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--President Abraham Lincoln - Gettysburg, 1863
AFGHANISTAN
Afghan Awakening - Bing West, The National Interest
In September of 2008, Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made a remarkable statement. He said, “I’m not convinced we’re winning in Afghanistan. I am convinced we can. That is why I intend to commission and... am looking at a new, more comprehensive strategy for the region.” Considering that the United States has been at war in Afghanistan for seven years now, clearly whatever our strategy is, it has not worked.
There has developed an unquestioning consensus that we need to do more. The Democratic Party, united in demanding a swift withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq, supports expanding the war in Afghanistan. The same is true of the Republican Party and the Pentagon. The mainstream press, while savaging the White House for lacking a sensible plan and sufficient troops in Iraq, accepted without question sending more troops to Afghanistan. And now that the surge in Iraq is winding down, a surge for Afghanistan is in the cards.
While US troop numbers will increase, we don’t know whether other NATO countries will provide willing and able boots on the ground. Regardless of NATO Europe, America must deal with Pakistan and the sanctuary for al-Qaeda and the Taliban that has festered there like a infectious wound. The corruption attendant to opium continues to tear apart the fabric of trust in Afghan society. Local military and police forces must be trained. Above all, we need to define our goals and acknowledge our limitations on this vital front.
More at The National Interest.
Obama: ‘Taking the Fight’ to Afghanistan - Drew Brown, Stars and Stripes
A worsening war in Afghanistan - and a growing Taliban and al-Qaida insurgency in the tribal areas of nuclear-armed neighboring Pakistan - will loom large on the agenda for President-elect Barack Obama during the next four years.
On the campaign trail, Obama argued that the war in Iraq has drained troops and resources from the battlefield in Afghanistan, causing the situation there to deteriorate. He has described Afghanistan as "the war we need to win," and he has pledged to send at least two more brigades of US troops to reinforce the 70,000 U.S. and NATO forces already serving in the country.
Obama has also pledged to press NATO allies to contribute more forces, and he has said he will step up training for the Afghan army and police, as well as increase non-military aid to Afghanistan by $1 billion.
More at Stars and Stripes.
US Says Taliban Put Afghans in Line of Fire - Abdul Waheed Wafa and Sangar Rahmi, New York Times
As Afghan officials reported more civilian casualties from coalition airstrikes on Thursday, witnesses to a strike that apparently hit a wedding party on Monday said the civilian death toll could be more than double the 40 reported so far by Afghan officials.
The United States military says it is conducting a joint investigation with the Afghan authorities into the strike on the wedding party, which took place in the Shah Wali Kot district of the southern province of Kandahar, where the Taliban insurgency has been strong.
On Thursday, American officials offered their first account of the events, saying that insurgents had prevented civilians from fleeing the area, trapping them in a firefight pitting coalition and Afghan Army forces against the militants who had ambushed those forces.
More at The New York Times.
Afghan Aid to Insurgents Alleged in Attack on US Troops - M. Karim Faiez and Laura King, Los Angeles Times
A US military report released Thursday says at least two local Afghan officials were believed to have colluded in a July attack by insurgents on a remote outpost in eastern Afghanistan that killed nine US soldiers.
It was the largest loss of American troops' lives in a single land battle since the start of the war in Afghanistan in 2001. The intense, hours-long assault by an estimated 200 Taliban fighters, during which the lightly manned outpost was nearly overrun, also left 27 US soldiers and four Afghan troops injured.
More at The Los Angeles Times.
Fragile Success Against Afghanistan's Opium Economy - Mark Sappenfield, Christian Science Monitor
A year ago, the province that surrounds this dusty town of onion farmers was Afghanistan's No. 2 producer of opium. Today, Nangarhar has eradicated opium entirely.
It is the most dramatic reversal in a year offering the first hints of progress against opium, with harvests declining nationwide.
Yet in the chalk-white fields above Ghani Khel, tribal elder Pat Zirak Mohammad predicts that Nangarhar's opium ban will not last. To grow anything other than poppy, his people need a dam to harness water from seasonal floods. But he is skeptical that the government will deliver. "If that doesn't happen, our people will again grow poppy," he says.
Through its bold attempts to ban poppy in recent years, Nangarhar has become the preeminent case study on how to wean Afghanistan from its poppy crop. Mr. Mohammad's words point to the difficulty of making success last.
In a country that produces 90 percent of the world's opium, and where opium is tied to rampant corruption and violence, the benefits of such bans are clear.
More at The Christian Science Monitor.
IRAQ
US Gives Iraq Final Text of Draft Forces Agreement - David Gollust, Voice of America
The Bush administration says it has sent Iraq what it says is the final text of an agreement on a continued presence of US troops in Iraq beyond the end of the year. US officials say they accepted some Iraqi-proposed amendments, but that as far as the United States is concerned the negotiating process has ended.
Officials here say the final text was conveyed in a letter from President Bush to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and that while the US side may provide further clarifications it considers the negotiations over.
The two sides have struggled for weeks to reach agreement on a status-of-forces agreement that will govern the presence of US troops in Iraq beyond December 31, when the UN Security Council mandate for foreign forces in Iraq expires.
The draft accord would allow US forces to remain in Iraq for as long as another three years. The parties have struggled to agree on details such as legal jurisdiction over American soldiers who might commit off-duty crimes.
A senior US diplomat said Iraq late last month proposed scores of amendments to a tentative draft. He said the text the United States has sent back to Baghdad accepts many of the proposed changes, but rejects a number of others.
More at Voice of America.
Iraq Repeats Insistence on Fixed Withdrawal Date - Ernesto Londoño, Mary Beth Sheridan and Karen DeYoung, Washington Post
Two days after the election of Barack Obama, Iraq's chief spokesman said with unusual forcefulness Thursday that his government will continue to insist on a firm withdrawal date for US troops, despite American demands that any pullout be subject to prevailing security conditions.
"Iraqis would like to know and see a fixed date," spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in an interview in which he also reiterated Iraq's position that American forces be subject to Iraqi legal jurisdiction in some instances.
Iraqi officials, who see President-elect Obama's views on the timing of a US withdrawal as consonant with their own, appear to be leveraging his election to pressure the Bush administration to make last-minute concessions. Dabbagh said negotiations to reach a status-of-forces agreement, which would sanction the US military presence in Iraq beyond 2008, would collapse if no deal is reached by the end of this month.
More at The Washington Post.
Obama Victory Alters the Tenor of Iraqi Politics - Alissa Rubin, New York Times
Barack Obama may have been elected only three days ago, but his victory is already beginning to shift the political ground in Iraq and the region.
Iraqi Shiite politicians are indicating that they will move faster toward a new security agreement about American troops, and a Bush administration official said he believed that Iraqis could ratify the agreement as early as the middle of this month.
“Before, the Iraqis were thinking that if they sign the pact, there will be no respect for the schedule of troop withdrawal by Dec. 31, 2011,” said Hadi al-Ameri, a powerful member of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a major Shiite party. “If Republicans were still there, there would be no respect for this timetable. This is a positive step to have the same theory about the timetable as Mr. Obama.”
Mr. Obama has said that he favors a 16-month schedule for withdrawing combat brigades, a timetable about twice as fast as that provided for in the draft American and Iraqi accord.
More at The New York Times.
RUSSIA / GEORGIA
Georgia Claims on Russia War Called Into Question - C.J. Chivers and Ellen Barry, New York Times
Newly available accounts by independent military observers of the beginning of the war between Georgia and Russia this summer call into question the longstanding Georgian assertion that it was acting defensively against separatist and Russian aggression.
Instead, the accounts suggest that Georgia’s inexperienced military attacked the isolated separatist capital of Tskhinvali on Aug. 7 with indiscriminate artillery and rocket fire, exposing civilians, Russian peacekeepers and unarmed monitors to harm.
The accounts are neither fully conclusive nor broad enough to settle the many lingering disputes over blame in a war that hardened relations between the Kremlin and the West. But they raise questions about the accuracy and honesty of Georgia’s insistence that its shelling of Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, was a precise operation. Georgia has variously defended the shelling as necessary to stop heavy Ossetian shelling of Georgian villages, bring order to the region or counter a Russian invasion.
More at The New York Times.
NEWS & OPINION NOTES
Afghanistan / Pakistan Tribal Areas
Death and No Progress Fighting the Taliban - The Australian
Petraeus Visits Bagram, Discusses War in Afghanistan - AFPS
Military Investigates Possible New Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan - VOA
Coalition, Afghan Forces Investigate Possible Civilian Casualties - AFPS
Coalition Forces Kill Insurgents Throughout Afghanistan - AFPS
Two Deadly Suicide Blasts Hit Pakistan's Northwest - Voice of America
Pakistan Officials: Missile Strike Kills 8 or More - Associated Press
Pakistan
Pakistan will Hang Cyber Terrorists - Daily Telegaph
Iraq / OIF
Iraq Orders F-16s, Helicopters - United Press International
In a Desert Camp, Iraqis Find Aid and Zone of Trust - Christian Science Monitor
Coalition Troops Target al-Qaida in Iraq Networks, Detain 17 - AFPS
Soldiers in Iraq Focus on Restoring Infrastructure - AFPS
Shell Secures 25-year Access to Iraq's Oil, Gas - United Press International
Iran
Iran's President Congratulates Obama - Washington Post
In Rare Turn, Iran’s Leader Sends Letter to Obama - New York Times
Iran Urges Obama to Change US Policies - Reuters
Iran's Youths Would Back Barack Obama - Daily Telegraph opinion
The Long War
Judge Is Told 6 Algerians Should Remain Detained - Washington Post
Judge Opens First Habeas Corpus Hearing on Guantánamo Detainees - NY Times
US Department of Defense
Keep Your Euphoria to Yourself, Soldier - New York Times editorial
United States
Bush Promises Smooth White House Transition - Voice of America
Bush Urges Support So Terrorists Can’t Exploit Transition Period - AFPS
Bush to Meet with Obama Monday - Washington Times
Bush Team Lays Ground for Obama Foreign Policy - Washington Times
Political Experts Say Obama Faces Major Challenges - Voice of America
American Power and the Obama Presidency - United Press International
World Leaders Vie to be Friends with Obama - The Times
Harper, Obama Find 'Common Ground' - Toronto Star
Taking a World View of Obama's Election - Washington Times
New World Order - The Times editorial
Obama's Foreign Policy Picks - Los Angeles Times opinion
Obama Needs a Strong Foreign Policy - Wall Street Journal opinion
The Global Grand Bargain - Foreign Policy opinion
Obama's Russia Test - Wall Street Journal opinion
World
Catholics and Muslims Pledge to Improve Links - New York Times
Africa
Africans' Hopes Surge with Obama's Win - Los Angeles Times
UN Chief Calls for Halt to Hostilities in Eastern DRC - Voice of America
UN Chief, African Leaders Discuss Congo Crisis - Associated Press
DR Congo Accuses UN Over Killings - BBC News
Renewed Fighting Ahead of Congo Peace Summit - The Times
Congo 'Worst War Since WWII' - Toronto Star
Congo Violence as Kenya to Hold Talks - Agence France-Presse
Eastern Congo's Quagmire - Washington Times opinion
Obstacles Stalling Peace Deal in Sudan - United Press International
Ethiopia Issues Terror Warning - Voice of America
Ethiopia Arrests 'Bomb Plotters' - BBC News
Opposition Says Zimbabwe Talks at 'Full Stop' - Voice of America
Mugabe Bank Accused of Stealing Aid Cash - The Times
Rwandan Genocide - Washington Times opinion
Americas
More Drug Related Violence in Mexico - The Australian
Citizen Suspicion Surrounds Mexico Plane Crash - Los Angeles Times
In Colombia, Army Acknowledges Civilian Killings - Christian Science Monitor
Asia Pacific
In Milestone, Taiwan's President Meets Key Chinese Envoy - Washington Post
Chinese Envoy Meets with Taiwan's President - Los Angeles Times
China and Taiwan: Where From Here? - Daily Telegraph editorial
China's 'Action Plan' on Human Rights Meets with Skepticism - Los Angeles Times
Tibetan Envoys Leave China After 8th Meeting - New York Times
North Korea Tries to Show Its Leader Is Healthy and in Control - New York Times
N. Korea: 'Ready to Deal with' Obama Administration - Associated Press
Pyongyang Panic - Foreign Policy opinion
A Smarter North Korea Policy - Christian Science Monitor opinion
Philippine President Calls for Vigilance - United Press International
Submarines Stay at Core of Australia's Defence - The Australian
Malaysian Court Frees Blogger - New York Times
The Caucasus
Minibus Bomb Kills at Least 8 in Restive Russian Region - New York Times
Europe
Putin 'Could Return as President' - Daily Telegraph
Medvedev Speech Sparks Rumor of Putin’s Return - New York Times
US Makes New Proposals to Russia on Missile Defense, Strategic Arms - VOA
Europe, Not the US, Can Get Russia to Behave - Christian Science Monitor opinion
Middle East
No Mideast Deal Under Bush, White House Says - Washington Post
Rice Faces Limited Prospects for Peace Process - New York Times
Rice in Israel as Chances for Year-End Peace Agreement Fade - VOA
Year-end Peace Deal Unlikely - Associated Press
Saudis Protest Detentions With Hunger - Washington Post
Saudis on Strike - Washington Post editorial
Syria Accuses Militants in Lebanon Bombing - Reuters
Syria Airs Car Bomb 'Confessions' - BBC News
South Asia
Second Day of Curfew in Kashmir - 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.