--Michael O'Hanlon, Washington Times
UNITED STATES
Gates Warns Against ‘Testing’ Obama - Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates warned Saturday that foreign powers should not try to “test” President-elect Barack Obama with a crisis in his first months in office and that Mr. Obama remained committed to the security of the Persian Gulf and American interests in the region.
Mr. Gates, speaking at a conference on regional security here, said that Mr. Obama and his advisers had done more extensive planning across the government for the transition than at any time he could remember and asserted that they would therefore be prepared from day one. Mr. Gates, who is staying on as Defense secretary, has worked for seven presidents. Mr. Obama will be his eighth.
More at The New York Times.
AFGHANISTAN
NATO Hard at Work Making Deals to Beat the Khyber Pass Convoy Trap - Jeremy Page, The Times
NATO plans to open a new supply route to Afghanistan through Russia and Central Asia in the next eight weeks following a spate of attacks on its main lifeline through Pakistan this year, NATO and Russian sources have told The Times.
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the former Soviet Central Asian states that lie between Russia and Afghanistan, have agreed in principle to the railway route and are working out the small print with NATO, the sources said.
“It'll be weeks rather than months,” said one NATO official. “Two months max.”
The “Northern Corridor” is expected to be discussed at an informal meeting next week between Dmitri Rogozin, Russia's ambassador to Nato, and Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, NATO's Secretary-General.
More at The Times.
IRAQ
US Troops May Stay in Iraqi Cities Beyond Deadline - Yochi Dreazen, Wall Street Journal
The top American commander in Iraq said that US forces will remain in dozens of small bases inside Iraq's cities despite language in a recently-signed security pact which appears to require an American withdrawal from Iraqi urban areas by next summer.
Gen. Raymond Odierno told reporters here that the US troops assigned to "joint security stations" inside Iraqi cities like Baghdad would remain in the outposts indefinitely. The bases, which are a key part of the US counterinsurgency strategy, house thousands of American personnel across the country. There are well over a dozen such outposts in Baghdad alone.
Gen. Odierno, who assumed command in September, explained that the withdrawal provision in the security pact applied only to combat personnel. The US forces assigned to the joint security stations mentor and fight alongside Iraqi troops, so American commanders classify them as training personnel and don't consider them to be covered by the withdrawal language, he said.
More at The Wall Street Journal.
AFRICA
US Helps African States Fend Off Militants - Eric Schmitt, New York Times
Thousands of miles from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, another side of America’s fight against terrorism is unfolding in this remote corner of West Africa. American Green Berets are training African armies to guard their borders and patrol vast desolate expanses against infiltration by Al Qaeda’s militants, so the United States does not have to.
A recent exercise by the United States military here was part of a wide-ranging plan, developed after the Sept. 11 attacks, to take counterterrorism training and assistance to places outside the Middle East, like the Philippines and Indonesia. In Africa, a five-year, $500 million partnership between the State and Defense Departments includes Algeria, Chad, Mauritania, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia, and Libya is on the verge of joining.
American efforts to fight terrorism in the region also include nonmilitary programs, like instruction for teachers and job training for young Muslim men who could be singled out by militants’ recruiting campaigns.
More at The New York Times.
Governments Support Rivals In E. Congo, UN Panel Says - Colum Lynch, Washington Post
Rwanda and Congo have been backing rival rebel and militia groups locked in a violent conflict in eastern Congo that has displaced more than 250,000 civilians since August, according to a UN panel investigating sanctions violations.
The report by a panel of five UN experts who monitor Security Council sanctions against armed groups in eastern Congo provided the first evidence that the two governments have violated UN bans on military and financial support for armed proxies in eastern Congo.
More at the Washington Post and New York Times.
EU Divided Over Sending Peacekeepers to Back UN in Eastern Congo - Rory Watson, The Times
The European Union's top foreign policy official will meet the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, in New York on Monday to examine emergency measures to stop the atrocities being committed in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Javier Solana's trip to the UN headquarters follows the refusal by European governments at their Brussels summit this week to approve the dispatch of a European peacekeeping force and humanitarian aid to the former Belgian colony.
The Belgian Foreign Minister, Karel de Gucht, made a passionate plea to his European colleagues to send an armed EU force to North Kivu in eastern Congo. However, only Sweden and Spain supported the initiative, with other governments insisting that the 17,000-strong UN mission already on the ground was sufficient.
More at The Times.
CUBA
Obama Presidency Could Change the Rules on Cuba - Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times
Washington's hawkish policy toward Cuba, a durable legacy of the Cold War, is under pressure from pronounced shifts in US public opinion and in Congress, amplified by the election of Barack Obama.
Obama's presidency raises the prospect of significant policy changes because of his campaign promises to consider talks with Havana and to lift restrictions on the ability of Cuban Americans to travel and send money to the island.
In addition, there are new signs that many Cuban Americans, whose anti-Castro fervor has sustained a tough approach, no longer favor the economic embargo that has been the policy's main ingredient. Congress is expected to press for reform next year as more Democrats enter and some hard-line Republicans retire.
More at The Los Angeles Times.
NEWS & OPINION NOTES
Afghanistan / Pakistan Tribal Areas
4 Killed in Shooting by US at a Bus Carrying Afghans - Associated Press
UK's Brown Visits Afghanistan - Associated Press
Officials Work Toward Best Afghanistan Strategy - AFPS
Rural Development Will Weaken Afghan Insurgency, Colonel Says - AFPS
Four British Soldiers Killed in Afghanistan - Voice of America
Coalition Forces Disrupt Haqqani Network in Afghanistan - AFPS
Japan Renews Authorization for Naval Aid in Afghan War - New York Times
Iran
Gates Talk Suggests Relations With Iran to Remain Tense - Wall Street Journal
Tehran Diplomat Says Nuclear Sanctions Have United Iran - Los Angeles Times
Obama's Options on Iran - Los Angeles Times
The Long War
Pentagon Will Study Senate Report on Detainee Torture - Voice of America
US Calls on Europe to Take Guantánamo Inmates - The Times
Should Obama Continue Bush's War on Terrorism? - LA Times online debate
Piracy
Pentagon Official Urges Broad Approach to Piracy - AFPS
Admiral Skeptical as US Seeks to Pursue Pirates onto Land - Voice of America
US Department of Defense
Defense Department Reinforces Importance of Accurate Communication - AFPS
New Rapid-Response Forces to Bolster Homeland Defense Mission - AFPS
Emergency Response Units Won’t Perform Law Enforcement - AFPS
United States
An Old Rage to Quell - Washington Post opinion
World
UN Green-lights Funds for Poor Nations - Associated Press
Africa
UN Secretary-General Pushes for Restart of Peace Process in Darfur - VOA
AU Commission Chief Wants Peacekeepers to Stay in Somalia - Voice of America
Somalia: No Volunteers for Coalition - Reuters
Rice to Press for Zimbabwe Action at UN - Voice of America
Victims of Zimbabwean Crackdown to be Dumped in Mass Grave - The Times
Zimbabwe, Through South Africa - Los Angeles Times editorial
Mugabe: Nowhere to Hide - New York Times editorial
Americas
Colombian Drug Kingpin Extradited to US - Voice of America
Admiral Pledges Ongoing Support of Humanitarian Efforts - AFPS
Asia Pacific
US Says Fuel Oil Shipments to North Korea Suspended - Voice of America
Musical Diplomacy Resonates With N. Korea - Washington Post
Ex-President of Taiwan Is Indicted - New York Times
Europe
6 in Belgium Said to Belong to Qaeda Cell - New York Times
Violence Brings Issues Plaguing Greece to the Surface - New York Times
Greek Protests Tap into Discontent - Washington Times
Greece: ‘Masked Ones’ Plot Revolution - The Times
California Guardsmen Train for Kosovo Deployment - AFPS
Engaging Russia - Washington Post opinion
Middle East
Gates Plans to Reaffirm US Commitment to Region - AFPS
South Asia
Money Eludes Crackdown on Lashkar - Wall Street Journal
Pakistan Curbs a Leader Tied to Mumbai Attackers - NY Times
Pakistan Cracks Down on Charity Group Implicated in Mumbai Attacks - VOA
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.
13 January - The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948: A Discourse to Shape America’s Discourse (Symposium). Washington, D.C. – at the Reserve Officer’s Association at the intersection of First Street and Constitution Avenue, NE. The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 was passed as the U.S. was beginning a "war of ideology... a war unto death," as America's Ambassador to Russia described it at the time. But, beginning in the 1970's, instead of promoting international engagement through information, cultural and educational exchanges, the law was distorted into a barrier of engagement. From its propaganda and counter-propaganda intentions, it transformed into an anti-propaganda law for reasons that had little to nothing to do with concerns over domestic influence and far removed from the original intent of the law. Keynotes will be given by Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy James K. Glassman and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Support to Public Diplomacy Michael Doran. There will be four 90 minute panels – past, present, future, and Congress – that will emphasize Q&A, discourse, and debate and not presentations or monologues. Registration is free, open to the public, and required to attend. The event will be on the record with a transcript available after the event. A public report based on the proceedings will be produced. Registration and other information can be found at http://mountainrunner.us/symposium.
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.
