So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak.
--Sun Tzu
US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Pentagon Rethinking Old Doctrine on 2 Wars - Thom Shanker, New York Times
The protracted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are forcing the Obama administration to rethink what for more than two decades has been a central premise of American strategy: that the nation need only prepare to fight two major wars at a time.
For more than six years now, the United States has in fact been fighting two wars, with more than 170,000 troops now deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. The military has openly acknowledged that the wars have left troops and equipment severely strained, and has said that it would be difficult to carry out any kind of significant operation elsewhere.
To some extent, fears have faded that the United States may actually have to fight, say, Russia and North Korea, or China and Iran, at the same time. But if Iraq and Afghanistan were never formidable foes in conventional terms, they have already tied up the American military for a period longer than World War II.
More at The New York Times.
AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN TRIBAL AREAS
Troops Face New Tests in Afghanistan - Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post
Lt. Col. Daniel Hurlbut rolled into this dusty Taliban stronghold in September with a battalion of US Army infantrymen and a detailed, year-long plan to combat the Taliban. The first quarter was to be devoted to reconnaissance. The next three months would involve military operations to root out insurgents. By now, his unit should have been focusing on reconstruction and building up the local government.
But the battalion's efforts to pry information about the Taliban from the local population -- by conducting foot patrols, doling out money for mosques to buy new prayer rugs, and offering agricultural assistance to subsistence farmers -- have been met with indifference, if not downright hostility.
More at The Washington Post.
Taliban Leader Mullah Omar Agrees to Peace Meeting - Christina Lamb, The Australian
Taliban leader Mullah Omar has given his approval for talks aimed at ending the war in Afghanistan and has allowed his representatives to attend Saudi-sponsored peace negotiations.
"Mullah Omar has given the green light to talks," said one of the mediators, Abdullah Anas, a former friend of Osama bin Laden who used to fight in Afghanistan but now lives in London.
A source negotiating for the Afghan Government confirmed: "It's extremely sensitive but we have been in contact both with Mullah Omar's direct representatives and commanders from the front line."
The breakthrough emerged after President Barack Obama admitted that US-led forces were not winning the war in Afghanistan and called for negotiations with "moderate Taliban".
More at The Australian.
Quiet Crawl to Peace on the Afghan Shuttle - Christina Lamb, The Times
On the dusty airfields of Kandahar and Camp Bastion in southern Afghanistan, frantic construction work is under way to accommodate 17,000 extra US troops who are due to fly in and try to stem the relentless tide of Taliban.
But it is far away, in the diverse settings of a council flat in Greenford, west London, and the marble palaces of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, that hope is increasingly focused on ending the war.
These unlikely locations are the bases for an Algerian former militant and a Saudi prince who are mediators in western-backed negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government. Once a taboo subject in Washington and Whitehall, “talks with the Taliban” are suddenly being presented by western leaders as the only way out of a war they concede they are not winning.
More at The Times.
Yes, We Can - Max Boot, Frederick W. Kagan & Kimberly Kagan, Weekly Standard opinion
If you believe the headlines, Afghanistan is "the graveyard of empires," a "quagmire" and a "fiasco," the place where President Barack Obama will meet his "Vietnam." In the media's imagination, the Taliban are on the march, and Kabul is on the verge of falling to a resurgent insurgency that already controls much of the countryside. Increasing numbers of voices, on both the left and the right, counsel that the war is unwinnable and that we need to radically "downsize" our objectives in order to salvage something from a failing war effort lest we go the way of the Russians or British, previous conquerors who foundered in this merciless land of violence and fanaticism.
Evidence to support the pessimists isn't hard to find. Violence has increased every year since 2001. The United Nations recently reported that there was an especially big jump last year, with civilian deaths up nearly 40 percent, from 1,523 in 2007 to 2,118 in 2008. Coalition deaths were up 27 percent, rising to 294 in 2008 from 232 in 2007. Because of the improving situation in Iraq, there have been a number of months when more U.S. soldiers have died in Afghanistan. Meanwhile the number of Afghans surveyed by ABC, the BBC, and the German network ARD who said that their country was headed in the right direction fell to 40 percent, down from 54 percent in 2007, with security rated as by far the worst problem, outpacing corruption and the economy.
More at The Weekly Standard.
PAKISTAN
Pakistani President Bends to Opposition - Matthew Rosenberg, Zaid Hussain and Jay Solomon, Wall Street Journal
President Asif Ali Zardari's government restored Pakistan's chief justice and made other key concessions to opponents after a day that saw his tenuous grip on the country slip further. The compromise -- announced by the prime minister in a televised address as dawn broke Monday -- appeared likely to end a showdown between Mr. Zardari and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif.
It came after several days of protests and intense pressure on both men from US and British officials. A US official said Washington had warned the disarray could jeopardize desperately needed aid from the US and others. Pakistan's military also pressed Mr. Zardari to yield to the opposition's demands.
More at The Wall Street Journal.
Pakistani Leader Bows to Pressure - Pamela Constable, Washington Post
Unable to crush street protests Sunday that spilled out of this city and threatened to reach the capital, the Pakistani government announced early Monday morning that it would restore the former chief justice of the Supreme Court and a group of other deposed judges in a major capitulation to opponents.
The move reflected the weakening position of President Asif Ali Zardari, a key U.S. ally, but it also signaled a peaceful end to a mounting political crisis in the nuclear-armed Muslim nation of 172 million. Zardari had resisted bringing back former chief justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry for months, but he faced mounting pressure from a broad coalition of opponents who demanded the reinstatement of Pakistan's independent judiciary and threatened to march on the capital, Islamabad, until Chaudhry was brought back.
More at The Washington Post.
Pakistan Leader Backs Down and Reinstates Top Judge - Jane Perlez, New York Times
The Pakistani government agreed early on Monday to reinstate the independent-minded former chief justice of the Supreme Court, a stunning concession to the opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, who had been heading toward the capital in a convoy threatening to stage a mass protest over the issue after he broke free from house arrest at his residence near here.
The concession, broadcast on national television by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, came after a tumultuous weekend in Pakistani politics in which a dispute between President Asif Ali Zardari and Mr. Sharif escalated into a crisis that was destabilizing nuclear-armed Pakistan, already under pressure from a growing Islamic insurgency and severe economic troubles.
More at The New York Times.
Tension Rises in Pakistan after Nawaz Sharif Defies House Arrest to Join 'Long March' - Jeremy Page and Zahid Hussain, The Times
Pakistan’s Government backed down last night in a stand-off with Nawaz Sharif, the opposition leader, after he broke out of house arrest and began a protest march towards the capital, calling it a “prelude to a revolution”.
Asif Ali Zardari, the President, agreed to reinstate Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, the Chief Justice who was deposed by Pervez Musharraf, the former President, in 2007 and who has been the focus of a lawyer’s protest movement ever since, sources told The Times.
Mr Zardari also agreed to lift the presidential rule of Punjab, Pakistan’s biggest province and Mr Sharif’s political stronghold, and to review a ban on Mr Sharif and his brother, Shahbaz, from holding elected office, the sources said.
More at The Times.
Pakistan Protests: Pitch Rises - Ben Arnoldy and Issam Ahmed, Christian Science Monitor
Thousands of protesters in Lahore defied a government crackdown that has shocked Pakistanis and further isolated President Asif Ali Zardari.
Lawyers, activists, and opposition members overran barricades Sunday to reach Lahore's high court. Police there appeared split: Some charged with batons; others handed out water. Both tear gas and celebratory kites filled the air.
Recent efforts to suppress a cross-country protest march – including roundups of activists, tampering with cable news signals, and the alleged house arrest of opposition leader Nawaz Sharif – have many Pakistanis sensing déjà vu of past military regimes. Yet this government was democratically elected with a mandate to undo the dictatorial practices under Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
More at The Christian Science Monitor.
Crisis as Sharif Defies Arrest - Amanda Hodge, The Australian
Former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif last night defied house arrest, leaving his Lahore home to lead a protest march on the capital. Mr Sharif, the most popular political leader in the country, led about 6000 supporters in the banned protest in Lahore, where riot police fired tear gas and clashed with stone-throwing mobs in pitched battles.
He has vowed to reach Islamabad by tonight, but late yesterday was still in Lahore preparing to address anti-Zardari supporters. "We don't accept this decision. The house arrest is illegal and immoral. All these decisions are unconstitutional," he told a crowd after breaking his house arrest order.
More at The Australian and:
Pakistan Protests Turn Violent in Lahore - Voice of America
Protesters Savor Victory in Pakistan - Los Angeles Times
Pakistan to Restore Chief Justice - Associated Press
Pakistan ex-PM Ignores 'Arrest' - BBC News
IRAQ
With Local Control, New Troubles in Iraq - Rod Nordland, New York Times
Iraqis are in many ways taking to heart the adage that all politics is local, as Americans hand over to them ever greater control of affairs in the provinces. That local control, however, has brought more horror stories than successes in the past few days.
In Anbar Province, six former Camp Bucca detainees were on their way home on Friday when local police officers abducted and killed them in revenge for their days as insurgents, according to relatives of the victims. In Wasit Province, a hard-line new police chief appointed by the prime minister has been transferring corrupt policemen out of the area, but local political opponents say that is the reason the local murder rate seems to have doubled.
And in a remote part of northern Diyala Province, Iraqi soldiers surrounded a refugee camp for Iranian dissidents, Camp Ashraf, blockading food and water to the roughly 3,500 residents there. A spokesman for the dissidents’ group, the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, said Sunday that only the presence of Americans had prevented an attack on them.
More at The New York Times.
In Iraq Withdrawal, Equipment Poses a Key Logistical Challenge - Julian Barnes, Los Angeles Times
The American withdrawal from Iraq marks the beginning of one of the largest relocations of military hardware and manpower in recent years. But much of the equipment will not be returning to the United States.
Instead, some will remain with the Iraqi security forces and some will be shipped to Afghanistan. But as important, millions of tons of armor and weaponry will be used to restock huge US-run warehouses across the Middle East -- in case it is needed in the future.
The plans follow a pattern set by the military for the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and again for the troop buildup in 2007, when the Defense Department drew on equipment stored around the Persian Gulf region, including in massive facilities in Kuwait and Qatar.
More at The Los Angeles Times.
SOMALIA
In Somalia, an Exodus of the Educated - Stephanie McCrummen, Washington Post
In the past year, more than 100,000 Somalis have fled the conflict in the Horn of Africa nation, a figure that includes a crucial subset of people who have been deliberately chased away -- the professional class.
During the past several years, professors, lawyers, doctors, engineers, journalists, businessmen, and human rights and peace advocates have joined an exodus that began when Somalia's last central government fell in 1991 and has continued unabated. Even the newly elected president of Somalia's fragile interim government, Sharif Ahmed, has spent more time outside the country than inside, mainly because of security concerns.
More at The Washington Post.
LATIN AMERICA
Leftist Declares Victory In El Salvador Election - William Booth, Washington Post
Mauricio Funes, a former TV newsman who was recruited to run for president, declared himself the winner of El Salvador's presidential contest Sunday night, bringing into power a leftist party built by former guerrillas and ending two decades of conservative rule.
Funes, a dynamic speaker and political outsider who compares himself to President Obama and pledged to be an agent of change in the small Central American nation, was leading the polls late Sunday night with 51.2 percent of the vote and more than 90 percent of the ballots counted. Turnout was high and election day was mostly calm.
More at The Washington Post.
El Salvador Election: Is this a Referendum on Chávez? - Sara Miller Llana, Christian Science Monitor
Salvadorans head to the polls today to vote in a historic election that could give the nation its first leftist president, nearly two decades after Marxist guerrillas and a US-funded military put their arms down to end a 12-year civil war.
This presidential election has, since its inception, been pegged as the newest front in the battle of conservative and liberal ideologies in Latin America.
The conservative ruling party, the Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena), has cautioned that, should the left win, El Salvador will become the next pawn in Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s “21st-century socialism,” which seeks a multipolar world less dependent on the US.
More at The Christian Science Monitor and:
Leftist in El Salvador Claims Victory in Presidential Vote - Wall Street Journal
El Salvador Elects First Leftist President - Los Angeles Times
Leftist Salvadoran Party Wins Vote - Reuters
Salvadoran Ex-rebels Poised to Win - Associated Press
El Salvador to Elect New President Sunday - Voice of America
Marxists on the Verge of Power in El Salvador - The Times
El Salvador Taking a Left Turn - Washington Times editorial
Venezuela : Chávez Tells His Navy to Take Over Key Seaports - Simon Romero, New York Times
President Hugo Chávez ordered the navy on Sunday to seize seaports in states with major petroleum-exporting installations, part of his effort to assert greater control over infrastructure that had come under the dominion of political opponents in regional elections last year.
The move points to a spreading radicalization by Mr. Chávez, as he responds to a slowing economy and the gains made by his opponents. Economic growth slowed in the last quarter to its most sluggish pace in five years, 3.2 percent, weighed down by low oil prices.
In recent weeks, Mr. Chávez’s government announced the nationalization of an Irish-owned eucalyptus-tree plantation and a rice plant controlled by Cargill, the American agricultural giant. Last week, legislators loyal to Mr. Chávez approved a law shifting control of seaports, airports and highways from states to the central government.
More at The New York Times and:
Chávez Tightens his Grip on Transport Hubs - The Times
MORE NEWS AND OPINION
Afghanistan / Pakistan Tribal Areas
Warning to US About Taleban Talks - BBC News
Roadside Bomb Kills 4 Troops in Afghanistan - Associated Press
Afghan Attack Kills 4 US Soldiers - BBC News
Suicide Bomber Kills Six Police in Afghanistan - Reuters
Suicide Bomber Kills Nine in Afghanistan - Associated Press
Iraq
The Iraq We Don't Know - Washington Post opinion
Iran
Iran Issue No. 1 - Washington Post opinion
A 'Back Channel' Appeal to Iran - Los Angeles Times opinion
Iran, Jews and Pragmatism - New York Times opinion
The Long War
Cheney: Obama Policies Will Make US Vulnerable - Washington Times
Cheney: Obama Terrorism Policies Make US Vulnerable - Los Angeles Times
Europe’s Hedging on Inmates Clouds Guantánamo Plans - New York Times
Red Cross Described 'Torture' at CIA Jails - Washington Post
Adrift on Border Security - Washington Times editorial
In Defense of Guantanamo - Washington Post opinion
The Gitmo Five’s Burn Notice - National Review opinion
Saudi Arabia: Jihad, K–12 - National Review opinion
The War on Drugs
9 Bodies Found Near Mexican Drug Hub - Voice of America
Global Gun Control - Washington Times editorial
United Nations
Rudd Must Shun UN anti-Semitism - The Australian opinion
United States
Cheney, Bush Strongly Disagreed on Libby - Washington Post
Foreign Policy Push-Back - Washington Post opinion
Nice Guys Get Finished First? - Washington Times opinion
All You Need Is Diplomacy - Weekly Standard opinion
United Kingdom
Police Chief Plays Down IRA Groups in Ulster - New York Times
More Arrests in Northern Ireland - Wall Street Journal
Senior Republican Arrested Over Soldier Murders - Daily Telegraph
Ex-IRA Members Involved in Barracks Killings - Agence France-Presse
Irish Leader Condemns Killings - Washington Post
Arrests Over Belfast Soldiers' Murder - Agence France-Presse
Arrests of 3 Dissidents in Ulster Killings Stir Riots - New York Times
Why the Killers are Back in Northern Ireland - The Times
Irish Terrorists Like a 'Cornered Animal' - The Times
Number of Irish Dissidents 'Tiny' - BBC News
Hate Cleric Leads Jihad Cash Appeal - The Times
Firebrand Risks Jail in Call for Jihad Cash - The Times
In Depth: al-Muhajiroun - The Times
We Should Just Laugh at These Clowns - The Times opinion
Ireland’s Tough Peace - New York Times opinion
Africa
Clashes Between Somali Islamists Kill 15 - Voice of America
UN Official Says 3 Employees Kidnapped in Somalia - Associated Press
Zimbabwe: The Miserable Fate of Mugabe's Orphans - The Times
Village Raids Kill Over 200 in the South of Sudan - Reuters
Kidnapping Aid Workers: Part of Sudan's Strategy? - Christian Science Monitor
Sudan: The World's Great Genocide Test - Washington Times opinion
Mauritanian Military to Proceed With Polls Despite Opposition - Voice of America
Madagascar on Brink as Opposition Claims Power - The Times
Madagascar President Offers Poll - BBC News
Ugandan Army Begins Congo Pullout - BBC News
UN Takes Command of EU Force in Chad - Associated Press
EU Peacekeeping Handover in Chad - BBC News
Pope Preparing for Trip to Africa - New York Times
Libya Complains - New York Times editorial
Where are Africa's Obamas? - Los Angeles Times opinion
Americas
Russia Eyes Bomber Bases in Latin America - Christian Science Monitor
Asia Pacific
Tibetan Exiles Cautiously Welcome Chinese Talks - Voice of America
China Tightens Grip as Tibet Revolt Hits 50-Year Mark - Washington Post
Tibet Cabinet Says Talks With China Are Welcome - New York Times
S. Korea: Border Ban 'Regrettable' - Associated Press
Burma's Bullies - Washington Post editorial
Europe
Hundreds Arrested: Coup Plot Thickens in Istanbul - Associated Press
Relaunching NATO-Russia Ties - Washington Times opinion
Middle East
Old Israel Foes Take Different Tacks - The Australian
Israel Pushes for Prisoner Swap With Hamas - Voice of America
Israel's Olmert Sets Deadline for Prisoner Release - Associated Press
2 Israeli Policemen Killed in West Bank - Washington Post
West Bank Shooting Kills 2 Israeli Police - Los Angeles Times
Israeli Police Officers Shot Dead - BBC News
Four Tourists Dead in Explosion in Yemen - BBC News
Yemen Bombing Kills 4 S. Koreans, 1 Yemeni - Associated Press
A Dialogue With Lebanon's Ayatollah - Wall Street Journal opinion
South Asia
India May Vote for Untouchable Leader - The Australian
BOOK REVIEWS
A Counterinsurgency Primer - Max Boot, Wall Street Journal book review of The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One by David Kilcullen.
Reluctant Warriors - The Economist book review of both The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 by Thomas Ricks and The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One by David Kilcullen.
BOOKS
The Battle for Peace: A Frontline Vision of America's Power and Purpose - Anthony Zinni and Tony Koltz
The intellectual complement to Zinni and Clancy's bestselling Battle Ready (2004), a narrative memoir salted with specific policy recommendations, this volume provides the former US Central Command chief's analysis of America's current global position. Zinni begins by asserting that America's status as "the most powerful nation in the history of the planet" has created a de facto empire. The US has no choice: if it fails to take the lead, nothing significant happens. At the same time, Americans must recognize that, in a global age, there can be no zero-sum games.
The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education - Craig Mullaney
The Unforgiving Minute is the ultimate's soldier's book - universal in its raw emotion and its understanding of the larger issues of life and death. Mullaney, a master storyteller, plunges the depths of self-doubt, endurance, and courage. The result: a riveting, suspenseful human story, beautifully told. This is a book written under fire - a lyrical, spellbinding tale of war, love, and courage. The Unforgiving Minute is the Three Cups of Tea of soldiering.
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.
