor injuries as his rucksack cushioned the blow. “It was incredible. I escaped with only a nose bleed and a headache,” he said.

Inside Afghanistan - Pearson Peacekeeping Centre video

The film that you are about to watch is a 7-minute educational documentary meant to examine and explain the PRT-based model for redevelopment. Afghanistan is a culturally diverse land that is situated at the heart of Asia, where the silk roads converged, and connected the three great civilizations of the Asiatic world. Kandahar - where the Canadian PRT is based - is home to roughly one million men, women and children trying to rebuild their lives against a backdrop of conflict. In response to the changing nature of conflict and at the request of the Government of Afghanistan, the international community introduced Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) into the Afghan environment. The PRTs in Afghanistan, led by NATO countries, are designed to assist in extending the authority of the Government of Afghanistan throughout the country. This short film will introduce you to the PRTs in the northern and western regions of the country. It is not meant to paint a definitive picture of Afghanistan, but rather, to provide viewers with a general sense of what a PRT is meant to accomplish.

Modest Goals for the Other War - Ralph Peters, USA Today opinion

When the conflict in Iraq was going badly, critics repeatedly suggested parallels with the Vietnam War. None of the comparisons held up. But Afghanistan is different: One tragic parallel makes a decisive success almost impossible to achieve. The problem is that our enemies have a sanctuary across the border in Pakistan - just as the North Vietnamese army enjoyed havens in Laos, Cambodia and north of the demilitarized zone above South Vietnam. We dropped bombs then, as we sometimes do now (though in far lesser numbers today), but a ground enemy has to be defeated on the ground. Troops must pursue the enemy to his last stronghold to eliminate the threat. At present, the Taliban, al-Qaeda and their affiliates can muster their forces in Pakistan, cross into Afghanistan, make deadly mischief, then withdraw to fight another day. It's a savage game of hide-and-seek that keeps Afghanistan's poorest provinces unsettled, blocking development and inflicting terror on those who simply want to live in peace. The answer seems obvious: Send our ground forces into Pakistan. Democratic Sen. Barack Obama has suggested that, as president, he'd do this. But the obvious answer is the wrong answer.

Saving Afghanistan: A Response to Rory Stewart - Christian Bleuer, CTLab

Rory Stewart, in a July 17 editorial article in Time magazine titled “How to Save Afghanistan,” sketches a plan that is, in regards to levels of military and governance assistance matters, a reversion to the Donald Rumsfeld “light footprint” era in Afghanistan. The former British diplomat/author turned NGO director reiterates many of the points that he has made over the last year or so, some of which are widely accepted and some of which are blatantly false.

Taking Great Care from the Air - Kip, Abu Muqawama

In recent weeks, Afghan politics has been roiled again by a series of high profile aerial bombings in which civilians and Afghan police have been killed or at least in which untrue stories of civilian casualties have gained widespread acceptance among the Afghan populace. Perhaps what has been most troubling about these stories has been their origination from Afghan officials. In Nuristan, Governor Nuristani was fired for reporting civilian deaths at a wedding when ISAF officials argued their had been a legitimate bombing without significant collateral damage. In Shindand, ISAF emphatically denied causing civilian casualties as reported by Pajwok news, the main Afghan wire service. The original report of those casualties again came from a government official, District Chief Mullah Lal Mohammed.

Afghanistan: "It's Bad" - David Wood, Military Watch

There is welcome new recognition from the presidential candidates that a war is raging in Afghanistan and that things aren't going too well. It may be worse than Sens. Obama's and McCain's public comments suggest. Current intelligence assessments show a pattern of not just rising violence, but also a new ability of Taliban-led insurgents to mount multiple attacks each day in Helmand Province, where Marines have been deployed in Garmsir since late March. There is new evidence, as well, that the Taliban are seeking to overrun a US military base, as they very nearly did July 13 before US air strikes ended their attack on a remote US and Afghan outpost in Afghanistan's eastern Kumar Province.

For the Hell of It - Driven, Blackfive

To all those who asked, yes my friend was one of the 2/503 guys. None of what I'm about to pass on is classified but its info civilian channels sometimes get wrong. The American FOB (forward operating base) was not over run, the attack was repelled. The enemy raiders out numbered our guys 2 to 1. Nine American soldiers died for their country, over 100 enemy died for theirs (their country, beliefs, cause they were bored, whatever). You can look at this two ways, being sad and depressed, or realising that out numbered 2 to 1, our guys still kicked some *** **** terrorist ass.

IRAN

Tehran's Winning Streak - Washington Times editorial

To no one's surprise, international talks about Iran's nuclear program ended in failure again on July 19 despite the Bush administration's decision to reverse course and send the No. 3 official in the State Department, Undersecretary of State William Burns, to Geneva to negotiate. American, European and even Iranian negotiators all praised the talks. Western diplomats pointed to what the New York Times referred to as "a rare show of unity" among the United States and its five negotiating partners - Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China - in urging Iran to "compromise." The chief Iranian negotiator called the negotiating process a "very beautiful endeavor" and said he hoped it would result in a solution that would be "beautiful to behold." But in the end, the talks yielded no more success than any of the prior US negotiating efforts with Iran dating back to the Carter administration.

THE LONG WAR

Hamdan's Work With Bin Laden - Jerry Markon, Washington Post

Osama bin Laden's driver witnessed the al-Qaeda leader being briefed on the day of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and overheard him express satisfaction that the death toll had exceeded expectations, an FBI interrogator testified Wednesday. Salim Ahmed Hamdan, now held at the US military prison here, had said under questioning six years ago that bin Laden was "happy about the results" of the terrorist strikes because he had expected "only" 1,000 to 1,500 people to die, former FBI agent Ali Soufan told jurors at Hamdan's military trial. During the 2002 interrogation, Hamdan "said he had heard bin Laden saying he didn't expect the operation... would be that successful," Soufan said. Nearly 3,000 people perished in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Disarming Strategy - Daily Telegraph editorial

In 2002, George W. Bush declared Iran, Iraq and North Korea to be an "axis of evil". Since then, he has invaded the second and agreed to talk to the other two. For the last five years the administration has been negotiating with Pyongyang - in company with China, Japan, South Korea and Russia - about its nuclear weapons programme. Yesterday, the level of that exchange was raised in Singapore to foreign minister level, with Condoleezza Rice representing the United States. A similar process occurred last week in Geneva, when William Burns, the under secretary of state, took part in another set of six-nation talks, this time with Iran, in conjunction with Germany and the four other permanent members of the UN Security Council, Britain, China, France and Russia.

Suspend the Writ - Andrew McCarthy, National Review opinion

For the protection of our troops on the battlefield and the security of all Americans, Congress needs, right now, to take action to reverse Boumediene v. Bush, the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision granting constitutional habeas-corpus rights to alien enemy combatants. It’s time to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. “What?” you shudder. Have you lost your mind? Has this Bush-whacky Constitution-shredder finally gone off the deep end? No. Not even a little. I’m not talking about suspending the old writ of habeas corpus, the one that protects all Americans inside the United States.

COMPLEX OPERATIONS

Soft Muslim Underbelly, Soft American Power - Brigitte Nacos, CTLab

The latest edition of The Washington Monthly carries an interesting article on the underlying softness of public support for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda in Muslim countries. Based on surveys in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and several other Muslim countries, Kenneth Ballen concludes that although there is a high level of support for bin Laden in the Muslim world, this support is soft and can be made softer still with the right policies. Ballen is the president of the non-profit organization Terror Free Tomorrow. Posted on the organization’s web site, the polls reflect significant resentment toward the United States but also the potential for a dramatic turnaround in anti-American sentiments without drastic policy adjustments.

The Real Counterinsurgency Era - Arms and Influence

It's easy to lose track of why John F. Kennedy was a beloved president. Often caricatured for his skirt-chasing, or derided for failures like the Bay of Pigs, the current generation often overlooks his accomplishments, or takes them for granted. However, it's worth looking at Kennedy's personal crusade to make counterinsurgency a national priority to see what could have happened after the 9/11 attacks, but didn't. Let me say, in advance, that this big topic can't really be covered adequately in a blog posting. I'm going to allude to important events during Kennedy's tenure; to really understand them, you should read about them in more depth. At the end, I'll give a few book recommendations.

US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Auditors Pressured To Favor Contractors - Dana Hedgpeth, Washington Post

Auditors at a Pentagon oversight agency were pressured by supervisors to skew their reports on major defense contractors to make them look more favorable instead of exposing wrongdoing and charges of overbilling, according to an 80-page report released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office. The Defense Contract Audit Agency, which oversees contractors for the Defense Department, "improperly influenced the audit scope, conclusions and opinions" of reviews of contractor performance, the GAO said, creating a "serious independence issue."

Defense Leaders Promise Improved Contracting Oversight - Donna Miles, AFPS

The US military depends heavily on the support contractors provide in Iraq and Afghanistan and is stepping up efforts to ensure dollars dedicated to their activities are spent appropriately, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England told Congress today. England joined Army Gen. Benjamin S. Griffin, commander of US Army Materiel Command; acting Defense Department Inspector General Gordon S. Heddell; and Shay Assad, DoD’s director for defense procurement and acquisition policy, during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on contractor accountability. The Defense Department takes its contract accountability and oversight responsibilities “very seriously,” England told the lawmakers. He noted that multiple department agencies have conducted “literally thousands of aggressive reviews, audits and oversight.” In doing so, “they have indeed uncovered incidences of fraud and abuse,” he said. The Defense Department takes meaningful corrective actions and makes structural organizational changes where appropriate, England said. Meanwhile, it holds people accountable for their actions. Heddell, who became acting DoD inspector general last week, noted that the department is completing or conducting audit oversight efforts that cover about $158.9 billion related to Defense Department efforts in Iraq alone.

I’m Comfortable. How About You? - New York Times editorial

After the secretary of defense, Robert Gates, fired the Air Force’s top civilian and top general last month, reform and accountability have become the service’s new bywords. Congress was rightly skeptical this week as the replacement nominees pledged to repair the reputation of the Air Force - tattered by misplaced nuclear weapons, costly contract miscues and more. One revealing symptom of the ongoing leadership drift was revealed by The Washington Post last week. The paper reported that at least four ranking generals have been deeply involved in designing airborne “comfort capsules.” These two-room luxury pods, with all the amenities of sports arena skyboxes, would be inserted into the fuselage of military aircraft to carry top brass and their VIP guests. The most offensive part of this project is that the Air Force has been pressing Congress for the last three years for permission to tap $16 million in counterterrorism funds to pay for this indulgence.

They Fight but Can't Vote - Robert Novak, Washington Post opinion

Rep. Roy Blunt, the House Republican whip, introduced a resolution on July 8 demanding that the Defense Department better enable US military personnel overseas to vote in the November elections. That act was followed by silence. Democrats normally leap at any opportunity to find fault with the Bush Pentagon. But not a single Democrat joined Blunt as a co-sponsor of the resolution, and an all-Republican proposal cannot pass in the Democratic-controlled House. Analysis by the federal Election Assistance Commission, rejecting inflated Defense Department voting claims, estimated overseas and absentee military voting rates for the 2006 midterm elections at a disgracefully low 5.5 percent. The quality of voting statistics is so poor that there is no way to tell how many of the slightly more than 330,000 votes were sent in by absentee military voters and their dependents and how many were from civilian Americans living abroad.

Combined Arms - Richard Fernandez, The Belmont Club

Two stories of ground to ground and air to ground from Iraq and Afghanistan, 2006 convey some of the flavor of events which were not publicized at the time... Maybe 60 years from now, when the ideological debates have cooled, and no one remembers or much cares who was a Democrat or a Republican in 2006, some future Steven Spielberg will go and interview an aging man running a server farm or robot repair center somewhere in Idaho and ask him about events long, long ago in a place far, far away. Then it will be safe to produce and distribute Band of Brothers, The Sequel.

The Importance of a Strategic Message - Galrahn, Information Dissemination

Yesterday we were intentionally critical of the process the US Navy has used to date in creating a conversation with the country. The Navy must do better. While we are critical of the way the Navy attempted to connect to the American people, we firmly believe that having the conversation is very important. Originally we were going to make the case why, but in reading today we came across this absolutely brilliant article in Joint Forces Quarterly that makes the case better than we ever could.

Silent Posting - Ernesto Londoño, Washington Post

Word got around, and more and more readers closely followed the postings of 25-year-old Lt. Matthew Gallagher, with the site drawing tens of thousands of page views. By the time Kaboom went kaput last month -- Lt. G was ordered to take down his blog -- it had a following that would be the envy of many a small-town paper. The blog's downfall was a May 28 posting that, in violation of military blogging rules, Gallagher failed to have vetted by a supervisor. (That the posting depicted an officer in the unit unflatteringly might have played a role. Gallagher declined a request to comment.)

Army Blogging = Horror Story Waiting to Happen? - David Axe, Danger Room

Two weeks ago Army Secretary Pete Geren told an audience of soldiers and defense contractors that the Army was falling behind jihadists when it came to using the Internet to share ideas. One solution he proposed, "Find a blog to be a part of." But one long-time Army IT professional told Danger Room that Geren "missed the boat." "Secretary Geren correctly states the problem, but incorrectly states the answer," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity since he is not authorized to talk to the press.

US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Obama Meets With Israeli and Palestinian Leaders - Jeff Zeleny, New York Times

With a fanfare typically orchestrated for a visiting head of state, Senator Barack Obama dashed through a series of meetings with leaders on both sides of the Middle East conflict on Wednesday, pledging to protect Israel and prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Mr. Obama, who said he hoped his appearance here would open the door to a stronger bond with Jewish voters at home, pledged that if elected president he would not pressure Israel to accept concessions with Palestinians that would compromise security for Israelis. He also sought to allay concerns over his proposal to negotiate with Iran.

Working to Ensure Jewish Vote - Weisman and Boorstein, Washington Post

Before embarking on a sprawling international trip that would take him to seven countries, two continents and two war zones, Sen. Barack Obama and his campaign staff fixated on a speck on the globe that is slightly smaller than New Jersey: Israel. For all the hype about his trip to Iraq and his speech in Berlin, it was the Israel leg that was the most sensitive and the most meticulously planned, according to sources involved with the arrangements. That fact alone is a testament to the presidential candidate's ongoing concerns about the Jewish vote this November, and the extraordinary lengths to which the senator from Illinois is going to ensure support from that traditional Democratic constituency.

Obama Assures Israel of Support - Finnegan and Boudreaux, Los Angeles Times

Despite months of warnings by John McCain that Barack Obama's stance toward Iran threatens Israel, political leaders in the Jewish state welcomed the Democrat's assurances Wednesday that he would work to block Iran from acquiring nuclear arms. Obama navigated a thicket of regional tensions on a daylong visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories. But Israeli leaders across the political spectrum voiced no misgivings about his commitment to Israel's security -- above all in countering the Iranian threat.

Judgment Call - National Review editorial

So we’re supposed to think that Barack Obama has foreign-policy gravitas on the basis of his trip to the Middle East. And the senator seemed to get some PR help from no less a figure than Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, who over the weekend was quoted by the German magazine Der Spiegel as saying: “US presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right time frame for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes.” But what does the flap tell us about Iraq, and about Obama’s judgment? The first thing to note is how quickly the Iraqi government sought to distance itself from Maliki’s statement. Set aside for a moment the question of whether Maliki was misquoted; his government wanted the world to conclude that he had been - and, by extension, that he had not endorsed Barack Obama’s strategic view. What is easy to forget is that Maliki is a politician with a constituency to please, and a not-insignificant part of that constituency is susceptible to denunciations of “American occupation.” If Maliki, the procedural-democracy man, is to keep their loyalties away from darker figures (see al-Sadr, Moqtada), he will occasionally have to say what they want to hear.

More on Maliki’s Games - Max Boot, Contentions

My op-ed in the Washington Post, “Behind Maliki’s Games,” is causing a predictable tizzy in some corners of the leftist blogosphere. (See, for instance, this and this and this.) I would like to reply briefly to a couple of the points raised. First, the bloggers ask, how can I possibly claim that “most Iraqis realize that the gains of the surge are fragile and could be undone by a too-rapid departure of US forces”? Aren’t I aware of a March poll by the BBC, ABC, and other Western news organizations which found, as one blogger notes, “Just four percent of Iraqis said they had ‘a great deal of confidence’ in US occupation forces, compared to 46 percent who said they had no confidence at all. 72 percent strongly or somewhat oppose the presence of Coalition forces in Iraq.” I am well aware of that poll, and I have cited before another of its findings–namely that only 38% of Iraqis think that coalition forces should leave right away. Of those surveyed, fully 62% think that US forces need to stay until security conditions improve. “Moreover,” the poll summary finds, “despite their antipathy, big majorities see a continued role for the United States.

Who Are the Iraqis? - Andrew McCarthy, National Review opinion

What to make of this week’s theater in Iraq? To recap briefly, the country was going to hell in a hand-basket in 2006 when President Bush decided to just say “no” to the Democrat Surrender Chorus. With John McCain’s support, the commander-in-chief directed a “surge” in US combat forces under the brilliant leadership of General David Petraeus. The results could not have been better: Al-Qaeda has been routed, Shiite militia activity is diminished, violence is down throughout the country, and Iraqis are making progress toward political stability. So this week Barack Obama, the Democrats’ presidential candidate, made a ballyhooed “fact-finding” tour of the same Iraq he wanted Americans to retreat from in defeat two years ago. And Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki, despite owing his job to Bush and McCain, presented Obama with a big fat bouquet.

Obama's Experience Doesn't Match Up - Richard Allen, Wall Street Journal opinion

Heading off on his week-long, high-profile tour of seven countries, Barack Obama defined the first part of the trip's purpose by telling reporters, "I want to, obviously, talk to the commanders and get a sense, both in Afghanistan and in Baghdad of... what... their biggest concerns are." While the Iraqi effort is almost exclusively American now, Afghanistan is a NATO mission. Sen. Obama, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on European and NATO affairs, had never visited Afghanistan, and has not bothered to hold a hearing of the subcommittee covering the countries for which it bears legislative oversight responsibility. How does Mr. Obama's foreign policy résumé compare with the preparation of past presidential candidates?

Antiwar Hypocrites - Ralph Peters, New York Post

Am I the only one who's noticed the silence? Mere months ago, left-wing bloggers and demonstrators were wailing Support our troops, bring them home! seven days a week. Now their presidential candidate has announced that he won't bring all those troops home, but will simply transfer combat forces from Iraq to Afghanistan - expanding that war. (He's discussed possibly invading Pakistan, too.) And the left's quiet as a graveyard at midnight. Where are the outraged protests from MoveOn or the DailyKos? I thought the extreme left felt sorry for our service members in harm's way and wanted to reunite them with their families. What happened? We all know exactly what happened. The left has nothing against foreign wars (as long as they don't have to fight in person). They just want to pick our wars themselves.

UNITED NATIONS

Case Offers Court Chance to Repair Image - Sullivan and Finn, Washington Post

The arrest of Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader accused of genocide and crimes against humanity, offers a major test -- and, some say, a shot at redemption -- for the huge and costly international court that will try him. Its last big-name defendant, former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, at times seemed to be in control of his own trial, turning normally somber proceedings into a freewheeling forum in order to air his many political grievances. It was a public relations disaster for the UN-affiliated International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which spends more than $300 million a year. Created by a 1993 UN resolution, the tribunal has indicted 161 people in connection with the Balkans wars of the 1990s, the worst violence in Europe since World War II. The court has a $310 million annual budget and more than 1,100 employees from 82 countries. Critics have accused it of being too expensive and ineffective, bringing too few people to justice in view of its vast resources; Milosevic gave it a reputation for unruliness and indecision that lingers today.

AFRICA

Bashir Plays Peacemaker in Darfur - Rob Crilly, The Times

President al-Bashir of Sudan, who was charged last week with masterminding a campaign of rape and genocide in Darfur, flew into the war-ravaged region yesterday, claiming the role of peacemaker and revelling in a hero's welcome from his supporters. Waving his cane in the air, Mr al-Bashir climbed on to a rickety desk before thousands of cheering men and wailing women who had gathered in the town of El Fasher, North Darfur, to hear him speak. First they had to watch him dance. The President's face broke into a wide smile and he jiggled from side to side as a pop song praising his virtues boomed from speakers all around the dusty bowl. “We are for peace and the President/ Bashir is our leader,” the jangling chorus went. Around him Zaghawa tribesmen on camels raised their whips in approval.

Sudan’s President Goes on Tour - Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times

Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, who has been accused of genocide, is not especially well known for his dance moves. But on Wednesday, in front of tens of thousands of people packed into what appeared to be a mandatory pep rally in Darfur, the portly president jumped on a desk and did a little jig. He jutted his cane. He rolled his hips. Shadows of sweat bloomed under his arms. But the crowd did not seem to care. With an international indictment looming on charges of genocide, Mr. Bashir returned to the scene of the war crimes he is accused of committing in Darfur - this time on an uncharacteristic charm offensive.

Sudan counters Charges with Diplomacy - Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times

Sudan's diplomatic offensive against the International Criminal Court is gaining momentum in Africa, but faces stiff odds before the UN Security Council. The government of Sudan has been waging a high-profile political campaign since the court's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, last week filed charges of genocide and crimes against humanity against the country's leader. President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir is accused of responsibility for alleged crimes against civilians in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. In recent days, Sudanese diplomats have fanned out to more than a dozen countries, trying to persuade allies and sometimes archrivals to pressure the United Nations to use its authority to quash or postpone an arrest warrant against Bashir, which is expected to be formally issued in coming months.

Rwanda Threatens Darfur Pullout - Colum Lynch, Washington Post

Rwanda has warned that it will withdraw its 3,000 peacekeepers from a UN-backed mission in the Darfur region of Sudan if the United Nations refuses to retain an alleged Rwandan war criminal as its second-highest-ranking commander there, according to US and UN officials. The United Nations has sought to persuade the Rwandan government to replace Maj. Gen. Emmanuel Karake Karenzi, the deputy force commander of a joint African Union and UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur. A Spanish judge indicted Karenzi and 39 other Rwandan officers in February for alleged war crimes in Rwanda in the mid-1990s.

The Case Against al-Bashir - The Times editorial

The man accused of attempting to exterminate whole tribes in Darfur flew there yesterday for the first time in a year. His alleged victims are buried in shallow graves across large swaths of Sudan. Survivors of the raids and bombing runs he is said to have authorised huddle in vast refugee camps that he has never visited. According to the United Nations the ethnic cleansing unleashed by President al-Bashir has left 300,000 dead and 2.5 million homeless. It has used rape as an instrument of terror and fuelled a two-year war with Chad. Mr Bashir, whose stock in trade is brazen denial, arrived in El Fasher to proclaim himself a man of peace and smile indulgently as three fat doves were released in his honour. Mr Bashir is not a man of peace.

In Sudan, Stability or Civil War? - Robert Muggah, CSM opinion

While the world seems focused on the International Criminal Court's request to arrest Sudan's president Omar al Bashir for genocide, a single dusty town in central Sudan may hold the key to the country's future stability. At first glance, Abyei seems much like any other settlement in Africa's largest country. Bleating goats are routinely chased off its runway so that fixed-wing airplanes can land. A few charred huts and dilapidated market stalls distinguish it from an otherwise barren landscape. But it is what is below the ground that matters. Nestled in central Sudan, Abyei sits atop more than a quarter of the country's estimated 6.4 billion barrels of oil. It is the cornerstone of Sudan's oil sector. Not surprisingly, the determination of the area's "boundary" was never satisfactorily resolved during peace negotiations that ended decades of civil war in 2005.

Bashir Returns to Darfur - Nicholas Kristof, New York Times opinion

Sudanese President Bashir had the gall to begin a campaign-style swing through Darfur today. It is striking that for all the alarm about the risk that an indictment of Bashir would lead to retribution against humanitarians and peace-keepers, the opposite has happened. The humanitarians have had just about their best week so far. The reason is simple: Bashir is under pressure, and he wants support from African and Arab countries, as well as from China and Russia, for a delay of any action by the International Criminal Court. This is permitted under Article 16 of the Rome Statute of the ICC (not of the Genocide Convention, as I originally wrote here in a scatterbrained moment). So he has been on his best behavior, and the lesson is that Bashir respects force and strength rather than pleas to behave better.

Into Africa - Roger Kaplan, Weekly Standard opinion

Close on the heels of the latest sham election in Zimbabwe, the International Criminal Court announced last week that it is seeking the arrest of the president of Sudan on charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. As Africa notches up more failures on the long road out of colonialism, a new pseudo-colonial power--China--is busily engaged in getting exactly what it wants out of the continent. The implications for the kind of political and economic evolution likely to unfold in Africa are significant. Until about 20 years ago, China's interest in Africa consisted mainly of encouraging Marxist revolutionary factions. Lately, however, that interest has taken a decidedly economic turn. China is in the market for most of Africa's products and is selling its own there as well. Once a major oil exporter, China became a net importer of oil in 1993 and is now dependent on imports for half its oil and natural gas. To meet this need, it has diversified its sources, in particular making deals with most of Africa's oil-producing states.

AMERICAS

Change in Cuba? - Llana and Clark, Christian Science Monitor

The island nation's economy has struggled mightily since losing the support of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Free-market reforms within a socialist system, like the kind embraced by China, had been rejected by Fidel Castro, who ruled for a half century. But there are signs that younger brother Raúl, who permanently replaced Fidel in February, may orchestrate a move toward a more capitalist economy. Raúl's reputation as a pragmatist is unfurling expectations here that the era of asceticism and austerity is coming to a close. Major agricultural reforms have been unveiled. And in a speech earlier this month, he seemed to be preparing the populace for an economic shift. "Socialism means social justice and equality, but equality of rights, of opportunities, not of income," Raúl said on July 11 while addressing Cuba's rubber-stamp parliament in its first session since he replaced Fidel. "Equality is not egalitarianism." It's hard to imagine the father of the 1959 revolution ever uttering such words, say Cuba analysts.

ASIA PACIFIC

Rice: 'No Standoff' with N. Korea Minister - Nicholas Kralev, Washington Times

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Wednesday with North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun, saying afterward that "the spirit was good" and there was "no standoff." The encounter between the two top diplomats, during a meeting of foreign ministers from six countries negotiating the dismantling of the North's nuclear programs, was the highest-level US-North Korean contact in four years.

Rice Presses N. Korean on Nuclear Effort - Helene Cooper, New York Times

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with her North Korean counterpart on Wednesday for the first time, and prodded the government in Pyongyang to move quickly to dismantle its nuclear arms program. The meeting in Singapore between Ms. Rice, President Bush’s top diplomat, and Pak Ui-chun, the foreign minister of the country Mr. Bush labeled as part of the “axis of evil” in 2002, occurred with surprisingly little fanfare, given the years of buildup. Bush administration officials said Ms. Rice and Mr. Pak spoke for a few minutes after an 80-minute official conference among the United States, North Korea, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea in Singapore outside a regional meeting.

Rice Presses N. Korea to OK Verification - Nicholas Kralev, Washington Times

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday urged North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun to quickly accept a US plan for verifying Pyongyang's recent nuclear declaration, saying that during their talks "the spirit was good" and there "wasn't a standoff." The encounter between the two top diplomats, during a meeting of foreign ministers from six countries negotiating the dismantling of the North's nuclear programs, was the highest-level US-North Korean contact in four years. "It's important that we get a response" to the US draft of a so-called verification protocol, which is meant to provide the basis for determining if the North Koreans cheated in their nuclear declaration, Miss Rice said.

North Korean Verification Holes - Washington Times editorial

On July 12, participants in the Six-Party Talks on North Korean denuclearization announced that agreement had been reached on ways to verify Pyongyang's pledge to end its nuclear weapons programs. But without a serious, intrusive verification system, any agreement with North Korea is worthless - particularly in view of its long record of cheating. Unfortunately, the deal announced earlier this month is less than adequate to ensure that North Korea actually disarms. Until such an arrangement is actually in place, that nation should remain on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism.

3 Olympic 'Protest Pens' Planned - Maureen Fan, Washington Post

Beijing will set up specially designated protest zones in three public parks during next month's Olympics, a top security official for the Games announced Wednesday. But Hyde Park Corner it will not be. Protesters will still be required to apply in advance for approval to demonstrate, prompting some to dismiss the city's move as an empty gesture. "It's just a show for the foreigners to make it look like we have free speech," said Wang Zhenjiang, a 48-year-old Beijing resident unhappy with the compensation offered in exchange for evicting him from his home. "They will only approve applications from those people who make them look good."

Thailand Assails Cambodia in Temple Dispute - Seth Mydans, New York Times

Thailand’s ambassador to the United Nations accused Cambodia on Wednesday of employing diplomatic “guerrilla tactics” in a dispute over an ancient temple to try to redraw the shared 500-mile border. The ambassador, Don Pramudwinai, said the Cambodians were using a century-old map of the disputed temple, drawn up when Cambodia was a French colony, in a broader plan to gain more territory.

Rice's ASEAN 'Gardening' - Douglas Paal, Wall Street Journal opinion

Yesterday US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dropped in on an important Asian political conference she has missed in recent years. Ms. Rice's decision to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' Regional Forum in Singapore this week is a welcome if belated sign that the Bush administration has begun to give Asia its due as the new global center of gravity. However late in the game Ms. Rice's trip comes, it means a lot in a region too often neglected by Washington. In late 1991, President George H.W. Bush planned an extensive trip through Asia to make good on past promises for visits the Gulf War had postponed. With the departure date closing in, pollster Bob Teeter told Mr. Bush the public thought he was paying too much attention overseas and not enough at home. The administration scrapped the trip, and announced its decision to the White House press corps before informing ambassadors or foreign capitals. It was not that Mr. Bush's most sensitive moment.

EUROPE

Mladic Heads Most-wanted List - Adam LeBor, The Times

The arrest of Radovan Karadzic is the strongest signal yet that the net is steadily closing in on his military commander, the former General Ratko Mladic. Mr Mladic, 65, is now the UN war crimes tribunal's most wanted fugitive. He is charged, alongside Dr Karadzic, with war crimes and genocide including the siege of Sarajevo, “ethnic cleansing” in Bosnia and the massacre of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys after the fall of Srebrenica, in eastern Bosnia, in July 1995. Squat, bull-necked and radiating belligerence and a messianic belief in the righteousness of his actions, Mr Mladic preferred a muddy trench on the front lines to hobnobbing with diplomats. He and Dr Karadzic loathed each other but were locked in a dark embrace. He viewed Dr Karadzic as a profiteer, growing fat on the Serbs' suffering. Dr Karadzic claimed that Mr Mladic had lost his mind on the front lines.

Net Closes in on Karadzic's General - The Australian

Belgrade has pledged to quickly apprehend Serbian war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic as Serb nationalists clashed with riot police over the capture of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. Karadzic's lawyer, Sveta Vujacic, said last night his client would defend himself before the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, where he will answer 11 charges, including genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. That has set up the prospect of Karadzic using the courtroom in The Hague as a soapbox to preach his Serb nationalism and to seek to rewrite the history of the Balkan wars in the same way his one-time ally Slobodan Milosevic did during his ill-fated trial. The charges relate to his leadership of the Serbian campaign of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia in the 1992-95 war, which left 100,000 dead and two million mainly Bosnian Muslims uprooted.

Why Now and Who's Next? - Sonja Pace, Voice of America

The lawyer for former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic say he will conduct his own defense before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, where he faces charges of genocide and war crimes committed in Bosnia in the 1990s. Karadzic was arrested near Belgrade on Monday and could be extradited to The Hague within days, but the fact that he's been on the run for nearly 13 years and working and living in Belgrade in disguise raises questions over who knew, why he was arrested now and whether his one time military commander, Ratko Mladic, might soon face the same fate. The Serbian government has said it is preparing to extradite Karadzic to The Hague. He faces charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his part in the Bosnian war of the 1990s. He and his one-time military commander, Ratko Mladic are specifically linked to the Srebrenica massacre of 1995 in which 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed and to the nearly four-year-long siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, in which it is estimated that more than 10,000 people were killed. Mladic remains at large and James Lyon says there must be continued pressure for his arrest.

Karadzic will Defend Himself - Harry de Quetteville, Daily Telegraph

The lawyer for Radovan Karadzic said the former Bosnian Serb leader would defend himself against charges of genocide at the International Criminal Tribunal. Mr Karadzic's lawyer also promised to delay his extradition to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) as long as possible, but it seems certain he will arrive in The Hague within a week. "Karadzic will have a legal team in Serbia that will help him with his defence but he will defend himself," the lawyer said. Once in The Hague, he will enter a legal process that in all likelihood will occupy the rest of his days.

Former Serb Leader to Represent Himself - Simons and Bilefsky, New York Times

A lawyer for Radovan Karadzic said on Wednesday that his client, newly shorn of the bushy white hair and beard that disguised him for years, would defend himself in any war crimes trial if he was handed over to the United Nations tribunal here. “He is convinced that with the help of God he will win,” the lawyer, Svetozar Vujacic, said in Belgrade, the Serbian capital. Mr. Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, was arrested on Monday after nearly 13 years as a fugitive.

Daily Telegraph update on the capture of Radovan Karadzic.

Karadzic and War’s Lessons - Roger Cohen, New York Times opinion

After covering a war, a friend said, buy yourself a house. I did. I came to this French village where church bells chime the rhythm of the days, married here, raised children and parked Bosnia somewhere in a corner of my mind. I had to forget. I had to write a book, so the horror would never be forgotten, in order to forget just enough to go on. There is always a measure of guilt in survival when so many have died. There are faces, in death and bereavement, that can never be eclipsed. It’s peaceful here. I’d been out watching crows in the stubble when I returned to discover Radovan Karadzic had been arrested in Belgrade, 13 years after the end of the war, to face charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Just a Moral Hypocrite - Rosa Brooks, Los Angeles Times opinion

He looks like a cross between Santa Claus and a New Age guru, and he calls himself an alternative healer. But Radovan Karadzic, who was arrested in Serbia on Monday, stands accused of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. To those who know his history, Karadzic, former president of the "Republika Srpska" and one of the chief architects of the brutal Bosnian war, is the man who brought the concentration camp back to Europe and ordered Europe's worst massacre since World War II (in 1995, Bosnian-Serb forces slaughtered more than 7,000 unarmed Bosnian Muslim men and boys near Srebrenica). With Karadzic's approval, torture and starvation became routine methods of prisoner control, organized mass rape became a spectator sport and snipers were authorized to fire on children during the siege of Sarajevo. Karadzic's arrest was long overdue. He was indicted by the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague 13 years ago, and since then, he had hidden in plain sight, protected by tolerant Serbian officials. At some point, Karadzic even stopped bothering with his once-heavy security detail: He simply replaced his trademark bouffant hairdo with a jolly white beard, took up acupuncture and holistic medicine and opened a practice as a New Age healer.

War Crimes and Punishment - Chandler Rosenberger, National Review opinion

So where was Radovan Karadzic all this time? Karadzic was arrested on a bus Monday afternoon in Belgrade, where, behind the cunning disguise of a long white beard, he had been practicing alternative medicine - an apparent career change from his previous occupations as sports psychologist and, later, as murderous president of the Bosnian Serb Republic. Karadzic had never been too hard to find. In 1996 the BBC’s Robin Lustig drove to the gates of his home in suburban Belgrade and requested an interview. There were florid tales of how Karadzic, like some hero of an epic poem, had donned the cassock of an Orthodox monk and had scurried from monastery to monastery. But the truth turned out to be more mundane. We now know that Karadzic was a brutal thug who had lived rather openly in a country that had grown weary of suffering for his crimes.

Turkey's Dangerous Message - Taurel and Hamid, CSM opinion

President Bush's vision of a democratic Middle East was premised in part on the region's popular Islamist groups reconciling themselves to the give-and-take nature of democracy. It might make sense then, that the Bush administration would do what it could to support a party that has made such a transformation in Turkey. But it's not. Turkey's Justice and Development Party (AKP), which fashioned itself as the Muslim equivalent of Europe's Christian Democrats, has stood out by passing a series of unprecedented political reforms as the country's ruling party. Yet the Turkish Constitutional Court – bastion of the hard-line secularist old guard – is now threatening to close down the AKP and ban its leading figures, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, from party politics for five years. And the Bush administration, in the face of this impending judicial coup, has chosen to remain indifferent. The consequences could reach beyond a setback to democracy in Turkey and affect the Middle East.

Marching Toward Freedom - Stephen Schwartz, Weekly Standard opinion

An interesting pair of events took place on Monday, July 22: President George W. Bush welcomed Kosovo's Albanian leaders, President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, to the White House. Bush was all smiles, declaring, "I'm a strong supporter of Kosovo's independence. I'm against any partition of Kosovo. I believe strongly that the United Nations mission must be transferred to the EU as quickly as possible." Then late that night, Serbia announced the arrest of its number-two indicted war criminal, the Bosnian Serb poet and government psychiatrist Radovan Karadzic, with the declared intention of turning him over for trial at the UN Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. The Serbian action is one indication that Bush was right on the money: The stronger the US support for a Kosovo whole and free, the harder it is for Serbia to press its continuing claim to this former Serbian province.

MIDDLE EAST

Syrian Visitors' Meeting Scrapped - David Sands, Washington Times

In an abrupt about-face, the State Department on Wednesday scrubbed plans to meet with a visiting delegation from Syria, a meeting that could have signaled an easing of tense US relations with Damascus. One day after he said the delegation, in Washington on what is described as a private visit, would be received by a top State Department official, spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said the meeting will not take place. Syria, which has close ties to Iran and militant groups such as Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah, is officially considered a state sponsor of terrorism by the US government. But Syrian President Bashar Assad has tried in recent months to break out of the country's diplomatic isolation and has even authorized indirect talks with Israel over a possible peace accord.

Talking Into the Sunset - David Ignatius, Washington Post opinion

It's the season for peace talks in the Middle East, as the region watches the clock and waits for the departure of the Bush administration. Some of what's going on is real and some of it is illusion, but to a student of diplomatic intrigue all of it is interesting. So here's a brief guide to the Syrian and Iranian negotiating tracks. First, the Syrians. Though they are technically in a state of war with Israel, these two bosom enemies (to borrow a phrase from journalist Barbara Slavin) have been conducting a surprisingly robust round of negotiations through Turkish intermediaries. We Americans like to think that people should either talk or fight, but the wily politicians in Damascus and Jerusalem understand that in real life, nations often pursue a combination of the two. They need each other, the way the Joker needs Batman.

Tough Love for Israel? - Nicholas Kristoff, New York Times opinion

On his visit to the Middle East, Barack Obama gave ritual affirmations of his support for Israeli policy, but what Israel needs from America isn’t more love, but tougher love. Particularly at a time when Israel seems to be contemplating military strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, the United States would be a better friend if it said: “That’s crazy” - while also insisting on a 100 percent freeze on settlements in the West Bank and greater Jerusalem. Granted, not everybody sees things this way, and discussions of the Middle East usually involve each side offering up its strongest arguments to wrestle with the straw men of the other side.

SOUTH ASIA

Plan Would Use Antiterror Aid on Pakistani Jets - Eric Schmitt, New York Times

The Bush administration plans to shift nearly $230 million in aid to Pakistan from counterterrorism programs to upgrading that country’s aging F-16 attack planes, which Pakistan prizes more for their contribution to its military rivalry with India than for fighting insurgents along its Afghan border. Some members of Congress have greeted the proposal with dismay and anger, and may block the move. Lawmakers and their aides say that F-16s do not help the counterterrorism campaign and defy the administration’s urgings that Pakistan increase pressure on Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in its tribal areas.

With Indian Politics, the Bad Gets Worse - Emily Wax, Washington Post

There were backroom deals. There were wads of cash waved about as alleged evidence of bribery. There were six lawmakers on hand who had just been sprung from jail so they could cast their ballots. So it went on the floor of India's Parliament this week during a historic vote on whether to back the government and its controversial nuclear deal with the United States. Even by Indian standards, it was bad. Members of Parliament were throwing money on the floor, asserting they had been paid off by the ruling Congress party to support a measure of confidence in the government.

India’s Nuclear Vote is a Victory for the US - Westhawk, Westhawk

It took some desperate arranging (for example, paroling jailed parliamentarians so they could vote), but Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh managed to get his unruly parliament to approve the long-awaited nuclear energy trade accord with the United States. Although a few significant steps remain before India can begin importing advanced civil nuclear technology from the US, the Indian parliament’s approval of this highly controversial agreement represents a watershed moment on many levels for the India-U.S. relationship. In two decades, India and the US will need each other to contain China, establish a balance of power in Asia, and thus protect their common and separate interests. The fact that India and the US have been able to vault the most difficult hurdles in this process augurs well for the kind of relationship the two countries will require in the future.

EVENTS OF INTEREST

11-15 August - Counterinsurgency Leaders Workshop (Official Event - Workshop). Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The US Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency (COIN) Center is hosting a five-day program for prospective counterinsurgency leaders, 11-15 August 2008, at the Combined Arms Center, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The program is focused on equipping leaders with an understanding of the insurgency and counterinsurgency environments, as well as close consideration of the kinds of persons and organizations that usually emerge from insurgencies in contrast to those of conventional conflicts. This event will be held at the Battle Command Training Center (BCTC) Training Facility on Fort Leavenworth. Seating is limited. However, registration is open to any person who serves in any official capacity with regard to dealing with insurgencies, with priority is given to those applying from invited organizations. Other applicants will be reviewed for eligibility on a space-available, case-by-case basis. The duty is uniform/business casual. Application must completed on-line at the link above. The deadline for application is 1 August 2008. For more information, contact the COIN Center at 913-684-5196.

11-12 September - DNI Open Source Conferece 2008 (Public Event - Conference). Washington, DC. Sponsored by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The Office of the DNI is pleased to announce the "DNI Open Source Conference 2008" to be held on Thursday, 11 September and Friday, 12 September, 2008 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington DC. The conference is free; however, all who wish to attend must register online in advance (deadline 31 July). The two-day conference will explore a wide range of open source issues and open source best practices for the Intelligence Community and its partners. We invite participants from the broader open source community of interest including academia, think tanks, private industry, federal, state, local and tribal entities, international partners, and the media to attend. The conference will include speakers from across the broader open source community participating in panel discussions and focus group sessions. Information about the agenda and break-out sessions is now available. The DNI Open Source Conference 2007 was held 16-17 July 2007 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. More than 900 registered participants and speakers attended. Presentations made at the conference break-out sessions are available on the DNI Open Source Conference 2007 website.

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.