The Pentagon will adopt a new strategy that for the first time orders the military to anticipate that future conflicts will include a complex mix of conventional, set-piece battles and campaigns against shadowy insurgents and terrorists, according to senior officials. The shift is intended to assure that the military is prepared to deal with a spectrum of possible threats, including computer network attacks, attempts to blind satellite positioning systems, strikes by precision missiles and roadside bombs, and propaganda campaigns waged on television and the Internet.
AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN
New Afghan Strategy Tackles One Village at a Time - Craig Pearson, CANWEST News Service. Canada held a coming-out celebration Tuesday of a social experiment in Afghanistan designed to defeat the Taliban one village at a time - by being nice. The Canadian Forces and civilian organizations have teamed with local Afghans in a mud-hut town south of Kandahar City - in Dand district, Taliban country, near the scene of a suicide bombing just three months ago that killed seven Afghan soldiers. The idea: show what can happen when security and opportunity meet. Citizens in Deh-E-Bagh, population 800 to 1,000, have a number of community improvement projects underway. And more coming. Called Operation Kalay, Canada has contributed money, technical expertise, mentoring - and tonnes of security. The Afghans - who have contributed wishes, labour and what appears to be strong community spirit - appear to have chosen the future over the Taliban.
US to Limit Air Power in Afghanistan - Jason Motlagh, Washington Times. Sobered by the backlash from civilian casualties, the US military is taking steps to tighten restrictions on the use of air power over Afghanistan. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the new US military commander in Afghanistan, will order US and NATO forces to break away from engagements with militants who are hiding among villagers as part of a comprehensive "tactical directive," a coalition official said Tuesday. "It will cover all the aspects that can make a difference to improve security for the Afghan people and make the use of force as safe as possible given an enemy that is on purpose trying to cause death to civilians," said Brig. Gen. Richard Blanchette, chief spokesman for NATOs International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
NATO Troops Stage Air Assault on Taliban Stronghold in Southern Afghanistan - Catherine Maddux, Voice of America. British soldiers in Afghanistan say they have moved into one of the last Taliban strongholds in southern Helmand province with a major air assault. NATO says the recent deployment of additional US troops in the region helped make the operation possible. Afghanistan's NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, known as ISAF, says more than 500 troops took part in Operation Panther's Claw, which began just before midnight Friday. ISAF says the mission was designed to clear and hold one of the last remaining Taliban strongholds in southern Helmand province. The operation was complex. It involved 12 Chinook helicopters, supported by 13 other aircraft, including helicopter gunships, jets and unmanned drones. The aircraft dropped hundreds of British troops into Babaji, north of Lashkar Gah in Helmand.
Afghan Border Efforts Show ‘Great Signs of Success’ - Gerry J. Gilmore, American Forces Press Service. Afghan, Pakistani and coalition military operations designed to restrict militants’ movements and eliminate safe havens along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border have accomplished visible gains, a senior US military officer posted in Afghanistan said today. The continuation of Operation Lionheart border-interdiction operations that began last year has made “it difficult for the enemy to function,” Army Col. John M. Spiszer, commander of 3rd Brigade Combat Team assigned to the 1st Infantry Division, told Pentagon reporters during a satellite-carried news conference. Spiszer’s forces comprise Task Force Duke posted in Regional Command East in northeastern Afghanistan. The task force conducts counterinsurgency, reconstruction and humanitarian operations in Nangarhar, Nuristan, Konar and Laghman provinces that are located near or along the border with Pakistan. “I believe we are showing great signs of success with this within the central Konar region, especially,” Spiszer said.
Roadside Bomb Kills 3 Aid Workers in Northern Afghanistan - Ruhullah Khapalwak, New York Times. A roadside bomb on Tuesday killed three Afghan aid workers with a partner organization of the United Nations refugee agency in a relatively peaceful northern province, a sign of the militants’ continuing efforts to extend their reach in the country. The three aid workers were driving in Jowzjan Province when their car was struck by a remotely detonated roadside bomb operated by someone watching the road, said Muhammad Khalil Aminzada, the provincial police chief. Northern Afghanistan is largely peaceful, and development agencies are able to work there, unlike in regions south of the capital, Kabul. Yet attacks have been on the increase as the Taliban and other insurgent groups have sought to enlarge their areas of influence.
Pakistan's Plans for New Fight Stir Concern - Pamela Constable, Washington Post. As they bake in a sea of plastic tents under the relentless sun, families displaced by the recent army campaign against Taliban forces in the Swat Valley have a single, burning question about the Pakistani government's plans for a far more ambitious military assault against armed extremists in the tribal area of South Waziristan. "What about us?" demanded Tahir Khan, 35, a farmer who fled Swat with his family one month ago and now lives among 50,000 people in this former Afghan refugee camp in northwest Pakistan. "Our homes are destroyed, our crops are burned, our animals are dead. The Taliban could come back anytime. Why is the army going into Waziristan when they haven't finished the job in Swat?" Khan's question has a strategic dimension as well as a human one, and it is among many concerns being raised in Pakistan about the government's decision to launch a second major army operation, aimed at flushing thousands of well-armed Islamist insurgents out of the toughest terrain and most rebellious tribal territory in the country.
US Drone Strike Said to Kill 60 in Pakistan - Pir Zubair Shah and Salman Masood, New York Times. An airstrike believed to have been carried out by a United States drone killed at least 60 people at a funeral for a Taliban fighter in South Waziristan on Tuesday, residents of the area and local news reports said. Details of the attack, which occurred in Makeen, remained unclear, but the reported death toll was exceptionally high. If the reports are indeed accurate and if the attack was carried out by a drone, the strike could be the deadliest since the United States began using the aircraft to fire remotely guided missiles at members of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the tribal areas of Pakistan. The United States carried out 22 previous drone strikes this year, as the Obama administration has intensified a policy inherited from the Bush administration. Before the attack on Tuesday, the Pakistani Army and Air Force had begun operations in South Waziristan against the forces of the Pakistani Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud. The group’s suicide bombings in major cities have terrorized Pakistanis for years.
Rival of Pakistani Taliban Chief Killed - Voice of America. Police in Pakistan said a militant leader opposed to Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was shot dead Tuesday in northwest Pakistan. Police said militant commander Qari Zainuddin was in his office in Dera Ismail Khan when a gunman shot him and wounded one of his aides. Zainuddin was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Zainuddin was a militant commander in the Taliban stronghold South Waziristan, but recently announced that he would support a planned military operation against Mehsud. Officials said one of Zainuddin's guards barged into the complex and shot him after morning prayers. No one has claimed responsibility but suspicion is likely to center on Mehsud and his followers. Also Tuesday, two suspected US drone strikes killed at least eight militants in South Waziristan.
Rival of Pakistan Taliban Chief Is Assassinated - Zahid Hussain, Wall Street Journal. A pro-government tribal leader opposed to Baitullah Mehsud, the chief of the Pakistan Taliban, was killed Tuesday, just hours before dozens of militants were reported killed in an area known as a Mehsud stronghold. Qari Zainuddin, a leader of a rival faction of the Mehsud tribe in South Waziristan, was killed in his house in Dera Ismail Khan when one of his guards opened fire on him, according to local police and his supporters. Police said the assassin escaped. Baz Mohammad, an aide to the tribal leader who was wounded in the shooting, told the Associated Press that a guard barged into a room at Mr. Zainuddin's compound after morning prayers. Later Tuesday, up to 50 militants were reported killed in suspected missile strikes by US pilotless drones in South Waziristan. The attack came during the funeral procession of a senior Taliban commander who was killed in a missile strike in the region.
Taliban Assassination Could Set Back Pakistan's Efforts - Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times. The assassination of a key rival of top Taliban leader Baitullah Mahsud, Pakistan's public enemy No. 1, could set back the government's bid to divide and conquer the militant group's leadership, analysts said Tuesday. Qari Zainuddin was shot while taking an early-morning nap - allegedly by one of his own guards, Gulbadin Mehsud - just after prayers. Zainuddin, who had gained attention by speaking out strongly against Mahsud and his tactics, was taken to a nearby hospital about 7 a.m. but died of head injuries a short time later. Baitullah Mahsud, who is linked to Al Qaeda, has been blamed for several bombings - including the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, for which he denied responsibility - and is believed to have built a production line of suicide bombers he can deploy at will. The news dealt a blow to the government as it ramps up to attack Mahsud's base in South Waziristan near the Afghan border, a tribal region where alliances shift rapidly and many act on the principle of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
US, Kyrgyzstan Reach Deal on Continued Use of Manas Air Base - Jessica Golloher, Voice of America. The United States and Kyrgyzstan have reached a deal on the continued use of a Kyrgyz air base to transport supplies for the US military in Afghanistan. The news comes four months after Kyrgyzstan's parliament voted to evict US troops from the Manas air base near the country's border with Kazakhstan. Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Kadyrbek Sarbayev noted that the operation will aid the NATO effort in Afghanistan to the south. Sarbayev said the government of Kyrgyzstan decided to hold talks and to sign an agreement creating a transit center at Manas airport that would support the operations of the international force in Afghanistan. The deal falls short of US hopes of maintaining the facility as a full-fledged air base. The United States will be able to use the airstrip to transport only non-military supplies to Afghanistan.
In Reversal, Kyrgyzstan Won’t Close a US Base - Michael Schwirtz and Clifford J. Levy, New York Times. Kyrgyzstan has essentially reversed a decision to close an American air base that is central to the NATO mission in nearby Afghanistan, after the United States acceded to sharply higher rent and to minor restrictions on the site, Kyrgyz and American officials said Tuesday. The turnabout is a victory for the Obama administration as it seeks to step up operations to quell the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. The Kyrgyz government had ordered the base closed in February, apparently under pressure from the Kremlin, which has resented the deep American military presence in an area of the world that it has long considered its zone of influence.
IRAQ
Big Oil Ready for Big Gamble in Iraq - Gina Chon, Wall Street Journal. Next week, Iraqi officials plan a welcome-back party for Big Oil. The government intends to auction off oil contracts to foreign companies for the first time since Iraq nationalized its oil industry more than three decades ago. If all goes according to plan in the first round, foreign oil companies will move in to help Iraq revive production at six developed fields that have suffered from years of war and neglect. But Iraq's fractious politics have complicated the process. Some lawmakers and oil officials have called for a delay of the auction. The man behind the plan, Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani, appeared before parliament on Tuesday, where some lawmakers questioned the legality of the proposed contracts and what they called favorable terms for the foreign companies. But the auction appears to have sufficient political support to go ahead on schedule, and Mr. Shahristani and other government officials vowed to plow ahead.
Spate of Attacks Tests Iraqi City and US Pullout - Rod Nordland, New York Times. Falluja was supposed to be a success story, not a cautionary tale. After all, by last year the city, a former insurgent stronghold, was considered one of the safest places in the country. Local Sunni sheiks had driven out the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and held successful elections, and American engineers were hard at work on a showcase reconstruction project: a $100 million wastewater treatment plant meant to be a model for civilian advances in Iraq. Then a series of troubling attacks began cropping up this year. One in particular, at the end of May, seemed to drive home the possibility that things were changing for the worse. With the June 30 withdrawal deadline for American combat troops from Iraqi cities and towns drawing near, that attack and others like it are particularly ominous for officials who see Falluja as a test case for the rest of the country.
IRAN
Obama: 'Appalled, Outraged' by Iran Violence - Kent Klein, Voice of America. US President Barack Obama has used his strongest language yet in referring to the post-election violence in Iran. Much of the president's news conference was devoted to questions about the US response to Tehran's crackdown. President Obama began the session with reporters by directly addressing the Iranian government's violent response to the demonstrations in Tehran. "The United States and the international community have been appalled and outraged by the threats, beatings and imprisonments of the last few days. I strongly condemn these unjust actions, and I join with the American people in mourning each and every innocent life that is lost," said President Obama. Mr. Obama has been under pressure from Republicans and Democrats to react more forcefully to Tehran's crackdown on those who are protesting the results of the Iranian elections. But the president said he has taken a more measured approach to avoid the appearance that the United States is meddling in Iranian affairs.
Obama Rips Iran in Tactical Shift - Jay Solomon, Jonathan Weisman and Yochi Dreazen, Wall Street Journal. President Barack Obama delivered his sharpest criticism of Iran's election and political crackdown, throwing into question his plan for diplomatic outreach to Tehran that stands at the center of his broader Middle East security strategy. After days of criticism from Republicans, Mr. Obama opened a White House news conference saying he was "appalled and outraged" by the threats and confrontations in the streets of the Iranian capital. He declined to confirm whether a US offer of direct talks with Iran will still stand, instead saying he would wait to see how the postelection crisis there "plays itself out." "In 2009, no iron fist is strong enough to shut off the world from bearing witness to the peaceful pursuit of justice," Mr. Obama said. "The United States and the international community have been appalled and outraged by the threats, the beatings and imprisonments of the last few days. I strongly condemn these unjust actions, and I join with the American people in mourning each and every innocent life that is lost."
Obama 'Outraged' by Iranian Violence as Street Protests are Quashed - Philip Webster and Tom Baldwin, The Times. President Obama condemned Iran’s “iron fist” last night, after the regime flooded Tehran with armed security to quash street demonstrations. In his strongest language yet on the post-election crackdown, Mr Obama said that America had been “appalled and outraged by the threats, beatings and imprisonments” of recent days. He also invoked the death of Neda Salehi Agha Soltan, the 26-year-old student shot dead on Saturday, saying: “Those who stand up for justice are always on the right side of history.” His comments came on a day when Tehran tightened its grip on power and the West hardened its stance. Mr Obama, who has been criticised for his muted response so far, used a White House news conference to praise the “timeless dignity” of tens of thousands of Iranians marching in silence. He said: “We’ve seen people of all ages risk everything to insist that their votes are counted and that their voices are heard. Above all, we’ve seen courageous women stand up to the brutality and threats, and we’ve experienced the searing image of a woman bleeding to death on the streets.” He warned Iran that “in 2009, no iron fist is strong enough to shut off the world from bearing witness to peaceful protests of justice”. Gordon Brown told the Commons that the onus was on Iran to show the Iranian people that the recent elections were credible and that the repression of the last few days would cease. He said that the expulsion of the British diplomats was unjustified and denied Iranian suggestions that those involved had been involved in spying.
Obama Sharpens Criticism Of Iran - Glenn Kessler, Washington Post. President Obama yesterday abandoned the restrained tone he had maintained in recent days in discussing the unrest in Iran, opening a news conference by reading a statement loaded with diplomatically charged words: "appalled" and "outraged," "condemn" and "deplore." At the same time, the president and his aides made it clear that the extraordinary events in Iran have not caused the administration to rethink its desire to engage with the Iranian government in order to achieve a deal that would resolve international concerns over Iran's nuclear ambitions. Since the election crisis began, the president has sought to preserve his options for future dealings with the government, assuming it survives. While his rhetorical message has sharpened, he has not called the June 12 election a fraud, refused to deal with the announced winner,
Obama Condemns Iran’s Iron Fist Against Protests - Helene Cooper and David E. Sanger, New York Times. President Obama hardened his tone toward Iran on Tuesday, condemning the government for its crackdown against election protesters and accusing Iran’s leaders of fabricating charges against the United States. In his strongest comments since the crisis erupted 10 days ago, Mr. Obama used unambiguous language to assail the Iranian government during a news conference at the White House, calling himself “appalled and outraged by the threats, beatings and imprisonments of the past few days.” He praised what he called the courage and dignity of the demonstrators, especially the women who have been marching, and said that he had watched the “heartbreaking” video of a 26-year-old Iranian woman whose last seconds of life were captured by video camera after she was shot on a Tehran street.
Iran Will Not Annul Election Results - Edward Yeranian, Voice of America. Iran's Guardian Council has ruled out annulling the disputed June 12 presidential election. Opposition supporters are also calling for a general strike, Tuesday. Iranian media reported Tuesday that the nation's powerful Guardian Council has said it will not annul the results of the nation's disputed presidential election, saying there were no major polling irregularities. The council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei says that in the presidential election they witnessed no major fraud or breech and therefore there is no possibility of an annulment taking place. He added that most complaints centered around irregularities before the election, and not during or after the vote.
Iran Vows To Make Example of Arrestees - Thomas Erdbrink and William Branigin, Washington Post. The Iranian government stepped up pressure Tuesday on opponents challenging the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, setting up a special court to try detained protesters, carrying out new arrests and launching a campaign to publicly vilify those calling for a new vote. Authorities also formally rejected the opposition's demands to annul the disputed June 12 presidential election on grounds of massive fraud and set a deadline of mid-August for Ahmadinejad's inauguration and the confirmation of his new cabinet. But in an apparent effort to assuage the opposition, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, agreed to give a powerful supervisory body an additional five days to review the complaints of fraud. President Obama's remarks Tuesday on the tumult seemed to strike a chord with at least some opposition supporters in Iran.
Crackdowns on Protesters Drape Tehran in Silence - Michael Slackman and Nazila Fathi, New York Times. Iran’s government continued to move aggressively on Tuesday to crush popular protests over a disputed presidential election, setting up a special court for demonstrators, detaining hundreds of independent and opposition journalists and activists, and sending a force of police officers and militiamen onto the streets. The comprehensive crackdown left the center of Tehran eerily quiet, given the huge demonstrations and clashes of recent days. It seemed perhaps a moment of pause for protesters to regroup or reconsider, after at least 17 demonstrators had been killed. Arrests and intimidation left the opposition with no visible leadership, even amid mostly anonymous calls on the Internet for more demonstrations and even a general strike in coming days. Stepping up its assertion of victory, the government took the provocative step on Tuesday of announcing its intention to certify the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and have him sworn in as president by early August.
US Contacted Iran's Ayatollah Before Election - Barbara Slavin, Washington Times. Prior to this month's disputed presidential election in Iran, the Obama administration sent a letter to the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, calling for an improvement in relations, according to interviews and the leader himself. Ayatollah Khamenei confirmed the letter toward the end of a lengthy sermon last week, in which he accused the United States of fomenting protests in his country in the aftermath of the disputed June 12 presidential election. US officials declined to discuss the letter on Tuesday, a day in which President Obama gave his strongest condemnation yet of the Iranian crackdown against protesters.
Western Journalists Among Reporters Detained in Iran - Tara Bahrampour, Washington Post. In the first days after Iran's disputed election, journalists covered it openly. Then, as government militias cracked down, they were told to stay in their offices. Now, many are being arrested - so far, a Canadian Iranian reporter for Newsweek, a Greek reporter for the Washington Times and several dozen Iranian reporters, including a group arrested en masse at their office. It is unclear why the journalists were arrested or what, if anything, they will be charged with. The detentions could, some experts say, be a scare tactic. Or, as with so much of what is happening in Iran now, they could be the beginning of a new phase in which old rules don't necessarily apply.
From New Media, a New Portrait of Iran Emerges - Geraldine Baum, Los Angeles Times. By the time Iranian authorities drew the curtain this week, it was too late. Attempts to choke off coverage of massive protests and postelection street battles between dissidents and government forces came well after the American public had reset a nascent and evolving impression of Iran, experts say. With the cooperation of the government, the global media buzzed in the days before the June 12 election with images of a youthful and exuberant Iran engaged in political debate. Even "The Daily Show" was allowed to profile a lovable, not-unlike-us Iranian family. It was a far cry from footage from decades ago of fanatics raging against America, more recent focus on Iran's nuclear program, or reports of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's frequent America-bashing as he traveled the world.
Neda's Legacy - Washington Post editorial. The Footage is wrenching: a young woman dying on the pavement, covered in blood. Her name was Neda Agha Soltan, and she was 26 years old. It was in the hopes of preventing the world from seeing videos like this that Iran closed access to Web sites such as Facebook and YouTube for its more than 23 million Internet users. But even its stringent censorship could not contain the painful images. After one videographer sent his footage to friends who could bypass the censors, hundreds of thousands on YouTube, Facebook and CNN witnessed Neda's death. President Obama called the video heartbreaking. It has inspired songs, poetry and the creation of Web sites such as Nedanet, where hackers offer Iranians ways to circumvent online censorship.
A Shift on Iran - Washington Post editorial. The political crisis in Iran will not end anytime soon. Though the government has managed, through brute force and uncounted killings, to drive most protesters from Tehran's streets for now, the popular opposition movement remains very much alive. The split between hard-liners and relative moderates at the most senior levels of power, too, is open and unresolved. The huge stakes of this struggle and the likelihood that it will persist for weeks or months require a fundamental change in US posture. To his credit, President Obama began to deliver it yesterday.
Iran's Struggle, and Ours - Robert D. Kaplan, Washington Post opinion. The now-joined struggle for Iranian hearts and minds is where the universal battle of ideas - democracy vs. tyranny - meets the dictates of Middle Eastern geography. Whereas Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states are puzzle pieces carved out of featureless desert, with no venerable traditions of statehood, the roots of a great Persian power occupying the Iranian plateau date to the Achaemenid, Parthian and Sassanid empires. With nearly 70 million people occupying the tableland between the oil-rich Caspian Sea and the oil-rich Persian Gulf, Iran is the Muslim world's universal joint. Iranian power, both soft and hard, is felt from the Mediterranean to the Indus. Indeed, Iran's influence in southern Lebanon and Gaza is part of a historical tradition of empire and Shiite rule. By puncturing the legitimacy of the clerical authority, the demonstrations in Tehran and other cities have the capacity to herald a new era in Middle Eastern and Central Asian politics.
The Followers of Neda - David Ignatius, Washington Post opinion. On one side you have all the instruments of repression in Iran, gathering their forces for a crackdown. On the other you have unarmed protesters symbolized by the image of Neda Agha Soltan, a martyred woman dying helplessly on the street, whose last words reportedly were: "It burned me." Who's going to win? In the short run, the victors may be the thugs who claim to rule in the name of God: the Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Basij militia and the other tools of an Islamic revolution that has decayed and hardened into mere authoritarianism. They have shown they are willing to kill enough of their compatriots to contain this first wave of change.
The Green Revolution(s) - Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times opinion. There has been a lot of worthless chatter about what President Barack Obama should say about Iran’s incipient “Green Revolution.” Sorry, but Iranian reformers don’t need our praise. They need the one thing we could do, without firing a shot, that would truly weaken the Iranian theocrats and force them to unshackle their people. What’s that? End our addiction to the oil that funds Iran’s Islamic dictatorship. Launching a real Green Revolution in America would be the best way to support the “Green Revolution” in Iran. Oil is the magic potion that enables Iran’s turbaned shahs - “Shah Khamenei” and “Shah Ahmadinejad” - to snub their noses at the world and at many of their own people as well. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad behaves like someone who was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple. By coincidence, he’s been president of Iran during a period of record high oil prices. So, although he presides over an economy that makes nothing the world wants, he can lecture us about how the West is in decline and the Holocaust was a “myth.” Trust me, at $25 a barrel, he won’t be declaring that the Holocaust was a myth anymore.
Iran Has More to Lose if it Continues to Pick a Fight with Britain - Bronwen Maddox, The Times opinion. Iran stands to lose more than Britain by picking an argument — in commercial ties, and in its use of London as a base for diplomats and journalists. The regime may think that a small price to pay for the support it hopes to win by stirring up old suspicion of British motives. But it risks increasing the row to the point where Britain wants to call in the European Union and US. Iran’s expulsion of two British diplomats yesterday is reflective of the regime’s handling of the turmoil: aggressive gestures that fall short of a full-scale brutal crackdown. By the expulsion, and the verbal attacks on the British Government, Iran has chosen to pick a fight. On its own the move is insignificant. But if Tehran goes farther down that road, its assets and strategic use of Britain come into play. Why pick on Britain at all? The BBC’s new Persian language service is very likely one irritant. Perhaps it is inevitable that the BBC’s coverage of the election would seem provocative, and also that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s contribution to the service’s start-up costs would seem like firm evidence of government control. More broadly, the Iranian Government has not liked the coverage by the other British media and loathed Gordon Brown’s criticism of the election. However, these are merely new pretexts for evoking Britain’s reputation in the Iranian popular imagination for being behind every plot.
Iran's Regime Will Never Be the Same - Edward Luttwak, Wall Street Journal opinion. At this point, only the short-term future of Iran's clerical regime remains in doubt. The current protests could be repressed, but the unelected institutions of priestly rule have been fatally undermined. Though each aspect of the Islamic Republic has its own dynamic, this is not a regime that can last many more years. When it comes to repression, Iran has a spectrum of security instruments that can be used synergistically. The national police can take care of routine crowd control; riot-police units can beat some demonstrators in order to discourage others; the much more brutal, underclass Basij militiamen enjoy striking and shooting affluent Iranians; and the technical arm of the regime can block cellular service to disrupt demonstrations, as well as stall Internet services. If the protests were to seriously escalate, the Revolutionary Guard troops with their armored vehicles might also be called in, though at some risk to the regime, given that reformist presidential candidate Mohsen Rezai was their longtime commander. The alternative - calling in the regular army - would be much more risky since the loyalty of the generals is unknown. So far the regime has required neither.
THE LONG WAR / HOMELAND SECURITY
Documents Back Saudi Link to Extremists - Eric Lichtblau, New York Times. Documents gathered by lawyers for the families of Sept. 11 victims provide new evidence of extensive financial support for Al Qaeda and other extremist groups by members of the Saudi royal family, but the material may never find its way into court because of legal and diplomatic obstacles. The case has put the Obama administration in the middle of a political and legal dispute, with the Justice Department siding with the Saudis in court last month in seeking to kill further legal action. Adding to the intrigue, classified American intelligence documents related to Saudi finances were leaked anonymously to lawyers for the families. The Justice Department had the lawyers’ copies destroyed and now wants to prevent a judge from even looking at the material. The Saudis and their defenders in Washington have long denied links to terrorists, and they have mounted an aggressive and, so far, successful campaign to beat back the allegations in federal court based on a claim of sovereign immunity.
DHS to Cut Police Access to Spy-Satellite Data - Spencer S. Hsu, Washington Post. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced yesterday that she will kill a controversial Bush administration program to expand the use of spy satellites by domestic law enforcement and other agencies. Napolitano said she acted after state and local law enforcement officials said that access to secret overhead imagery was not a priority. Two years ago, President George W. Bush's top intelligence and homeland security officials authorized the National Applications Office (NAO) to expand sharing of satellite data with domestic agencies. But congressional Democrats barred funding for what they said could become a new platform for domestic surveillance that would raise privacy and civil liberties concerns.
US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Military Command Is Created for Cyber Security - Siobhan Gorman and Yochi Dreazen, Wall Street Journal. Defense Secretary Robert Gates created a new military command dedicated to cyber security on Tuesday, reflecting the Obama administration's plans to centralize and elevate computer security as a major national-security issue. In a memo to senior Pentagon officials, Mr. Gates said he intends to recommend that Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, take on the additional role as commander of the Cyber Command with the rank of a four-star general. The decision follows President Barack Obama's announcement last month that he will establish a new cyber-security office at the White House, whose chief will coordinate all government efforts to protect computer networks. The Pentagon initiative will reshape the military's efforts to protect networks from attacks by hackers, especially those from China and Russia. It also consolidates the largest concentration of cyber warriors and investigators in the government under one military command, exacerbating concerns of some experts who worry about military control of civilian computer systems.
New Military Command for Cyberspace - Thom Shanker, New York Times. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Tuesday ordered the creation of the military’s first headquarters designed to coordinate Pentagon efforts in the emerging battlefield of cyberspace and computer-network security, officials said. Pentagon officials said Mr. Gates intends to nominate Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, currently director of the National Security Agency, for a fourth star and to take on the top job at the new organization, to be called Cybercom. The new command’s mission will be to coordinate the day-to-day operation - and protection - of military and Pentagon computer networks. Currently, the Defense Department operates 15,000 separate computer networks and more than seven million individual computers or information-technology devices, officials said.
General: National Guard is Key in Afghanistan - John Vandiver, Stars and Stripes. Gen. Craig R. McKinley hears it all the time, how vital his troops are. Before Gen. Stanley McChrystal had even taken over in Afghanistan, he made a call to McKinley, leader of the US National Guard. He told him that contributions from the Guard would be crucial to the US mission there. Gen. David Petraeus, head of Central Command, has already suggested they could use more of the agribusiness development teams - manned by National Guardsmen from rural areas - that train Afghans in modern farming techniques. Thirteen already are in place. And that’s just the start for McKinley. The head of Africa Command recently chatted with him about adding Kenya to the growing list of nations in the Guard’s State Partnership Program. And McKinley also sees opportunities for more collaborations in the European Command territory. All this activity, however, raises a question: Between home-state obligations, frequent deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, and a growing list of training partnerships with foreign nations, when does the National Guard reach its breaking point?
WORLD
War, Armed Violence Takes Alarming Toll on Civilians - Lisa Schlein, Voice of America. A new survey by the International Committee of the Red Cross shows war and armed violence take an alarming toll on civilians in conflict-affected countries around the world. More than 4,000 people were surveyed in eight countries - Afghanistan, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Georgia, Haiti, Lebanon, Liberia and the Philippines. The study is being released to mark the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Solferino on June 24, 1859. Nearly 40,000 soldiers were killed or wounded in the Battle of Solferino. But, only one civilian was killed. Today's conflicts are very different. To begin with, there is no such thing as a one-day battle. The majority of modern day conflicts is long-lasting and go on for two, three or four decades. Furthermore, it is civilians that suffer the brunt of deaths and injuries. The ICRC's Director of Operations, Pierre Kraehenbuhl, says warfare today takes a more widespread physical and emotional toll on civilians.
AFRICA
White House Boosts Effort to Salvage North-South Peace in Sudan - Mary Beth Sheridan, Washington Post. The Obama administration stepped up its efforts yesterday to salvage a four-year-old peace accord for Sudan, convening officials from 32 countries and international organizations amid fears that Africa's longest-running civil war could resume. The conference came after years in which the world's attention was focused on a separate Sudanese conflict, in the western region of Darfur. In the meantime, implementation of the agreement ending the country's north-south fight has lagged. "Time is urgent. It's time to move forward," retired Air Force Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration, the US special envoy to Sudan, urged officials who packed a conference room at Washington's Park Hyatt hotel. They included representatives from the UN Security Council's five veto-wielding powers, the foreign ministers of Ethiopia and Kenya, and large delegations from the two Sudanese sides.
President Medvedev Arrives in Egypt for Tour to Revive Relations in Africa - Tony Halpin, The Times. Once it would have been Cold War rhetoric and “fraternal greetings” to Marxist guerrillas. Yesterday Russia returned to Africa in a scramble to restore its Soviet-era influence - only this time with profits and natural resources in mind. President Medvedev arrived in Egypt at the start of a four-nation tour to a continent where communist ideology and Cold War alliances shaped its post-colonial landscape. Now Russia is keen to revive relations in a region where it still has several old friends, and some, albeit faded, influence. Vladimir Putin visited South Africa and Morocco as President in 2006 but Russia currently lags far behind China in winning access to the region’s resources. In the past few years China has invested huge sums to buy influence in Africa and gain access to the raw materials it needs.
American Shot Dead in Mauritania - Ricci Shryock, Voice of America. An American man has been shot dead in the Mauritania's capital, Nouakchott. Witnesses said two men tried to kidnap the American and when he refused to go with them they shot him three times. As an American man was getting out of his car Tuesday in the West African city of Nouakchott, he was shot dead by two armed men, said witnesses. VOA reporter Seyid Auld Seyid was in the Mauritanian capital. "The American was assassinated 15 meters from his office next to the area of Nouakchott's oldest mosque. Right now, the state's prosecutor and police are on the scene of the crime," he said. In December 2007 in Mauritania, four French tourists were killed by the North African branch of al-Qaida, and in 2008 the Israeli Embassy was attacked. Seyid said it is still unknown who committed Tuesday's shooting.
AMERICAS
'Tunnel Rats' Patrol Border Storm Drains - William Booth, Washington Post. They call themselves the Tunnel Rats. Trained in close-quarter combat, psychologically certified to work in confined spaces and armed to the teeth, these four-member teams of Border Patrol agents monitor an elaborate underground warren of dark and dangerous storm drains that crisscross these twin downtowns along the border. Lately, the Tunnel Rats have been busy. In the past nine months, they have discovered 16 new tunnels dug by smugglers in Nogales to move drugs, migrants, cash and weapons between Mexico and the United States. The number of tunnels sets a new record. A Border Patrol official calls the burst of subterranean activity "startling." "It's Swiss cheese under there," said Brooke Howells, a supervisory Border Patrol agent and a tunnel teams leader. "They're constantly burrowing. If you are a smuggler, a working tunnel can be a very lucrative enterprise."
ASIA PACIFIC
Arroyo Prders Army to Wipe Out NPA in Samar - Nestor P. Burgos Jr., Philippines Inquirer. More clashes are expected between government soldiers and communist rebels following President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo’s order for the military to wipe out guerrillas in Samar. Ms Arroyo issued the order to the military at a visit to Samar last week, according to Lt. Col. Oscar Lasangue, head of the 3rd Civil Relations Group of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. In a phone interview Tuesday, Lasangue said Samar and Negros Island were priorities in the counterinsurgency campaign. He said the military’s job was to reduce rebel strength to allow the Philippine National Police to take over the fight against the communists. Lasangue said no additional troops would be sent to Eastern Visayas. Rebel strength in Central Visayas, he said, has been substantially reduced as a result of the surrender of 30 rebels from Cebu and Negros Oriental.
EUROPE
US, Russia Hold Arms Talks in Geneva - Voice of America. US and Russian arms negotiators met Tuesday for a third round of talks on replacing the landmark 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. The two-day talks, in Geneva, are the last scheduled negotiations before a summit in July between US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitri Medvedev. The two leaders agreed earlier this year to open talks on a new agreement to replace the treaty when it expires on December 5. President Medvedev has said Russia is willing to make deeper cuts in its nuclear arsenal, but only if the United States addresses Russian concerns over US plans for a missile defense system in central Europe.
France Sets up Commission to Study Wearing of Burqas - Lisa Bryant, Voice of America. The French National Assembly has agreed to set up a commission to study the wearing of the head-to-toe Islamic covering known as the burqa. The decision was made a day after the country's president, Nicolas Sarkozy, spoke out against the garment. The parliamentary commission will be made up of about 30 lawmakers from the political right and left. They will take a look at the prevalence of the burqa in France, following criticism by prominent politicians that the all-covering garment demeans Muslim women who wear it. French President Nicolas Sarkozy waded into the debate during an address Monday at the Chateau of Versailles, outside Paris. Mr. Sarkozy said the burqa is not a religious symbol, but rather one that lowers the status of women. He said France cannot accept that a woman should be imprisoned behind a cloth grill, deprived of all dignity. The French president backed the idea of a parliamentary inquiry into the burqa.
MIDDLE EAST
Gates: Gulf Nations Support of Iraq, Contains Iran - John J. Kruzel, American Forces Press Service. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today urged Persian Gulf countries to work together and with the United States on securing Iraq and containing Iranian ambitions. Speaking to the defense chiefs of 11 Gulf countries at a conference here, Gates encouraged cooperation against common threats that span national borders like Iran’s nuclear program and terrorist networks operating in the region, as well as in Afghanistan and Pakistan. “Efforts like these bolster the defensive capabilities of everyone involved, without diminishing pre-existing bilateral or multilateral relationships,” he told participants. “They are, I believe, a model for how all of us can better address the challenges of the 21st century by fostering collaboration between and among the nations of the Gulf.” Gates called on the Gulf nations to support Iraq, adding that would help curtail aggression by Iran, which he noted was meddling in Iraqi affairs by training and supplying militants.
Obama Will Restore US Ambassador To Syria - Scott Wilson, Washington Post. President Obama has decided to return a US ambassador to Syria after an absence of more than four years, marking a significant step toward engaging an influential Arab nation long at odds with the United States. The acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, Jeffrey D. Feltman, informed Syria's US ambassador, Imad Mustafa, Tuesday night of Obama's intention, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the decision had yet to be made public. By returning a senior US envoy to Damascus, the Obama administration is seeking to carve out a far larger US role in the region as the president works to rehabilitate U.S. relations with the Islamic world and the Arab Middle East.
Obama Will Send Envoy to Syria, Officials Say - Mark Landler, New York Times. President Obama has decided to send an ambassador to Syria after a four-year hiatus, two senior administration officials said on Tuesday evening, in a sign of the deepening engagement between the Obama administration and the Syrian government. The State Department informed Syria’s ambassador to the United States, Imad Moustapha, of the decision on Tuesday, said one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because it had not yet been announced. Mr. Obama has not yet chosen a person for the post, he said. The administration’s decision was first reported on CNN’s Web site. The State Department’s spokesman, Ian C. Kelly, declined to comment on the report, but other officials said it was a logical step in Mr. Obama’s pursuit of normal relations with Syria.
Israel Frees a Top Hamas Figure - Richard Boudreaux, Los Angeles Times. Israel freed the most senior Hamas leader in its prisons Tuesday after prosecutors failed to persuade a military court to prolong his three-year sentence. The release of Aziz Dweik, speaker of the Palestinian Authority parliament, fed speculation that Israel was on the verge of a deal to secure the return of a captured soldier in exchange for hundreds of Hamas prisoners. Such a swap has been the aim of sporadic negotiations mediated by Egypt, but Israeli and Hamas officials said they had no information about a breakthrough. Israel arrested dozens of mayors, legislators and other elected officials from Hamas in the West Bank following the capture of the soldier, Gilad Shalit, three years ago this week. Most have been charged with nothing more than membership in the militant Islamic group, which views them as hostages Israel would trade for the 22-year-old staff sergeant.
In Cairo, No Service for Veiled Women in Some Restaurants - Jessica Desvarieux, Voice of America. An estimated 80 percent of Egyptian women wear Islamic head coverings, and the numbers are growing. But, in Egypt, if you wear a head covering, the most common is called a higab, some high-end Cairo restaurants choose not to serve you. Owners say the policy is a sign of respect for piety since they also serve alcohol, banned in Islam. However, many women who cover their heads argue that the policy is discrimination. About 80 percent of Egyptian women cannot get service at some restaurants. Not because of what's in their wallets but what's on their heads. The higab and other Islamic head coverings have been banned at some trendy restaurants and bars in Cairo. Twenty-three year-old Minna Mahmoud with her hair covered in a higab says she's been denied entrance to a few clubs and restaurants. One time, she says a bouncer stopped her from entering a club. "And the man he looked at me, just checking me out, and he said, 'I'm sorry you can't enter the place.' I was like, 'why?' 'Umm, you're veiled,'" Mahmoud said.
The Mideast's New Spring of Freedom - Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Wall Street Journal opinion. The hotly contested presidential election in Iran between Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is still unfolding, with uncertain results. But regardless of the outcome, the events in Iran are symptomatic of a larger change in the political landscape of the Middle East - the revival of a regional freedom movement, which stalled in 2006 after the election of Hamas in Palestine. The results of the recent parliamentary elections in Lebanon and Kuwait clearly indicate that Islamist parties have lost significant ground to their moderate counterparts. By Middle Eastern standards, these two countries, along with Turkey, have well-established democratic traditions. Young Iranians show inspiring determination to achieve similar gains in their own country. Scholars maintain that societies that manage to have four or more consecutive elections will usually achieve an irreversible democratic transition. Without direct visible foreign intervention, Turkey, Lebanon and Kuwait may have such a transition well under way. The fear that Islamists might somehow impede the process has not yet been realized. Leaders of competing Islamic forces in both Lebanon and Kuwait have conceded defeat. That includes the much-demonized Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah.
SOUTH ASIA
Opinion Survey Finds Kashmiris say They are Being Used by India and Pakistan - Ravi Khanna, Voice of America. Two US based research institutes (the Program on International Policy Attitudes and the WorldPublicOpinion.Org) have conducted a survey in Indian and Pakistani Kashmir regions on what Kashmiris want. The survey, which the groups say is the first of its kind on both sides of the de facto border, shows that Kashmiris feel they are being used by rivals India and Pakistan to advance those countries' agendas. For both India and Pakistan, Kashmir is strategic and has become a matter of prestige over the years. Clashes between angry protesters and police are frequent in Indian Kashmir. The latest was on June 19. Kashmiris were protesting an alleged rape of two women by Indian troops deployed to quell a 20-year-old Muslim separatist bid. India says the campaign is aided by Pakistan, but Islamabad denies the charge. India controls two-thirds of Kashmir and Pakistan the rest. The UN line that divides the region is called the Line of Control or LOC. Both sides claim the entire region, and several Muslim separatist groups in Indian Kashmir, are fighting for either independence or a merger with Pakistan.
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.
