As American troops move deeper into southern Afghanistan to fight Taliban insurgents, US officials are expressing new concerns about the role of fugitive Taliban leader Mohammad Omar and his council of lieutenants, who reportedly plan and launch cross-border strikes from safe havens around the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta. But US officials acknowledge they know relatively little about the remote and arid Pakistani border region, have no capacity to strike there, and have few windows into the turbulent mix of Pashtun tribal and religious politics that has turned the area into a sanctuary for the Taliban leaders.

--Washington Post

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN

US Accepts Hamid Karzai as Afghan Leader Despite Poll Fraud Claims - Giles Whittell, The Times. The White House has ended weeks of hesitation over how to respond to the Afghan election by accepting President Karzai as the winner despite evidence that up to 20 per cent of ballots cast may have been fraudulent. Abandoning its previous policy of not prejudging investigations of vote rigging, the Obama Administration has conceded that Mr Karzai will be President for another five years on the basis that even if he were forced into a second round of voting he would almost certainly win it. The decision will increase pressure on President Obama to justify further US troop deployments to Afghanistan to prop up a regime now regarded as systemically corrupt. The acceptance was conveyed by Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State, in a meeting with her Afghan counterpart hours before Mr Obama received a formal request from General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, for up to 40,000 more troops. Mrs Clinton told Rangin Dadfar Spanta, the Afghan Foreign Minister, that she and her NATO colleagues - including David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary - had reached a consensus that Mr Karzai would remain President even if investigations now under way cut his share of the first-round vote to below 50 per cent. The meeting took place last Friday but details emerged yesterday. The Administration has also told Kabul that it will support what Mr Karzai calls a policy of “reconciliation”, which is intended to induce low and mid-ranking Taleban fighters into swapping sides or at least to lay down their arms.

General Stanley McChrystal Opts for 40,000 More Troops in Afghanistan - Brad Norington, The Australian. The top US military commander in Afghanistan is believed to be seeking up to 40,000 additional troops, among a range of options he proposes, to regain the advantage and eventually win the war against the Taliban. The request from General Stanley McChrystal is at the higher end of estimates first raised last month. General McChrystal's troop request follows last week's leaked release - from an assessment of the Afghan conflict ordered by US President Barack Obama - of the commander's view that the war will "likely result in failure" unless more troops are sent within a year. The New York Times reported overnight that the request for 40,000 extra troops was among a range of options General McChrystal was offering Mr Obama. Others included lower increases and a more efficient use of troops already on the ground by removing them from sparsely populated areas and basing them in cities. An Obama administration official was quoted as saying General McChrystal's request involved different troop numbers according to different goals. The top figure of 40,000 was intended to match the objective of winning the war by securing cities, clearing the countryside of Taliban fighters and rebuilding the nation. A less ambitious objective that could see the war drag on many years would rely on unmanned drone aircraft to strike at insurgents in the hills while military forces concentrated on protecting cities.

New NATO Chief Says America's Allies Stand Firm Against Taliban - Elaine Cobbe, Voice of America. In his first major speech in the United States, the new head of NATO is expected to respond Monday, to President Obama's concerns that the United States is doing the lion's share of the fighting in Afghanistan. In prepared remarks, Anders Fogh Rasmussen acknowledges more resources are needed to fight the battle against the Taliban. However, he is expected ask the United States to stop downplaying efforts by America's allies. The new head of NATO is set to defend the international body's contribution to the fight in Afghanistan. Last week, US President Barack Obama said there was "an almost reflexive anti-Americanism", which was stopping some countries from stepping up to the plate. Anders Fogh Rasmussen is expected to say that is just not true. The new NATO head's prepared remarks say he understands Washington's frustration. But he will warn that American downplaying international efforts could prove a self-fulfilling prophecy. He is expected to say America's allies are not running from the fight. Nine thousand additional non-US troops have joined the battle in Afghanistan in the past 18 months.

NATO Chief Says More Troops Needed in Afghanistan - Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times. Stepping into an intensifying debate in Washington, the new head of NATO said Monday that more allied troops are needed in Afghanistan to help train the country's security forces. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who took over Aug. 1 as NATO's secretary-general, said he agreed with an assessment last month by Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top American and allied commander in Afghanistan, who emphasized the need to secure Afghan cities. "We have to do more now, if we want to do less later," Rasmussen said during a speech in Washington. McChrystal has submitted, in addition to his assessment, a request for additional US troops, but officials will not say how many he wants. Aside from the need for more trainers, Rasmussen said it was premature to discuss other troop needs. The comments by Rasmussen, the former prime minister of Denmark, come as key members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are making plans to pull their troops from Afghanistan.

No US Request for More Afghanistan Troops in Stephen Smith Meeting with Robert Gates - Brad Norington, The Australian. The Rudd Government received no further request for assistance in the war effort against the Taliban in Afghanistan today as Foreign Minister Stephen Smith met senior officials of the Obama administration in Washington. As US President Barack Obama weighs up a request from his top military commander in Afghanistan to send up to 40,000 additional troops, Australia has reaffirmed its position that the 1550 soldiers already committed remain its limit. Mr Smith said today he had received no request for additional support in meetings with Defence Secretary Robert Gates at the Pentagon. The Minister travelled to Washington for bilateral talks after attending last week's G20 summit of world leaders with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in Pittsburgh and UN meetings in New York. General Stanley McChrystal, the US and NATO military commander in Afghanistan, is believed to be seeking a significant boost in US forces as the part of a package of recommendations he says are needed to avoid defeat after the allied military position has deteriorated seriously over the past 12 months.

If McChrystal Gets His Afghan Surge, How Many Troops Will Be There? - Dan Murphy, Christian Science Monitor. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, as part of his comprehensive strategy review for the war in Afghanistan, has asked President Barack Obama for up to 40,000 more troops. It’s not clear he’ll get them - President Obama is concerned about spending more lives and money propping up the the deeply corrupt government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai - but the pressure to make a decision on the matter is mounting. No matter what Obama decides, the United States commitment has already dramatically expanded during 8 years of war. What began as a tiny operation using air power and satchels of money - carried in some cases by special forces soldiers on horseback to Afghan warlords willing to fight the Taliban - has expanded during every year of the war. The attached graph on troop levels shows monthly averages. In Afghanistan, where heavy winter snows make much of the country impassable, there are much greater month-to-month fluctuations in US troops levels than in Iraq. In 2009, for instance, the US had 26,600 soldiers on the ground in January and 48,250 in June. The 2010 figure is the Monitor’s own back-of-the-envelope calculation for a monthly average assuming 40,000 more troops are approved. We were unable to find comparable figures on the development of other nation’s military commitments to the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan. In June of 2009, when there were 56,000 US troops in Afghanistan, there were about 32,000 soldiers from more than 30 different countries. Britain was the second-largest contributor to the force, with 9,000 troops on the ground.

US Says Taliban Has A New Haven in Pakistan - Pamela Constable, Washington Post. As American troops move deeper into southern Afghanistan to fight Taliban insurgents, US officials are expressing new concerns about the role of fugitive Taliban leader Mohammad Omar and his council of lieutenants, who reportedly plan and launch cross-border strikes from safe havens around the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta. But US officials acknowledge they know relatively little about the remote and arid Pakistani border region, have no capacity to strike there, and have few windows into the turbulent mix of Pashtun tribal and religious politics that has turned the area into a sanctuary for the Taliban leaders, who are known collectively as the Quetta Shura. Pakistani officials, in turn, have been accused of allowing the Taliban movement to regroup in the Quetta area, viewing it as a strategic asset rather than a domestic threat, while the army has been heavily focused on curbing violent Islamist extremists in the northwest border region hundreds of miles away. As a result, Pakistani and foreign analysts here said, Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, has suddenly emerged as an urgent but elusive new target as Washington grapples with the Taliban's rapidly spreading arc of influence and terror across Afghanistan.

Musharraf: Afghan Debate Shows US Weak - Sara A. Carter, Washington Times. Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Monday that the US would make a "disastrous" mistake if it withdrew from Afghanistan and warned that a delay in sending more troops would be seen as a sign of weakness. Mr. Musharraf also denied that Pakistan's elite Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was giving secret support to the Taliban, which the ISI helped build in the 1980s to confront the Soviet Union. Asked by reporters and editors at The Washington Times whether the US and its allies might be seen as weak because of the prolonged debate over whether to send more forces to Afghanistan, Mr. Musharraf said, "Yes, absolutely. ... By this vacillation and lack of commitment to a victory and talking too much about casualties [it] shows weakness in the resolve." Mr. Musharraf, a former army chief of staff who seized power in a 1999 coup and resigned last year under threat of impeachment, now resides in London and is on a speaking tour in the US.

The View From Pakistan's Spies - David Ignatius, Washington Post opinion. The headquarters of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence directorate is a black-ribbed stucco building in the Aabpara neighborhood of the capital. Its operatives, described by wary Pakistanis as "the boys from Aabpara," play a powerful and mysterious role in the life of the country. Their "tentacles," as one ISI officer terms the agency's spy networks, stretch deep into neighboring Afghanistan. The ISI agreed to open its protective curtain slightly for me last week. This unusual outreach included a long and animated conversation with Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the agency's director general, as well as a detailed briefing from its counterterrorism experts. Under the ground rules, I cannot quote Pasha directly, but I can offer a sense of how his agency looks at key issues - including the Afghanistan war and the ISI's sometimes prickly relationship with America. At an operational level, the ISI is a close partner of the CIA. Officers of the two services work together nearly every night on joint operations against al-Qaeda in Pakistan's tribal areas, perhaps the most dangerous region in the world. Information from the ISI has helped the CIA plan its Predator drone attacks, which have killed 14 of the top 20 targets over the past several years.

IRAQ

Iraq Is Struggling to Buy Equipment - Gina Chon, Wall Street Journal. A severe budget crunch here is holding up the sale of billions of dollars of American military equipment, including tanks, more than two dozen helicopters and thousands of radios. The hardware is seen by Iraqi and US officials as crucial in helping Iraq's military and police force completely take over security from American combat forces, scheduled to depart by August 2010. "We are in a cost-crunch, time-crunch situation," says Army Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick, head of the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq, the command training and equipping Iraqi security forces. Iraqi officials placed orders for the equipment during superhigh oil prices in recent years, then saw their finances dwindle as crude prices fell. Iraq gets most of its revenue from oil sales. After soaring well above $100 a barrel last year, prices slumped during the global economic downturn. Officials in Baghdad slashed their budget several times to make up for the reduced forecast revenue. For its 2009 budget, the ministry of defense requested $15 billion. It was allocated $4.1 billion.

At Least 16 Dead in Bombings in Iraq - Voice of America. Police in Iraq say at least 16 people were killed and dozens wounded in a series of bombings across the country Monday. In the deadliest attack, a suicide bomber killed seven policemen and wounded 10 others when he blew himself up near a police station in western Anbar province. Earlier, back-to-back bombings in Baghdad left at least three soldiers dead and at least 15 people wounded. The second blast detonated as rescuers and bystanders tried to help victims of the first attack. Just south of Baghdad, outside Diwaniya, a bomb planted on a bus exploded, killing six people and wounding two others. Violence in Iraq has fallen significantly during the past two years, although insurgent attacks still remain common. The attacks have raised questions about the ability of local security forces to keep Iraqis safe as US forces withdraw. On Sunday, the US military announced a development in the case of the 2006 kidnapping and murder of members of an Iraqi tae kwon do team.

Bombings Across Iraq Kill 15, Wound Dozens - Nada Bakri, Washington Post. Explosions across Iraq on Monday killed at least 15 people and wounded many others, police said, further testing the ability of the Iraqi armed forces to keep the country safe. A suicide bomber driving a water tanker loaded with explosives blew himself up near a police station in Anbar province, killing seven policemen and wounding 10. The explosion, in the provincial capital of Ramadi, a former insurgent stronghold 60 miles west of Baghdad, burned at least half a dozen cars parked nearby and damaged several buildings. In Diwaniyah, a town about 100 miles south of Baghdad, a bomb planted in a minibus exploded, killing at least three passengers and wounding two. In western Baghdad, two bombs exploded in the Sunni neighborhood of Ghazaliyah, killing three people, including the commander of an army battalion. Security officials said at least 28 people were wounded.

Holy Month Ends, and Violence Rises Again in Iraq - Timothy Williams, New York Times. Eighteen people were killed and at least 55 others were wounded in bombings across Iraq on Monday as the country’s level of violence picked up again after a relative lull during the holy month of Ramadan. Monday’s attacks occurred in Shiite and Sunni areas of the country and took aim not only at the Iraqi Army and the police but also at civilians. In the western Baghdad neighborhood of Ghazaliya, two bombs were detonated - the first directed at a passing Iraqi Army patrol, the second at people who gathered to see the wreckage, Iraqi security officials said. The first blast, caused by a roadside bomb around 1:45 p.m. caused no deaths, but it wounded one civilian. The second bomb, which had been attached to a parked motorcycle, detonated minutes later, killing 3 people and wounding 28, an Iraqi security official said. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. Among the casualties was the chief of the Iraqi Army regiment responsible for patrolling Ghazaliya, where Sunnis and Shiites had lived side by side before sectarian warfare tore the social fabric apart several years ago. They now live in areas separated by police and army checkpoints. The attacks occurred in the Sunni portion of the neighborhood.

IRAN

US Aims To Isolate Iran if Talks Fail - Glenn Kessler, Washington Post. The Obama administration is laying plans to cut Iran's economic links to the rest of the world if talks this week over the country's nuclear ambitions founder, according to officials and outside experts familiar with the plans. While officials stress that they hope Iran will agree to open its nuclear program to inspection, they are prepared by year's end to make it increasingly difficult for Iranian companies to ship goods around the world. The administration is targeting, in particular, the insurance and reinsurance companies that underwrite the risk of such transactions. Officials are also looking at ways to keep goods from reaching Iran by targeting companies that get around trading restrictions by sending shipments there through third parties in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Hong Kong; and other trading hubs. The administration has limited options in unilaterally targeting Iran, largely because it wants to avoid measures so severe that they would undermine consensus among countries pressing the Iranian government. A military strike is also increasingly unpalatable because, officials said, it probably would only briefly delay any attempt by Iran to produce a nuclear weapon.

US, Allies Seek New Ways to Sanction Iran - Joe Lauria, Jay Solomon and Farnaz Fassihi, Wall Street Journal. The Obama administration and its Western allies are looking at new ways to constrict Iran's energy, transportation and financial sectors in the wake of last week's revelation that Tehran had secretly developed a second nuclear-fuel facility. But the White House will still face numerous challenges matching its rhetoric on sanctions with real international action, said US and European officials involved in the process. That makes the US Treasury - and not the United Nations - the main focus of the West's financial campaign against Iran for now, the officials said. China and Russia are still seen as only half-hearted partners in any effort to push forward expansive new financial penalties through the UN Security Council. Even France and Germany are voicing skittishness about targeting Iran's gasoline imports, a strategy that is seen by the US and Israel as inflicting particular pain on Tehran. European officials stressed Monday they are likely to seriously consider new sanctions only at year-end, citing a December deadline, replacing President Barack Obama's September deadline, that has now been set to see if diplomacy with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad works.

Iran Test-Fires Its Most Advanced Missiles - William Branigin, Thomas Erdbrink and Walter Pincus, Washington Post. Iran reported Monday that it successfully test-fired its most advanced and powerful medium-range missiles as part of war games it said were intended to deter the country's enemies. Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps tested the Shahab-3 and Sejil missiles in the third phase of a two-day exercise called The Great Prophet IV, state-run news media reported. The missiles are believed to be capable of striking Israel, US military targets in the Middle East and parts of southeastern Europe. But Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami, commander of the Revolutionary Guard Air Force, said the test-firings were part of exercises to practice "preventive and defensive operations." They are "in no way a threat to neighboring countries," Iranian news media quoted him as saying. Rather, the tests send "a message for certain greedy nations that seek to create fear, to show that we are able to give a swift and suitable answer to our enemies."

Iran Test-fires Most Advanced Missiles - Sara A. Carter, Washington Times. Iran fired medium-missiles Monday capable of hitting Israel, US bases in the Persian Gulf and areas of Europe in a new show of defiance before nuclear negotiations Thursday with the United States and other world powers. Two US counterproliferation officials confirmed Iranian media reports of the tests, which followed an Iranian barrage of short-range rockets on Sunday. The officials spoke on condition that they not be named because they were discussing intelligence information. One official said the US was "looking into whether Iran has also test fired long-range missiles" capable of hitting Europe but said that "we're not able to confirm long-range missile tests at this time." The disclosure by Iranian state television of the missile tests followed President Obama's revelation Friday that Iran has a second facility to enrich uranium hidden near the Iranian theological center of Qom on a military base. The US, China, Russia, France, Germany and Britain are to discuss Iran's nuclear program with Iran on Thursday in Geneva and demand full access to the site for the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iran's Missiles are ‘Ready to Destroy Israel’ - Catherine Philp and Tim Reid, The Times. Iran warned Israel yesterday that it faces destruction if it attacks the Islamic republic, only hours after Tehran provocatively test-fired missiles capable of hitting targets across the Middle East. “If this [an Israeli attack] happens, which, of course, we do not foresee, its ultimate result would be to expedite the last breath of the Zionist regime,” Ahmad Vahidi, the Iranian Defence Minister, said on state television. His defiant comments came after Western leaders dismissed a second day of rocket launches by Iran, calling them a “reprehensible” distraction from critical talks this week that will determine whether Tehran is ready to negotiate over its nuclear programme, or face biting new sanctions. Robert Gibbs, President Obama’s White House spokesman, called the missile tests “provocative”. He added: “This is an important day and an important week for Iran.” He demanded unfettered access to a new nuclear facility that Iran appeared to have concealed from international inspectors, but finally admitted to last week. “They can continue on the path they’ve been on ... or make a decision to step away from a nuclear weapons programme, and enter into a meaningful relationship with the world, based on their own security but not based on nuclear weapons.” David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said the missile tests were an attempt to deflect growing pressure, after disclosure of the hidden plant on a heavily guarded military base outside Qom.

Missile Tests Underscore the Threat Iran Poses in Mideast - Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles Times. Iran's reported test-firing Monday of medium-range missiles that could reach Israel, Europe and American bases in the Persian Gulf was a reminder of the potent military threat Tehran poses to nations seeking to derail its nuclear program. The launches demonstrated that Tehran was capable of striking its enemies, especially Israel, which has suggested it might attack Iran's nuclear installations, and the United States, which is urging tougher United Nations sanctions against the Islamic Republic while preparing to create a shield to protect its allies from Iranian missiles. The missiles fired Monday, the Shahab-3 and Sejil-2, were launched in the desert as part of military exercises that began before the US, France and Britain last week accused Tehran of building a secret uranium-enrichment plant. The US and other nations suspect Tehran's nuclear program is designed to create weapons rather than energy for civilian purposes and have threatened new sanctions on Iran if international inspectors are denied access to the facility. In Washington, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the missile tests again showed "the provocative nature with which Iran has acted on the international stage for a number of years" and repeated President Obama's recent demand that Tehran allow inspectors into the new site.

A Nuclear Debate Brews: Is Iran Designing Warheads? - William J. Broad, Mark Mazzetti and David E. Sanger, New York Times. When President Obama stood last week with the leaders of Britain and France to denounce Iran’s construction of a secret nuclear plant, the Western powers all appeared to be on the same page. Behind their show of unity about Iran’s clandestine efforts to manufacture nuclear fuel, however, is a continuing debate among American, European and Israeli spies about a separate component of Iran’s nuclear program: its clandestine efforts to design a nuclear warhead. The Israelis, who have delivered veiled threats of a military strike, say they believe that Iran has restarted these “weaponization” efforts, which would mark a final step in building a nuclear weapon. The Germans say they believe that the weapons work was never halted. The French have strongly suggested that independent international inspectors have more information about the weapons work than they have made public. Meanwhile, in closed-door discussions, American spy agencies have stood firm in their conclusion that while Iran may ultimately want a bomb, the country halted work on weapons design in 2003 and probably has not restarted that effort - a judgment first made public in a 2007 National Intelligence Estimate.

In Tehran, Students Defy Ban on Protests - Farnaz Fassihi, Wall Street Journal. Thousands of students defied threats by security officials and demonstrated against Iran's government at Tehran University on Monday, the first day of the academic year, signaling the opening of a new front in the opposition's battle against the government. With pressure increasing both at home and abroad, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government, concerned about the university's influence and reach, has been systematically cracking down on students. Security officials have called in hundreds of students across Iran for interrogation in the past month and warned them they would be banned from higher education if they brought the opposition movement of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi to school. The annual ceremony at Tehran University for the start of the academic year is typically attended by the president, the higher-education minister and lawmakers. But President Ahmadinejad canceled his appearance Monday, and the higher-education minister, Kamran Daneshjoo, was hustled quietly into the auditorium from a back door to avoid encountering the angry crowd. When Hadad Adel, a conservative lawmaker and professor, entered the campus, students booed him and shouted, "You are against the people, traitor."

THE LONG WAR

Guantánamo Deadline May Be Missed - Peter Baker and David Johnston, New York Times. The White House suggested Monday that it might not be able to close the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, by next January as President Obama promised, an acknowledgment underscoring the difficulties in figuring out what to do with the men being held there. Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said the administration had made “significant progress” in fulfilling the president’s campaign pledge to shut the prison, which has been widely condemned around the world. But he played down the importance of meeting Mr. Obama’s self-imposed deadline of Jan. 22. “We’re not focused on whether or not the deadline will or won’t be met on a particular day,” Mr. Gibbs said at his daily briefing for reporters. “We’re focused on ensuring that the facility is closed and doing all that has to be done between now and the 22nd of January to make the most progress that we can that’s possible.” The White House comments were the latest indication that the administration had miscalculated from the start its ability to turn Mr. Obama’s campaign trail speeches into reality. Some of his senior advisers have privately concluded that it was a mistake to set a deadline just two days after taking over the White House, when they still did not fully grasp the enormous challenges involved in closing the prison.

An Incomplete State Secrets Fix - New York Times editorial. One of the ways that the Bush administration tried to avoid accountability for its serious misconduct in the name of fighting terrorism was the misuse of an evidentiary rule called the state secrets privilege. The Obama administration has essentially embraced the Bush approach in existing cases, trying to toss out important lawsuits alleging kidnapping, torture and unlawful wiretapping without any evidence being presented. The other day, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. issued new guidelines for invoking the state secrets privilege in the future. They were a positive step forward, on paper, but did not go nearly far enough. Mr. Holder’s much-anticipated reform plan does not include any shift in the Obama administration’s demand for blanket secrecy in pending cases. Nor does it include support for legislation that would mandate thorough court review of state secrets claims made by the executive branch. The rules, which replace a less formal set of procedures used during the Bush years, establish a high-level review process at the Justice Department before a privilege claim may be invoked in court. Executive agencies will have to persuade a Justice Department committee that disclosure of information would risk “significant harm” to national security.

UNITED STATES

Defense Bill, Lauded by White House, Contains Billions in Earmarks - R. Jeffrey Smith, Washington Post. Sen. Thad Cochran's most recent reelection campaign collected more than $10,000 from University of Southern Mississippi professors and staff members, including three who work at the school's center for research on polymers. To a defense spending bill slated to be on the Senate floor Tuesday, the Mississippi Republican has added $10.8 million in military grants earmarked for the school's polymer research. Cochran, the ranking Republican on the Appropriations subcommittee on defense, also added $12 million in earmarked spending for Raytheon Corp., whose officials have contributed $10,000 to his campaign since 2007. He earmarked nearly $6 million in military funding for Circadence Corp., whose officers - including a former Cochran campaign aide - contributed $10,000 in the same period. In total, the spending bill for 2010 includes $132 million for Cochran's campaign donors, helping to make him the sponsor of more earmarked military spending than any other senator this year, according to an analysis by the nonprofit group Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Liberal Democrats Could Complicate Obama's Agenda - Jim Malone, Voice of America. President Barack Obama's political challenges on health care reform and future US involvement in Afghanistan are expected to grow in the weeks ahead. The president's political skills will be put to the test as he deals with a reinvigorated Republican opposition and an increasingly vocal liberal faction in his own Democratic Party disenchanted with his efforts to move to the political center. In political terms, President Obama may soon find himself between a rock and a hard place when it comes to the future of US involvement in Afghanistan. On one hand, congressional Republicans are pressing the president to beef up US forces to ensure a victory over al-Qaida and the Taliban. This is the Republican House leader, Congressman John Boehner of Ohio. "If we abandon Afghanistan, it will return to a safe haven for the Taliban and al-Qaida to plan and execute more attacks on Americans," said Boehner. But the president also faces growing concerns from liberal Democrats about what they see as a deepening involvement in Afghanistan. Senator Carl Levin of Michigan chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee. "I think there are a significant number of people in the country who have, and I don't know the exact percentages, that have questions about deepening our military involvement in Afghanistan," said Levin.

AFRICA

US Envoy's Outreach to Sudan Is Criticized as Naive - Stephanie McCrummen, Washington Post. The volatility of this East African nation - from the Darfur conflict to the threat of renewed civil war in the south - is becoming a test of how President Obama will reconcile a policy of engagement with earlier statements blasting a government he said had "offended the standards of our common humanity." Top administration officials are scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss a major review of the United States' Sudan policy. But even as that document is being finalized, U.S. diplomacy has remained mostly in the hands of Obama's special envoy to Sudan, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration, who is pushing toward normalized relations with the only country in the world led by a president indicted on war-crimes charges. Although Gration describes the approach as pragmatic and driven by a sense of urgency, his critics here and in the United States say it is dangerously, perhaps willfully, naive. During a recent five-day trip to Sudan, Gration heard from southern officials, displaced Darfurians, rebels and others who complained uniformly that he is being manipulated by government officials who talk peace even as they undermine it.

At Least 50 Killed in Guinea Opposition Protest - Voice of America. Witnesses and medical officials say at least 50 people have been killed in Guinea in clashes between security forces and opposition activists who defied a government ban on protests. The clashes took place Monday in the capital, Conakry. Witnesses say Guinea's security forces opened fire on demonstrators who had gathered in a large stadium to protest against the possible presidential candidacy of Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, the country's military leader. They also say police charged protesters with batons and detained several opposition leaders. On Sunday, Captain Camara's government said all protests would be prohibited until national independence celebrations are held on October 2. However, opposition activists decided to proceed with the demonstration they had planned for Monday. Some carried signs that read "No to Dadis." Others set furniture on fire as they marched from the outskirts of the capital into the city. Captain Camara took power in a coup last December following the death of Guinea's longtime President Lansana Conte.

Court Ends Terrorism Case Against Zimbabwe Activist - Barry Bearak, New York Times. Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court tossed out terrorism charges against the prominent human rights activist Jestina Mukoko on Monday, ruling that she herself had been terrorized when state security agents abducted and tortured her. “I am so relieved, I can barely express it,” Ms. Mukoko said when contacted by telephone not long after leaving the courtroom in tears. “I knew the court was handing down its judgment, but I did not know which way it would go.” The ruling represented a rare triumph for human rights activists in Zimbabwe, though it remains to be seen whether the decision signifies any real shift from the repression that has marked much of President Robert Mugabe’s three decades in power. Ms. Mukoko was taken from her home by armed men at daybreak on Dec. 3, barefoot and still in her nightgown, while her teenage son looked on helplessly. She was not seen again for nearly three weeks, and later testified that she was held in secret locations, where she was tortured in an attempt to extract a false confession. She said her captors made her kneel on gravel and repeatedly beat on the soles of her feet with rubber truncheons.

USAFRICOM Begins Training in Gabon - Scott Stearns , Voice of America. Members of the U.S. Africa Command are in Gabon for the start of a military communications exercise involving more than two dozen African armies. AFRICOM'S Africa Endeavor program seeks to improve communications between African armies by establishing a network linking their command and control structures to better prepare for joint operations. The exercise in Gabon runs through October 8 and involves nearly 30 African militaries along with delegations from the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States. It is the third annual training exercise and field test of communications systems following earlier Africa Endeavor programs in South Africa and Nigeria. Admiral Herve Namboundouani leads the organizing committee for this year's exercise. Admiral Namboundouani says each nation has different equipment, so it is important to be able to work together and communicate with other forces in peacekeeping missions. The Africa Endeavor program is meant to act as a catalyst for a coordinated response to African security challenges as the African Union develops standard practices and procedures for its Standby Force.

AMERICAS

Honduras Presses Brazil Over Refuge to Ousted President - Brian Wagner, Voice of America. The Honduran de facto government is pressing Brazil about its decision to grant refuge to ousted President Manuel Zelaya at its embassy in Tegucigalpa. The Honduran capital, where the ousted leader is seeking to return to power. Honduran officials asked Brazil's government to respond, within 10 days, to define the status of ousted President Zelaya, who has been living in the Brazilian embassy for nearly a week. Interim officials have criticized Mr. Zelaya for secretly entering the country and using the Brazilian embassy as safe haven to call on his supporters to hold demonstrations. The de facto government's foreign minister, Carlos Lopez, said Sunday that Brazil's government bears some responsibility for the current situation. Lopez says someone at the embassy allowed Mr. Zelaya to enter the building, so Brazil is directly responsible. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva rejects what he calls an ultimatum from a coup government. The Brazilian leader has said Mr. Zelaya is welcome to remain in the embassy as long as he likes.

Honduras to Nullify Emergency Restrictions - Jose de Cordoba, Wall Street Journal. Interim Honduran President Roberto Micheletti said the government will lift an emergency decree limiting civil liberties just one day after issuing the measure, which ran into a firestorm of criticism. "We've come to ask the president of the republic, with all due respect, to declare that decree null and void," said José Alfredo Saavedra, the president of the Honduran congress, who was accompanied to a meeting with Mr. Micheletti by the heads of the congressional delegations of four out of Honduras's five political parties. The emergency decree, which was to last for 45 days, bans unauthorized gatherings and allows police to detain people without warrants, although they must then be turned over to civil courts. The decree also allows authorities to shut down news media issuing statements that imperil public order, among other things. Mr. Micheletti issued the decree Sunday after Mr. Zelaya, who has holed up in the Brazilian embassy since slipping back into Tegucigalpa last week, went on radio and television urging his followers to gather in the capital to begin the "final offensive" to bring him back to power. Only a few hundred supporters heeded that call. Mr. Zelaya on Monday addressed the United Nations General Assembly by cellphone, asking leaders to guarantee his safety and that of his supporters.

Honduran Official May Reinstate Civil Liberties - Alex Renderos and Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times. Faced with a barrage of criticism abroad and, more importantly, from allies at home, the de facto president of Honduras, Roberto Micheletti, appeared to retreat Monday from his decision to suspend crucial civil liberties. Micheletti said he would consult with the Supreme Court and other institutions and hoped to repeal the decree "at the most opportune moment." He apologized to the Honduran people but again blamed President Manuel Zelaya, the man he ousted in a coup in June, for making drastic measures necessary. The emergency decree, issued only a day earlier, bans public gatherings, restricts the press and makes it easier for the army to arrest people. Micheletti's apparent and abrupt reversal follows unusually pointed criticism from some of his allies and fellow coup backers, including powerful businessmen and politicians. Some have even begun to speak of allowing Zelaya to be reinstated, an idea that has been taboo until now. Micheletti's former colleagues in Congress, over whom he presided until they installed him as president as part of the coup, warned him of widespread opposition to the suspension of civil rights.

Honduras Shuts Down Media Outlets, Then Relents - Elisabeth Malkn and Ginger Thompson, New York Times. The de facto government backed off Monday from its attempt to shut down protests and limit free speech after congressional leaders warned that they would not support the measure. The revolt by Congress, the first public fracture in the coalition that ousted President Manuel Zelaya three months ago, showed that the de facto president, Roberto Micheletti, faces limits on his power to crack down on dissent. In an extraordinary televised news conference Monday evening, Mr. Micheletti asked for “forgiveness from the Honduran people” and said he would ask the Supreme Court to lift the decree “as quickly as possible.” But the government’s reversal came on the same day that the United States sent mixed messages about the crisis, comments that critics said could embolden the coup-imposed government. The Micheletti government announced the decree Sunday night, imposing sweeping restrictions on civil liberties. The decree allowed the government to shut down broadcasters and ban unauthorized public meetings, and let the police detain suspects without warrants.

ASIA PACIFIC

No Detail Is Overlooked as China Prepares to Celebrate - Sharon LaFraniere, New York Times. Domesticated pigeons of this city, take note: Until Oct. 1, you are prohibited by government edict from flying over the center of China’s capital. Do not take it personally, however. The government is preparing to observe the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China with a parade that will make 76 trombones look like a child’s plastic kazoo. And nothing - not unauthorized window-peeping, nor marchers’ mental health, nor even the chance that pigeons might muck up displays of aerial might - is being left to chance. China’s government at times resembles an exasperated parent trying to rein in a pack of rebellious children. Its edicts are persistently flouted by censor-dodging Internet users, wayward local officials and rioting Uighurs. But when it comes to the impending National Day celebration in Beijing, the government appears fully in control. When swarms of soldiers, throngs of tanks and flocks of floats roll past Tiananmen Square on Thursday, 10,000 police officers and security guards will monitor Beijing street corners and checkpoints for evidence of potential party-spoilers. As many as 800,000 volunteers have also been enlisted to help maintain security.

New North Korean Constitution Bolsters Kim’s Power - Choe Snag-Hun, New York Times. North Korea has officially made Kim Jong-il its “supreme leader” and his “military first” policy its guiding ideology, according to the text of the country’s newly revised Constitution made available on Monday. The Constitution also declared for the first time that North Korea “respects and protects” the “human rights” of its citizens, and expunged the term “communism” from its text. Analysts saw the changes as signs that one of the last holdouts from the former Communist bloc was trying to improve its international image in an effort to engage the United States and that the ailing Mr. Kim was trying to burnish his legacy. North Korea revised its Constitution in April when its rubber-stamp Parliament re-elected Mr. Kim as chairman of the National Defense Commission amid uncertainty over his health. But the outside world was kept in the dark about the details of the amendment until Monday, when South Korea released what it called the text of the North Korean Constitution. The new Constitution defined one of several titles Mr. Kim holds, chairman of the National Defense Commission, as “supreme leader” of the country. Though Mr. Kim has ruled the country as an undisputed leader, the Constitution revision is the first time he has acquired such an official designation since the death of his father, Kim Il-sung, in 1994.

US Planning New Overtures to Burma - Colum Lynch, Washington Post. Obama administration pledged Monday to increase humanitarian assistance to Burma and start its first detailed talks with Burmese authorities in an effort to build better relations with the reclusive military junta. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said the United States will leave in place existing US sanctions on Burma, which is also known as Myanmar, until its military rulers make "concrete progress" on democratic reforms. But he also said efforts at more conciliatory relations will probably continue even if the Burmese government does not hold credible democratic elections next year. "We intend to begin a direct dialogue with the Burmese authorities," Campbell told reporters at the State Department. "We are prepared to sit down, but also recognize that nothing has changed yet on the ground." The announcement came after Burma's prime minister, Gen. Thein Sein, spoke at the UN General Assembly, becoming the most senior Burmese official to speak here in nearly 15 years. He called for an end to sanctions and appealed for more funding to rebuild communities devastated in the spring of 2008 by Cyclone Nargis.

240 Die in Philippine Storm, and Toll May Rise - Associated Press. Rescuers pulled more bodies from swollen rivers and debris-strewn streets to bring the death toll in massive flooding in the northern Philippines to 240 today, as residents dug out their homes from under carpets of mud. The National Disaster Coordinating Council said the homes of nearly 1.9 million people in the capital and surrounding areas were inundated, with nearly 380,000 people brought to schools, churches and other evacuation centers. Overwhelmed officials have called for international help, warning they may not have sufficient resources to withstand another storm that forecasters say is brewing east of the island nation and could hit as early as Friday. Tropical Storm Ketsana, which scythed across the northern Philippines on Saturday, dumped more than a month's worth of rain in just 12 hours, fueling the worst flooding to hit the country in more than 40 years.

EUROPE

Poles Indignant that US Altered Missile-shield Plans - Megan K. Stack, Los Angeles Times. It hardly seems to matter anymore that Poles had long been leery of playing host to US missile interceptors aimed at defending against long-range threats from Iran. Washington's decision to back out of the missile shield agreement forged by the Bush administration - and opposed by Russia - has evoked memories among Poles of Cold War helplessness, of being brushed aside as casualties of great power politics. In Poland and among other members of the old Soviet bloc, the US announcement played into a historical sense of uncertainty. Warsaw's political elite spoke of a visceral fear that the Obama administration is willing to sacrifice Central Europe in its eagerness to repair badly damaged relations with a resurgent Russia. The indignation is partly fueled by bruised feelings over what many here describe as bungled American diplomacy in breaking the news to Warsaw. But there is also concern over the perception that the United States overhauled its defense strategy in part to appease Moscow. The Kremlin loudly opposed the Bush-era shield plan, viewing the presence of ground-based interceptors in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic as a strategic threat.

EU Report to Place Blame on Both Sides in Georgia War - Ellen Barry, New York Times. After a lengthy inquiry, investigators commissioned by the European Union are expected to conclude that Georgia ignited last year’s war with Russia by attacking separatists in South Ossetia, rejecting the Georgian government’s explanation that the attack was defensive, according to an official familiar with the investigators’ work. But the report is expected to balance this conclusion with an equally weighty one: If Georgia fired the first shot, Russia created and exploited the conditions that led to war, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the report had not yet been made public. In the years preceding the conflict, Russia encouraged separatist movements in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, territories in Georgia, training their military forces and distributing Russian passports. The European Union inquiry is the most authoritative investigation into the causes of the August 2008 war, which battered Georgia and brought relations between Russia and the West to a post-cold-war low. Russia and Georgia have both maintained that they acted defensively.

In Bad Times for Capitalism, Socialists in Europe Suffer - Steven Erlanger, New York TImes. Even in the midst of one of the greatest challenges to capitalism in 75 years, involving a breakdown of the financial system due to “irrational exuberance,” greed and the weakness of regulatory systems, European Socialist parties and their left-wing cousins have not found a compelling response, let alone taken advantage of the right’s failures. German voters clobbered the Social Democratic Party on Sunday, giving it only 23 percent of the vote, its worst performance since World War II. Voters also punished left-leaning candidates in the summer’s European Parliament elections and trounced French Socialists in 2007. Where the left holds power, as in Spain and Britain, it is under attack. Where it is out, as in France, Italy and now Germany, it is divided and listless. Some American conservatives demonize President Obama’s fiscal stimulus and health care overhaul as a dangerous turn toward European-style Socialism - but it is Europe’s right, not left, that is setting its political agenda.

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.