From time to time, the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of
tyrants and patriots.
--Thomas Jefferson
ISRAEL / PALESTINIANS
Israel to Continue Gaza Attacks Until Hamas Stops Rockets - Lisa Bryant, Voice of America
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told reporters in France that Israel will not agree to an immediate halt of its attacks on Gaza. She spoke following meetings with French officials.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told reporters that Israel would only decide whether or not to halt its offensive on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip based on a daily assessment of the situation.
A number of country's have called for Israel to accept a ceasefire, but Livni said any truce would be a pretext for the militant Palestinian group to rearm.
More at Voice of America.
Hamas Insider Killed in Israeli Strike on Gaza - Fran Yeoman, The Times
The Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip today claimed a significant blow against the top ranks of Hamas when an air strike killed Nizar Rayyan, one of the movement’s inner circle.
Mr Rayyan, one of Hamas’s most hardline political figures who had advocated renewing suicide bombings inside Israel, died in a targeted strike on his home. He is the most senior Hamas leader to have been killed since 2004, and only yesterday vowed that rocket attacks from Gaza would hit Israel “even deeper” than they have so far.
Medical officials said that another nine people, including two of Rayan’s four wives and four of his 12 children, were killed in the bombing on an eight storey apartment building in Jabalya refugee camp. The airstrike blew a huge hole in the side of the building and sent a thick plume of smoke into the air.
More at The Times, Washington Post, Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, BBC News and Daily Telegraph.
How Hamas is Altering Israeli Politics - Joshua Mitnick, Christian Science Monitor
While war between Israel and Hamas reverberates from Gaza City to southern Israel and to Arab capitals, the fallout will also be felt within the Israeli Knesset.
The fighting is already affecting Israeli public opinion ahead of the Feb. 10 parliamentary vote: Before the offensive began polls showed conservative opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party leading. But now, the hawks are losing ground and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, leader of the center-left Labor Party, and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of centrist Kadima are gaining.
But while it's too early to tell which politician will emerge from the high-stakes Gaza conflict with the upper hand, Israel finds itself once again at a moment of transition as a mix of war and politics promises change for the Jewish state.
More at The Christian Science Monitor and:
Israeli Offensive Enters Seventh Day - Wall Street Journal
IAF Strikes Jabalya Mosque Used as Launching Ground - Jerusalem Post
Israel Steps Up Diplomacy - New York Times
President, President-elect Watch Israel, Hamas Carefully - Voice of America
'Let us Help You Fight Israel in Gaza' - Jerusalem Post
Israel Lets Some Foreigners Leave Gaza - New York Times
Wounded Bodies and Minds - Washington Post
Poll: War Boosting Likud and Labor - Jerusalem Post
Conflict Can Make or Break Ehud Barak's Fortunes - Los Angeles Times
Hamas Fantasy Rules - National Review editorial
Defining Victory for Israel - Washington Post opinion
The Real Problem is Iran - National Review opinion
Israel's 'Victories' in Gaza Come at a Steep Price - CS Monitor opinion
Moral Clarity in Gaza - Washington Post opinion
Gaza Nazis - Washington Times opinion
Israel's Policy Is Perfectly 'Proportionate' - Wall Street Journal opinion
Excessive Force? - National Review opinion
Lessons For Us All in Gaza Bloodshed - The Australian opinion
Responding to Missiles - Washington Times opinion
AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN
Pakistan Drives Militants into Trap - Jason Motlagh, Washington Times
Pakistan's ongoing military offensive in its northwest tribal areas is chasing insurgents across the border, where they are being intercepted by a US-Afghan security initiative, a US commander says.
The level of violence over the past couple of months in the northeastern [Afghan] provinces of Kunar and Nuristan has risen significantly from the same period last year, and is expected to increase another 10 percent to 20 percent in the spring, largely because of the results of operations across the border in Pakistan´s Bajaur region, Army Col. John Spiszer told The Washington Times.
More at The Washington Times.
For Afghans, a Price for Everything, and Anything for a Price - Dexter Filkins, New York Times
When it comes to governing this violent, fractious land, everything, it seems, has its price.
Want to be a provincial police chief? It will cost you $100,000.
Want to drive a convoy of trucks loaded with fuel across the country? Be prepared to pay $6,000 per truck, so the police will not tip off the Taliban.
Need to settle a lawsuit over the ownership of your house? About $25,000, depending on the judge.
“It is very shameful, but probably I will pay the bribe,” Mohammed Naim, a young English teacher, said as he stood in front of the Secondary Courthouse in Kabul. His brother had been arrested a week before, and the police were demanding $4,000 for his release. “Everything is possible in this country now. Everything.”
More at The New York Times.
Afghanistan and Pakistan Take Center Stage in 2009 - Anand Gopal, Christian Science Monitor
At times in 2008 Afghanistan eclipsed Iraq in levels of violence, and international attention is returning to the country for the first time since 2001. With the Obama administration planning a massive troop increase, Afghanistan and Pakistan look to be at the center of the administration's foreign policy for 2009.
The incoming Obama administration pledges to focus more attention on Afghanistan and Pakistan, which critics say were overshadowed by Iraq in recent years. As many as 20,000 additional troops may head to Afghanistan this year. Many of these troops will be deployed in provinces close to Kabul, which currently do not have a significant international presence and are largely under insurgent control.
Military officials say that the additional troops are needed to build a permanent presence in villages and towns. "It doesn't help when [we] go into villages, hand out soccer balls, kill a few insurgents, and then go away," says an officer with NATO forces, who requested anonymity when speaking about military strategy. Instead, he says troops need to hold the territory they have gained and initiate reconstruction projects so that the local population can see the benefits of their presence.
More at The Christian Science Monitor.
IRAQ
Green Zone Handed Off With Little Fanfare - Amit R. Paley, Washington Post
The handover of the Green Zone from US to Iraqi control Thursday presented such a powerful symbol of the waning American presence in Iraq that it would have been nearly impossible for both sides not to mark it with a formal ceremony.
They did, but the ceremony wasn't much. A podium was set up in the middle of a dirty street. Five small balloons and some tinsel decorated a seating area. The American ambassador and the top commander of US troops didn't show up. Neither did Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Maliki instead attended an unannounced event where he watched what might have been one of the most stirring signs of the new Iraq: the raising of the Iraqi flag over what just a day earlier had been the US Embassy. The decision to keep reporters away from this ceremony hinted at the unease and uncertainty both sides feel about the transition.
More at the Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Times.
Iraq-US 'Partnership' is in 'Transition' - Ned Parker and Ali Hameed, Los Angeles Times
On the first day of the new era, the Iraqi soldiers were still following US soldiers' instructions on what route to take and whom to talk to. The Americans motioned when to ask residents for information about recent Sunni militant attacks or to tell residents that Iraqi forces, not the Americans, were now in charge here.
The early-morning patrol underscored the delicate nature of what everyone calls a transition, where the American officers refer to their job as partnering with Iraqi combat units, now that a US-Iraq security pact has gone into effect. Under the agreement, which replaced the UN mandate that made US forces responsible for Iraq's security, the Americans must now ask the Iraqis permission for any operation. The pact calls for US forces to leave cities by the end of June and to withdraw from the country by the end of 2011.
Both Iraqi and American soldiers on patrol said that the leadership of raids now varies from mission to mission. Sometimes the Americans lead, other times the Iraqis.
More at The Los Angeles Times.
In Iraq, the Day After - Anthony Shadid, Washington Post
For anyone returning to Baghdad after spending time here during its darkest days two years ago, when it was paralyzed by sectarian hatred and overrun by gunmen sowing despair, the conclusion seemed inescapable.
"The war has ended," said Heidar al-Abboudi, a street merchant.
The war in Iraq is indeed over, at least the conflict as it was understood during its first five years: insurgency, communal cleansing, gangland turf battles and an anarchic, often futile quest to survive. In other words, civil war -- though civil war was always too tidy a term for it. The entropy, for now at least, has run its course. So have many of the forces the United States so dangerously unleashed with its 2003 invasion, turning Iraq into an atomized, fractured land seized by a paroxysm of brutality. In that Iraq, the Americans were the final arbiter and, as a result, deprived anything they left behind of legitimacy.
More at The Washington Post.
MEXICO
Obama Faces Mexican Drug War - Jerry Seper, Washington Times
Add another pressing challenge to President-elect Barack Obama's growing to-do list - tamping down a dramatic rise in violence and corruption that has overwhelmed the US-Mexico border and spread an escalating turf fight between warring drug cartels into the United States.
Near-daily shootouts and ambushes along the southwestern border pose a serious threat, according to separate government reports, which predict a rise in "deadly force" against law enforcement officers, first responders and US border residents.
More at The Washington Times.
NEWS & OPINION NOTES
Afghanistan / Pakistan Tribal Areas
'Forty Held' in Khyber Operation - BBC News
Royal Marine Dies in Bloody Day in Afghanistan - The Times
Taleban Ambush Kills 20 Policemen - BBC News
Iraq
US Turns Over Green Zone Security Responsibility to Iraq - AFPS
Nelson Silent on Iraq Rocket Near Miss - The Australian
Sovereign at Last - The Times editorial
Iran
Iranian Raid on Ebadi Condemned - BBC News
The Woman the Mullahs Fear - New York Times editorial
Obama Promises Bush III on Iran - Wall Street Journal opinion
India / China
The Next World Order - New York Times opinion
The Long War
UK May Take More Gitmo Detainees - Wall Street Journal
UK Call to Help Close Guantanamo - BBC News
UK: Miliband Urged to Clarify Guantanamo 'Deal' - Daily Telegraph
Australia:Turnbull Attacks Gitmo Detainee Deal - The Australian
Australia: Rudd ready for Guantanamo Bay Inmates - The Australian
United States
Two Advisers Reflect on Eight Years With Bush - Washington Post
United Kingdom
Troops will Face More Robust Courts Martial - The Times
Biggest Threat to Our Future Lies Abroad - Daily Telegraph
We Didn't Join the EU for Defence Reasons - Daily Telegraph opinion
Africa
UN Shifts Tactic on Africa Hunger - Wall Street Journal
UNHCR Appeals for More UN, Congolese Troops to Protect Civilians - VOA
Rebels 'Advancing Towards CAR' - BBC News
Somali Pirates Seize Egyptian Ship - Associated Press
Somali Pirate Clampdown 'Working' - BBC News
Ghana's Ruling-Party Boycotting Friday Vote - Voice of America
Ghana's Ruling Party Tries to Stop Vote - Daily Telegraph
Ghana Party to Boycott Key Vote - BBC News
Anti-apartheid Icon Suzman Dies - BBC News
Only a Military Invasion Can Save Zimbabwe - The Times opinion
Americas
Mexico, US Cap a Record Year of Extraditions - Wall Street Journal
Cuban Exiles Feel Strain, Not Celebration on Revolution's Anniversary - VOA
Cuba Marks Revolution’s Anniversary - New York Times
Cuba Marks 50 Years of Revolution - BBC News
Cuba Celebrates Revolution's 50th Anniversary - Associated Press
Cuba Policy: Fifty Years of Failure - Washington Post editorial
Preval Forecasts Grim 2009 for Haitians - Agence France-Presse
Asia-Pacific
North Korea Message is Mild on US - BBC News
China and Vietnam Agree on Borders - BBC News
Burma Releases 19 North Koreans into Thailand - Kyodo
Europe
Russia Ends Jury Trials for 'Crimes Against State' - Los Angeles Times
Ukraine Hit With Gas Cut-Off - Voice of America
Russia Cuts Off Gas Deliveries to Ukraine - New York Times
Russia Turns Off the Gas - Daily Telegraph editorial
Czech Republic Assumes EU Presidency - Voice of America
The Euro Decade and Its Lessons - Wall Street Journal editorial
Middle East
Mideast Oil Debate Begins Anew - Washington Times opinon
South Asia
Sri Lanka Army 'Seizes Key Area' - BBC News
Troops Said to Enter Sri Lankan Rebel Capital - Associated Press
BOOKS
The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 - Thomas Ricks
Thomas E. Ricks uses hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with top officers in Iraq and extraordinary on-the-ground reportage to document the inside story of the Iraq War since late 2005 as only he can, examining the events that took place as the military was forced to reckon with itself, the surge was launched, and a very different war began.
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
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.
