The controversial outcome of Iran's presidential election has prompted a potentially explosive political crisis. Post-election fights have erupted in the streets and in the corridors of power in Tehran that are the continuation of a bitter political campaign.
AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN
McChrystal Assumes Command in Afghanistan - Donna Miles, American Forces Press Service. Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal assumed command of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan today, vowing that the coalition will prevail despite a struggle he conceded will be “long and hard.” “2009 will be a critical year for Afghanistan, and a critical year for our coalition,” McChrystal said at a morning assumption-of-command ceremony at the ISAF headquarters in Kabul. “Although we face many challenges, with your steadfast commitment, professionalism and dedication and with the help and support of our Afghan friends and the international community, we will prevail.” McChrystal acknowledged the legacy and achievements of Army Gen. David D. McKiernan, whom he replaces as commander of ISAF and US Forces Afghanistan. “His tireless efforts, clear thinking and calm direction have placed ISAF in a position to develop real momentum in the coming months,” McChrystal said. “To a fellow soldier and friend – my gratitude and thanks.” The incoming commander acknowledged the challenges ahead to achieve a peaceful, stable and free Afghanistan. “It will require the full commitment and talent of each of us, as well as the continued support and resolve of the International community,” he told an assembly of representatives from Afghanistan, the United Nations, the NATO alliance and 14 non-NATO nations supporting the coalition. “But together we will prevail.”
New Afghanistan Commander Will Review Troop Placements - Greg Jaffe, Washington Post. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who took over Monday as the top commander in Afghanistan, said he will launch a broad assessment of how US and NATO troops are arrayed in the country to ensure his forces are focused on safeguarding key population centers and not hunting down Taliban fighters. "We are going to look at those parts of the country that are most important - and those typically, in an insurgency, are the population centers," McChrystal said in an interview shortly after pinning on his fourth star. He replaced Gen. David D. McKiernan, who was fired by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates after 11 months on the job. McChrystal's comments suggested that he wanted to pull forces out of some of the more remote, mountainous areas of Afghanistan where few people live and where insurgent fighters may be seeking refuge. In recent months these isolated pockets have been the scene of some of the most intense fighting between US troops and insurgents.
US General Takes Charge in Afghanistan at Precarious Time - Laura King, Los Angeles Times. US Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal formally assumed command Monday of American and North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops in Afghanistan, taking charge at one of the most violent junctures of the 8-year-old conflict. In addition to confronting an increasingly powerful Taliban insurgency and presiding over the largest American troop buildup of the war, the four-star general faces rising Afghan anger over civilian deaths and injuries in the course of the fighting. McChrystal, speaking at the heavily fortified headquarters of NATO's International Security Assistance Force, described the safeguarding of civilian lives as central to the foreign forces' mission in Afghanistan. "The Afghan people are at the center of our mission -- in reality, they are our mission," he said to an audience of senior commanders, Afghan officials and diplomats. "We must protect them from violence, whatever its nature."
McChrystal Takes Charge of US, NATO Forces in Afghanistan - Associated Press. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a four-star American general with a long history in special operations, took charge of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan on Monday, a change of command the Pentagon hopes will turn the tide in an increasingly violent eight-year war. Gen. McChrystal took command from Gen. David McKiernan during a low-key ceremony at the heavily fortified headquarters of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in central Kabul. McKiernan was fired last month by Defense Secretary Robert Gates one year into a two-year assignment. Gen. McChrystal, a former commanding general of the Joint Special Operations Command, is expected to bring a more unconventional approach to a war that has turned increasingly violent the last three years. He will command the largest international force ever in Afghanistan. A record 56,000 US troops are in the country, alongside 32,000 forces from 41 other countries.
Afghan Presidential Campaigns Begin - Associated Press. President Hamid Karzai and 40 other candidates begin their official campaigns for Afghanistan's top post Tuesday, an election that will decide who will lead the country through a spike in violence and a surge in US troops to combat it. Karzai has led Afghanistan since soon after US-backed troops invaded in 2001 to oust the hard-line Islamist Taliban regime that was sheltering Osama bin Laden. He is the clear front-runner to win a second term, though his standing with Afghans and the international community has weakened in recent years. The campaign period officially begins Tuesday and will close Aug. 18, two days before the vote. Chief among his challengers are former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. There are 41 candidates running for the five-year term, but few are considered serious contenders.
Poll Shows Drop in Support of Karzai as Afghan Leader - Dexter Filkens and Adam B. Ellick, New York Times. Support for President Hamid Karzai has dropped sharply since his election in 2004, with fewer than a third of Afghans supporting his re-election, according to the results of a poll released Monday. The poll, conducted by the International Republican Institute, a nonprofit pro-democracy group affiliated with the Republican Party and financed by the American government, found that only 31 percent of Afghans said they would vote for Mr. Karzai again, far less than in 2004, when he won with 54 percent of the vote. Fewer than half - 43 percent - said that Mr. Karzai’s performance warranted re-election. Still, he easily outpaced a dozen of the other candidates he will face Aug. 20, including Abdullah, the former foreign minister, who goes by only one name and polled 7 percent, and Ashraf Ghani, the former finance minister, who polled less than 3 percent.
Pakistan Army Chief Rallies Troops in Northwest Offensive - Voice of America. Pakistan's army chief has rallied support for the military's ongoing offensive against the Taliban, flying over the battle zone in a fighter plane and giving a televised address. A day after officials said the military is planning to target the Taliban stronghold in South Waziristan, General Ashfaq Kayani said the offensive is aimed at bringing militants to what he called the right path. He said prominent Taliban leaders are not Islamic scholars, but enemies of the country and Islam. In remarks broadcast on private Pakistani television networks, he also highlighted the need to avoid civilian casualties. While the military has not reported new fighting in South Waziristan, reports from the region indicate some civilians have begun fleeing their homes in anticipation of clashes. South Waziristan is the home of top Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud.
Troops Mass for Onslaught on Taleban in 'bin Laden's Mountain Stronghold' - Jeremy Page and Rehmat Mehsud, The Times. Pakistan was mobilising troops and artillery today to launch a massive offensive against Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taleban, in his mountain stronghold of South Waziristan - also believed to be the hiding place of Osama bin Laden. Military officials told The Times that the Government had ordered the attack and the military was pounding Mr Mehsud’s territory with heavy artillery and airstrikes and negotiating alliances with rival tribal leaders in preparation for a ground assault. They also said that the army- already fighting the Taleban in Swat and several other parts of northwestern Pakistan - was engaged in its biggest military operation since the 1971 war that split Pakistan and created Bangladesh. The army has given no schedule for the new attack, but locals reported seeing troop columns moving towards South Waziristan. Analysts say that they expect the army to capitalise on its high levels of public support and launch its offensive within the next few weeks.
Tough Battle in Stronghold of Pakistan Insurgency - Sabrina Tavernese and Pir Zubair Shah, New York Times. Pakistan has been fighting militants for weeks in a green valley north of the capital. Even as that battle is fought, it is now gearing up for the most decisive test of the war, in the rugged western mountains that are the Taliban’s prime sanctuary. The area, South Waziristan, presents the toughest challenge for Pakistan in its fight to curb its growing insurgency. It is home to Baitullah Mehsud, Pakistan’s enemy No. 1, who leads the Taliban here and has engineered dozens of suicide bombings in recent years. Mr. Mehsud now has thousands of fighters entrenched in mountain terrain that is nearly impossible for conventional armies to navigate, and past efforts to capture him, most recently last year, have failed.
Taleban Militants Could Come Under Fire From All Sides - Jeremy Page, The Times. No sooner had Pakistan announced its plans to attack South Waziristan than some pundits began to hail the operation as the Waterloo of the Taleban and al-Qaeda militants in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. The proposed offensive does indeed appear to be a victory for President Obama’s new AfPak strategy, which tries to take a more cohesive approach to the region. If the assault, as expected, coincides with a surge of US troops in southern Afghanistan, the militants will soon be under fire from all sides and robbed of the safe havens they have enjoyed since late 2001. A meeting between the leaders of India and Pakistan in Russia today could also pave the way for India to reduce troop levels in Kashmir, allowing Pakistan to deploy more soldiers against the Taleban. Anyone who has observed Pakistan since 2001 has to be acutely aware of the army’s technical limitations, of South Waziristan’s deeply inhospitable terrain and of the militants’ resilience. They will also be mindful that Pakistan has long drawn a distinction between good and bad militants, helping the US to kill or capture foreigners, while shielding locals it considers to be potential future assets.
Seeking Truth and Trust in Pakistan - Karen DeYoung, Washington Post. US envoy Richard C. Holbrooke, red-faced and sweaty, sat on the dirt floor of a stifling tent as Aslam Khan, a 38-year-old laborer, spoke haltingly of his family's panicked flight from a Pakistani army offensive against Taliban forces in their mountain village, three hours north of here. In the conflict between Pakistan and Islamist extremists, a fight that has drawn in the United States, trust is in short supply. Holbrooke's visit to this refugee camp and another earlier this month was an attempt to build confidence on all sides, and to seek some ground truth for the administration in a situation where it is sometimes as scarce as good faith. In the end, his presence boosted America's image in Pakistan but brought the refugees no closer to home. Pakistani authorities appear distrustful of the refugees, wary of their loyalties and of the possibility of Taliban infiltrators. The government and military, while ostentatiously grateful for US aid and concern, continue to mistrust American motives and staying power.
IRAQ
Combat Troops on Pace to Leave Iraqi Cities - Nada Bakri, Washington Post. US combat troops will leave all Iraqi cities by their scheduled deadline of the end of this month, including Mosul, which remains the country's most dangerous urban area, the commander of US forces said Monday. American combat troops must pull back from cities by June 30 under a US-Iraqi security pact that took effect this year. But Gen. Ray Odierno, the American commander, said this year that troops might remain in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul because of continuing security concerns. During a news conference Monday with senior Iraqi officials, Odierno said violence has declined because of a number of successful military operations in the past month or so. "We had reservations in Mosul a few months ago," Odierno said. "But I feel much more comfortable with the situation in Mosul now."
Outcry over Government's Decision to Hold Iraq War Inquiry in Secret - Philip Webster and Michael Evans, The Times. Gordon Brown faced accusations of a fix and an “Establishment stitch-up” yesterday after ruling that the long-awaited Iraq war inquiry would be in secret and not report until after the general election. The Prime Minister came under attack from MPs on all sides, as well as from families of troops killed in the conflict, after insisting that hearings could not be held in public for reasons of national security. He also surprised MPs by saying that the inquiry, by a committee of privy counsellors headed by a former Whitehall mandarin, would not seek to apportion blame. Critics said that the committee did not have enough military or political experience. Mr Brown argued closed hearings would ensure evidence given to the inquiry by politicians, military officers, and officials would be as “full and candid as possible”. He also pointed to the experience of the long-running public inquiry by Lord Saville of Newdigate into the Bloody Sunday killings in Northern Ireland, which has yet to report after eight years.
Britain to Investigate Role in Iraq - John F. Burns, New York Times. After years of delay, the British government said Monday that it would go forward with a wide-ranging inquiry into the country’s role in the Iraq war, an issue that has caused deep political divisions and protest since American and British troops overran the country in 2003. But Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that the inquiry panel would hold its hearings behind closed doors and he stipulated that, while seeking to identify “lessons learned” from the war, it would “not set out to apportion blame or consider issues of civil or criminal liability.” That brought quick condemnation from war opponents as well as from the Conservative opposition, which supported the war originally but has become harshly critical of its conduct.
Audit Finds That US Overpaid Blackwater - Yochi Dreazen, Wall Street Journal. A government audit found that the State Department overpaid the contract-security firm once known as Blackwater Worldwide by tens of millions of dollars because the company failed to properly staff its teams in Iraq. The report didn't identify any specific security breaches, but it said the State Department should have withheld at least $55 million in payments to the company because of the shortfalls. The audit by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction and the State Department's Inspector General said the firm didn't employ enough guards, medics, marksmen and dog handlers to fully man the teams, which were responsible for protecting the US ambassador to Iraq and other high-level officials. The failure to consistently field the right numbers of guards endangered the US officials whom the company was being paid to protect, the report concluded.
IRAN
Iranians Take to the Streets to Protest Elections - Edward Yeranian, Voice of America. Thousands of Iranians have staged another rally against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, defying a government ban on protests. Tens of thousands of supporters of pro-reform leader Mir Hossein Mousavi took to the streets of Tehran for a third day to protest the election results that declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner. The march came hours after of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered an examination into Mr. Mousavi's claims of vote rigging. President Ahmadinejad has faced demonstrations and riots since Saturday, when officials announced his landslide victory in Friday's election. Following two days of unrest, the interior ministry said anyone disrupting public security would be dealt with according to the law. Mr. Ahmadinejad has dismissed the protesters' claims, saying the election was free and fair. Defeated candidate Mousavi urged calm in a message on his Internet Web site. Thousands of his supporters continue to post hundreds of messages to a Mousavi support group on the Facebook website. The site is being blocked inside Iran, but many Iranians are still able to access it via proxy servers.
A Massive Crowd Defies Ban in Iran - Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians defied a ban by the Interior Ministry and marched through the capital on Monday in support of opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, posing a rising challenge to the country's ruling clergy over the disputed election. Though the afternoon march was peaceful and proceeded without police interference, at least one man was killed and several were wounded at nightfall, when members of the Basij, a volunteer militia allied with the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, fired from a rooftop into a crowd outside its local headquarters in downtown Tehran. There were conflicting reports on whether the crowd had threatened to storm the building before the shooting, but the incident ended with angry protesters setting part of the structure and several motorcycles ablaze. Young Basij members on motorcycles have harassed and beaten protesters since Friday's election, in which the government says Ahmadinejad defeated Mousavi by 2 to 1.
Defiance Grows as Iran’s Leader Sets Vote Review - Robert F. Worth and Nazila Fathi, New York Times. Hundreds of thousands of people marched in silence through central Tehran on Monday to protest Iran’s disputed presidential election in an extraordinary show of defiance from a broad cross section of society, even as the nation’s supreme leader called for a formal review of results he had endorsed two days earlier. Having mustered the largest antigovernment demonstrations since the 1979 revolution, and defying an official ban, protesters began to sense the prospect - however slight at the moment - that the leadership’s firm backing of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had wavered. The massive outpouring was mostly peaceful. But violence erupted after dark when protesters surrounded and attempted to set fire to the headquarters of the Basij volunteer militia, which is associated with the Revolutionary Guards, according to news agency reports. At least one man was killed, and several others were injured in that confrontation.
Iran Protest Biggest Since Revolution - Iason Athanasiadis, Washington Times. In an outpouring of people power not seen here since the 1979 Iranian revolution, tens of thousands of Iranians marched through the streets of Tehran on Monday to protest allegations that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won re-election through massive fraud. Opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who many here think was the real victor of Friday's elections, emerged from seclusion for the first time since the vote to address the crowd, which was estimated to number as many as 1.5 million people. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Muslim cleric who initially confirmed an Ahmadinejad victory, abruptly changed direction and promised a probe into allegations of ballot-rigging, although it was not clear whether the action was merely a ploy to curb unrest. If that was his intention, he failed.
Hundreds of Thousands in Iran Protest Vote Result - Borzou Daragahi and Ramin Mostaghim, Los Angeles Times. Hundreds of thousands of Iranian protesters defied authorities Monday and marched to Tehran's Freedom Square, as the Islamic Republic's supreme leader ordered an investigation into allegations of vote fraud, a move the opposition described as little more than an attempt to dampen anger over the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered the Guardian Council, which is filled with his own appointees and led by a hard-line cleric close to Ahmadinejad, to examine challenger Mir-Hossein Mousavi's claims of vote fraud. Khamenei's order came hours before the march, amid a days-long buildup of tension. Days after Khamenei blessed the election of Ahmadinejad and urged Iranians to rally behind the president, the spokesman of the Guardian Council urged Mousavi's supporters to wait for the "final results" of Friday's election until after the fraud investigation, which will begin today.
Crowds Flock to the Streets of Tehran to Protest at Election Result - Ella Flaye, The Times. He was 45 but his white hair and lined face made him look 60. Tears filled his eyes as he watched marchers protesting over the presidential election results file past yesterday, chanting “Give us back our Iran!” and holding up two fingers for victory. He had fought on the side of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to overthrow the Shah in 1979, he said, but felt betrayed when the cleric returned from exile and imposed strict Islamic rule. He was looking at his younger self. “It’s just like the revolution,” he said, pulling a black cap down over his eyes, declining to give his name because he was an economist in a government ministry. The hundreds of thousands of men, women and children who marched in sweltering heat nine miles down Enghelab Street through the heart of Tehran hope they can force another turning point in Iranian history. They want change and the annulment of the election they believe was rigged by President Ahmadinejad.
Iran to Recount Some Votes - Farnaz Fassihi and Roshanak Taghavi, Wall Street Journal. Iran's Guardian Council said Tuesday it is prepared to recount specific ballot boxes from the disputed election, a day after the largest demonstration since the Iranian revolution ended in gunfire. State television Tuesday quoted Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei as saying that the recount would be limited to voting sites where candidates claim irregularities occurred. The 12-member Guardian Council includes clerics and experts in Islamic law. It's role includes certifying election results. Earlier, state media reported that seven people died the previous day in protest-related violence. Opposition leaders had called for a general strike on Tuesday, but it was unclear how many businesses had shuttered. Meanwhile, supporters of both President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi had called for large demonstrations in a central Tehran square later Tuesday, raising tensions in the city significantly. Iran's ruling cleric has on Monday ordered an investigation into allegations of fraud in the presidential election. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's call hedged his strong backing of the result of Friday's vote. It appeared to be in response to two days and nights of violent protests here, and suggested growing unease among the clerics who sit atop Iran's complex power structure.
Hardliners Open Fire on Defiant Protesters as Tension Grips Tehran - Martin Fletcher, The Times. Tehran was a tinderbox last night after government paramilitaries started shooting following a huge public protest against last Friday’s disputed re-election of President Ahmadinejad. Members of the Basij, a force of young Islamic hardliners, killed one demonstrator and wounded several more when their building was attacked as tens of thousands of protesters dispersed from a rally against election fraud held in defiance of a government ban. In another incident a witness told The Times how she watched from her car as riot police on six motorbikes opened fire on youths walking under a bridge after the rally. “The riot police started shooting them with big guns,” she said. “It wasn’t like the films where there is just a small hole - the shooting was blowing off hands, limbs. It was terrible, terrible.” Gunfire was heard in at least three other districts of the Iranian capital. The Ministry of the Interior was rumoured to have authorised the use of live ammunition as the regime struggled to maintain control. Supporters of the defeated candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, fought running battles with the police and Basiji, who have flooded into Tehran.
Demonstrator Killed by Gunfire at Iranian Election Protests - Edward Yeranian, Voice of America. Iran's pro-reform leader Mir Hossein Mousavi addressed tens of thousands of supporters in the Iranian capital Tehran Mondduring a huge rally to protest the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. There were reports by eyewitnesses that a demonstrator was killed by gunfire from a building used by a pro-government militia. Iranian protesters say they will hold another protest Tuesday in defiance of government warnings and in spite of the shooting death of a demonstrator Monday at a massive pro-opposition rally in Tehran. The protest defied a government ban on demonstrations, but security forces watched quietly. Mousavi addressed the cheering crowd, waving green flags and banners and shouting slogans against the government. He says our people are seeking respect and and seeking to defend their votes and their rights. Mr. Ahmadinejad has faced demonstrations and riots since Saturday, after officials announced his landslide victory.
Obama 'Troubled' by Post-Election Turmoil in Iran - Paula Wolfson, Voice of America. US President Barack Obama says it is up to the people of Iran to determine their nation's future. At the same time, he says he is troubled by the post-election turmoil there and wants to see an end to the bloodshed. President Obama says he is deeply troubled by the violence in the streets of Iran, as protesters contest what they see as a rigged presidential election. "I think it would be wrong for me to be silent about what we have seen on the television over the last few days," said President Obama. Mr. Obama says the people of Iran need to know their ballots mattered. He says an investigation into allegations of vote rigging should go forward without further bloodshed.
In Iran, an Iron Cleric, Now Blinking - Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times. For two decades, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has remained a shadowy presence at the pinnacle of power in Iran, sparing in his public appearances and comments. Through his control of the military, the judiciary and all public broadcasts, the supreme leader controlled the levers he needed to maintain an iron if discreet grip on the Islamic republic. But in a rare break from a long history of cautious moves, he rushed to bless President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for winning the election, calling on Iranians to line up behind the incumbent even before the standard three days required to certify the results had passed. Then angry crowds swelled in cities around Iran, and he backpedaled, announcing Monday that the 12-member Council of Guardians, which vets elections and new laws, would investigate the vote. “After congratulating the nation for having a sacred victory, to say now that there is a possibility that it was rigged is a big step backward for him,” said Abbas Milani, the director of Stanford University’s Iranian studies program.
Iran Regime Likely Shaken for Good - Barbara Slavin, Washington Times. Conventional wisdom about Iran has long been that the nation's senior Muslim cleric would have the final say on domestic and foreign policies, no matter who won the June 12 presidential election. But that calculus has been challenged with the explosion of protests in the streets. Iran analysts say Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could well emerge diminished in stature because of his too-quick confirmation of victory of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - an outcome now discredited by allegations of fraud. "Whatever happens, Khamenei comes out looking bad," said Judith Yaphe, an Iran specialist at the National Defense University. "It's a turning point," she added. "There has been nothing like this since the [1979] revolution."
Signs of Fraud Abound, But Not Hard Evidence - Glenn Kessler and Jon Cohen, Washington Post. Millions of handwritten paper ballots were counted within hours. The challenger riding a surge of momentum and popular enthusiasm lost in a landslide. Other opposition candidates did poorly even in their home provinces. There are many signs of manipulation or outright fraud in Iran's disputed election results, according to pollsters and election experts, but the case for a rigged outcome is far from ironclad, making it difficult for the United States and other Western powers to denounce the results as unacceptable. Indeed, there is also evidence that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the incumbent president deeply disliked in the West for his promotion of Iran's nuclear program and his anti-Israeli rhetoric, simply won a commanding victory. Some analysts have suggested that the attention given the protests and anger in Tehran - where Western media outlets are concentrated - gives a misleading picture of the Iranian electorate. The official results show that the leading challenger, former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, was competitive in Tehran, losing by 52 percent to 46 percent, while trailing badly outside the capital.
Iran Presidential Election Protests Reflect Wider Splits - Gary Thomas, Voice of America. The controversial outcome of Iran's presidential election has prompted a potentially explosive political crisis. Post-election fights have erupted in the streets and in the corridors of power in Tehran that are the continuation of a bitter political campaign. The government declared the incumbent, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the winner in a landslide over his closest challenger, reformist Mir Hossein Mousavi. That sparked charges of a rigged election and violent street protests by angry Mousavi supporters. But analysts say there is also a fight going on behind the scenes that reflects political splits that came out into the open during the election campaign. During the campaign, the president accused Mousavi of accepting support from corrupt elements, and specifically named former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani as the prime backer. Mousavi accused the incumbent of bad judgment and bringing the country into disrepute internationally.
Social Networks Spread Iranian Defiance Online - Brad Stone and Noam Cohen, New York Times. As the embattled government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appears to be trying to limit Internet access and communications in Iran, new kinds of social media are challenging those traditional levers of state media control and allowing Iranians to find novel ways around the restrictions. Iranians are blogging, posting to Facebook and, most visibly, coordinating their protests on Twitter, the messaging service. Their activity has increased, not decreased, since the presidential election on Friday and ensuing attempts by the government to restrict or censor their online communications. On Twitter, reports and links to photos from a peaceful mass march through Tehran on Monday, along with accounts of street fighting and casualties around the country, have become the most popular topic on the service worldwide, according to Twitter’s published statistics.
What Now on Iran? - Los Angeles Times editorial. Memo to the mullahs: If you're going to fake an election, at least make the results look plausible. According to the official tally in Iran's presidential race Friday, incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad didn't just beat his three opponents, he crushed them, winning 63% of the vote and a majority in all 30 provinces. What's more, he beat his pro-reform rivals even in their hometowns and among their own ethnic groups, an extraordinarily unlikely feat. No one can state with certainty that the Iranian election was invalid, because the balloting is not subject to independent monitoring or review. Indeed, at least one poll suggests that the results were genuine and that Ahmadinejad really is as popular as the tally makes it appear, despite rampant inflation and apparent public disdain for his anti-Western rhetoric. But accurate polls in Iran are very hard to come by, and it's not exactly going out on a limb to assert that the election results are suspicious.
Iran's Twitter Revolution - Washington Times editorial. The spirit of liberty finally arrived at Tehran's Freedom Square. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians demonstrated Monday against Friday's election, which handed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad an improbably lopsided victory. The mass protests followed a weekend of street demonstrations, rioting and other expressions of discontent. These events were brought to the world in real time through social-media networks and online video. Tehran's authoritarian leaders clearly were caught off-guard. They had managed to take down the telephone system opposition supporters used for texting but for some reason were slow to eliminate other social media. As open defiance of the election results broke out, citizen journalists used new media to spread the word. And the whole Web was watching.
Obama's Message to Iran - David Ignatius, Washington Post opinion. The stormy Iranian elections are one more sign of how the world has been shaken up in the age of Barack Obama. The ruling mullahs are nervous about a threat to the regime; the opposition is in the streets protesting what they assert is a rigged election. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is claiming a new mandate, but what the world sees is the regime's vulnerability. And what should Obama say about this ferment in Iran, a process that he has subtly encouraged? I'd argue that he should continue with the line he took in his Cairo speech two weeks ago - speaking directly to Muslim publics even as he proposes dialogue with the repressive regimes that govern Iran and many other nations. Obama would make a mistake if he seemed to meddle in Iranian politics. That would give the mullahs the foreign enemy they need to discredit the reformers. Obama struck the right tone when he said late Monday: "The world is watching and inspired by their participation, regardless of what the ultimate outcome of the election was." The basic message is: We support the Iranian people and their democracy. Any change in how Iran is governed is their decision, not America's.
Wanted: 'Hope' for Iran - Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal opinion. On the one hand we have democratically elected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reputed hardliner, who on Sunday abandoned his own long-held position and, to the immense disappointment of much of his political base, spoke of his willingness to accept a Palestinian state - provided only that the Palestinians forswear military pursuits, resettle Palestinian refugees in their own territory, and recognize Israel as a Jewish state, just as the UN did at the country's founding. On the other hand there's Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Holocaust-denier and nuclear aspirant, who on Friday was declared the winner of an election so transparently rigged that the only serious question is whether the regime even bothered to stuff the ballot boxes. Since then, scores of reformist politicians have been arrested or intimidated, rallies have been banned, and the possibility of an Iranian Tiananmen hangs in the air. Question: Toward which of these two leaders does President Obama intend to play the heavy? Not, apparently, with the Iranian.
Obama's Choice is Not to Choose on Iran - Jonah Goldberg, Los Angeles Times opinion. Do it, President Obama, please. Take the side of democracy. Declare yourself and your nation on the side of hope and change where it is more than a slogan and better than a rationalization for ever-bigger government. Stop measuring the success of your diplomacy with Iran by the degree to which the grinning, hate-filled stooge of a clerical junta will "temper" his rhetoric about the pressing need to destroy Israel and slow his ineluctable pursuit of nuclear weapons. Instead, choose a higher standard. Look to history. Look to the aspirations of the students risking their lives and livelihoods to protest a sham election. Stop fawning over the mythological Muslim street only when it hates America, and look to the real Iranian street at the moment of its greatest need, when its heart may be open to loving America.
Iran on a Razor’s Edge - Roger Cohen, New York Times opinion. In silence they moved, a vast throng, hundreds of thousands of people, down the street called Revolution. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had called his opponents mere “dust.” Well, said one student, “We will blind him with our dust.” This was the day followers of Mir Hussein Moussavi, the reformist candidate defeated in Iran’s disputed presidential elections, rose up en masse to protest the theft of their votes. “Quiet! Quiet!” they shouted, arms raised and fingers forming a “V” for victory that they pointed at a lonely police helicopter overhead. Moussavi himself, not seen since the night of the election, appeared on Revolution Square, answering a question much debated here in recent days: Will he lead what he started?
What Do Iranians Want? - Jeffrey Gedmin, Washington Post opinion. It's odd to hear commentators quibble about the "irregularities" in last Friday's Iranian elections. As one of my colleagues from Radio Farda, the Persian-language station of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, notes: The government began announcing results before the votes could have been properly counted. The widespread feeling that injustice has been done is what is driving tens of thousands into the streets of Tehran and other cities. Of course, even before the voting took place, we knew there were problems. A group of men known as the Guardian Council decides who is permitted to run for president in Iran. We also know that the campaign did not take place in "fair and healthy" circumstances, as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claims. Reporters Without Borders, the Paris-based media watchdog group, calls Iran the "biggest prison" for journalists in the region. The government regularly jails dissidents. On the eve of the election, Web sites were blocked and cellphone text messaging was disrupted. A wave of arrests (numbering in at least the dozens) has been reported since Friday; on Sunday afternoon, a 28-year-old journalist in Tehran told one of our reporters that members of the Iranian intelligence service had just come to her office and taken away a colleague.
Recession and Revolution - Ross Douthat, New York Times opinion. Economic fiascos usually have political consequences, and it was only a matter of time before the ripples from the Great Recession produced a crisis in one of the world’s more volatile powers. Luckily for America, it’s happening in Iran. Americans are accustomed to fretting about how theology shapes Iranian politics. But you don’t need to be an expert in Shi’a eschatology to understand how last week’s volatile election gave way to an exercise in self-discrediting thuggery by Iran’s clerical leadership. Worldly forces made the current crisis possible: Stagnating GDP, rising joblessness, and runaway inflation. Even if this week’s crackdown somehow strengthens Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s hand within the ruling clique, the regime as a whole has been severely weakened. The patina of democracy was a useful thing for the ruling mullahs, and riot police can’t make Iran’s economic problems go away.
NORTH KOREA
US Says N. Korean Nuclear Test Smaller Than First Believed - David Gollust, Voice of America. The United States said Monday that a scientific analysis of North Korea's May 25 nuclear test shows it to have had only a fraction of the explosive force first estimated. The US intelligence report came as President Barack Obama prepared for talks Tuesday on the North Korean nuclear program and other issues with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. A brief statement from US Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said North Korea probably conducted an underground nuclear test on May 25 that had an explosive yield of a few kilotons, the equivalent of a few thousand tons of TNT. Although it was a sizable explosion, the test was small by nuclear weapon standards and only a fraction of the 10 to 20 kiloton estimate by Russia's Defense Ministry issued a few days after the event. By contrast, North Korea's first nuclear test, in November 2006, was estimated at just one kiloton and is considered by some experts to have been a partial failure.
S. Korea Seeks Assurances From US of Nuclear Shield - Blaine Harden, Washington Post. As state media in North Korea continued to warn of possible nuclear war, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak flew to Washington for talks on Tuesday with President Obama, from whom Lee is expected to seek a written promise of continued US nuclear protection. The United States has maintained a nuclear umbrella over South Korea since the Korean War, and it periodically reaffirms that protection, although not at the level of a White House statement. North Korea tested its second nuclear bomb last month, triggering worldwide condemnation and cranking up anxiety in Seoul. When the UN Security Council imposed new sanctions on the North for that test, the government of Kim Jong Il quickly responded in the fist-shaking manner that has characterized its behavior this year.
US to Confront, Not Board, North Korean Ships - David E. Sanger, New York Times. The Obama administration will order the Navy to hail and request permission to inspect North Korean ships at sea suspected of carrying arms or nuclear technology, but will not board them by force, senior administration officials said Monday. The new effort to intercept North Korean ships, and track them to their next port, where Washington will press for the inspections they refused at sea, is part of what the officials described as “vigorous enforcement” of the United Nations Security Council resolution approved Friday. The planned American action stops just short of the forced inspections that North Korea has said that it would regard as an act of war. Still, the administration’s plans, if fully executed, would amount to the most confrontational approach taken by the United States in dealing with North Korea in years, and carries a risk of escalating tensions at a time when North Korea has been carrying out missile and nuclear tests.
Inside North Korea's Gulag - Melanie Kirkpatrick, Wall Street Journal opinion. Last week a North Korean court sentenced American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling to 12 years of "reform through labor." The women, arrested in March along the North's border with China, were researching the plight of North Korean refugees who flee to China. Their trial was closed, and their crimes - other than the alleged illegal border crossing - were unspecified. In recent years, I have spent many hours interviewing refugees from North Korea, including some who escaped from re-education camps. Their accounts of prison life accord with a recent assessment by the US State Department. Conditions are brutal and life threatening, according to the February report. "Torture occurred," the report notes matter-of-factly. Refugees have spoken to me of newborns separated from their mothers and left to die. North Koreans can end up in re-education camps for such crimes as listening to foreign radio broadcasts, secretly practicing a religion, or crossing the border to China in search of food. Inmates are subjected to forced labor and are required to memorize political tracts.
How to Help North Korea's Refugees - Paul Wolfowitz, Wall Street Journal opinion. North Korea's highest court recently sentenced two American journalists to 12 years hard labor for attempting to report on the plight of North Korean refugees in China. Those refugees are fleeing a humanitarian catastrophe caused by a regime that has allowed more than one million people to die of starvation and killed 400,000 in its gulag-style prison camps. An uncertain number of North Korean refugees - probably between 100,000 and 400,000 - live a precarious existence in China, facing the constant threat of forced repatriation. One of those refugees, a woman named Bang Mi Sun who managed to flee - a second time after being repatriated and sent to a North Korean labor camp - recently said, "If I had a chance to meet with President Obama, I would first like to tell him how North Korean women are being sold like livestock in China and, second, to know that North Korean labor camps are hell on earth."
THE LONG WAR
EU Agrees to Accept Guantanamo Detainees - Evan Perez, Wall Street Journal. European Union countries made their most explicit promise to date to accept some men held by the US at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in an effort to aid Washington's plan to close the detention facility. A statement issued Monday by the EU and the US included pledges to cooperate on future counterterrorism legal strategies. The joint effort, it said, is meant "to help the US turn the page" on detention policies that the Obama administration has criticized and promised to dismantle. The statement doesn't specify how many detainees could be resettled in Europe or which countries may accept them. President Barack Obama said Monday after meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that Italy had agreed to accept three detainees.
EU Deal is Reached on Guantanamo Detainees - Sebastian Rotella, Los Angeles Times. European Union and US representatives reached an agreement Monday in which European nations can receive inmates cleared for release from the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Separately, President Obama said in Washington that Italy would accept three detainees. He made the announcement after meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in the Oval Office. The EU agreement, announced after a meeting of the 27 European Union foreign ministers in Brussels, repeats previous statements about how Europe and the United States will work together to close Guantanamo. The announcement did not specify which nations would take former inmates or how many. It left the decision up to each nation, many of which oppose taking former prisoners - especially because of US reluctance to do the same.
CIA Mistaken on 'High-Value' Detainee, Document Shows - Peter Finn and Julie Tate, Washington Post. An al-Qaeda associate captured by the CIA and subjected to harsh interrogation techniques said his jailers later told him they had mistakenly thought he was the No. 3 man in the organization's hierarchy and a partner of Osama bin Laden, according to newly released excerpts from a 2007 hearing. "They told me, 'Sorry, we discover that you are not Number 3, not a partner, not even a fighter,' " said Abu Zubaida, speaking in broken English, according to the new transcript of a Combatant Status Review Tribunal held at the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. President George W. Bush described Abu Zubaida in 2002 as "al-Qaeda's chief of operations." Intelligence, military and law enforcement sources told The Washington Post this year that officials later concluded he was a Pakistan-based "fixer" for radical Islamist ideologues, but not a formal member of al-Qaeda, much less one of its leaders.
Detainee Says He Lied to CIA in Harsh Interrogations - Julian E. Barnes and Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times. Self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed told US military officials that he had lied to the CIA after being abused, according to documents made public Monday. The claim is likely to intensify the debate over whether harsh interrogation techniques generated accurate information. Mohammed made the assertion during hearings at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he was transferred in 2006 after being held at secret CIA sites since his capture in 2003. "I make up stories," Mohammed said, describing in broken English an interrogation probably administered by the CIA concerning the whereabouts of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. "Where is he? I don't know. Then, he torture me," Mohammed said of his interrogator. "Then I said, 'Yes, he is in this area.' "
Wars of Necessity and of Choice - Harlan K. Ullman, Washington Times opinion. "So who's in favor of a war-losing strategy?" The answer was self-evident. The same skewering should apply to the equally misleading phrase of "wars of necessity and wars of choice." Wars are ultimately about judgment and should be so regarded and defined. In a simplistic sense, all but the most frivolous are wars of necessity. How many states believed at the time that a decision to go to war was anything but a necessity rather than a choice, irrespective of the strengths of any casus belli? None. Of course, promiscuously bandying about the word "war" or using misleading descriptors inevitably leads to trouble. Remember the various American wars on drugs, crime, poverty and the like? Seven or eight years ago, some of us advocated dropping the phrase "global war on terror" from the political lexicon. The reasons were clear. In dealing with threats, emerging or otherwise, actions must focus on causes, not symptoms, to succeed.
CYBER WARFARE
Cybersecurity Poses Unprecedented Challenge to National Security, Lynn Says - John J. Kruzel, American Forces Press Service. Threats to US-based computer networks - posed by the intelligence branches of foreign countries and teenage hackers alike - represent an unprecedented national security challenge, the Pentagon’s No. 2 official said today. Making cyber warfare unique is the breadth of potential sources, plus the speed and scope of such attacks, Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III said. “Once the province of nations, the ability to destroy via cyber means now also rests in the hands of small groups and individuals: from terrorist groups to organized crime, hackers to industrial spies to foreign intelligence services,” he told the Center for Strategic and International Studies here. Lynn said the common thread among three marquee reviews of US cybersecurity is the need for greater public awareness of both the threat to the country and how it’s prepared to defend against digital attacks. He cautioned that cyber warfare is not an emerging or distant risk. “This is not some future threat. The cyber threat is here today; it is here now,” said Lynn, whose remarks today come several weeks after President Barack Obama announced plans to appoint a cyber security coordinator to oversee the government’s effort.
US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
New Public Affairs Chief Sets Out to Transform Communications Processes - Donna Miles, American Forces Press Service. When Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates tapped Price Floyd to run the Defense Department’s public affairs operation, he gave him two basic marching orders: improve the way the department communicates - especially to young people - and solicit feedback in the process. So one week into the job as principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, Floyd is taking a fresh look at traditional public affairs and strategic communications practices with an eye toward making them more responsive, more relevant, more inclusive and more transparent. Gone will be the days, he said, when the department released information and conveyed messages hoping they’d reach receptive ears and eyes and convince skeptical audiences at home and abroad. The new goal will be better-targeted communications that reach groups not necessarily linked into traditional media outlets, and mechanisms that not only accept, but also solicit, feedback. Floyd said it’s evident in his discussions with Gates that he’s “focused like a laser beam” on communicating better with the department’s audiences. “And he wants to hear feedback,” Floyd said. “He wants to know what people think about our policies and initiatives.” Gates has made no secret of his dissatisfaction with the way the US government, including the Defense Department, communicates with its own members, the American public and the world.
AFRICA
France's Colonial Ties to Africa Are Fraying - David Gauthier-Villars, Wall Street Journal. As French President Nicolas Sarkozy attends the funeral Tuesday of President Omar Bongo of Gabon, France is reopening a debate on whether it has turned the page on decades of close, often secretive relationships with the oil-rich central West African nation and other former African colonies. Mr. Sarkozy pledged in his campaign and soon after he was elected in 2007 to do away with France's sub-rosa military and business operations in Africa. There is no clear sign, however, that he has moved in that direction. A big test for France will come in the fall, when a Paris appeals court is due to rule on whether investigative magistrates have legal grounds to look into allegations of embezzlement in France by three African leaders, including the late Mr. Bongo, who led Gabon for 41 years.
Official Says Ethiopian Troops Back in Somalia - Alisha Ryu, Voice of America. A local official in Somalia says Ethiopian troops are now staying at a military base near a town in the central part of the country. The reported sighting of Ethiopian troops in central Somalia is just one of several from around the country. In an interview with local reporters, the district commissioner of Balanbale town in the central Galgadud region says several truck loads of Ethiopian troops are staying at the military base set up on the outskirts of the town. District Commissioner Hareere Hassan Barre did not say how many Ethiopian troops were in Balanbale, located about 28 kilometers from the Ethiopian border, but his comments appear to back up other eyewitness reports. Barre said the soldiers began arriving there on Friday and have set up a military camp in the western part of town.
AMERICAS
Mexican Army Officers Detained for Cartel Payments - Jose de Cordoba and David Luhnow, Wall Street Journal. Mexico's army has detained 10 of its own officers for allegedly accepting payments from a drug cartel to give it tip-offs about government operations against drug gangs. A captain and seven lieutenants were among those held in Friday's operation, the Mexican attorney general's office said Monday. Authorities believe the men were being paid by the so-called Sinaloa cartel, led by a gang of drug lords that includes Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera, Mexico's most wanted man, and Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, an associate of Mr. Guzman's. "Our investigation showed these men helped the organization of 'El Mayo Zambada' elude actions by the authorities," the attorney general's office said Sunday. The arrests followed the capture last month of Roberto Beltrán Burgos, a cartel figure who helped oversee payoffs to officials in Mexico's government, officials said. Corruption in Mexico's military could become an increasing problem as the army takes the lead in fighting the country's powerful drug gangs.
In Mexico, Protesters Urge Voters to Nullify Ballots - Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times. When Luis Perez de Acha steps into the voting booth next month, he'll draw an angry X across the ballots for Congress and the state legislature. The defaced ballots will not count. And that's fine with Perez de Acha, a tax lawyer from the northern state of Sonora. It's exactly what he wants. Perez de Acha is part of an unusual protest movement that has sprouted up around Mexico in time for midterm congressional elections July 5. Fed up with politics as usual, many voters plan to deliberately render their ballots invalid by leaving them empty, checking off every candidate or scrawling epithets instead of polite Xs. (In Mexico, votes are marked by hand.) Protesters hope a big tally of nullified votes will convey to political leaders just how angry many Mexicans are about the country's direction, the candidates and promises offered by its eight political parties. Disenchanted voters charge that self-interested politicians have failed to address long-standing public corruption, crime and the death count that comes with it, a sclerotic school system, poverty and, lately, an economic tailspin.
ASIA PACIFIC
Anti-Government Fervor Persists Among Thailand's Rural Poor - Tim Johnston, Washington Post. Although a sense of calm has returned to Thailand after months of political unrest, out in the country's rural heartland the deep anger that drove tens of thousands of people to demonstrate on the streets of Bangkok earlier this year still burns brightly. For years, Thailand's rural poor have complained that they are courted by politicians at election time, then dropped when no longer needed. They say they have seen few of the fruits of Thailand's economic boom. In Ban Wai, a village about 360 miles northeast of Bangkok, people interviewed said they have been cut out of the democratic process by the Bangkok-based elite, leaving them little choice but to make themselves heard with public demonstrations.
EUROPE
Russia Vetoes Extending UN Mission in Georgia; Mission to Cease Operations - Margaret Besheer, Voice of America. Russia used its veto power on Monday evening in the UN Security Council to block a resolution that would have extended the mandate of the UN Observer Mission in Georgia for another two weeks. The extension was needed to give council members time to negotiate a plan for the mission's future. But, the mission will expire in a few hours. After more than 15 years in Georgia, the UN Observer force will shut down at midnight Monday New York time (0400 UTC Tuesday). Without a mandate from the Security Council, the 150 military observers and police, as well as their support staff, will cease monitoring operations along the Georgia-Abkhazia boundary and in the Kodori Gorge.The vote in the Security Council was 10 in favor, one veto and four abstentions. The abstentions came from China, Vietnam, Libya and Uganda.
Russia Vetoes Resolution on UN Peacekeepers in Georgia - Colum Lynch, Washington Post. Russia on Monday vetoed a UN resolution authorizing the continued presence of nearly 150 UN peacekeepers in Georgia, abruptly ending a 15-year long UN effort to monitor Georgia's fragile border with the separatist territory of Abkhazia. The Russian action set the stage for a rift in diplomatic relations with the United States and its European allies, which have vigorously supported Georgia's sovereignty over Abkhazia. It raised concerns about a new flare-up of violence in Georgia. In casting its veto, Russia effectively blocked a US and European draft resolution extending the mission's mandate for 15 days to allow the two sides to negotiate a compromise over the future of the United Nations in Georgia. But Russia rejected the draft on the grounds that it continued to endorse Georgia's claim to Abkhazia, which Russia's UN ambassador, Vitaly I. Churkin, said is "based on old realities."
MIDDLE EAST
Obama Praises 'Positive Movement' in Netanyahu Speech - Voice of America. US President Barack Obama says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's conditional endorsement of Palestinian independence is a positive step. Speaking Monday in Washington, Mr. Obama said he now sees the possibility that serious Mideast peace talks can be restarted. On Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu said he would endorse a separate Palestinian state as long as it has no military force and recognizes Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people. Mr. Obama acknowledged the conditions Mr. Netanyahu attached to Palestinian statehood, but said they could be discussed in negotiations. Palestinian leaders said Monday the Israeli leader's position stands in the way of any prospect for peace. Palestinians were disappointed by Mr. Netanyahu's demand that they recognize Israel as a Jewish state and his refusal to halt the expansion of settlements in the West Bank. Mr. Obama on Monday repeated his call for Israel to stop settlement activity. The US president said both sides will have to move in politically difficult ways to achieve what will be in the long-term best interests of Israelis and Palestinians.
US Officials Skeptical on a Demilitarized Palestine - Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times. US officials reacted skeptically Monday to an Israeli proposal that the United States and other world powers guarantee that a new nation of Palestine remain demilitarized as a condition of its statehood. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said for the first time Sunday that Israel would be prepared to live side by side with a Palestinian state, but only if world powers guaranteed that it would be "demilitarized." The proposal came in a major statement of his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that attracted attention worldwide. But US officials expressed reluctance Monday to take part in such a plan, and said that, in any case, the Palestinians probably would not agree to it in negotiations.
Arabs Pan Israel's Overture - Margaret Coker, Wall Street Journal. Arab leaders, both friends and foes of Israel, criticized the peace plan unveiled Sunday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he advocated a demilitarized Palestinian state with limited sovereignty. President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, one of the few Arab nations with diplomatic ties with Israel, said Monday that Mr. Netanyahu's words "scuttled" chances to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That reaction by a nation seen as a mediator could complicate President Barack Obama's efforts to push for a solution. Israeli officials have emphasized that Mr. Netanyahu's acceptance of the creation of a Palestinian state in the speech marked a dramatic shift from his previous policies. White House officials called the Israeli's position a good first step. But Arab diplomats from around the Mideast said they were disappointed with the tone of the address, pointing out that Mr. Netanyahu didn't show he was willing to compromise on some key issues that were under negotiation before peace talks foundered.
Bodies of 3 Kidnap Victims Found in Yemen - Voice of America. Authorities in Yemen said kidnappers have killed at least three of the nine foreigners abducted last week in a northern, mountainous region of the country. Officials said Monday local residents found the bodies of three women near the town of Nashour. Two are reported to be German and one South Korean. Security officials later reported the bodies of four more hostages were found, but the Yemeni embassy in the United States said those reports are false. It said there is no confirmation of the fate of the remaining hostages. A statement from the embassy called the women's deaths a heinous crime and "against the peaceful principles of Islam." The group of seven Germans, a British engineer, and a South Korean teacher were taken hostage in the Saada region last week.
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.
