This time, we're banking on an assortment of movers, shakers and muckrakers that runs the gamut from the warfare digest "Small Wars Journal" to Hot Issue cover girl Lady Gaga.
AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN
US: Taliban 'Very Clearly' Target of Raid - Jason Motlagh, Washington Times. Video footage of a bombing raid by US forces earlier this month on a village in western Afghanistan "very clearly" shows that Taliban militants were targeted and it accounts for most of those killed, the top US commander for the Middle East and South Asia said Friday. "What the video will prove is that the targets of these different strikes were the Taliban," Gen. David H. Petraeus, head of Central Command, told National Public Radio. Gen. Petraeus' assertion stands in contrast to testimony by locals that militants had left the area several hours before the May 4 bombardments in Farah province's Bala Boluk district, as well as an independent report from a leading rights group that a limited number of Taliban may have been present.
Petraeus: Video Shows Air Strikes Aimed at Taliban Targets - John J. Kruzel, American Forces Press Service. Footage of a controversial US aerial bombing in Afghanistan this month shows the strike targeted Taliban militants, the commander of US Central Command said today. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus told National Public Radio that he recently watched a video recorded by an aerial bomber involved in the May 4 firefight in Farah province between a joint US-Afghan force and Taliban insurgents. The battle resulted in the death of Afghan civilians -- with US estimates ranging from 20 to 30, but the Afghan government’s as high as 140. “I was in Kabul the other night [and was] briefed by the brigadier general who I appointed to carry out an investigation of this particular incident, and there is indeed video from a B-1 bomber that very clearly shows bombs hitting individuals who are the Taliban who are reacting to the movements of the Afghan and coalition forces on the ground,” he said. Petraeus said the video, which likely will be shown to the media at a later date, does not disprove that civilians were killed, nor did he dispute that they were. But the footage proves that the targets of the strikes were Taliban insurgents waging an ambush against the combined US-Afghan force, he said.
US Seeks Pact on Joint Probes of Afghan Deaths - James Warden, Stars and Stripes. American officials are pushing for a formal agreement with the Afghan government to conduct joint investigations for all airstrikes involving civilian casualties to avoid discrepancies that enemy fighters could capitalize on, the senior US military spokesman in Afghanistan said. The proposal follows wildly varying estimates about the number of civilian deaths earlier this month in an attack in Farah province in western Afghanistan. A preliminary American report from an investigation into the attack put the number of civilian casualties as high as 30. Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission concluded that 97 civilians died in the attack, including 65 children and 21 women, while earlier Afghan government estimates rose as high as 140 civilian casualties. Afghan President Hamid Karzai says these attacks boost support for the insurgents.
Defence Officials Have Cleared Australian Troops of Killing Afghan Civilians - The Australian. Defence officials have cleared Australian troops of killing Afghan civilians in a pitched battle earlier this year. Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, said yesterday the Special Operations Task Group had acted appropriately in two lethal incidents, including the shooting death of an Afghan man mistakenly believed to be a suicide bomber. The Defence chief also gave an upbeat assessment of Australian troops' fight against the Taliban, citing the killing this week of a "key" Taliban commander blamed for organising bomb attacks against coalition troops. Air Chief Marshal Houston said a reconstruction of a battle on January 5, as well as forensic analysis of shrapnel taken from wounded civilians, showed it was unlikely Australian soldiers had killed civilians.
SAS Take on Taleban in Afghanistan - Michael Evans, Deborah Haynes and Anthony Loyd, The Times. The British Army’s SAS Regiment, which played a vital role in defeating al-Qaeda in Iraq, is now arriving in Afghanistan in one of the biggest deployments of UK special forces since the Second World War. Two squadrons from 22 SAS are being sent to Afghanistan now that Britain’s combat role in Iraq has been wound up, to carry out clandestine operations against the Taleban. The deployment of the SAS, which will be joining the Special Boat Service (SBS) already serving in southern Afghanistan, represents a mini-surge of troops to add to the 700 regular British soldiers going out for a four-month period to provide extra security during the presidential election.
Pakistan and the Bomb - Bruce Riedel, Wall Street Journal. The Pakistani army, backed by attack helicopters, is fighting intense gun battles in the Swat valley 60 miles outside the capital of Islamabad with Islamic extremists. Al Qaeda and the Taliban have struck back with suicide bombs in Pakistan’s major cities, including Lahore. A plot in Karachi was foiled but the extremists vow more carnage is imminent. The battles are the latest in a deadly struggle for the control of Pakistan. Some are hoping this, at last, is the turning point when the army and the Pakistani government will finally defeat the extremists, but history suggests that conclusion is premature. More likely this will be yet another temporary setback for the Islamists to be followed by new advances elsewhere. The fighting has cast a spotlight on the shaky security of Pakistan’s growing nuclear arsenal - the fastest growing arsenal in the world. Pakistan is finishing construction of several new reactors and is seeking to buy more from China to increase its production of fissile material.
Pakistan Police Say Taliban Fighters Hiding Among Refugees - Voice of America. Pakistan police say they have arrested 30 suspected Taliban militants who have been hiding among refugees in camps in the North West Frontier province. Police tell VOA the suspects are Taliban fighters from the Swat Valley region, where the government is engaged in an offensive against militants. The military had been urging civilians in the region to help identify Taliban militants, who were allegedly trying to disguise themselves among refugees by cutting their hair and shaving their beards. The Pakistani army claims that 29 militants have been killed over the past 24 hours during the military offensive. Bomb blasts Thursday in the cities of Lahore and Peshawar killed at least 14 people and wounded 80 others, after the Taliban warned of revenge for the government campaign against them.
Refugee Crisis Inflames Ethnic Strife in Pakistan - Yaroslav Trofimov, Wall Street Journal. Umar Habib Buneri, a longtime resident of Karachi, had harsh words of advice for his younger brother Abdulhamid, who fled Pakistan's troubled Northwest this month with two dozen relatives for the relative safety of this giant metropolis. Like almost all of the nearly two million refugees escaping the latest round of fighting between the Pakistani army and the Taliban, the Buneris are ethnic Pashtuns. "We are not considered Pakistani citizens here," Umar Habib told his brother. "There is discrimination against Pashtuns in Karachi." The refugee influx to Karachi has inflamed murderous ethnic rivalries that have simmered in Pakistan's biggest city for years. Clashes between the rapidly growing Pashtun population and Karachi's majority community killed dozens of people in recent weeks.
Pakistan Religious Schools Get Scrutiny - Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times. The Darul Uloom Haqqania campus is a sprawling labyrinth of ashen buildings where young men in black beards and white skullcaps spend their days and nights on hard concrete floors learning all 77,701 words of the Koran. Some people call it the University of Jihad. The fact that some of Haqqania's graduates go on to become Taliban fighters and suicide bombers isn't the school's concern, said Syed Yousef Shah, the head of the 3,000- student madrasa, or Islamic seminary. "One person may become a journalist, another a driver," he said as he reclined on a pillow in a small meeting room in the school. "We can't control what people do afterward."
A Better Bargain for Aid to Pakistan - C. Christine Fair, Washington Post opinion. The Obama administration pledged more than $100 million in aid last week to Pakistanis fleeing the fighting between the Taliban and the military in the Swat Valley. All told, since 2001, the United States has spent about $12 billion to help Pakistan. Yet last month, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared Pakistan a "mortal threat" to international security. Washington needs to strike a far better bargain for its billions. Faced with a Taliban offensive and the threat of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal falling into jihadists' hands, the United States is proposing to spend an additional $1.5 billion each year until 2013 on civilian aid programs and to increase funding for Pakistan's security forces. Last month in Tokyo, international donors pledged $4 billion to help Pakistan.
Afghan Women Fight On - Trudy Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer opinion. Last month, a group of brave Afghan women held a public demonstration in Kabul against a new marriage law - a law that would have reintroduced Taliban-era restrictions on women and would have legitimized marital rape. Their stand and the work of courageous women in parliament, backed by protests from Western governments and human-rights groups, led Afghan President Hamid Karzai to remand the law for further study. The story hasn't ended; the review is supposed to be finished by the beginning of June, and no one is certain of the outcome. On my recent trip to Afghanistan, I visited with some of the demonstrators, and with a remarkable woman who led the fight against the law in parliament. They told me the struggle is far from over, but they aren't about to give in.
IRAQ
US Soldier and 11 Iraqis Die in Attacks - Campbell Robertson, New York Times. An American soldier was killed when unidentified men threw a grenade at a military patrol in the northern city of Mosul on Friday, according to Iraqi and American authorities. The death brings to at least 22 the number of American military personnel members killed in Iraq in May, the highest monthly figure since September. The increase in the number of deadly attacks on American forces may be related to the deadline of June 30, when the Iraqi-American security agreement signed last year dictates that coalition forces are to withdraw from the cities. But Mosul is in many ways an exception to that deadline. An enormous American base on the edge of Mosul - a city that has remained a redoubt for the insurgency even as attacks have decreased substantially around the rest of Iraq - will remain open.
Courageous Exploits of SAS May Never be Reported - Michael Evans, The Times. When the last British combat soldier withdrew from Iraq this week, one of the most fraught campaigns of modern British military history ended. But for the SAS the story is very different. As General Sir Richard Dannatt, the Chief of the General Staff, told The Times recently, the exploits of the SAS in Iraq “may stay untold for ever”. But enough details have emerged to provide some insight into what the SAS achieved, and over time their achievements will fill an important chapter in the history of the regiment. Unlike the Americans, who use the title of “special forces” to embrace thousands of troops, Britain’s version, the SAS and SBS, are relatively few. Efforts to boost numbers have always been resisted to preserve their elite status.
Lovelorn Iraqi Men Call on a Wartime Skill - Rod Nordland, New York Times. It goes like this: Boy meets girl. They exchange glances and text messages, the limit of respectable courting here. Then boy asks girl’s father for her hand. Dad turns him down. Boy goes to girl’s house and plants a bomb out front. The authorities call it a “love IED,” or improvised explosive device, and it is not just an isolated case. Capt. Nabil Abdul Hussein of the Iraqi national police said that six had exploded in the Dora neighborhood of Baghdad alone in the past year. “These guys, they face any problem with their girlfriends, family, anyone, and they’re making this kind of IED,” Captain Hussein said.
THE LONG WAR
Justice Dept. Backs Saudi Royal Family on 9/11 Lawsuit - Eric Lichtblau, New York Times. The Obama administration is supporting efforts by the Saudi royal family to defeat a long-running lawsuit seeking to hold it liable for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Justice Department, in a brief filed Friday before the Supreme Court, said it did not believe the Saudis could be sued in American court over accusations brought by families of the Sept. 11 victims that the royal family had helped finance Al Qaeda. The department said it saw no need for the court to review lower court rulings that found in the Saudis’ favor in throwing out the lawsuit. The government’s position comes less than a week before President Obama is scheduled to meet in Saudi Arabia with King Abdullah as part of a trip to the Middle East and Europe intended to reach out to the Muslim world.
Turnbull Says No to Bringing Gitmo Detainees to Australia - The Australian. Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has urged the federal government to reject a United States request for Australia to settle former detainees from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. The government has confirmed it is considering an appeal from US President Barack Obama to settle Uighur detainees from China, who have been held in detention for more than six years, but have been cleared by the US of being enemy combatants. The US does not want to return them to China for fear they could be tortured or executed. The detainees in question are understood to be six Uighurs, who are Muslims from north-western China. In January, Australia refused to accept them after the previous Bush administration had made a similar request amid reported pressure from Beijing which considers the minority detainees to be terrorists.
Why It's So Hard to Close Gitmo - David B. Rivkin, Jr. and Lee A. Casey, Wall Street Journal opinion. President Barack Obama is retaining many important Bush administration antiterror policies, including the detention without trial of jihadist captives as well as military commissions. He is determined, however, to close the Guantanamo detention facility because he believes doing so will not cause many problems in the US, and will improve our image abroad and bolster international support for US antiterror policies. He will be disappointed on all counts. Guantanamo has always been a symbol, rather than the substance, of complaints against America's "war on terror." It's the military character of the US response to 9/11 that foreign and domestic critics won't accept. There are also longstanding ideological currents at work here. At least since the 1970s, "progressive" international activists have sought to level the playing field between nation states (especially the US and Israel) and nonstate actors such as the Palestine Liberation Organization and Hamas. Although international humanitarian law is supposed to apply neutrally to all belligerents, international opinion now gives nonstate actors far more leeway to ignore fundamental norms such as the rule against deliberately targeting civilians. The underlying implication is that terrorist tactics, however regrettable, are justified as the only means of achieving laudable goals like national liberation.
US NATIONAL SECURITY
Obama Announces Cyber Security Office - Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service. The nation’s computer network infrastructure will be defended as a national strategic asset, President Barack Obama said here today. In a White House announcement, Obama said he will appoint a cyber security coordinator for the critical infrastructure that all Americans depend on. “We will ensure that these networks are secure, trustworthy and resilient,” he said. “We will deter, prevent, detect and defend against attacks, and recover quickly from any disruptions or damage.” The cyber security office will orchestrate and integrate all cyber security policies for the government, the president said. It will work closely with the Office of Management and Budget to ensure agency budgets reflect those priorities, and, in the event of major cyber incident or attack, it will coordinate government response. The cyber security coordinator will be a member of the national security staff and will serve on the president’s national economic council.
Cyber Security Strategy Unveiled - Shaun Waterman, Washington Times. President Obama Friday laid out his strategy to secure US computer networks, creating another White House czar and linking cyber security to the broader priority of restoring the nation's prosperity that has dominated his administration's first months. "America's economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cyber security," Mr. Obama said. In keeping with a pledge he made during last year's campaign - during which, he acknowledged, his own Web site was hacked - he said the issue would be a top priority for his administration. He said he would name a "cyber-security coordinator" to manage US policy across all departments of government. While he did not announce his selection, Mr. Obama singled out the official who led the cyber-security review, Melissa Hathaway, for particular praise, noting that the review had been "open and transparent."
Obama Unveils Plans to Protect US Computers - Kent Klein, Voice of America. US President Barack Obama is taking steps he says will better protect the safety of America's computer systems. The president will appoint a special assistant to oversee the cyber security efforts. President Obama says the threat posed by computers is real. "Indeed, in today's world, acts of terror could come not only from a few extremists in suicide vests, but from a few keystrokes on the computer, a weapon of mass disruption" he said. Mr. Obama said Friday the US has for too long failed to adequately protect the security of its computer networks, and he laid out a plan to improve that security.
Obama's Strategy for Countering Cyber Attacks - Gordon Lubold, Christian Science Monitor. President Obama will appoint a "cyber czar" to lead his administration in combating the worrisome number of cyber attacks against US government and private networks. The problem posed by cyber attacks permeates American society. Mr. Obama, in announcing the new administration position Friday, referred to one incident last year in which cyber thieves used stolen credit-card information to take millions of dollars from 130 ATMs. "And they did it in just 30 minutes," he said. Obama also said that during the presidential campaign last fall, hackers broke into his campaign's computer system to obtain sensitive information about campaign travel plans and policy positions.
US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Experiment to Examine Joint Operations Concept - Nikki Carter, American Forces Press Service. More than 180 representatives from the US military and other government agencies, as well as from foreign militaries, will gather in McLean, Va., from May 31 to June 5 for a war game to test the Defense Department's recently revised Capstone Concept for Joint Operations, or CCJO. US Joint Forces Command is leading the war game, the culminating event of an overall experiment that has included two previous workshops. The CCJO, a document approved by Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, envisions how the joint force will respond to an array of future national security challenges in the 2016 to 2028 time frame. The CCJO is a companion piece to the Joint Operating Environment, which describes future operational environments and challenges the joint force may encounter. The CCJO describes how the joint force will operate to address those challenges, which include winning the nation's wars, deterring potential adversaries, developing cooperative security, defending the homeland, and responding to civil crises.
Special Operations' Oversight of Contractors Is Faulted - Walter Pincus, Washington Post. The US Special Operations Command, which has Army Special Forces units worldwide, has been criticized by the Pentagon inspector general for not providing adequate oversight of $1.7 billion in logistic support contracts at 20 locations and for allowing contractors to perform what are considered "inherently government functions." Federal government rules and regulations prohibit the hiring of contractors who perform actions reserved for government employees, yet a Special Operations Command unit managing the contract with L-3 Communications Integrated Systems permitted contractor approval of such matters as overtime and acceptably completed work, according to a report by the Pentagon inspector general released this week. The report pointed out that no quality-assurance plan was developed for tasks that typically would guide contracting officers in determining whether contracting tasks were being completed as required. Instead, the IG report said, the Special Operations Forces unit relied on complaints from those receiving the contractor services in determining problems.
US CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
CIA Announces Push to Improve Agency's Language Proficiency - Joby Warrick, Washington Post. Five years after it was faulted by the 9/11 Commission for inadequate language skills among its employees, the CIA yesterday launched an ambitious program to double the number of analysts proficient in languages deemed critical in the fight against America's enemies. The new initiative, announced by CIA Director Leon Panetta, was an acknowledgment of the agency's slow progress in adding employees fluent in languages such as Arabic, Farsi and Urdu. "To gather intelligence and understand a complex world, CIA must have more officers who read, speak, and understand foreign languages," Panetta said in a message sent to employees.
Panetta to Expand CIA Language Training - Sara A. Carter, Washington Times. CIA Director Leon E. Panetta will ask Congress in the coming weeks to fund an "aggressive" five-year plan to enhance the spy agency's language capabilities. In a letter to agency employees Friday, Mr. Panetta said the goal of doubling the number of analysts and collectors proficient in foreign languages is imperative for dealing with developing threats around the world. "Language skills are the keys to accessing foreign societies, understanding their governments and decoding their secrets," Mr. Panetta said. "This important initiative will require significant new funding. In the coming weeks and months, I will reach out across the intelligence community, to the Office of Management and Budget, and most importantly, to our partners in Congress to find the necessary resources."
UNITED STATES
Murtha Defends Earmarks to His District - Carol D. Leonnig and Ben Pershing, Washington Post. Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) fiercely defended on Friday his practice of steering federal contracts and earmarks to his economically distressed district, even as news broke that federal investigators had subpoenaed earmark-related records from one of Murtha's closest congressional allies, Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.). The FBI subpoena seeks records of Visclosky's contacts with a now-disbanded lobbying firm, the PMA Group, that for years won hundreds of millions in earmarks for clients with help from Murtha, Visclosky and others on the House Appropriations defense subcommittee. A former aide to Murtha, who chairs the subcommittee, ran the PMA Group and has remained close to the congressman. The FBI's action signaled a broadening probe of PMA and its former clients, which include some defense contractors that Murtha has recruited to open offices in Johnstown. Both Murtha and Visclosky have received generous campaign donations over the years from PMA lobbyists and their clients.
Bush-Clinton Policy Talk Strikes a Congenial Tone - Jim Ruttenberg, New York Times. Former President Bill Clinton really misses the presidency. “All of a sudden nobody plays a song,” he told an audience here on Friday, referring to “Hail to the Chief,” the anthem played at presidential events. Former President George W. Bush hardly misses it at all. “Free at last,” he proclaimed before the same crowd at the Metro Toronto Convention Center. “I like being in Texas, and I do not miss the spotlight.” But that was practically where the differences stopped as the two former presidents appeared for the first time on a stage together to discuss national and international policy. Each earned more than an estimated $150,000 for the appearance.
AMERICAS
Drug Gangs’ Kin Ensnared in Mexico Crackdown - Marc Lacey, New York Times. Drug trafficking has long been a family affair in Mexico, handed down through the generations. Relatives often launder drug profits through seemingly legitimate businesses, while sons and daughters learn the tricks of the trade as armed enforcers or distributors of bribes. But in recent weeks, a series of cases has led Mexicans to grapple anew with the question of familial bonds in the criminal underworld, as the relatives of some top drug traffickers have found the spotlight focused on them and drug mafias have complained publicly that the authorities are harassing their innocent relatives without cause.
Chávez Seeks Tighter Grip on Military - Simon Romero, New York Times. They say prison life can be lonely, but not for Raúl Isaías Baduel, Venezuela’s former army chief and once one of President Hugo Chávez’s confidants, who was detained last month. Among his cellmates in the Ramo Verde military prison here are a former admiral, Carlos Millán, and Wilfredo Barroso, a onetime general arrested along with Mr. Millán on charges of conspiring to oust Mr. Chávez. Since February, Mr. Chávez has moved against a wide range of domestic critics, and his efforts in recent weeks to strengthen his grip on the armed forces have led to high-profile arrests and a wave of reassignments.
'Aló Presidente,' Are You Still Talking? - Juan Forero, Washington Post. There's probably no president in the world as loquacious as Hugo Chávez, the self-styled revolutionary leader who frequently commandeers the Venezuelan airwaves to deliver monologues that can last hours. Now, he is threatening to break his own record with a special four-day episode of "Aló Presidente," or "Hello President," to commemorate the 10th anniversary of a program that is part talk show, part bully pulpit and all Chávez.
ASIA PACIFIC
US Warns North Korea Against Nuclear Activity - Peter Spiegel, Wall Street Journal. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates issued North Korea the sternest warning from Washington since Monday's test of a nuclear weapon, saying the US "will not stand idly by" as Pyongyang develops nuclear and missile technologies that could threaten America and its allies in the region. The warning came in a Saturday-morning address Mr. Gates delivered to an annual gathering of Asian defense officials here. "President Obama has offered an open hand to tyrannies that unclench their fists; he is hopeful but he is not naive," Mr. Gates said. "North Korea's latest reply to our overtures isn't exactly something we would characterize as helpful or constructive." Mr. Gates also said that the export of nuclear material by North Korea to other states or terrorist groups would be considered a "grave threat" to the US and that Washington would hold Pyongyang "fully accountable" for the consequences if such technologies fell into the wrong hands.
N. Korea Fires Sixth Missile in a Week - Blaine Harden, Washington Post. North Korea rattled its neighbors again Friday when it fired a short-range missile off its eastern coast, the sixth such launch this week, and there were signs that the secretive communist country might be preparing more shows of force. The latest launch appeared to be of a modified version of a Russian SA-5 missile designed to shoot down aircraft, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency. Yonhap also said that the usual fleet of nearly 300 Chinese fishing boats in the disputed waters west of the Korean Peninsula had dwindled by about half in recent days. It was not known whether North Korean officials warned the Chinese boats to move or they left on their own, hoping to avoid clashes in the area.
Gates Draws the Line on North Korea's Nuclear Program: No Proliferation - Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times. US Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates promised today to hold North Korea accountable for selling or transferring nuclear material outside its borders, providing the first clear expression of the Obama administration's thinking on a vexing foreign policy challenge. A succession of US presidents have tried to persuade the reclusive government to give up its nuclear arms, and Gates made it clear that President Obama was open to using diplomacy to end the threat. But he also drew a distinction between the danger posed by a North Korea that possessed nuclear weapons and one that sold them to other countries or groups. Spreading its nuclear technology would invite the swiftest and most forceful US response, he said.
North Korea Is Warned by Gates on Testing - Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates warned North Korea on Saturday that the United States would not accept it as a nuclear weapons state and would consider any transfer of nuclear material to other countries or terrorist groups a “grave threat” to the United States and its allies. “We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in the region - or on us,” Mr. Gates told a major security conference here that has been dominated by North Korea’s test this week of a nuclear device and the firing of at least six short-range missiles, all in defiance of international sanctions. North Korea test-fired a missile on Friday, according to a South Korean defense official. North Korea, Mr. Gates said, had a choice: “To continue as a destitute, international pariah, or chart a new course.”
North Korea Fires Another Short-Range Missile - Voice of America. North Korea test-fired another short-range missile off its east coast Friday, and threatened to take retaliatory action if the United Nations imposes sanctions for its latest nuclear test. South Korea's Yonhap news agency quotes a South Korean official as saying the North launched a "new type" of land-to-air missile from its Musudan-ni launch site. It was the sixth short-range missile North Korea has fired since its nuclear test Monday. North Korea's state-run news agency warned Friday of what it called "further self-defense measures" if there is, in its words, "further provocation" by the UN Security Council. The Council is considering possible new sanctions against Pyongyang. These could include expanding an arms embargo, and placing restrictions on financial and banking regulations.
A Military Answer to North Korea? Not Likely. - Gordon Lubold, Christian Science Monitor. The US is unlikely to use its significant military presence in Asia to counter the rising belligerence from North Korea, which conducted unlawful nuclear and missile tests this week. The US has about 28,500 troops on the Korean peninsula, including more than 16,000 soldiers guarding the "demilitarized zone" between North and South Korea. On Thursday, the US and South Korea raised the threat level there to its highest point in 2-1/2 years, in response to Pyongyang's actions. But there are few military options to counter North Korea's move, and analysts say most of them would seem aggressive and only ratchet up the tension.
North Korea and Diplomacy - Wall Street Journal editorial. Right after North Korea's first nuclear test, in October 2006, Senator Bob Menendez explained that the event "illustrates just how much the Bush Administration's incompetence has endangered our nation." The New Jersey Democrat hasn't said what he thinks North Korea's second test says about the current Administration, so allow us to connect the diplomatic dots. At the time of the first test, the common liberal lament was that Kim Jong Il was belligerent only because President Bush had eschewed diplomacy in favor of tough rhetoric, like naming Pyongyang to the "axis of evil." Never mind that the US had continued to fulfill its commitments under the 1994 Agreed Framework, including fuel shipments and the building of "civilian" nuclear reactors, until the North admitted it was violating that framework in late 2002. Never mind, too, that by 2006 the Bush Administration had participated in multiple rounds of six-party nuclear talks, or that it had promised to normalize relations with the North.
Loose Cannon Gives Obama a Lesson - Greg Sheridan, The Australian opinion. There has been a battle of wills between North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il and US President Barack Obama. So far, Kim has won. However history finally judges Kim - genocidal narcissist, self-declared god king, supreme Stalinist end point of communism - it also will have to acknowledge his extraordinary success in imposing his own reality, his personal paradigm, on the international system and on the US. This week, former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans argued that Kim's ambitions were essentially reasonable. Kim wanted recognition from the US, a reliable security guarantee and, according to Evans, didn't really want nuclear weapons. That a sane man can make this judgment after decades of relentless nuclear development by Pyongyang, and after it has rejected or broken this same deal time and time again, demonstrates the feebleness of the foreign policy process mind. It shows a complete failure of political imagination as to what the North Korean political culture really is.
Roh's Mourners Throng Seoul - Stella Kim and Blaine Harden, Washington Post. A national funeral for Roh Moo-hyun, the scandal-tainted former president who killed himself last weekend by jumping off a cliff, brought huge numbers of South Koreans into the streets of Seoul on Friday to weep, to wail and to damn the current president for shaming Roh into suicide. Roh's spectacular death and his wrenching farewell note have in the past seven days shifted public attention away from his alleged involvement in a bribery scandal. Instead, it has zeroed in on what many in the vast crowd of mourners described as a politically motivated prosecution.
South Koreans Mourn a Former President and Rebuke the Current One - Choe Sang-Han, New York Times. Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans turned out Friday to bid a somber farewell to former President Roh Moo-hyun as anger against the current president, Lee Myung-bak, whom many blame for Mr. Roh’s suicide, continued to grow. “Goodbye, President!” people shouted as Mr. Roh’s hearse moved slowly along the main boulevard in central Seoul. Many of the mourners wore yellow hats or threw yellow paper airplanes - Mr. Roh’s campaign color was yellow - while others followed the hearse, carrying traditional funeral streamers and chanting his name. Some also yelled slogans against Mr. Lee, and yellow leaflets carried by many mourners read, “Lee Myung-bak, apologize!”
In China, a New Breed of Dissidents - Loretta Chao, Wall Street Journal. Ms. Shen illustrates the changing dynamics of the Chinese protest movement since the military crackdown on protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square 20 years ago, on June 3 and 4, 1989. China's government, which has defended its response to those protests, has never given a full accounting of the casualties from that crackdown, but hundreds of people are believed to have been killed. Back then, protesters were demanding democracy and denouncing corruption and economic mismanagement. The leaders were student intellectuals - the elite of Chinese society. A number of prominent intellectuals are still pushing for broad political reform. But street protests these days are organized mainly by activists like Ms. Shen, who act as champions for workers, farmers and small business owners who have run out of legal options.
Burmese Activist's Health Is A Concern - Associated Press. Detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi urgently needs medical attention in the Rangoon prison where she is being held, her party said Friday. Meanwhile, closing arguments in her trial were delayed until the end of next week. The National League for Democracy said in a statement that it is "gravely concerned" about the Nobel Peace laureate's health, adding that she is unable to sleep well because she suffers from leg cramps. Suu Kyi, 63, was treated for dehydration and low blood pressure in early May, a few days after an American intruder was arrested for sneaking into her home. The military government has accused her of violating the terms of her house arrest for harboring the American. If she is found guilty, she could spend as much as five years in prison.
EUROPE
Plant to Destroy Chemical Weapons Opens in Russia - Philip P. Pan, Washington Post. Russia and the United States formally opened on Friday a plant in Siberia to destroy a huge stockpile of artillery shells filled with deadly nerve agents, more than a decade after alarmed US officials first pledged to help secure and dispose of the weapons. The 250-acre facility, built with $1 billion in US aid, is said to be the largest in the world dedicated to destroying chemical munitions. Its debut represents a milestone in Russia's long, rocky partnership with the United States to safeguard and eliminate the arsenal of chemical, biological and nuclear arms the former Soviet Union produced.
MIDDLE EAST
Disgruntled Urbanites Could Sway Iran Vote - Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post. Iran's urban middle class is increasingly disenchanted with the current government and may turn out in larger numbers than four years ago to oppose President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, voters said in interviews here. In 2005, many of Tehran's 12 million residents boycotted the presidential election to protest a system they thought did not represent them. But many say they are going to vote against Ahmadinejad on June 12. There are no trustworthy opinion polls in Iran, and turnout is highly dependent on current events, but many people who rarely vote are saying that this time, they will.
Iranian Reformist Candidate Backs Nuclear Talks with World Powers - Voice of America. An Iranian presidential candidate said he is willing to continue talks with international powers over Iran's nuclear program - a sharp contrast to the position of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Moderate former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi said Friday that if elected he will agree to talks with a group of six world powers that have sought discussions on Iran's nuclear efforts. The group is made up of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the United States, Britain, China, France and Russia - plus Germany. President Ahmadinejad recently rejected talks with the group.
Spy Confession a 'Lie', says US Journalist Released from Iran Prison - Ravi Khanna, Voice of America. US journalist Roxana Saberi is back home after an Iranian appeals court May 11 cut her prison sentence to a suspended two-year term. Saberi had been held in Tehran's Evin prison since January after she was arrested for working in Iran without valid press credentials. She was later accused of spying and convicted in a closed-door trial that her father said lasted less than an hour. Saberi, who gave Voice of America an exclusive Farsi interview, talked about the ordeal in a TV broadcast to Iran over the Persian News Network. Since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, human rights organizations and foreign governments have accused Iran of holding, and in some cases, mistreating political prisoners. Iran denies the practice. Saberi said she was released only after she falsely confessed that she was a US spy. "They promise to release you if you confess. One thing they do is they record the confession and they video recorded my confession," Saberi said. "Now I want to say here that if one day they decide to show that video, it's all a lie," she said. Saberi said she was not physically tortured in the prison but she was always under tremendous mental pressure.
Gunmen in Iran Wound 3 at President's Campaign Office - Voice of America. Iranian state media say gunmen have opened fire on one of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's campaign offices, wounding three people. The IRNA news agency says the shooting took place Friday in the southeastern city of Zahedan, near the Pakistani border. The head of the campaign office, Mohammad Zahed Sheikhi, told IRNA that three men threatened people at the site before they opened fire. He said two campaign workers and a child were injured. He also said the three suspected gunmen were captured after being chased. Campaigning has been underway in Iran in preparation for a presidential election on June 12. Mr. Ahmadinejad is seeking a second term and faces three challengers.
There's No Room for Partisanship on Iran - Joseph I. Lieberman, Wall Street Journal opinion. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that it is imperative that the world prevent the Islamic Republic of Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. She pledged that the Obama administration's engagement with Iran to achieve that end would be carried out "with eyes wide open and under no illusions." Mrs. Clinton is right. Iran's illicit nuclear activities represent a uniquely dangerous and transformational threat to the United States and the rest of the world - a threat that demands a response of open-eyed realism. A realistic response requires that we first recognize that the danger posed by the Islamic Republic's nuclear activities cannot be divorced from its broader foreign policy ambitions and patterns of behavior -- in particular, its longstanding use of terrorist proxies to destabilize and weaken its Arab neighbors and Israel, to carve out spheres of Iranian influence in the Mideast, and to tilt the region toward extremism.
Azerbaijan Seen as New Front in Mideast Conflict - Sebastian Rotella, Los Angeles Times. It happened in Baku, transforming the capital of Azerbaijan into a battleground in a global shadow war. Police intercepted a fleeing car and captured two suspected Hezbollah militants from Lebanon. The car contained explosives, binoculars, cameras, pistols with silencers and reconnaissance photos. Raiding alleged safe houses, police foiled what authorities say was a plot to blow up the Israeli Embassy in Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic that borders Iran. Western anti-terrorism officials say the arrests a year ago thwarted swift retaliation by Hezbollah and Iran for the slaying of Imad Mughniyah, the legendary warlord of the Shiite Muslim militia based in Lebanon whose death was widely blamed on Israel.
Mr. Obama and Mr. Abbas - New York Times editorial. President Obama’s meeting this week with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, was a reminder of how much the Palestinians and leading Arab states, starting with Saudi Arabia and Egypt, must do to help revive foundering peace negotiations. We have sympathy for Mr. Abbas, the moderate-but-weak leader of the Fatah party. Israel, the Bush administration and far too many Arab leaders have failed to give him the support that he needs to make the difficult compromises necessary for any peace deal.
Israeli Settlements: A Building Problem - Los Angeles Times editorial. In the latter half of 1967, while Israel's supporters around the world were still celebrating its stunning six-day victory over three Arab armies, leaders in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem were already beginning to plan for Jewish settlement in the newly conquered Palestinian territories. Some believed that the presence of Israeli civilians in the occupied areas would strengthen Israel's security. Others were driven by religious zeal. Some felt the pull of the historic homeland, the "greater" Israel that so many Jews had dreamed of for so long. "They have divided my land," roared Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook in a sermon just weeks before the war. "Yes, where is our Hebron? Have we forgotten it? And where is our Shekhem? And our Jericho -- will we forget them? ... It is ours, every clod of soil ... every region and bit of earth belonging to the Lord's land."
Time to Plant Mideast Seeds - Washington Post opinion. Memo to President Obama: Cling to one thought as you work on your greatly anticipated speech to the Muslim world Thursday in Cairo, Mr. President: There is no American solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict that you can heroically deliver from on high. Peace must be built from the bottom up by the warring sides. Cling to that thought but keep it to yourself. It would be pleasing to your hosts to suggest the opposite - a made-in-the-USA plan for the Middle East. Some of your aides believe this is a special moment that can end the region's Sixty Years' War if you intervene forcefully enough. But that neglects history and the internal logic of the conflict.
Israel and the Axis of Evil - Caroline Glick, Jerusalem Post opinion. North Korea is half a world away from Israel. Yet the nuclear test it conducted on Monday has the Israeli defense establishment up in arms and its Iranian nemesis smiling like the Cheshire Cat. Understanding why this is the case is key to understanding the danger posed by what someone once impolitely referred to as the Axis of Evil. Less than two years ago, on September 6, 2007, the IAF destroyed a North Korean-built plutonium production facility at Kibar, Syria. The destroyed installation was a virtual clone of North Korea's Yongbyon plutonium production facility. This past March the Swiss daily Neue Zuercher Zeitung reported that Iranian defector Ali Reza Asghari, who before his March 2007 defection to the US served as a general in Iran's Revolutionary Guards and as deputy defense minister, divulged that Iran paid for the North Korean facility. Teheran viewed the installation in Syria as an extension of its own nuclear program. According to Israeli estimates, Teheran spent between $1 billion and $2b. for the project.
Obama's New Way - Paul Kelly, The Australian opinion. In a reassertion of America's Middle East diplomacy, President Barack Obama's historic speech to the Muslim world from Cairo will seek to shift the strategic calculations of Islamic and Arab leaders. Obama plans a foreign policy of high ambition in the Middle East precisely because the trends are so dire with the hope of a two-state solution having contracted so much. "It starts with a sense of urgency," says Martin Indyk, former US ambassador to Israel, of Obama's regional game plan. "Where does the Middle East fit into President Obama's priorities? I asked this question to one of his closest advisers and he answered 'very high', saying (Obama) would like to see a breakthrough not within his first four years but within his first two years." Interviewed this week at the Lowy Institute here, Indyk, the Australian-educated American who once worked at Parliament House and was at the heart of Bill Clinton's 1990s peacemaking efforts, says: "I think it is clear in President Obama's mind how he is going about this.
Obama in the Muslim World - Washington Post opinion. The Post asked activists, journalists and policy experts what the president should say in his address in Cairo. Contributions are from Ayman Nour, David Makovsky, Danielle Pletka, Steven A. Cook, Daoud Kuttab, Tamara Cofman Wittes, Martin Indyk, David Pollock and Curtis Cannon, and Aaron David Miller.
SOUTH ASIA
UN Chief Knew Tamil Civilian Toll Had Reached 20,000 - Catherine Philp, The Times. The top aide to the United Nations Secretary-General was told more than a week ago that at least 20,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the Sri Lankan Government’s final offensive against the Tamil Tiger rebels this month, The Times can reveal. UN officials told Vijar Nambiar, Ban Ki Moon’s chief of staff, that their figures indicated a likely final death toll of more than 20,000, during a briefing in preparation for Mr Ban’s visit to the region on May 23. Two staff present at the meeting confirmed the exchange to The Times but Mr Ban never mentioned the death toll during his tour of the battleground, which he described as the “most appalling scene” he had witnessed in his long international career.
Report: Over 20,000 Sri Lankan Refugees Killed as War Ended - Olivia Ward, Toronto Star. Days after the defeat of a UN Human Rights Council measure calling for an investigation into alleged human rights abuses during a Sri Lankan assault on the Tamil Tiger rebels, reports of escalating casualty figures persist. The latest, from the Times of London, alleges that "more than 20,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the final throes of the Sri Lankan civil war, most as a result of government shelling." The report, based on an estimate from a Roman Catholic priest who fled the "no-fire" zone, unnamed expert sources, and analysis of aerial photographs, was fiercely denied by the Sri Lankan government.
Sri Lanka Denies Report on Civilian Deaths - Voice of America. The Sri Lankan military is denying a British newspaper report that says more than 20,000 civilians were killed in the final push against Tamil Tiger rebels. The Times says Friday an independent investigation found most of the civilians were killed by government forces. The newspaper says it arrived at the death toll after reviewing aerial photographs, official documents, witness accounts and expert testimony. Sri Lankan officials said The Times death toll is inaccurate. The government has blamed rebels for civilian deaths. UN officials have estimated at least 7,000 civilians were killed in the bloody final assault, which ended a 25-year civil war this month.
Fresh Reports, Imagery Contradict Sri Lanka on Civilian No-Fire Zone - Emily Wax, Washington Post. The strip of beach where tens of thousands of civilians huddled during the Sri Lankan military's decisive assault against the Tamil Tiger rebels this month shows clear signs of heavy artillery shelling, according to a helicopter inspection of the site by independent journalists, interviews with eyewitnesses, and specialists who have studied high-resolution satellite imagery from the war zone. That evidence contradicts government assertions that areas of heavy civilian populations were no-fire zones that were deliberately spared during the final weeks of military assault that ended this island nation's quarter-century of civil war.
Aid Slowly Reaching Sri Lanka’s War Refugees - Lydia Polgreen, New York Times. Eleven days after the Sri Lankan government declared victory over Tamil rebels in the country’s north, aid organizations are slowly beginning to get freer access to the 265,000 civilians displaced by the fighting, but not quickly enough to meet the vast needs, according to aid officials in the region. Sri Lankan officials have eased restrictions on vehicle traffic in the camps, allowing workers from organizations like the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations and Doctors Without Borders better access to the ethnic Tamils displaced by the fighting who are living in sprawling and squalid camps, according to aid workers. Sarasi Wijeratne, spokeswoman for the Red Cross in Sri Lanka, said that the organization had access to the camps, but that “clear procedures are still lacking.”
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.
