I'm not going to sugarcoat it. The fact is we don't have enough Afghan forces. And I'd like more. If I'm a local and I just see a company of US Marines come by with no Afghans, how does that inspire confidence in my government? How does that make me believe something positive is happening? It doesn't.

--Voice of America

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN

Pentagon Report Cites Continued Challenges in Afghanistan - John J. Kruzel, American Forces Press Service. The United States continues to face severe security and governance challenges in Afghanistan this year, but US efforts remain fixed on defeating extremism and boosting the Afghan government. That’s the conclusion drawn in the latest Pentagon assessment of US achievements and setbacks in Afghanistan. Congress requires the so-called “1230 Report” every 180 days. The report released today covers the first half of 2009, a period during which President Barack Obama’s administration assessed the multinational effort in Afghanistan, unveiling a new strategy in late March. The strategy has yielded the appointment of a new top US commander in Afghanistan, the deployment of 21,000 additional US forces and renewed focus on the kinds of counterinsurgency efforts that proved successful in decreasing violence in Iraq. About 57,000 US forces are in Afghanistan, with NATO troops numbering some 34,000. Today’s report, which captured data recorded from October to April, noted evidence of deterioration in Afghanistan’s security.

Afghanistan Operation Shows Early Gains, But More Afghans Needed - John J. Kruzel, American Forces Press Service. The commander of a US Marine brigade in southern Afghanistan is cautiously optimistic at progress made in the first week of an offensive there, but says more Afghan forces are needed. “We're still very early into this operation. … [I’m] very cautiously optimistic that things have gone well,” Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Lawrence Nicholson, commander of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, said in a conference call from Marine Camp Leatherneck in Helmand province with reporters at the Pentagon. Some 4,000 Marines and 650 Afghan security forces launched the ongoing Operation Khanjar, which translates to Strike of the Sword, in the Helmand River valley on July 2, marking the biggest military offensive since President Barack Obama announced a new Afghanistan strategy in March. As the operation got under way last week in the early morning hours, the brigade of Marines fanned across the area with the intent of overwhelming opposing forces and saving civilian lives, Nicholson said. Many Taliban fighters fled as the security forces appeared, some leaving behind caches of weapons and bomb-making materials. “What we have found here is that in some areas, there's still some fighting going on. But in large part, the enemy has not resisted too strongly,” Nicholson said, adding that the deployment of forces almost mirrored a Marine amphibious landing in terms of size and speed. About two months ago, Nicholson said, he received help from Gov. Gulab Mangal of Helmand province in locating key areas to target during the operation. At the Nicholson’s request, the governor also provided a list of local elders who young Marine officers could contact upon arrival in areas that traditionally have been Taliban strongholds. Anticipating that local residents would be curious about the Marines’ intentions, Nicholson established a requirement: Company commanders must hold a “shura,” or meeting, with local elders within one day of arriving.

US Marines Clear Key Taliban Stronghold - Al Pessin, Voice of America. The commander of US Marines who have launched a major offensive in southern Afghanistan said his forces have removed Taliban fighters from a large section of one of their main strongholds and that US troops are already working with the Afghan Army and local leaders to begin to establish stability in the region. But Brigadier General Lawrence Nicholson told reporters by telephone that he needs more Afghan forces for the operation. General Nicholson said he has enough Marines to complete his mission, although he would like to have more. Speaking on a noisy telephone connection, Nicholson said what he really needs is more Afghan troops. There are more than 90,000 in the Afghan Army, but currently, he has only about 650 of them to work with 4,000 Marines in the Helmand Province offensive. "I'm not going to sugarcoat it. The fact is we don't have enough Afghan forces. And I'd like more. If I'm a local and I just see a company of US Marines come by with no Afghans, how does that inspire confidence in my government? How does that make me believe something positive is happening? It doesn't," he said.

British Troops Put at Greater Risk in War on Taleban - Tom Coghlan and Michael Evans, The Times. More British troops will lose their lives as a result of a strategy being brought in to reduce civilian casualties, the new commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan warned yesterday. General Stanley McChrystal - who has ordered his forces to reduce aerial bombing because of the risk to civilians - said that the additional risks to soldiers were a price worth paying. If the Afghan people swung behind the Taleban this would ultimately make the war unwinnable, the American commander said. “In the long run it is more economical in terms of loss of life to operate this way because we can gain the support of the population,” he told The Times. General McChrystal, who took over as commander of the Nato International Security Assistance Force last month, acknowledged that British troops had suffered “painful casualties” recently. Seven British soldiers have died in as many days in Helmand as part of Operation Panther’s Claw.

Afghan Truck Explosion Kills at Least 25, Many Children - Laura King, Los Angeles Times. A powerful truck bomb killed at least 25 people today, more than a third of them schoolchildren, in a province just south of Kabul. Authorities speculated that the explosives-laden vehicle might have been intended for use in an attack in the capital. The incident in Lowgar province followed a pattern in recent days of escalating violence in widely scattered areas of Afghanistan - in the east and west, north and south. This blast took place in the country's center. The truck, traveling on the country's main north-south highway, apparently ran off the road and overturned before dawn. When police and civilians approached after daybreak and tried to right the vehicle, it blew up, the Interior Ministry said.

Blast in Afghanistan Kills 25 - Associated Press. A massive blast triggered Thursday in an overturned timber truck killed 25 people in central Afghanistan, destroying shops and propelling pieces of the vehicle more than a mile away, officials said. The explosion killed 21 civilians and four policemen in Logar province, south of Kabul, and also demolished nearby dairy shops, ministry spokesman Zemerai Bashary said. Authorities suspect the truck may have been heading into Kabul with the explosives, but that it overturned on the main road between Logar province and the capital late Wednesday, provincial police chief Mustafa Khan said. After police arrived to clear the road, militants apparently decided to blow up the truck where it overturned, Mr. Khan said, adding that authorities believe the explosives were mingled with timber in the back of the truck and that they were remotely detonated.

Pakistani President Asif Zardari Admits Creating Terrorist Groups - Dean Nelson, Daily Telegraph. Asif Zardari told a meeting of former senior civil servants in Islamabad, it was time to be honest about their deployment. "Let us be truthful to ourselves and make a candid admission of the realities," he said. "The terrorists of today were the heroes of yesteryears until 9/11 occurred and they began to haunt us as well." These groups were not thrown up because of government weakness, but as a matter of policy. He said they were deliberately "created and nurtured" as a policy to achieve some short-term tactical objectives. His comments amount to an admission that Pakistan trained Islamic terrorists to launch attacks on India as part of its long war over its claim on Kashmir. It came as at least 40 people were killed in a suspected US missile strike in north-west Pakistan. Three US drones are believed to have fired missiles at militants near Ladha in South Waziristan. It is the third strike in two days and follows strikes in which 19 reportedly died. Mr Zardari first confirmed that many of the Islamic militants now waging war against his government were once "strategic assets" in an interview with the Daily Telegraph earlier this week.

Taliban Eyes New Allies - Raza Khan, Washington Times. Pakistani Taliban and allied members of al Qaeda, under new pressure from a US and Pakistani offensive, may join forces with a militant Sunni Muslim group called Jundallah, which has staged attacks on Iran and strained Iranian-Pakistani relations, military specialists say. Ashraf Ali, a Peshawar-based specialist on the Taliban, told The Washington Times that given Jundallah's historical connections with al Qaeda and the Taliban, Taliban militants led by Baitullah Mehsud and his al Qaeda allies might seek refuge in Pakistan's Baluchistan province or join the ranks of Jundallah. Pakistan and the United States are mounting an offensive against Mehsud in the tribal regions north of Baluchistan along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

Pakistani Attack Hits Swat Taliban Leader - Zahid Hussain, Wall Street Journal. A top Taliban leader was seriously wounded Wednesday by an airstrike in the Swat Valley, as the Pakistani military neared the conclusion of a major offensive there and said refugees could return home soon. Meanwhile, at least 35 militants were killed in US strikes in the tribal areas near the Afghanistan border, Pakistani officials said. Maulana Fazlullah, leader of the Taliban insurgency in the Swat Valley, was injured when a missile fired by an air force jet destroyed his hideout, said Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the chief military spokesman. "The attack was carried out after credible information that Fazlullah was hiding there," Gen. Abbas said. Pakistan has a bounty of more than $600,000 on the militant leader, who led the insurgency in the former tourist haven. The long-haired militant, known as Mullah Radio for his sermons on a pirate FM station, was the architect of a two-year campaign to establish radical Islamic Sharia rule in the valley.

US Missile Strikes in Pakistan Kill At Least 45 - Ayaz Gul, Voice of America. Two separate missile strikes by unmanned US spy planes in northwestern Pakistan are reported to have killed at least 45 suspected militants. A similar attack a day earlier in the same area, which borders Afghanistan, had left at least 14 extremists dead. The drone attacks came as the Pakistan army said one of its air strikes has wounded the Taliban leader in the Swat valley. The suspected US drone missile attacks targeted militants in the South Waziristan border region where the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, is believed to have set up terror training camps. Tribal witnesses and local officials say that the first strike took place before dawn and it hit a Taliban training camp. The second attack came hours later when several missiles targeted a large group of Taliban fighters traveling in another part of the border region. The Pakistani government has also recently ordered its security forces to eliminate fugitive Taliban commander Mehsud and his network in the South Waziristan region. But leaders in Islamabad have opposed US drone attacks on their soil, saying they are undermining anti-militancy efforts and large numbers of civilian deaths in such strikes are fueling public anger.

Airstrikes Kill 43 Militants and Wound Taliban Chief - Salman Masood, New York Times. Remotely piloted United States aircraft killed at least 43 militants loyal to the leader of the Pakistani Taliban in two different attacks on Wednesday, according to regional news reports that could not be independently confirmed. The attacks, one on a forest training camp and the other on a vehicle convoy, were the latest in a growing number of strikes aimed at the network of the Taliban leader, Beitullah Mehsud. His group is suspected of arranging most of the suicide bombs in Pakistan in recent years as well as the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. On Tuesday, officials and residents said a suspected United States missile strike killed 16 militants in the same South Waziristan tribal region as Wednesday’s attacks. The frequency and apparent accuracy of the attacks was an indication, the officials said, of an enhanced level of cooperation between the Americans and Pakistanis, who have been uneasy allies.

Suspected US Drones Kill at Least 44 in Pakistan - Joshua Partlow and Haq Nawaz Khan, Washington Post. For the second consecutive day, unmanned US spy planes pounded suspected Taliban targets in the South Waziristan region of Pakistan on Wednesday, killing at least 44 people, according to a Pakistani official. The deadliest of the two strikes targeted a convoy of five vehicles heading toward the Makeen area, thought to be the headquarters of Baitullah Mehsud, a top Taliban commander. At least 35 people were killed in the attack, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Earlier in the day, another suspected US drone fired four missiles on a Taliban hideout in Karwan Manza, in the same mountainous area along the border with Afghanistan, killing nine people and wounding more than a dozen, the official said. The toll in both attacks was difficult to verify.

Heading Home, in the Face of Lingering Fears - Joshua Partlow, Washington Post. Those who cannot wait any longer have loaded themselves into rented trucks or passing cars or horse-drawn carts. They have balanced in these precarious caravans what little they fled with - a bundle of clothing, a plastic bucket, a goat - to begin a cautious journey back into what was until recently Taliban territory. "We don't know how things are further up the road," said Sayid Dulamin, an appliance shop owner, his borrowed pickup parked on the shoulder of a one-lane mountain pass here in northwestern Pakistan. His wife, five sons and the motorcycle he escaped on two months ago filled the truck bed. "It's just very difficult to stay away so long from your home." Over these hills and along the rocky stream beds, Taliban fighters advanced from their Swat Valley stronghold into neighboring Buner earlier this year. This audacious show of force, about 60 miles from the capital of Islamabad, sparked the Pakistani military's ongoing offensive against the Taliban in Swat and nearby areas. The subsequent fighting has driven more than 2 million people from their homes and into relatives' houses and vast refugee camps. Only a fraction of those who fled have risked returning.

IRAQ

Double Suicide Bomb Attack in Northern Iraq kills at Least 34, Wounds 70 - Ned Parker and Usama Redha, Los Angeles Times. A double suicide bomb attack killed at least 34 people and wounded 70 others in northern Iraq this morning, according to police. The bombers targeted Tall Afar, a predominantly Shiite Turkmen city in Nineveh province, where Arabs, Kurds and other religious groups are engaged in a dispute over the Iraqi state's internal boundaries. The first attacker blew himself up by a police officer outside his home and as people gathered the second bomber set off his explosives, police said. The blast followed two similar bombings last month in neighboring Kirkuk province that killed more than 100 people, including 33 on June 30, the official date for US forces to withdraw from cities. Two car bombs also exploded late Wednesday in an area of Nineveh under Kurdish control. At least 16 were killed in those attacks, police said. With the withdrawal of US forces from the cities, militants appear to have focused their efforts on the north, where the country's Arabs and Kurds are locked in dispute over a 300-mile stretch of land where Saddam Hussein's regime expelled Kurds and settled Arabs in their place.

Iraq Bombings Kill at Least 34 People - Associated Press. A suicide bomber on Thursday killed at least 34 people and injured 70 near a judge's house in northern Iraq, and a bomb attack in Baghdad killed six people, authorities said. The attacks came one day after car bombs in two Shiite villages near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul killed 16 civilians and injured more than two dozen, signaling the challenges that face Iraq despite big improvements in security in the past two years. The suicide attack in the northern town of Tal Afar happened at around 6:30 a.m., a police officer and an official in the provincial command center said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Iraqis Stay Silent on Protests in Iran - Daniel W. Smith, Washington Times. The street clashes and other political protests that followed Iran's disputed presidential elections last month have dominated regional and world news for weeks but caused barely a ripple in Iran's old rival, Iraq. No statements have been issued by Iraqi political parties that got their start in exile in Iran during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. Although as many as 2,000 Iranian religious pilgrims enter Iraq daily, there have been no demonstrations, like the sympathy protests that have taken place from New York to Dubai. Dozens of Iraqi politicians, when asked for comment regarding the events in Tehran, have either declined to answer or said it was "an Iranian internal matter." One politician, who asked not to be named, called the question "embarrassing" and stormed off. One reason for the reticence is the influence the Iranian government wields on its western neighbor since the United States overthrew Iran's nemesis Saddam Hussein six years ago. Many of the Shi'ite Muslim leaders of Iraq, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, spent time in exile in Iran while Saddam was in power.

IRAN

Silent Protests in Iran Expected to Draw Thousands - Borzou Daragahi and Ramin Mostaghim, Los Angeles Times. There are no formal organizers and no leader has called on followers to join in. But in cities across Iran, thousands of people are planning to silently march today in unauthorized demonstrations. The demonstrators intend to show their discontent over the reelection last month of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and commemorate the 10th anniversary of a violent confrontation between students and security forces. According to one circular on the Internet, demonstrations are planned in more than 200 cities and towns. Detailed maps of gathering points and meeting places have been circulating for days, even though opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi has called for an end to public demonstrations. Iranian Police Chief Gen. Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam vowed Wednesday in a statement broadcast on state television that his forces would confront any demonstration, and some officials warned that the Revolutionary Guard would be deployed to back anti-riot police and pro-government Basiji militiamen.

G8 Leaders Condemn Violence in Iran - Voice of America. Group of Eight leaders meeting in Italy say they deplore the deadly post-election violence in Iran and they call the arrests of journalists unacceptable. US officials say the G8 leaders issued a strong and significant statement on Iran following a working dinner Wednesday night. The officials say the leaders are losing patience with Iran's refusal to meet its international obligations to give up its suspected nuclear weapons program. The leaders did not threaten any new sanctions Wednesday. French President Nicloas Sarkozy said all eight agreed to give negotiations with Iran a chance until September, when another major summit convenes. The G8 statement also demands Iran let foreign embassy employees work unhindered and it condemns Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust.

US May Move to Toughen Sanctions Against Iran - Voice of America. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the United States may call for "stricter sanctions" against Iran if US diplomatic efforts with Tehran fail. Clinton commented late Tuesday in an an exclusive interview with Venezuela's Globovision TV. She responded to a question about how she perceived relations between Iran and Venezuela by saying "Iran has not respected its own democracy." The Secretary of State referred to Iran's crackdown on demonstrators who opposed the results of the June presidential elections, which gave the victory to incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Clinton also said the US is concerned about Iran's effort to develop nuclear weapons, which she says could destabilize the Middle East. Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is intended to produce electricity.

Iranian Exile Speaks Out Against Militia He Once Supported - Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times. For people around the globe, the images of club-wielding men on motorcycles beating demonstrators on the streets of Tehran was just another case of brutality in a far-off land. But as he watched the violence of recent weeks unfold on television and YouTube, Amir Farshad Ebrahimi, an exiled Iranian, recognized some of the attackers. They were once good friends. His life, encapsulating the betrayals and disappointments that followed Iran's tumultuous revolution 30 years ago, as well as the hopes and fears of Iranians now living abroad, had come full circle. Once a lonely young man in exile, a rejuvenated Ebrahimi is now using his experience as an insider within Iran's hard-line militias to "out" members of the group. On his well-regarded Persian-language blog, he has listed the names and phone numbers of about a dozen militia members whom he has spotted in photos and video of the demonstrations over his homeland's disputed presidential election.

A Peek in Iran: Protests Fade Under Withering Gaze - Sam Dagher, New York Times. Two giant billboards bearing portraits of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, glare down from the Iranian side of this busy border crossing in northern Iraq. Other eyes look out from Iran’s fortresslike watchtowers, perched on the surrounding hills, searching mainly for the smugglers and bootleggers who transport their wares on the backs of mules through passes riddled with land mines from the Iran-Iraq war. Still this frontier outpost is just far enough outside the view of Iranian authorities that Iranians arriving here in the last few days were willing to talk to a reporter about the current situation in Iran, although it was close enough that most would not give their full names.

The Iranian Question - The Times editorial. Today marks the tenth anniversary of the attack by hardline vigilantes on a university hall of residence in Tehran that led to at least one death and signalled an all-out attack on students demonstrating for greater freedom and democracy in Iran. A decade later, after hundreds more deaths, police and Basij militias are ready to use deadly force again, should those protesting at the fraudulent re-election of President Ahmadinejad dare to take to the streets to mark the anniversary. Any demonstrators ready to risk their lives for democracy will receive only the flimsiest verbal support from the outside world. The G8 leaders, meeting in Italy, have pussyfooted around the issue, slow to call for new sanctions, uncertain how to deal with Tehran’s nuclear programme and loath to sacrifice their own interests to give support to the opposition. A G8 statement last night saying it “deplores” post-election violence changed nothing. Britain, selected by the regime as the scapegoat for the protests and bloodshed that followed the presidential election, has called for solidarity from its European partners over the arrest of nine Iranian employees of the British Embassy in Tehran. One is still being held on the ludicrous charge of inciting the riots. But the EU has shown little readiness to act in concert, to withdraw envoys from Tehran or threaten Iranian diplomatic interests across the Union.

It is Not Just Democracy that is Illegal in Iran - Cherie Blair, The Times opinion. There have been many heroes and heroines in Iran in recent weeks. We have seen thousands take to the streets, risking arrest or even worse, in support of democracy. Women have been in the forefront of these peaceful protests, which have, shamefully, been met with violence. It is their rights and hopes that are most under threat. It is a fight for freedom and justice that Shirin Ebadi, the remarkable Iranian lawyer and Nobel Peace laureate, has been leading for decades. Dr Ebadi, a heroine of mine and thousands more around the world, has been tireless in her efforts to represent those facing persecution. It was typical of her bravery, and her belief in the importance of justice, that she announced she would defend the leaders of Iran’s Baha’i community who were arrested last year before the latest protests. The reaction of the authorities was also typical. Her offices were raided and shut down, angry mobs appeared outside her home and she, and her family, received renewed and serious threats to their safety.

UNITED STATES

Democrats Say Panetta Admits CIA Misled Them - Siobhan Gorman, Wall Street Journal. Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon E. Panetta has told lawmakers that the agency "concealed significant actions" from Congress, according to a letter released Wednesday from seven Democratic lawmakers. The letter also contends that Mr. Panetta said CIA officials have misled Congress since 2001. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes sent a separate letter on Tuesday to the top Republican on his committee saying that Mr. Panetta's appearance led him to conclude that the CIA had "affirmatively lied" to the committee. Mr. Reyes, a Texas Democrat, said the issues Mr. Panetta disclosed to the committee may lead to a full committee investigation. "I believe that CIA has, in the vast majority of matters, told the truth," Mr. Reyes said in a statement. "But in rare instances, certain officers have not adhered to the high standards held, as a rule, by the CIA with respect to truthfulness in reporting." Neither letter described the nature of the actions hidden. Both lawmakers and the CIA declined to provide details. The murky circumstances surrounding the allegations make it hard to assess the claims and counterclaims of both sides.

Federal Protective Service Faulted After GAO Sting With Bomb Parts - Ed O'Keefe, Washington Post. It cost $150 and took about four minutes for government investigators, working in a sting operation, to make small bombs from materials they carried into high-security federal buildings that house major agencies with national security or law enforcement responsibilities. The recent sting by the Government Accountability Office exposed lax security procedures by the Federal Protective Service, the agency tasked with guarding more than 1 million workers at 9,000 federal buildings nationwide. Mark L. Goldstein, who led the investigation, told lawmakers that his team carried bombmaking materials into 10 high-security federal buildings in the past year. The materials could be purchased in stores or online and cost roughly $150. Once inside, investigators assembled bombs in restrooms and then walked around with them, undetected. In only one instance did a security guard question an investigator carrying suspicious materials.

McNamara in Purgatory: Setting the War Record Straight - Seth Lipsky, Wall Street Journal opinion. Robert McNamara grabbed me by the ankles and yanked himself atop a car I had clambered onto moments earlier. The secretary of defense was scrambling for a spot from which to address the antiwar protestors who had mobbed him outside of a dorm at Harvard University. On that day in November 1966, I had rushed over from the adjacent dorm to cover for my hometown newspaper the melee that turned out to be one of the pivotal points of his career. From the roof of the car, McNamara rattled off statistics about the North Vietnamese infiltration of free Vietnam. Before he was whisked away by security agents, he ended his impromptu remarks by telling the protestors that he had gone to Berkeley and done a lot of the same things they were doing - except that he was more courteous and tougher. That encounter offered some clues to McNamara's subsequent collapse in respect of the war and his disingenuousness about his own role in it. For it turns out that neither of McNamara's assertions was true. To start with, he was not more courteous, a point underscored by Deborah Shapley, who, in a brilliant biography called "Promise and Power," depicts McNamara as essentially a toady to his superiors and arrogant and dismissive to his staff.

AFRICA

Ghana Backs Blocking Arrest Warrant Against Sudanese President - Scott Stearns, Voice of America. Ghanian President John Atta Mills says African leaders are refusing to cooperate with an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir because it is best for Africa. President Mills says last week's decision by the African Union to ignore the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant for the Sudanese leader was hotly debated at the alliance meeting in Libya. "At the end, we arrived at a decision by consensus," he said. "And let me say that when you belong to a group where you believe in democracy, the decision taken by the group is binding on you, not that I dissented." President Mills says he was convinced by the argument that the court's case against President al-Bashir differs from cases against former Congolese rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba and Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony. The International Criminal Court issued its arrest warrant in connection with charges that the Sudanese leader is responsible for human rights abuses in Sudan's troubled Darfur region.

AMERICAS

Honduran Rivals Agree to Mediation Talks - Greg Flakus, Voice of America. The deposed president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, has accepted an invitation by Costa Rican President and Nobel laureate Oscar Arias to mediate the crisis in Honduras. The announcement came after Mr. Zelaya met with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday in Washington. The interim government in Honduras has also agreed to participate in the talks. The news came on a day when both sides held large demonstrations. Chanting "Out with Zelaya," thousands of demonstrators packed the main plaza in downtown Tegucigalpa to support the interim govern headed by Roberto Micheletti. Many of the signs carried by people in the crowd accused the deposed president of being a criminal because of his actions that the country's supreme court ruled were unconstitutional. Other signs linked Mr. Zelaya with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and former Cuban leader Fidel Castro. In another part of the city, a large crowd of Zelaya supporters gathered to demand his return and to condemn what they regard as an illegitimate government that came to power by force. Their demonstration turned quiet, however, when a local radio station began broadcasting a telephone interview with Mr. Zelaya in which he said he had agreed to participate in talks mediated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.

A Chance for Honduras - Washington Post editorial. The political crisis in Honduras began as a disaster for supporters of Latin American democracy -- not only because the army's arrest and deportation of President Manuel Zelaya last week violated the country's constitution but because it played into the hands of the faction, led by Mr. Zelaya's mentor, Hugo Chávez, that is attempting to overthrow democratic institutions across the region. Fortunately, Mr. Chávez wasted his advantage: His foolish attempt to fly Mr. Zelaya back into Tegucigalpa on Sunday flopped, producing a ludicrous televised circus in the air and deadly violence on the ground. Now, with some help from the Obama administration, what could have been a catastrophe has become an opportunity to deal a defeat to the populist authoritarianism that Mr. Chávez and Mr. Zelaya represent. That chance will depend, however, on whether Honduras's de facto government, which says that it is defending democracy and the rule of law, is willing to act on its words.

Fuel for a Coup - Oscar Arias, Washington Post opinion. Latin America is enveloped in a climate of uncertainty and turmoil that I had hoped our region would never experience again. The recent coup d'état in Honduras, which has embroiled that country in a constitutional crisis, has provided a sad reminder that despite the progress our region has made, the errors of our past are still all too close. I have been asked by the leaders of our region to serve as the mediator in this crisis. Once again, we must trust that dialogue - so often scorned as too slow or too simple - is the only path to peace and the light that can guide us through these dark hours. The resolution of the Honduran conflict will be known in time. Yet we need not see into the future to know that this incident should serve as a wake-up call for the hemisphere. We should recognize that such events are not random acts. They are the result of systematic errors and missteps that many of us have been warning about for decades. They are the price we pay for one of our region's greatest follies: its reckless military spending.

Mexico Accused of Torture in Drug War - Steve Fainaru and William Booth, Washington Post. The Mexican army has carried out forced disappearances, acts of torture and illegal raids in pursuit of drug traffickers, according to documents and interviews with victims, their families, political leaders and human rights monitors. From the violent border cities where drugs are brought into the United States to the remote highland regions where poppies and marijuana are harvested, residents and human rights groups describe an increasingly brutal war in which the government, led by the army, is using harsh measures to battle the cartels that continue to terrorize much of the country. Mexican officials acknowledged that abuses have occurred in the fight against traffickers but described the cases as isolated. In some instances, drug traffickers may be accusing the army of torture and other human rights violations as propaganda and to deflect attention from the government's efforts to dismantle their operations, the officials said.

Protest Leader, Relative Shot to Death in Mexico - Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times. Anti-crime activists on Wednesday decried the slaying of a protest leader in northern Mexico who went public after his brother was kidnapped in May. Benjamin LeBaron, 32, and a brother-in-law were shot to death Tuesday after they were seized by gunmen in Galeana, a farming town in the border state of Chihuahua. The attack bore signs of an organized-crime hit. A message left with the bodies said it was retribution for the capture of 25 drug suspects in a neighboring town. The arrests by Mexican soldiers reportedly came after an anonymous tip. LeBaron, a US citizen, had led a protest in May in the state capital, also called Chihuahua, after the kidnapping of his teenage brother, Eric. The family refused to pay the $1-million ransom; the youth was eventually released.

ASIA PACIFIC

Ethnic Violence Continues in Urumqi Despite Chinese Show of Force - Voice of America. Large numbers of security forces patrolled the capital city of China's Xinjiang province Wednesday in an attempt to stop a third day of ethnic violence. Chinese authorities said the situation was under control Wednesday, following clashes between Muslim Uighurs, Han Chinese and security forces. But there were reports of Han mobs assaulting Muslim Uighurs throughout the city, even as helicopters hovered overhead. Ethnic Han Chinese residents armed with makeshift weapons and vowing revenge on Uighurs were seen roaming the streets for a second day. The city's top Communist Party official, Li Zhi, said anyone found guilty of murder in connection with the violence will be executed.

China Warns of Executions as Riots Ebb - Edward Wong, New York Times. As the desert region of Xinjiang in northwest China settled into tense stillness after three days of deadly ethnic violence, a Communist Party leader from the region said that those directly responsible for the killings of 156 people in the initial rioting on Sunday would be punished with the death penalty. The official, Li Zhi, the head of the party in Urumqi, which is Xinjiang’s capital and the center of the violence, said that many people suspected of being instigators had been arrested and that some were students. “To those who have committed crimes with cruel means, we will execute them,” Mr. Li said at a morning news conference. “The small groups of the violent people have already been caught by the police. The situation is now under control.” He was echoed by China’s public security minister, Meng Jianzhu, who told local residents that those who led the violence should be punished “with the utmost severity,” according to Xinhua, the state news agency.

Security Troops Blanket Chinese City - Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post. The Chinese government blanketed this strife-torn city with 20,000 new security troops on Wednesday, as thousands of residents began to flee after deadly ethnic clashes erupted over the weekend. The top Communist Party official in Urumqi, the capital of China's far-western Xinjiang region, said that order had been restored and that the government will seek the death penalty for the perpetrators of the violence, which has claimed at least 156 lives. The official, Li Zhi, said many of the suspects are students. The violence began Sunday after a demonstration by ethnic Muslim Uighurs - upset over a stalled investigation into the death of two Uighur factory workers - apparently spun out of control, with participants attacking Han Chinese and their businesses. Witnesses said security troops fired shots at the protesters while Han Chinese retaliated against Uighurs with household items such as kitchen knives, pipes and steel bars.

Calm Returns to Riot City as Troops Patrol the Streets - Jane Macartney, The Times. An uneasy calm returned to the streets of Urumqi this morning after days of unrest as the massive police and army presence appeared to calm tempers in the volatile capital of China's mainly Moslem western-most region. The city's Communist Party chief Li Zhi promised all those arrested would be treated equally no matter what their ethnic group and said the death sentence would be handed down to rioters "who committed crimes with cruel means." From dawn yesterday, thousands of helmeted soldiers carrying riot shields and chanting: “Defend the Motherland!”, “Protect the People”, tramped down streets in the centre of Urumqi, showing the determination of authorities to restore normality to a city where 156 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured on Sunday. Following what the government has described as the deadliest riot in 60 years of Communist rule, Chinese President Hu Jintao also abandoned the G8 summit in Italy to fly home to Beijing in a move that demonstrated to his people concerns among the leadership to maintain ethnic unity in a country of 56 ethnic groups.

China Ramps Up Efforts to Stop Deadly Ethnic Violence - David Pierson and Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times. In an escalating campaign to stamp out ethnic violence, Chinese forces Wednesday saturated the northwestern city of Urumqi, helicopters dropped leaflets urging calm, and the local Communist Party boss warned of the death penalty for rioters convicted of killings. "We're determined to maintain social stability," said Urumqi's party chief, Li Zhi, at a news conference. "To those who committed crimes with cruel means, we will execute them." In spite of the massive show of force, Han Chinese and the Turkic minority Uighurs continued to duke it out in the city streets, showing how difficult it will be to restore order. Since Sunday, violence has virtually paralyzed Urumqi, a city of 2 million, and authorities fear it could easily spread to other parts of the Xinjiang region, particularly the southern cities of Hotan and Kashgar, which have Uighur majorities.

Beijing Threatens to Execute 'Key Rioters' - Ashish Kumar, Washington Times. China's crackdown on Muslim protesters in the western province of Xinjiang took an even more ominous turn Wednesday as a Communist Party official vowed to execute those responsible for the deadly riots. A Chinese Embassy spokesman in Washington told The Washington Times that more than 1,000 people have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the unrest, which has left at least 156 dead and 1,080 injured, according to an official count. "These people are being investigated, and the relevant Chinese department will deal with criminal suspects according to the law," Wang Baodong said. In the provincial capital of Urumqi, Communist Party chief Li Zhi told a televised news conference that students were among those arrested.

In Wake of Turmoil In China, Minorities Face Painful Options - Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post. China has repeatedly said that it "liberated" the population, but many Uighurs and Kazakhs complain of government policies that they say are meant to wipe out their language, culture and religion in the name of assimilation. The complaints are similar to those of Tibetans, another of China's 56 officially recognized ethnic minorities. In March 2008, Tibet erupted into protests against Chinese rule that spilled into violence. Like the Tibetans last year, Uighurs have complained that the government has practiced a double standard in how it deals with the perpetrators of violence - detaining Uighurs in large numbers, while allowing Han Chinese to go free. The Xinjiang region in recent years has experienced a large influx of Han Chinese lured by the government's ambitious Develop the West program, which seeks to duplicate the success of the wealthier coastal areas. As a result, the region's Han population has jumped from 6 percent in 1949 to more than 40 percent in 2000, according to the last census. The initiative has boosted incomes all around, but it has also set up an uncomfortable hierarchy. Many of the new bosses are Han, while the workers are from minority groups.

The Uighurs’ Cry Has Echoed Round the World - Rubiya Kadeer, The Times opinion. The massacre of Uighur demonstrators in the cities of Urumqi and Kashgar has been reported in every language, from English to Chinese to Portuguese to Arabic. While the intense repression against Uighurs is normally ignored by both the Chinese Government and the international media, the deaths of hundreds of protesters and the injuries of hundreds more has exposed the brutality of Chinese government actions toward Uighurs in a way that cannot be ignored. Instead of taking action to recognise the cause of Uighurs’ demonstrations, or to acknowledge that the problems in East Turkestan [known by the Chinese as Xinjiang] derive from the Chinese Government’s inability to resolve discontent, Chinese officials have resorted to blaming “outside forces”, including me and one of the organisations I lead, the World Uighur Congress. Just as Chinese officials placed the blame for widespread demonstrations in Tibet on the Dalai Lama, they claim that overseas Uighur organisations “instigated” the demonstrations in East Turkestan. I in no way organised or called for any demonstrations.

China Detains Mining Executive on Spy Charge, Australia Says - David Barboza, New York Times. An Australian executive from Rio Tinto, one of the world’s biggest mining companies, is being held by Chinese officials on suspicion of stealing state secrets and could be charged with espionage, an Australian government official said Wednesday. Chinese authorities declined to comment on Wednesday. Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Stephen Smith, said at a news conference on Wednesday that the executive, Stern Hu, an Australian citizen and general manager of Rio Tinto’s iron ore business in China, could face espionage charges. He said three other Rio Tinto employees detained Sunday in Shanghai were Chinese citizens, who are more vulnerable to severe penalties, including the death penalty. In a statement on Wednesday, Rio Tinto, an Australian-British company, said: “We have been advised by the Australian government of this surprising allegation. We are not aware of any evidence that would support such an investigation.”

North Korea 'Launches Massive Cyber Attack on Seoul' - Richard Lloyd, The Times. North Korea is the main suspect behind a campaign of cyber attacks that have paralysed the websites of US and South Korean government agencies, banks and businesses since American Independence Day. News of the campaign - which would be the first such large-scale attack attempted by the dictatorship - emerged yesterday as an ill and emaciated Kim Jong Il made a rare public appearance. US government agencies, ranging from the Treasury Department to the Secret Service, and South Korea’s presidential office, parliament and defence and foreign ministries were among those hit by the attacks, which began on July 4. The South Korean intelligence agency told members of parliament that it believed Pyongyang or its agents abroad were behind the attacks.

Cyberattacks Jam Government and Commercial Web Sites in US and South Korea - Choe Sang-Hun and John Markoff, New York Times. A wave of cyberattacks aimed at 27 American and South Korean government agencies and commercial Web sites temporarily jammed more than a third of them over the past five days, and several sites remained stalled or extremely slow on Wednesday. Officials and computer experts in the United States said that the attacks were unsophisticated and on a relatively small scale, and that their origins had not been determined. They said 50,000 to 65,000 computers had been commandeered by hackers and ordered to flood specific Web sites with access requests, causing them to slow or stall. Such robotic networks, or botnets, can involve more than a million computers. In South Korea, at least 11 major sites have slowed or crashed since Tuesday, including those of the presidential Blue House, the Defense Ministry, the National Assembly, Shinhan Bank, the mass-circulation newspaper Chosun Ilbo and the top Internet portal Naver.com, according to the government’s Korea Information Security Agency.

EUROPE

Dancing with the Bear - Washington Times editorial. President Obama went to Moscow this week to hit the reset button with Russia, but he invoked the Stalin era as the last example of fruitful cooperation between our two countries. The relationship isn't going back to the future any time soon. Mr. Obama praised US-Soviet cooperation during the Second World War. That brief, shining moment was an alliance of necessity when both countries were fighting Nazi Germany. Once the war was concluded, Stalin hit his own reset button and returned to promoting global communism and Soviet state interests. Taken in broad strokes, the United States and Russia do have some shared interests: stability, prosperity and an end to the spread of Islamic radicalism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. But policies founder on the details. Upon closer examination, the points of cleavage in the Washington-Moscow relationship are greater than commonality.

Obama’s Big Missile Test - Philip Taubman, New York Times opinion. As President Obama will soon discover, erasing the nuclear weapons legacy of the cold war is like running the Snake River rapids in Wyoming - the first moments in the tranquil upstream waters offer little hint of the vortex ahead. Now that Mr. Obama has set a promising arms reduction agenda with President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia, he faces the greater challenge of getting his own government and the American nuclear weapons establishment to support his audacious plan to make deep weapons cuts and ultimately eliminate nuclear weapons. So far, Mr. Obama has effectively coupled an overarching vision of getting to a world without nuclear weapons, outlined in a speech in Prague earlier this year, with concrete first steps like the one-quarter reduction in operational strategic nuclear weapons promised in Moscow this week. Given his short time in office, and the looming December expiration of the treaty with Russia covering strategic nuclear arms reductions, the new limits are a good, realistic start. It is especially important to extend the monitoring and verification provisions of the expiring arms accord.

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.