Though US Central Command investigators found a May 4 air strike that caused civilian casualties in Afghanistan’s Farah province was within the rules of armed conflict, they recommended that coalition forces alter tactics, techniques and procedures to safeguard innocent civilians.

--American Forces Press Service

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN

Pakistan Fires Up Big Guns to Destroy Taliban Leader - Nicola Smith and Daud Khattak, The Times. The winding-down of the army’s operation to drive the Taliban from the Swat Valley has freed troops to focus on Waziristan. A security official said: “Troops are in the area and await a signal to trace or kill Baitullah Mehsud.” There have already been artillery and helicopter strikes on at least 50 Mehsud hideouts, and on Friday about 50 militants were killed when jets pounded a training camp, two compounds and three madrasahs under Mehsud’s command. A further 32 died yesterday.

Military: Pakistani Troops Kill at Least 32 Militants in Northwest - Voice of America. Pakistan's military is intensifying its campaign to wipe out the Taliban in parts of the country's volatile northwest. Officials claim troops killed at least 32 militants as they tried to clear a main road near the town of Sarwaki in the South Waziristan tribal region. The death toll cannot be independently verified. The battle there follows Friday's airstrikes along the Afghan border, the first steps in a new offensive targeting Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. Troops also targeted militants in the Malakand region Saturday, where troops have been carrying out an offensive that began in late April. Meanwhile, major military action may be coming to an end in Swat.

Pakistan Targets al Qaeda Hide-out - Raza Khan, Washington Times. Pakistani forces have turned their guns on the main al Qaeda hide-out, a tiny village known as Jani Khel at the fork of two rivers that lie just east of the point where the tribal areas of North and South Waziristan meet, locals say. The village and surrounding countryside lie on an elevated plateau that rises into the snow-capped peaks of the two Waziristans and is known as the gateway to territory controlled by four main Taliban factions, including the one led by Baitullah Mehsud. The Pakistani military is close to winding up an offensive against the Taliban in the picturesque Swat Valley and nearby districts. The push was initiated in response to an alarming advance by the Islamist militants close to the capital, Islamabad, in April, and the military has been preparing for an operation targeting Mr. Mehsud's stronghold farther south in Waziristan.

Airstrikes Target Afghan Taliban - Voice of America. Afghan officials are claiming gains in the battle against Taliban insurgents. A spokesman for the provincial governor of Helmand province says NATO-led airstrikes killed about 26 militants late Friday in Lashkar Gah. The Afghan army's regional commander said Saturday another seven militants were killed during operations elsewhere in Helmand on Friday. Earlier, Afghan officials said six civilians, including three women, were killed in a roadside bombing late Friday in the Gozara district of western Herat province. In other violence, the US-led coalition said one of its soldiers was killed Saturday in an attack on a convoy in eastern Afghanistan. The military did not give details or the location of the incident. The attack took place a day after three other international troops were killed in two different explosions. Friday, US military officials said two US troops were killed in a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan. And the British Defense Ministry said a British soldier was killed in an explosion while on routine patrol near Lashkar Gah in Helmand province. Afghan and international troops have been battling a growing Taliban insurgency, particularly in southern Afghanistan.

Farah Report Recommends Steps to Avoid Civilian Casualties - Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service. Though US Central Command investigators found a May 4 air strike that caused civilian casualties in Afghanistan’s Farah province was within the rules of armed conflict, they recommended that coalition forces alter tactics, techniques and procedures to safeguard innocent civilians. In their report, released yesterday, investigators said the bombing outside the village of Gerani killed 78 Taliban fighters and at least 26 Afghan civilians. “The investigation does not discount the possibility that more than 26 civilians were killed in this engagement,” the report says. The report does not recommend curtailing close-air support, “especially in direct and indirect fire situations that imperil friendly forces.” Still, absent a direct threat, the report does recommend tactical approaches that minimize the chances of civilian deaths, noting that the Afghan government and coalition mission in the country is to protect the people. The incident unrolled after Afghan forces entered the region in pursuit of Taliban fighters. The security forces came under attack and called for US back-up. A Marine quick-reaction force reinforced the Afghans, and close-air support assets arrived overhead. The report said that FA-18F assault aircraft did not inflict casualties, but that bombs dropped by a B-1 bomber did. The action lasted for hours, and ground forces were under constant direct fire, according to the report. The report recommends a reassessment of operational objectives and tactical procedures when using force. “This guidance must apply to planned operations and troops in contact/self-defense operations and must be stand-alone documents,” the report says. Once the guidance is published, all troops - including those not based in Afghanistan - must undergo re-training. The report calls for better strategic communications between coalition and Afghan officials. It also calls for better communications with nongovernmental organizations such as the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. The report recommends an on-call investigative team led by a general officer that can be at the site of an incident within two hours. Finally, the report calls for a reassessment of close-air support aircraft.

A Change in Mission - Kristin Henderson, Washington Post. You fix bayonets when you expect to need the aggressive combat mind-set that's produced by the primal sight of massed blades. You fix them when you expect to search hidden places. You fix them when you expect the fight could push you within arm's reach of your enemy -- gutting distance. In modern warfare, that's extraordinarily rare. The problem was, Karell didn't know what to expect. He was from Arlington. He'd traveled the world. This place, though, was like nowhere he'd ever been. The 2nd Battalion of the 7th Marine Regiment had deployed to Afghanistan last spring to train Afghan police. But when Karell's platoon arrived in Now Zad, the largest town in a remote northern district of Helmand province, they'd rolled into a ghost town. The Afghans who used to live here, more than 10,000, had been gone for several years, their abandoned mud-brick homes slowly melting into the dusty valley. Insurgents were using the place for R&R. At night, all you heard were the jackals, ululating like veiled, grieving women. The fact that Now Zad had no civilian residents, much less any police, had somehow escaped the notice of the coalition planners who had given the Marines their mission.

Rocket Attack at Afghan Base Kills Two US Troops, Injures Six Others - David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times. Two American troops were killed and six other Americans - four service members and two civilians - were wounded in an early morning rocket attack at sprawling Bagram Air Field Sunday. Military authorities said at least three rockets slammed inside the base perimeter at about 2 a.m., in a rare instance of an insurgent attack inflicting casualties inside the heavily fortified compound. It was only the third rocket or mortar attack to penetrate the base since January. The wounded were treated at a medical facility on the Bagram base, which is the size of a small city. Located along the fertile Shamali plain about 25 miles north of Kabul, the base and airfield are surrounded by farmland, desert and towering mountains. The rockets hit in separate areas of the base, while another exploded outside the security barrier, according to a military spokesman. A police official in Bagram district, which surrounds the base, said he had heard no reports of Afghan civilian deaths or injuries.

Rockets Kill 2 Troops at Bagram Base - Associated Press. A rare rocket attack on the main US base in Afghanistan early Sunday killed two US troops and wounded six other Americans, including two civilians, officials said. Bagram Air Base, which lies 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of Kabul, is surrounded by high mountains and long stretches of desert from which militants could fire rockets. But such attacks, particularly lethal ones, are relatively rare. Two US troops died and six Americans were wounded, including four military personnel and two civilians, said Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, a US military spokeswoman. The top government official in Bagram, Kabir Ahmad, said several rockets were fired at the base early Sunday. A spokesman with NATO's International Security Assistance Force said that three rounds landed inside Bagram and one landed outside. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't the office's top spokesman.

UN Commission to Start Bhutto Assassination Investigation July 1 - Margaret Besheer, Voice of America. The United Nations secretary-general has appointed a three-person commission to investigate the circumstances of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination in December 2007. The commission will begin its work on July 1. In February, the government of Pakistan asked UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to establish an international commission to investigate Mrs. Bhutto's assassination. On Friday, Mr. Ban's spokeswoman, Michele Montas, announced that the three-person panel would be led by Chile's UN Ambassador, Heraldo Munoz. He will be assisted by Indonesia's former attorney general Marzuki Darusman, and Irish police expert Peter Fitzgerald.

'New York Times' Reporter Escapes Taliban - Voice of America. A New York Times reporter is free and in good health after escaping from his Taliban captors. Forty-one-year-old David Rohde, Afghan reporter Tahir Ludin, and their driver, Asadullah Mangal, were kidnapped outside Kabul last November and had been held hostage for the past seven months. The Times says Rohde and Ludin scaled the wall of a compound in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan late Friday night and found a Pakistani army scout, who led them to freedom. Rohde was part of the Times Pulitzer Prize award winning team covering Afghanistan and Pakistan, and had gone to Afghanistan to research a book.

Times Reporter Escapes Taliban After 7 Months - New York Times. David Rohde, a New York Times reporter who was kidnapped by the Taliban, escaped Friday night and made his way to freedom after more than seven months of captivity in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Mr. Rohde, along with a local reporter, Tahir Ludin, and their driver, Asadullah Mangal, was abducted outside Kabul, Afghanistan, on Nov. 10 while he was researching a book. Mr. Rohde was part of The Times’s reporting team that won a Pulitzer Prize this spring for coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan last year. Mr. Rohde told his wife, Kristen Mulvihill, that Mr. Ludin joined him in climbing over the wall of a compound where they were being held in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan. They made their way to a nearby Pakistani Frontier Corps base and on Saturday they were flown to the American military base in Bagram, Afghanistan.

Media Stayed Silent on Kidnapping - Howard Kurtz, Washington Post. There were times during the kidnapping ordeal of New York Times reporter David Rohde when his boss wavered in his determination to suppress the story. "We agonized over it at the outset and, periodically, over the last seven months," Executive Editor Bill Keller said yesterday. "Of all the subjects we discussed with the family, that was the one we discussed more intensively than any other: Should we change strategy and go public?" Keller decided against it, and he was aided by silence from at least 40 major news organizations - including, after a personal appeal, al-Jazeera - that continued until yesterday, when the Times confirmed that Rohde and an assistant had escaped their Taliban captors in Pakistan. Keller consulted not only government experts but also other news organizations that had been through similar experiences, and there was "a pretty firm consensus," he said, "that you really amp up the danger when you go public... It makes us cringe to sit on a news story," but in a life-or-death situation, "the freedom to publish includes the freedom not to publish." Still, the unusual arrangement raises questions about whether journalists were giving special treatment to one of their own. "It certainly could appear that way, but it's more complicated than that when a human life is at stake," said Phil Bronstein, former editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. "It does involve a news organization keeping quiet and asking others to keep quiet. What shocks me is that it was so successful."

IRAQ

Bombing Kills 67 in Northern Iraq - Voice of America. Iraqi police say at least 67 people have been killed and some 200 others wounded in a suicide bombing near a Shi'ite mosque in northern Iraq. Saturday's attack near the city of Kirkuk came just 10 days before U.S. forces are scheduled to pull out of Iraq's urban areas. In the attack, a truck exploded as worshippers left a mosque following midday prayers in Taza, a mainly Turkmen town south of Kirkuk. Some 25 homes were destroyed. Medical officials say women and children are among the dead. No one has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing.

Truck Bomb Kills Dozens in Northern Iraq - Nada Bakri, Washington Post. A truck bomb killed at least 63 people Saturday as they were leaving a mosque near the contested northern city of Kirkuk, shattering a recent lull in violence and raising fears of renewed bloodshed as US forces complete their withdrawal from Iraqi cities by the end of the month. The bombing came shortly after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki urged a gathering in Baghdad to remain steadfast if the American withdrawal leads to a resurgence in attacks. "I and you are sure that many don't want us to succeed and celebrate this victory," he said. "They are getting themselves ready to move in the dark to destabilize the situation, but we will be ready for them, God willing." Also Saturday, the British government said two bodies believed to be those of Britons taken hostage in 2007 were handed over to British officials in Iraq. The fate of three others seized with them remains unknown.

Truck Bomb Kills Dozens in Northern Iraq - Steven Lee Meyers, New York Times. A suicide truck bomb exploded in a volatile region of northern Iraq on Saturday, killing at least 68 people and wounding nearly 200 more, even as Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki pledged that attacks like it would not stop or slow the withdrawal of American troops. Also on Saturday, the British government said the bodies of two men, believed to be among five Britons kidnapped by Shiite militants in 2007, had been turned over to British authorities in Baghdad. The truck bombing, the worst single attack this year in Iraq, occurred shortly after noon prayers in a residential neighborhood near a mosque in Taza, a town south of Kirkuk, the capital of an oil-rich region that lies on the tense ethnic fault line between Iraq’s Arabs and Kurds, according to officials and witnesses.

Iraq Bombing Kills 70, Injures 182 - Ali Al Windawi and Ned Parker, Los Angeles Times. A suicide truck bomb killed at least 70 people Saturday and wounded 182 in a primarily Turkmen town in northern Iraq, less than two weeks before the scheduled withdrawal of most US forces from the cities. The bombing, which could exacerbate ethnic tensions in the volatile Kirkuk region, came as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki warned that more attacks were expected as US soldiers exit urban centers. Residents of the Shiite Turkmen town of Taza Khurmatu, about 10 miles south of the city of Kirkuk, had just finished prayers at a mosque when the attacker detonated his explosives-laden truck. Witnesses said the blast leveled more than 80 clay brick homes and damaged the mosque. Rescuers dug through mounds of rubble looking for the wounded and pulling out the dead.

IRAN

Thousands of Protesters Clash with Police in Tehran - Edward Yeranian, Voice of America. Iranian riot police in large numbers have clashed with thousands of protesters in the capital, Tehran. Witnesses tell VOA's Persian News Network that police have used tear gas, batons and water cannon in an effort to disperse thousands of demonstrators trying to stage protests against the results from the June 12 presidential election. There are unconfirmed reports of injuries. Iranian government TV confirmed some incidents Saturday, saying police clashed with what it called "rioters" who were trying to stage, what it called , "illegal protests" against presidential election results which gave a landslide victory to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Witnesses speaking to VOA Persian News Network and other news agencies say thousands of residents were in the streets in defiance of warnings by the government. Witnesses also report a heavy police presence, particularly around two Tehran squares where previous protests were held.

Police Unleash Force On Rally in Tehran - Thomas Erdbrink and William Branigin, Washington Post. Fiery chaos broke out in downtown Tehran on Saturday as security forces blocked streets and used tear gas, water cannons and batons to break up a demonstration against the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Security forces were seen firing warning shots into the air, but there were also unconfirmed reports that several people were hit by gunfire. President Obama, in his strongest comments to date on a political standoff that has paralyzed Iran for a week, urged the Iranian government "to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people." Opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who asserts that he was cheated of victory in the June 12 election, said his supporters in the streets were "facing unrighteous liars." Mousavi, in a statement posted on his campaign Web site, seemed to seek to avoid a direct confrontation with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, who warned protesters Friday of potential "bloodshed" if they continued mass street demonstrations. Mousavi said the way to restore calm on the streets was for the government to "not only allow for peaceful protests, but to encourage them."

Violence Grips Tehran Amid Crackdown - New York Times. Police officers used sticks and tear gas to force back thousands of demonstrators under plumes of black smoke in the capital on Saturday, a day after Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said there would be “bloodshed” if street protests continued over the disputed presidential election. Separately, state-run media reported that three people were wounded when a suicide bomber attacked at the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the southern part of the city, several miles from the scheduled protests. The report of the blast could not be independently confirmed. The violence unfolded on a day of extraordinary tension across Iran. The opposition leader, Mir Hussein Moussavi, appeared at a demonstration in southern Tehran and called for a general strike if he were to be arrested. “I am ready for martyrdom,” he told supporters.

Tehran Girds for More Protests - Wall Street Journal. Iranian officials girded for further protests Sunday, a day after the bloodiest clashes in a week of demonstrations following contested June 12 elections. Authorities, quoted in state media, said they had restored calm across the capital after Saturday's explosion of violence. Iranian state television reported 13 people were killed in clashes between police and what they called "terrorist groups," according to the Associated Press. The report didn't specify how the deaths occurred, but state television reported earlier that several people were killed Saturday when "rioters" attacked a mosque in western Tehran. Iranian officials, quoted in state media, blamed the violence on organizers, who they said coerced large numbers of demonstrators onto the streets. On senior police official, quoted on state media late Saturday, said 400 police had been injured in the violence, and said hundreds of building - including many banks - and cars had been destroyed. It was unclear if the tally was for the entire week of protests, or just Saturday. On Saturday, eyewitnesses painted a scene of chaos, permeated by the haze of tear gas and the wail of police sirens, along large swaths of the city.

Tehran Clashes Grow More Violent - Borzou Daragahi and Ramin Mostaghim, Los Angeles Times. Using batons, tear gas and water cannons, security forces and pro-government militias imposed a tense, tentative calm on Tehran late Saturday after a chaotic day of clashes with stone-throwing protesters who defied warnings to stay off the streets. Rocks and debris filled roadways, and black smoke rose above neighborhoods filled with the haze of tear gas, according to witness accounts. Neither on the streets, where protesters called for another march today, nor in the country's political establishment were there many signs that the turbulence over Iran's disputed presidential election would end soon. Former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, a moderate who lost to hard-line incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 election, would not relent. He delivered a lengthy letter detailing his complaints of irregularities to the Guardian Council, the constitutional watchdog assigned to examine the vote.

Violence Erupts in Defiant Tehran Protests - Mehdi Jedinia and Barbara Slavin, Washington Times. Protests continued into the night in Tehran as demonstrators clashed with Iranian security forces, and President Obama warned Iran that it would not get the respect it seeks from the world until it respects its own people. Eyewitnesses reported fires burning in downtown Tehran. Many residents of the capital again took to their roofs to chant "God is Great," a slogan used during the 1979 Islamic Revolution that has been revived since the disputed presidential election last week shook the foundations of the Islamic republic. Earlier, Iranian security forces cracked down harshly on demonstrators who defied a warning by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to end protests challenging the purported landslide re-election victory of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Tehran Protestors Defy Tear Gas - Marie Colvin, The Times. Iran's reformist opposition leader declared yesterday he was “ready for martyrdom” as his supporters fought bloody battles with police on the streets of the capital, Tehran. Thousands confronted riot police and militiamen who fired live bullets, tear gas and water cannon in a vain attempt to quell the most serious challenge to the regime since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Twenty-four hours after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, warned that further protests could lead to bloodshed, at least three demonstrators died and scores were beaten and injured. The protesters were strengthened in their resolve when Mir Hossein Mousavi, the defeated candidate in the country’s presidential election, issued his most forthright challenge so far to the outcome.

'Ten Killed' in Iran Clashes - BBC News. At least 10 people were killed when police clashed with "terrorists" in Tehran on Saturday, state TV says. It said "rioters" set two petrol stations and a mosque on fire and attacked a military post, during protests over disputed elections. Five family members of one of Iran's most powerful figures, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, were arrested during the protest, state media also say. He is seen as a key rival to poll winner President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The reports cannot be verified as foreign media in Iran are being severely restricted. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has demanded an end to protest, but the BBC's Jeremy Bowen in Tehran says further protests are expected on Sunday. The protests were sparked by disputed presidential elections, but have since escalated into a political crisis for the establishment. The state TV report said 10 people had been killed and more than 100 wounded in clashes between police and "terrorist groups" in Tehran. It said "rioters" had set two gas stations on fire and attacked a military post.

Cautious Response Reflects Obama's Long-Term Approach - Glenn Kessler, Washington Post. All last week, as hundreds of thousands of demonstrators surged through Tehran, President Obama resisted pressure to side with them against the Iranian government. Yesterday, as murky images of clashes and bloodshed flashed on cable news reports, the president called on the Iranian government "to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people." US officials say Obama is intent on calibrating his comments to the mood of the hour. They say he is seeking to avoid having the demonstrators accused of being American stooges and is trying to preserve the possibility of negotiating directly with the Iranian government over its nuclear program, links to terrorism, Afghanistan and other issues. The rest of Obama's three-paragraph statement yesterday, written in meetings with his senior advisers, was essentially a greatest-hits version of his comments during a week of turmoil in Iran. He repeated that the "world is watching," he again cited the "universal rights to assembly and free speech," and he once again quoted Martin Luther King Jr. in saying that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

Obama Says ‘Justice’ Is Needed for Iranians - Helene Cooper, New York Times. President Obama ratcheted up his language against Iran’s leadership on Saturday, in a statement that invoked the American civil rights movement as an analogy for what was unfolding on the streets of Tehran. “Martin Luther King once said, ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,’ ” Mr. Obama said in a statement released after security forces in the Iranian capital clashed repeatedly with protesters. “I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian people’s belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness.” Mr. Obama’s remarks came after intense debate and multiple meetings all day Saturday at the White House, administration officials said, and reflected growing concern within the administration that the violence in Iran could continue to escalate.

Iranians Use Internet, Phones to Share Protest News - Voice of America. With independent media coverage of Iranian protests restricted by authorities, witnesses are reaching out online and by telephone to report what they see on the streets of Tehran. Opposition Web sites said protesters had planned to gather Saturday in Revolution (Enghelab) and Freedom (Azadi) Squares, two of Tehran's main areas. But witnesses told VOA Persian News Network and other news agencies they saw large numbers of police gathered in the streets, blocking the demonstrators. News agencies are relying heavily on information published by Iranian citizens through social media services, such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. On Friday, Facebook announced it is making its Web site available in Farsi, so Iranians can use the service in their native language. Google also introduced a new Farsi translating tool.

Google and Facebook Go Farsi to Help Spread Message from Iran - Murad Ahmed, The Times. Google and Facebook set up Farsi versions of their websites and services yesterday, saying that they were responding to the importance of the internet as a communications tool for Iranians during the turmoil in the country. The web has made it possible for many Iranians to communicate since last week’s disputed election, and the international media have used services such as Twitter and YouTube in their reporting of the protests. Recognising the internet’s crucial role in events in Iran, Google added a Farsi dictionary to Google Translate, its online translation service. It will enable millions of Iranians who are trying to get their message out to the wider world to translate any text, from blog posts to Twitter messages, from Farsi into English and vice versa. Users simply insert text on to the Google Translate website and it is translated at the click of a button.

People Power in Iran Can Carry the Day - The Times editorial. After an extraordinary few days it is still too early to predict with any certainty how events in Iran will unfold. Yesterday in Tehran a large-scale security operation involving the army, riot police and plain-clothes Basiji militia gathered to put down further protests. Tear gas and water cannon were used to disperse up to 3,000 protesters who had gathered in Enghelab Square, as Iranians refused to bow down and accept what they believe was an election stolen by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president. There were reports of bombs and violence elsewhere in the city. Developments in Iran in recent days have been a rollercoaster ride. After the letdown of last weekend, when hopes of an opposition election victory were dashed, the visible expression of Iranian people power was genuinely uplifting, marred only by brutal repression by the authorities, with up to 15 people killed. Then on Friday came the ultimate letdown of a hard-line declaration by Ayatollah Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader.

A Struggle for the Legacy of the Iranian Revolution - Robert F. Worth, New York Times. On the edge of a noisy Tehran rally for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad early last week, a middle-aged woman in a chador was cursing the opposition protesters who say the Iranian election was a fraud. “They are traitors, they are not even related to this country,” she said. “We all support Ahmadinejad and his policies.” But even there, in a government-organized crowd watched over by riot police and Basij militiamen, dissenting voices could be heard. “Not everyone here is for Ahmadinejad,” whispered a woman in a gray headscarf who spotted my reporter’s notebook. “Most of them are for the opposition, they just came here to see what is happening.” She scurried away into the crowd, but another came up - “the election was stolen!” - and another, and another, until I lost count and began to wonder if I was dreaming: “It is all cheating and lies.” “Don’t believe them.” “This is not the true Iran.”

In Tehran, a Moment For Obama to Seize - Jim Hoagland, Washington Post opinion. The most serious challenge that Iran's Islamic rulers have ever faced caught President Obama and many European leaders by surprise. Their intelligence agencies did little to prepare them for a national catharsis that pits a combustible mixture of youthful protesters and political opportunists against Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. By threatening and then delivering repression blessed by his religious authority, Khamenei has turned an election dispute into a crisis of legitimacy for a regime that claims to be divinely inspired. Obama's decision to stay out of the limelight is paying off by keeping the focus on those who cheat and maim Iranians. But the president and his advisers still have not adjusted policies and tactics being overtaken by events. This is clear both from the initial "caught in the headlights" reaction by Obama as he temporized - albeit with steely skill - and from accounts of diplomatic and other official sources here.

A Supreme Leader Loses His Aura as Iranians Flock to the Streets - Roger Cohen, New York Times opinion. The Iranian police commander, in green uniform, walked up Komak Hospital Alley with arms raised and his small unit at his side. “I swear to God,” he shouted at the protesters facing him, “I have children, I have a wife, I don’t want to beat people. Please go home.” A man at my side threw a rock at him. The commander, unflinching, continued to plead. There were chants of “Join us! Join us!” The unit retreated toward Revolution Street, where vast crowds eddied back and forth confronted by baton-wielding Basij militia and black-clad riot police officers on motorbikes. Dark smoke billowed over this vast city in the late afternoon. Motorbikes were set on fire, sending bursts of bright flame skyward. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, had used his Friday sermon to declare high noon in Tehran, warning of “bloodshed and chaos” if protests over a disputed election persisted.

Iran’s Dictator Gives Up Pretence of Democracy - Amir Taheri, The Times opinion. Just before noon on Friday, June 19, the Islamic republic died in Iran. Its death was announced by its “supreme guide”, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had come to praise the system but buried it instead. Khamenei was addressing supporters on the campus of Tehran University, transformed into a mosque for the occasion. Many had expected him to speak as a guide, an arbiter of disputes - a voice for national reconciliation. Instead, he spoke as a rabble rouser and a tinpot despot. At issue was the June 12 presidential election that millions of Iranians, perhaps a majority, believe was rigged to ensure the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a two-thirds majority. Since its inception in 1979, the Islamic republic has organised 31 elections at different levels. All have been carefully scripted, with candidates pre-approved by the regime and no independent mechanism for oversight. Nevertheless, the results were never contested because most Iranians believed the regime would not cheat within the limits set by itself. Elections in the Islamic republic resembled primaries in American political parties in which all candidates are from the same political family but the contest is free and fair. The June 12 election was exceptional because three of the four candidates challenged the results.

Realism on Iran? It's Called Freedom. - Michael Gerson, Washington Post opinion. Presidents dealing with foreign uprisings are haunted by two historical precedents. The first is Hungary in 1956, in which Radio Free Europe encouraged an armed revolt against Soviet occupation - a revolt that America had no capability or intention of materially supporting. In the contest of Molotov cocktails vs. tanks, about 2,500 revolutionaries died; 1,200 were later executed. The second precedent is Ukraine in 1991, where the forces that eventually destroyed the Soviet Union were collecting. President George H.W. Bush visited that Soviet republic a month before its scheduled vote on independence. Instead of siding with Ukrainian aspirations, he gave a speech that warned against "suicidal nationalism" and a "hopeless course of isolation." William Safire dubbed it the "chicken Kiev" speech, which fit and stuck. The first Bush administration was so frightened of geopolitical instability that it managed to play down American ideals while missing a strategic opportunity.

Reading Twitter in Tehran? - John Palfrey, Bruce Etling and Robert Faris, Washington Post opinion. Yes, this revolution is being tweeted, blogged and Facebooked -- and not just in Tehran. Blogger Andrew Sullivan helped kick off the cyber hype with his June 13 post "The Revolution Will be Twittered?" in which he argued that the use of this platform means that "you cannot stop people any longer. You cannot control them any longer." And after the State Department asked Twitter to delay a scheduled maintenance last week so that this line of communication between Iran and the rest of the world could remain open, the company's co-founder Biz Stone offered a somewhat self-congratulatory aw-shucks post on his blog: "It's humbling to think that our two-year old company could be playing such a globally meaningful role that state officials find their way toward highlighting our significance." Certainly, a powerful new force is developing here. Citizens who once had little public voice are using cheap Web tools to tell the world about the drama that has unfolded since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of Iran's disputed election. The government succeeded last week in exerting control over Internet use and text-messaging, but Twitter has proven nearly impossible to block. The most common search topic on Twitter for days has been "#iranelection" - the "hashtag" for discussions on Iran - and global media outlets are relying on information and images disseminated via Twitter feeds.

NORTH KOREA

New Tanks, New Missiles, New Guns, But Hunger Rules - The Times. While ragged children foraged for wild grasses and berries on the outskirts of North Korea’s cities last week, its soldiers gloried in their nuclear weapons and readiness for battle. “Our party and our army have total confidence now that we have nuclear weapons and long-range missiles,” declared a lieutenant-colonel at the demilitarised zone that divides the country from South Korea. “I hope for war because only war can break the present stalemate and only war can reunite Korea,” he added, accepting a Chinese cigarette. North Korea has boasted of a triumphant confrontation with the United States and its allies, defying sanctions and advancing nuclear tests. However, its 20m people have paid a severe price for life in an isolated and highly militarised state. As a new heir emerges to the world’s only hereditary communist dictatorship - Kim Jong-un, youngest son of the “Great Leader”, Kim Jong-il - an extensive journey inside North Korea has shown how the regime keeps control over its ruined realm. A policy of “songun”, or military first, has created an impoverished society dominated by a martial class that rules at the point of a gun.

UNITED KINGDOM

Army Faces Biggest Cuts Since Crimea - Michael Smith, The Times. The Ministry of Defence intends to cut army manpower to its lowest level since the Crimean war. Plans to axe three infantry battalions - a total of 1,800 men - are being discussed despite the overstretch caused by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This would see the size of the army drop below 100,000 for the first time since the 1850s. The army is so desperate to protect funding for Afghanistan that it could offer cuts only in infantry units to meet demands for savings. General Sir David Richards, the incoming head of the army, offered to sacrifice The Green Howards, the regiment of General Sir Richard Dannatt, the current head of the army. The plan was discussed at a high-level meeting of the army, the navy and the RAF in Whitehall last Tuesday. The defence ministry said this weekend it could not discuss the proposed cuts because next year’s planning round was “ongoing”. The RAF proposed the scrapping of Harrier jump jets while the navy proposed axing Type42 destroyers early, and putting back the replacement for its frigates for 20 years.

AFRICA

Somalia Seeks Emergency Military Help - Alisha Ryu, Voice of America. Somalia's beleaguered U.N.-supported government says the country is in danger of being taken over by Islamist militants with ties to al-Qaida. It has sent out an appeal for neighboring countries to intervene militarily in Somalia within the next 24 hours. Speaking to reporters in the capital Mogadishu Saturday, Somali Parliament Speaker Sheik Aden Mohamed Nur "Madobe" made a startling appeal. The speaker says the government has been weakened by rebel forces and now needs military intervention from Somalia's neighbors - Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Yemen - in the next 24 hours. Echoing remarks made by Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheikh Ahmed in recent days, Madobe says the government is fighting al-Qaida, which has established bases in Somalia and is determined to take over the country.

In Fight With Islamists, Somalia Asks for Help - Mohammed Ibrahim, New York Times. Somalia’s Parliament pleaded Saturday for its neighbors and the international community to send in troops within 24 hours after days of intense fighting here in the capital and the deaths of several top government officials put new strains on the country’s beleaguered leaders. “We are under attack by foreign terrorists,” Sheik Adan Mohamed Nor, the speaker of Parliament, said in a news conference. “They are planning to destabilize the security of the whole region. We ask our neighbors, like Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Yemen, to militarily intervene in Somalia.” Foreign jihadists have joined the battle in Somalia, but analysts say the vast majority of the fighters trying to topple the government are Somali. Mr. Nor made his appeal Saturday as government troops lost, and then said they regained, a crucial neighborhood of the city - a claim the insurgents denied. The government also declared a state of emergency, but it controls just a few neighborhoods in the city, so it was unclear what effect the decree would have.

Somali MP Gunned Down in Capital - BBC News. A Somali politician has been killed by gunmen in the capital, Mogadishu, the government has confirmed. Mohamed Hussein Addow's killing is the third of a high-profile public figure in as many days. A suicide attack killed the country's security minister and 34 others a day earlier in Beledweyne, in the north. Mogadishu's police commander was also killed this week. Pro-government forces have been fighting radical Islamist guerrillas in the city since 7 May. Friday's fighting happened in the Karen district of northern Mogadishu - the area Mr Addow represented. Earlier, the funeral of Security Minister Omar Hashi Aden was held. He was an outspoken critic of al-Shabab, the militant Islamist group which said it carried out Thursday's suicide attack.

Tsvangirai Defends Mugabe Unity - BBC News. Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has defended his support of President Robert Mugabe in an interview with the BBC. His comments came a day after he was booed off stage at an address for more than 1,000 Zimbabwean exiles in London. Mr Tsvangirai admitted the widely-criticised land reforms where white farmers were forced from their land had been a "disaster". He is on a tour of Europe and the US to lobby for relief funds for Zimbabwe. He joined a unity government with Mr Mugabe in February following disputed elections in the poverty-stricken country.

Zimbabwe's PM Calls for Exiles to Return Home - Voice of America. Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai called on exiles to return home during a speech in London Saturday, but his words were poorly received. Mr. Tsvangirai told a crowd of about 1,000 Zimbabwean exiles living in Britain to "come home," prompting many in the crowd to boo and shout "Mugabe must go!" Prime Minister Tsvangirai entered a power-sharing government in February with his longtime rival President Robert Mugabe, who is blamed for ruining the country's economy and human rights abuses. Mr. Tsvangirai says Zimbabwe needs professional and business people to return home and help rebuild the shattered country. Mr. Tsvangirai is on an international tour aimed at winning political and financial support for rebuilding Zimbabwe's economy and infrastructure.

AMERICAS

Disgruntled Mexicans Plan an Election Message to Politicians: We Prefer Nobody - Marc Lacey, New York Times. With Mexico’s midterm elections two weeks away, the most spirited campaigning has been for a candidate with no name, no face and no particular policy positions. Call him Nulo. Nulo - Spanish for null and void - is drawing support from disgruntled Mexicans who say the country’s politicians are focused more on their own power games than on the people they are supposed to serve. So, instead of urging voters to throw their weight behind any of the real candidates vying to be elected mayors, governors or members of Congress on July 5, Nulo’s backers are calling on Mexicans to nullify their ballots - and vote for no one at all. “There have been campaigns like this in the past, but it’s never caught fire,” said Daniel Lund, president of the MUND Group, a Mexico City polling firm. “Now, it’s catching fire.” Support for the Voto Nulo campaign has spread on the Internet, where supporters extol the virtues of sending Mexican political parties a stark message: Voting for nothing is better than backing the politicians currently running the country.

Mexico Moves Quietly to Decriminalize Minor Drug Use - Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times. Could Mexican cities become Latin Amsterdams, flooded by drug users seeking penalty-free tokes and toots? That is the fear, if somewhat overstated, of some Mexican officials, especially in northern border states that serve as a mecca for underage drinkers from the United States. The anxiety stems from the Mexican legislature's quiet vote to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine and other drugs, an effort that in the past proved controversial. There's been less protest this time, in part because there hasn't been much publicity. Some critics have suggested that easing the punishment for drug possession sends the wrong message while President Felipe Calderon is waging a bloody war against major narcotics traffickers. The battle between law enforcement authorities and drug suspects has claimed more than 11,000 lives since he took office in late 2006.

UN Calls for Peru Clashes Probe - BBC News. The UN's envoy for indigenous people has urged Peru to launch an independent investigation into recent deadly clashes between police and protesters. James Anaya told the BBC he had heard troubling allegations of abuse by security forces, while visiting Peru. Officials say at least 34 people died in weeks of protests by indigenous people in the Amazon over land rights. The protests were called off after two laws allowing foreign companies to exploit Amazon resources were revoked. Mr Anaya, the UN's Special Rapporteur for Indigenous People, said he had heard "testimony of allegations of abuses that need to be taken seriously" on a recent fact finding mission to Peru.

ASIA PACIFIC

Tibetan Monks Tell Tale of Escape From China - Eward Wong, New York Times. Lobsang Gyatso and his fellow Tibetan monks had been biding their time, walking around the main square of the monastery nestled in the barren hills of northwestern China. Now the moment had arrived. As a group of 20 foreign and Chinese journalists climbed out of minivans, Lobsang and the other monks unfurled banners they had wrapped inside the folds of their crimson robes and held aloft the banned flag of Tibet. “We have no human rights now,” one monk told reporters in Chinese. That daring protest, in April 2008, was transmitted around the world by the journalists on the government tour, putting a dramatic face on Tibetan defiance. Chinese officials had brought the journalists to the sprawling Labrang Monastery, in the town of Xiahe to show that Tibetans were content under Chinese rule, despite the widespread Tibetan uprising the previous month. The enraged monks, about 15 in all, punctured the official narrative.

EUROPE

As Arms Meeting Looms, Russia Offers Carrot of Sharp Cuts - Clifford J. Levy, New York Times. President Dmitri A. Medvedev said Saturday that Russia was prepared to carry out significant reductions in its nuclear arsenal as part of its continuing arms control negotiations with the United States, which are to culminate here in a summit meeting with President Obama next month. His comments were among the clearest yet by Russia outlining its position on arms control. But Mr. Medvedev, issuing a warning in advance of the summit meeting, also reiterated Russian objections to an antimissile system proposed by the United States. He indicated that it had to be scrapped for the two countries to make any progress on arms control. Negotiators for the United States and Russia have met several times already to hammer out a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or Start, which expires Dec. 5.

From War Crimes To Contempt Case - Edward Cody, Washington Post. For the past 16 years, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has been prosecuting those accused of engineering and carrying out the atrocities that marked Yugoslavia's blood-soaked disintegration in the 1990s. For the past week, however, it has taken time out to try Florence Hartmann, a French journalist who was a spokeswoman for the tribunal's prosecutor from 2000 to 2006. Hartmann has been charged with contempt, punishable by seven years in prison and a fine of $140,000, because after she left the tribunal she wrote about a secret ruling that allowed the Serbian government to conceal documents dealing with its official involvement in the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.

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

The New Counterinsurgency Era: Transforming the U.S. Military for Modern Wars - David H. Ucko

Confronting insurgent violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US military has recognized the need to "re-learn" counterinsurgency. But how has the Department of Defense with its mixed efforts responded to this new strategic environment? Has it learned anything from past failures? In The New Counterinsurgency Era, David Ucko examines DoD's institutional obstacles and initially slow response to a changing strategic reality.

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.