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--Editorial, Washington Post
INDIA
Bloody End to the Siege of Bombay - Jeremy Page, The Times
Commandos were tonight battling the last gunmen holed up in the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Bombay as one of the worst terrorist attacks in India’s history reached its bloody endgame.
The diplomatic fallout was just beginning, however, as India laid the blame for the attacks on Pakistan, its neighbour and rival, and an Indian official said that two of the militants were British Pakistanis. British officials said they were investigating the possibility of such a link but had found no evidence.
India also faced criticism from Israel when five Israeli hostages were found dead inside a Jewish centre after a raid by commandos. An Israeli offer of assistance had been turned down. Almost 36 hours after the attacks began, commandos from the elite Black Cats special forces unit abseiled on to the roof of Nariman House, one of the terrorists’ three main targets, which contains the Jewish centre.
More at The Times.
Last Gunmen Killed in India, Ending Siege - Emily Wax and Rama Lakshmi, Washington Post
Security forces brought a three-day assault on India's financial and cultural capital to an end Saturday morning, killing the last remaining gunmen holed up in one of the city's luxury hotels after freeing hostages and recovering bodies from two hotels and a Jewish center Friday.
Pakistani officials, responding to charges by Indian leaders that the attack was carried out by an organization with ties to Pakistan, said a senior intelligence officer would travel to India, in an apparent attempt to ease tensions between the two nuclear-armed states.
Indian officials said they now believe that at least 15 gunmen carried out the operation after reaching Mumbai by sea. After an interrogation of one of the attackers, Indian intelligence officials said they suspected that a Pakistani Islamist group, Lashkar-i-Taiba, was responsible. An Indian intelligence document from 2006 obtained by The Washington Post said members of the group had been trained in maritime assault.
More at The Washington Post.
Bombay: Forces Accused of Bungling Before and After Attacks - Jeremy Page, The Times
With the battle for Bombay finally drawing to a close last night, India’s Government faced criticism at home and abroad over its failure to prevent the attacks, and its courageous, but haphazard response. Indians are used to their Government’s chaotic approach to security, but the first terrorist attack on their soil to target foreigners on such a large scale has exposed it to international scrutiny for the first time.
India’s media led the charge, panning the country’s intelligence and security agencies for failing to anticipate the attack, as well as a series of multiple bomb attacks on Indian cities this year. “Mumbai Maimed, Nation Shamed” read a headline in the Mail Today newspaper.
More at The Times
US Intelligence Focuses on Pakistani Group -Mark Mazzetti, New York Times
American intelligence and counterterrorism officials said Friday there was mounting evidence that a Pakistani militant group based in Kashmir, most likely Lashkar-e-Taiba, was responsible for the deadly attacks in Mumbai.
The American officials cautioned that they had reached no hard conclusions about who was responsible for the operation, nor on how it had been planned and carried out. Nevertheless, they said that evidence gathered over the past two days has pointed to a role for Lashkar-e-Taiba, or possibly another Pakistani group focused on Kashmir, Jaish-e-Muhammad. The American officials insisted on anonymity in describing their current thinking and declined to discuss the intelligence information that they said pointed to Kashmiri militants.
Lashkar-e-Taiba on Thursday denied any responsibility for the terrorist strikes. The group is thought by American intelligence agencies to have received some training and logistical support in the past from Pakistan’s powerful spy service, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, but American officials said Friday that there was no evidence that the Pakistani government had any role in the Mumbai attacks.
More at The New York Times.
Characteristics of Plot Suggest Outside Help, Analysts Say - Craig Whitlock and Karen DeYoung, Washington Post
Counterterrorism officials and experts said the scale, sophistication and targets involved in the Mumbai attacks were markedly different from previous terrorist plots in India and suggested the gunmen had received training from outside the country. But they cautioned it was too soon to tell who may have masterminded the operation, despite an assertion from a previously unknown Islamist radical group.
Officials in India, Europe and the United States said likely culprits included Islamist networks based in Pakistan that have received support in the past from Pakistan's intelligence agencies. Meanwhile, British officials said they were investigating the possibility that two of its citizens were involved in the attacks.
More at The Washington Post and:
Mumbai Terrorist Siege Over, India Says- New York Times
Indian Forces End Mumbai Siege - Wall Street Journal
Indian Forces Target Final Site of Attacks - New York Times
Siege Ends in Mumbai - Los Angeles Times
Armed Teams Sowed Chaos With Precision - New York Times
India's Foreign Minister Claims Terror Came From Pakistan - The Australian
Pakistani Militants At Center Of Probe - Washington Post
Characteristics of Plot Suggest Outside Help, Analysts Say - Washington Post
US Intelligence Focuses on Pakistani Group - New York Times
Pakistan Offers Help, But is Prime Suspect - The Times
Hollow Victory as More Bodies Discovered - The Times
Pakistan's Gilani to Send Spy Agency Chief to Mumbai - Voice of America
Mumbai Attacks Could Chill India-Pakistan Ties - Los Angeles Times
US Says 2 Americans Killed in Mumbai Attacks - Voice of America
Jewish Hostages Killed as British Terrorists Linked to Bombay Attacks - The Times
Jewish Center Is Stormed, and 6 Hostages Die - New York Times
Are the Terrorists British? - Daily Telegraph
Britain Investigating Possible Ties to Mumbai Suspects - Los Angeles Times
Britons are Among Detained, Official Claims - The Times
From the UK to Terror Training Camps - Daily Telegraph
Pakistan Offers Intelligence Aid - Wall Street Journal
India Blames "Elements" in Pakistan for Attacks - Associated Press
Terrorists Monitored British Websites Using BlackBerrys - Daily Telegraph
British Muslims and Terrorist Attacks - Daily Telegraph
Israel Says Mumbai Attackers Targeted its Citizens - Los Angeles Times
Crisis May Shift India’s Political Landscape - New York Times
Violence Clouds India’s Economic Future - New York Times
Indian Elections to Center on Security - Wall Street Journal
In a Resilient City, Hopes That Cooperation Prevails - Washington Post
Can al-Qaeda be Defeated? - The Times editorial
Massacre in Mumbai - Washington Post editorial
Mumbai Attacks: Pakistan is the Key - Daily Telegraph editorial
Trouble for Pakistan - Washington Post opinion
Tracking British Islamists is an Immense Task - Daily Telegraph opinion
Terrorists Join Forces - The Australian opinion
Wounded City Turns to Anger - The Times opinion
Bombay Massacre is a Warning to Britain - Daily Telegraph opinion
What They Hate About Mumbai - New York Times opinion
An Idea Lost on Fanatics - Los Angeles Times opinion
IRAQ
A Loosely Drawn American Victory - Steven Lee Meyers, New York Times
The security agreements between Iraq and the United States mark the beginning of the end of the war. They are only the beginning, though, and the terms of the agreements create uncertainties that could disrupt the smooth withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.
The agreements - a broad “strategic framework” and a more detailed security pact that were ratified Thursday by the Iraqi Parliament - set a deadline that critics of the war have long wanted. They require that all American forces withdraw from Iraq no later than Dec. 31, 2011, but they offer no timetable for withdrawals, and in theory could add three more years to a war that has already lasted five and a half.
The United States has also agreed to remove all combat forces from Iraqi cities and villages by the end of next June, though the agreements remain silent on what constitutes “combat” troops and where exactly they will move. Those decisions have been left to a Joint Military Operations Coordination Committee, a body of Americans and Iraqis that could prove to be as ungainly as its acronym, Jmocc.
More at The New York Times.
NATIONAL SECURITY
National Security Pick: From a Marine to a Mediator - Helene Cooper, New York Times
James L. Jones, a retired four-star general, was among a mostly Republican crowd watching a presidential debate in October when Barack Obama casually mentioned that he got a lot of his advice on foreign policy from General Jones. “Explain yourself!” some of the Republicans demanded, as General Jones later recalled it.
He did not. A 6-foot-5 Marine Corps commandant with the looks of John Wayne, General Jones is not given to talking about his political bent, be it Republican or Democrat. And yet, he is Mr. Obama’s choice for national security adviser, a job that will make him the main foreign policy sounding board and sage to a president with relatively little foreign policy experience.
The selection of General Jones will elevate another foreign policy moderate to a team that will include Robert M. Gates, a carry-over from the Bush administration, as defense secretary and Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state. By bringing a military man to the White House, Mr. Obama may be trying to cement an early bond with military leaders who regard him with some uneasiness, particularly over his call for rapid troop reductions in Iraq.
More at The New York Times.
NEWS & OPINION NOTES
Iraq
Bush Hails Passage of New US-Iraq Security Pact - AFPS
Wary Iraqis Weigh Deal That Shapes Their Future - New York Times
US Hails Iraqi Vote on Pullout - The Australian
Iraq's PM May Be Weakened by Dealmaking Over Pact - Associated Press
Suicide-Bomber Attacks Shi'ite Mosque in Musayyib - Voice of America
Bomber Kills 12 at Shiite Mosque - New York Times
Suicide Bomber Kills at Least 12 Outside Shiite Mosque - Washington Post
2 Dead in Attack Near U.N. Iraq Compound - Associated Press
Soldiers Capture Four Suspected Criminals in Baghdad Raids - AFPS
Iraqi, Coalition Forces Deliver School Supplies - AFPS
Iran
Iran Angry at Peace Advert - Daily Telegraph
Germany Loves Iran - Wall Street Journal editorial
Piracy
Legal Hurdles in West Slow Pursuit of Pirates - New York Times
British and Irish Anti-piracy Experts Rescued, After Pirates Attack - The Times
Crew Escapes Somali Pirates - Daily Telegraph
Four Pirates Killed in Sierra Leone Navy Gunbattle - Agence France-Presse
The Pirates of Puntland - Washington Times opinion
The Long War
Al-Qaeda Blames Global Financial Crisis on 9/11 - Daily Telegraph
Video Pushes Islam for US - Associated Press
United States
Ex-Defense Contractor Helps With Other Probes - Washington Post
Hillary of State - Wall Street Journal editorial
Africa
Somalia's Transitional Government Fears Withdrawal of Ethiopian Troops - VOA
Ethiopia to Pull Its Troops From Somalia by End of the Year - Washington Post
Ethiopia to Withdraw from Somalia by End of Year - Associated Press
Troops Deployed to Stop Fighting in Central Nigeria - Voice of America
Deadly Clashes Break Out in Nigerian City - Associated Press
Tentative Agreement Pushes Zimbabwe One Step Forward - Voice of America
Zimbabwe: Court Rejects Land Seizures - Associated Press
Zimbabwe: MDC 'Agrees to Constitutional Amendment' - Daily Telegraph
White Farmers Win Case Against Zimbabwe Land Grabs -
US Ambassador to Libya to Arrive in December - Reuters
Americas
Mexican President Defends War on Cartels - Washington Post
Mexico Says Security Plan Reduced Kidnappings - Associated Press
Colombia, Led by Betancourt, Protests Kidnappings - Reuters
A Latin America Blueprint - Los Angeles Times editorial
Venezuela: No Go for Hugo - Washington Times opinion
Asia Pacific
Thai PM Says Negotiations Will End Crisis - Voice of America
Thai Protesters Maintain Airport Blockades - New York Times
Thai Protesters 'Will Fight to the Death' - Daily Telegraph
Riot Police Surround Bangkok Airports - Los Angeles Times
Thai Protesters Brace for Showdown - Agence France-Presse
Thai Protesters Defiant as Police Boost Presence - Associated Press
Brits Wait at Naval Base to Leave Thailand - The Times
US Wants North Korean Verification Commitments on Paper - Voice of America
South Korean Officials Return From North As Joint Projects Halt - Voice of America
Beijing Executes Convicted Spy - Washington Post
China Condemned for Wo Weihan Execution - The Times
Europe
Russia to Deploy New Missile - Daily Telegraph
Middle East
IAEA Broadens Probe of Syria - Wall Street Journal
Gaza Mortars Wound 6 Israelis - Associated Press
Mortar Bombs Hurt 6 Israeli Troops on Gaza Border - Reuters
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.
8 December - Counterinsurgency Leadership Seminar (Seminar). Quantico, VA. On 8 December 2008 the US Marine Corps Center for Irregular Warfare (CIW) will host a Counterinsurgency Leadership Seminar at Little Hall (Base Theater), Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Virginia, featuring Colonel Stephen Davis (USMC), Colonel David Maxwell (USA) and Lieutenant Colonel Paul Yingling. This seminar is cosponsored by CIW, US Joint Forces Command Irregular Warfare Center (IWC), the US Army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Center (COIN Center) and Small Wars Journal (SWJ). Seminar Panel Members: Colonel Stephen Davis, USMC. Col Davis is currently the Deputy Commanding Officer of Marine Corps Special Operations Command. Previously, Col Davis commanded Regimental Combat Team 2 in Iraq. Colonel David Maxwell, USA. COL Maxwell is currently the G-3 (Operations Officer) of the US Army Special Operations Command. Previously he commanded the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines. Lieutenant Colonel Paul Yingling, USA. LTC Yingling is the Commander of 1st Battalion, 21st Field Artillery and is currently deployed to Iraq performing detainee operations. He has served two previous tours in Iraq, and has also deployed to Bosnia and Operation Desert Storm. Colonel Daniel Kelly, USMC, will moderate. Col Kelly is the Director of the US Marine Corps Center for Irregular Warfare. He has held a wide variety of command and staff billets and participated in numerous operations to include Operations Restore Hope / Continue Hope (Somalia), Operations Allied Force / Joint Guardian, (Kosovo) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF I and II).
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 February 26th to the 28th. While the conference activities 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 roundtables. More information can be found at scona.tamu.edu and interested parties can contact scona.information@yahoo.com.