Iraq celebrated the withdrawal of American troops from its cities with parades, fireworks and a national holiday on Tuesday as the prime minister trumpeted the country’s sovereignty from American occupation to a wary public.

--New York Times

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN

Key in Afghanistan: Economy, Not Military - Bob Woodward, Washington Post. National security adviser James L. Jones told US military commanders here last week that the Obama administration wants to hold troop levels here flat for now, and focus instead on carrying out the previously approved strategy of increased economic development, improved governance and participation by the Afghan military and civilians in the conflict. The message seems designed to cap expectations that more troops might be coming, though the administration has not ruled out additional deployments in the future. Jones was carrying out directions from President Obama, who said recently, "My strong view is that we are not going to succeed simply by piling on more and more troops." "This will not be won by the military alone," Jones said in an interview during his trip. "We tried that for six years." He also said: "The piece of the strategy that has to work in the next year is economic development. If that is not done right, there are not enough troops in the world to succeed." Jones delivered his message after a 30-minute briefing by Marine Brig. Gen. Lawrence D. Nicholson, who commands 9,000 Marines here, nearly half the new deployments Obama has sent to Afghanistan.

An Accord in Pakistan Is Scrapped by Militants - Salman Masood, New York Times. A powerful Taliban faction in a northwestern tribal region has said it is withdrawing from a peace deal with the government to protest continuing strikes by American drones, confronting the Pakistani military with a possible two-front campaign against militants, according to Pakistani news reports on Tuesday. The Taliban faction, led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur, operates in the mountainous North Waziristan area along the border with Afghanistan. It struck a peace deal with the authorities in February 2008, but Mr. Gul Bahadur said the truce was no longer operative. The Taliban announcement on Monday came as American reinforcements were moving into Afghanistan. Taliban fighters there have traditionally relied on havens in Pakistan’s lawless tribal regions.

Pakistan Focuses on Islamic Extremism - Ahmed Rashid, Los Angeles Times opinion. Has the Pakistani government, after years of vacillation, finally gotten serious about eliminating the Taliban threat? Maybe. For the first time since 9/11, Pakistan's army has begun a decisive military offensive to drive the Pakistani Taliban and other extremist groups out of South Waziristan, one of the seven tribal agencies that border Afghanistan. This offensive follows a successful eight-week campaign to drive the Pakistani Taliban from the Swat Valley, where the army claims to have killed 1,500 militants and lost 134 officers and soldiers. But it remains to be seen whether the government will be able to overturn the army's longtime support for the Taliban.

IRAQ

Iran's Hard Line Fuels Iraq Attacks - Gina Chon, Wall Street Journal. Some of the Iraqi Shiite extremist groups that the US claims are backed by Iran say they are ratcheting up attacks in Iraq in tandem with Tehran's post-election crackdown on protesters. Shiite militia leaders say a toughening resolve among hard-liners in Iran is translating into direct orders from Iran-based leaders to increase attacks, as well as inspiring militants next door in Iraq to demonstrate their influence. The threat of more violence is a fresh challenge for the Iraqi army and police, who took over responsibility for security in cities across Iraq from US troops Tuesday. The handover was greeted with public celebrations across Iraq, where the move was hailed as the first step toward the planned US departure from the country in 2011.

Iraq Marks Withdrawal of US Troops From Cities - Alissa J. Rubin, New York Times. Iraq celebrated the withdrawal of American troops from its cities with parades, fireworks and a national holiday on Tuesday as the prime minister trumpeted the country’s sovereignty from American occupation to a wary public. Even with a deadly car bombing and other mayhem marring the day - the deadline for the American troop pullback under an agreement that took effect Jan. 1 - Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki seized on the occasion to position himself as a proud leader of a country independent at last, looking ahead to the next milestone of parliamentary elections in January. He made no mention of American troops in a nationally televised speech, even though nearly 130,000 remain in the country; most had already pulled back from Iraq’s cities before Tuesday’s deadline.

Iraq's 'Milestone' Day Marred by Fatal Blast - Ernesto Londoño and Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post. At least 34 people were killed in a car bombing Tuesday in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, marring a national holiday declared to celebrate the departure of US combat troops from the country's cities. Also Tuesday, the US military announced the deaths of four soldiers Monday in an attack south of Baghdad, a grim reminder of the vulnerability of US troops as more of them are deployed to rural outposts. The car bomb in Kirkuk detonated shortly after 6 p.m. at Shorja Market, wounding scores of shoppers and damaging several shops, Iraqi police officials said. Farhad Aziz al-Barzanji, a physician at Kirkuk's Azadi Hospital, said 91 people were injured.

Iraq Celebrates Day of National Victory as US Troops Finally Hand Over its Cities - Alice Fordham, The Times. Iraq celebrated a “day of national victory” to mark the withdrawal of US combat troops from its cities even as a bomb killed at least 30 people in Kirkuk in a reminder of the challenges facing the country’s security forces now that they are in charge. In Baghdad, thousands of police and armed forces marched before dignitaries at the twin monuments to the regime of Saddam Hussein - the arch of the crossed swords and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The handover of power was a national holiday marked by triumph and fear, with cars prevented from parking in the capital in case of bombs and most people staying indoors. “This day, which we consider a national celebration, is an achievement of all Iraqis,” Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, said. He added that the celebrations were tempered with grief for the “men, women and children who fell victims of terrorists, extremists, the men of the dictatorial Baath regime and the criminal gangs”.

Iraq Holiday Marred by Bombing in Kirkuk - Ali Windawi and Ned Parker, Los Angeles Times. Only hours after Iraqi security forces paraded in the street Tuesday in celebration of taking control of their cities from US troops, militants mounted their first challenge to Iraq's new era with a car bombing in Kirkuk that claimed the lives of at least 33 people and wounded 97. The bloodshed in the northern Iraqi city that sits atop lucrative oil reserves and is the sought-after prize in an Arab-Kurdish competition for power and wealth raised doubts about whether Iraqis can fill the security vacuum after the American departure. The parked car exploded in the late afternoon at a vegetable market in Shorja, a Kurdish section of Kirkuk, according to police and medical sources, who provided the casualty figures.

Obama Lauds Troop Withdrawal - Jon Ward, Washington Times. The White House gave cautious praise Tuesday to the withdrawal of most US forces out of Iraqi cities and towns, saying they will continue to work with the government and security forces there to maintain a fragile peace and advance toward political stability. President Obama called the movement of troops to bases outside major urban areas "an important step forward," but also warned there will continue to be violence in Iraq, citing a car bombing in the northern city of Kirkuk earlier in the day that killed at least 33 people and wounded another 90. The bombing was the latest in a spate of recent attacks by terrorists in Iraq, and it marred what was a day of celebration for many Iraqis. The Iraqi government declared a national holiday. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates said he expects a spike in violence to follow the pullout from cities but that it would be an effort by al Qaeda in Iraq and other groups to "increase the level of violence to try to pretend that they forced us out of the cities.

Anxious Oil Giants Pass on Iraq - Ernesto Londoño, K.I. Ibrahim and Steven Mufson, Washington Post. Iraq's effort to woo foreign energy companies to help resurrect its ailing oil fields fell flat Tuesday, as most companies balked at the financial terms offered by the government despite the lure of the country's vast reserves. The impasse on deals for all but one field was a setback for the oil firms eager to gain access to the largest reserves in the world outside Saudi Arabia, and for Iraq, for which oil revenue could hold the key to prosperity. The impasse was also a setback for the United States, which has encouraged Iraq to make use of foreign investment and expertise to help bring stability to the most important sector of the country's economy. During a day-long live auction for eight 20-year service contracts, the Iraqi Oil Ministry was able to nail down just one deal - for the giant Rumaila field in southern Iraq. The Iraqi Oil Ministry reached an agreement with British Petroleum and China National Petroleum Corp. only after BP and CNPC accepted a much lower fee than they originally sought in return for raising the field's output beyond current levels.

Oil Companies Reject Iraq's Contract Terms - Gina Chon, Wall Street Journal. Iraq awarded a BP-led consortium the right to develop the giant Rumaila oil field but failed to strike deals for seven oil and gas fields as companies balked at the country's contract terms. The outcome raised questions about how quickly Iraq could rehabilitate its oil sector, which has suffered from years of war and neglect. The country relies on oil sales for more than 90% of government revenue. Iraqi officials hailed the sole award for the Rumaila field, believed to have 17 billion barrels in oil reserves. At the same time, that offer will boost oil output from the current 2.4 million barrels a day to more than four million barrels a day, which was the ministry's goal. "We're very pleased with what we've got, but we'll wait to see what happens next," a BP spokesman said, alluding to criticism from some lawmakers who have questioned the legality of the deals. "We haven't signed any contracts yet."

An Iraqi Holiday - Washington Post editorial. Iraqis Boisterously celebrated a new national holiday - National Sovereignty Day - to mark the withdrawal of most US troops from their cities yesterday. Though the observance was orchestrated by the government of Nouri al-Maliki for its own political purposes, there was, in fact, something real to toast. Two and a half years ago, when fresh American forces deployed across Baghdad, Iraq appeared to be spiraling toward sectarian war and possibly splitting into pieces. Today it is as peaceful and prosperous as it has been in decades, and far freer; violence is down 90 percent from its peak and most of the country's political forces are focused on competing in upcoming democratic elections rather than fighting in the streets. This extraordinary change represents a major achievement for the United States and its military forces, as well as for Iraq; that there have been no celebrations here is a reflection of the current administration's continuing ambivalence toward a "surge" campaign and a war that President Obama opposed. We'll readily forgive this absence of hosannas: "Mission accomplished" has been declared too many times, prematurely, in Iraq. What's more troubling are the indications that the administration is not devoting sufficient attention to the daunting political, military and diplomatic challenges that remain - and to the danger that everything that has been accomplished in the past several years could come undone.

Iraq for Iraqis - Los Angeles Times editorial. As the United States prepared to invade Iraq in 2003, then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell famously warned that "if you break it, you own it." In many ways, the US did break Iraq, ousting Saddam Hussein's quarter-century regime without ensuring that a stable government would take its place. That ushered in a bloody, six-year occupation that cost the lives of more than 4,300 US troops and nearly $700 billion. Americans will always bear responsibility for this misbegotten war of choice, but now, at last, the withdrawal of US troops from Iraqi cities marks the beginning of the country's return to its rightful owners - Iraqis. It is a changed Iraq, but whether it will become a better country remains to be seen. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, most of them Kurds and Shiite Muslims, were slaughtered by Hussein's minority Sunni Muslim government. But the war that removed Hussein from power took tens of thousands more lives and displaced an estimated 4 million people from ethnically cleansed neighborhoods. Today, under the predominantly Shiite government of elected Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, Iraq still is riven by the violence of sectarian power struggles. Even in a relatively peaceful month, hundreds of Iraqis are killed in bombings and gun battles; on Tuesday, the first day without US combat troops, a car bomb in the city of Kirkuk killed at least 33 people and wounded 90. The threat of civil war hovers on Iraq's heat-rippled horizon.

The Surge Worked - Washington Times editorial. It may not be "Mission accomplished," but we are getting closer. Yesterday, the United States completed the process of withdrawing from Iraq's cities. American forces closed or turned over to Iraqi authorities 150 bases and facilities. The Iraqis are happy to see us go, and we are glad to be leaving. The pullout is more proof of the effectiveness of the surge strategy adopted in early 2007 over vociferous Democratic objections, particularly from then-Sen. Barack Obama and then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who now ironically direct our foreign policy. The timeline for the urban withdrawal was codified in the Status of Forces Agreement signed by the George W. Bush administration in November 2008. It committed "all US combat forces" to "withdraw from Iraqi cities, villages and towns ... no later than June 30, 2009" and all forces whatever to be out of the country by Dec. 31, 2011. This makes the Obama pullout plan seem somewhat redundant, but in any case, the departure was made possible because the surge succeeded in reducing violence in the country. Had we left precipitously in 2007, as the Democrats demanded, the debate would be whether Iraq was an American victory or a Vietnam-style defeat.

IRAN

Iran's Leadership Cautions Against Protest After Certification of Vote Results - Thomas Erdbrink and William Branigin, Washington Post. Iran's religious and political leadership warned domestic opponents and Western powers Tuesday that no further protests against a disputed election would be tolerated following official certification of a landslide victory for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Although the opposition continued to demand that the June 12 election results be annulled on grounds of massive fraud, an intensifying government crackdown appeared to close off avenues for protesters to pursue what they described as a reformist campaign aimed at creating a more open society. The warnings by Ahmadinejad and leaders of Iran's Shiite Muslim theocracy came a day after the Guardian Council, a top supervisory body, dismissed all opposition complaints of fraud and affirmed Ahmadinejad's reelection, which had already been proclaimed by the Interior Ministry and endorsed by Iran's supreme leader.

Iran Seeks to Close Door on Further Protests - Michael Slackman, New York Times. Police officers and militia forces crowded the streets of Tehran on Tuesday, setting up checkpoints and making clear that the government had zero tolerance for any further public expressions of defiance to the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a day after Iran’s powerful Guardian Council certified his landslide victory. The government made a series of official moves to close the book on weeks of protest that represented the strongest challenge to its control since the Islamic republic was founded in 1979. Parliament issued a statement expressing broad gratitude over the June 12 vote and thanking the police and the Basij militia for maintaining security. Mr. Ahmadinejad visited the Ministry of Intelligence, where he gave a speech to employees. The government crushed the vast protests following the vote, dispatching armed militia and police officers and leaving an estimated 17 people dead and hundreds injured. The authorities continued to detain hundreds of journalists, former government officials, political activists and even independent researchers, in the quest to prevent any further demonstrations.

Iran's President Says Enemies' 'Soft Overthrow' Failed - Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, his controversial reelection affirmed by clerical allies a day earlier, on Tuesday hailed his victory as a triumph for the nation as opponents continued to question the legitimacy of the vote. The hard-line president blamed unspecified "conspiracies" and Iran's "enemies" for the recent turmoil over the election, which led to a severe crackdown in which dozens of Iranians were killed and hundreds jailed. After two weeks of street clashes, Tehran was calm much of the day without any visible presence of riot police or pro-government Basiji militiamen except in Jomhouri (Republic) Square. State-controlled television, between reports about foreign powers stirring up trouble in Iran, interviewed people who said they were eager for an end to the acrimony created by the June 12 vote. Speaking to employees of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, Ahmadinejad said the election served as a referendum on the direction he had set for the country. That includes, the president said, a foreign policy focused on "breaking the monopoly" of world powers.

Clinton Urged Obama to Talk Tough on Iran - Nicholas Kralev, Washington Times. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged President Obama for two days to toughen his language on Iran before he did so, and then was surprised when he condemned Iran's crackdown on demonstrators last week, administration officials say. At his June 23 news conference, Mr. Obama said he was "appalled and outraged" by Iranian behavior and "strongly condemned" the violence against anti-government demonstrators. Up until then, Mr. Obama and other administration officials had taken a softer line, expressing "deep concern" about the situation and calling on Iran to "respect the dignity of its own people." Behind the scenes, the officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because they were discussing internal deliberations, said Mrs. Clinton had been advocating the stronger US response, but the president resisted. When he finally took her advice, the aides said, he did so without informing her first.

'Hacktivists' Target Iran's Leadership Online - Shaya Tayefe Mohajer, Associated Press. A sharp clampdown by Iranian authorities may have quelled street protests, but the fight goes on in cyberspace. Groups of "hacktivists"- Web hackers demanding Internet freedom - say they are targeting Web pages of Iran's leadership in response to the regime's muzzling of blogs, news outlets and other sites. It's not clear how much the wired warriors have disrupted official Iranian sites. Recent attempts by the Associated Press to access sites for state news organizations, including the Islamic Republic News Agency and Fars, were unsuccessful - with a message saying the links were "broken." Other Iranian Web sites, including the official site for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, were able to be viewed. It's the latest in a widening front of attempts at cyberattacks by activists and others.

US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Deployed Army Retirees Downsized, Disappointed - Shaun Waterman, Washington Times. The US Army is ending a program that has allowed military retirees to volunteer for missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, disappointing many former service members who have embraced a second chance to serve their country. Lt. Col. George Wright, 55, an Army spokesman - himself a program participant who signed up to return to service in 2007 after nine years of retirement - said the program is being terminated because the Army had to reduce personnel to reach a congressionally mandated limit on the total number of soldiers. "The end of the program is driven by end-strength concerns," he said, adding that the Army was engaged in a constant process of managing its size by "fine-tuning" its enlistment and retention figures.

AFRICA

Zimbabwe Says China Is Giving It Loans - Celia W. Dugger and Michael Wines, New York Times. Zimbabwe’s prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, said Tuesday that an official he had appointed had secured lines of credit worth $950 million from China, President Robert Mugabe’s longtime ally. Mr. Mugabe’s party has mocked Mr. Tsvangirai for failing to bring home much aid from his three-week tour of the United States and Europe. Zimbabwe’s government - a virtually bankrupt contraption led by Mr. Mugabe and his rival, Mr. Tsvangirai - needs an estimated $8 billion to rebuild the country’s ruined economy. The West has been leery of giving the government a large infusion of money until Mr. Mugabe stops the human rights abuses that have been a fixture of his 29 years in power. China, however, has maintained its close relationship with Zimbabwe as it has extended its financial ties to other nations in Africa.

AMERICAS

Two Hondurans Headed for Clash - William Booth, Washington Post. The two presidents of Honduras were headed on a collision course Tuesday, as the president ousted by a coup vowed to return and his replacement threatened to arrest him the minute he lands. Neither side seemed willing to bend in a looming confrontation that is the first test of the Obama administration's diplomacy and clout in the hemisphere. Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, removed from office Sunday in a military-led coup, addressed the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday and said he would fly back to Honduras on Thursday, accompanied by the head of the Organization of American States. But the newly appointed interim president of Honduras, Roberto Micheletti, warned that if Zelaya returns, he will be arrested, tried and sent to prison for years. Micheletti's claim on the presidency is seen as illegitimate by the international community.

After Losing Honduras, Ousted Leader Wins International Support - Marc Lacey, New York Times. Manuel Zelaya was close to slipping into Honduran history books as a former president with ideas as large as his signature Stetson hat, but nowhere near enough political consensus to remake his troubled country. Then came his forced removal from office Sunday, which has catapulted the lame duck leader to a level of international prominence he almost certainly would not have achieved otherwise and turned him into a symbol - an undeserved one, his many critics insist - of a president whose democratic mandate was denied him. On Tuesday, Mr. Zelaya’s newfound relevance took him to one of the world’s biggest stages, at the lectern of the United Nations General Assembly, where he portrayed himself as the victim of a vicious, power-hungry elite that refused to share power with his country’s many poor.

UN General Assembly Backs Ousted Honduran - Mary Beth Sheridan and Colum Lynch, Washington Post. Scrambling to hold on to his presidency, deposed Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya pleaded his case in the United States yesterday, winning a rare unanimous vote of support from the UN General Assembly but failing to get an audience with top Obama administration officials. Zelaya also gained crucial support at the Organization of American States, whose members debated into the night on launching a diplomatic initiative to resolve the crisis. They were also considering calling on the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Inter-American Development Bank to cut off all loans to the Honduran government. In New York, Zelaya told the General Assembly that Honduras was "reverting to the age of dictatorship. Repression has now been established in the country."

Ousted Honduras President Builds Support for Return - Alex Renderos and Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times. Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya on Tuesday continued to build support for his return home, but the country's de facto rulers said he'd be arrested the minute he set foot on national territory. As Zelaya addressed a supportive United Nations audience in New York, Hondurans in Tegucigalpa were demonstrating against and, in smaller numbers, in favor of the deposed leftist leader. Zelaya was flown to exile in Costa Rica early Sunday after soldiers removed him from his home. Honduran Atty. Gen. Luis Alberto Rubi, who clashed frequently with Zelaya, said Tuesday that arrest warrants had been issued accusing Zelaya of 18 crimes, including treason and abuse of authority. Rubi said Honduran authorities would ask Interpol to detain Zelaya, who has said he plans to return to Honduras on Thursday with a delegation of regional heads of state and other officials.

Ousted Honduran President Wins UN Backing - Paul Kiernan and David Luhnow, Wall Street Journal. Thousands of Hondurans protested in support of Sunday's military coup against their president, even as he won United Nations backing for his reinstatement and planned a Thursday showdown in which he would return to Honduras in the company of other Latin American leaders. Both sides in the dispute, which has roiled politics across Latin America, also aimed their arguments squarely at Washington, where deposed President Manuel Zelaya was headed Tuesday evening to seek support in person. Mr. Zelaya said after his appearance at the UN that he would promise to step down in January and not seek re-election - attempting to blunt the issue that led opponents to force him into exile. President Barack Obama has denounced the coup that rousted the Honduran leader from his bed at gunpoint and forced his exile. But Mr. Zelaya's opponents, backed by the Honduran Supreme Court, have said they were legally trying to protect their democracy from an unconstitutional grab for extended power by the president.

Obama’s Stance Deflects Chávez’s Finger-Pointing - Simon Romero, New York Times. From the moment the coup in Honduras unfolded over the weekend, President Hugo Chávez had his playbook ready. He said Washington’s hands may have been all over the ouster, claiming that it financed President Manuel Zelaya’s opponents and insinuating that the CIA may have led a campaign to bolster the putschists. But President Obama firmly condemned the coup, defusing Mr. Chávez’s charges. Instead of engaging in tit-for-tat accusations, Mr. Obama calmly described the coup as “illegal” and called for Mr. Zelaya’s return to office. While Mr. Chávez continued to portray Washington as the coup’s possible orchestrator, others in Latin America failed to see it that way. “Obama Leads the Reaction to the Coup in Honduras,” read the front-page headline on Tuesday in Estado de São Paulo, one of the most influential newspapers in Brazil, whose ties to Washington are warm.

The Wages of Chavismo - Wall Street Journal editorial. As military "coups" go, the one this weekend in Honduras was strangely, well, democratic. The military didn't oust President Manuel Zelaya on its own but instead followed an order of the Supreme Court. It also quickly turned power over to the president of the Honduran Congress, a man from the same party as Mr. Zelaya. The legislature and legal authorities all remain intact. We mention these not so small details because they are being overlooked as the world, including the US President, denounces tiny Honduras in a way that it never has, say, Iran. President Obama is joining the UN, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez and other model democrats in demanding that Mr. Zelaya be allowed to return from exile and restored to power. Maybe it's time to sort the real from the phony Latin American democrats.

Honduras and the Cuba Exception - Andrés Martinez, Los Angeles Times opinion. The images were decidedly retro and jarring in their distant familiarity, as if a grainy old family film long left in the attic had been brought out for a screening. In defense of la patriala patria, army troops overpowered el palacio at dawn and placed el presidente on an airplane to be flown into exile, still wearing his pajamas. Sunday's coup in Honduras followed a script once so familiar it acquired cliche status, material even for a Woody Allen sendup. Military coups are supposed to be a thing of the past in Latin America, where the consolidation of political stability and electoral democracy has been a landmark achievement over the last two decades. But events in Tegucigalpa over the weekend reminded us that this achievement remains somewhat tenuous. There is nothing inevitable about democracy in Latin America, it turns out.

ASIA-PACIFIC

US Issues Sanctions To Press North Korea - Jay Solomon, Wall Street Journal. The Obama administration sanctioned two North Korea-linked firms it said have facilitated weapons proliferation, while US officials said a North Korean cargo ship suspected of carrying arms to Myanmar's military regime has changed course. The sanctions initiate a new phase of what the administration intends to be broad financial pressure, from Washington and through the United Nations, on Pyongyang's arms industry, following recent North Korean nuclear and missile tests. In related efforts, US naval vessels have closely tracked the cargo vessel for nearly two weeks on the suspicion it was violating UN Security Council resolutions. The episode has been viewed as a test for US sanctions adopted in June that call for intercepting ships and aircraft believed to be trafficking North Korean arms or nuclear materials.

US Targets Firms Tied To N. Korea Arms Trade - Glenn Kessler, Washington Post. The Obama administration yesterday began a campaign to curtail North Korea's ability to finance its trade in missiles and nuclear materials, with the Treasury and State Departments announcing actions against two North Korean companies, including one allegedly connected to the building of a nuclear reactor in Syria. Administration officials said they are determined to ramp up pressure on the North Korean government in response to a series of missile tests and the detonation of a nuclear device -- its second - this year. The playbook is drawn from similar efforts in the Bush administration -- and largely directed by the same person, Stuart Levey, Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence - that were abandoned by President George W. Bush in late 2006 in an effort to win North Korea's cooperation through diplomacy.

North Korean Ship Reverses Course - Associated Press. US officials said Tuesday that a North Korean ship has turned around and is headed back toward the north where it came from, after being tracked for more than a week by American Navy vessels on suspicion of carrying illegal weapons. The move keeps the US and the rest of the international community guessing: Where is the Kang Nam going? Does its cargo include materials banned by a new UN anti-proliferation resolution? The ship left a North Korean port of Nampo on June 17 and is the first vessel monitored under UN sanctions that ban the regime from selling arms and nuclear-related material. The Navy has been watching it - at times following it from a distance. It traveled south and southwest for more than a week; then, on Sunday, it turned around and headed back north, two US officials said on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.

Second Thoughts on North Korea’s Inscrutable Ship - David E. Sanger, New York Times. Inside the White House, they are beginning to call it “The Cruise to Nowhere.” For more than two weeks now, White House officials have been receiving frequent updates on a rusting North Korean ship, the Kang Nam 1, as it makes its way dead-slow across the South China Sea. Earlier this month, Mr. Obama’s aides thought the aging hulk - with its long rap sheet for surreptitious deliveries of missiles and arms - would be the first test of a United Nations Security Council resolution giving countries the right to hail suspect shipments, and order them to a nearby port for inspection. But now some top officials in the Obama administration are beginning to wonder whether Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader, ordered the Kang Nam 1 out on a fishing expedition - in hopes that a new American president will be his first catch.

How to Stop North Korea's Weapons Proliferation - Gordon Chang, Wall Street Journal opinion. The North Koreans have, inadvertently, given the US a way to escape from the restrictions of the new Security Council measure. On May 27, the Korean People's Army issued a statement declaring that it "will not be bound" by the armistice that ended fighting in the Korean War. This was at least the third time Pyongyang has disavowed the interim agreement that halted hostilities in 1953. Previous renunciations were announced in 2003 and 2006. The UN Command, a signatory to the armistice, shrugged off Pyongyang's belligerent statement. "The armistice remains in force and is binding on all signatories, including North Korea," it said immediately after the renunciation, referring to the document's termination provisions. That may be the politically correct thing to say, but an armistice as a legal matter cannot remain in existence after one of its parties, a sovereign state, announces its end. Today, whether we like it or not, there is no armistice. Furthermore, there has never been a peace treaty formally ending the Korean War. This means the US, a combatant in the conflict, as leader of the UN Command, is free to use force against Pyongyang.

EUROPE

Belarus Leader Pardons American Lawyer at Center of Dispute - Ellen Barry, New York Times. The Belarussian president, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, on Tuesday pardoned an American lawyer at the center of a 16-month dispute between Belarus and the United States, in a push to fully restore relations between the two countries. During a meeting with members of the United States Congress, Mr. Lukashenko agreed to free Emanuel E. Zeltser, who was serving a three-year sentence for industrial espionage and forgery. American diplomats protested Mr. Zeltser’s mysterious arrest and closed trial, and they pressed for his release on humanitarian grounds, saying he had fallen gravely ill in prison.

MIDDLE EAST

Barak, US Envoy Discuss Settlements - Glenn Kessler, Washington Post. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak huddled for four hours yesterday with former senator George J. Mitchell, the Obama administration's special envoy for Middle East peace, seeking to resolve an impasse between their two governments over the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. President Obama has demanded that Israel fulfill a commitment in the 2003 "road map" peace plan for a full settlement freeze, including a halt to expansion to accommodate "natural growth." The Israeli government has responded with a series of counterproposals, including a temporary freeze with caveats, none of which the administration has accepted. "We have not changed our position at all," a senior administration official said yesterday after the Barak-Mitchell meeting. "Nor has the president authorized any negotiating room."

BOOKS

War 2.0: Irregular Warfare in the Information Age - Thomas Rid and Marc Hecker.

War 2.0: Irregular Warfare in the Information Age argues that two intimately connected trends are putting modern armies under huge pressure to adapt: the rise of insurgencies and the rise of the Web. Both in cyberspace and in warfare, the grassroots public has assumed increasing importance in recent years. After the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, Web 2.0 rose from the ashes. This newly interactive and participatory form of the Web promotes and enables offline action. Similarly, after Rumsfeld's attempt to transform the US military into a lean, lethal, computerized force crashed in Iraq in 2003, counterinsurgency rose from the ashes. Counterinsurgency is a social form of war - indeed, the US Army calls it armed social work - in which the local matrix population becomes the center of strategic gravity and public opinion at home the critical vulnerability.

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

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

Journey into Darkness: Genocide in Rwanda - Thomas P. Odom.

In July 1994, Thomas P. Odom was part of the US Embassy team that responded to the Goma refugee crisis. He witnessed the deaths of 70,000 refugees in a single week. In the previous three months of escalating violence, the Rwandan genocide had claimed 800,000 dead. Now, in this vivid and unsettling new book, Odom offers the first insider look at these devastating events before, during, and after the genocide.

Joker One: A Marine Platoon’s Story of Courage - Donovan Campbell.

Donovan Campbell, first as a Marine and then as a writer, shows us that the dominant emotion in war isn’t hatred or anger or fear. It’s love. His story stands as a poignant tribute to his men–their courage, their dedication, their skill, and their love for one another, even unto death.

The Battle for Peace: A Frontline Vision of America's Power and Purpose - Anthony Zinni and Tony Koltz

The intellectual complement to Zinni and Clancy's bestselling Battle Ready (2004), a narrative memoir salted with specific policy recommendations, this volume provides the former US Central Command chief's analysis of America's current global position. Zinni begins by asserting that America's status as "the most powerful nation in the history of the planet" has created a de facto empire. The US has no choice: if it fails to take the lead, nothing significant happens. At the same time, Americans must recognize that, in a global age, there can be no zero-sum games.

The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education - Craig Mullaney

The Unforgiving Minute is the ultimate's soldier's book - universal in its raw emotion and its understanding of the larger issues of life and death. Mullaney, a master storyteller, plunges the depths of self-doubt, endurance, and courage. The result: a riveting, suspenseful human story, beautifully told. This is a book written under fire - a lyrical, spellbinding tale of war, love, and courage. The Unforgiving Minute is the Three Cups of Tea of soldiering.

Great Powers: America and the World after Bush - Thomas P.M. Barnett

In civilian and military circles alike, The Pentagon’s New Map became one of the most talked about books of 2004. “A combination of Tom Friedman on globalization and Carl von Clausewitz on war, [it is] the red-hot book among the nation’s admirals and generals,” wrote David Ignatius in The Washington Post. Barnett’s second book, Blueprint for Action, demonstrated how to put the first book’s principles to work. Now, in Great Powers, Barnett delivers his most sweeping - and important - book of all.

The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One - David Kilcullen

A remarkably fresh perspective on the War on Terror. Kilcullen takes us "on the ground" to uncover the face of modern warfare, illuminating both the big global war (the "War on Terrorism") and its relation to the associated "small wars" across the globe: Iraq, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Chechnya, Pakistan and North Africa.

The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 - Thomas Ricks

Thomas E. Ricks uses hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with top officers in Iraq and extraordinary on-the-ground reportage to document the inside story of the Iraq War since late 2005 as only he can, examining the events that took place as the military was forced to reckon with itself, the surge was launched, and a very different war began.

Why Vietnam Matters: An Eyewitness Account of Lessons Not Learned - Rufus Phillips

Phillips details how the legendary Edward G. Lansdale helped the South Vietnamese gain and consolidate their independence between 1954 and 1956, and how this later changed to a reliance on American conventional warfare with its highly destructive firepower. He reasons that our failure to understand the Communists, our South Vietnamese allies, or even ourselves took us down the wrong road. In summing up US errors in Vietnam, Phillips draws parallels with the American experience in Iraq and Afghanistan and suggests changes in the US approach. Known for his intellectual integrity and firsthand, long-term knowledge of what went on in Vietnam, the author offers lessons for today in this trenchant account.

Baghdad at Sunrise: A Brigade Commander's War in Iraq - Peter Mansoor

This is a unique contribution to the burgeoning literature on the Iraq war, analyzing the day-to-day performance of a US brigade in Baghdad during 2004-2005. Mansoor uses a broad spectrum of sources to address the military, political and cultural aspects of an operation undertaken with almost no relevant preparation, which tested officers and men to their limits and generated mistakes and misjudgments on a daily basis. The critique is balanced, perceptive and merciless - and Mansoor was the brigade commander. Military history is replete with command memoirs. Most are more or less self-exculpatory. Even the honest ones rarely achieve this level of analysis. The effect is like watching a surgeon perform an operation on himself. Mansoor has been simultaneously a soldier and a scholar, able to synergize directly his military and academic experiences.

The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics, and the Endgame in Iraq - Bing West

From a universally respected combat journalist, a gripping history based on five years of front-line reporting about how the war was turned around - and the choice now facing America. We interpret reality through the clouded prism of our own experience, so it is unsurprising that Bing West sees Iraq through the lens of Vietnam. He served as a Marine officer there, and he thinks politicians and the media caused the American public to turn against a war that could have been won. Now a correspondent for the Atlantic, West has made 15 reporting trips to Iraq over the last six years and is almost as personally invested in the current conflict as he was in Vietnam; this book, his third on Iraq, is his attempt to ensure that the "endgame" in Iraq turns out better than in his last war.

Tell Me How This Ends: General David Petraeus and the Search for a Way Out of Iraq - Linda Robinson

After a series of disastrous missteps in its conduct of the war, the White House in 2006 appointed General David Petraeus as the Commanding General of the coalition forces. Tell Me How This Ends is an inside account of his attempt to turn around a failing war. Linda Robinson conducted extensive interviews with Petraeus and his subordinate commanders and spent weeks with key US and Iraqi divisions. The result is the only book that ties together military operations in Iraq and the internecine political drama that is at the heart of the civil war. Replete with dramatic battles, behind-doors confrontations, and astute analysis, the book tells the full story of the Iraq War’s endgame, and lays out the options that will be facing the next president.

The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008 - Bob Woodward

Woodward interviewed key players, obtained dozens of never-before-published documents, and had nearly three hours of exclusive interviews with President Bush. The result is a stunning, firsthand history of the years from mid-2006, when the White House realizes the Iraq strategy is not working, through the decision to surge another 30,000 US troops in 2007, and into mid-2008, when the war becomes a fault line in the presidential election. As violence in Iraq reaches unnerving levels in 2006, a second front in the war rages at the highest levels of the Bush administration. In his fourth book on President George W. Bush, Bob Woodward takes readers deep inside the tensions, secret debates, unofficial backchannels, distrust and determination within the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, the intelligence agencies and the US military headquarters in Iraq. With unparalleled intimacy and detail, this gripping account of a president at war describes a period of distress and uncertainty within the US government from 2006 through mid-2008. The White House launches a secret strategy review that excludes the military. General George Casey, the commander in Iraq, believes that President Bush does not understand the war and eventually concludes he has lost the president's confidence. The Joint Chiefs of Staff also conduct a secret strategy review that goes nowhere. On the verge of revolt, they worry that the military will be blamed for a failure in Iraq.

We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam - Harold Moore and Joe Galloway

In their stunning follow-up to the classic bestseller We Were Soldiers Once... and Young, Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and Joe Galloway return to Vietnam and reflect on how the war changed them, their men, their enemies, and both countries - often with surprising results. It would be a monumental task for Moore and Galloway to top their classic 1992 memoir. But they come close in this sterling sequel, which tells the backstory of two of the Vietnam War's bloodiest battles (in which Moore participated as a lieutenant colonel), their first book and a 1993 ABC-TV documentary that brought them back to the battlefield. Moore's strong first-person voice reviews the basics of the November 1965 battles, part of the 34-day Battle of the Ia Drang Valley. Among other things, Moore and Galloway (who covered the battle for UPI) offer portraits of two former enemy commanders, generals Nguyen Huu An and Chu Huy Man, whom the authors met - and bonded with - nearly three decades after the battle. This book proves again that Moore is an exceptionally thoughtful, compassionate and courageous leader (he was one of a handful of army officers who studied the history of the Vietnam wars before he arrived) and a strong voice for reconciliation and for honoring the men with whom he served.

In a Time of War: The Proud and Perilous Journey of West Point' Class of 2002 - Bill Murphy

The West Point cadets Murphy follows through their baptism by fire are an admirable sample of young American men and women: intelligent, ambitious and intensely patriotic. Most come from career military families and hold conservative opinions. Murphy describes their four years at West Point with respect even when discussing their love lives and marriages. All yearn for battle, and most get their wish. The book's best passages describe the confusion of moving to Iraq or Afghanistan and fighting insurgents, for which they lack both training and equipment. All feel something is not right but concentrate on the job at hand; some inevitably die or are grievously wounded.

Iraq and the Evolution of American Strategy - Steven Metz

Today the US military is more nimble, mobile, and focused on rapid responses against smaller powers than ever before. One could argue that the Gulf War and the postwar standoff with Saddam Hussein hastened needed military transformation and strategic reassessments in the post–Cold War era. But the preoccupation with Iraq also mired the United States in the Middle East and led to a bloody occupation. What will American strategy look like after US troops leave Iraq? Metz concludes that the United States has a long-standing, continuing problem “developing sound assumptions when the opponent operates within a different psychological and cultural framework.” He sees a pattern of misjudgments about Saddam and Iraq based on Western cultural and historical bias and a pervasive faith in the superiority of America’s worldview and institutions. This myopia contributed to America being caught off guard by Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, then underestimating his longevity, and finally miscalculating the likelihood of a stable and democratic Iraq after he was toppled. With lessons for all readers concerned about America’s role in the world, Dr. Metz’s important new work will especially appeal to scholars and students of strategy and international security studies, as well as to military professionals and DOD civilians. With a foreword by Colin S. Gray.