However horrible the incidents of war may be, the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country is the noblest development of mankind.

--General Douglas MacArthur - 14 July 1935

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN TRIBAL AREAS

Obama to Explore New Approach in Afghanistan War - Karen DeYoung, Washington Post

The incoming Obama administration plans to explore a more regional strategy to the war in Afghanistan -- including possible talks with Iran - and looks favorably on the nascent dialogue between the Afghan government and "reconcilable" elements of the Taliban, according to Obama national security advisers.

President-elect Barack Obama also intends to renew the US commitment to the hunt for Osama bin Laden, a priority the president-elect believes President Bush has played down after years of failing to apprehend the al-Qaeda leader. Critical of Bush during the campaign for what he said was the president's extreme focus on Iraq at the expense of Afghanistan, Obama also intends to move ahead with a planned deployment of thousands of additional US troops there.

The emerging broad strokes of Obama's approach are likely to be welcomed by a number of senior US military officials who advocate a more aggressive and creative course for the deteriorating conflict. Taliban attacks and US casualties this year are the highest since the war began in 2001.

Some military leaders remain wary of Obama's pledge to order a steady withdrawal of combat forces from Iraq, to be completed within 16 months - an order advisers say Obama is likely to give in his first weeks in office. Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has called a withdrawal timeline "dangerous." Others are distrustful of a new administration they see as unschooled in the counterinsurgency wars that have consumed the military for the past seven years.

More at The Washington Post.

Obama's Afghan War Plans May Run Into Weary Public, Deficits - Indira A.R. Lakshmanan, Bloomberg

Staff Sergeant Brendan Kearns went through urban combat training six months ago with the US Army's 10th Mountain Division, preparing for a planned return to Iraq. In January, his brigade is heading to Afghanistan instead.

While Iraq has long dominated headlines, Afghanistan will demand more immediate attention, as President-elect Barack Obama becomes the first commander-in-chief since Richard M. Nixon in 1969 to take charge during wartime.

Intensifying violence is ramping up US involvement, costing money and lives when America faces a record budget deficit and the public is weary of war. Backing off may allow al-Qaeda and the Taliban to return to power.

``The most pressing problem for the next president will be the Afghan-Pakistan conundrum,'' says retired Lieutenant Colonel John Nagl.

More at Bloomberg.

Afghan President Karzai Accuses Western Forces of Killing 14 Civilians - M. Karim Faiez and Laura King, Los Angeles Times

Tensions between Western forces and the Afghan government flared anew Monday when President Hamid Karzai and a provincial governor accused the US-led coalition of killing 14 Afghans who were guarding a road construction project.

Karzai has repeatedly demanded that Western troops take urgent measures to avoid killing and injuring Afghan civilians. Recent high-profile instances of civilian casualties have inflamed public sentiment not only against foreign forces in Afghanistan, but against the US-backed government as well.

In a sign of confusion and disorganization within the Karzai administration, however, the Interior Ministry said in a separate statement that the 14 slain men had fired on coalition forces in Khowst province near the border with Pakistan. The US military and the ministry said in a joint statement that the incident, which occurred Sunday night, was being investigated.

More at The Los Angeles Times.

Pakistanis Mired in Brutal Battle to Oust Taliban - Jane Perlez and Zubair Shah, New York Times

When Pakistan’s army retook this strategic stronghold (Loe Sam) from the Taliban last month, it discovered how deeply Islamic militants had encroached on - and literally dug into - Pakistani territory.

Behind mud-walled family compounds in the Bajaur area, a vital corridor to Afghanistan through Pakistan’s tribal belt, Taliban insurgents created a network of tunnels to store arms and move about undetected.

Some tunnels stretched for more than half a mile and were equipped with ventilation systems so that fighters could withstand a long siege. In some places, it took barrages of 500-pound bombs to break the tunnels apart.

“These were not for ordinary battle,” said Gen. Tariq Khan, the commander of the Pakistan Frontier Corps, who led the army’s campaign against the Taliban in the area.

More at The New York Times.

For Pakistan's Tribesmen, A Difficult, Deadly Choice - Candace Rondeaux, Washington Post

The sign above the bed in the surgical ward at Lady Reading Hospital was simple and discreet: Patient #247, Bomb Blast. Beneath the sign lay a man swaddled from the waist down in dirty bandages. His face was pocked with black scars from a suicide bomb attack on a meeting of tribal elders who had decided to fight the Taliban. The man had been in the hospital for nearly a month but was barely conscious.

In that time, more than 120 tribal leaders who decided to take up arms against the Taliban at the Pakistani government's urging have been killed in suicide bombings. Scores more have been injured in firefights with insurgents. Burned by blasts, wounded by artillery fire and hit by bullets, most have received only first aid from the government. A few have been lucky enough to survive the long ride to the hospital in Peshawar.

More at The Washington Post.

Captured Battle Plan Shows Strength and Training of Taleban Forces - Anthony Loyd, The Times

The map tells a war story of its own. Sketched by a Taleban commander, it is of a stretch of territory fought over in Bajaur between the Pakistani Army and the insurgents. The ground has been neatly divided into specific areas of responsibility for different Taleban units.

Weapons caches, assembly areas and rendezvous points have been carefully marked and coded. This is not the work of a renegade gunman resistant to central authority; it is the assessment of a skilled and experienced fighter, and begins to explain how more than 400 Pakistani soldiers have been killed or wounded since August in Bajaur, the tribal district agency that is said to be the haunt of Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Discovered along with the map in a series of recently captured tunnel complexes are other documents - radio frequency lists, guerrilla warfare manuals, students' notes, jihadist propaganda and bombmaking instructions - that provide further evidence of the Taleban's organisation and training. They prove that the Taleban in Bajaur, one of Pakistan's seven Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), were planning not only to fight, but also to disseminate their fighting knowledge.

More at The Times.

IRAQ

Iraq After Action Report - General Barry R. McCaffrey USA (Ret)

The United States is now clearly in the end game in Iraq to successfully achieve what should be our principle objectives:

• The withdrawal of the majority of our US ground combat forces in Iraq in the coming 36 months.
• Leaving behind an operative civil state and effective Iraqi security forces.
• An Iraqi state which is not in open civil war among the Shia, the Sunnis, and the Kurds.
• And an Iraqi nation which is not at war with its six neighboring states.

The security situation is clearly still subject to sudden outrage at any moment by Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) or to degradation because of provocative behavior by the Maliki government. However, the bottom line is a dramatic and growing momentum for economic and security stability which is unlikely to be reversible. I would not characterize the situation as fragile. It is just beyond the tipping point.

The genius of the leadership team of Ambassador Ryan Crocker, General Dave Petraeus, and Secretary of Defense Bob Gates has turned around the situation from a bloody disaster under the leadership of Secretary Rumsfeld to a growing situation of security. Ambassador Crocker will be very, very difficult to replace in February 2009. We are fortunate that General Ray Odierno has stepped in to take Joint command of MNF-I. He is very experienced, knows all the players and has sophisticated situational awareness. The Iraqis trust him enormously--- they refer to him as the “big man with the quiet voice.”

More at Iraq AAR.

Bombing Shows Fragility of Iraq's Security Gains - Mary Beth Sheridan and Qais Mizher, Washington Post

For years, as car bombs rocked Baghdad, a wall of three-foot-high concrete barriers closed off the road next to Imad Karim's restaurant in a northern district.

Walls define much of this historic city - slabs of concrete erected by US soldiers or residents that have turned neighborhoods into mazes aimed at frustrating attackers. Only recently, as security improved, did someone wedge open the barriers by Karim's Abu Wael restaurant. No one noticed when someone drove a white Volkswagen Passat through the opening and parked.

At about 8 a.m. Monday, explosives in the Passat's trunk detonated, just as a minibus packed with 20 people passed by on the busy road on the other side of the barriers, witnesses and US officials said. The minibus was engulfed in flames. Minutes later, two roadside bombs exploded near the mangled Passat, showering the occupants of Abu Wael and another nearby restaurant with shards of glass and blowing in their corrugated-metal roofs, according to witnesses.

More at the Washington Post and New York Times.

Latest US Security Draft Offer 'Not Enough' - Associated Press (Washington Times)

Iraq's government spokesman said Monday that the US offers of changes to a draft security agreement were "not enough" and asked Washington to offer new amendments if it wants the pact to win parliamentary approval.

The comments by spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh were the first by the Iraqis since the US submitted a response last week to an Iraqi request for changes in the draft agreement, which would keep US troops here until 2012 and give Iraq a greater role in the management of the US mission.

More at The Washington Times.

Iraq's Sunni Fighters Leave US Payroll - Ned Parker and Tina Susman, Los Angeles Times

So began the final step Monday in an important transition for the Sunni paramilitary fighters known as the Sons of Iraq, who previously had been paid by the US military.

As they lined up outside Baghdad military bases, a triple bombing in the eastern part of the capital killed 31 people and wounded 72, police said. A female suicide bomber also killed two civilians and two Sunni paramilitary fighters in the eastern city of Baqubah, police said. The bloodshed was a reminder of the suicide attacks that plagued Iraq before many Sunni fighters chose to forsake radical militant groups for an alliance with the Americans in 2007.

Iraq's ruling Shiites still view the fighters with suspicion. The hostility reflects the deep mistrust between the country's newly assertive Shiite majority and the onetime Sunni elite, who are angry about their fall from power. If the government alienates the Sunni paramilitary fighters, who number nearly 100,000 countrywide, the fighters could restart their insurgency.

But as the US military prepares to start pulling out of the country, responsibility for the Sons of Iraq was transferred to the Iraqi army. The payments Monday marked the last step in the transition.

More at The Los Angeles Times.

HORN OF AFRICA

UK to Lead EU Anti-piracy Force off Somalia - Bruno Waterfield, Daily Telegraph

In what Herve Morin, the French defence minister, hailed as a "marvellous symbol" of moves towards a Euro-military and defence policy, Operation Atalanta will next month take to the high seas in the Gulf of Aden to protect United Nations aid shipments and commercial vessels which are repeatedly hijacked.

The Eunavor force - made up of at least seven ships, including three frigates, a supply vessel and support from surveillance aircraft - will be commanded by Royal Navy Vice-Admiral Philip Jones of Britain's Permanent Joint Headquarters at Northwood.

"Our participation in the Somalia project is an important one," said David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary.

Mr Morin revealed that Britain had initially been "a bit hesitant" when he asked the Royal Navy to head the mission last month, describing European naval co-operation as not "a great priority" for Britain.

More at The Daily Telegraph.

INDONESIA

'1001 Jihadis to Take Place of Bali Bombers' - Stephen Fitzpatrick, The Australian

The delighted family and spiritual adviser of executed Bali bombers Amrozi and Mukhlas have hailed their martyrdom, claiming the brothers died with smiles on their faces and that there will be 1001 jihadis to take their place.

Abdul Rohim, son of Muslim preacher Abu Bakar Bashir who set the bombers on their path of mass murder, said he had examined the pair's faces after they were shot by firing squads early on Sunday.

"They were smiling, and the perfume of the bodies was not from the soap used to clean them; it was an extraordinary perfume," Mr Rohim told The Australian.

Mr Rohim warned that the executions could now unleash 1001 jihadis.

"The Government thinks that by executing them it can stop the jihad," Mr Rohim said.

"But the point is that this will not extinguish the jihad."

More at The Australian.

NEWS & OPINION NOTES

Afghanistan / Pakistan Tribal Areas

Another Disputed US Strike Kills 14 in Afghanistan - Voice of America
UK Troops in Afghanistan are Having to 'Make Do' - The Times
Afghan Army Hosts First Command Post Exercise - AFPS

Iraq / OIF

Triple Bombing in Iraqi Capital Kills 28 - Voice of America
Triple Bombing in Baghdad Deadliest in Months - Christian Science Monitor
Iraq's Largest Shiite Party Faces Tough Choice - Associated Press
Marines Encouraged by Iraqi Progress in Anbar, General Says - AFPS
Residents See ‘Light at End of Tunnel’ in Iraqi City - AFPS
Coalition Dismantles Bomb Networks in Iraq, Captures 11 - AFPS

Iran

In Shift, Conservatives in Iran Back Ahmadinejad - New York Times

The Long War

Obama planning rapid end to Guantanamo Bay - The Times

US Department of Defense

The 4 Percent Defense Spending Chimera - Washington Times opinion

United States

Obama, Bush Meet At White House - Voice of America
Emerging Foreign Policy Team Faces Troubled World - Christian Science Monitor
Americans' Views of Military Service Improve - Christian Science Monitor

Veterans Day

Veterans Day - Washington Post editorial
Echo of a Distant War - New York Times editorial
Soldiers of the Great War - Wall Street Journal editorial
Serving Those Who Served - Washington Times editorial
The Soldier's Code My Mother Keeps - Washington Post opinion
A Holiday to End All Wars - New York Times opinion
Memory Day - Los Angeles Times opinion

United Nations

UNAmerican Agenda - National Review opinion

Africa

Tensions Remain High in Congo - Voice of America
Foreign Troops are "Targets" in Congo - Daily Telegraph
DR Congo Angry at Rebel Demands - BBC News
Human Rights Group Urges More Congo Peacekeepers - Associated Press
Congo Cholera Outbreak Spreads Amid Tense Standoff - Associated Press
Zimbabwe Summit Fails to Break Deadlock -Voice of America
Zimbabwe Remains at an Impasse - Wall Street Journal
Mugabe to Move Ahead On Cabinet Choices - Washington Post
Protecting Mr. Mugabe - New York Times editorial
Italian Nuns Kidnapped by Somali Gang - Daily Telegraph
Pirates Seize Philippines Ship Near Somalia - Associated Press
For Africa, ‘Energy From Dirt’ - New York Times

Americas

Venezuela Positions Itself as a Salon for the Left - New York Times
Mexico's President Names New Interior Minister - Los Angeles Times
Prospects for Survivors Dim Following Haitian School Collapse - Voice of America

Asia Pacific

China Blames Dalai Lama for Lack of Tibet Progress - Voice of America

Europe

US Frustrated by Russian Stance on Missile Defense - Voice of America
EU Revives Russia Talks Halted by War in Georgia - Wall Street Journal
European Union to Resume Russian Partnership Talks - New York Times
Ukraine's NATO Bid Increases Tensions with Moscow - Voice of America
Georgians Flee Border Village as Russian Troops Leave - New York Times
Russian Death Sub 'Due for Delivery to India' - The Times
'Tolerance' Is Not the Lesson of Kristallnacht - Wall Street Journal opinion

Middle East

Israeli Blockade Puts Gazans in Dark - Voice of America
Israel Allows Some Fuel Into Gaza - BBC News
Jerusalem's Culture War Heats Up with Race for Mayor - Los Angeles Times
Syria Samples Reportedly Contain Traces of Uranium - Associated Press

South Asia

Sri Lanka Rebels Urged to Lay Down Arms - Voice of America
Policeman Held for India Blasts - BBC News

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

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.

13 January - The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948: Past, Present, and Future (Symposium). Washington, D.C. Mark your calendar for January 13, 2009. That is the confirmed date for “The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948: Past, Present, and Future”, a symposium to discuss the legislation on which America’s arsenal of persuasion is anchored. The one-day event will be hosted in Washington, D.C., with the location and co-sponsor all but confirmed. The format is four 90 minute panels and will emphasize Q&A, discourse, and debate and not presentations or monologues. The four panels will focus on past, present, future, what to do, respectively. Panelists will be drawn from practitioners (State and Defense Departments), academics, Congress, and the media. The event is free and open to the public but registration will be required (see below). This is a first of its kind in-depth discussion into the legislation that continues to set the parameters of our global engagement. Enacted at the beginning of the First War of Ideas, it is long past time to discuss it ten or more years into the Second War of Ideas, a struggle that goes beyond terrorism and insurgency and into economic and financial power.