It is what we expected," said a military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the topic. "We anticipated that with forces going in, increased number of troops, increased engagement, you are going to have increased casualties.
AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN
Directive Re-emphasizes Protecting Afghan Civilians - Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service. A new tactical directive for coalition forces serving in Afghanistan re-emphasizes the importance of preventing civilian casualties. Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, commander of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force and US Forces Afghanistan, released the directive July 2. It builds on previous tactics and is much clearer about use of close-air support, searching Afghan houses and protecting Afghan cultural and religious sensitivities. All coalition forces in Afghanistan must follow the directive. Taliban fighters use a tactic of engaging coalition forces from positions that expose Afghan civilians to danger. Close-air support of coalition and Afghan personnel engaged in a May 4 firefight with the Taliban in Afghanistan’s Farah province killed numerous civilians. The Taliban cite such incidents to lead people to believe the NATO-led force does not care for Afghan civilians. McChrystal’s tactical directive emphasizes that ISAF is in Afghanistan to protect the people from the insurgents. “Like any insurgency, there is a struggle for support and will of the population,” he wrote. “Gaining and maintaining that support must be our overriding operational imperative - and the ultimate objective of every action we take.” Still, the directive does not prevent commanders from protecting the lives of their troops engaged in direct combat. The directive is general because the nature of a counterinsurgency is complex and no one can foresee all eventualities, officials said. McChrystal expects commanders at all levels to understand the directive and use it when planning and conducting operations. “Following this intent requires a cultural shift within our forces - and complete understanding at every level,” he wrote.
7 US Troops, 2 Afghans Killed in Afghanistan - Voice of America. Insurgent attack across Afghanistan killed seven American soldiers and at least two Afghan civilians Monday, as thousands of US Marines continue their offensive against the Taliban in southern Helmand province. A US military spokesman, Chief Petty Officer Brian Naranjo, said four US soldiers died when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb outside the northern city of Kunduz. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. The US military spokesman said an explosion in the south killed two more US troops, while another American soldier died of wounds sustained during a firefight Monday with militants in eastern Paktia province. In southern Kandahar province, local officials said a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden car near the entrance of the regional NATO military base, killing two Afghan civilians and wounding 14 others. In other developments, Russia has agreed to let the United States fly troops and weapons across its territory to Afghanistan.
Afghanistan Violence Kills Seven Troops - Yochi J. Dreazen, Wall Street Journal. Seven American troops were killed Monday across Afghanistan in one of the bloodiest single days since the start of the 2001 war, an indication of the harsh fighting ahead as US reinforcements square off with the resurgent Taliban. Four of the soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in northern Afghanistan; a fifth soldier was fatally shot by militants in eastern Afghanistan, US military officials said. The other two soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan, a Taliban stronghold. Nearly 4,000 Marines are pushing into Taliban-held areas of southern Afghanistan as part of Operation Khanjar, or "Strike of the Sword." The military declined to say whether the two deaths in the south were connected to the push, which began last week. The seven deaths came as the Taliban claimed to have captured an American soldier who disappeared last week after leaving his base in eastern Afghanistan.
7 US Troops Killed in Attacks In Afghanistan - Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post. Roadside bombings and a gun attack killed seven US soldiers in Afghanistan on Monday, providing a grim reminder of the insurgency's resilience even as Marines moved to consolidate gains in their operation against the Taliban in the southern province of Helmand. Four members of a US military team training Afghan security forces died after a bomb struck their convoy near the northern city of Kunduz, according to American military officials. Northern Afghanistan has been relatively stable compared with other parts of the country, in part because much of the territory is under the control of anti-Taliban warlords. But violence has been increasing in recent months around Kunduz and other northern cities as Taliban fighters seek to exploit a thin presence of NATO forces in the area. Two US soldiers were killed in a bombing in the southern province of Zabul, the officials said. Another American soldier died after a firefight with insurgents in eastern Afghanistan. This was the deadliest day for US forces in Afghanistan in nearly a year.
7 US Troops in Afghanistan are Killed - Laura King and Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times. As US troops in Afghanistan suffered the largest one-day death toll in months Monday, military officials and experts warned Americans to brace for rising casualties as thousands of additional service members pour into the country to confront a resurgent Taliban. So far this year, 95 American troops have died in Afghanistan, including seven on Monday, according to the independent website icasualties.org. At the current rate, 2009 would be the deadliest for the US in more than seven years of fighting, surpassing the number killed last year, the military said. Part of this is due to the Obama administration's decision to scale back operations in Iraq to refocus on Afghanistan, and the military is in the process of sending 21,000 additional troops into the country. Officers insist that the new strategy will work - and indeed is already showing signs of promise. But, they cautioned, the arrival of more troops means more fighting and more US deaths, at least in the short term. "It is what we expected," said a military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the topic. "We anticipated that with forces going in, increased number of troops, increased engagement, you are going to have increased casualties."
Helicopter Crash Adds to Deadly Day in Afghanistan - Abdul Waheed Wafa and Muhibullah Habibi, New York Times. NATO forces said Tuesday that three foreign troops died in a helicopter crash on Monday, already the deadliest day for American forces in Afghanistan in nearly a year as the war against the Taliban intensifies. Of seven United States soldiers killed Monday, said Capt. Jon Stock, an American military spokesman, four died along with two Afghan bystanders in a roadside bomb explosion in the northern Kunduz Province, and two American soldiers were killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan. The seventh American soldier died during a firefight with insurgents in the country’s northeast, Captain Stock said. On the same day, at a base in Zabul, southern Afghanistan, a helicopter crashed on take-off, killing two Canadians and a Briton, NATO officials said. A preliminary inquiry had established that the helicopter was not brought down by enemy fire, they said.
Russia Allows Transit for Afghanistan-bound US Troops - John J. Kruzel, American Forces Press Service. An agreement signed in Moscow today permits the United States to transit troops and weapons across Russian territory en route to Afghanistan. The pact, signed during President Barack Obama’s visit to the Kremlin, permits 4,500 flights per year through Russian airspace, and saves the US government $133 million annually in transportation costs while boosting logistical efficiency, according to a White House statement. “This is a substantial contribution by Russia to our international effort, and it will save the United States time and resources in giving our troops the support that they need,” Obama said during a news conference with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. Following today’s meeting between the two presidents, Obama told reporters that he and Medvedev agreed on the need to combat the threat of violent extremism, particularly from al-Qaida. Access to Russian transit routes substantially increases the efficiency of efforts against violent extremism in Afghanistan, the White House statement said. Obama said Russia's participation and contributions to the effort in Afghanistan have the potential to be “extraordinarily important.”
Hizb ut-Tahrir Set for Coup in Pakistan - United Press International. Loyalists of the Hizb ut-Tahrir political movement are calling for a coup in Islamabad to establish an Islamic caliphate, by force if necessary. Imran Yousafzai, a spokesman for the group, claims to have organized mass demonstrations insisting the people in the tribal regions of Pakistan favor Islamic law. Though the group claims to favor peaceful opposition over militancy, members of its ranks say jihad is justified to oppose foreign occupation, noting only an Islamic army can wage a necessary holy war. Members of the group based in Lahore told The Times of London newspaper that Hizb ut-Tahrir was preparing for a "bloodless military coup" in order to indoctrinate the region by "military means" if necessary. Tayyib Muqeem, who the Times reports is a Hizb ut-Tahrir leader in Lahore, said the group was prepared to bring the Islamic caliphate to power by "waging war." He said the group sought to influence Pakistani military officials to push the movement forward, adding it was the Pakistani armed forces who held power in Islamabad, not the Western-backed government.
IRAQ
Violent Attacks Kill Five in Iraq - Voice of America. Iraqi authorities say unidentified gunmen killed three Iraqi soldiers and two policemen during an attack at a security checkpoint in western Baghdad. Officials say the attack took place late Sunday night. In other violence, police say a car bomb in the northern city of Mosul has wounded at least eight people. US troops pulled out of Iraqi cities last week and deployed to their bases, leaving Iraqi police and soldiers in control of security in residential areas. US President Barack Obama has pledged to withdraw all combat troops from Iraq by September 2010, leaving only advisors and trainers. At present, about 130,000 US troops remain in Iraq to conduct combat duties outside urban areas.
A Jump Start For Iraq's Private Sector - John Nagl and Daniel Rice, Wall Street Journal opinion. Now that we've withdrawn US troops from Iraqi cities, American strategy must shift its emphasis from combat to post-conflict operations. As in post World War II Germany and Japan, economic development through employment is key to maintaining stability. Yet current development programs in Iraq - like the Commanders' Emergency Response Fund, which lets senior military officials spend money on "urgent humanitarian relief and reconstruction" projects - focus largely on short-term job creation, not on sustainable economic development that reduces unemployment in the long term. A more appropriate weapon would be an enterprise fund to help Iraqis invest in long-term growth. American counterinsurgency doctrine recommends that the majority of effort be spent on economic development and governance, not on direct combat operations. To date, however, we have not followed our own advice: The US still spends more than 90% of its investment dollars in Iraq on troops, equipment, weapons and logistics.
IRAN
US Not Giving Israel 'Green Light' to Attack Iran - Agence France-Presse. The Obama administration poured cold water Monday on any notion it is giving Israel the green light to attack Iran or that it is reconsidering plans to engage diplomatically with the Islamic republic. Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview broadcast Sunday that the United States would not stand in the way of Israel in its dealings with Iran's nuclear ambitions. But State Department spokesman Ian Kelly rebuffed suggestions from reporters that Biden could be seen as giving the Jewish state a green light to attack Iran, which it views as an existential threat. He also refuted any idea that President Barack Obama's administration would drop its policy to engage diplomatically with Iran.
Israel Fears US Would Foil Iran Strike - Eli Lake, Washington Times. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his top deputies have not formally asked for US aid or permission for possible military strikes on Iran's nuclear program, fearing the White House would not approve, two Israeli officials said. One senior Israeli official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, told The Washington Times that Mr. Netanyahu determined that "it made no sense" to press the matter after the negative response President Bush gave Mr. Netanyahu's predecessor, Ehud Olmert, when he asked early last year for US aid for possible military strikes on Iran. Israel is increasingly nervous that Iran is developing the capability to build a nuclear weapon, an intention Iran denies. However, Israel is unlikely to attack Iran without at least tacit US approval, in part because that would require cooperation from the United States. At the very least, Israel likely would have to fly over Iraqi airspace, which is still effectively controlled by the US Air Force.
Israel: Iran Speeds Up Missile Production - United Press International. Iran is driving to produce up to 1,000 long-range ballistic missiles with a range of 1,550 miles, as well as 500 mobile launchers, over the next six years, according to Israeli military experts. "The Iranians are making great efforts to obtains a significant number of missiles," according to Tal Inbar, head of the Space Research Center near Tel Aviv. "They already talk of how one of the ways they will overcome (Israel's) missile defense systems is by firing salvoes of missiles." Iran's current production capabilities are not known with any great exactitude, but these have been concerned primarily with the manufacture of Shehab-3 intermediate range ballistic missiles. The Israelis, who see Iran's nuclear and missile programs as an existential threat, claim that Iran's missile development is more advanced than the West believes.
Mousavi Promises To Continue Protests - Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post. Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, appearing in public for the first time in nearly three weeks, vowed Monday that protests against the disputed reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "will not end" and predicted that the new government would encounter problems because it lacks legitimacy. But the former presidential candidate, who maintains he was denied victory in the June 12 election by massive vote-rigging on behalf of Ahmadinejad, stopped short of calling for new street demonstrations, which the government has declared illegal and largely crushed in a massive crackdown. Instead, Mousavi indicated that the opposition would adopt new tactics, pursuing protest "within the framework of the law." Mousavi made the remarks at a religious gathering as Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a new warning to Western nations that he said have "openly intervened" in Iran's internal affairs by criticizing the crackdown.
Iran's Supreme Leader Blasts Alleged 'Western Meddling' in Iran - Edward Yeranian, Voice of America. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is blasting Western leaders for their alleged "meddling" in Iran's internal affairs, threatening to respond with a "Iron fist." The latest saber-rattling from Khamenei comes amid increasing talk of internal divisions among Iran's top leadership. Khamenei spoke softly, but his words carried a punch as he blasted Western leaders for their alleged "meddling" in Iran's internal crisis following the disputed June 12 presidential election. Addressing a crowd of several hundred, Khamenei warned the West that the Iranian people would respond to outside interference. He says the Iranian nation warns leaders who try to take advantage of internal quarrels to be careful because the Iranian people will react ... to their interference. He argues that even if the Iranian people are divided, they will unite in the face of their adversaries and fight them with an iron fist.
Iran Warns West Against Interference - Michael Slackman, New York Times. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned foreign governments on Monday that Iranians would react as a “united fist” to meddling in domestic affairs, after officials in the elite Revolutionary Guards had warned Iranians that they would be treated as enemies of the state if they did not line up behind the leadership. Speaking before a supportive audience of Basij militia members, prayer leaders and students gathered at a mosque in Tehran, Ayatollah Khamenei aimed his remarks at his home audience, seeking to heal his sharply divided nation by promoting unity in the face of what he insisted was a foreign enemy.
Key Iran Cleric's Party Dismisses Vote Results - Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times. A day after commanders of the Revolutionary Guard warned there was no middle ground in the dispute over the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the political party of one of Iran's most powerful clerics Monday defiantly issued a statement dismissing the vote. The statement by the Kargozaran party all but cleared away weeks of ambiguity about the stance of the cleric, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Rafsanjani, who heads two government councils that oversee the supreme leader and mediate disputes between branches, openly backed presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi. But he has not spoken definitively about the June 12 vote, which was validated after a partial recount by the powerful Guardian Council.
France Demands Release of Student Clotilde Reiss by Tehran - Charles Bremner, The Times. France today demanded the immediate release of a 23-year-old student from Lille who has been jailed in Iran on spying charges after she took photographs at a demonstration last month. Bernard Kouchner, the Foreign Minister, said that the detention of Clotilde Reiss, a politics student who was an assistant teacher at Isphahan University, was absurd. "She took part in demonstrations which, as you know, attracted hundreds of thousands of Iranians and like most of them, she took photographs in all innocence. That's what she's accused of," Dr Kouchner said. Ms Reiss was detained at Tehran airport on Wednesday last week as she was leaving for home via Beirut after a five-month stint at the university. The French authorities made her arrest public last night after failing to win her release. The Foreign Ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador to Paris yesterday to demand her released.
Green Light to Bomb Iran - Washington Times editorial. Even the Saudis know something has to be done to stop Iran's nuclear program. Weekend reports that Saudi Arabia will allow overfly rights to Israeli warplanes to strike nuclear facilities in Iran came as no surprise in these quarters. A growing Arab-Israeli detente is being driven by the shared sense of threat from Tehran. In March, a high-ranking Israeli source told us, "You'd be amazed at how we see eye-to-eye with the moderate Arab states." Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. sent signals on Sunday when he stated twice that the United States cannot dictate to "another sovereign nation" - in this case Israel - what it can and cannot do with respect to launching an attack on Iran. The United States clearly prefers a diplomatic solution, as improbable as that is to succeed. But with respect to third-party military action, the United States will not cooperate with or try to prevent it. In diplomatic parlance, this is known as a green light.
Bibi's Choice - Peter Berkowitz, Weekly Standard opinion. Don't be misled by how little was said about Iran in the major speeches recently delivered by President Barack Obama at Cairo University and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Bar-Ilan University. And don't suppose, either, that the popular upheaval precipitated by Iran's rigged presidential election, assuming it falls short of ending the mullahs' 30-year tyranny, will fundamentally alter regional politics. The central question for Middle East politics is still what to do about Iran's illegal pursuit of nuclear weapons. Nor is this a regional matter only. Iran's determination to acquire nuclear weapons, the better to spread Islamic revolution, affects the vital national security interests not only of Israel, Arab states in and beyond the Gulf, and Turkey, but also of the United States, Europe, Russia, and indeed countries around the world that depend on stability in the international political and economic order, which is to say virtually all.
Post-election Showdown - Asieh Mir, Washington Times opinion. There is no time to lose. The Islamic Republic is derailed and must get back on track. The recent election was the last chance to do so. The supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has used the post-election "showdown" to begin his purging of all internal dissidents, to ostracize the moderate voices within the elite and dismiss the wimpy voices in his own clan. The Islamic Republic was founded on the idea of political Islam, in which the goal - establishing an Islamic state - justified the means. This idea, which developed primarily in Egypt and Pakistan, has found followers among many members of the clergy in Iran. However, the leaders in Iran took it upon themselves to develop it to a full-bloom "just dictatorship" 30 years after the revolution. In essence, the idea of an "Islamic republic" was a reaction to the rapid Westernization of Iranian society in the 1970s. Anti-secular and anti-Western ideologies infused the revolutionary ideology.
Mullahs on My Mind - Reuel Marc Gerecht, Weekly Standard opinion. The New York Times's Saturday story about Qom's Association of Religious Scholars' call for new elections is worth further commentary. Stanford's always-insightful Abbas Milani is probably guilty of understatement when he remarked that Qom's declaration is "the most historic crack in the 30 years of the Islamic republic." This is likely a monumental blow to Ali Khamenei's position as Supreme Leader. It's no secret that Qom, the most important center of Islamic learning in Iran, has never been friendly territory for Khamenei. Politically skilled, as a religious scholar Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's successor is even less accomplished than his brother-in-arms-turned-deadly-foe, Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, the revolution's most ambidextrous political cleric. The pride of Qom's senior clerics, who have given their lives to the serious study of Islamic law, has never stopped bristling at the religious pretensions of Khamenei, who cannot stop trying to promote himself as the most important politico-religious authority in the Shi'ite Muslim world.
AFRICA
Somali Government Dismisses al-Shabab Ultimatum to Surrender Weapons - Alisha Ryu, Voice of America. Somalia's UN-backed government has dismissed an ultimatum issued by the country's al-Shabab extremist group for government forces to surrender their weapons within five days. Somali leaders are counting on the arrival of more African Union peacekeepers in Somalia to help defend against rebel attempts to topple the government. The al-Shabab ultimatum was delivered to the government late Sunday in an audio tape. The speaker, identified as al-Shabab's reclusive leader Ahmed Abdi Godane, also known as Abu Zubayr, said government forces have five days to surrender their weapons to al-Shabab and return to their homes. He says government leaders will be put on trial, charged with killing civilians and encouraging the re-occupation of Somalia by foreign armies. Godane was referring to an urgent appeal the government made last month for neighboring countries to send troops to Somalia to prevent the besieged government from being toppled.
Nigerian Militants Seize Tanker and Attack Oil Facility in Delta - Associated Press. Nigeria’s main militant group said Monday that it had seized a chemical tanker with six international crew members aboard and had attacked an oil facility after a vow to step up the intensity of its attacks. The group, known as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, said in an e-mail message that the tanker had been seized Sunday about 20 nautical miles from Escravos in the south of the country and that it would be held indefinitely. The group said that three of the crew members were Russian, two were from the Philippines and one was from India.
Mugabe Calls US Envoy 'An Idiot' - BBC News. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has branded a top US envoy "an idiot" with a condescending attitude. He said that Johnnie Carson, US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, wanted to dictate what Zimbabwe could and could not do. The two spoke on the sidelines of last week's African Union meeting in Libya. The Obama administration has been sceptical of the power-sharing government formed between Mr Mugabe and his opposition rivals. Mr Mugabe told The Herald newspaper in Zimbabwe that nothing came out of his talks with Mr Carson - his first meeting with a US government official for many years.
AMERICAS
US Deplores Honduras Violence, Urges Dialogue - David Gollust, Voice of America. The United States is deploring the violence associated with ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya's aborted effort to return to his country on Sunday, and has again appealed for dialogue among parties to that country's political conflict. Secretary of State Clinton is expected to meet Mr. Zelaya Tuesday. The State Department is reiterating its call for the return to office of the elected president of Honduras, and officials say Secretary of State Clinton will likely meet Mr. Zelaya in Washington Tuesday in a high-level show of support for the ousted leader. The United States joined in a unanimous vote Saturday by the Organization of American States to suspend Honduras because of the refusal of authorities there to reverse the June 28 coup, in which the elected president was detained by the military and put on a plane to Costa Rica.
Clinton Agrees To Meet Zelaya - Mary Beth Sheridan and Juan Forero, Washington Post. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has agreed to meet with ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya, as US and other diplomats intensify their efforts to solve a crisis that has turned into a showdown with coup leaders and threatens to produce more bloodshed. The meeting could take place as early as today, according to a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Zelaya told reporters he was flying to Washington last night from Central America. The talks took on additional urgency after two Zelaya supporters were killed Sunday during a boisterous demonstration at the airport in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, where the de facto government denied permission for Zelaya's plane to land. The plane circled the airport twice, then flew on to Nicaragua.
Both Sides in Honduras Reach Out to the US - Ginger Thompson and Marc Lacey, New York Times. The spotlight on Honduras’s political crisis began to shift away from Latin America’s leaders and onto the United States on Monday, as both sides in the face-off over Honduras’s deposed president turned to the Obama administration to take charge of broad diplomatic efforts that have so far failed to resolve the situation. A delegation of Honduran lawmakers and backers of the new government arrived here on Monday to make their case with members of the administration and the United States Congress, while Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton planned her first meeting since the start of the crisis with Manuel Zelaya, the deposed Honduran president. The new battleground could make it hard for the administration to maintain its current strategy on Honduras.
Ousted Honduras Leader to Meet with Clinton - Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times. One day after the Honduran military prevented him from landing at his capital's airport, ousted President Manuel Zelaya said he would meet with US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Washington - then take another run at going home. The session with Clinton, scheduled for today, would be the highest-level contact by the Obama administration with the leftist leader, who was deposed in a coup just over a week ago. American officials have said they hope Zelaya's US visit, along with that of a group of representatives of the de facto Honduran government that replaced him, signals a willingness to start negotiations to end the standoff. But a close associate indicated that Zelaya would say in Washington that he would try to return to Honduras again as early as Wednesday, this time entering overland through a border crossing. Speaking Monday in Managua, the Nicaraguan capital, Zelaya confirmed that he planned to take another stab at returning to Honduras, though he was mum on the details. His mistake Sunday, he said, was telling the government ahead of time.
Ousted Honduran President Expected in Washington - Matthew Lee, Associated Press. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to meet with deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya this week as the Obama administration weighs responses to his ouster. The talks planned for Tuesday would be the administration's highest-level contact with Zelaya since he was overthrown in a coup eight days ago, coming two days after his failed attempt to return to Honduras deepened the country's political crisis. Zelaya met with two senior US diplomats in Washington on Sunday after the Organization of American States suspended Honduras for its role in the coup and before the deposed president tried to return to Honduras by plane. Zelaya got as close as several hundred feet above the Tegucigalpa airport but had to turn away because of obstacles placed on the runway on orders of the interim government.
Mexico's PRI Sweeps Midterm Elections -Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times. It was an old-style landslide for the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which used to rule Mexico from top to bottom. The party's hopes for once again ruling Mexico soared Monday after official tallies confirmed a sweeping nationwide victory in midterm elections a day earlier. In addition to a win in Congress, the party, known as the PRI, held leads in five of six governorships, including two in states that had seemed securely under the control of the conservative party of Mexican President Felipe Calderon. "The PRI Crushes the President," blared the daily Milenio newspaper. The PRI came up short on an outright majority in the lower house of Congress, known as the Chamber of Deputies. But it should be able to command the legislative agenda by joining hands with smaller parties. The big loser was Calderon's National Action Party, which was hurt by the economic slowdown and a relatively low turnout that favored the PRI's seasoned get-out-the-vote machine.
Mexico's President Must Work With Longtime Foe - David Luhnow, Wall Street Journal. Mexican President Felipe Calderón, fresh from a major defeat in midterm elections, started the last half of his term Monday relying on help from a party he spent most of this career fighting: the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. The PRI, which ruled Mexico for 71 consecutive years until it lost the presidency in 2000, was the big winner in Sunday's vote, garnering 37% of ballots cast for a new lower house of Congress, compared with 28% for Mr. Calderón's conservative National Action Party, or PAN. The leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, which came close to winning the presidency in 2006, got just 12% of the vote amid divisions in the party. The PRI's strong showing was a huge comeback for a party that placed third in the 2006 contest. Its tally will give it an estimated 238 seats in the 500-seat house. Together with allies in the Green Party, which took a surprising 7% of the vote, the party will have an effective majority. "We won just about everything," a smiling Beatriz Paredes, the head of the PRI, told supporters.
In Mexican Vote, Nostalgia for Past Corruption - Elisabeth Malkin, New York Times. “The PRI comes back” shouted the front page headline of the daily newspaper El Universal on Monday, the day after the political party known as the PRI swept midterm elections. But the story was all in the photograph, a shot of former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari as he left a voting booth. He was not running for any office, but the photograph seemed to ask why Mexicans were returning to power the party identified with Mr. Salinas, who left office 15 years ago amid political scandal and economic chaos. His party, the PRI, or Institutional Revolutionary Party, governed Mexico with a blend of patronage and corruption for more than 70 years before it was voted out in 2000. But on Sunday, the PRI won effective control of the lower house of Congress and a broad swath of the country’s largest cities, as well as five out of six gubernatorial races. The results were a blow to President Felipe Calderón, whose conservative National Action Party, or the PAN, failed to hold on to even its traditional strongholds.
ASIA PACIFIC
Han Chinese Roam City Armed With Clubs - Shai Oster and Gordon Fairclough, Wall Street Journal. Thousands of Han Chinese roamed the capital of the country's Xinjiang region armed with makeshift weapons Tuesday, following demonstrations and ethnic riots that left scores dead and more than 1,000 injured. The situation remained tense Tuesday in Urumqi in northwest China, where protests Sunday by Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking minority that often chafes against Chinese government rule, spun into violent clashes that officials say claimed at least 156 lives. The fatalities, if confirmed, would represent one of the deadliest outbreaks of violence in China in decades. Police have arrested 1,434 suspects in connection with the riot on Sunday, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Chinese Han Mob Marches for Revenge Against Uighurs after Rampage - Jane Macartney, The Times. Thousands of Han Chinese roamed in a mob through the streets of the western city of Urumqi today looking for vengeance after Sunday's deadly riots as China's leaders struggled to regain control of the country's only Muslim-majority region. Men and women of all ages, girls in high heels and young men in smart white shirts carried wooden staves, billiard cues, iron bars and even machetes as they surged through towards the main city bazaar. They were determined to wreak damage on the business heart of the Muslim Uighur minority blamed for the carnage in which 156 were killed and more than 800 injured. The streets were lined with black-clad riot police and thousands of paramilitaries in camouflage and bulletproof vests who barred their way to the central market. Occasional bursts of tear gas failed to deter the angry crowd. At one point the Urumqi Communist Party secretary, the most senior official in the Xinjiang capital, climbed onto the roof of a Landcruiser to address the mob.
New Protests in Western China After Deadly Clashes - Edward Wong, New York Times. For a second successive day, rival protesters took to the streets here on Tuesday, defying Chinese government efforts to lock down this regional capital of 2.3 million people and other cities across its western desert region after bloody clashes between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese. The fighting, which erupted Sunday evening, left at least 156 people dead and more than 1,000 injured, according to the state news agency. Police fired tear gas on Tuesday at Han Chinese protesters armed with clubs, lead pipes, shovels and hoes, news reports said. Earlier, in an attempt to contain China’s worst ethnic violence in decades, the authorities imposed curfews, cut off cellphone and Internet services and sent armed police officers into neighborhoods. But hundreds of Uighur protesters defied the police, crashing a state-run tour of the riot scene for foreign and Chinese journalists.
Scores Killed in Ethnic Riots in China - Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post. Clashes between Muslim Uighur protesters and security forces have killed at least 156 people in China's far west, state media said Monday, in what appears to be one of this country's bloodiest outbreaks of violence in recent history. The capital of China's Xinjiang region, Urumqi, was under heavy guard after a crowd of rioters, estimated to number more than 1,000 and armed with knives and sticks, faced off against police in the city's main bazaar on Sunday, according to witnesses. As word of the fighting spread, smaller incidents of retaliatory violence erupted across Urumqi at universities, bus stops and restaurants. Early Tuesday, the official New China News Agency reported that Chinese police had dispersed "more than 200 rioters" trying to gather at the main mosque in Kashgar, another city in Xinjiang.
Deadly riots in China Highlight Ethnic Tensions - David Pierson and Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times. Hundreds of weeping Uighur women, enraged by the arrests of their husbands and sons, confronted armed Chinese police in the traditional market in Urumqi this morning as the worst ethnic violence here in years dragged on for a third day. By the latest count of the Chinese media, 156 people are dead and 800 wounded, but the unrest seemed to be continuing despite an overwhelming security presence in China's northwesternmost Xinjiang region, the traditional homeland of the Uighurs, a Turkic minority. Chinese authorities accuse Uighur rioters of going on a savage rampage Sunday in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi in which civilians were pulled out of cars and shops, beaten and stabbed for no other reason that being Han, the ethnic majority in China. The women protesting today said that thousands of males, some as young as 14, had been arbitrarily taken away by Chinese security forces, regardless of their involvement.
In Latest Upheaval, China Applies New Strategies to Control Flow of Information - Michael Wines, New York Times. In the wake of Sunday’s deadly riots in its western region of Xinjiang, China’s central government took all the usual steps to enshrine its version of events as received wisdom: it crippled Internet service; blocked Twitter’s micro-blogs; purged search engines of unapproved references to the violence; saturated the Chinese media with the state-sanctioned story. It also took one most unusual step: Hours after troops quelled the protests, in which 156 people were reported killed, the state invited foreign journalists on an official trip to Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital and the site of the unrest, “to know better about the riots.” Indeed, it set up a media center at a downtown hotel - with a hefty discount on rooms - to keep arriving reporters abreast of events.
EUROPE
US, Russia Agree on Framework for Arms Deal - Paula Wolfson, Voice of America. US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev have approved a framework for a major new arms-control agreement. They made the announcement as they wrapped up summit talks in Moscow. President Obama said a new agreement will be ready by the end of the year. He said it will replace the soon-to-expire Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with even deeper cuts in nuclear arsenals. "We have signed a joint understanding for a follow-on treaty to the START agreement that will reduce our nuclear warheads and delivery systems by up to a third from our current treaty limitations," he said. Mr. Obama said the deal reflects a new thinking in relations between Moscow and Washington. Standing with President Medvedev in an ornate gilded hall in the Kremlin, he spoke of the need for a fresh start.
Obama, Medvedev Agree to Reduce Nuclear Stockpiles - Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev agreed in Moscow today to reduce US and Russian nuclear weapons stockpiles by up to a third. Medvedev said during a news conference with Obama at the Kremlin that the two leaders have forged an understanding on a pact to follow up the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, known as START. “We agreed on the levels of carriers and warheads, meaning that this is a very concrete subject,” the Russian president said. “In the mutual understanding, as we have just signed with the president of the United States, it is said that our two countries can have from 500 to 1,100 carriers of strategic arms, and from 1,500 to 1,675 warheads.” The leaders agreed that offensive and defensive systems should be considered together. The two also adopted a joint statement on anti-ballistic missile programs. Obama said the meetings helped to correct the “sense of drift” in the relationship between the two nations. Russia damaged the relationship with its August incursion into the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Still, the two nations must talk and must work together, the leaders said. “We’ve taken important steps forward to increase nuclear security and to stop the spread of nuclear weapons,” Obama said at the news conference.
US and Russia to Reduce Arsenals - Michael A. Fletcher and Philip P. Pan, Washington Post. President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reached a preliminary agreement Monday to cut the American and Russian nuclear arsenals by as much as a third while exploring options for cooperation on missile defense. The agreement lays out a clear yet difficult path to replace a landmark arms-control treaty that will expire in December. The pact was the most significant among those signed at a summit designed to show that "resetting" relations between the two nations could bridge longstanding differences. The two leaders also signed agreements allowing the transit of US military personnel and weapons through Russia to Afghanistan, restoring military-to-military ties and pledging cooperation to limit the spread of nuclear materials.
US, Russia Agree to Reduce Nukes - Stephen Dinan, Washington Times. President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday signed a framework for reducing nuclear weapons but put off the thornier issue of US missile defense plans, as both leaders said they have re-established a partnership that Mr. Obama said had seen a "sense of drift" recently. The two presidents also agreed to allow US troops and their equipment to fly over Russia en route to Afghanistan, and Mr. Obama proposed a worldwide summit on nuclear security intended to keep nuclear material from falling into terrorist hands. "We have found, I think, an ability to work together extremely effectively. So yes, I trust President Medvedev to not only listen and to negotiate constructively, but also to follow through," Mr. Obama said at a joint news conference with Mr. Medvedev.
US and Russia to Cut Nuclear Warheads, But No Deal on Missile Defence - Tony Halpin, The Times. A much anticipated “reset summit” between Russia and the United States produced a deal to cut their nuclear arsenals by as much as a third yesterday - but exposed continued divisions over missile defence. President Medvedev and President Obama ended a day of talks at the Kremlin by signing a “joint understanding” to reduce the number of warheads that they hold to between 1,500 and 1,675 each. The US currently has 2,200 operational warheads, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, and Russia 2,790. Mr Obama said that a final treaty to confirm the cuts would be signed by the end of the year, when the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start) is due to expire. The two sides also pledged to reduce long-range missiles to between 500 and 1,100 each.
US, Russia Agree on Framework to Reduce Nuclear Arsenal - Christi Parsons and Megan K. Stack, Los Angeles Times. Stepping cautiously in their first summit meeting, President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed Monday on a framework to reduce their nations' nuclear arsenals and on steps to fight terrorism and cooperate on the war in Afghanistan. The agreements had been expected as Obama kicked off a weeklong trip to Russia, the Group of 8 summit in Europe and Ghana. The two leaders also reached agreements to create closer cooperation between the militaries of the two countries, and to work together on the H1N1 virus, or swine flu. At a news conference in the Kremlin, the presidents exchanged praise and heralded the summit, the first between the countries since early in the Bush administration.
Obama Outlines Mutual US, Russian Interests - Jonathan Weisman, Wall Street Journal. President Barack Obama challenged Russians to bolster the rule of law, recognize the sovereignty and borders of its neighbors and rejuvenate its flagging democracy, even as he reassured the former Cold War adversary that the US is committed to a "strong, peaceful and prosperous Russia." In what White House officials describe as a "major" foreign policy address, the US president used his increasingly familiar blend of praise and challenges in a commencement address to the New Economic School here. His main goal was to persuade skeptical Russians that the old Cold War superpowers can now work and grow together. "The pursuit of power is no longer a zero-sum game," he said. "Progress must be shared." But he demanded that Russia accept the rights of former Soviet clients Georgia and Ukraine to sovereignty, secure borders and independent foreign policies. He reiterated that Russia's neighbors may join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization if they meet membership criteria. And he said economic success depends on the rule of law.
Obama Calls on Russia to Work with US on Terrorism, Nuclear Curbs - Christi Parsons and Michael Muskal, Los Angeles Times. President Obama today called on Russians to put aside their former roles as Cold War foes of the United States and join together to work to curb nuclear weapons and to improve the economic and social lives of people around the globe. In a far-reaching speech to graduates of the New Economic School in Moscow, Obama said the old Cold War rivalries that marked the second half of the 20th Century were gone and it was up to the new generation of leaders in Russia and the United States to decide how to solve the world's woes. "You get to decide what comes next," Obama said. "You get to choose where change will take us. Because the future does not belong to those who gather armies on a field of battle or bury missiles in the ground – the future belongs to young people with the education and imagination to create.
US, Russia Resume Military Relations - John J. Kruzel, American Forces Press Service. The United States and Russia today agreed to resume bilateral military cooperation, which has been on hold since the conflict between Russia and Georgia erupted in August. In a strategic framework agreement signed by Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his Russian counterpart, the two countries pledged to engage in a range of military-to-military exchanges and also to restore a joint commission on prisoners of war and servicemembers missing in action. “This provides a framework for improved cooperation and interoperability between our armed forces, so that we can better address the threats that we face, from terrorism to piracy,” President Barack Obama said during a news conference in Moscow today. “We've also agreed to restore a joint commission on prisoners of war and missing in action, which will allow our governments to cooperate in our unwavering commitment to our missing servicemen and -women,” he added.
Russia Commands Respect as a Potential Spoiler - Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times. When he arrived in Moscow for national security talks Monday, President Obama was tracing the footsteps of US presidents dating back to Eisenhower. And, like many of his predecessors, Obama found out what difficult bargaining partners the Russians can make. The two sides took small steps toward scaling back their nuclear arsenals but left wide differences and lingering difficulties on other issues, such as Iran, missile defense, American military support to Russia's neighbors and human rights. "I don't want to use the word 'disappointment,' but clearly there's a long way to go to work out an agreement, and to move US-Russian relations to more solid ground," said John D. Isaacs, president of the Council for a Livable World, an arms control advocacy group. Although Russia bears little resemblance today to America's onetime chief rival and peer superpower, Obama has the best of reasons for the respectful approach he has chosen for dealing with the new lords of the Kremlin: They can block the path to nearly every one of his foreign policy priorities.
Obama's Low-Key Push in Russia - Philip P. Pan, Washington Post. President Obama told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday that Russia needs more "consistent" protection of property rights to attract investment and a free press, independent courts and political opposition to fight corruption. But he did so by endorsing Medvedev's public positions and without lecturing or raising the politically sensitive case of the jailed oil tycoon and Kremlin foe Mikhail Khodorkovsky, said Michael A. McFaul, the top Russia aide at the National Security Council. Statements made by Obama during his closed-door session with Medvedev reflect the low-key, measured approach the new US administration has adopted toward promoting democracy and human rights around the world.
Obama Meets Putin After Signing Weapons Deal - Clifford J. Levy and Peter Baker, New York Times. President Obama met Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin on Tuesday, the day after he signed an agreement to cut American and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals by at least one-quarter, a first step in a broader effort intended to reduce the threat of such weapons drastically and to prevent their further spread to unstable regions. Mr. Obama, on his first visit to Russia since taking office, and President Dmitri A. Medvedev agreed on the basic terms of a treaty to reduce the number of warheads and missiles to the lowest levels since the early years of the cold war. As the handpicked successor to Mr. Putin as president, Mr. Medvedev took office after elections last year, but Mr. Putin is generally considered the paramount political force in Russia.
A Good Start on Restarting US-Russia Engagement - Los Angeles Times editorial. At the first US-Russian summit in seven years, President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed to agree. This is a far greater accomplishment than it might seem, given the sorry state of bilateral relations that the two leaders inherited and the high costs of discord. The presidents established a framework for reducing their nuclear arsenals and signed an agreement giving the US rights to fly military supplies across Russia to Afghanistan. More broadly, they chose to focus on areas of common interest rather than on the serious issues that divide the two countries. And while goodwill is not sufficient for resolving bilateral problems, it is an essential ingredient. Consider some of the sources of bad blood in recent years: US support for Kosovo's independence from Serbia; the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization into former Soviet republics along Russia's border; US backing for Georgia over Russia in last year's conflict in the breakaway republic of South Ossetia. Russia has been enraged by US plans to put missile defense batteries and radar in neighboring Poland and the Czech Republic; the United States, in turn, was irked by Russian pressure on Kyrgyzstan to evict the US military from a base used for the war in Afghanistan, and has been critical of Russia's crony capitalism and lack of democracy. Against this backdrop, Monday's meeting was a success.
Arms Control Amnesia - Keith B. Payne, Wall Street Journal opinion. Three hours after arriving at the Kremlin yesterday, President Barack Obama signed a preliminary agreement on a new nuclear arms-control treaty with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The agreement - a clear road map for a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) - commits the US and Russia to cut their nuclear weapons to the lowest levels since the early years of the Cold War. Mr. Obama praised the agreement as a step forward, away from the "suspicion and rivalry of the past," while Mr. Medvedev hailed it as a "reasonable compromise." In fact, given the range of force levels it permits, this agreement has the potential to compromise US security - depending on what happens next.
Don't Abandon Russia's Democrats - Boris Nemstov, Wall Street Journal opinion. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's apologists in the West like to suggest that, for all the shortcomings of his authoritarian regime, there is no viable alternative. Such a position is false and dangerous. Those who accept the concentration of power and corruption under Mr. Putin are condemning Russia to backwardness, lawlessness, social and economic instability and, potentially, territorial disintegration. They are also condemning the world to continued unpredictable actions by the Kremlin's unaccountable leaders. This is not an outcome President Barack Obama or his advisers, who are in Moscow this week to "reset" relations between the US and Russia, should want. Just like the Iranians who refuse to have their votes stolen, many Russians are not willing to accept an undemocratic destiny for their country. They are ready to stand up for freedom. These Russians are found among the educated urban dwellers and students, the entrepreneurs and the democratically minded people of all ages.
What's at Stake - Frank J. Gaffney Jr., Washington Times opinion. As he proposes further, dramatic cuts in and otherwise weakens the United States' nuclear arsenal, it's your deterrent that is being compromised. That's right. You and those you love are the ultimate beneficiaries of a nuclear deterrent that helps keep us safe in a dangerous world. The arsenal we have fielded for the past 64 years has not only prevented nuclear attacks against this country and our allies. It has kept you, or someone you love, from having to fight and possibly die in the kind of global cataclysm using non-nuclear (or "conventional") weapons that engulfed our countrymen and untold millions of others twice in the last century, before the dawn of the nuclear age. Despite this centrality of nuclear deterrence to our individual security and the common defense, few of us feel any sense of ownership of the systems and required capabilities that make our deterrent credible, safe and effective.
MIDDLE EAST
Israel Official Recuses Self in US Talks - Associated Press. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Monday he removed himself from talks with the United States because he lives in a West Bank settlement, denying speculation that he is being sidelined amid growing friction with the Obama administration. Defense Minister Ehud Barak has been dispatched to the talks, aimed at bridging the gap between Washington, which demands a total freeze on West Bank settlement expansion, and Israel, which wants some construction to continue. Mr. Lieberman on Monday told reporters he stepped aside because his status as a settler could be perceived as a "clear conflict of interest." Mr. Barak met in London on Monday with US Mideast envoy George Mitchell. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says construction must go on to accommodate growing settler families in the West Bank - land the Palestinians seek as part of a future state.
Israeli Official Meets With US Envoy in London - Reuters. The Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, and President Obama’s Middle East envoy, George J. Mitchell, met here on Monday to discuss forging Middle East peace. Their meeting, after a similar one in New York last Tuesday, was aimed partly at trying to resolve differences on the issue of construction in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. “I think there is progress,” Mr. Barak said afterward. “There’s still a way to go.” In Washington, the State Department released a statement from Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Barak saying they had “constructive discussions” that would continue “in the near future.”
BOOKS
Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan - Doug Stanton.
Horse Soldiers tells the important story of the Special Forces soldiers who first put American boots on the ground in Afghanistan in 2001. Fighting alongside the Northern Alliance, the troops, often riding on horseback, achieved several important victories against the Taliban.
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.
