According to officers involved in Adm. Mullen's task force, one of its main proposals is to create a cadre of soldiers who would go back and forth between deployments in Afghanistan and Washington. While back in the US, these soldiers would continue to work on Afghan strategy. This would be a huge shift from the way the war is being operated now, in which soldiers return to their home bases in the US and can be redeployed anywhere in the world. The idea is to create a unit well-versed in Afghan culture and counterinsurgency tactics..

--Wall Street Journal

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN

From Air and Ground, Pakistan Strikes Back at Taliban - Andrew Kannapell, New York Times. The Pakistani military pressed its multipronged assault on three Taliban-held districts northwest of the capital, Islamabad, on Saturday, claiming significant gains but also blaming militants for endangering noncombatants by firing indiscriminately and basing themselves in civilian homes. As terrified people continued to flee the fighting, the outskirts of the conflict areas are facing a critical need for more shelter and supplies. The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has registered more than 120,000 residents displaced from the three contested districts - Swat, Buner and Dir - and surrounding areas, and warns that several hundred thousand more are likely to leave as well.

Pakistan Again Faces a Test It Has Often Failed Before - Matthew Rosenberg, Rehmat Mehsud and Zahid Hussain, Wall Street Journal. Pakistan faces a dual test it has often failed before as soldiers again square off against Taliban militants in the Swat Valley: The country is fighting a counterinsurgency campaign while caring for those displaced by the conflict. For the past several days, Pakistan's army and the Taliban have been fighting sporadically along the mountain ridges of Swat after a peace deal collapsed. Pakistani officials say they are determined that the offensive will continue until the military asserts control over the 400-square-mile area. But even with a fresh infusion of US military technology and training, it is far from clear that the army will do any better this time than last, when it was ground to a halt by the militants and entered a peace that gave control of the valley to the Taliban.

Pakistan's Offensive Sends Civilians Fleeing - Associated Press. Civilians cowered in hospital beds and trapped residents struggled to feed their children, as Pakistani warplanes pounded a Taliban-held valley in what the prime minister called a "war of the country's survival." Warplanes and troops killed dozens of entrenched militants Saturday in the assault on northwestern Swat Valley, the army said. The offensive has prompted the flight of hundreds of thousands of terrified residents, adding a humanitarian emergency to the nuclear-armed nation's security, economic and political problems.

Taliban-Style Justice Stirs Growing Anger - Pamela Constable, Washington Post. When black-turbaned Taliban fighters demanded in January that Islamic sharia law be imposed in Pakistan's Swat Valley, few alarm bells went off in this Muslim nation of about 170 million. Sharia, after all, is the legal framework that guides the lives of all Muslims. Officials said people in Swat were fed up with the slow and corrupt state courts, scholars said the sharia system would bring swift justice, and commentators said critics in the West had no right to interfere. Today, with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Swat and Pakistani troops launching an offensive to drive out the Taliban forces, the pendulum of public opinion has swung dramatically. The threat of "Talibanization" is being denounced in Parliament and on opinion pages, and the original defenders of an agreement that authorized sharia in Swat are in sheepish retreat.

Confusion Over Taliban Muddies the Issues in Pakistan - Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times. Islamic militants who burn schools and threaten women in the name of religious purity. A righteous force battling corrupt and venal officials. Or gun-waving gangsters who conceal their crimes under a banner of spiritual renewal. Weeks of turmoil have made it appear as though a unified Taliban is on the march out of the wild northwest, staking out strategic ground for an assault on Pakistan's heartland. But who exactly the Taliban is may rest in the eye of the beholder. Many Pakistanis don't see the Taliban as much of a threat and are not eager for a confrontation. On the other hand, oversimplification may lead policymakers toward a one-size-fits-all solution that is ineffective -- or even counterproductive.

US-Afghan Report Blames Taliban for Civilian Deaths - Associated Press. A joint US-Afghan investigation confirmed that an unspecified number of civilians were killed in a southern Afghan battle, but the initial findings released Saturday appeared to blame Taliban militants who allegedly used villagers as "human shields." Officials in Farah province say dozens of civilians were killed in US airstrikes. The US-Afghan joint statement Saturday said troops called in airstrikes on militant positions during heavy fighting in two villages in Farah Monday and Tuesday. It said US forces had responded to a call for help from Afghan forces, and that militants attacked the troops from several locations.

Obama's Vietnam? - Washington Times editorial. Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari visited President Obama this week to discuss ideas for confronting Islamic extremism in South Asia. No big thoughts sprouted, but the danger of US escalation in Pakistan increased. The trilateral summit did not produce any new solutions or significant policy initiatives for the ongoing conflict with al Qaeda and the Taliban. Thus far, there is little discernible difference between the Obama and George W. Bush administration policies, except that Mr. Obama seems more willing to draw the United States into Pakistan's internal affairs. Mr. Obama made the US relationship with Pakistan needlessly complicated with his statements at his April 29 press conference that implied he would prefer a return to military rule in Islamabad. This at least was the impression many in Pakistan took away.

An 'Afpak' About-Face For Obama - Jackson Diehl, Washington Post opinion. After spending most of the past week in Washington, the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan can be excused if they leave town looking a little smug. For weeks, Hamid Karzai and Asif Ali Zardari watched as senior officials of the new Obama administration publicly critiqued their leadership and all but openly courted their domestic rivals. Yet once they arrived in Washington, the two leaders were showered with attention, sympathy and promises of support from an administration whose handling of the mounting trouble in what it calls "Afpak" has been as mercurial as it has been energetic.

Obama's Big Bet on Pakistan - Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times opinion. The United States has just acquired a new client state -- one with 170 million people, nuclear weapons, an Islamist insurgency and Osama bin Laden. And that's the good news. The country is Pakistan, and last week it officially became the Obama administration's biggest and most daunting rescue mission. For months, the administration has been inching toward a deeper commitment of American dollars, military trainers and civilian advisors to strengthen Pakistan's government and security forces -- not for humanitarian reasons but to stop the country from drifting into the arms of Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Last week, at a three-way summit meeting of President Obama, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a relationship that had been tentative and prickly began to look more like a long-term commitment.

Moving Beyond Gut-Check Diplomacy - Eleanor Clift, Newsweek opinion. Pakistan could be the source of the biggest nuclear crisis to face an American president since the Cold War. With images filling television screens of Pakistani refugees fleeing Taliban fighters, President Obama is trying to reassure a nervous world that the country's nuclear weapons are in no danger of falling into the hands of Islamic extremists, at least for now. After sending mixed signals about his confidence in the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan, Obama this week made it clear to the presidents of both countries that he's not going to bail on them. He has no choice, really, but how Obama handles this explosive part of the world, and the relationship he establishes with these men, will show how the president, a cool customer in all his interactions, might avoid personalizing his dealings with foreign leaders.

IRAQ

Toll Rises as Iraq Slows Surge - Charles Levinson, Wall Street Journal. Violence is on the rise in Iraq as American troops withdraw. A ground-level look at the handover provides one explanation: The Iraqi government is neglecting many of the successful counterinsurgency initiatives it is inheriting from the US military. In the Adhamiya neighborhood of Baghdad, once an al Qaeda stronghold, contractor Hossam Hadi used to send 1,000 military-aged men out on US-funded jobs to pick up trash and repair bullet-riddled store fronts. That work pacified potential troublemakers, but now he's down to 60 workers. In Baghdad's Shaab district, residents say that when the constant patrols of US troops gave way recently to Iraqis who manned static posts, kidnappings and robberies rose. And just south of the capital, a former Sunni insurgent hired by the US to keep the peace says his 145 militiamen are angry because they've received only a month's pay since Baghdad took over their program in January.

Iraqi Leader Sees Fraud as a Top Worry - Nada Bakri, Washington Post. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki declared Saturday that the theft of public money and other forms of corruption were problems no less pressing than the sectarian ethnic strife that brought Iraq to the brink of collapse. Maliki's remarks suggested that corruption would be a pivotal issue in parliamentary elections expected by year's end, and they came amid growing criticism in parliament. The topic has dominated newspaper headlines and emerges in many conversations in Baghdad's streets. "We should launch a campaign against those corrupt people just as we had launched a campaign against outlaws," Maliki said at a meeting in Baghdad with an influential tribe.

Arrest of Ex-Militant Shows Reconciliation Pitfalls - Sam Dagher, New York Times. Less than two years ago, Mullah Nadhim al-Jubouri, a charismatic 30-year-old Sunni cleric, was a senior leader of the Iraqi insurgent group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. A member of one of this town’s most respected families, he stood in the largest mosque and preached death for anyone who dared join the army or the police. He then switched sides, becoming leader of one of the American-recruited Awakening security councils that fought Al Qaeda here in this strategic area of territory north of Baghdad, crisscrossed by conflicting sectarian and tribal loyalties. Now, he even wants to run for a seat in Parliament in the general elections in December. But on May 2, the Iraqi security forces arrested him and two of his brothers on terrorism charges, one of the latest and most significant instances of the Shiite-led government’s rounding up Sunni Awakening leaders.

'It's Time for the Iraqis to Step Up' - Ernesto Londoño, Washington Post. Under the glare of a Humvee's headlights, Brad Blauser broke a sweat assembling a pediatric wheelchair as a small group of Iraqi soldiers observed quietly. The idea was to train the Iraqis so that when the time came to distribute the wheelchairs, Blauser and the 20 or so US soldiers who coordinated the giveaway could fade into the background as Iraqi troops presented 32 fully assembled wheelchairs to disabled children. "We're trying to build rapport," said Staff Sgt. Craig Jackson, 34, of Pennsylvania, one of the squad leaders working with Blauser. "Show them that their government is trying to help its people." But the mission in Fadhil, a predominantly Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad, showed quite the opposite. It raised questions that haunt U.S. troops as they prepare to pull out of Iraqi cities by June 30: When the Americans leave, how will the Iraqi forces behave?

THE LONG WAR

House Won't Fund Guantanamo Closing Until Plan Is Ready - Naftali Bendavid, Wall Street Journal. When President Barack Obama signed an executive order in January to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by year's end, Democrats and antiwar activists cheered. Now that the White House is preparing to implement the shutdown, some Democrats are challenging the administration, demanding details of how it would be carried out before offering the necessary funds. Lawmakers are concerned about what would happen to the roughly 245 current Guantanamo inmates, many considered hardened terrorists -- in particular, what congressional districts they would land in. In a war-spending bill that otherwise gave the administration even more money than it wanted, Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee this past week removed $80 million Mr. Obama had requested to wind down operations at Guantanamo.

Hill Panel Reviewing CIA Tactics - R. Jeffrey Smith, Washington Post. When the Justice Department said seven years ago that CIA interrogators at a secret prison in Thailand could make a suspected al-Qaeda leader fear he was drowning, it prescribed precise limits: Water could be poured from a cup or small watering can onto a saturated cloth covering his mouth and nose, inhibiting breathing for up to 40 seconds. It could be repeated, after allowing three or four full breaths, for up to 20 minutes. But when the technique was employed on Abu Zubaida and later on 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and al-Qaeda planner Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the interrogators in several cases applied what the CIA's Office of Inspector General described in a secret 2004 report as "large volumes of water" to the cloths, explaining that their aim was to be more "poignant and convincing," according to a recently declassified Justice Department account.

Memos Shed Light on CIA Use of Sleep Deprivation - Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times. As President Obama prepared last month to release secret memos on the CIA's use of severe interrogation methods, the White House fielded a flurry of last-minute appeals. One came from former CIA Director Michael V. Hayden, who expressed disbelief that the administration was prepared to expose methods it might later decide it needed. "Are you telling me that under all conditions of threat, you will never interfere with the sleep cycle of a detainee?" Hayden asked a top White House official, according to sources familiar with the exchange. From the beginning, sleep deprivation had been one of the most important elements in the CIA's interrogation program, used to help break dozens of suspected terrorists, far more than the most violent approaches. And it is among the methods the agency fought hardest to keep.

Obama Set to Revive Military Commissions - Peter Finn, Washington Post. The Obama administration is preparing to revive the system of military commissions established at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, under new rules that would offer terrorism suspects greater legal protections, government officials said. The rules would block the use of evidence obtained from coercive interrogations, tighten the admissibility of hearsay testimony and allow detainees greater freedom to choose their attorneys, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The military commissions have allowed the trial of terrorism suspects in a setting that favors the government and protects classified information, but they were sharply criticized during the administration of President George W. Bush. "By any measure, our system of trying detainees has been an enormous failure," then-candidate Barack Obama said in June 2008.

CIA Says Pelosi Was Briefed on Use of 'Enhanced Interrogations' - Paul Kane, Capitol Briefing. Intelligence officials released documents this evening saying that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was briefed in September 2002 about the use of harsh interrogation tactics against al-Qaeda prisoners, seemingly contradicting her repeated statements over the past 18 months that she was never told that these techniques were actually being used. In a 10-page memo outlining an almost seven-year history of classified briefings, intelligence officials said that Pelosi and then-Rep. Porter Goss (R-Fla.) were the first two members of Congress ever briefed on the interrogation tactics. Then the ranking member and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, respectively, Pelosi and Goss were briefed Sept. 4, 2002, one week before the first anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Pelosi Refutes Intelligence Memo - Kara Rowland, Washington Times. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday questioned the accuracy of an intelligence memo that appeared to conflict with her previous statements that she was not told of waterboarding at a classified briefing she attended in 2002 on CIA interrogation techniques. The California Democrat is at the center of an intensifying debate on Capitol Hill over the Bush administration's interrogation policies, which critics condemn as torture. Defenders of the practices argue in part that Mrs. Pelosi and others in Congress were told at the time of the techniques and made no move to stop them. A Director of National Intelligence memo released late Thursday said that Mrs. Pelosi was at a classified briefing in September 2002 in which the waterboarding of al Qaeda terrorism suspect Abu Zubaydah was discussed in detail.

What Congress Knew - Wall Street Journal editorial. On September 4, 2002, Porter Goss, then the Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Nancy Pelosi, the ranking Democratic member, were given a classified briefing by the CIA on what the Agency calls "enhanced interrogation techniques," or, in persistent media parlance, "torture." In particular, the CIA briefed the members on the use of these techniques on Abu Zubaydah, a high-ranking al Qaeda operative captured in Pakistan the previous March. Abu Zubaydah was a name the future Speaker was already familiar with. That spring, information obtained from the terrorist had the FBI and other government agencies scrambling to prevent possible attacks on the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge. It wasn't clear whether Abu Zubaydah was being truthful. "He is also very skilled at avoiding interrogation," Ms. Pelosi was quoted in Time magazine. "He is an agent of disinformation." It is precisely for such reasons that the CIA resorted to its enhanced techniques later that year, after gaining legal authorization.

Pelosi's Amnesia - Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been a leading critic of the Bush administration for authorizing the "torture" (waterboarding) of three captured al-Qaida leaders, despite the fact that former Vice President Dick Cheney says the interrogation methods yielded valuable information from men who had not previously been forthcoming, leading the terrorists to spill the beans on planned attacks that could have killed thousands more Americans. Now it appears Ms. Pelosi knew all about the methods being used, and raised not a peep of objection. Unless she wants to argue she was dozing during CIA briefings.

The Gitmo Quagmire - Oliver North, Washington Times opinion. On April 29, in an East Room press conference, President Obama claimed, "We have rejected the false choice between our security and our ideals by closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay." That simply isn't true. What he did do was to issue an executive order directing the facility be closed by January 2010 - little more than seven months from now. Unfortunately, Mr. Obama - in his naive exuberance to fulfill a pledge that had earned standing ovations and rave reviews from the mainstream media during the presidential campaign - really didn't have a plan. That's now coming back to haunt him. On Wednesday, while Mr. Obama was holding a photo op at the White House with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Rep. David R. Obey, Wisconsin Democrat and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, quietly deleted funds for closing Gitmo from the fiscal 2009 supplemental spending bill.

PIRACY

Dealing with the Somali Pirates - Larry Howard, Washington Times. In the midst of the drama that unfolded in the Indian Ocean over the aborted hijacking of the Maersk Alabama and the kidnapping of Captain Richard Phillips, the New York Post ran a front-page photo of actor Johnny Depp dressed in the regalia of the Disney pirate of the Caribbean, Captain Jack Sparrow. Academics can sniff at the tabloid sensationalism of the editorial choice, but the Post knew its audience; most Americans have a mental image of pirates that closer approximates the fictional Jack Sparrow than the scrawny and hardened Third World teenagers who today help make up the ranks of high seas criminals. The image evoked by the Post is an artifact of both our history and our popular culture, and makes it that much more difficult to recognize the level of threat presented by modern pirates.

AFRICA

Chad President Lacks Confidence in African Union Over Sudan Crisis - Associated Press. President Idriss Deby said on Saturday Chad lacks confidence in the African Union's ability to resolve the crisis with Sudan, the first time an African leader is questioning the body's authority in its six-year history. Mr. Deby's statement comes after the army fought with Chadian rebels in eastern Chad Thursday and Friday, battles during which the government says 225 rebels were killed and 22 soldiers. The government accuses Sudan of sponsoring rebels, a charge Sudan denies. The president also said his government is going to reevaluate its relations with Sudan and began by ordering the closure of Sudanese cultural centers in Chad. He also said the government will take over schools run by Sudanese in Chad. Chad and Sudan only resumed diplomatic ties in November following a six-month break after the neighbors traded accusations of supporting each other's rebels.

South Africa's Jacob Zuma Inaugurated as President - Robyn Dixon, Los Angeles Times. As rays of sunshine broke through after the morning's stormy downpour, the dignitaries at Jacob Zuma's inauguration Saturday in Pretoria leaped to their feet, danced, cheered and ululated as he was sworn in as the president of South Africa. At the top of their lungs, they sang about Zuma's ascent to the Union Buildings, South Africa's presidential residence and seat of government. The atmosphere reflected Zuma's earthy populism and his rise from the deepest rural poverty to the nation's top post.

Something To Celebrate In S. Africa - Jim Hoagland, Washington Post opinion. South Africa has selected a new president in its fourth democratic and peaceful national election since its liberation from apartheid. So much for the cynics' slogan "one man, one vote, one time" as the unyielding rule of African politics. Orderly transfers of power have become routine in the nation once known as the world's racial powder keg. So the election of Jacob Zuma last week drew scant mention in the US media or from the American government -- even though Zuma is one of the most colorful, controversial and now important new leaders on the international scene.

AMERICAS

Venezuela Says 4 Suspected Terrorists Detained - Associated Press. Venezuelan police uncovered a cache of weapons and explosives at a Caracas apartment and later detained four foreigners on suspicion of planning terrorist acts, authorities said Saturday. While announcing the detentions, Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami accused foes of President Hugo Chavez of ''looking for violence,'' although he did not link the case to the political opposition. Chavez has repeatedly charged that the opposition is plotting to assassinate him or spur his ouster. El Aissami said a police raid Friday on an apartment near the capital's center found C-4 explosive, electric detonator systems, thousands of cartridges, and 14 rifles of different models, including five with telescopic sights, five with laser sights and one with a silencer. Documents and a computer found there were being studied, he said.

EUROPE

Russia Warns Foes in Soviet-style Show of Might - Agence France-Presse. Russia on Saturday sternly warned its foes not to dare attempt any aggression against the country, as it put on a Soviet-style show of military might in Red Square including nuclear capable missiles. The display to mark the 64th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II came amid renewed tensions with Georgia after NATO's decision to hold war games in the Caucasus country infuriated Moscow. "We are sure that any aggression against our citizens will be given a worthy reply," President Dmitry Medvedev said in a speech in Red Square side-by-side with powerful Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

MIDDLE EAST

Obama Picks Egypt as Speech Venue - Scott Wilson and Anne E. Kornblut, Washington Post. President Obama will travel to Egypt next month to deliver his promised address to the Muslim world, culminating a long and politically sensitive selection process by choosing as his venue an Arab nation governed by an autocratic US ally who faces strong internal Islamist opposition. Those elements will present challenges to Obama as he delivers a speech his advisers described yesterday as the next step in his effort to dispel perceptions in the Muslim world that the United States is in conflict with Islam. It will be the first stop in a trip that will also take him to Buchenwald, the former Nazi concentration camp in Germany, and then to Normandy, in France, to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landing.

The Power of the First Impression - Elliott Abrams, Wall Street Journal. First impressions matter. Experts say we size up new people in somewhere between 30 seconds and two minutes. So how will the first 30 seconds, and the rest of the meeting, go when President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sit down together on May 18? The first thing to remember is that this meeting is far more important for Mr. Netanyahu than for Mr. Obama; Mr. Netanyahu has a lot more at stake. Foreign leaders come and go in the White House week in and week out, as fast as you can change the sheets in Blair House. (Blair House is for one-night stands, two if you're lucky. When the King of Jordan dropped by for a whole week in late April he had to stay at a fancy hotel instead. Mr. Netanyahu will happily take Blair House, a physical token of his return to the prime minister's office after 10 years in the wilderness.)

Pope Visits Mosque in Muslim Outreach - Dale Gavlak, Washington Times. Pope Benedict XVI visited a mosque in the Jordanian capital Saturday, the second day of his Middle East visit, in an effort to mend fences with a Muslim world still smarting from his remarks three years ago linking the prophet Muhammad with violence. Speaking at the new King Hussein bin Talal Mosque, the largest in Jordan, Benedict, 82, urged Christians and Muslims to work together for peace in the region. "I firmly believe Christians and Muslims can embrace [the task of cooperation] particularly through our respective contributions to learning and scholarship, and public service," Reuters news agency quoted him as telling Islamic leaders and diplomats at the mosque.

Pope Deplores ‘Ideological Manipulation’ - Rachel Donadio, New York Times. Visiting a mosque on the second day of his closely watched first visit to the Holy Land, Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday denounced the “ideological manipulation of religion” and called for greater understanding between the Christian and Muslim faiths. Speaking outside Al-Hussein bin-Talal mosque in Amman, Benedict said that because of “the burden of our common history so often marked by misunderstanding,” Christians and Muslims alike should “strive to be seen” as faithful worshipers of God. In a speech that also touched on a central theme of his papacy and thought, the tension between faith and reason, Benedict said that “the ideological manipulation of religion, sometimes for political ends,” was often “the real catalyst for tension and division, and at times even violence in society.”

For Christian Enclave in Jordan, Tribal Lands are Sacred - Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles Times. Michel Hattar's father was a priest in Jerusalem in 1947 when word arrived from the rocky Jordanian hills that he must renounce his vows and marry to protect his tribe's land and inheritances. He did as he was told. He broke from the holy order he had known for 20 years to wed the bride picked by his family, his first cousin, Widad. Today their son Michel lives on a bluff of olive groves and fig trees that slopes toward the valley that his Fuhays tribe has farmed and fought over for more than four centuries. This Christian enclave west of the Jordanian capital, Amman, is ringed with steeples and religious devotion, but for every Bible parable there is a tribal tale, usually one that ends with someone outfoxed or dead. Clan loyalty sets boundaries, keeps the peace and runs on customs, such as sprinkling extra salt into a meal to let a guest know he is welcome. If there's no salt, it's wise to make a hasty exit.

Parks Fortify Israel’s Claim to Jerusalem - Ethan Bronner and Isabel Kershner, New York Times. Israel is quietly carrying out a $100 million, multiyear development plan in some of the most significant religious and national heritage sites just outside the walled Old City here as part of an effort to strengthen the status of Jerusalem as its capital. The plan, parts of which have been outsourced to a private group that is simultaneously buying up Palestinian property for Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem, has drawn almost no public or international scrutiny. However, certain elements related to it — the threatened destruction of unauthorized Palestinian housing in the redevelopment areas, for example — have brought widespread condemnation.

Don't Blame Israel - Alan M. Dershowitz, New York Post opinion. Rahm Emanuel is a good man and a good friend of Israel, but in a highly publicized recent statement he linked American efforts to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons to Israeli efforts toward establishing a Palestinian state. This is dangerous. I have long favored the two-state solution, as do most Israelis and American supporters of Israel. I have also long opposed civilian settlements deep into the West Bank. I hope that Israel does make efforts, as it has in the past, to establish a Palestinian state as part of an overall peace between the Jewish state and its Arab and Muslim neighbors. Israel in 2000-2001 offered the Palestinians a state in the entire Gaza Strip and more than 95% of the West Bank, with its capital in Jerusalem and a $35 billion compensation package for the refugees. Yassir Arafat rejected the offer and instead began the second intifada in which nearly 5,000 people were killed. I hope that Israel once again offers the Palestinians a contiguous, economically-viable, politically independent state, in exchange for a real peace, with security, without terrorism and without any claim to "return" 4 million alleged refugees as a way of destroying Israel by demography rather than violence.

SOUTH ASIA

Artillery Barrage Kills 257 Sri Lankans - Associated Press. A massive barrage of artillery in Sri Lanka's northern war zone killed at least 257 civilians and wounded 814 overnight, a government doctor said Sunday, calling it the bloodiest day he had seen in the government's offensive against the Tamil Tiger rebels. V. Shanmugarajah, a physician working in the war zone, said he feared many more may have been killed since some bodies were being buried on the spot without being brought to the makeshift hospital he runs. "We are doing what is possible. The situation is overwhelming; nothing is within our control," he said.

BOOK REVIEWS

The Battlefield Can Be an Unforgiving Teacher - Janet Maslin, New York Times book review of The Unforgiving Minute by Craig M. Mullaney.

Soldiers of Misfortune - James Glanz, New York Times book review of Joker One: A Marine Platoon’s Story of Courage by Donovan Campbell.

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

Journey into Darkness: Genocide in Rwanda - Thomas P. Odom.

In July 1994, Thomas P. Odom was part of the US Embassy team that responded to the Goma refugee crisis. He witnessed the deaths of 70,000 refugees in a single week. In the previous three months of escalating violence, the Rwandan genocide had claimed 800,000 dead. Now, in this vivid and unsettling new book, Odom offers the first insider look at these devastating events before, during, and after the genocide.

Joker One: A Marine Platoon’s Story of Courage - Donovan Campbell.

Donovan Campbell, first as a Marine and then as a writer, shows us that the dominant emotion in war isn’t hatred or anger or fear. It’s love. His story stands as a poignant tribute to his men–their courage, their dedication, their skill, and their love for one another, even unto death.

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.