QUOTE OF THE DAY

--John Burns - The New York Times

AFGHANISTAN

NATO Mission Accused of ‘Wavering' Political Will in Afghanistan - Michael Evans, The Times

NATO’s mission in Afghanistan is being undermined by troop shortages and by the numerous operational restrictions which individual nations continue to impose on their troops, the military head of the alliance said yesterday.

As two German soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing in the usually quiet northern town of Kunduz, General John Craddock, Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said there were now 70 national “caveats” which prevent troops from countries such as Germany, Spain, Italy and France from performing certain operational missions without first receiving authorisation from their governments.

Berlin has the power to veto any German soldiers from being redeployed from Kunduz to the southern provinces where the Taleban have concentrated their attacks on Nato forces.

Bomb attacks in the north are relatively rare but yesterday a suicide bomber targeted a German convoy, killing two soldiers and five Afghan children. Germany has about 3,300 troops in northern Afghanistan.

General Craddock, an American, accused NATO of demonstrating a “wavering” political will in Afghanistan. Although he has spoken out on a number of occasions about the need for more alliance troops, his remarks yesterday underlined the growing alarm over the way the campaign is going, following a summer resurgence by the Taleban. More than 230 foreign soldiers have been killed by insurgents in Afghanistan so far this year, most of them from bomb attacks.

More at The Times and Daily Telegraph.

PAKISTAN

Pakistani Legislators Show Little Appetite for a Fight - Jane Perlez, New York Times

An unusual parliamentary debate organized to forge a national policy on how to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda has exposed deep ambivalence about the militants, even as their reach extends to suicide attacks in the capital.

In one of his first initiatives as president, Asif Ali Zardari called the session in an effort to mobilize Pakistan’s political parties and its public to support the fight against the militants, which he has now called Pakistan’s war.

But instead, the nearly two weeks of closed sessions have been dominated by calls for dialogue with the Taliban and peppered with opposition to what lawmakers condemned as a war foisted on Pakistan by the United States, according to participants.

The tenor of the debate has highlighted the difficulties facing Mr. Zardari and Washington as they urgently try to focus Pakistan’s full attention on the militant threat at a time when the Pakistani military is locked in heavy fighting in the tribal areas.

More at The New York Times.

IRAQ

A New Breed Grabs Reins in Anbar - Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post

"Sheik Jassim," as his tribesmen call Sweidawi, is among a new generation of tribal leaders asserting influence across Sunni areas. They have won their respect by fighting Sunni insurgents of the al-Qaeda in Iraq group. With American money and support, they have brought a fragile order to Anbar province, once Iraq's most violent theater, accomplishing in months what the US military could not do in years.

But the rise of these sheiks, collectively called the Awakening, is already touching off new conflicts that could deepen without US military backing for the movement. They have stripped traditional tribal leaders of influence. They have carved up Sunni areas into fiefdoms, imposing their views on law and society and weakening the authority of the Shiite-led central government. Divisions are emerging among the new breed of tribal leaders, even as they are challenging established Sunni religious parties for political dominance.

Their ascent reflects how the struggle for local and regional centers of power is increasingly shaping Iraq's future. And their growing clout ensures that large segments of Iraq will remain influenced by tribal codes, rather than modern laws, posing an obstacle to the democratic foundations that many would like to see built here.

More at The Washington Post.

US Referees Iraq's Troubled Kurdish-Arab Fault Line - Scott Peterson, Christian Science Monitor

Few issues will affect Iraq's future more than the final relationship between the Kurds – whose autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq has its own president, ministers, militia, and flag – and the Shiite-run central government in Baghdad.

But this town in Iraq's troubled eastern Diyala Province is 15 miles south of the KRG line, and but one flash point along a swath of "disputed areas" where Kurdish troops and authorities have expanded control beyond their borders.

Iraqi Arabs charge that Kurds are forcing them out of these areas, in the same way that Saddam Hussein's "Arabization" efforts in the 1970s and '80s brutally removed tens of thousands of Kurds.

In August, an Iraqi Army offensive aimed to reclaim some of this territory, while also pushing against Sunni insurgents in Diyala Province. The Iraqi units faced down Kurdish forces, known as peshmerga, in nearby Jalawla. Then they moved up to Khanaqin, where tension surged as they set up checkpoints, sometimes directly opposite the peshmerga.

Chances of an immediate shootout eased when US Army Capt. Dave Schlicher kept decisionmakers on both sides in the mayor's office for nearly five hours, insisting, he says, that they "talk through a solution and not fire on each other at first sight."

More at The Christian Science Monitor.

NEWS & OPINION NOTES

Afghanistan / Pakistan Tribal Areas

Taliban Claims Responsibility for Killing Female Aid Worker - Voice of America
British Aid Worker Killed in Kabul - The Times
Aid Worker Killed in Afghan Capital - New York Times
Taliban Gunmen Kill Western Aid Worker - Los Angeles Times
Afghan Taliban Target Christian Aid Worker - Christian Science Monitor
Growing Threat to Foreign Aid Staff - The Times
Germans Die in Day of Bloodshed - The Times

Pakistan

US Diplomat Meets Pakistani Leader in Peshawar - Voice of America

Iraq

Iraq Deal Marks a Shift in British Mission - The TImes
US Ambassador Defends Deal to Stay Iraq for Three Years - Daily Telegraph
Iraqi Fishermen Face Tough Times - Los Angeles Times

Iran

Big-Power Diplomats Discuss Iran Nuclear Issue - Voice of America
Iran Arrests 'Spying' Pigeons - Daily Telegraph

The Long War

US Court Told of 'Jihad' Plot - Daily Telegraph
Bush Decides to Keep Guantánamo Open - New York Times
Appeals Court Halts Release of 17 Guantanamo Detainees - Washington Post
Terror Investigations Gone Too Far - Washington Times opinion
The Larger (Nuclear) Threat - Washington Times opinion

US National Defense

Star Wars - Washington Times editorial

United Nations

UN Cites $20 Million in Fraud - Washington Post

World

3 Oil Countries Face a Reckoning - New York Times
Control Nuclear Weapons or Risk New Hiroshima - The Australian
New Push to Curb N-bombs - The Australian

Africa

US Warns of New Zimbabwe Sanctions - Voice of America
Mugabe Blocks Zimbabwe Opposition Leader From Talks - New York Times
SADC Postpones Zimbabwe Talks Amid Opposition Boycott - Voice of America
Power Summit Cancelled After Tsvangirai Denied Passport - The Times
Zimbabwe's Bitter End - Washington Post editorial
Red Cross: Media Reports Mainly Negative News About Africa - Voice of America

Americas

Culiacan, Mexico, Feels the Pain of a Drug-induced Recession - LA Times
Cuba and Mexico Sign Deal to Deport Migrants - Los Angeles Times
Cubans Find New Way to US - Associated Press

Asia Pacific

Bali Bombers Lose Firing Squad Appeal - The Australian
Militants to Build Shrine to Bali Bombers - The Times
China In Hunt for Olympic 'Terrorists' - The Australian

Europe

86 on Trial in Turkish Coup Case - New York Times
Mullen Arrives in Belgrade for Talks With Serb Leaders - AFPS
In Serbia, Top US Officer Seeks Military Cooperation - New York Times
US, Serbian Leaders Discuss New Ways to Cooperate - AFPS

Middle East

Saudi Arabia Prepares First al-Qaeda Trials - Reuters
Israel Ponders Revival of Saudi Peace Plan - Associated Press

South Asia

Suspected Maoists Kill 12 Indian Policemen - Voice of America

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 US 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.