--Field Marshal Prince Aleksandr V. Suvorov
AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN TRIBAL AREAS
Poll of Afghans Shows Drop In Support for US Mission - Jon Cohen and Jennifer Agiesta, Washington Post
A new poll in Afghanistan shows sagging support for US efforts in that country, with airstrikes a chief concern. A quarter of the Afghans polled said that attacks on American or allied forces are justifiable, double the proportion saying so in late 2006.
The poll, the fourth conducted in Afghanistan since 2005 by ABC News and its media partners, also shows plummeting support for President Hamid Karzai and the Afghan government, and a sharp decline in the proportion of people who think the nation is heading in the right direction. The vast majority of Afghans consider public corruption to be a problem, and there are widespread complaints about unemployment, high prices and spotty electrical service.
More at The Washington Post.
David Miliband: NATO Troops Stuck in an Afghanistan 'Stalemate' - Michael Evans, Tom Coghlan ands James Bone, The Times
Britain and her NATO allies in Afghanistan are stuck in a stalemate with the Taleban, David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, admitted yesterday.
His pessimistic view of military progress in Afghanistan coincided with a new poll of Afghans which reveals that confidence in the future is significantly lower than it was three years ago.
The poll of 1,500 people in Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, commissioned by the BBC and two other international broadcasters, found that only 40 per cent of Afghans still believed their country was heading in the right direction, compared with 77 per cent in 2005. Mr Miliband said the figures were realistic.
More at The Times.
The Taliban in Pakistan Are Raising US Fears - Eric Schmitt and Mark Mazzetti, New York Times
Even as CIA drone aircraft pound Al Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal region, there is growing concern among American military and intelligence officials about different militants’ havens in Pakistan that they fear could thwart American military efforts in Afghanistan this year.
American officials are increasingly focusing on the Pakistani city of Quetta, where Taliban leaders are believed to play a significant role in stirring violence in southern Afghanistan. The Taliban operations in Quetta are different from operations in the mountainous tribal areas of Pakistan that have until now been the main setting for American unease.
But as the United States prepares to pour as many as 30,000 additional troops into Afghanistan, military and intelligence officials say the effort could be futile unless there is a concerted effort to kill or capture Taliban leaders in Quetta and cut the group’s supply lines into Afghanistan.
More at The New York Times.
Obama Warning on Pakistan 'Haven' - BBC News
US President Barack Obama has said his administration will not allow "safe havens" for militants in Pakistan's tribal region bordering Afghanistan. Mr Obama's comments at his first White House prime-time news conference came as his envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, arrived in Pakistan.
Mr Holbrooke, who said he was there to "listen and learn" about the region, began key meetings on Tuesday. Mr Holbrooke earlier said the situation in Pakistan was "dire".
More at BBC News.
Planning Victory in Afghanistan - Frederick W. Kagan, National Review opinion
President Obama has said many times that America must succeed in Afghanistan. He is right, and he deserves our full support in that effort.
Afghanistan is in many respects harder to understand than Iraq was. Even with a good strategy and sufficient resources, success will almost certainly come much more slowly. But as a great man said two years ago, hard is not hopeless.
The keys to finding the right approach lie in nine fundamental principles.
More at National Review.
IRAQ
After Iraqi Elections, Next Big Test Is Acceptance - Steven Lee Meyers and Sam Dagher, New York Times
The postelection curfew has been lifted, the threats of violence muted after the intervention of envoys from the Iraqi Army, the central government and the United States Marines. A cacophonous bustle has returned to the filthy, shattered streets of this provincial capital, once a base of the Sunni insurgency.
And still Faris Taha, one of the election’s victors, according to preliminary results, is too fearful to return to the region he will soon represent. “I cannot go back,” he said, having retreated from his hometown east of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province, to a hotel in Baghdad’s Green Zone. “I am afraid.”
Iraq’s provincial elections on Jan. 31 passed with strikingly little mayhem, raising hopes that democracy might take hold. But in Anbar, as in other volatile provinces, the results that were supposed to augur peace have instead fueled tensions, raising the specter of violence among those vying for political power.
More at The New York Times.
ISRAEL
Israelis Vote in Volatile Contest for New Leader - Isabel Kershner, New York Times
Israeli voters went to the polls Tuesday with public opinion polls showing many still wavering until the last minute in deciding whom to support.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative Likud Party has led in all the recent polls, with the centrist Kadima Party, led by Tzipi Livni, the current foreign minister, following close behind. The narrowing of the gap between them in the last few days injected a measure of energy into what had been a largely listless campaign.
More at The New York Times and:
Anxiety and Resignation Ahead of Israeli Vote - Washington Post
Disillusioned Israelis Go to the Polls - Los Angeles Times
Polls Open in Israel's Election - BBC News
Lebanese Doubtful Israel Election Will Improve Relations - Voice of America
As Israelis Vote, It's All About War and Peace - Christian Science Monitor
Israel's Right Turn - Los Angeles Times editorial
Israel's War Referendum - Washington Times editorial
Peace Off Agenda in Israeli Election - The Australian opinion
MORE NEWS AND OPINION
Afghanistan / Pakistan Tribal Areas
NATO Commander Encouraged by Afghanistan Discussions in Munich - AFPS
Afghanistan: It Will Be Tougher Than We Think - The Times opinion
One Path in Afghanistan - Washington Post opinion
Race Against Time in Afghanistan - Washington Post opinion
Back to Basics in Afghanistan - Washington Times opinion
Iraq
4 US Troops, Interpeter Killed in Blast in N. Iraq - Washington Post
Suicide Bomber Kills 4 US Soldiers in Iraq - Los Angeles Times
Security Improves in Iraqi Province, but Long-term Work Remains - AFPS
Sarkozy Arrives on First Iraq Visit - Associated Press
The Gamble by Thomas E. Ricks - Los Angeles Times book review
A Drama-Free Election - Weekly Standard opinon
Iran
Talk Shifts from Revolution to Democracy - Los Angeles Times
US Wants Iran Talks 'In Coming Months' - Agence France-Presse
1977: 'There Was No Civilisation, No Law' - The Times
Speaking of Missile Launches - Washington Times editorial
Iran: Remember Jekyll as Well as Hyde - Daily Telegaph opinion
The Long War
Miranda Rule May Hamper Detainee Trials - Los Angeles Times
Appeals Court Urged to Reject Rendition Case - Los Angeles Times
US Department of Defense
Army Halts Germ Research at Lab - Washington Times
Army Suspends Germ Research at Maryland Lab - New York Times
Lynn to Face Recusal Difficulties - Washington Times
Biden's Missile Catch-22 - Washington Times editorial
Is an Empire Necessary? - Washington Times opinion
United States
Justice Invokes 'State Secrets' Defense - Washington Post
Obama Asks For Review Of Online Security - Associated Press
Up the Academy - Weekly Standard opinion
Australia
Victoria Bushfires - The Australian full coverage
Victoria Bushfires - Daily Telegraph full coverage
Victoria Bushfires - Sydney Morning Herald full coverage
Victoria Bushfires - Canberra Times full Coverage
Australia Alerts Issued as Inferno Hit Towns - The Times
Australian Bush Fires: Death Toll Could Reach 230 - Daily Telegraph
Arson Suspected in Deadly Australia Fires - Washington Post
Australian Fire Toll is Growing - Los Angeles Times
Australia Fires Point to Risks of Shifting Population - Wall Street Journal
Wildfires May Amount to Mass Murder - Associated Press
Vow to Rebuild Fire-hit Australia - BBC News
United Nations
US Eyes Bid for UN Rights Council - Washington Times
UN Chief Wants Obama at Climate-Change Summit - Washington Post
Africa
Mugabe Binges on Caviar as Zimbabwe Starves - The Times
Sudan Government, Rebels Set to Start Talks in Qatar - Voice of America
Madagascar Defense Minister Resigns After Bloodshed - Voice of America
Blow to ANC as Overseas South Africans Given Right to Vote - Daily Telegraph
Court Backs S Africa Exile Vote - BBC News
Sierra Leone: FGM Group 'Kidnaps Journalists' - BBC News
Somali President Makes Peace Plea - BBC News
Americas
Bolivia: Mineral Wealth, Political Weapon - Washington Times
Police Chief Questioned Over 3 Slayings Outside Cancun - Associated Press
Synagogue Suspects Held in Venezuela - BBC News
Asia Pacific
Commander of US Forces in S. Korea Warns North to 'Act Responsibly' - VOA
North Korea Raises Tensions Ahead of Clinton Visit - Christian Science Monitor
China Defends Rights Record to UN Panel - Washington Post
A To-do List for Clinton's China Trip - Los Angeles Times opinion
Middle East
New Drive for Israel, Hamas Cease-fire Deal - Christian Science Monitor
Egypt: New Gaza Truce Possible Soon - Voice of America
Not Another Lebanon - Washington Post opinion
South Asia
Pakistan Wants More Evidence in Mumbai Attacks - Washington Post
Pakistan Delays Mumbai Report - Wall Street Journal
Female Suicide Bomber Strikes Sri Lanka, 28 Killed - Voice of America
Sri Lanka: Female Bomber Hiding Among Refugees Kills 28 - The Times
Tamil Tiger Suicide Bomber Kills 28 - Washington Post
Sri Lanka Suicide Bombing Kills 28 - Los Angeles Times
Police Die in India Rebel Attack - BBC News
BOOKS
Great Powers: America and the World after Bush - Thomas P.M. Barnett
In civilian and military circles alike, The Pentagon’s New Map became one of the most talked about books of 2004. “A combination of Tom Friedman on globalization and Carl von Clausewitz on war, [it is] the red-hot book among the nation’s admirals and generals,” wrote David Ignatius in The Washington Post. Barnett’s second book, Blueprint for Action, demonstrated how to put the first book’s principles to work. Now, in Great Powers, Barnett delivers his most sweeping - and important - book of all.
The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One - David Kilcullen
A remarkably fresh perspective on the War on Terror. Kilcullen takes us "on the ground" to uncover the face of modern warfare, illuminating both the big global war (the "War on Terrorism") and its relation to the associated "small wars" across the globe: Iraq, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Chechnya, Pakistan and North Africa.
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
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.
