Larger and more capable Afghan national security forces remain vital to Afghanistan’s viability, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told the Senate Armed Services Committee today. “How best to provide for Afghan security and governance? Ultimately, it should be provided by the Afghans themselves,” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said during his Senate reconfirmation hearing.

--American Forces Press Service

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN

Obama Says He Won't Rush Afghanistan Troop Decision - Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times. On a day when his administration outlined ambitious goals for Afghanistan and Pakistan, President Obama also moved Wednesday to call a timeout in the escalating national debate over a possible troop increase in Afghanistan. Obama insisted he would not be rushed in deciding whether to send more troops - an action favored by top military leaders but questioned by a growing number of Democrats - saying that additional time is needed to refine strategy and assess needs. Yet the lofty goals set by the White House - such as promoting an Afghan government that can combat extremism and corruption while supporting human rights - represent difficult, time-consuming work likely to require additional military and nonmilitary commitments at a time of flagging support from Obama's wary political base. The US troop level is already due to rise to 68,000 this year, and the prospect of sending more personnel has triggered a backlash among leading congressional Democrats. Many Republicans, meanwhile, have sided with military commanders in urging Obama to send additional troops.

Obama Says He Won't Rush Troop Decision - Karen DeYoung, Washington Post. President Obama pushed back Wednesday against pressure to make a decision about sending more troops to Afghanistan, saying he will resist any attempt to rush him until he has "absolute clarity about what the strategy is going to be." Obama said he is still considering an assessment he received this month from Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, and will await reviews from civilian and diplomatic officials and the results of the disputed Afghan election before making "further decisions moving forward." His comments, made to reporters after a White House meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, came amid calls from myriad directions for decisions sooner rather than later. Lawmakers have voiced increasing anxiety over the administration's war strategy, demanding more information about McChrystal's recommendations, including the need for additional forces.

Obama Offers Ways to Rate Efforts in Afghan Region - David E. Sanger, Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt, New York Times. The Obama administration delivered to Congress on Wednesday about 50 measures to determine whether a broad military and nation-building campaign to stabilize Afghanistan and Pakistan was succeeding, paving the way for the White House to argue that the American combat effort in the region would not be open-ended. The long-awaited measures were delivered in closed meetings with key members of the House and Senate, just as President Obama emphasized that he would take his time in evaluating a forthcoming request from the military for more combat forces. “My determination is to get this right,” he said, as he met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada, whose military forces are scheduled to leave Afghanistan in two years. “There is no immediate decision pending on resources, because one of the things I’m absolutely clear about is you have to get the strategy right,” Mr. Obama added, in words that appeared intended to calm Democrats who have raised objections about deepening the American combat involvement.

Obama to Rate War Progress in Afghanistan - Matthew Mosk, Washington Times. The White House on Wednesday began to share details of a complicated new program aimed at gauging how the war in Afghanistan is going as it continued to resist pressure to reveal whether President Obama plans to dispatch additional troops there. The administration dispatched senior officials to Capitol Hill yesterday to outline what it described as a novel and bluntly honest program to measure progress in the effort to deprive al Qaeda of a base of operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and in the ungoverned areas along the border between those two nations. The program involves a team of diplomatic, military and intelligence analysts who will produce quarterly reports for the president. It also involves a separate, independent team of outside experts, referred to by administration officials as "the red cell" or "red team," who will evaluate conditions using the same benchmarks. That team is meant to serve as a control group to ward off the potential of administration insiders preparing rosy, but inaccurate assessments of progress. A senior administration official, who provided details of the new system to reporters on the condition of anonymity, said the teams will monitor the level of insurgent-related violence, measuring how much of the population lives in areas under insurgent control, and conducting polling to determine "public perceptions of security."

First Full Afghan Tally Gives Karzai 54% of Vote - Pamela Constable, Washington Post. Afghanistan's election commission, in its first full tally of ballots cast in last month's presidential race, announced Wednesday that incumbent Hamid Karzai had won 54.6 percent of the vote, giving him a margin large enough to win reelection and avoid a runoff against his top challenger, Abdullah Abdullah. But with reports of fraud at several thousand polling stations, the final result will depend on an extensive investigation being conducted by the UN-sponsored Electoral Complaints Commission, as well as a recount of about 10 percent of the ballots that it has ordered Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission to carry out. If the UN complaints commission finds a large number of votes invalid, it cou ld reduce Karzai's total enough to force a runoff against Abdullah, his former foreign minister. A clear winner requires 50 percent of total ballots cast, plus one vote. The Afghan election commission said Abdullah had won 27.7 percent of the about 5.6 million votes cast.

Karzai Insists on ‘Integrity’ of Vote - Abdul Waheed Wafa and Richard A. Oppel, Jr., New York Times. President Hamid Karzai Thursday dismissed widespread criticism of the elections in which he is the front-running candidate, saying he believed in the integrity of the vote. Underscoring a deepening political crisis and frail security caused by a growing Taliban insurgency that has drawn in tens of thousands of American and other foreign troops, a large explosion shook the center of Kabul Thursday in an area close to the American and British embassies. Reports of casualties were not immediately available. But witnesses said the attack had struck Italian troops from the NATO force in Afghanistan and several bodies were seen near overturned vehicles. The blast shook the capital shortly after Mr. Karzai spoke at a news conference, addressing a growing chorus of complaints, reports and allegations about electoral fraud. On Wednesday, European Union monitors said that about one-third of the votes cast for him in the Aug. 20 election were suspicious and should be examined for fraud.

Afghan Opposition Candidate Waits for Results, Though Not Patiently - Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times. Abdullah Abdullah is waiting. As is much of Afghanistan. With the nation approaching the one-month mark since its Aug. 20 presidential election, there are growing concerns at home and abroad that the delay in results and allegations of fraud could increase political instability. But the former foreign minister, who earned the second-largest number of votes, hasn't been sitting on his hands. These days, he spends much of his time trying to focus attention on the perceived irregularities and slamming the record of his political rival, incumbent President Hamid Karzai. "After five years of Karzai rule, the people of Afghanistan expected there would be a credible process," Abdullah said this week during an interview in his garden surrounded by roses, pomegranates and marigolds. "Instead, we've seen, in the absence of all this, massive state-engineered fraud," he added as a string of journalists and Afghan luminaries trundled through.

Karzai Unlikely to Claim Afghan Election Victory Soon - Howard LaFranchi, Christian Science Monitor. In case there was any doubt before, the accusations of fraud piling up around Afghanistan's presidential election mean that Hamid Karzai won't be declared victorious in his reelection bid any time soon. At the very least, a national electoral complaints commission investigating fraudulent voting will take weeks to determine how much of Mr. Karzai's officially declared 54.6 percent of the vote will be tossed out. At the other extreme, a potential need for a runoff vote could end up stretching Afghanistan's political turmoil into next spring - presenting President Obama and other NATO leaders with an unsettled and deteriorating climate just as crucial policy decisions are under review. "This is the worst of all possible worlds for us," says Marvin Weinbaum, a former State Department intelligence specialist in Asian affairs now at the Middle East Institute in Washington. "We face a possible constitutional crisis that, if not resolved, becomes a disaster for us, and a partner [Karzai] acting in ways that in effect raise questions as to whether he should be in there or not." With prospects growing for a period of months without a legitimate national leader, Afghan and foreign officials - Americans chief among them - are debating the options for salvaging a bad situation that could get much worse.

Afghan Presidential Candidates Explore Alliances - Anand Gopal and Matthew Rosenberg, Wall Street Journal. Afghanistan's major presidential candidates are tentatively exploring alliances, said several campaign aides and Western diplomats, positioning themselves for leading roles in the next government amid concerns over the turmoil wrought by the protracted contest. The team of President Hamid Karzai, who has nearly a 27-point lead over chief rival Abdullah Abdullah, has been in talks with other candidates. Several candidates have accused the incumbent, Mr. Karzai, of trying to steal the election with widespread ballot-stuffing and voter intimidation. Some have pledged not to recognize his potential victory. But an increasingly potent Taliban insurgency, and the prospect of militants continuing to exploit political uncertainty, has driven candidates to look for ways to work together. On Wednesday, the Afghan election body announced the full results, declaring that Mr. Karzai won 55% of the vote. The turnout was 39%, far below the 70% in the most recent presidential elections of 2004. With a number of fraudulent votes slated for disqualification, the real turnout could prove even lower. The low turnout is a blow to the credibility of the Afghan government and its Western backers, who touted the elections as a sign of progress.

NATO Says US Airstrike in Kunduz Killed 30 Civilians - Yochi J. Dreazen, Wall Street Journal. NATO investigators believe that 30 civilians were killed in a controversial US airstrike in Afghanistan's Kunduz province, a preliminary finding that could spark new pressure for disciplinary actions against the German and American personnel involved in the attack. A team of military officers led by Canadian Maj. Gen. C.S. Sullivan spent more than a week probing the Sept. 4 bombing, which took place after a German commander in Kunduz ordered an airstrike on two hijacked fuel trucks that he feared would be used in a suicide attack against his troops. North Atlantic Treaty Organization investigators believe roughly 100 people were killed in the resulting strike, including approximately 70 militants, according to people familiar with the matter. A separate Afghan government probe reached roughly the same conclusions about the militant and civilian death tolls, these people said. The NATO investigation is trying to determine the precise sequence of events that led the local German commander, Col. Georg Klein, to order an airstrike rather than sending ground forces, according to people familiar with its work. The full probe is expected to be completed within the next two weeks, these people said.

Suicide Bomber Kills Six Italian Soldiers in Attack on NATO Convoy in Kabul - James Hider, The Times. A suicide bomber killed six Italian soldiers and at least four Afghan civilians when he blew up a truck filled with explosives next to a NATO convoy in Kabul today. Three more Italian troops and around 30 Afghans were wounded in the blast, defence officials said. The force of the explosion blew one of the Italian army jeeps across two lanes of traffic on the crowded airport road, destroying a number of civilian cars and smashing in the fronts of shops and stalls lining the highway. NATO troops, including British soldiers, pried the bodies of several Italian soldiers out of the twisted wreckage of their destroyed vehicle, which lay on its side amid bloodied helmets, ammunition belts and military backpacks thrown from the vehicle by the blast. Five body bags lay beside the burnt-out jeep as military investigators arrived to measure the blast crater and inspect the damage. The Taleban claimed responsibility for the attack, identifying the suicide bomber as a man named Ayatulla, who they said had waited in his bomb truck until the convoy passed next to him in the slow-moving traffic.

Suicide Car Bomb Kills 16, Wounds Dozens in Afghan Capital - Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times. A powerful car bomb hit an Italian military convoy here today, killing at least 6 soldiers and 10 Afghan civilians and wounding at least 52 people, according to Italian and Afghan government officials. The attack, which occurred on the main road to the airport, near the US Embassy, took place as the military vehicles became mired in traffic. The blast was the latest incident in a wave of violence to hit the troubled country in recent months as the Taliban insurgency has stepped up attacks on foreign forces around the Aug. 20 election. This was at least the fourth blast in and around Kabul since the election, which remains undecided as authorities try and sort out multiple fraud and vote-rigging allegations. Preliminary results have incumbent President Hamid Karzai ahead with 54.6% of the vote against his main rival, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, who holds 27.8%.

Car Bomb in Kabul Kills 10 People - Associated Press. A suicide car bomb hit vehicles carrying foreign troops near the U.S. Embassy and an American military base in Afghanistan's capital Thursday, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens, officials said. The suicide bomber rammed his explosives-filled car into two vehicles of the NATO-backed international force, said Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada, head of Kabul's criminal investigations unit. The blast occurred shortly after noon and smoke could be seen rising from the site soon after. An Associated Press reporter saw two bodies on the ground, both burned and later covered with plastic sheets. At least six vehicles were burned, including at least one Humvee with an Italian flag painted on the side. Sirens rang through the area as emergency vehicles arrived. In Rome, the Italian Defense Ministry said at least six people had died in the attack, but the number of Italians was unclear.

Drone Attacks Target Pakistan Militants - Siobhan Gorman and Peter Spiegel, Wall Street Journal. The US believes Central Intelligence Agency drone attacks have killed two prominent Islamic militant figures in Pakistan affiliated with al Qaeda, one of whom was on the US's list of top 20 targets, according to officials briefed on the matter. One drone attack Monday is believed to have killed the leader of the Islamic Jihad Union, Najmiddin Kamolitdinovich Jalolov, an Uzbek native implicated in terrorist plots and attacks in Germany and Uzbekistan. Officials said they are almost certain he was killed, though a DNA test hasn't yet been performed. A drone attack on Sept. 7 appeared to have killed another prominent Islamic militant, Ilyas Kashmiri, who had been briefly detained in Pakistan for alleged involvement in a 2003 assassination attempt against then-Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. There is less certainty about his death, however.

Many Allies of US Share Pain of Afghan War’s Toll - Judy Dempsey and Ian Austen, New York Times. For most Germans, it was a rare -even shocking -scene. There, on television, were coffins holding the bodies of three soldiers, all in their early 20s, all killed in Afghanistan, all draped with the national flag. For many Germans, the most recent deaths again underscored their discomfort with the deployment in Afghanistan, where they had expected troops that were focusing on peacekeeping and reconstruction to be mostly safe. Franz Josef Jung, the defense minister, who was present at the memorial service, said the deaths of the three “showed what a high price we pay to live in peace and freedom in Germany.” uch of the attention on the war in Afghanistan has been concentrated on the losses by the United States and Britain; 830 United States troops and 214 British troops have been killed, according to icasualties.org, a Web site. But 22 other countries that have sent forces to Afghanistan have suffered deaths among their troops, with Canada bearing the next greatest burden.

Afghanistan is not Vietnam ... Yet - Washington Times editorial. The United States is stuck in a 1960s flashback. In an interview on Monday, President Obama rejected comparisons between the war in Afghanistan and the Vietnam conflict, saying "you never step into the same river twice." The Amu Darya is not the Mekong. There are superficial parallels between Vietnam and Afghanistan, especially at the tactical level. The new joint counterinsurgency doctrine addresses many of these aspects, and it is noteworthy that Gen. David H. Petraeus, who oversaw its development, wrote his doctoral dissertation on Vietnam. The Pentagon is well aware of the battlefield lessons of our country's only military defeat. At the strategic level, the situation is decidedly different. Mullah Muhammad Omar, the leader of the Taliban, is not a head of state like North Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh was. There is no conventional armed force in Afghanistan analogous to the North Vietnamese Army. The Taliban does not have a support structure anything like the scale of what the communist world provided to Hanoi. Those who think the Vietnam War was won by pajama-clad guerillas in the jungle should take another look at images of communist tanks crashing through the gates of the South Vietnamese presidential palace in 1975.

Rethinking Bagram - Washington Post editorial. The Obama administration deserves credit for proposing changes to the detainee review process at Bagram Air Base. In theory, the changes should increase the likelihood that only those who should be held will be imprisoned there. But the administration inexcusably continues to resist necessary reforms for those detainees - among the longest held - who were captured beyond the Afghan battlefield. It also leaves open the possibility of future renditions to Bagram of terrorist suspects captured outside Afghanistan. On this front, the new proposal risks duplicating the lawlessness that came to mar the detentions at the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Defense Department proposal calls for Afghans captured on the battlefield and sent to Bagram to have more leeway in challenging their detentions.

IRAQ

Biden Pushes Iraqi Leaders On Vote Law, Oil-Bid Perks - Scott Wilson, Washington Post. Vice President Biden pressed Iraqi leaders Wednesday to approve as quickly as possible legislation that establishes rules for the planned January general election and to make the next round of bids to develop Iraqi oil concessions more attractive to foreign investors. In a series of meetings in the Green Zone, Biden listened to the concerns of Iraqi leaders, now in the heat of an election season that Obama administration officials acknowledge will delay until after the vote any progress on such pressing issues as passing a law on the equitable distribution of national oil revenue among Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. A senior administration official said Biden also made his interests known on a variety of issues, such as the need for the Iraqi parliament to adopt laws to better protect foreign investment and leaving unchanged the terms of the timetable for the withdrawal of the 130,000 US troops now in the country.

Green Zone Takes More Fire During Biden Visit - Steven Lee Meyers, New York Times. Baghdad’s heavily fortified international zone was attacked by rocket fire for a second night on Wednesday, this time just after Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki had made brief public remarks and sat down for a traditional dinner to break the Ramadan fast. One rocket landed on the edge of the American Embassy compound, about a mile from the building where the two leaders met, wounding several people at a security company, according to the Interior Ministry. A second landed on the opposite side of the Tigris River near the Babylon Hotel, a towering landmark in the cityscape, killing one and wounding two, a ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity under the ministry’s rules. The attacks punctuated Mr. Biden’s second day in Iraq, one devoted to meetings with many of the country’s political leaders, all of whom live and work in the fortified area known as the Green Zone. Not long after his arrival on Tuesday, similar attacks killed two and wounded five.

More Blasts Heard Near Biden in Iraq - Gina Chon, Wall Street Journal. Several blasts shook the area near the US Embassy late Wednesday, marking a second day of attacks around the facility during a visit by US Vice President Joseph Biden. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki was hosting Mr. Biden at his palace a few miles away at the time of the attacks. The blasts were heard at the palace, and US and Iraqi security officials temporarily prevented reporters who had gathered to attend a briefing by the two from leaving the building. The blasts appeared to be from rockets or mortars. They come a day after several rockets fell near the embassy on Tuesday, coinciding with Mr. Biden's arrival. Iraqi authorities said two Iraqis died from injuries sustained in the Tuesday explosions. Earlier in the evening, Mr. Biden, in a statement read to reporters, reaffirmed Washington's timetable for the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. That timetable calls for the withdrawal of all combat troops by the end of August 2010, and the complete withdrawal of all remaining US troops by the end of 2011.

IRAN

Snubs Await Ahmadinejad in US - Eli Lake, Washington Times. It's an invitation even some committed pacifists are loath to accept: an evening with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Even the Quakers say they won't meet with Mr. Ahmadinejad, who is expected to face large protests outside the United Nations and his hotel, the Barclay. "We decided this year, we are not going engage with him in a big public meeting in New York as we have in the past," Joe Volk, executive secretary of the Friends Committee on National Legislation, told The Washington Times. "Right now, Americans meddling in the postelection situation will not be helpful. And so it is best for Americans to let the dust settle on the elections before we engage." Although Mr. Ahmadinejad has faced protests since he first came to New York for the UN General Assembly in 2005, the opposition to his scheduled visit next week is expected to be particularly fierce in light of Iran's disputed June 12 presidential election. With hundreds of Iranians still in jail, at least 36 dead in clashes with security forces and the nation's political elite bitterly divided, even Americans who have long favored engagement with Iran are feeling queasy about greeting its president.

Iran Opposition Leader Sidelined From Rally - Robert F. Worth, New York Times. A powerful former president in Iran who supports its opposition movement has been barred from speaking at a major commemorative rally there on Friday, in a striking break from precedent that suggests the country’s hard-line leaders fear the event could turn into an opposition rally. The former president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has delivered the Friday Prayer sermon for almost 25 years on Quds Day, an annual occasion of Iranian solidarity with the Palestinian movement. But this year he is being replaced by a hard-line cleric, Ahmad Khatami, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will also speak, Iran’s state-run Press TV reported Wednesday, citing the prayers commission. Opposition supporters have called for a huge turnout, hoping to turn the event into a broad show of public support for their protest against the presidential election in June and its violent aftermath.

How to Talk to Iran - Roger Cohen, New York Times opinion. The five-page Iranian platform for talks with major powers - “Cooperation for Peace, Justice and Progress” - has been much mocked as evasive blather, but is in fact an instructive document that suggests the endeavor may not be hopeless. It bears close scrutiny. True, it makes no mention of Iran’s nuclear program, the elephant in the room, although it does talk of “promoting the universality” of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, of which Iran is a member but nuclear-armed Israel is not. What the proposal provides is a useful guide to the Islamic Republic’s psychology and preoccupations, which find echo elsewhere.

THE LONG WAR

UAE Kept Tight Lid on Disrupted Terror Plot - Eli Lake and Sara A. Carter, Washington Times. Authorities in the United Arab Emirates earlier this year quietly broke up a major terrorist ring affiliated with al Qaeda that had plotted to blow up targets in Dubai - a banking hub that has long seemed immune to attacks by the terrorist group. The disruption in May of the previously undisclosed plot came at a sensitive time for the UAE, which months earlier concluded an agreement with the United States that would allow the US to sell it nuclear reactor technology and nuclear fuel. Congress has until Oct. 17 to block the agreement, which has been viewed with concern by some nonproliferation groups. Three US intelligence officials and one former senior US government official confirmed that the terrorist scheme originated in Ras Al Khaimah (RAK), a relatively poor member of the seven-emirate country. According to these officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the incident, UAE authorities found evidence that the terrorists had conducted video surveillance of targets in Dubai including Dubai Towers, which will be the tallest building in the world when it is completed in December. The officials also said the plotters had designated suicide bombers for the operations, but had not yet made so-called martyrdom videos.

US to Seek 3rd Delay In Guantanamo Cases - Peter Finn, Washington Post. The Obama administration is planning to seek a third continuance in several cases at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, including those of defendants charged in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to US officials and a court filing by the Justice Department. The expected request for a 60-day delay, which military judges would have to rule on, comes as the administration continues to formulate its plans to close the military prison. Those plans hinge on several other developments. An interagency team led by the Justice Department is nearing the end of its review of the cases of the 226 detainees remaining at Guantanamo Bay - a process aimed at helping officials decide which detainees can be released to third countries, which should be prosecuted, and whether those trials should be held in federal courts or military commissions. Meanwhile, before proceeding with military commission trials, the administration is pressing Congress to enact changes to the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that would provide defendants with greater due process.

US Seeking 3rd Delay on Guantánamo Cases - David Johnston, New York Times. The Obama administration said it would decide by mid-November whether to bring charges in federal court in the United States against the five detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, accused of involvement in the September 2001 terrorist attacks, according to government legal papers filed Wednesday. In two legal motions, one filed with a military court in Guantánamo and another with a federal appeals court, the government said it would seek a third postponement of proceedings in the 10 military tribunal cases at Guantánamo. It is trying to decide whether to shift the cases to civilian criminal courts, including those of the five men currently charged before a military tribunal with offenses related to the Sept. 11 attacks. The government is seeking more time to decide on its course of action after first asking in January for a 120-day delay when President Obama announced his plan to shut down the prison at Guantánamo within a year.

It's Multicultural, Stupid - Suzanne Fields, Washington Times opinion. The attack on America on Sept. 11, 2001, set off alarms everywhere. We were shocked to discover that few Foreign Service officers were fluent in Arabic or Farsi, the dominant languages of the Middle East. We didn't know much about Islam. Children grew up on the engrossing and romantic "Tales of the Arabian Nights," but few parents thought much about the implications of women portrayed in veils and harems, as the property of men. College students grooved on "The Rubaiyat" by Omar Khayyam, the medieval Persian poet and philosopher, whose poetry was tailored to Western sensibility by the 19th- century English translator Edward FitzGerald in "A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread - and Thou." There's a small park on Embassy Row in Washington dedicated to the poem. The popular culture glibly entertained us with tales of flying carpets and genies popping out of magic bottles, and serious study of Islamic history and culture was grossly neglected. Multiculturalism and increasing tension in the Middle East have changed all that, but we haven't improved the education of our children about Islam or the roots of Islamist terrorism. An insidious campaign to mislead, misinform and disinform is at work in the textbooks of the public schools. Do you know what your children are reading today?

MISSILE DEFENSE

US to Shelve Nuclear-Missile Shield - Peter Spiegel, Wall Street Journal. The White House will shelve Bush administration plans to build a missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, according to people familiar with the matter, a move likely to cheer Moscow and roil the security debate in Europe. The US will base its decision on a determination that Iran's long-range missile program has not progressed as rapidly as previously estimated, reducing the threat to the continental US and major European capitals, according to current and former US officials. The findings, expected to be completed as early as next week following a 60-day review ordered by President Barack Obama, would be a major reversal from the Bush administration, which pushed aggressively to begin construction of the Eastern European system before leaving office in January.

Obama to Ditch European Missile Defence Shield - Philippe Naughton and Tony Halpin, The Times. Barack Obama is to ditch his predecessor's plans to deploy a missile defence shield in Eastern Europe, it emerged today. Jan Fischer, the Czech Prime Minister, said that Mr Obama had personally informed him that the United States was shelving plans to build a radar base in the Czech Republic and site interceptor rockets in Poland. "President Barack Obama called me shortly after midnight to tell me his government was giving up its intention to build a radar base on Czech soil," Mr Fischer told reporters in Prague. "The Czech Republic has acknowledged this decision." A formal announcement on the move could be made as early as today with Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, scheduling a news briefing in Washington. The move represents a major reversal from the policies of President Bush, who pushed aggressively to begin construction of the shield before leaving office in January, saying that it would provide an essential defence against intercontinental missile attacks from Iran and North Korea.

US INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY

DNI Cites $75 Billion Intelligence Tab - Walter Pincus, Washington Post. The United States spent $75 billion over the past year to finance worldwide intelligence operations that employ 200,000 people, according to an unprecedented disclosure by the nation's top intelligence official. Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair disclosed the figures while introducing his four-year national intelligence strategy during a Tuesday morning conference call with reporters. In emphasizing that the document does not differentiate between national and military intelligence efforts, Blair said, "This morning, we're talking about the very important business of a blueprint to run this 200,000-person, $75 billion national enterprise in intelligence." By contrast, Congress approved $32.8 billion this year for the State Department and for foreign assistance provided through the US Agency for International Development. For years, the government has tried to keep secret the cost of running the agencies that make up the intelligence community, arguing that doing otherwise would somehow help the country's adversaries.

A New Deal for The CIA - David Ignatius, Washington Post opinion. The gauzy romance and the gritty political reality of the spy business came into focus in two encounters in Europe this week. If the two can be linked, maybe there's a chance of easing the destructive battles between Congress and the CIA. What's required is a new approach to intelligence based on the need for political sustainability. This, in turn, will require a degree of transparency with Congress and the public that may make the intelligence community uncomfortable. But frankly, after the torture debate, there's no other way.

AFRICA

In Somalia, a Leader Is Raising Hopes for Stability - Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times. President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed sits behind his desk in a pinstriped suit, prayer hat, designer glasses and a chunky, expensive-looking watch. He is ringed by enemies and guarded around the clock by Ugandan soldiers who literally camp outside his door and, for the rare occasions he leaves the palace, drive him to the airport in an armored personnel carrier. The few glimpses he gets of Mogadishu’s deserted streets are through two-inch-thick bulletproof glass. “This government faced obstacles that were unparalleled,” said Sheik Sharif, a former high school teacher, who became president in February. “We had to deal with international terrorist groups creating havoc elsewhere. Their plan was to topple the government soon after it arrived. The government proved it could last.” The odds against Sheik Sharif are still long, but his moderate Islamist government is widely considered to be Somalia’s best chance for stability in years.

AMERICAS

A Scandal Over Spying Intensifies in Colombia - Simon Romero, New York Times. President Álvaro Uribe, the top ally of the United States in Latin America, is enmeshed in a scandal over growing evidence that his main intelligence agency carried out an extensive illegal spying operation focused on his leading critics, including members of the Supreme Court, opposition politicians, human rights workers and journalists. The scandal, which has unfolded over months, intensified in recent weeks with the disclosure of an audio intercept of a top official at the United States Embassy. Semana, a respected news magazine, obtained an intercept of a routine phone call between James Faulkner, the embassy’s legal attaché, and a Supreme Court justice investigating ties of Mr. Uribe’s political supporters to paramilitary death squads. Other recordings obtained in investigations by journalists and prosecutors point to resilient multiyear efforts to spy on Mr. Uribe’s major critics by the Department of Administrative Security, a 6,500-employee intelligence agency - possibly South America’s largest - that operates directly under the authority of the president’s office.

Former US Anti-drug Official's Arrest 'a Complete Shock' - Sebastian Rotella, Los Angeles Times. As a high-ranking US anti-drug official, Richard Padilla Cramer held front-line posts in the war on Mexico's murderous cartels. He led an office of two dozen agents in Arizona and was the attache for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Guadalajara. While in Mexico, however, Cramer also served as a secret ally of drug lords, according to federal investigators. Cramer allegedly advised traffickers on law enforcement tactics and pulled secret files to help them identify turncoats. He charged $2,000 for a Drug Enforcement Administration document that was sent to a suspect in Miami by e-mail in August, authorities said. "Cramer was responsible for advising the [drug traffickers] how US law enforcement works with warrants and record checks as well as how DEA conducts investigations to include 'flipping subjects,' " or recruiting informants, a criminal complaint says. DEA agents arrested him at his Arizona home Sept. 4. A spokeswoman for the US attorney in Miami said Wednesday that she could not comment but said that cases begun with complaints usually go before grand juries. A decision on an indictment in Miami is expected soon, according to a federal official who requested anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.

Cartel Rivalry Blamed in Latest Mexico Drug Clinic Slayings - Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times. In the second mass slaying at a Mexican rehab clinic in less than two weeks, gunmen burst into the Life Annex addiction treatment center in the volatile border city of Ciudad Juarez and killed at least 10 people - patients and therapists alike. The gunmen escaped, and authorities on Wednesday blamed the Tuesday night shooting on a "war of extermination" among drug traffickers. Rehabilitation clinics are often targeted as Mexican drug gangs hunt rivals or attempt to settle old scores. Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz said Wednesday that the violence marked the latest outbreak of a war between rival cartels - the locally based Carrillo Fuentes gang and its enemies from the state of Sinaloa - attempting to gain control of the city's flourishing drug market. This was the sixth drug treatment center attacked in Ciudad Juarez in the last 13 months. The deadliest assault occurred Sept. 2, when 18 people were lined up against a clinic wall and cut down by automatic weapon fire.

Even in Bad Times, the Glad Cry Goes Up - William Booth, Washington Post. They say it always rains on the night of El Grito, when people gather in plazas across the nation to shout at the top of their lungs "Viva Mexico!" on the eve of their celebration of independence from Spain. And so it poured - flooding streets - and people said it was kind of funny, in a perverse way, because Mexico is suffering its worst drought in almost 70 years. The nation's reservoirs are half-empty, water is being rationed in the capital and 40 percent of bean, corn and wheat crops surveyed by the government are parched. Government officials estimate that the Mexican economy will shrink 6.8 percent this year, smothered by the worldwide recession and especially the downturn in the United States, Mexico's leading trade partner. It is the deepest economic slump here since the 1930s.

ASIA PACIFIC

Japan’s New Prime Minister Takes Office, Ending an Era - Hiroko Tabuchi, New York Times. Yukio Hatoyama, who led his party to a landmark victory in elections last month, took office as prime minister and named a cabinet of loyal allies on Wednesday, promising to bring change to a country mired in stagnation after a half-century of virtually uninterrupted, one-party rule. Mr. Hatoyama has said the Democratic Party will reverse Japan’s long economic malaise, increasing social benefits and aligning policies more closely with the public’s needs rather than those of big business or the country’s bureaucrats. He has also spoken of redefining Japan’s relationship with the United States, its closest ally. “I am trembling with deep emotion over this moment of historical change, while at the same time I know I have taken on an immense responsibility,” Mr. Hatoyama said at a news conference. “We are entering the realm of the unknown.”

Japan's New Leader Seeks Revision of Relations With US - Blaine Harden, Washington Post. Hours after he became prime minister Wednesday, Yukio Hatoyama said he wants to change Japan's "somewhat passive" relationship with the United States and review the large American military presence here. Since his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) won in a historic landslide Aug. 30, Hatoyama has tried to reassure the United States that the nation remains the cornerstone of Japan's foreign policy while following through on his party's campaign vow to make the two nations' relationship more equal. In a sign that he was trying to find the right balance, he said Wednesday that he didn't "believe we can do things without the US." Hatoyama, who has a doctorate in engineering from Stanford University, is expected to travel to New York next week to participate in the UN General Assembly session and might meet with President Obama during the trip.

China Says It Disrupted Bomb Plot in Tense Area - Sharon LaFraniere, New York Times. China announced the breakup of a bomb-making plot in the volatile western region of Xinjiang on Wednesday, apparently an indication that authorities had not only failed to suppress the ethnic hatreds there but also that the weapons of choice in the feud could be getting more lethal. The announcement, from the Public Security Ministry, said the authorities had arrested six people who had established three bomb-making workshops and assembled about 20 explosive devices in a town 430 miles outside the region’s capital, Urumqi. The ministry said that the suspects had planned to plant the explosives on cars, motorcycles and people, but that they were foiled by what it called timely arrests. The police did not identify the ethnicity of the suspects. But the names of those alleged to be the ringleaders suggested that they were Uighurs, an ethnic group that dominated the province before an influx in recent decades of Han, China’s major ethnic group.

Indonesian Police: Noordin Top Killed in Raid - Joko HariYanto, Wall Street Journal. Indonesia's police chief on Thursday said suspected terrorist leader Noordin Mohamed Top was killed in a raid by counterterror forces earlier in the day. This marks the second time in as many months that Indonesian officials claimed to have killed Mr. Noordin. Mr. Noordin, a Malaysian citizen, is wanted for allegedly orchestrating a string of terrorist attacks in Indonesia, including the July 17 attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta that killed seven people and two suicide bombers. Fingerprints in a police database matched the body to Mr. Noordin, said National Police Chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri.

MIDDLE EAST

Israel Rejects Call for Gaza Inquiry - Isabel Kershner, New York Times. Israeli officials on Wednesday bluntly dismissed one of the main recommendations of the United Nations fact-finding mission’s report on the three-week war in Gaza last winter: a call for the Israeli government to begin an independent investigation of “serious violations” of international humanitarian and human rights law, including evidence of war crimes, during the military campaign. Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that the internal military investigations into the Israeli Army’s conduct in Gaza already under way were “a thousand times more serious” than the investigation just completed by the United Nations mission led by Richard Goldstone, a respected South African judge. Reflecting a broad consensus in Israel, the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, also harshly criticized the report, calling it “a mockery of history” for failing “to distinguish between the aggressor and a state exercising its right for self-defense.” Mr. Peres, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, added that the report “legitimizes terrorist activity, the pursuit of murder and death.”

Israel Rebuffs Inquiry into Gaza War Crime Allegations - Richard Boudreaux, Los Angeles Times. Israel on Wednesday rejected a call by a United Nations panel to open an independent inquiry into its wartime conduct in the Gaza Strip and launched a diplomatic campaign to thwart any prosecution of its soldiers at an international criminal tribunal. Officials said President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior ministers were telephoning counterparts abroad in an effort to discredit a harshly critical report by the fact-finding panel. The report concludes that both the Israeli army and Palestinian fighters committed war crimes during an Israeli offensive last winter that took aim at rocket-firing militants in Gaza but also left hundreds of civilians dead. Peres declared at a news conference that the report, issued Tuesday by former South African Judge Richard Goldstone, was one-sided and "makes a mockery of history."

No Deal, but Middle East Envoy Sets Further Talks - Isabel Kershner, New York Times. The Obama administration’s special representative to the Middle East, George J. Mitchell, was set to leave Israel on Wednesday without agreement on a settlement freeze. But he was expected to return Friday to press his efforts to pave the way for resumed Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Over the past two days, Mr. Mitchell has held two private meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as talks with Palestinian leaders in the West Bank. Officials here indicated that he had not persuaded the two sides to restart the stalled talks. He plans to visit other regional centers, including Egypt and Jordan, before returning here, but the full details of his schedule were not immediately made public. The Obama administration has demanded a halt to all Israeli settlement building in the West Bank, and the Palestinians are insisting on a complete settlement freeze before resuming the negotiations.

SOUTH ASIA

Pakistan Rights Groups Seek Answers on Christian’s Death - Waqar Gillani and Sabrina Tavernese, New York Times. A Christian man detained on blasphemy charges was found dead in his jail cell on Tuesday in eastern Pakistan. Human rights groups here said he appeared to have been killed, perhaps in collusion with the authorities. The death of the Christian, Robert Fanish, 20, is part of a rising trend of violence against minorities in Pakistan, a panel of Pakistani human rights groups said in a news conference on Wednesday. It follows the burning deaths of six Christians in July, and mob attacks against Christian houses and a church in March and June. “This is a pattern,” said Asma Jahangir, the chairwoman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, a prominent watchdog group that is independent of the government. Local police officials say Mr. Fanish committed suicide, a claim his family and human rights groups dismissed.

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.