--Yochi Dreazen, Wall Street Journal
AFGHANISTAN
3,300 More US Troops Sought to Train Afghans - Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post
US commanders in Afghanistan are requesting 3,300 more troops to accelerate the training of new Afghan army and police forces, a job seen as critical to defeating Afghanistan's growing insurgency.
Maj. Gen. Robert Cone, who heads the US command in Kabul that trains Afghan forces, said yesterday he has asked for 60 additional training teams -- a total of about 1,000 troops -- to help speed the expansion of the Afghan army.
Cone said the latest request, currently in NATO and US military channels, is in addition to his prior request to fill a shortfall of 2,300 trainers. Still, with NATO struggling to meet even the lower goal for trainers, it is not clear where the new teams will come from.
More at The Washington Post.
Pentagon: Afghan Army Growing at Record Pace - Meredith Buel, Voice of America
Afghanistan's Army is growing at a record rate, and now leads and helps plan nearly two-thirds of the country's military operations. Army Major General Robert Cone, the commander of the US training program in Afghanistan, says Afghan soldiers are proving themselves in battle and are dedicated to the defense of their nation.
Briefing reporters at the Pentagon via satellite from Kabul, General Cone says efforts to train the Afghan National Army, or ANA, are going well and a goal has been set to nearly double the number of soldiers within the next several years.
"The ANA are leading about 60 percent of the operations they participate in and have proven themselves as an effective fighting force," general Cone said. "The ANA is also in the midst of expanding from their current strength of 68,000 to an end strength of about 134,000."
More at Voice of America.
IRAQ
In Iraq, a Sudden Spurt of Violence - Raheem Salman, Usama Redha and Tina Susman, Los Angeles Times
Since Monday, according to police statistics, roadside bombs, car bombs and suicide bombers wearing explosive belts have killed 58 people in the capital. Deaths elsewhere included two Christian women who police said were killed by unidentified gunmen in the northern city of Mosul, where Christians say they have been caught in the middle of a war for power between Kurds and Arabs.
Several Iraqis who witnessed the violence noted the heavy presence of Iraqi security checkpoints near Saadoun Street, in the eastern part of the capital, and elsewhere and said it showed that nobody could be trusted to keep them safe. Some also said it was a sign that Iraqi forces were not ready to protect the city if US troops withdrew.
US military officials said that this week's violence, coming after a steady downward trend in attacks, does not mean insurgents are staging a comeback, and they disputed the casualty figures provided by Iraqi sources.
More at The Los Angeles Times.
IRAN
Facing Obama, Iran Suddenly Hedges on Talks - Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post
Since 2006, Iran's leaders have called for direct, unconditional talks with the United States to resolve international concerns over their nuclear program. But as an American administration open to such negotiations prepares to take power, Iran's political and military leaders are sounding suddenly wary of President-elect Barack Obama.
"People who put on a mask of friendship, but with the objective of betrayal, and who enter from the angle of negotiations without preconditions, are more dangerous," Hossein Taeb, deputy commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Wednesday, according to the semiofficial Mehr News Agency.
For Iran's leaders, the only state of affairs worse than poor relations with the United States may be improved relations. The Shiite Muslim clerics who rule the country came to power after ousting Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a US-backed autocrat, in their 1979 Islamic revolution. Opposition to the United States, long vilified as the "great Satan" here in Friday sermons, remains one of the main pillars of Iranian politics.
More at The Washington Post.
Iran Claims Success in Tests Firing Long-Range Missiles - Nazila Fathi and Alan Cowell, New York Times
Iran said Wednesday that it successfully test fired a new generation of long-range surface-to-surface missiles with a range of 1,200 miles, state-run television reported. A senior official said the missile would be used only defensively, but did not identify a potential aggressor.
A television news broadcast said the new missile, called the Sejil, used solid fuel and was more accurate than some other missiles in the country’s arsenal. A British weapons expert, Duncan Lennox, said the missile seemed to resemble an earlier one called the Ashoura. Its claimed range would enable it to strike targets in Israel or the Persian Gulf region, he said.
Iran’s Defense Minister, Mostafa Mohammad Najar, was quoted by state-run television as saying the missile was “very fast,” could be produced and stored “in mass” and was easy to prepare for launching. Its launcher could immediately be removed from the firing location, he said.
More at the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Times and Reuters.
CONGO
Rebels Press Young Men to Join Fight in Congo - Stephanie McCrummen, Washington Post
In the past few days, a new category of displaced people has begun arriving at this muddy, sprawling camp in the green hills of eastern Congo: young men who say they are running from rebels who bang down their doors at night and force them to join their cause.
Rebel leaders dismissed the accusations as "propaganda" from pro-government militiamen.
The young men who have fled, however, said a campaign of forced recruitment has begun in a swath of territory that rebels seized two weeks ago in a major offensive that sent the ragtag Congolese army into a humiliating retreat to this area just north of the provincial city of Goma.
Since then, Congolese President Joseph Kabila has refused to negotiate directly with the rebel leader, renegade Gen. Laurent Nkunda, a cultish figure known here simply as "The Chairman" who has vowed to fight all the way to Kinshasa, the capital.
More at The Washington Post.
Congo Fighting Mirrors '90s War - Gus Constantine, Washington Times
To his followers, Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda is known affectionately as "Mon General." He calls himself a born-again Christian and claims he is fighting a war to liberate Congo from corruption.
Yet prominent rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch say his troops loot from, rape and execute civilians.
Lately, reports of troops from neighboring Rwanda and Angola in Nkunda's stronghold in eastern Congo - on opposite sides of his 11-week offensive against government troops - have raised the specter of a renewal of Africa's first world war.
More at The Washington Times.
SOMALIA
Islamist Insurgents Take Somali Port City Without a Fight - Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times
Another major city in Somalia fell without a shot to Islamist insurgents on Wednesday, with Islamist guerrilla fighters seizing the strategic port of Merka, residents and Somali officials said.
The Islamists are now in control of a large and rapidly growing swath of south-central Somalia, and the weak transitional government seems too paralyzed by infighting to do much about it.
The government, which is recognized internationally and backed by Ethiopian troops, has repeatedly urged the United Nations to send in peacekeepers to quell the insurgency and stabilize the country. But with the continuing conflicts in eastern Congo and the Darfur region of Sudan, another major international peacekeeping effort in the region seems unlikely at the moment.
More at the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post.
Royal Navy in Firefight with Somali Pirates - Michael Evans and Rob Crilly, The Times
Pirates caught redhanded by one of Her Majesty’s warships after trying to hijack a cargo ship off Somalia made the grave mistake of opening fire on two Royal Navy assault craft packed with commandos armed with machineguns and SA80 rifles.
In the ensuing gunfight, two Somali pirates in a Yemeni-registered fishing dhow were killed, and a third pirate, believed to be a Yemeni, suffered injuries and subsequently died. It was the first time the Royal Navy had been engaged in a fatal shoot-out on the high seas in living memory.
By the time the Royal Marines boarded the pirates’ vessel, the enemy had lost the will to fight and surrendered quietly. The Royal Navy described the boarding as “compliant”.
More at The Times and BBC News.
NATO
Gates Urges Russian Calm Over Expansion of NATO - Thom Shanker and Clifford Levy, New York Times
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates arrived in this former Soviet republic on Wednesday with a firm message that Russia should not fear efforts by countries in the region to seek deeper integration with the West, and must not impede their decisions to do so.
Reverberations from the August war between Russia and the former Soviet republic of Georgia were still in evidence as Mr. Gates spent the day meeting with NATO defense ministers.
The official focus of the talks among the NATO ministers was whether to push alliance membership for Ukraine, and if so, how. But a broader question permeated the meeting: How should NATO deal with a resurgent Russia?
More at the New York Times and Washington Post.
NEWS & OPINION NOTES
Afghanistan / Pakistan Tribal Areas
Experts Say Afghanistan Needs Regional Solution - Voice of America
Zardari Expects Obama to Review Cross-border Policy - Associated Press
Truck Bomb Shakes Afghan City, Killing Driver and 6 Others - New York Times
Suicide Attack Kills 11 in Eastern Afghanistan - Voice of America
21 Killed in Afghanistan Attack - Associated Press
Acid Attack on Afghan Schoolgirls - BBC News
Aid Worker With Md. Firm Killed In Pakistan - Washington Post
US Aid Worker Slain in Pakistan - New York Times
Gunmen Kill American Aid Worker in Pakistan - Los Angeles Times
Iranian Diplomat Kidnapped in Pakisan - The Times
Afghan Forces Increase Footprint in Afghanistan, General Says - AFPS
Iraq / OIF
2 U.S. Troops Killed by Iraqi Soldier - Washington Post
Iraqi Soldier Reportedly Kills 2 GI’s - New York Times
Slapped Iraqi Kills Two US Soldiers - The Australian
Iraq Soldier Kills at Least Two Americans - Los Angeles Times
Abandoning Iraq? - Washington Times opinion
Iran
Missile Test Underscores Threat to Middle East, Europe - Voice of America
Military Experts Cast Doubt on 'New' Iranian Missile - The Times
To Contain and Deter Iran - Washington Times editorial
The Long War
Former Guantánamo Captives Continue to Struggle, Report Says - Reuters
US Department of Defense
Climate Change Poses US Security Risks - Washington Times
Air Force Scales Back Cyberwar Plans - United Press International
Justices Revoke Limits On Navy Use of Sonar - Washington Post
Ruling Unlikely to Quell Sonar Storm - Los Angeles Times
Group of 20
Global Leaders Prepare for Washington Summit - Voice of America
Racing to the Summit - Washington Post opinion
United States
Obama Team Faces Major Task in Justice Dept. Overhaul - Washington Post
The Real World: Obama - USA Today opinion
Obama and Missile Defense - Wall Street Journal opinion
United Kingdom
Two Thirds Want British Troops Out of Afghanistan - Daily Telegraph
Protect Our Troops - Daily Telegraph editorial
Australia
Terror Suspects 'Planned Bombings' - The Australian
Africa
Somali Pirates Made a Big Mistake in Hijacking the Faina - The Times
Sudan's Darfur Ceasefire - Daily Telegraph
Sudan President's Ceasefire Call Rejected - The Times
Sudanese Rebels Dismiss President's Cease-Fire Call - Voice of America
Zimbabwe: Mugabe's ZANU-PF to Form New Government - Agence France Presse
Zimbabwe: Mugabe Urged to Form Government - BBC News
Congo in Rwanda’s Shadow - New York Times editorial
Americas
Brazil Becomes Antipoverty Showcase - Christian Science Monitor
Free Trade with Colombia High on Bush's Agenda - Los Angeles Times
El Salvador: New Push for Justice in Priests' Slayings - Los Angeles Times
Asia Pacific
North Korea Limits Tests of Nuclear Site - New York Times
North Korea Hits Back at Balloon Activism from South - Christian Science Monitor
N. Korea Hints at More Abductions - Daily Telegraph
Taiwan's Chen Won't Appeal His Detention - Washington Post
Europe
Medvedev Wants Better Relationship with Obama - Associated Press
Russia Seeks Inquiry Into Monitors’ Account of Georgia War - New York Times
Supergrid Energy Plan to Defend Europe from Russia - The Times
Russia: The End of the Enigma - The Times editorial
Ukraine: A Nation Split by Language and History - Voice of America
US, Estonian Leaders Discuss Security Challenges - AFPS
Middle East
Syria to be Offered Sweeteners to Come to Heel - The Times
Truce Falters as Rocket Barrage Continues - Jerusalem Post
Israel-Gaza Border Clash Kills 4 Palestinians - Los Angeles Times
Rockets in Gaza Further Test Truce - Associated Press
New Mayor Offers Jerusalem a Secular Turn - Christian Science Monitor
HRW Faults Egypt's 'Shoot-to-Stop' Policy - Christian Science Monitor
The Saudi King's Vision for Interfaith Dialogue - Christian Science Monitor opinion
The Saudis' Dubious Interfaith Agenda - Christian Science Monitor opinion
South Asia
India Extends Ban on Rebel Groups - 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.
26-28 February - Student Conference on National Affairs (SCONA) (Conference). Texas A&M University - Memorial Student Center Complex, College Station, TX. Sponsored by Texas A&M University. The Student Conference on National Affairs at Texas A&M is in its 54th year. This years conference topic is US Interventions in Problematic Area's Around the World. It will take place from Feburary 26th to the 28th. While the conference activites are focused toward Graduate and Undergraduate students, the speakers we have are open to the general public. Two of the at least five speakers we have confirmed are, Joe Galloway, Author of We Were Soldiers Once and Young, and James Olson, former Director of Counter Intelligence for the CIA. The other speakers will be the best individuals we can find in military, humanitarian, and business issues. We are currently interested in any individuals with a background in Humanitarian issues to speak, or individuals with professional knowledge on the topic to facilitate our student delegate roundtabels. More information can be found at scona.tamu.edu and interested parties can contact scona.information@yahoo.com.
