It's still too early to say whether Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Mr. Ahmadinejad will succeed in their hard-line coup; de facto opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi remains publicly defiant. Yet it is becoming quite clear - for all who care to see it - what the Khamenei-Ahmadinejad regime will offer if it survives: harsh repression at home and unrelenting hostility toward the West.
AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN
Pakistan Army Operation Hinders Taliban Efforts in Afghanistan, US Says - Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times. Pakistan's military offensive against the Taliban has slowed the flow of arms and fighters into Afghanistan, US officials say, and has prompted intelligence analysts to issue cautiously upbeat new assessments of Islamabad's ability to contain the threat of violent extremists. US intelligence and military officials said the revised outlook reflected a series of developments over the last few months, including not only the Pakistani military campaign in the country's Swat Valley, but shifting political currents that have prompted many Pakistanis to turn against extremist groups and back their government's anti-insurgency efforts. "All of a sudden military operations [against militants] are being imbued with a kind of legitimacy, popular support and political support they have never had before," said a senior US intelligence official who oversees analysis of the region, describing the evolving view on condition of anonymity.
Pakistani Police Kill 5 Militants Linked to Taliban - Reuters. Pakistani police killed five suspected Islamist militants in a gunfight in Karachi on Saturday in escalating violence in the country as the army prepares to intensify its action against the Taliban in the northwest. The shootout broke out after police raided a militant hideout in the western district of the teeming city of 16 million people. ”We raided the house on a tip-off that militants were planning attacks in the city,” Karachi police chief Waseem Ahmed told Reuters. ”As we reached near the house, they opened fire. Our force returned the fire and five militants were killed.” Ahmed said the militants were loyal to Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud.
IRAQ
US Troops, Iraqi Civilians to Become Less Protected on July 1 - Ernesto Londoño, Washington Post. US military officials fear that the closure of inner-city bases and restrictive guidelines that go into effect next week will leave American troops and civilians in Iraq more vulnerable. Of particular concern is a new rule that bars US troops from using mine-resistant armored vehicles in urban areas during the day, officials said. Also worrisome, they said, is the recent closure of a small outpost in eastern Baghdad that is adjacent to a site militiamen have used to launch deadly rocket attacks on the Green Zone. In the past few days, several attacks in urban areas - including two that each killed more than 75 Iraqis - have heightened concern about the readiness of Iraq's security forces to operate with limited American assistance.
Stoking Fears, Baghdad Bombs Kill About a Dozen - Sam Dagher and Alissa J. Rubin, New York Times. A bomb placed in a motorbike exploded at an outdoor market in Baghdad on Friday, killing about a dozen people and wounding scores. It marked the third straight day of violence in the capital before the Tuesday deadline for American combat troops to withdraw from Iraqi cities. After another similar bombing outside a billiard hall in Baghdad later on Friday that killed two people and wounded seven, the authorities ordered all motorbikes off the streets indefinitely. Nearly 200 people were killed and hundreds were wounded in attacks over the past week in Baghdad and elsewhere in the country, with the deadliest attacks aimed at Shiites. The violence has raised fears of a new bout of sectarian warfare of the sort that ripped Iraq apart in 2005, and that could lead Iraqis once again to seek the protection of militias and armed groups instead of government forces.
22 Iraqis Reported Dead in Baghdad Bomb Blast - Ned Parker, Los Angeles Times. A bomb hidden in a packed Baghdad market for motorcycles killed as many as 22 people Friday, the latest in a string of attacks that seem aimed at undermining the government before next week's deadline for US forces to exit Iraqi cities. In the last week, more than 150 people were killed in two attacks alone in Baghdad and northern Iraq. Another bombing killed seven people Thursday at a bus station in a western district of Baghdad. The explosion Friday was not far from the Abdul Qadir Gilani shrine, one of the oldest Sunni Muslim mosques in Baghdad. Most of the recent attacks have targeted Shiite Muslim districts, but the latest struck a market that is popular with both Sunnis and Shiites.
IRAN
Iranian Leaders Gaining the Edge Over Protesters - Nazila Fathi and Michael Slackman, New York Times. The direct confrontation over Iran’s presidential election was effectively silenced Friday when the main opposition leader said he would seek permits for any future protests, an influential cleric suggested that leaders of the demonstrations could be executed, and the council responsible for validating the election repeated its declaration that there were no major irregularities. Rather than address the underlying issues that led to the most sustained, unexpected challenge to the leadership since the 1979 revolution, the government pressed its effort to recast the entire conflict not as an internal dispute that brought millions of Iranians into the streets, but as one between Iran and outside agents from Europe, the United States and even Saudi Arabia. It was a narrative that spoke both to the leadership’s belief that it had beaten back the popular outburst, and to the fragility of the calm.
Iranian Cleric Calls for 'Ruthless' Punishment of Protest Leaders - Thomas Erdbrink and William Branigin, Washington Post. An influential Iranian cleric on Friday urged "ruthless" punishment, possibly including execution, for leaders of protests against a disputed presidential election, while President Obama intensified his criticism of a crackdown on the Iranian opposition and rejected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's demand for an apology. Two weeks after Iranians turned out to vote in massive numbers, authorities moved on two fronts to halt continuing unrest over the results, warning that protest leaders could be subject to the death penalty under Islamic law but also creating a "special committee" to review the election process with participation from the two leading opposition candidates. In a sermon at Tehran University before traditional Friday prayers, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a close associate of Iran's supreme leader, escalated the hard-line rhetoric that the state has adopted this week toward demonstrators, foreign news media and various "enemies," including the United States and Britain.
Tehran Hard-Liners Seek to Show Their Dominance - Chip Cummins and Margaret Coker, Wall Street Journal. Hard-liners in Iran consolidated their advantage over protesters and opposition leaders Friday, calling for tough punishment and seeking to demonstrate their authority in security and economic and diplomatic affairs. Security-services commanders have reinforced their already heavy presence in Tehran, a week after the beginning of a brutal crackdown that has reined in unrest following contested June 12 presidential elections. Authorities were reported to be continuing to detain, question and prepare legal proceedings against opposition supporters and those alleged to have participated in recent protests. And the country's hard-line clerics have rallied behind Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in supporting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's declared landslide poll victory. Leading Friday prayers at Tehran University, Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami called on the country's judiciary to "firmly deal" with protest leaders and "set an example for everyone."
Cleric Calls for Execution of Some Iranian Protesters - Karin Laub, Associated Press. A senior Iranian cleric demanded in a nationally broadcast sermon Friday that leaders of election protests be punished harshly, with some "worthy of execution." The country's increasingly isolated opposition leader effectively ended his role in the demonstrations, saying he will seek permits for future rallies. Iran's ruling clergy has widened its crackdown on the opposition since the bitterly disputed June 12 presidential election, and scattered protests have replaced the initial mass gatherings. The official Web site of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, his main tool of communicating with his supporters, was hacked Friday, leaving it blank, an aide said.
Violence May Hinder Talks With Iran, Obama Says - Jeff Zeleny, New York Times. President Obama, whose campaign for the White House included a pledge to open talks with Iran, said Friday that the prospects for such a dialogue had been dampened by the brutal crackdown in the wake of the nation’s disputed presidential election. At a White House news conference with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, Mr. Obama intensified his reproach of Iran’s government and called for an end to deadly attacks against its people. He also engaged in an unusual exchange with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, brushing aside a suggestion that he apologize for criticizing Iran. “I would suggest that Mr. Ahmadinejad think carefully about the obligations he owes to his own people,” Mr. Obama said. “And he might want to consider looking at the families of those who’ve been beaten or shot or detained.”
Obama Renews Criticism of Iran in Wake of Violence - Judith Burns, Wall Street Journal. President Barack Obama on Friday again condemned the Iranian government's violent attacks on demonstrators, but said it's too soon to say whether those actions will hinder US-Iran talks aimed at halting Iran's development of nuclear weaponry. "We are still waiting to see how the situation in Iran plays out," Mr. Obama said in response to questions at a joint White House press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Mr. Obama reiterated his view that Iran's government is violating "international norms" in its brutal response to peaceful demonstrators, and that "what's happened in Iran is unacceptable." While he condemned the Iranian government's actions as "outrageous," Mr. Obama said "we don't yet know" how they might affect talks with the US on Iran's nuclear program.
Authoritarian Regimes Censor News From Iran - Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post. Out of fear that history might repeat itself, the authoritarian governments of China, Cuba and Burma have been selectively censoring the news this month of Iranian crowds braving government militias on the streets of Tehran to demand democratic reforms. Between 1988 and 1990, amid a lesser global economic slump, pro-democracy protests that appeared to inspire and energize one another broke out in Eastern Europe, Burma, China and elsewhere. Not all evolved into full-fledged revolutions, but communist regimes fell in a broad swath of countries, and the global balance of power shifted. A similar infectiousness has shown up in subtle acts of defiance by democracy advocates around the world this week.
Iran's Lessons - Washington Post editorial. Each Day Iran's extremist regime offers the world new lessons in its true nature. Yesterday we heard the cynicism of the Guardian Council, which announced that this month's presidential election, in the words of its spokesman, "was the cleanest we have ever had." On Thursday the belligerent arrogance of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was on display, as he demanded that President Obama apologize for condemning the massive human rights violations his security forces have perpetrated. All week we have witnessed the cold ruthlessness with which "robocops" attack peaceful demonstrators on the streets of Tehran and the mass arrests of opposition political activists and journalists. It's still too early to say whether Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Mr. Ahmadinejad will succeed in their hard-line coup; de facto opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi remains publicly defiant. Yet it is becoming quite clear - for all who care to see it - what the Khamenei-Ahmadinejad regime will offer if it survives: harsh repression at home and unrelenting hostility toward the West.
Solidarity With Iran - Wall Street Journal editorial. President Obama finally found his voice on Iran this week, saying the world was "appalled and outraged" by the regime's suppression of peaceful protests. Mr. Obama also hinted that he was prepared to reconsider direct negotiations with the regime. "We have provided a path whereby Iran can reach out to the international community," he said. "What we've been seeing over the last several days, the last couple of weeks, obviously is not encouraging in terms of the path." So where do we go from here, particularly now that demonstrations are abating in the face of increased repression? One place to begin is by studying the example of US policy toward Solidarity, the Polish trade union that challenged the Communist regime in the early 1980s. As with the "Green Revolution" in Iran, Solidarity did not begin as a frontal assault on the regime itself, but rather as a peaceful shipyard strike. But it quickly grew into a broad social movement, encompassing shipyard and factory workers, intellectuals, priests and nearly everyone who didn't have a direct stake in the regime's survival.
Iran’s Second Sex - Roger Cohen, New York Times opinion. From Day 1, Iran’s women stood in the vanguard. Their voices from rooftops were loudest, and their defiance in the streets boldest. “Stand, don’t run,” Nazanine told me as the baton-wielding police charged up handsome Vali Asr avenue on the day after the fraudulent election. She stood. Images assail me: a slender woman clutching her stomach outside Tehran University after the blow; a tall woman gesticulating to the men behind her to advance on the shiny-shirted Basij militia; women shedding tears of distilled indignation; and that young woman who screamed, “We are all so angry. Will they kill us all?” How can a revolution kill its children? The post-1979 generation has risen, not alone, but in the lead. Perhaps Iran cannot be an exception to the rule that revolutions devour themselves.
Silence Has Consequences for Iran - José María Aznar, Wall Street Journal opinion. If there hadn't been dissidents in the Soviet Union, the Communist regime never would have crumbled. And if the West hadn't been concerned about their fate, Soviet leaders would have ruthlessly done away with them. They didn't because the Kremlin feared the response of the Free World. Just like the Soviet dissidents who resisted communism, those who dare to march through the streets of Tehran and stand up against the Islamic regime founded by the Ayatollah Khomeini 30 years ago represent the greatest hope for change in a country built on the repression of its people. At stake is nothing less than the legitimacy of a system incompatible with respect for individual rights. Also at stake is the survival of a theocratic regime that seeks to be the dominant power in the region, the indisputable spiritual leader of the Muslim world, and the enemy of the West. The Islamic Republic that the ayatollahs have created is not just any power. To defend a strict interpretation of the Quran, Khomeini created the Pasdaran, the Revolutionary Guard, which today is a true army. To expand its ideology and influence Iran has not hesitated to create, sustain and use proxy terrorist groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. And to impose its fundamentalist vision beyond its borders, Iran is working frantically to obtain nuclear weapons.
THE LONG WAR
White House Weighs Order on Detention - Dafna Linzer and Peter Finn, Washington Post. Obama administration officials, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, are crafting language for an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations. Such an order would embrace claims by former president George W. Bush that certain people can be detained without trial for long periods under the laws of war. Obama advisers are concerned that an order, which would bypass Congress, could place the president on weaker footing before the courts and anger key supporters, the officials said. After months of internal debate over how to close the military facility in Cuba, White House officials are increasingly worried that reaching quick agreement with Congress on a new detention system may be impossible. Several officials said there is concern in the White House that the administration may not be able to close the prison by the president's January deadline.
Shift Possible on Holding Terror Suspects - David Johnston and Peter Baker, New York Times. The Obama administration is considering forgoing legislation and issuing an executive order that would authorize the president to incarcerate some terrorism suspects indefinitely, White House officials said Friday. Such an order would be controversial - seemingly aligning the administration with a disputed legal doctrine of former President George W. Bush, whose lawyers held that the president had sweeping authority in wartime to imprison those he deemed threats to national security. Obama officials sought to play down the significance of the discussions by an administration panel, saying that consideration of such an order was still in an early phase and subject to change. They said that lawyers had not written a specific proposal and that nothing had been submitted to the White House for review by senior officials.
AFRICA
US Has Sent 40 Tons of Munitions to Aid Somali Government - Mary Beth Sheridan, Washington Post. The US government has provided about 40 tons of weapons and ammunition to shore up the besieged government of Somalia in the past six weeks and has sent funding to train Somali soldiers, a senior State Department official said yesterday, in the most complete accounting to date of the new American efforts in the strife-torn country. The official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity, said the military aid was worth less than $10 million and had been approved by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the National Security Council. "We do not want to see Somalia become a safe haven for foreign terrorists," the official said. Hard-line Islamist rebels allegedly linked to al-Qaeda have launched an offensive to topple Somalia's relatively moderate government, which has appealed to the United States and other African countries for help. The fighting has killed 250 civilians and forced more than 160,000 people out of their homes in the past month, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Zimbabwe’s Diamond Fields Enrich Ruling Party, Report Says - Celia W. Dugger, New York Times. Zimbabwe’s military, controlled by President Robert Mugabe’s political party, violently took over diamond fields in Zimbabwe last year and has used the illicit revenues to buy the loyalty of restive soldiers and enrich party leaders, Human Rights Watch charged in a report released Friday. The party, ZANU-PF, has used the money from diamonds - smuggled out of the country or illegally sold through the Reserve Bank - to reinforce its hold over the security forces, which seemed to be slipping last year as the value of soldiers’ pay collapsed with soaring inflation, Human Rights Watch researchers said. On Friday, Zimbabwe’s government roundly denied the charges in the report, which cited visits by its researcher to the diamond fields in February and interviews with soldiers, miners and other witnesses.
AMERICAS
New Border Fear: Militia Violence - Jess McKinley and Malia Wollan, New York Times. “Somebody just came in and shot my daughter and my husband!” the woman shouted to the 911 dispatcher. “They’re coming back in! They’re coming back in!” Multiple gunshots are then heard on a tape of the call. The woman, Gina Gonzalez, survived the attack after arming herself with her husband’s handgun, but both he and their 10-year-old daughter died. The killings, last month, have terrified this small town near the Mexican border, in part because the authorities have now tied them to what they describe as a rogue group engaged in citizen border patrols. The three people arrested in the crime include the leader of Minutemen American Defense, a Washington State-based offshoot of the Minutemen movement, in which citizens roam the border looking for people crossing into the country illegally. Former members describe the group’s leader, Shawna Forde, 41, as having anti-immigrant sentiments that are extreme, at times frightening, even to people accustomed to hard-line views on border policing.
At Least 12 Die in Mexico Shootout - Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times. A shootout between authorities and gunmen in central Mexico left at least 12 people dead Friday, hours after a congressional candidate survived an apparent assassination attempt in the northern part of the country. The incidents underscored the broad reach of violence plaguing Mexico amid a government crackdown on drug traffickers and signs that gangs have sought to infiltrate local politics. Friday's gunfight pitted Mexican soldiers and state and federal police against heavily armed gunmen in Guanajuato state, a farming belt in the nation's midsection not known as a drug hot spot. Gov. Juan Manuel Oliva told reporters that all 12 who died were gunmen. He said three state police officers were wounded. Authorities said police came under fire when they attempted to search a home in a community of rural Apaseo el Alto municipality. The municipality was the scene of a shootout two days earlier during which gunmen hurled a grenade at police, an increasingly common tactic in Mexico's drug war.
Honduras Crisis Opens Regional Rift - David Luhnow, Wall Street Journal. As Honduras grappled on Friday with a deepening political crisis over leftist President Manuel Zelaya's alleged intention to stay in power, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez warned that he and other leftist government would do "whatever it takes" to defend their ally. Mr. Chávez's comments came as Honduras' Congress, including members of Mr. Zelaya's own Liberal Party, began discussions over whether to impeach the president by declaring him "unfit for office." Much of Honduras' political establishment, including Congress, the courts, and the army, are locked in a showdown with the leader over his plans to hold a referendum Sunday on constitutional changes that could allow Mr. Zelaya to stand for re-election - something currently barred under law. While Honduras' Supreme Court has declared the referendum illegal, Mr. Zelaya has vowed to press ahead, calling his supporters to the streets. He has clashed with the army, too, over its refusal to distribute ballots for the vote.
In Argentina Polls, a Couple in Power Try to Hold On to It - Matt Moffett, Wall Street Journal. Argentina's midterm legislative election Sunday is expected to leave leftist President Cristina Kirchner weaker and trigger a nasty scramble for power in her Peronist party, which dominates politics here. Mrs. Kirchner's government has lost public support amid a slumping economy and a bitter dispute with farmers over taxes. She has responded with populist moves, including nationalizing pension funds and an airline. In an effort to aid Mrs. Kirchner's faction of the Peronist party, her husband and predecessor as president, Néstor, is heading a congressional ticket in Buenos Aires province, the center of political gravity in Argentina. Polls indicate that his ticket is running in a tight battle with a ticket headed by a party dissident, businessman Francisco de Narváez. Polls suggest the Kirchners' faction is likely to lose its majority in the lower house of Congress, while managing to hold on to relatively more influence in the Senate.
ASIA PACIFIC
US Interagency Team to Focus On Sanctions Against N. Korea - Michael D. Shear, Washington Post. The White House is forming an interagency team to coordinate sanctions efforts against North Korea with other nations, senior administration officials said yesterday. The team will be led by Philip S. Goldberg, a former ambassador to Bolivia who is slated to leave for China in the near future as the United States seeks concerted action to punish North Korea for recently conducting a second nuclear test. "There is a broad consensus about the need to have a focused and engaged effort to see that these sanctions are implemented ... and that we're sharing information with each other," one official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The officials said they are hoping the group - with representatives from the State Department, the White House, the National Security Agency, the Treasury Department and others - will help "shine a spotlight" on Pyongyang's actions.
China Trade Helps Shield N. Korea - Blaine Harden, Washington Post. Behaving badly hasn't hurt the bottom line in North Korea. Thanks to China, foreign trade has soared since Kim Jong Il's government began detonating nuclear bombs nearly three years ago. As UN sanctions mount and business between the two Koreas fizzles, North Korea's trade with China is setting new records. It rose 41 percent last year, while China's share of the North's overseas trade mushroomed to 73 percent. In recent months, exceptional eruptions of North Korean belligerence have been attributed to the murky logic of hereditary succession as Kim, ailing since he had a stroke last year, positions his third son to take command of the communist country.
Envoy to Coordinate North Korea Sanctions - Mark Landler, New York Times. Hoping to give more teeth to international sanctions against North Korea, the Obama administration has named a senior diplomat to lead a task force coordinating Washington’s political, military and financial measures against its government. The diplomat, Philip S. Goldberg, will travel soon to China and other countries to drum up support for the sanctions, which are aimed at strangling North Korea’s access to the international financial system and its shipments of missile and nuclear parts, administration officials said Friday. “Now we have some very powerful tools, and the challenge is to make effective use of them,” said one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the administration had not detailed its plans. But he acknowledged, “It’s going to take time to actually have a bite.”
US Won't Forcibly Inspect N. Korean Ship - Kwang-tae Kim, Associated Press. The United States will not use force to inspect a North Korean ship suspected of carrying banned goods, an American official was quoted as saying Friday. An American destroyer has been shadowing the North Korean freighter sailing off China's coast, possibly on its way to Myanmar. Undersecretary of Defense Michele Flournoy met with South Korean officials in Seoul on Friday as the US sought international support for aggressively enforcing a UN sanctions resolution aimed at punishing Pyongyang for its second nuclear test last month. The North Korean-flagged ship, Kang Nam 1, is the first to be tracked under the UN resolution.
EUROPE
Turkey Restates Determination to Join the European Union - Stephen Castle, New York Times. Turkey restated its determination to join the European Union on Friday despite signs of growing opposition to its membership from some key European countries. In his second visit to Brussels in five months, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey tried to underscore his country’s potential strategic value to the bloc, saying he hopes to sign a deal next month to bring Turkey into the EU’s planned Nabucco gas pipeline project. But EU membership talks are almost at a standstill, and Turkey’s ambitions to join the Union will face a new obstacle in the autumn because of an impasse over the divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus. In the meantime, the results of the European elections earlier this month strengthened the position of political parties that oppose Turkey’s candidacy.
Ulster Volunteer Force Says It Has Disarmed - Associated Press. Northern Ireland's oldest paramilitary group, the Ulster Volunteer Force, has announced its full disarmament - a long-sought peacemaking move that reinforces the Protestant gang's abandonment of attacks on the province's Catholic minority. The UVF, responsible for killing more than 500 people from 1966 to 1994, said Saturday in a statement its commanders have ''completed the process of rendering all armaments irreversibly and permanently beyond use.
MIDDLE EAST
In Iran Turmoil, US Sees Chance to Gain Sway in Mideast - Jay Solomon and Peter Spiegel, Wall Street Journal. The Obama administration and its Middle East allies are looking to capitalize on Iran's political crisis to reverse strategic gains Tehran has made across the region, said US and Arab officials. A principal early test case for that evolving US strategy will be Syria, which plays a critical role in helping Tehran arm and fund militant groups Hamas in the Palestinian territories and Hezbollah in Lebanon. US strategists are assessing whether Iran's inner turmoil will force its clerical leaders to rein in support for those organizations and focus instead on quelling domestic dissent. Or, as some US strategists fear, whether Iran's leaders, feeling weakened at home, will seek to expand Iran's overseas operations in order to appear strong. President Barack Obama has long stated his desire to woo Syrian President Bashar Assad away from his military and economic alliance with Iran. That could help stabilize Lebanon and advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, two leading sources of conflict in the region.
Resisting Calls, Israel Insists on Building in the West Bank - Isabel Kershner, New York Times. Israeli officials held firm on Friday against a total settlement freeze in the West Bank, despite a statement from the so-called quartet of Middle East peacemakers urging a complete halt to all settlement construction. The peace group’s call bolstered the Obama administration’s unequivocal position against settlement activity, the subject of an unusually sharp dispute with Israel. The largely conservative Israeli government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud Party, said it would not build new settlements and would not expropriate additional land for settlement construction, and said that the fate of the settlements would be decided in negotiations. But until then, said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Mr. Netanyahu, “Our position is that normal life should continue inside those communities,” which includes building that Israel says is necessary for natural growth.
Netanyahu's Settlement Smoke Screens - Gershom Gorenberg, Washington Post opinion. It has become a fixed feature in the Israeli media, almost like the weather forecast. Nearly every day come reports that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government is on the verge of a deal with President Obama to avoid a full freeze on construction in West Bank settlements. The sources are normally Israeli government officials, with an occasional American source speaking very far off the record. What changes from one rumor to the next is the reason that the Obama administration has purportedly decided to let the concrete mixers keep churning: One day it's that Netanyahu has explained that he can't legally stop construction underway. The next day, he has persuaded Washington to accept "natural growth" of existing settlements or explained that his coalition will fall if he stops building. Together, these reasons are about as substantial as smoke, and if US policymakers have done their homework, they know it.
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
War 2.0: Irregular Warfare in the Information Age - Thomas Rid and Marc Hecker.
War 2.0: Irregular Warfare in the Information Age argues that two intimately connected trends are putting modern armies under huge pressure to adapt: the rise of insurgencies and the rise of the Web. Both in cyberspace and in warfare, the grassroots public has assumed increasing importance in recent years. After the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, Web 2.0 rose from the ashes. This newly interactive and participatory form of the Web promotes and enables offline action. Similarly, after Rumsfeld's attempt to transform the US military into a lean, lethal, computerized force crashed in Iraq in 2003, counterinsurgency rose from the ashes. Counterinsurgency is a social form of war - indeed, the US Army calls it armed social work - in which the local matrix population becomes the center of strategic gravity and public opinion at home the critical vulnerability.
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.
