--Nancy Soderberg and Brian Katulis - Washington Post
AFGHANISTAN
General Says He’s Hopeful About Taliban War - John Burns, New York Times
Less than 12 hours after NATO troops in Afghanistan defeated an ambitious attempt by the Taliban to storm a provincial capital in the far southwest, killing dozens of the fighters, the top American commander in the country urged doubters Sunday to believe that the war against the Taliban would be won.
The commander, Gen. David D. McKiernan, who leads more than 65,000 troops from about 40 foreign countries, including 33,000 Americans, said at a news conference in Kabul that there had been “too many” reports in the media recently asserting that the foreign forces and their Afghan allies were losing the war.
“I absolutely reject that idea, I don’t believe it,” the general said, adding: “It is true that there are many places in this country that don’t have an adequate level of security. We don’t have progress as even and as fast as any of us would like. But we are not losing in Afghanistan.”
At another point, he was more emphatic. There are major challenges facing the war effort, he said, “But we will win.”
More at The New York Times.
Taleban Stage Audacious 'Tet-style' Attack on British HQ City - Tom Coghlan, The Times
British and Afghan forces repulsed an attempt by hundreds of Taleban fighters to attack the provincial capital of Helmand, Lashkar Gah, on Saturday night in the most audacious Taliban attack in the province since 2006.
Up to 100 Taleban fighters were killed in a series of airstrikes and firefights around the city outskirts in fighting that began in the early evening as Taleban fighters were concentrating to attack the city of three sides and continued into the early hours of Sunday morning.
It was the first time that the Helmand capital has been attacked.
The Taleban plan appeared to be for a “Tet Offensive” style infiltration of the city, the seat of the Afghan provincial government and home to the headquarters of the British commander in Helmand and the civilian reconstruction component of the British mission in Helmand.
Had the infiltration succeeded then British and Afghan forces would have faced confused street fighting in which Western airstrikes would have been impossible without the risk of causing mass civilian deaths in the city.
A British army spokesman said that the Taleban operation displayed "a level of co-ordination that wasn't expected." He estimated the Taleban forces at around 170, though some Afghan estimates were much higher.
However, British officials insisted that there was absolutely no threat of the British base falling.
More at The Times.
PAKISTAN
Pakistan Loyalists Take on Militants - Bruce Loudon, The Australian
The threat of civil war intensified in Pakistan's FATA region yesterday after unprecedented violence between government-supporting tribal lashkars (armies) and militants from al-Qa'ida and the Taliban.
The beheaded bodies of four tribal elders who had raised a local lashkar to fight the militants in the Bajaur region were found yesterday amid reports of tribal fighting across the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
Battles erupted after a suicide bomb blast aimed at a tribal peace jirga (council) in the relatively peaceful Orakzai Tribal Agency. More than 80 elders were killed and 165 injured when militants drove an explosives-laden truck into the meeting.
The clashes coincided with reports that the Pakistan army - already involved in a huge military offensive centred on Bajaur - was mobilising tens of thousands of troops to attack militants in the North Waziristan Agency, believed to be the base for many of al-Qa'ida's leaders, including Osama bin Laden.
More at The Australian.
IRAQ
Iran Interfering in US-Iraq Security Pact, General Says - Ernesto Londoño, Washington Post
The commander of US forces in Iraq said Sunday that American intelligence reports suggest Iran has attempted to bribe Iraqi lawmakers in an effort to derail a bilateral agreement that would allow US troops to remain in Iraq after the end of this year.
Gen. Ray Odierno said in an interview that Iran, a Shiite Islamic nation eyed warily by the United States and Sunni Arab countries, is working publicly and covertly to undermine the status-of-forces agreement as officials from Iraq and the United States report nearing a deal that must be ratified by Iraq's parliament.
"Clearly, this is one they're having a full court press on to try to ensure there's never any bilateral agreement between the United States and Iraq," Odierno said. "We know that there are many relationships with people here for many years going back to when Saddam was in charge, and I think they're utilizing those contacts to attempt to influence the outcome of the potential vote in the council of representatives."
More at The Washington Post.
Bombs Hit Mosul, as Christians Are Offered Protection - Alissa Rubin and Stephen Farrell, New York Times
Two suicide bombers struck the northern city of Mosul on Sunday, killing at least five Iraqis and wounding dozens more, as Iraq’s leaders rallied behind the city’s Christian minority, expressing distress at recent murders and displacement that have plagued the group.
The leaders pledged to send forces to ensure that Christians could return to their homes. Violence has continued in the area despite months of concerted effort by American forces and the Iraqi government to root out violent actors there.
The first of Sunday’s suicide attacks hit an Iraqi patrol; the second, which took place a few blocks from the first blast, was aimed at civilians, the American military said in a statement.
Most of the recent violence in Mosul has been aimed at Christians. Eleven Christians have been killed in the past 10 days and 485 families have fled their homes in the city for villages in the Nineveh Plain north of Mosul, according to local Christian politicians, who requested anonymity because they feared reprisals.
More at the New York Times and Washington Post.
Time to Go Home, Nouri al-Maliki Tells Britain - Deborah Haynes and Richard Beeston, The Times
British combat forces are no longer needed to maintain security in southern Iraq and should leave the country, Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, has told The Times.
In an exclusive interview in Baghdad, Mr al-Maliki also criticised a secret deal made last year by Britain with the al-Mahdi Army, Iraq’s largest Shia militia. He said that Basra had been left at the mercy of militiamen who “cut the throats of women and children” after the British withdrawal from the city.
The Iraqi leader emphasised, however, that the “page had been turned” and he looked forward to a friendly, productive relationship with London. “The Iraqi arena is open for British companies and British friendship, for economic exchange and positive cooperation in science and education.”
Of Britain’s presence in southern Iraq, Mr al-Maliki said: “We thank them for the role they have played, but I think that their stay is not necessary for maintaining security and control. There might be a need for their experience in training and some technological issues, but as a fighting force, I don’t think that is necessary.”
More at The Times.
NE ASIA
US Move on N. Korea Assailed in Japan - Blaine Harden, Washington Post
A day after the Bush administration removed North Korea from its terrorism blacklist, the country announced that it would resume tearing down its main nuclear plant, and South Korea welcomed the move as a step toward ending its next-door neighbor's nuclear program.
But in nearby Japan - where North Korea's kidnapping of Japanese citizens is a festering national sore that politicians dare not neglect - the decision to take the country off the list of state sponsors of terrorism was condemned by family members of the abductees. These relatives are well-known and much-honored in Japan, and their opinions have been a powerful force in crafting Japan's hard-nosed policy toward North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
"I think it is an act of betrayal," said Teruaki Masumoto, a brother of one of the eight Japanese who were stolen away by North Korean agents in the 1970s and '80s and who the Japanese government says are still alive in North Korea. Masumoto is secretary general of the Association of the Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea.
More at The Washington Post.
North Korea to Resume Disabling Nuclear Plant - Choe Sang-Hun and Helene Cooper, New York Times
North Korea welcomed its removal from Washington’s list of terrorism sponsors and confirmed on Sunday that it would resume disabling its main nuclear weapons complex and allow international monitors back to the site.
Washington’s decision to take North Korea off the list of state sponsors of terrorism, announced Saturday, is an important symbolic gesture for the North, an isolated and poverty-stricken country, removing one of hurdles to gaining a measure of international acceptance. But there is much in Washington’s tortuous relationship with North Korea that stays the same, including economic sanctions against the North.
President Bush said in June that he was prepared to take North Korea off the terrorism list in recognition of the country’s commitment to halt its development of nuclear weapons. The offer languished for months as administration officials tried to persuade North Korean officials to allow a strict inspection program to verify that the country was keeping its word.
More at The New York Times.
SE ASIA
Manila Must Beat the Separatists - Thomas Henriksen, Wall Street Journal opinion
Philippine president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo recently suspended peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a separatist group that wants to claim the southern island of Mindanao as its own. Ms. Arroyo now must devote military and financial resources to the disputed territory and win the war once and for all with US help.
This strategy has worked before. Shortly after the September 11 attacks, US Special Operations Forces stepped up clandestine assistance to Philippines armed forces fighting the Islamic terrorist group Abu Sayyaf. It was an urgent mission: The al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah-linked group used its southern Philippines base to carry out a series of abductions and beheadings. Unchecked, the group's violence threatened to destabilize Mindanao and nearby islands.
Manila back then accepted US help, but barred the Americans from direct combat. So US special forces provided their Philippine counterparts with intelligence, training, up-to-date radios and high-speed boats to patrol coastal waters. US forces also won over residents in parts of Mindanao and Basilan islands by improving water wells, building footbridges, refurbishing mosques, and providing medical, dental and veterinary services. In doing so, they overcame some of the central governments neglect and siphoned off some of the local resentments that contributed to the terrorists' recruitment pools.
This technique would work throughout Mindanao, too, if Ms. Arroyo would employ it. Instead, the president agreed to surrender some 700 villages to the MILF, in exchange for vague pledges of peace.
More at The Wall Street Journal.
NEWS & OPINION NOTES
Afghanistan / Pakistan Tribal Areas
Afghanistan: A Country Locked in a Spiral of Doom - The Times
Top General: NATO Not Losing Afghan War - Associated Press
Large Taliban Attack Repulsed with Air Strikes - Voice of America
Taleban Killed in Afghan Battles - BBC News
62 Insurgents Killed in Afghan Battle - Los Angeles Times
Pakistan Hit 'Kills 27 Taleban' - BBC News
Militias Battling Taliban, al Qaeda - Associated Press
New Media Plan to Combat Taleban - BBC News
Steady Now or Lose All - The Australian opinion
Despite Defeatism, Campaign is Going Well - Daily Telegraph opinion
Saudi Rescue in Afghan War? - Washington Times opinion
Danger on Pakistan Border - Miami Herald opinion
Pakistan
Pakistan President to Visit China, a Valued Ally - New York Times
Iraq
Basra Became a Dirty Word for the British - The Times
Americans Prepared to Cover British Pullout - The Times
The Man With Toughest Job in Middle East - The TImes
Car Bomb Attacks Kill 14 in Iraq - Voice of America
Bombers Strike in Mosul and Baghdad, Killing 13 - Associated Press
Attacks on Iraqi Christians Force Families to Flee Homes - Agence France-Presse
Iraq PM Vows to Shield Christians - BBC News
US Presence Still Needed for Stability in Anbar Province, General Says - AFPS
Turkish Jets Bomb Kurds in Iraq - BBC News
Thankyou, and Goodbye - The Times editorial
Iran
Iranian Reformist to Run in 2009 Presidential Race - Voice of America
Iran Leader Faces Poll Challenge - BBC News
Obama Is Right About Talking to Iran - Wall Street Journal opinion
The War of Ideas
Islamophobia Acquittal - Forward Movement blog
US Department of Defense
Tension May Feed Drop Of US Power in Space - Washington Post
NATO
NATO-West and NATO-East? - Westhawk blog
Africa
Pirates Threaten to Blow Up Ship - BBC News
Somali Forces Raid 1 of Many Hijacked Ships - Associated Press
It's Time to Take on the Fangsters of the Sea - The Times opinion
Zimbabwe's Tsvangirai Commits to Cabinet Negotiations - VOA
Tsvangirai Threatens to Abandon Zimbabwe Deal - Daily Telegraph
Mbeki Seeks to Save Zimbabwe Deal - BBC News
Tsvangirai Warns on Power-sharing Deal - Reuters
Congo Blames Rwanda for Fresh Fighting - Christian Science Monitor
Congo President's Call to Arms - BBC News
Americas
Oil Output Slumps Under Chavez - Daily Telegraph
Life in Mexico's Deadliest Drug War City - Reuters
Help for Haiti - New York Times editorial
Asia Pacific
S. Korea Says US Deal With North Means Nuclear Disabling Can Resume - VOA
North Korea to Resume Nuclear Dismantling - Los Angeles Times
South Korea May Reward North for Nuclear Deal - Reuters
N. Korea Hails Terror List Removal - BBC News
Japan Denounces N. Korea's Removal From Terror Blacklist - Daily Telegraph
Off the Terror List - Wall Street Journal editorial
Delisting North Korea - Washington Post opinion
N. Korea Surrender Will Have Lasting Consequences - Wall Street Journal opinion
China Announces New Land Policy - New York Times
Aceh Guerrilla Leader Flies Home - BBC News
Malaysia: UMNO's New Clothes - Wall Street Journal editorial
Europe
Russia Tests Intercontinental Missiles - Voice of America
Russia in Fresh Missile Launches - BBC News
Russia Rules - Washington Times editorial
Italy’s Attacks on Migrants Fuel Debate on Racism - New York Times
Middle East
Israeli Police Crack Down on Jewish-Arab Violence - Voice of America
Olmert Tells Police Crack Down on Acre Violence - Reuters
Security Tight in Riot-torn Acre - BBC News
Palestinian Leaders Call for Reconciliation - Associated Press
Olmert Unbound - Boston Globe editorial
South Asia
Hindu Threat to Christians: Convert or Flee - New York Times
BOOKS
Why Vietnam Matters: An Eyewitness Account of Lessons Not Learned - Rufus Phillips
Phillips details how the legendary Edward G. Lansdale helped the South Vietnamese gain and consolidate their independence between 1954 and 1956, and how this later changed to a reliance on American conventional warfare with its highly destructive firepower. He reasons that our failure to understand the Communists, our South Vietnamese allies, or even ourselves took us down the wrong road. In summing up US errors in Vietnam, Phillips draws parallels with the American experience in Iraq and Afghanistan and suggests changes in the US approach. Known for his intellectual integrity and firsthand, long-term knowledge of what went on in Vietnam, the author offers lessons for today in this trenchant account.
Baghdad at Sunrise: A Brigade Commander's War in Iraq - Peter Mansoor
This is a unique contribution to the burgeoning literature on the Iraq war, analyzing the day-to-day performance of a US brigade in Baghdad during 2004-2005. Mansoor uses a broad spectrum of sources to address the military, political and cultural aspects of an operation undertaken with almost no relevant preparation, which tested officers and men to their limits and generated mistakes and misjudgments on a daily basis. The critique is balanced, perceptive and merciless - and Mansoor was the brigade commander. Military history is replete with command memoirs. Most are more or less self-exculpatory. Even the honest ones rarely achieve this level of analysis. The effect is like watching a surgeon perform an operation on himself. Mansoor has been simultaneously a soldier and a scholar, able to synergize directly his military and academic experiences.
The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics, and the Endgame in Iraq - Bing West
From a universally respected combat journalist, a gripping history based on five years of front-line reporting about how the war was turned around - and the choice now facing America. We interpret reality through the clouded prism of our own experience, so it is unsurprising that Bing West sees Iraq through the lens of Vietnam. He served as a Marine officer there, and he thinks politicians and the media caused the American public to turn against a war that could have been won. Now a correspondent for the Atlantic, West has made 15 reporting trips to Iraq over the last six years and is almost as personally invested in the current conflict as he was in Vietnam; this book, his third on Iraq, is his attempt to ensure that the "endgame" in Iraq turns out better than in his last war.
Tell Me How This Ends: General David Petraeus and the Search for a Way Out of Iraq - Linda Robinson
After a series of disastrous missteps in its conduct of the war, the White House in 2006 appointed General David Petraeus as the Commanding General of the coalition forces. Tell Me How This Ends is an inside account of his attempt to turn around a failing war. Linda Robinson conducted extensive interviews with Petraeus and his subordinate commanders and spent weeks with key U.S. and Iraqi divisions. The result is the only book that ties together military operations in Iraq and the internecine political drama that is at the heart of the civil war. Replete with dramatic battles, behind-doors confrontations, and astute analysis, the book tells the full story of the Iraq War’s endgame, and lays out the options that will be facing the next president.
The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008 - Bob Woodward
Woodward interviewed key players, obtained dozens of never-before-published documents, and had nearly three hours of exclusive interviews with President Bush. The result is a stunning, firsthand history of the years from mid-2006, when the White House realizes the Iraq strategy is not working, through the decision to surge another 30,000 US troops in 2007, and into mid-2008, when the war becomes a fault line in the presidential election. As violence in Iraq reaches unnerving levels in 2006, a second front in the war rages at the highest levels of the Bush administration. In his fourth book on President George W. Bush, Bob Woodward takes readers deep inside the tensions, secret debates, unofficial backchannels, distrust and determination within the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, the intelligence agencies and the US military headquarters in Iraq. With unparalleled intimacy and detail, this gripping account of a president at war describes a period of distress and uncertainty within the US government from 2006 through mid-2008. The White House launches a secret strategy review that excludes the military. General George Casey, the commander in Iraq, believes that President Bush does not understand the war and eventually concludes he has lost the president's confidence. The Joint Chiefs of Staff also conduct a secret strategy review that goes nowhere. On the verge of revolt, they worry that the military will be blamed for a failure in Iraq.
We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam - Harold Moore and Joe Galloway
In their stunning follow-up to the classic bestseller We Were Soldiers Once... and Young, Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and Joe Galloway return to Vietnam and reflect on how the war changed them, their men, their enemies, and both countries - often with surprising results. It would be a monumental task for Moore and Galloway to top their classic 1992 memoir. But they come close in this sterling sequel, which tells the backstory of two of the Vietnam War's bloodiest battles (in which Moore participated as a lieutenant colonel), their first book and a 1993 ABC-TV documentary that brought them back to the battlefield. Moore's strong first-person voice reviews the basics of the November 1965 battles, part of the 34-day Battle of the Ia Drang Valley. Among other things, Moore and Galloway (who covered the battle for UPI) offer portraits of two former enemy commanders, generals Nguyen Huu An and Chu Huy Man, whom the authors met - and bonded with - nearly three decades after the battle. This book proves again that Moore is an exceptionally thoughtful, compassionate and courageous leader (he was one of a handful of army officers who studied the history of the Vietnam wars before he arrived) and a strong voice for reconciliation and for honoring the men with whom he served.
In a Time of War: The Proud and Perilous Journey of West Point' Class of 2002 - Bill Murphy
The West Point cadets Murphy follows through their baptism by fire are an admirable sample of young American men and women: intelligent, ambitious and intensely patriotic. Most come from career military families and hold conservative opinions. Murphy describes their four years at West Point with respect even when discussing their love lives and marriages. All yearn for battle, and most get their wish. The book's best passages describe the confusion of moving to Iraq or Afghanistan and fighting insurgents, for which they lack both training and equipment. All feel something is not right but concentrate on the job at hand; some inevitably die or are grievously wounded.
Iraq and the Evolution of American Strategy - Steven Metz
Today the US military is more nimble, mobile, and focused on rapid responses against smaller powers than ever before. One could argue that the Gulf War and the postwar standoff with Saddam Hussein hastened needed military transformation and strategic reassessments in the post–Cold War era. But the preoccupation with Iraq also mired the United States in the Middle East and led to a bloody occupation. What will American strategy look like after US troops leave Iraq? Metz concludes that the United States has a long-standing, continuing problem “developing sound assumptions when the opponent operates within a different psychological and cultural framework.” He sees a pattern of misjudgments about Saddam and Iraq based on Western cultural and historical bias and a pervasive faith in the superiority of America’s worldview and institutions. This myopia contributed to America being caught off guard by Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, then underestimating his longevity, and finally miscalculating the likelihood of a stable and democratic Iraq after he was toppled. With lessons for all readers concerned about America’s role in the world, Dr. Metz’s important new work will especially appeal to scholars and students of strategy and international security studies, as well as to military professionals and DOD civilians. With a foreword by Colin S. Gray.
EVENTS OF INTEREST
3-7 November - Counterinsurgency Leaders' Workshop (COIN Workshop). Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Sponsored by the U.S. Army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Center. This event is a five-day program focused on understanding the fundamentals of insurgency and counterinsurgency. This is a version of the same extremely popular workshop offered to hundreds of military and civilian attendees over the past two years. The COIN Center has expanded the number of slots available to compensate for the high demand of previous sessions. The proceedings are UNCLASSIFED and registration is open to all interested US government and allied personnel.
6-7 December - Boyd Conference 2008 (Conference). Charlottetown, Prince Edward, Canada. There is an opportunity to hold a short, intense seminar on the applicability of Boyd’s ideas, particularly operating inside the OODA loop and grand strategy (sustaining our own morale and attracting the uncommitted), on the weekend of December 6-7 at the University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PEI. Canada. The theme would be applying these ideas to conflict in the post-Iraq era, and more specifically to the types of diffused, networked, “open source” armed conflicts that some have called “fifth generation warfare.” We are also interested in exploring solutions, such as the role of “resilient communities” (RC), for countering them. As Oil and food prices have climbed and the mortgage crisis has grown, the need to think more about Resilient Communities has become more urgent. We may have to re-invent our world! We envision this as a working seminar to help shape the policy agenda in the first year of the new administration.
