grows out of mistakes.
--General Omar N. Bradley
AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN TRIBAL AREAS
Agencies Prep Obama for 'Tourniquet' on Afghanistan - Julian Barnes, Los Angeles Times
The Pentagon and US national security officials are transmitting a battery of new information about the Afghanistan war to President-elect Barack Obama's transition team in hopes that the incoming administration will act quickly to prevent US fortunes there from eroding further.
The effort underscores a sense of urgency about addressing an increasingly dangerous situation in Afghanistan. Many military leaders think a broad strategic shift is needed to reverse the growing violence and to turn back troubling advances by the Taliban and other extremists.
Obama's staff is being given detailed information on the findings of separate strategy reviews by the Pentagon and the White House National Security Council. The reviews cover proposals to beef up US force levels, improve coordination among government agencies and overhaul US foreign aid efforts, including to countries such as Pakistan.
More at The Los Angeles Times.
US to Fund Afghan Militias, Applying Iraq Tactic - Yochi Dreazen, Wall Street Journal
The Afghan government will formally start a US-funded effort to recruit armed local militias in the battle against the Taliban in remote parts of the country, exporting the tactic to Afghanistan from Iraq. The first militias will be established in Wardak Province, in eastern Afghanistan, in coming weeks, officials said. If the effort in Wardak is successful, US commanders hope to create similar forces in other parts of Afghanistan in early 2009.
The militia push is part of a growing American effort to bypass the struggling Afghan central government and funnel resources to Afghan villages and provinces. Senior American officials have stepped up their criticism of Afghan President Hamid Karzai in recent weeks, making clear that they believe his government needs to do more to fight corruption and deliver basic services.
In Iraq, the US decision to recruit tens of thousands of Sunni Arab fighters, including many former insurgents, is widely credited with improving the country's security situation.
More at The Wall Street Journal.
Afghanistan's President Karzai Laments Coalition Use of 'Thugs' - Kim Baker, Los Angeles Times
Afghan President Hamid Karzai sat down to talk with Chicago Tribune correspondent Kim Barker in Kabul last week. Karzai reacted to criticisms by Barack Obama made while still a candidate for the US presidency, criticized in turn American-led military operations in his country and called for focusing the fight against terrorism more on neighboring Pakistan than Afghanistan. Excerpts from the interview are at the link.
More at The Los Angeles Times.
Pentagon Confirms Reports More US Forces to be Sent to Afghanistan - Al Pessin, Voice of America
The Pentagon has confirmed reports that it will send a helicopter unit to Afghanistan early next year to support thousands of additional ground troops it plans to deploy to join NATO's force in the country.
Officials say the combat aviation brigade from the US Army will deploy between April and June with 2800 troops and 89 helicopters. The aircraft will be capable of transport, reconnaissance and medical evacuation missions, and 18 will be assault helicopters.
The aviation unit will support as many as four additional ground combat brigades the United States plans to send to Afghanistan, with the first preparing to go in January. The US and NATO commander there, General David McKiernan, says he needs the troops to fight a growing Taliban insurgency and provide greater security, to facilitate construction and development efforts.
The four ground brigades could number as many as 20,000 troops, and on Saturday the top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, said adding the aviation unit and other support troops the total could reach 30,000, which would nearly double the US troop commitment to Afghanistan. On Monday, VOA learned officials expect the final total to be more like 25,000 additional troops, and that some might not make it to Afghanistan until 2010.
More at Voice of America.
A Surge of Special Forces for Afghanistan Likely - Gordon Lubold, Christian Science Monitor
The Pentagon is likely to send up to 20 Special Forces teams to Afghanistan this spring, part of a new long-term strategy to boost the Afghan security forces' ability to counter the insurgency there themselves.
The "surge" of elite Special Forces units would represent a multiyear effort aimed at strengthening the Afghan National Army and police units that the US sees as key to building up Afghanistan's security independence, say defense officials who asked to remain anonymous because the controversial decision has not yet been announced. The US already plans to send thousands of additional conventional forces to Afghanistan sometime next year. But it is hamstrung by limited availability since so many of those forces are still in Iraq.
The deployment of the Green Berets, the independent, multifaceted force skilled at training indigenous forces, could fill critical gaps in Afghanistan almost immediately, defense officials say.
More at The Christian Science Monitor.
US Military Eyes Alarming Spike in Attacks on Key Supply Convoys Into Afghanistan - Anna Mulrine, US News and World Report
As the Pentagon prepares to nearly double the number of US troops in Afghanistan next year, the urgent question now occupying planners is just how the US military is going to get its soldiers the food and fuel they need in the face of increasingly devastating attacks on supply convoys.
Right now, roughly three quarters of supplies for US troops run either through or over Pakistan, from the country's southern port of Karachi to the Khyber Pass. Some 150 truckloads of supplies travel the road from Pakistan to Afghanistan daily.
The problem is an alarming upswing in attacks by the Taliban and other insurgent groups, which alternately steal and destroy vital NATO equipment. In one week in December, insurgents set fire to 300 trucks carrying supplies, including military vehicles. Another recent raid destroyed a dozen trucks carrying humvees. On Saturday, the Taliban fired rockets at fuel tankers, killing three drivers.
The attacks are creating anxiety at the top levels of the Department of Defense. "I've had a concern about this for months," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in a December 10 Pentagon briefing. The convoys are both a lifeline for US troops and, adds Mullen, "a single point of failure" for US forces.
More at US News and World Report.
Obstacle in Bid to Curb Afghan Trade in Narcotics - Thom Shanker, New York Times
A drive by the NATO alliance to disrupt Afghanistan’s drug trade has been hobbled by new objections from member nations that say their laws do not permit soldiers to carry out such operations, according to senior commanders here.
The objections are being raised despite an agreement two months ago that the alliance’s campaign in Afghanistan would be broadened to include attacks on narcotics facilities, traffickers, middlemen and drug lords whose profits help to finance insurgent groups.
During a recent visit here, Gen. John Craddock, NATO’s supreme allied commander, expressed surprise upon learning of what he described as a gap between the decision by alliance defense ministers to authorize aggressive counternarcotics missions and the lack of follow-through because of objections from several of the countries that make up the NATO force in Afghanistan.
More at The New York Times.
PAKISTAN
Mullen Urges Trials for Terror Suspects - Sara Carter, Washington Times
Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen urged Pakistani leaders on Monday to prosecute cases against members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant group charged with carrying out last month's terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
Adm. Mullen, on the final stop of a trip to greet US troops for the Christmas holiday, also called on Pakistan to shut down terrorist training camps in the country.
The visit occurred as suspected US missile strikes killed eight people in northwest Pakistan near the Afghan border and an Indian official warned that India might take military action if Pakistan failed to bring those responsible for the Mumbai killings to justice.
More at The Washington Times.
THE LONG WAR
European Countries May Take Detainees - Peter Finn, Washington Post
European nations have begun intensive discussions both within and among their governments on whether to resettle detainees from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a significant overture to the incoming Obama administration, according to senior European officials and US diplomats.
The willingness to consider accepting prisoners who cannot be returned to their home countries, because of fears they may be tortured there, represents a major change in attitude on the part of European governments. Repeated requests from the Bush administration that European allies accept some Guantanamo Bay detainees received only refusals.
More at The Washington Post.
US DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Clinton Moves to Widen Role of State Department - Mark Landler and Helene Cooper, New York Times
Even before taking office, Hillary Rodham Clinton is seeking to build a more powerful State Department, with a bigger budget, high-profile special envoys to trouble spots and an expanded role in dealing with global economic issues at a time of crisis.
Mrs. Clinton is recruiting Jacob J. Lew, the budget director under President Bill Clinton, as one of two deputies, according to people close to the Obama transition team. Mr. Lew’s focus, they said, will be on increasing the share of financing that goes to the diplomatic corps. He and James B. Steinberg, a deputy national security adviser in the Clinton administration, are to be Mrs. Clinton’s chief lieutenants.
More at The New York Times.
UNITED NATIONS
UN Agreement and Disagreement - Washington Times editorial
Can't we all just get along? Well, sometimes, judging from a trio of UN developments in recent days.
On the positive side, the UN Security Council voted unanimously to approve a resolution, proposed in person by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to authorize nations to conduct land and air attacks on pirate bases in Somalia. On the negative side, Islamic proposals to ban criticism of religion threaten to doom an already shaky UN anti-racism conference planned for April. Somewhere on the yet-to-be-determined side is the third issue of gay rights, where the UN General Assembly stalled on a European-drafted statement calling for decriminalization of homosexuality after the statement prompted an Arab-backed one opposing it.
More at The Washington Times.
NEWS & OPINION NOTES
Afghanistan / Pakistan Tribal Areas
Karzai Questions US Military Chief on Troops - Associated Press
Obama May Want Diggers for Taliban War - The Australian
NATO Allows Forces to Cooperate in Attacking Drug/Taliban Nexus - AFPS
NATO Operations Chief Discusses Deployments, Caveats - AFPS
Gates Approves Deployment of Aviation Brigade to Afghanistan - AFPS
Army Chief of Staff Visits Soldiers in Afghanistan - AFPS
Afghans, Coalition Respond to Bombs, Drugs in Southern Afghanistan - AFPS
Missiles Kill Eight People in Pakistan - Associated Press
Afghan Farmer Helps Convict Taliban Member - Washington Post
Afghan Parents Selling Sons to Survive - Daily Telegraph
Sharing the Burden of Afghanistan - Daily Telegraph editorial
Iraq
Winning Hearts and Minds - United Press International
Parliament to Vote on Fate of Non-US Foreign Troops - Voice of America
Iraq Fails to Seal UK Troop Deal - Daily Telegraph
Diggers Get Green Light for Iraq Role - The Australian
Daily Attacks in Iraq Drop Nearly 95 Percent - AFPS
Experts Advise Obama on Iraq Strategy - United Press International
Security Council Extends Protection of Iraq’s Assets - New York Times
Charges Dismissed in Iraq Against Ministry Detainees - New York Times
Iraqi Row Delays Crucial Vote on UK Mandate - The Times
Iraq Shoe-thrower Set for Trial - BBC News
Iraqi Shoe-Thrower Defiant, His Brother Says After Visit - Washington Post
The Shoe is Mightier than the Grenade - The Times opinion
Iraq's Year of Elections - Washington Post opinion
Iran
Bush Pushes Persian Gulf Nuclear Agreement - Christian Science Monitor
Russia Denies Selling Missile System to Iran - New York Times
Conflicting Reports on Iran-Russia Missile Deal - Los Angeles Times
Iranian Resistance Group Criticizes Iraq’s Efforts to Expel It - New York Times
The Long War
Cheney Calls Absence of Post-9/11 Attacks ‘Remarkable Achievement’ - AFPS
Jury Convicts 5 Men in US Army Base Plot - Voice of America
Five Found Guilty in Fort Dix Plot - Wall Street Journal
Five Men Convicted in Plot to Kill US Soldiers - Washington Post
Five Convicted of Plotting to Kill Ft. Dix Soldiers - Los Angeles Times
Five Guilty of US Army Base Plot - BBC News
The Domestic Threat - Wall Street Journal editorial
Interrogation Wiggle Room? - Washington Post editorial
The Price of Security - Wall Street Journal opinion
United States
1989 Bombing Families Victory Over Libya Nullified - Washington Post
Obama's Fusion Cabinet - Christian Science Monitor editorial
The World According to Cheney - New York Times editorial
Bush Doctrine: Half a Bad Rap - Washington Times opinion
The Military We Need - Weekly Standard opinion
The President Comforts a Marine Mom - Wall Street Journal opinion
Canada
Conservatives Appointed as Senators in Canada - New York Times
Australia
Haneef Inquiry Sparks Australian Terror Law Revamp - The Times
World
Aid Group: Somalia, Congo, Burma Among Top 10 Crises - Voice of America
UN: Millions of Refugees Languish in Camps for Decades - Voice of America
The Oil Curse - United Press International
Africa
Britain Says Mugabe Must Step Aside - Daily Telegraph
Businessmen Urged to Quit Mugabe Regime - The Times
Britain Can Help Push to Get Mugabe Out of Zimbabwe - The Times opinion
Zimbabwe Faces a Grim Future - The Australian opinion
Troubled Somalia AU Mission Extended - BBC News
Somalia Facing 'Hidden Genocide' - BBC News
Islamists Oppose Pirates on Somali Coast - Voice of America
Ghana’s Image Beginning to Show a Few Blemishes - New York Times
Americas
Soldiers Beheaded in Mexican Drug Wars - The Times
US Joins Talk in Moscow on Latin America - Associated Press
Asia Pacific
China's Communist Party Cautiously Celebrates Reforms - CS Monitor
China Sets Sail - The Times editorial
New Government Takes Office in Thailand - Washington Post
Crises Waiting, Government Is Sworn in by Thai King - New York Times
Thailand's Ailing King Urges Peace - The Times
East Timor 'at Risk of Anarchy' Says UN Report - The Australian
East Timor on Brink of Anarchy Admits UN - The Times
Let's Confront North Korea on Human Rights - Wall Street Journal opinion
Europe
Political Choice Reveals Russia's Unsettledness - Washington Post
Russian Lawmakers Back Longer Presidency - New York Times
European Group to End Georgia Mission - New York Times
Georgia: Russia Blamed for Monitor Pullout - BBC News
Grievances Rise Among Young Europeans - Christian Science Monitor
Bulgaria 'Needs Time to Defeat Corruption' - The Times
Azerbaijan Threatens to Muzzle Independent Radio - Christian Science Monitor
Middle East
Israel Considers Major Offensive in Response to Gaza Rocket Fire - VOA
Hamas Calls 24-Hour Truce with Israel - Voice of America
Hamas Orders Fighters to Hold Fire - Washington Post
Domestic Politics Fuels Gaza Conflict - Christian Science Monitor
More Rockets From Gaza - Washington Post editorial
Lebanon: Beware of Russians with Gifts - United Press International
Saudi Arabia to Boost Spending - Wall Street Journal
South Asia
India Prepared for All Measures if Pakistan Fails to Act Against Extremists - VOA
Pakistani Jets Scramble As India Hardens Tone - Washington Post
India Gives Pakistan Letter Said to Be Gunman’s - New York Times
Mumbai Gunman 'Requests Pakistan Help' - BBC News
Heavy Fighting in North Sri Lanka - BBC News
Nepalese Maoists Attack Publishing Company - Voice of America
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.
