President Karzai caved in to intense international pressure yesterday and agreed to compete in a second round run-off to decide Afghanistan’s fraud-ridden presidential elections. Mr Karzai, after days spent threatening to boycott the findings of an inquiry into vote rigging, finally accepted a decision by the country’s two electoral bodies to slash his tally by nearly a million votes, leaving him with 49.67 per cent, just 0.33 per cent below the threshold for an outright win.

--The Times

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN

Obama Congratulates Karzai on Agreeing to Run-off - Paula Wolfson, Voice of America. US President Barack Obama has called Afghan President Hamid Karzai to personally congratulate him for agreeing to take part in a run-off election on November 7. Afghanistan's election commission called for another round of voting after a UN-backed commission determined the original August balloting was rife with fraud. President Obama says he contacted Hamid Karzai shortly after the Afghan president said he would abide by the results of a presidential election held in August. "I wanted to congratulate him on accepting the certification of the recent election," Mr. Obama said.The final tally gave Mr. Karzai less than 50 percent of the vote; just short of the amount needed to prevent a run-off. Initial counts from the August balloting showed him well within the margin for a first-round victory. But UN-backed fraud investigators later threw out about one-third of the votes cast for President Karzai, setting the stage for Afghanistan's election commission to order a second round. President Obama says the commission and the investigators deserve praise for their work. And he says both Hamid Karzai and his run-off opponent - Abdullah Abdullah - are acting in the best interest of their country.

Winter Election Looms as Hamid Karzai Bows to Pressure - Jerome Starkey, The Times. President Karzai caved in to intense international pressure yesterday and agreed to compete in a second round run-off to decide Afghanistan’s fraud-ridden presidential elections. Mr Karzai, after days spent threatening to boycott the findings of an inquiry into vote rigging, finally accepted a decision by the country’s two electoral bodies to slash his tally by nearly a million votes, leaving him with 49.67 per cent, just 0.33 per cent below the threshold for an outright win. The run-off is scheduled for November 7. Looking subdued and unimpressed by the praise heaped upon him by three ambassadors, the head of the UN in Afghanistan and the US senator John Kerry, Mr Karzai said: “It is going to be an historic period. Fourteen days from today the people of Afghanistan will go to the polling stations again.” Of the cancelled votes and fraud allegations, he said only that this was not the right time to discuss investigations - “this is the time to move forward toward stability and national unity”. He called the final results “legitimate, legal and according to the Constitution of Afghanistan”. Senator Kerry praised the President for his “genuine leadership” and statesmanship. “We believe that with this decision by the Afghan President today, a moment of great uncertainty has been transformed into a moment of great opportunity.

Karzai Accepts Runoff, Ending Political Deadlock - Yaroslav Trofimov, Anand Gopal and Peter Spiegel, Wall Street Journal. President Hamid Karzai yielded to international pressure and accepted a runoff in Afghanistan's controversial presidential election, ending a debilitating political deadlock and triggering preparations for a new vote on Nov. 7. Mr. Karzai's decision, after days of meetings in Kabul with Sen. John Kerry and phone conversations with world leaders, opened a way out of the political crisis that undermined the legitimacy of the country's democratic process and reinforced the spreading Taliban insurgency. Allegations of widespread fraud in the Aug. 20 election had created uncertainty as to whether the US and its allies have a credible partner in Kabul, and helped prompt President Barack Obama to launch his second review of Afghan policy in nine months. On Tuesday, Mr. Obama - who is examining a request by the top US commander in Afghanistan for tens of thousands of more troops - called Mr. Karzai to congratulate him on his "constructive" action. "This election could have remained unresolved to the detriment of the country," Mr. Obama said in a written statement. "The Afghan constitution and laws are strengthened by President Karzai's decision, which is in the best interests of the Afghan people."

Karzai Bows to Pressure, OKs Runoff - Paul Richter and Laura King, Los Angeles Times. President Hamid Karzai's decision to yield to US pressure and accept an election runoff has opened the way for the Obama administration to settle on a strategy for dealing with Afghanistan, including whether to approve the Pentagon's request to send thousands more troops to the fight. The hard-won agreement reached Tuesday sets an 18-day clock ticking on a vote that many fear will also be marred by fraud and violence. But while acknowledging that the runoff Nov. 7 will probably be an imperfect exercise, US and allied officials are hopeful that the showdown between Karzai and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah will produce a government that can be a credible partner in the struggle to stabilize the country. In a sign of the administration's relief, President Obama swiftly telephoned Karzai to congratulate him. He said in a White House appearance that the decision reflected "a commitment to rule of law and an insistence that the Afghan people's will should be done." The administration believes the runoff will provide whoever wins with at least a veneer of legitimacy. The rampant fraud that characterized the Aug. 20 balloting had further damaged Karzai's already poor reputation, making it politically awkward for the US to pour more troops and money into Afghanistan.

Karzai Voiced Doubts About Runoff Until Last Moment - Karen DeYoung and Joshua Partlow, Washington Post. After nearly 20 hours of tense, exhausting talks over four days, Sen. John F. Kerry was convinced by midday Tuesday that Afghan President Hamid Karzai had accepted the need for a runoff election. But as dignitaries and reporters gathered at the presidential palace in Kabul for the 1 p.m. announcement, Karzai was still not ready. While the world waited, Karzai and Kerry took a long walk through the secluded palace grounds. As they passed among the rosebushes and toured the presidential mosque, Karzai reiterated his conviction that he had been cheated out of a legitimate victory. The Massachusetts Democrat restated his case that Karzai had to put his country first and that it would be hard, maybe impossible, for Afghanistan - or the United States - to move ahead without a second round. "We talked about a lot of things - the way forward, personal things," Kerry said later. At 4:30, an unsmiling Karzai finally appeared before the waiting cameras to endorse a Nov. 7 runoff between him and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.

With New Afghan Vote, Path to Stability Is Unclear - Sabrina Tavernese, Mark Landler and Helene Cooper, New York Times. President Hamid Karzai’s concession of the need for a runoff election in Afghanistan appears to have prevented his country from slipping into paralysis, but has created a new landscape of risks and uncertainty. Mr. Karzai’s concession was a critical first step toward creating a credible Afghan government, coming after heavy pressure from European and American officials, including veiled threats that his actions could affect pending decisions about troops levels, according to one American official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the matter. But diplomats immediately questioned whether a new vote could be arranged before the announced date of Nov. 7, and whether a second round of balloting would have more security or less fraud than the first, in which nearly a quarter of ballots were thrown out by international auditors. “There are huge constraints to delivering in the second round,” said one Western official. “Can you deliver a result that is any different from the one we’ve already got?” The host of uncertainties left open the prospect of what administration officials and their Western allies expect will be three weeks of ferocious horse-trading as Mr. Karzai and his principal challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, decide whether they can strike a deal to actually avert a runoff, which would carry enormous political risks for both of them, as well as strategic ones for the United States and its allies.

Obama Not Yet Sure of Afghanistan Troop Decision Timing - Agence France-Presse. President Barack Obama has not yet determined whether he will make a decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan before the November 7 election runoff, a US official said Tuesday. "The UN, NATO, the US stand ready to assist the Afghans in conducting the second round," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters. "Whether or not the president makes a decision before that I don't think has been determined. "I have continued to say a decision will be made in the coming weeks as the president goes through an examination of our policy," he added. Gibbs also praised Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, US ambassador to Kabul Karl Eikenberry and especially Senator John Kerry, who has been mediating in Afghanistan for several days, for their role in ending the election limbo. "I don't think there is any doubt that Senator Kerry played an enormously important role in ensuring the announcement that happened today... came out the way it did." Afghan officials announced earlier that they will hold a runoff presidential election, after incumbent President Hamid Karzai failed to win a clear majority in the fraud-tainted contest.

Gates: US Decision Can't Wait for Afghan Legitimacy - Phil Stewart, Reuters. The United States cannot wait for problems surrounding the legitimacy of the Afghan government to be resolved before making a decision on troops, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said. Gates, speaking to reporters on board a plane traveling to Tokyo, described the situation in Afghanistan as an evolutionary process that would not improve dramatically overnight, regardless of what course is taken following the country's flawed August election. "I see this as a process, not something that's going to happen all of the sudden," Gates said. "I believe that the president will have to make his decisions in the context of that evolutionary process." Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell added that Gates believed the issue of the Afghan government's legitimacy went well beyond the question of whoever would be declared winner of the election, or an eventual run-off. It depended on whether the government in Kabul had the faith and confidence of the people, Morrell said. International observers have called for an election run-off after a UN-backed fraud watchdog invalidated tens of thousands of votes for Afghan President Hamid Karzai from the August poll.

Strategy Review Will Continue to Move Forward, Gates Says - Donna Miles, American Forces Press Service. Questions about the legitimacy of Afghanistan’s national elections are a complicating factor, but President Barack Obama’s strategic review doesn’t hinge on the outcome, and ongoing military operations aren’t being affected, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today. The Afghan election issue has “complicated the situation for us,” Gates said, but he said he doesn’t expect it to delay Obama’s decision on the larger issue of charting the way forward in Afghanistan. “My view is that whatever emerges in Kabul is going to be an evolutionary process,” Gates told reporters traveling with him through Asia en route to a NATO ministerial in Slovakia. “I think we are going to have to work with this, going forward, and the president is going to have to make his decisions within the context of that evolutionary process.” The process goes beyond who ultimately wins the election, he said, to the Afghan people’s confidence in their government’s legitimacy. Ninety percent of the Afghan people don’t want the Taliban return to power, a fact Gates said creates “some tremendous opportunities” if the Taliban’s momentum is reversed. US and coalition forces are working alongside Afghan security forces to seize these opportunities. “Even though the president has further significant decisions in front of him, we already have 68,000 American troops on the ground in Afghanistan and almost 40,000 troops from other countries,” Gates said. These troops “are not all just staying in their tents while we wait the outcome of the elections,” he said. “We are not going to just sit on our hands waiting for the outcome of this election and for the emergence of a government in Kabul. We have operations under way and we will continue to conduct those operations.

Gates: US Effort Not On Hold During Afghan Election Dispute - Al Pessin, Voice of America. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the United States and its allies must work with whatever Afghan government emerges from last month's disputed election, offering a somewhat different view than the White House Chief of Staff expressed on Sunday. Secretary Gates told reporters on the plane that US and NATO decisions about strategy and troop deployments do not have to wait until the new Afghan government takes office, which could be several months. "I think these things can move in parallel. Obviously, it would be easier if these things had come out in a different way, and been conducted without the kind of irregularities that have been identified," Gates noted, "and if all had been clear-cut early in September. But we just have to work with the situation that we find, as far as I'm concerned." The secretary's comments are somewhat different from those of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. On Sunday, Emanuel said the main question now is whether there will be a credible Afghan government to help provide security and government services, if foreign troops are able to reverse recent Taliban gains. In addition, prominent Democratic Party Senator John Kerry, who was visiting Afghanistan, said Sunday that it would be "premature" to deploy more troops without political stability in Afghanistan. But Secretary Gates has a different view, saying the political problems in Afghanistan go beyond allegations of fraud in the election, and include widespread corruption. He said the coalition will have a lot of work to do to help build the legitimacy of the next Afghan government, regardless of who leads it.

US Envoy Steers Clear of Afghan Vote Crisis - Jon Ward, Washington Times. President Obama called Richard Holbrooke "one of the most talented diplomats of his generation" when he named the globe-trotting foreign policy expert to be special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. But 10 months later, Mr. Holbrooke was anchored in Washington and far from the front lines of diplomacy that led to Tuesday's Afghan election deal. The Obama administration used other intermediaries to apply the pressure that got Afghan President Hamid Karzai to agree to a runoff after fraud-tainted elections. And when Mr. Obama praised his diplomatic team for its success, Mr. Holbrooke's name was pointedly missing. There was high praise for US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry and "great congratulations" to Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, who met with Mr. Karzai. Mr. Holbrooke's absence on the world stage in recent weeks has raised questions about his role going forward. His staff offers a simple answer: the famed 68-year-old diplomat who helped broker the Dayton accords that ended the Bosnian conflict in 1995 has been in Washington helping to preside over the president's monthlong Afghanistan strategy review.

UN Chief Learns 'Valuable, Painful' Lessons From Afghan Vote - Margaret Besheer, Voice of America. The UN secretary-general says having learned "valuable and painful" lessons from the widespread fraud that plagued the first round of Afghanistan's presidential elections, the United Nations would do its best to assist the Afghan people in having a credible and free second round. But Ban Ki-moon warned that it will be a "huge challenge" to hold the runoff on November 7. Mr. Ban welcomed President Hamid Karzai's announcement Tuesday that he would accept a runoff with his closest rival, Abdullah Abdullah, after the UN-backed audit of the August 20 vote found nearly a quarter of all votes were fraudulent and had to be thrown out. "I am very much pleased that Afghan leadership, President Karzai, has agreed to respect the result of this Independent Election Commission, as well as Electoral Complaint Commission, as has been agreed before and in accordance with the constitutional process," he said.

Punjabi Taliban Threat Growing - Raza Khan and Ayesha Nasir, Washington Times. While US forces battle ethnic Pashtuns in Afghanistan, Pakistan's dominant ethnic group from its most populous province, Punjab, has increasingly taken control of Taliban forces targeted by the latest Pakistani army offensive. Pakistani authorities say they are concerned that Punjabi Taliban will flee the tribal areas and return to their home province, which already has been the scene of multiple suicide bombings as the army geared up for the ground offensive along the Afghan border that began Oct. 17. The growing role of Punjabis marks a major escalation of the extremist threat in Pakistan, analysts say. Punjab is the heartland of Pakistan, home to its political and military elite, and some of the extremist leaders received military training that has made them far more lethal than the rural Pashtun fighters. "What we've seen is a coalescence of the various militant jihadist groups," said Bruce Riedel, a former top official in the White House National Security Council dealing with South Asia. The big danger, he added, is that these groups "are fighting for recruits from the same Punjabi families and clans that the Pakistani army recruits from for its officer corps."

6 Killed in Pakistan Suicide Bombings - Ayaz Gul, Voice of America. Two suicide blasts at a university in the Pakistani capital have killed at least six people and wound many others, mostly female students. The violence comes as Pakistani security forces are engaged in an offensive aimed at eliminating extremists that authorities blame for sponsoring most of suicide bombings across the country. Police and eyewitnesses say that two suicide bombers struck the capital city's International Islamic University, where thousands of students, including foreigners are taught modern as well as religious subjects. One attacker, they say, blew himself up at a canteen for female students, causing most of the casualties. A male student described the scene to reporters. The man says he was in the nearby hostel and rushed to the scene of the first blast but as soon as he came out another bomb went off in the adjacent facility. He says he rushed in with other colleagues and saw two bodies at the entrance. More than a dozen injured were brought to the main hospital in Islamabad for treatment where several female victims are said to be in critical condition. Interior Minister Rehman Malik visited the hospital and spoke to reporters.

At Least Six Killed in Pakistan as Suicide Bombs Shatter Islamabad Campus - Zahid Hussain and Jeremy Page, The Times. Two suicide bomb attacks killed six people on a university campus in the Pakistani capital yesterday as the Taleban retook a key town from the army in the militant stronghold of South Waziristan. One of the bombers blew himself up outside a girls’ cafeteria during the lunch break at the International Islamic University on the outskirts of Islamabad. The other struck a faculty building on the same campus. At least two female students were among the dead. It was the latest in a series of militant attacks over the past two weeks but the first since Pakistani security forces launched a ground assault against Taleban and al-Qaeda sanctuaries in South Waziristan on Saturday. “It seems that [militant] sympathisers or collaborators are doing this to divert attention from the military operation,” Anwar Hussain Siddiqui. the university’s president, said. “They are trying to create panic in the capital city.” Rehman Malik, the Interior Minister, said that the bombings were in retaliation for the long-awaited military operation. “The militants are testing our nerves,” Mr Malik said. The Government ordered the closure of schools in all the major cities last week after intelligence reports that the militants could attack educational institutions. Authorities have also launched a crackdown on the capital’s Islamic seminaries after intelligence agencies said that they were harbouring terrorists. The bombings occurred as Taleban militants in South Waziristan recaptured the symbolically important town of Kotkai from the army after a fierce battle.

Five Killed in Bomb Attacks at Pakistan University - Alex Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times. After unleashing a vicious wave of attacks on high-profile security buildings and crowded marketplaces in Pakistan this month, militants set their sights Tuesday on one of the capital's schools. Two near-simultaneous suicide bomb attacks on an Islamic university killed five people and wounded 22. The assault on an academic building and a women's cafeteria came on the fourth day of a long-awaited military offensive to uproot the Taliban and Al Qaeda from their stronghold in South Waziristan, a rugged and largely ungoverned region along the Afghan border. Pakistani military commanders say 30,000 troops have been steadily advancing from three directions into territory held by the Taliban, killing 90 militants as of Tuesday. The Taliban has put up fierce resistance, killing 13 troops since the offensive began early Saturday, officials said. Authorities had received threats that schools in Islamabad and its twin city, Rawalpindi, might be targeted for attacks, and on Monday several schools in both cities shut down. But the International Islamic University, a sprawling campus that includes many foreigners among its 15,000 students, remained open.

Pakistanis Continue to Flee South Waziristan - Lisa Schlein, Voice of America. The UN refugee agency says Pakistani civilians are fleeing South Waziristan by the thousands following the start of military operations against Taliban insurgents over the weekend. The UNHCR says it has begun distributing non-food relief to the displaced. The UN refugee agency says local authorities have registered some 32,000 internally displaced people since October 13. He says this brings the total number of registered people who fled South Waziristan since May to more than 112,000. The agency, through local partners, has been distributing relief items such as kitchen sets, blankets, sleeping mats and jerry cans to registered internally displaced people. It says the distribution will continue on Wednesday. UN refugee spokesman, Andrej Mahecic, says so far those who have fled the fighting in South Waziristan have been living with host families.

Pakistan Offensive Heightens Fear of Refugee Crisis - Zahid Hussain and Rehmat Mehsud, Wall Street Journal. Thousands of refugees fled a Pakistani offensive against Taliban militants Tuesday, raising fears of a humanitarian crisis compounded by dangerous conditions and the onset of winter weather. Aid agencies said there were as many as 150,000 refugees already, and the number could rise to 250,000 in coming weeks as the fighting intensifies. Pakistan's military, spurred by a rash of militant bombings across the country, began an offensive this week against the main Pakistan Taliban faction in South Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan. The army had foreshadowed the campaign for months, and refugees began leaving the area in May in anticipation of fighting. On Tuesday, six people, including two bombers, were killed in suicide-bomb attacks at the International Islamic University on the outskirts of Islamabad, the capital. One explosion took place inside a faculty building and the other at a women's cafeteria. Rehman Malik, the federal interior minister, said the attacks were in retaliation for the military operation in South Waziristan. "The militants are testing our nerves," he said.

Pakistan Finds Local Allies Against Ferocious Foe - Jane Perlez, New York Times. As Pakistani soldiers fought their way into the forbidding heartland of the Mehsud tribal territory on Tuesday against Taliban and Al Qaeda militants, they faced the most ferocious fighters in Pakistan, men whose ancestors were legendary for never succumbing to the British. A British governor of Waziristan, Sir Olaf Caroe, once wrote that the Mehsud tribesmen were the toughest opponents because, like wolves, they hunted and fought in packs. On the fourth day of their offensive, the Pakistani soldiers continued to meet heavy resistance, particularly around the peaks of Kotkai, the hometown of the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud. Seven soldiers were killed when militants attacked a checkpoint there, an intelligence official from the area said. One thing was working in the army’s favor, however. In the time-honored tradition of the mercurial relationships in the tribal areas, the military has sealed alliances with two Taliban commanders of the Waziri tribe, winning deals that they would not attack the army on their southern and eastern flanks.

In Cultural Hub, Mixed Feelings About Army Effort - Pamela Constable, Washington Post. Police Superintendent Mobashir Ullah was en route to a graduation ceremony Thursday when word reached him that armed men had stormed a training academy under his command. Just seven months before, terrorists had seized the same compound near this provincial capital, taking 800 recruits hostage before being overpowered. "This time they came straight from the main road, firing and trying to climb the walls. Our police acted fast and kept shooting until they finally killed themselves," Ullah said. "The survival of our country is at stake now, and we have to fight it out. When a man has been trained and mentally prepared to blow himself up, nothing on Earth will stop him." The brazen daylight assault, quickly followed by two other deadly attacks on security facilities in Lahore that day, sent a fresh wave of panic through the city, known for its willow-lined canals, kite festivals and sandstone monuments to 19th-century British rule. Elementary schools have been shut down; parks and shopping centers are empty. Yet public and official reaction here has been very different from the gung-ho support most Pakistanis are giving their national army as it embarks on a crucial campaign to oust Taliban forces from South Waziristan, the embattled tribal region near the Afghan border that has served as the extremist group's sanctuary for years.

A Drone Strike and Dwindling Hope - David Rohde, New York Times. It was March 25, and for months the drones had been a terrifying presence. Remotely piloted, propeller-driven airplanes, they could easily be heard as they circled overhead for hours. To the naked eye, they were small dots in the sky. But their missiles had a range of several miles. We knew we could be immolated without warning. Our guards believed the drones were targeting me. United States officials wanted to kill me, they said, because my death would eliminate the enormous leverage and credibility they believed a single American prisoner gave the Haqqanis, the Taliban faction that was holding us. Whenever a drone appeared, I was ordered to stay inside. The guards believed that its surveillance cameras could recognize my face from thousands of feet above. In the courtyard after the missile strike, the guards clutched their weapons and anxiously watched the sky. Fearing a direct attack on our house, they ordered me to cover my face with a scarf and follow them outside the compound. I knew that enraged Arab militants or local tribesmen could spot me once I was outside, but I had no choice.

Afpak Progress - Wall Street Journal editorial. America's political class has developed a habit of talking itself into defeat. Yet the predictions of doom in Afghanistan and Pakistan are as misplaced there as they were in Iraq, as events in the last week show. Afghanistan yesterday demonstrated political maturity by moving to resolve a dispute over a fraudulent election. On Sunday, Pakistan's military launched an offensive against the Islamist sanctuary in the mountainous tribal region of South Waziristan. Since the August 20 poll, the independent Electoral Complaints Commission has reviewed and disqualified fraudulent votes. Enough ballots were thrown out to put President Hamid Karzai's final tally below the 50% threshold required to win. A second round must now be held to determine a winner, which will take place November 7. Mr. Karzai was reluctant, but he did the right thing and accepted a runoff, earning praise as a "statesman" from the US. To Afghanistan's credit, the election tensions never degenerated into violence, which could have pitted the Pashtuns against Tajiks, who back challenger Abdullah Abdullah. Mr. Karzai didn't declare victory when the state-run Independent Electoral Commission initially gave him 54% of the vote. Nor did Mr. Abdullah rile up his supporters to fight outside the system. Few emerging democracies would have shown such restraint.

Mr. Karzai Relents - New York Times editorial. Before Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, acceded to a runoff election on Tuesday, you could almost hear his arm being twisted. And it took a lot of top-level talent to do it. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain and the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, all insisted that Mr. Karzai accept an international audit that found that nearly one-third of his first-round votes were stolen driving his final count to below 50 percent. Even then it took a five-day marathon of negotiations with Senator John Kerry, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, to get Mr. Karzai to do what was necessary. And that was the easy part. To ensure that the runoff is fair and credible, it’s going to take a lot more effort and high-level attention - and even more arm-twisting. And there are less than three weeks before the Nov. 7 vote. A fair election is essential. But if Mr. Karzai wins - odds are he will - that won’t turn him into the credible leader that the Afghan people deserve and the credible partner that the United States needs if there is any hope of holding off the Taliban. Mr. Karzai’s main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, talks a better game but is untested.

Nobody Wins in the Afghan Runoff Election - Rajan Menon, Los Angeles Times opinion. Politicians love photo-ops. So when Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) appeared alongside Hamid Karzai as the beleaguered Afghan president announced that he would agree to a runoff election, it was hardly surprising. Kerry was doing what politicians do. Moreover, the senator was in Kabul to supplement the Obama administration's efforts to lean on Karzai to hold another presidential vote, given widespread evidence that the one held in August was rigged. When Karzai claimed victory then, his main opponent, former Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, cried foul, a chorus of international criticism arose and an Afghan government infamous for its ineptitude and sleaziness looked even more illegitimate. It's this tricky context that makes Kerry's photo-op problematic. The Obama administration knows that no amount of firepower in the war will substitute for an Afghan government that is minimally effective, has the confidence of its people and is seen as independent. The Taliban knows this as well, which is why, in addition to mounting an insurgency and launching suicide bombings, it has been busy painting the Americans as occupiers and Karzai as their puppet. The spectacle of the 6-foot-tall US senator standing next to the Afghan president, who everyone knows was arm-twisted into making a concession he had resisted, simply helps the Taliban's PR campaign.

Evening the Score in Afghanistan - Thane Rosenbaum, Wall Street Journal opinion. With Osama bin Laden reportedly hobbling on dialysis near the Afghan border, and President Barack Obama heading to Norway to collect his Nobel Peace Prize, the American public is debating whether we should increase or draw down our troops in Afghanistan. Some argue that we should end the war altogether. After all, it has been eight years since 9/11, and there has been no other terrorist attack on US soil. Public attention has shifted toward national health care, grim job reports and home foreclosures. The War on Terror seems as relevant in the lives of most Americans as the Wars of the Roses. Besides, we have a new president that the world - or at least Norway - expects to be a peacemaker. Afghanistan has suddenly become inconvenient, a war that doesn't fit the new-look American agenda. Perhaps this is a good time to recall why we bombed and invaded Afghanistan in the first place. With all the rhetoric about what should happen next, the most obvious reason we can't leave before we finish what we started has been ignored: revenge. Yes, revenge. It is a concept that makes many uncomfortable, and so it is often condemned. Yet it is instinctively necessary and fundamentally ingrained in the moral development of human beings. Neuroscientists and evolutionary psychologists have determined that revenge is hard wired in the brain. We all root for the revenge-seeker in novels and movies not because we are depraved, but because the avenger is right.

IRAQ

Obama: US Combat Troops Out of Iraq By Next August - Kent Klein, Voice of America. US President Barack Obama says the United States still plans to remove all its combat troops from Iraq by next August. Mr. Obama met Tuesday with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. After the meeting, President Obama told reporters he assured the Iraqi leader that the United States will stand by its commitment to withdraw its troops on schedule. "I reemphasized my commitment to Prime Minister Maliki that we will have our combat troops out of Iraq by August of next year, and all of our troops out of Iraq by 2011," Mr. Obama said. Mr. Obama also said he is watching closely for Iraq's parliament to pass a law to provide the legal basis for a national election in January. "We are very interested, both of us, in making sure that Iraq has an election law that is completed on time, so that elections can take place on time in January," Mr. Obama said. "That is consistent with the transition that has been taking place."

Former State Dept. Employee Charged - Mary Beth Sheridan, Washington Post. A former State Department program manager in Iraq has been charged with accepting tens of thousands of dollars in kickbacks in exchange for steering contracts to Iraqi construction firms, according to court documents. It appeared to be the first time a State Department employee had been charged in federal court in connection with fraud in the multibillion-dollar US reconstruction effort in Iraq, according to officials familiar with that work. The criminal complaint, unsealed Monday in US District Court in western Texas, charged Richard Lopez Razo, 52, with illegal receipt of kickbacks and bribes and with wire fraud. He was arrested Friday in Sterling and later released on his own recognizance, court documents said. From 2005 to July 2008, Razo worked in Iraq as a logistics specialist for three US companies, according to the complaint. It alleges that during that period he requested tens of thousands of dollars in bribes from Iraqi subcontractors for lining up construction contracts. The subcontractors sent some of the money to Razo's North Carolina bank account via wire transfers, according to the allegations.

IRAN

Iran Nuclear Talks Continue Despite Iran's Assertion that 'France Not Needed' - Lisa Bryant, Voice of America. France said Tuesday that talks on Iran's nuclear program were continuing in Vienna, despite Tehran's assertion that French participation is unnecessary. Day two of international talks in Vienna on Iran's nuclear program was stalled after Iran indicated that it did not want French participation in negotiations on a proposal to have Iran ship uranium to Russia and France for conversion to reactor fuel. Hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the talks bring together representatives from Iran, Russia, France, the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA. Under a tentative agreement reached in Geneva earlier this month, Iran would ship its uranium to Russia for further enrichment and then to France to convert the material into metal rods. The rods would then be shipped back to Tehran for use in a research reactor. But in remarks to reporters, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that Tehran was not interested in France's participation. Mottaki said that it was normal that technical discussions go ahead with the United States and Russia because they had agreed to cooperate in supplying nuclear fuel. But, he said, France was not needed because Iran did not need very much fuel. Iranian media offered various explanations for Tehran's reluctance to have France at the talks, including claims that France had obstructed negotiations between the IAEA and Iran.

Scholar Who Was Held After Disputed Iranian Election Is Given at Least 12 Years - Robert F. Worth, New York Times. An Iranian-American scholar who was jailed during the protests following Iran’s disputed presidential election has been sentenced to at least 12 years on charges of acting against national security, Iranian state media reported Tuesday. Kian Tajbaksh, a sociologist and urban planner with a doctorate from Columbia, was arrested July 9 and testified during a mass trial of opposition supporters in August. American officials have repeatedly called on Tehran to release Mr. Tajbaksh, who was the only American citizen included in the mass show trials that followed Iran’s postelection unrest. He spent four months in prison in 2007 on charges of endangering national security. The sentence came as high-profile negotiations continued over Iran’s nuclear program in Vienna, and some analysts said they believed that the Iranian government might intend to use the harsh jail term as leverage during talks. Similar sentences against political dissidents have been commuted in the past.

Mullah's Stealth War - James Zumwalt, Washington Times opinion. A young, foreign policy pundit on CNN made a comment recently that best explains why Iran's brazen march to develop nuclear weapons continues, unabated by US efforts to stop it. Asked about former Vice President Dick Cheney's statement that the Bush administration at one time considered war with Iran, the pundit, with obvious sarcasm, responded that starting another war would have been a brilliant move. What is disconcerting about this is the pundit's naivete - unfortunately shared by most Americans - that going to war with Iran means we would be "starting" it. The reality is Iran has been at war with us for three decades. Much as stealth technology hides an aircraft from radar's view, our refusal to retaliate against Iran hides its war against us from view. If Americans fully understood this, the Sept. 21 revelation that Iran has been building a second uranium-enrichment plant since 2007 and Tehran's test-firing six days later of short-range missiles should have evoked international outrage. It should have had us focusing on what these Islamic extremists have in mind next as they take a war they are fighting - but we are not - to its endgame. This war has been deadly as Iran has claimed hundreds of American lives - all without retribution. It emboldens the mullahs to continue their quest for global hegemony, which they see achievable only through America's and Israel's destruction. Understanding this, as well as the apocalyptic vision of Tehran's leadership that such hegemony only evolves from the ashes of world chaos, makes it clear what Iran's endgame is - nuclear war.

THE LONG WAR

Supreme Court to Hear Uighurs' Case - Robert Barnes, Washington Post. The Supreme Court set aside the objections of the Obama administration and said Tuesday that it will consider whether judges have the power to release Guantanamo Bay detainees into the United States if they have been deemed not to be "enemy combatants." The case, involving a group of Chinese Muslims known as Uighurs, again thrusts the court into the jangle of policy decisions and constitutional principles involving the approximately 220 men still held at the base in Cuba. And the court's decision to hear it could further complicate plans to close the military prison in January, a deadline the Obama administration recently said it might be unable to meet. Last year, the court ruled 5 to 4 that a Guantanamo detainee had the right to prove to a federal judge that he was being unlawfully held as an enemy combatant. The current case is a logical next step, determining what powers a judge has to release such a person, especially when sending him back to his home country is not an option. The Obama administration, like the Bush administration, says decisions about releasing detainees are reserved for the executive branch. And both the executive branch and Congress have said that decisions about whether detainees may be shipped to the United States, if there is no other place for them, are reserved for the political branches.

Justices to Decide on US Release of Detainees - Adam Liptak, New York Times. The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to decide whether federal courts have the power to order prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay to be released into the United States. The court’s decision to hear the case adds a further complication to the Obama administration’s efforts to close the prison at the naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. A measure in Congress that would allow detainees to be admitted to the United States just to face trial had to overcome strong resistance before winning final passage on Tuesday. The administration has met with only fitful success in persuading foreign allies to accept prisoners cleared for release. The Supreme Court is unlikely to hear arguments in the case before late February, a month after the administration’s deadline of Jan. 22 for closing the prison, though there have been recent signals that the deadline may not be met. The case concerns 13 men from the largely Muslim Uighur region of western China who continue to be held although the government has determined that they pose no threat to the United States.

The Clock is Ticking - Washington Post editorial. There is only one way for the White House and Congress to read the Supreme Court's decision on Tuesday to take up the case of Chinese Muslims wrongly imprisoned at the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba: Either provide real and meaningful freedom for the Uighurs now or risk that the justices will do it - and possibly in a manner that could reach well beyond these cases. The Bush administration determined - in some cases as long as six years ago -- that the Uighurs were not America's enemies; a federal judge ordered all of them released last October. But some remain in captivity. Congress, with breathtaking cowardice and hypocrisy, has blocked any of these 17 detainees from being freed into the United States. The administration has been working hard but has not yet been able to find suitable homes for all of the detainees. They cannot be returned to their Chinese homeland for fear of persecution.

AFRICA

US, East African Nations Begin Major Military Exercise - Alisha Ryu, Voice of America. A major military exercise involving five East African nations and the United States is taking place in Uganda. The US military says the exercise is part of on-going efforts by the United States and its regional allies to improve coordination and response to humanitarian emergencies and natural disasters. More than 1,200 military personnel from the United States, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda are involved in the 10-day exercise that began Friday. According to a spokesman for the US Africa Command in Stuttgart, Germany, Dan La Pierre, the exercise, dubbed "Natural Fire 10," is focused on training that will enhance capabilities needed for humanitarian and civic assistance, disaster relief, and regional security. "It will increase our understanding of each other's capability and proficiencies, enhancing our ability to operate together. It is an on-going program and it used to be run by EUCOM [European Command] before our command was stood up," he said. In the rural district of Kitgum in northern Uganda, soldiers are reportedly taking part in medical, dental and engineering projects that not only test their ability to work together, but can assist the local community. Meanwhile, senior and mid-level military officers in the Ugandan capital Kampala and in neighboring Entebbe town are said to be taking part in simulations aimed at improving their ability to respond to disasters and other emergencies.

ECOWAS Suspends Niger in Dispute Over Constitution - Scott Stearns, Voice of America. The Economic Community of West African States has suspended Niger for refusing to postpone a legislative election. The regional alliance wanted Niger to delay the vote to allow for political dialogue following a controversial referendum that has extended the president's time in office. ECOWAS followed through on its threat to suspend Niger when President Mamadou Tandja went ahead with Tuesday's legislative vote. Mr. Tandja ignored last-minute appeals by ECOWAS leaders to delay the poll, saying preparations were too far advanced. The regional alliance asked him to indefinitely suspend the election in favor of political dialogue to resolve a political crisis sparked by an August referendum that changed the constitution to extend the president's time in office. "ECOWAS is already in touch with the African Union to put the Niger file also on the agenda of the African Union Peace and Security Council, which would also lead to the United Nations taking a similar decision," said Abdel Fatau Musah, the political director of the ECOWAS alliance. "And we know that our partners, like the European Union, are also considering very severed measures against President Tandja and the authorities in Niger for blatantly casting aside their constitution, which actually forbids their president from going beyond two terms."

AMERICAS

Violence in the Newest Olympic City Rattles Brazil - Alexei Barrionuevo, New York Times. Just over two weeks ago, this striking city landed the 2016 Olympic Games, the first ever in South America, setting off a sweaty, impromptu beach party that lasted most of the weekend. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil sobbed with happiness. Rio’s residents glowed with pride. Then over the weekend, in a chilling outburst of violence, drug traffickers wielding what the police say they believe was a large-caliber weapon shot down a police helicopter just one mile from Maracana stadium, where the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics will be held and the World Cup final will be played two years before the Olympics. Suddenly, the celebration has been overwhelmed by hand-wringing that Rio’s chronic drug violence, its Achilles’ heel, is being laid bare before the world, and at a particularly inopportune time. Brazilian leaders are touring the world, searching for the investors needed to pay for the billions of dollars in infrastructure required for the events. The images of the downed police helicopter “really shocked Brazilians, and now everyone is worried about what will happen with the Games,” said Nadine Matos, 21, who works at a hair salon a block from Copacabana Beach. “We need to tell the world where we stand so that people outside Brazil understand what measures we are taking and are not so worried when planning to come down here.”

ASIA PACIFIC

Gates: 'No Alternatives' to US-Japan Security Accord - Al Pessin, Voice of America. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Japan's new leaders Tuesday the Obama administration is committed to implementing a wide-ranging defense agreement reached by the previous American and Japanese governments, which some in Japan's new ruling party would like to change. Secretary Gates says there are "no alternatives" to the complex agreement. Like the Obama Administration, Japan's new government ran hard against its predecessor's policies and put many of them under review when it took office. Secretary Gates says he understands that, but he told Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada the United States is committed to moving forward with the existing security realignment. "We in President Obama's administration understand what it is like to go through a transition period. And, as your government exercises its new responsibilities, I want you to know the United States stands with you and we are committed to advancing and implementing our agreed alliance transformation agenda," he said. Earlier, on board his aircraft flying to Tokyo, Secretary Gates was more direct. "We need to progress with the agreement that was negotiated. This has been a negotiation in the works for 15 years,"he stated. "All of the elements of it are interlocking. And, so it is important to continue with it. There really, as far as we're concerned, are no alternatives to the arrangement that was negotiated." Secretary Gates says all possible alternatives were explored during the long negotiations and all are either "politically untenable or operationally unworkable." And although US officials say small adjustments may be possible in the specific plan for an air base in northern Okinawa, Secretary Gates said he doubts the US Congress would agree to significant changes in the agreement, particularly if they would cost the United States more money.

Gates to Urge Japan to Stand By Existing Security Pacts - Donna Miles, American Forces Press Service. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said he looks forward to building on the strong US-Japan security relationship during his meetings here with the new Japanese government, but that he plans to urge its leaders to leave intact security arrangements that have been years in the making. Gates, the first US Cabinet member to visit since the new Japanese Democratic Party government took office last month, told reporters he understands Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s interest in reviewing certain policies. “President [Barack] Obama’s administration has done the same thing,” he said. But during his meeting today with Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, and tomorrow’s sessions with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa, Gates said he would urge the new leaders to leave existing security agreements in place. “We are committed to advancing and implementing our agreed alliance transformation agenda,” Gates told Okada today at the Foreign Ministry. At issue is Hatoyama’s interest in re-examining the 2006 US-Japan Roadmap for Realignment and Implementation, which outlines a major strategic repositioning of alliance forces. The agreement includes plans to move thousands of US forces from southern Okinawa, consolidate numerous bases, build a new runway to the north at Camp Schwab to replace Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, and relocate 8,000 Marines and their families to Guam. Ultimately, the plan would relocate US servicemembers from the heavily populated southern part of Okinawa and reduce the Marine troops on Okinawa from 18,000 to 10,000, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell explained. The deadline for the plan to be implemented is 2014 -- “a very ambitious goal” that’s achievable, he said, but only if it continues moving forward on schedule. Gates told reporters during the flight here the security agreements can’t be picked apart piece by piece.

US, Japan Differ on Military Base - Yuka Hayashi, Wall Street Journal. The top US and Japan defensive officials signaled Wednesday that the two sides remain far apart on revising an agreement on US bases in Okinawa. The current plan "may not be the perfect alternative for anyone, but it is the best alternative for everyone," said US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who supports a current plan on realigning US forces in Okinawa. He added, "It's time to move on." Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa, also speaking at a brief press conference in Tokyo Wednesday, pressed for the two sides to come to an agreement. "A number of extremely difficult hurdles exist, but it's extremely important for the US and Japan to overcome those hurdles," he said. Mr Gates said there is no time limit for reaching an agreement, but he wants to do it as quickly as possible. Mr. Gates earlier met with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and the Japanese defense chief. On Tuesday he met with Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada. A 2006 agreement calls on the US to shift its Futenma helicopter facility to another part of the island. Critics want to move the facility completely off the island, if not from Japan itself. Japan's new government has said it wants to reconsider the plan, while US has said it wants to stick with the original agreement. The issue is part the Japanese government's desire to reassess parts of its relationship with its longtime ally and increase its ties to other Asian nations.

New Commander Says US Commitment to Pacific Will Continue - Al Pessin, Voice of America. Command of US forces in Asia and the Pacific and Indian Oceans passed to a new commander on Monday at a ceremony in Honolulu, Hawaii. Navy Admiral Robert Willard said the US commitment to the region will continue. In a ceremony steeped in tradition, Admiral Timothy Keating transferred command of all US forces in the region to Admiral Willard, who has been working for him as chief of US Navy forces in the area for the last two years. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates noted that Pacific Command is responsible for US military operations in half the world, and conducts a variety of missions ranging from humanitarian efforts to building relations with allies and helping to keep hostile states and organizations at bay. "Leading a military organization in this part of the world requires a deft touch, a diplomat's sensibilities, a scholar's sense of the past and a commercial tycoon's business savvy," Gates said. Gates said that while most of Asia is "relatively stable," currents of historic, economic and cultural problems lurk just below the surface. The newly installed Pacific commander, Admiral Willard, said the region has become much more important to the United States and the world in recent decades.

Taiwan Says China's Military Buildup Undermines New Ties - Ting-I Tsia, Wall Street Journal. China is capable of deterring foreign militaries from assisting Taiwan if the two sides were to go to war, Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense said in a report that highlights the continued buildup of Beijing's military toward the island despite rapidly improving political and commercial ties. In the latest edition of its biennial military review, issued Tuesday, the Taiwan ministry said China is increasing the number of missiles it has aimed at Taiwan, which it says now total around 1,500. It said Beijing's military posture toward Taiwan has hindered efforts to establish mutual trust or cooperation between the two sides. "We have not been able to make progress in confidence-building measures because China has not given up ... the notion of using force against Taiwan," the ministry said. Taiwan and China have been ruled separately since they split amid civil war 60 years ago, but Beijing claims the democratically governed island as part of its territory and insists Taiwan must eventually unify with mainland China. In recent years, China's government has ratcheted back its threats to use force against Taiwan to prevent permanent independence, but it hasn't renounced the use of force and has continued a buildup of its military aimed in part at preparing for any possible conflict over Taiwan. Meanwhile, overall relations have improved significantly in the past 17 months, since Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou took office pledging to end the hostility that had long governed relations with China. The two sides have since launched their first regular, direct commercial flights and are negotiating a possible free-trade deal.

Leader of China’s Uighur Minority Builds a Stage Across the Globe - Andrew Jacobs, New York Times. In what has become a familiar vocal pas de deux, Rebiya Kadeer, the exiled Uighur leader, stepped off a plane in Tokyo on Tuesday and immediately began accusing the Chinese government of secretly executing members of the Uighur minority and illegally detaining hundreds of others. “I wish the killing would stop,” she said, her braided gray hair topped by a distinctive square hat. Her words, spoken in the Uighur language, were instantly picked up by international news agencies and broadcast by the Japanese media. The Chinese Foreign Ministry immediately fired back, condemning Japan for granting Ms. Kadeer, 62, a visa for her weeklong visit, much of which will be devoted to giving speeches on what she says is China’s suppression of the country’s Uighurs, who make up the largest ethnic group in the northwestern region of Xinjiang. To China, she is a terrorist and the unseen hand behind rioting in Xinjiang last July between Uighurs and Han Chinese that killed 197 people - most of them Han - and injured 1,600.

Indonesia vs. Malaysia: A Cultural War - John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times. These two predominantly Muslim neighbors, which share ethnic and physical traits, are engaged in a tense struggle for superiority. Nowadays, the rift is widening. It's cultural. It's political. And recently, it has gotten personal. Many Malaysians dismiss the teeming Indonesian archipelago as a source for the low-class maids, parking-lot jockeys and waiters who work in Kuala Lumpur and other cities in Malaysia. For their part, Indonesians icily counter that Malaysia is so desperate for a culture that it will resort to anything - even outright theft - to acquire one. The pendet dance tiff, the latest slugfest over so-called proprietary traditions, emerged this summer when rumors spread that Malaysia was responsible for television ads claiming the invention of the pendet dance. Within days, a private company producing a program for the Discovery Channel admitted they were behind the ads and that they had mistakenly picked the wrong dance to promote their upcoming program. The Malaysian government, they explained, had nothing to do with the foul-up. But it was too late. Indonesia's feathers had been ruffled.

EUROPE

US Missile Shield Won't Expand to Non-NATO Countries, Official Says - Samantha Shields, Wall Street Journal. The United States does not intend to put any part of its revised missile shield in non-NATO countries, a senior defense official said in Georgia Tuesday, in an apparent attempt to calm Russian nerves. Amid its so-called resetting of relations with Russia, Washington said in September it was scrapping a Bush administration plan to build a missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. Moscow, which had protested that plan as a potential threat to its nuclear arsenal, rejoiced at the decision. But later reports that the US was considering placing early warning radar systems in Ukraine provoked an angry reaction from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had similarly harsh words for later reports that some elements of the shield might be placed in the Caucasus. "We are not consulting with any non-NATO countries and we do not envisage the emplacement of elements of our new architecture on the territory of any non-NATO states," Deputy Secretary of Defense Sandy Vershbow, who had been quoted in the initial reports that rattled Moscow, told reporters Tuesday in the Georgian capital Tbilisi. He added the US was in the early stages of discussions with Russia itself on how it could contribute to missile defense.

Biden Sent to Soothe Europe on Russia Overtures - Matthew Mosk, Washington Times. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. arrived here (Warsaw) Tuesday on the first leg of a delicate diplomatic repair mission that follows the Obama administration's abrupt reversal on missile defense, a decision that rekindled deep-seated unease in a region where the US is seen as the only reliable counterweight to a potentially menacing Russian neighbor. By visiting with top Polish, Czech and Romanian officials this week, the vice president is hoping to reassure the three NATO allies that the United States remains deeply committed to their security. And, he intends his visit to serve as an important marker, coming 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in the evolution of American relations with the former Eastern Bloc nations. It is expected that Mr. Biden will be welcomed warmly. But in a series of private meetings with presidents, prime ministers and opposition leaders in all three countries, he also will be reminded of the historic tensions that have turned recent American overtures to Russia into a topic of broad suspicion. Mr. Biden hopes to settle those nerves.

Poland to Accept US Offer on Shield - Judy Dempsey, New York Times. Poland, smarting after President Obama announced last month that he would scrap Bush-era plans to deploy an antiballistic missile system in Eastern Europe, will accept an offer to host parts of a new, more mobile, missile defense system, Polish officials said Tuesday. The plan for so-called SM-3 missiles, first proposed in Washington last month, will be spelled out in more detail on Wednesday when Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. holds talks with leaders in Warsaw. “The elements of this new missile defense system will be based in Poland,” said Mariusz Handzlik, the chief foreign policy adviser to the Polish president, Lech Kaczynski, whom Mr. Biden is to meet Wednesday. “This is very important for Poland, for NATO and the US Above all, this is about the long-term strategic cooperation between the US and Poland,” Mr. Handzlik said in a telephone interview. Mr. Handzlik also said that the United States would supply Poland with ground-to-air Patriot missiles, which the Obama administration had pledged to do per an agreement between the Bush administration and Poland.

Recent ETA Arrests Raise Hopes in Spain of Ending Violence - Andres Cala, New York Times. The arrests of two political leaders of the Spanish separatist group ETA this week - the latest in a series of high-profile operations against the outlawed organization - is raising cautious optimism in Spain that the 50-year-old violent struggle for Basque independence could be entering a new phase. “It seems we are winning,” Interior Minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba said Monday after a news conference that announced the capture of Aitor Elizarán Aguilar, ETA’s top ideologue. Mr. Rubalcaba, who warned that ETA was far from defeated and still able to carry out deadly attacks, described the fight against the group as a gradual struggle. He said arrests had grown more frequent, making it harder for ETA to adapt and pushing it to resort to younger, less-trained militants. ETA, which is listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States, has killed more than 800 people in its campaign. Mr. Elizarán, 30, was arrested on Monday in Carnac, France, along with a top aide, Oihana San Vicente, 32. Last week, there were the arrest and arraignment of seven people accused of trying to rebuild Batasuna, the political party aligned with ETA. Among those arrested last week was Arnaldo Otegi, the public face of ETA in Spain, who has been jailed several times for leading Batasuna, which was outlawed in 2003.

MIDDLE EAST

Robert Bernstein, Founder of Human Rights Watch, Accuses it of Anti-Israel Bias - James Bone, The Times. Robert Bernstein, the founder of Human Rights Watch, one of the world’s leading human rights organisations, accused the New York-based group of anti-Israeli bias yesterday. Mr Bernstein turned on the organisation he created in 1978 in a New York Times opinion piece questioning the group’s work in the Middle East. “As the founder of Human Rights Watch, its active chairman for 20 years and now founding chairman emeritus, I must do something that I never anticipated: I must publicly join the group’s critics,” he wrote. “Human Rights Watch had as its original mission to pry open closed societies, advocate basic freedoms and support dissenters. But recently it has been issuing reports on the Israeli-Arab conflict that are helping those who wish to turn Israel into a pariah state.” Mr Bernstein’s defection comes amid a worldwide row over a UN report by South African judge Richard Goldstone, a former Human Rights Watch board member, accusing Israel of war crimes in the Gaza War. Moves are under way at the United Nations in New York for the 192-nation General Assembly to ask the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to investigate the alleged abuses, even though only the 15-nation Security Council has the power to refer cases for prosecution.

Africans Seeking Refuge in Israel Must First Survive Perils of Egyptian Crossing - Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post. Driven by fear, persecution and economic woes, hundreds of mostly Muslim African migrants are embarking on perilous journeys to seek asylum and jobs in Israel. They are part of a global migration of the poor and oppressed to wealthier nations and continents, and Israel is becoming an increasingly popular destination. In 2006, 1,411 people sought asylum in Israel; by last year, the annual number had grown to 7,500, most of them Africans crossing over from Egypt, according to UN figures and human rights activists. Between 400 and 600 refugees are now crossing the border each month. As the numbers have risen, so has the danger, with Egyptian border guards shooting at the unarmed Africans. The border is one of the deadliest transit points in the world, according to rights activists and witnesses. The rise in violence coincides with increasing security concerns for Egypt. It faces heavy US and Israeli pressure to stop the smuggling of arms to militants in the Gaza Strip, which was a key trigger for Israel's war against Hamas last winter. Egyptian authorities are also increasingly concerned about preventing Islamist radicals from entering their country.

EVENTS

The US Military Academy’s Department of History is pleased to invite you to a West Point Symposium on the History of Irregular Warfare, 18-20 November 2009. The symposium will feature the scholarship of five cadet panel presenters with commentary by distinguished guest scholars, including: Dr. Stephen Biddle as our keynote speaker, Dr. Jeremy Black, Col. Robert Cassidy, Dr. Conrad Crane, Dr. George Herring, Dr. Brian Linn, and Dr. Peter Mansoor. Additionally, Dr. James Le Sueur (Uncivil War: Intellectuals and Identity Politics, 2005) will present a special lecture on Algerian society since 1963. Col. Gian Gentile, a History faculty member, will participate as part of the “Visiting Scholars Panel” with Dr. Crane, Dr. Mansoor, and Col. Cassidy. (Invitation and POC Information) (History of IW Symposium 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 US 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.