President Obama defended taking his time as he rethinks his strategy in Afghanistan and considers whether to send more troops, telling a military audience on Monday that he would not “rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm’s way.” “I won’t risk your lives unless it is absolutely necessary,” Mr. Obama said. “And if it necessary, we will back you up to the hilt.” The president’s speech at Naval Air Station Jacksonville offered few clues about where the review of his policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan was heading.

--New York Times

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN

Obama Defends Approach to Afghan War Planning - Michael A. Fletcher, Washington Post. President Obama fired back Monday at critics who accuse him of taking too long to review war strategy in Afghanistan, telling an audience of military personnel he will not rush his decision on whether to send additional troops there. Before 3,500 members of the military and their families in a hangar at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Obama said US troops deserve a clear strategy and full support to fulfill their mission. "I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm's way. I won't risk your lives unless it is absolutely necessary," Obama said to loud applause. "And if it is necessary, we will back you up to the hilt." Framed on the dais by uniformed members of the Navy and Marine Corps, and with members of other branches standing in front of him, Obama pushed back against those who have said his weeks-long review of war strategy for Afghanistan is endangering troops there. Former vice president Richard B. Cheney accused Obama last week of "dithering" as he weighs whether to add up to 40,000 new US troops to the fight in Afghanistan. Cheney said Obama "seems afraid" to make a decision, adding that as the president makes up his mind, "America's armed forces are in danger." The top US commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, has said he needs additional troops or the United States will risk failure of its counterinsurgency strategy.

No Rushing on Decisions, Obama Says - Jeff Zeleny, New York Times. President Obama defended taking his time as he rethinks his strategy in Afghanistan and considers whether to send more troops, telling a military audience on Monday that he would not “rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm’s way.” “I won’t risk your lives unless it is absolutely necessary,” Mr. Obama said. “And if it necessary, we will back you up to the hilt.” The president’s speech at Naval Air Station Jacksonville offered few clues about where the review of his policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan was heading. He flew here after huddling with his national security advisers at the White House in the sixth such session in the last six weeks, and the first since President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan agreed to participate in a runoff election. Whether Mr. Obama plans to make his decision before that vote on Nov. 7, or before the results are finalized a couple weeks later, remains uncertain. Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said the decision “could come at any moment” but then added that it could still be weeks away. The president’s latest strategy session and his subsequent trip here came on the deadliest day for American troops in Afghanistan in four years as 14 service members died in two separate helicopter crashes. “They were willing to risk their lives, in this case, to prevent Afghanistan from once again becoming a safe haven for Al Qaeda and its extremist allies,” Mr. Obama said.

Obama: 'Will Never Rush' Afghan Decision - Jon Ward, Washington Times. President Obama, hours after holding a sixth meeting in the last month of his war council at the White House, told a crowd of 3,000 Navy sailors and Marines that he will not rush his decision on a strategy for the war in Afghanistan. In an image that will boost the president being criticized by former Vice President Dick Cheney for "dithering," Mr. Obama appeared in front of an enormous American flag and three rows of Navy sailors in dress whites. He spoke to a large crowd in a hangar at Naval Air Station Jacksonville. "While I will never hesitate to use force to protect the American people or our vital interests, I also promise you this - and this is very important as we consider our next steps in Afghanistan: I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm's way," Mr. Obama said. "I won't risk your lives unless it is absolutely necessary. And if it is necessary, we will back you up to the hilt," he said. "Because you deserve the strategy, the clear mission, the defined goals, as well as the equipment and support you need to get the job done … That is a promise that I will always make to you." Earlier in Washington, Mr. Obama met with his top military and civilian advisers to review strategy in Afghanistan. The president still has given no signal whether or not he plans to increase troops beyond the 68,000 already there, or whether he'll make a decision before the Nov. 7 runoff election in Afghanistan.

Kerry Says McChrystal's Troop Request 'Reaches Too Far, Too Fast' - Mary Beth Sheridan, Washington Post. Sen. John F. Kerry declared Monday that he opposes sending more US troops to Afghanistan unless the government and military there improve their performance, and said the top American military commander in the country is moving "too far, too fast" in recommending an increase of more than 40,000 troops. Kerry (D-Mass.) spoke in what was billed as a major address at the Council on Foreign Relations, after he returned from a fact-finding trip to Afghanistan. His remarks have particular weight because he heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is a key ally of President Obama's. In his address, Kerry seemed to search for a middle ground between some on the right who have called for a troop buildup and others on the left who have advocated a military drawdown and a tight focus on counterterrorism. "A narrow mission that cedes half the country to the Taliban could lead to civil war and put Pakistan at risk," Kerry said. But he also argued against a troop surge, unless three conditions could be met: better Afghan governance, a bigger civilian development effort and a supply of reliable Afghan security forces to work with US troops. He said Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's plan, which calls for 44,000 troops to carry out a counterinsurgency campaign, "reaches too far, too fast." "We do not yet have the critical guarantees of governance and development capacity," Kerry said. He added that he has "serious concerns about the ability to produce effective Afghan forces to partner with" in military operations.

US Official Resigns Over Afghan War - Karen DeYoung, Washington Post. When Matthew Hoh joined the Foreign Service early this year, he was exactly the kind of smart civil-military hybrid the administration was looking for to help expand its development efforts in Afghanistan. A former Marine Corps captain with combat experience in Iraq, Hoh had also served in uniform at the Pentagon, and as a civilian in Iraq and at the State Department. By July, he was the senior US civilian in Zabul province, a Taliban hotbed. But last month, in a move that has sent ripples all the way to the White House, Hoh, 36, became the first US official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war, which he had come to believe simply fueled the insurgency. "I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan," he wrote Sept. 10 in a four-page letter to the department's head of personnel. "I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end." The reaction to Hoh's letter was immediate. Senior US officials, concerned that they would lose an outstanding officer and perhaps gain a prominent critic, appealed to him to stay. US Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry brought him to Kabul and offered him a job on his senior embassy staff. Hoh declined. From there, he was flown home for a face-to-face meeting with Richard C. Holbrooke, the administration's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Helicopter Crashes Kill 14 Americans in Afghanistan - Anand Gopal, Wall Street Journal. Helicopter crashes in Afghanistan killed 14 Americans Monday, the deadliest day for the US in the country in four years. Also Monday, presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah demanded the removal of the country's top election official and several members of President Hamid Karzai's cabinet before the two men face off in elections on Nov. 7. Mr. Karzai refused to comply. Dr. Abdullah didn't say what he would do if his demands aren't met, but aides said he was considering a boycott. The exchange further complicated an electoral process already encumbered by concerns about logistics, fraud and the threat of insurgent attacks on polling stations. The difficulty of the security situation was illustrated Monday, when a firefight with insurgents in the northwest province of Badghis was followed by the deadliest of the day's crashes. The crash killed seven US troops and three Drug Enforcement Administration agents, and injured 11 US troops, one US civilian and 14 Afghans. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization said it was unclear if enemy fire was responsible. The casualties mark the first DEA deaths in Afghanistan since the agency began operations there in 2005. In another incident early Monday, two US Marine helicopters collided, killing four soldiers, military officials said. It was the heaviest single-day US death toll in Afghanistan since June 28, 2005, when 19 troops died, including 16 killed when insurgents shot down a helicopter.

14 Americans Killed in Helicopter Crashes in Afghanistan - Sean Maroney, Voice of America. NATO officials in Afghanistan say three coalition helicopters crashed Monday in two unrelated incidents, killing at least 11 US troops and three American civilians. NATO officials say one helicopter crashed in western Afghanistan after US and Afghan forces raided what was described as a militant hideout. Earlier Monday, two coalition helicopters collided and crashed in southern Afghanistan. In both cases, authorities say they believe hostile fire was not involved. But the American deaths come as US President Barack Obama considers whether to send more troops to Afghanistan. The director of Afghanistan Rights Monitor, Ajmal Samadi, tells VOA that the debate half-a-world away is alienating the people of Afghanistan, causing them to question Washington's commitment. "That leaves Afghans in a limbo between a government, which is corrupt, and a Taliban that is extremely violent," said Samadi. He also notes that eight years after the US-led invasion into Afghanistan, the Taliban is still strong, especially in the country's south. "We have a shadow government of the Taliban," he said. "And I am afraid some people in Afghanistan are even talking about the return of the Taliban because they see the power of the Taliban." Meanwhile in Kabul, Afghans clashed with police for the second day during protests held over allegations that foreign troops had desecrated the Muslim holy book, the Koran. Afghan health ministry officials say 15 people were wounded in Monday's protest. The violence comes as Afghans prepare to go to the polls for a November Seventh presidential runoff election between incumbent President Hamid Karzai and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.

14 Americans Killed in Two Helicopter Crashes in Afghanistan - Pamela Constable and Joshua Partlow, Washington Post. In a day of military tragedy and political drama, 11 American troops and three US civilians died Monday in two helicopter crashes in rural Afghanistan, while President Hamid Karzai and his top political rival escalated their dispute over conditions for holding a runoff election scheduled for Nov. 7. Presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah demanded that the nation's top election official and three cabinet ministers be fired before the runoff, but Karzai refused. The disagreement threatens to derail an election that is crucial to American military strategy in Afghanistan. As the nation waited tensely for the electoral contest, the two helicopter crashes marked one of the deadliest days for US forces since combat operations against the Taliban and al-Qaeda began here eight years ago. US military officials here said one helicopter crashed in western Afghanistan after it took off from the site of an anti-drug raid and a firefight with Taliban insurgents, killing seven US troops and three agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration. In the second incident, in southern Afghanistan, two NATO helicopters collided in flight, killing four American troops. The officials said that there was no enemy attack involved in either incident but that both were under investigation.

Push for Afghanistan Troop Increase Continues on Deadly Day - Laura King, Julian E. Barnes and Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times. On a day when 14 US servicemen and drug agents were killed in helicopter crashes in Afghanistan, the largest such toll in more than four years, momentum continued to build to send more troops to the war zone. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a Washington address that he would support a decision by President Obama to "send some additional troops" provided improvements are made in Afghan troop training and government, and civilian aid efforts are increased. Obama, speaking to service members in Jacksonville, Fla., promised his full support for all troops he sends into battle, as he continues to review his Afghanistan strategy. "I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm's way. I won't risk your lives unless it is absolutely necessary," Obama said. "And if it is necessary, we will back you up to the hilt." The president acknowledged the deaths of 14 Americans in a pair of helicopter crashes in Afghanistan, the largest single-day loss of life for US forces since June 2005, when 16 American troops died after their helicopter was shot down by insurgents.

Afghan Death Toll for US Nears Record - Eli Lake and Barbara Slavin, Washington Times. Helicopter crashes Monday put October on pace to become the deadliest month for Americans in Afghanistan since the war started in 2001. One helicopter crashed in the western part of the country after leaving the scene of a firefight with suspected drug traffickers, killing seven US troops and three agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Eleven US troops, a US civilian and 14 Afghans were injured, according to the Associated Press. In southern Afghanistan, two helicopters collided, killing four US servicemen and wounding two others. The deadly toll comes as the White House debates the merits of sending more troops to Afghanistan - a decision that may be effected by negative domestic reaction to the mounting numbers of war dead. The casualties Monday bring the toll of US troops killed to 45 for October with another week to go for the month. The deadliest month so far in the history of the 8-year war was in August when 51 troops died. Since the US began military operations in Afghanistan, 825 US troops have died from fighting in the country, according to the Web site iCasualties.org.

Karzai: Top Election Official will Keep Job - Joshua Partlow and Pamela Constable, Washington Post. The challenger to Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Monday called for the removal of the head of Afghanistan's election commission, the suspension of cabinet ministers, the removal of an unspecified number of provincial police chiefs, and the closure of some 500 polling stations as his conditions for participation in the runoff election scheduled for Nov. 7. Abdullah Abdullah gave Karzai five days to comply with his list of demands - which aides said would include about 17 points in total - but he remained coy about whether he would boycott the vote if these were not met. "I reserve my reaction if we are faced with that unfortunate situation," he said. The sweeping set of demands - particularly the suspension of the cabinet ministers, some of Karzai's closest allies - struck even some of Abdullah's advisers as unrealistic. Maulvi Ghulam Mohammad Gharib, a human rights official from Kandahar and an adviser to Abdullah, said it seemed "impossible these conditions could be met." Karzai issued a statement after Abdullah's news conference that said he would not oust the head of the Independent Election Commission, Azizullah Lodin, who has denied that he was partial to Karzai during the Aug. 20 vote and has refused to step down. Karzai also said he would not make any changes to his cabinet.

German Limits on War Facing Afghan Reality - Nicholas Kulish, New York Times. Forced to confront the rising insurgency in once peaceful northern Afghanistan, the German Army is engaged in sustained and bloody ground combat for the first time since World War II. Soldiers near the northern city of Kunduz have had to strike back against an increasingly fierce campaign by Taliban insurgents, while carrying the burden of being among the first units to break the German taboo against military combat abroad that arose after the Nazi era. At issue are how long opposition in Germany will allow its troops to stay and fight, and whether they will be given leeway from their strict rules of engagement to pursue the kind of counterinsurgency being advocated by American generals. The question now is whether the Americans will ultimately fight one kind of war and their allies another. For Germans, the realization that their soldiers are now engaged in ground offensives in an open-ended and escalating war requires a fundamental reconsideration of their principles. After World War II, German society rejected using military power for anything other than self-defense, and pacifism has been a rallying cry for generations, blocking allied requests for any military support beyond humanitarian assistance.

Pressure From US Strains Ties With Pakistan - Jane Perlez, New York Times. The Obama administration is putting pressure on Pakistan to eliminate Taliban and Qaeda militants from the country’s tribal areas, but the push is straining the delicate relations between the allies, Pakistani and Western officials say. The Pakistani military’s recent heavy offensive in South Waziristan has pleased the Americans, but it left large parts of Pakistan under siege, as militants once sequestered in the country’s tribal areas take their war to Pakistan’s cities. Many Pakistanis blame the United States for the country’s rising instability. When Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrives in Pakistan this week, as she is scheduled to do, she will find a nuclear-armed state consumed by doubts about the value of the alliance with the United States and resentful of ever-rising American demands to do more, the officials said. The United States is also struggling to address Pakistan’s concerns over the conditions imposed on a new American aid package of $7.5 billion over five years that the Pakistani military denounced as designed to interfere in the country’s internal affairs. The Obama administration has endorsed the Pakistani Army’s recent offensive in South Waziristan, suggesting it showed overdue resolve. But it has also raised concerns about the Pakistani Army’s long-term objectives. How South Waziristan plays out may prove to be a bellwether for an alliance of increasingly divergent interests.

Pakistan: 19 Militants Killed in S. Waziristan - Voice of America. The Pakistani army says it has killed 19 militants in a battle for control of a Taliban stronghold in South Waziristan. The fighting came amid an ongoing air and ground offensive to defeat the Pakistani Taliban. Pakistani officials say troops captured the village of Ghalai after meeting strong resistance that also left six soldiers dead. The casualty figures, announced Monday, could not be independently verified because journalists are not allowed to travel with the troops. About 30,000 Pakistani troops have been advancing on an estimated 10,000 militants from three directions. To the north, militants attacked a security post in the town of Hangu. The army says 15 militants and one soldier were killed. Deadly Taliban attacks across Pakistan led authorities to close schools last week. Many of the schools reopened Monday.

A Lesson for Afghanistan? - Walter Pincus, Washington Post. Pakistan's military offensive in Waziristan, and the negotiations that preceded it, may be a paradigm for the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan as well as for the fight against al-Qaeda and other extreme Islamist groups in the Afghan-Pakistani border area. That view emerged from a presentation on the fighting in Waziristan last Tuesday by Frederick Kagan and colleagues Reza Jan and Charlie Szrom at the American Enterprise Institute. Kagan was among those who promoted the idea of "surging" troops into Iraq, and in July he was one of the civilian experts who put together recommendations for Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's assessment of the situation in Afghanistan. The 37-page analysis of the Waziristan operation provides important background for those following Pakistan's long-awaited move against the Taliban, also known as the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The TTP is a collection of more than a dozen Pakistani factions, organized by Beitullah Mehsud in 2006. A member of the Pashtun Mehsud tribe whose branches populate much of South Waziristan, Mehsud sought to destabilize the Pakistani government of Gen. Pervez Musharraf, which Mehsud said was under US control.

'NATO Has the Watches, We Have the Time' - James Shinn, Wall Street Journal opinion. Those of us in the Bush administration who were responsible for its "Afghan Strategy Review" kept our mouths shut when we handed over the document to the Obama transition team last fall. We didn't want to box in the new administration. And when President Barack Obama and his advisers rolled out their own Afghanistan strategy on March 27, I was quietly pleased. It came to basically the same conclusion we had: The paramount goal was to squash terrorism through counterinsurgency and better governance in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs promised the press corps at the time that its strategy would be "fully resourced." Later, in August, Gen. Stanley McChrystal's assessment of the situation in Afghanistan was leaked. It was a road map to implement precisely the Obama strategy that was announced in March. But one key element of both the Bush and Obama strategies is getting lost in the debate - that we must apply the military and economic resources for the time required to achieve our goals. As the Obama administration's March 27 White Paper notes, "There are no quick fixes to achieve US national security interests in Afghanistan and Pakistan." The average counterinsurgency war lasts a decade and a half; the successful British campaign in Malaya in the 1950s, for example, took 12 years. Even if Gen. McChrystal gets the 40,000 additional troops he has requested, there is unlikely to be short-term progress in meeting any of the security "metrics" that opponents of the war in Afghanistan will try to insert into the defense appropriations for carrying out the president's strategy.

Britain Resolves, US Wavers - Roger Cohen, New York Times opinion. In Afghanistan there’s the United States, Britain and then the rest. Britain has lost 85 soldiers this year, more than all other European NATO allies combined. For both countries the annual death toll has been rising steadily since 2006, and with it the drumbeat of public opposition to the war. In all, more than 1,100 US and British troops have died. Special relationships are forged in blood; the US-British bond is no exception. So, as President Obama hesitates, his decision on American troop levels ever “weeks away” as the weeks pass, the British view of the war offers as good an indication as any of what Obama will do. An hour-long conversation with David Miliband, the British foreign secretary, suggests reinforcements are on the way. When I asked if the mission needed substantially more troops, Miliband said, “What I think that you can see from the prime minister’s strategy is that we believe in serious counterinsurgency. Counterinsurgency is a counterterrorist strategy.” He continued: “The Taliban has shown what it means to provide safe space for Al Qaeda.” Describing the fights against the Taliban and Al Qaeda as “distinctive but related missions,” Miliband said “the badlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan are the incubator of choice for international terrorism,” adding that, “Ceding ground happened in the ’90s and then we all know what happened.”

Counterterrorism Gains - Michael Sheehan, Washington Times opinion. In today's debates about how to proceed in Afghanistan, the relationship between counterinsurgency and counter-terrorism operations needs to be clearly understood. First and foremost, we should acknowledge that, in light of our original counter-terrorism goals, our Afghan and Pakistan policies have been remarkably effective. There is no need to panic. We invaded Afghanistan eight years ago to prevent another terrorist attack on our nation, and we have been successful. Prior to Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacked us three times in three years: at our African embassies in August 1998; the USS Cole incident in October 2000, and finally on our homeland on Sept. 11, 2001. In the eight years following Sept. 11, they have failed to attack us on our soil. In fact, al Qaeda can count only one terrorism attack in the entire West (London, 2005), with perhaps "partial credit" for another (Madrid, 2004). This, by any standard, is a failure on the part of al Qaeda and a testament to the effectiveness of our worldwide counter-terrorism programs. And that success is a product of aggressive intelligence operations that reach from the mountains of Afghanistan, through foreign capitals around the world, and all the way to the streets of New York City. It has been no accident; the US military, the CIA, FBI, the New York Police Department, and others should be credited. However, in Afghanistan, we have continually moved the "goal posts" of our counter-terrorism success in the name of a counterinsurgency campaign. The initial objective of kicking out al Qaeda has now morphed into an ambitious program of "reinventing Afghanistan" as a modern state.

Bring the Troops Home - Eugene Robinson, Washington Post opinion. Barack Obama didn't set out to be a "war president," but that's what history compels him to be. The nation and the world are fortunate that he doesn't have the reckless, ready-fire-aim mentality of George W. Bush. But Afghanistan doesn't present the kind of "false choices" that Obama, by nature, habitually rejects. The choices are real and awful, and no amount of reframing and rephrasing will make them go away. Monday's tragic events - 14 Americans killed in helicopter crashes in Afghanistan -- remind us of the decisions Obama faces. At least he seems to recognize that he can't just let the situation drift. But it looks as if Obama's inclination is to disappoint both hawks and doves -- and, yes, I'm consciously using Vietnam-era language. The debate over whether we stay or leave is bound to become sharper and more passionate as American casualties continue to mount. One person who deserves no voice in that debate is Dick Cheney, who helped get us into this quagmire. By turning from Afghanistan prematurely to launch an elective, unnecessary and ill-advised invasion of Iraq, Bush and Cheney managed to transform one war we were winning into two that we were in danger of losing.

General Fallibility - Roger Cohen, Washington Post opinion. Years ago, I bought an old Time magazine - the issue with the 1965 Man of the Year on the cover. I stuffed it into an old picture frame and kept it around to remind me of the fallibility of men, and, even, of Time magazine. It was of Gen. William C. Westmoreland. He was the Vietnam era's Gen. Stanley McChrystal. Westmoreland was an utter failure, and I do not mean to suggest that McChrystal is the same. Yet at the time the square-jawed Westmoreland appeared on the cover of Time, he was seen as something of a savior - the man who would lead America out of the swamp of Vietnam. When he addressed Congress in 1967, his speech was interrupted 19 times by applause. A bit more than a year later, he was gone - replaced by Gen. Creighton Abrams, who, we are told in Lewis Sorley's "A Better War," could have won if he had only been given the chance.

IRAQ

Iraq Increases Security After Blasts - Gina Chon, Wall Street Journal. Iraqi authorities scrambled to reassure the public after the worst bombing attack in two years by increasing vigilance at checkpoints and closing off roads in the Iraqi capital. The government on Monday raised the death toll for Sunday's attacks to at least 155 people. Funerals for the victims were held across the capital. The Interior Ministry said at least 70 people have been arrested so far, but didn't provide further details. The ministry also said early indications show the suicide car bombs that exploded Sunday near the Baghdad provincial headquarters and the Justice Ministry may be linked to an August bombing that also targeted government buildings in Baghdad. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other officials blamed al Qaeda in Iraq and members of the Baath Party, many of whom are operating in Syria, for the Sunday explosions and the August bombings. A vehicle loaded with more than a ton of explosives went off near the Justice Ministry, while another vehicle packed with more than 1,500 pounds of explosives attacked the Baghdad governorate building, a Baghdad security command spokesman said. Defense Minister Abdul Qadir said the results of the government investigation will be made public in the next few days.

Iraq Reaches Voting Deal as Toll Rises in Bombings - Rod Nordland, New York Times. Iraqi officials reached a tentative agreement on a new election law on Monday, even as workers continued to recover more bodies from the wreckage of Sunday’s bomb attacks, including an uncertain number of children from two day care centers. The toll climbed to as many as 155 dead, with more than 500 wounded and an unknown number still missing. The violence appeared to have jolted members of Parliament into action: Calling the bombings an attack on the national unity government, Iraqi leaders swiftly responded with a compromise agreement on a new election law that had eluded them for weeks and threatened to delay national elections scheduled for January. The Iraqi Defense and Interior Ministries began investigating security breaches that allowed the bombings to occur, Defense Minister Abdul-Kader Jassem al-Obeidi said in a statement. The bombs were in a two-ton van and a minibus, which passed multiple security checkpoints on Sunday morning to reach their targets, according to Baghdad’s governor. Trucks are banned from Baghdad’s streets during daylight hours unless they have special permits that are issued by the military and checked at every roadblock.

Death Toll Nears 160 in Baghdad Attacks - Ernesto Londoño, Washington Post. Iraqi officials on Monday began assessing the scope of the damage from two devastating bombings carried out Sunday that are expected to cripple key government agencies for months, as the death toll climbed to nearly 160. The attacks targeted the Justice Ministry, the Baghdad Provincial Council and the Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works, and appeared designed to portray the Shiite-led government as feeble and rudderless ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for January. "These attacks are targeting the symbols of Iraqi sovereignty, and they aim to paralyze the government," said Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, whose ministry was targeted in a similar bombing in August. The aftermath of bombing appeared to break a deadlock in negotiations over an election law, a necessary step in organizing the January vote. There were few details, but an official said a proposal would go to political leaders Tuesday and then on to Parliament.

Iraq Beefs Up Security in Baghdad After Bombings - Liz Sly, Los Angeles Times. The Iraqi government launched a massive security operation in Baghdad as Iraqis buried their dead Monday, a day after a pair of suicide attacks against government buildings killed dozens of people and exposed the fragility of Iraq's fledgling institutions. The death toll increased to 155, including about 30 children, some of whom were killed in a bus that was taking them to kindergarten, Interior Ministry officials said. Hundreds more people were injured in the blasts, officials said. Police erected extra checkpoints around the downtown area housing the Justice Ministry and the provincial government headquarters where the bombings took place, as the Defense Ministry promised an investigation into the "security breaches" that had allowed suicide bombers to penetrate one of the most closely guarded areas of the city. In a statement posted on a militant website early today, the Al Qaeda-affiliated group the Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility for the attacks, Reuters reported. The bombings came at a time of heightened political friction over the drafting of a new election law, which is urgently needed if national balloting is to be held as planned in January.

Iraqis Arrest Bombing Suspects in Baghdad - American Forces Press Service. Iraqi forces, with US advisors, conducted a series of operations today resulting in the arrest of 11 suspects in vehicle-bomb networks operating between Baghdad and Mosul. Iraqi forces searched several buildings in western Baghdad for a suspect believed to be responsible for a truck bomb that struck government buildings in Baghdad and killed at least 150 people. The cell leader also is suspected of staging the deadly Aug. 19 attacks in the Iraqi capital. Based on evidence found in the buildings, Iraqi forces arrested eight people suspected of being linked to a bomb network in Baghdad that receives support from cells stretching north along the Tigris River Valley. The 3rd Emergency Services Unit, with US advisors, also targeted a bomb network today in southwest Kirkuk. The team searched a building for a member of the Kirkuk-based terror group who is believed to organize bombings throughout the Tigris River Valley. The operation resulted in the arrest of two people. Iraqi police, with US advisors and acting on a warrant, arrested a person suspected of procuring vehicles for use in the attacks. The security team arrested the suspect without incident about 50 miles south of Mosul. Also today, Iraqi soldiers acting on intelligence reports arrested 14 suspects believed to be associated with a Mosul-based al-Qaida in Iraq cell leader. On Oct. 24, Iraqi soldiers arrested a suspected Islamic State of Iraq terrorist group member in eastern Mosul who served as the former extortion ringleader for the region. Based on credible intelligence, the soldiers, with US advisors, searched for Islamic State of Iraq members suspected of extorting money from companies in Mosul. During the search of a building, the security team found and apprehended a man suspected of using extortion money to fund attacks against Iraqi security forces and civilians. He is alleged to be closely associated with extortion network members operating in northern Iraq.

Auditor Faults Work on US Embassy in Iraq - Joe Leland, New York Times. As the measure of success in Iraq shifts from peacekeeping to reconstruction, one showcase for American aptitude is the new United States Embassy, the most expensive in the world. The embassy compound, which cost more than $700 million to build, covers 104 acres along the Tigris River and was built in a rapid 34 months amid often unstable conditions. But according to a report issued last week by the State Department’s inspector general, the complex is a monument to shoddy work and incompetent oversight. Walls and walkways are cracking, sewage gas flows back into residences, wiring is substandard, fire protection systems are faulty and other safety provisions are not up to contract specifications. The report says that construction “was significantly deficient in multiple areas” and may not meet safety codes. It called on the State Department to seek $132 million in damages from the main construction company, First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting, which received $470 million for work on the embassy. The department’s Bureau for Overseas Building Operations is considering whether to seek reimbursement, said a spokesman, Jonathan Blyth, who added in an e-mail message that “the deficiencies noted in the report are not adversely affecting embassy operations.”

IRAN

Iran Officials Appear Split on Nuclear Plan - Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post. High-ranking Iranian officials appear divided over a draft proposal with the United States and other countries that would transfer the bulk of the Islamic republic's enriched uranium stockpile out of the country. The divergent views have emerged in a string of reports in the official press and other media outlets over the past several days. On Friday, Iran missed a deadline to respond to the proposal, which would allow the country to acquire fuel for its medical reactor. In what may mark a possible compromise position, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Monday that Iran could either send part of its low-enriched uranium stockpile abroad for specialized processing into fuel or buy the material from foreign suppliers. "In order to obtain this fuel, we might spend money as in the past or we might present part of the fuel that we have right now, and currently do not need, for further processing," he was quoted as saying by the official Islamic Republic News Agency. But several influential lawmakers, the leading pro-government newspaper and the former top nuclear negotiator have all spoken out against the deal. They say the West is trying to deceive the country and keep the nuclear material in order to sabotage Iran's atomic progress.

Election Tensions at an Iranian Expo - Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post. As she watched a video at the exhibition booth of a pro-government news agency, the young Iranian woman became incensed at its portrayal of two leading opposition figures. The video shown by Borna News accused Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, opposition candidates in Iran's disputed June 12 presidential election, of lying and inciting sedition, with scenes of war and exploding hand grenades edited in for emphasis. "Who is inciting here?" the woman, who gave her name only as Maryam, demanded loudly while watching the video. "The truth is clear for all to see!" "No, it is those men who have betrayed the nation," a man with a gray moustache responded angrily. The two glared at each other. "She's crazy," the man said to the surrounding crowd. "I speak the truth," she replied. The exchange, one of many encounters at an annual news media exposition, illustrated the simmering political tension that continues to roil Iran more than four months after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed reelection, dismissing opposition charges of widespread fraud.

UNITED STATES

FBI is Slow to Translate Intelligence, Report Says - Charlie Savage, New York Times. The FBI’s collection of wiretapped phone calls and intercepted e-mail has been soaring in recent years, but the bureau is failing to review “significant amounts” of such material partly for lack of translators, according to a Justice Department report released Monday. “Not reviewing such material increases the risk that the FBI will not detect information in its possession that may be important to its counterterrorism and counterintelligence efforts,” said the report, which was issued by the office of the department’s inspector general, Glenn A. Fine. In a statement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said that it was working to reduce its backlog of unreviewed audio recordings and electronic documents, and that it continued seeking to hire or contract with more linguists. “The FBI remains committed to reviewing all foreign language material in a timely manner and setting priorities to ensure that the most important material receives the most immediate attention,” the agency said in a statement.

AFRICA

Unity Talks Fail to Ease Political Deadlock in Zimbabwe - Voice of America. Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai failed to resolve their differences during their first meeting since Mr. Tsvangirai's party boycotted the unity government 10 days ago. A spokesman for the prime minister's MDC party said Monday the two leaders are "worlds apart" on key issues affecting the unity government. Spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the MDC will await the outcome of mediation efforts by the Southern African Development Community. But if the regional bloc's mediation fails, he added, the MDC will start preparing for new elections. There was no immediate comment on the talks either by Mr. Mugabe or his ZANU-PF party. Mr. Tsvangirai said on October 16 that the MDC would no longer work with ZANU-PF, which he says has been a dishonest and unreliable partner. This followed the re-detention of one of Mr. Tsvangirai's aides - white farmer Roy Bennett - on terrorism charges. And last week on Friday, police raided a home belonging to Mr. Tsvangirai's party, raising tensions further. The MDC charges that Mr. Mugabe is acting unilaterally, and that ZANU-PF is harassing key MDC officials - actions that are placing great strains on the unity government, which has seen nearly constant disagreements between the two political blocs since it was formed in February.

Campaign Ends as Mozambique Prepares for National Elections - Scott Bobb, Voice of America. Political parties in Mozambique have ended their campaigns as voters prepare to go to the polls Wednesday to choose a president, parliament and provincial assemblies. The Front for the Liberation of Mozambique, known as Frelimo, is expected to continue its domination of the political scene. But a new political party has emerged to compete for the leadership of the opposition. Political parties in Mozambique held their final rallies Sunday parading through the streets of Maputo and passing out leaflets. Voters are expected to re-elect President Armando Guebuza to a second, five-year term and give his Frelimo party continued control of parliament and many provincial assemblies. Frelimo led the struggle for independence in 1974 and has dominated politics ever since. Spokesman Danilo Nhantumbo says Mr. Guebuza wants to build on the country's impressive recent growth rate and improve the quality of life in what the United Nations says is one of the world's poorest countries. "The priorities: Education, health and infrastructure and to promote the culture of peace and democracy and good governance," said Nhantumbo. But the Renamo Party, which fought a 17-year civil war against Frelimo after independence, hopes its candidate, Afonso Dhlakama, will win the presidency on his fourth try. Renamo Spokesman Eduardo Namburete says the ruling party has been in power too long.

Party’s Power in Mozambique Is Criticized as a Barrier to Democracy - Barry Bearak, New York Times. There is a leftward lean to this seaside capital. The Urban Style Boutique sits at the corner of Ho Chi Minh and Vladimir Lenin. Avenida Mao Zedong dead-ends near a five-star hotel. Commercial banks count their money on Avenida Friedrich Engels. But Mozambique’s fondness for Marxist street names has far outlasted its affection for any kind of Marxist vision. Indeed, this country is now a favorite of the West, one of Africa’s generously rewarded “donor darlings,” a place where governments and charitable groups annually dispense an estimated $2 billion. Foreign largess accounts for more than half of the national budget. Darlings are not always so lovable, however, and in the past few months Mozambique has been deemed to fall short in a vital category on the donors’ scorecard: democracy. Elections will take place Wednesday, and many here think the governing party, Frelimo, has used back-room sleight-of-hand to keep a major opponent off the ballot in most of the country. Todd C. Chapman, the acting chief of mission at the United States Embassy in Maputo, said in carefully chosen phraseology that Frelimo had “chosen not to take a step forward, and that’s regrettable.” Salomão Moyana, one of Mozambique’s leading political commentators, was more straightforward. “The election process has been sabotaged,” he said flatly. “The international community is used to tolerating a certain amount of corruption from Frelimo, but this is a shocking event for them.”

AMERICAS

US Sending Envoys to Try to End Crisis in Honduras - Ginger Thompson, New York Times. Senior Obama administration officials are scheduled to travel to Honduras this week in an effort to resolve a political crisis that began nearly four months ago when soldiers detained President Manuel Zelaya and forced him into exile. This will be the first time since the coup that the Obama administration has taken a leading role in pressuring the leaders of the de facto government to restore democratic order in Honduras. The stepped-up pressure comes after months of apparently fruitless talks about whether Mr. Zelaya will be returned to power. The new effort began on Friday, officials said, when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made calls to both Mr. Zelaya and the head of the de facto government, Roberto Micheletti. In those calls, officials said, Mrs. Clinton told the two leaders that there was “increasing frustration” in the United States and Latin America over the deteriorating situation in Honduras, the hemisphere’s third-poorest country. She reserved her toughest comments for Mr. Micheletti, officials said, because the United States believes he has been “the most difficult.” “During the call, he spent a lot of time talking about the past,” a State Department official said. “She wanted to talk about the future.”

Ortega Assists Honduras - Wall Street Journal editorial. If Honduras manages to preserve its democracy despite US pressure to abandon it, the tiny Central American country may wind up thanking Nicaragua's Danny Ortega, of all people. Last week, President Ortega inadvertently provided the best defense yet of the Honduran decision this summer to remove Manuel Zelaya from the presidency. Nicaragua has a one-term limit for presidents, and Mr. Ortega's term expires in 2011. However, the Nicaraguan doesn't want to leave, and so he asked the Sandinista-controlled Supreme Court to overturn the constitutional ban on his re-election. Last week the court's constitutional panel obliged him. The Nicaraguan press reported that the vote was held before three opposition judges could reach the chamber in time for the session. Three alternative judges, all Sandinistas, took their place and the court gave Mr. Ortega the green light. Mr. Ortega has decreed that the ruling cannot be appealed.

Courting Goodwill in Rio's Mean Streets - Juan Forero, Washington Post. The residents of Santa Marta, one of this violent city's many hillside slums, had never seen someone quite like the new police captain, a woman who strolled its maze of passageways to shake hands and ask residents what services the government might deliver. They had also not seen officers quite like the ones she commanded. Instead of wearing riot gear, they had on soft blue berets, and instead of storming Santa Marta with guns blazing, a scene common to Rio's shantytowns, they came to generate goodwill with residents normally fearful of police. The recent arrival of Capt. Pricilla de Oliveira Azevedo and her officers was part of a new community policing strategy that officials in Rio hope will curtail the kind of violence that erupted this month. Street gangs shot down a police helicopter, killing three officers, and gunfights in the streets left more than 30 dead. The mayhem shook the city and raised concerns about whether the government is prepared to tame bustling shantytowns ahead of the 2016 Olympics, which Rio recently won after defeating Chicago and two other cities. Though capturing the Olympics was a personal victory for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, authorities here were mortified when the violence in this picturesque seaside city was televised worldwide.

Fidel Castro's Sister Says She Worked With CIA - Voice of America. Juanita Castro, sister of former Cuban President Fidel Castro, says she collaborated with the US Central Intelligence Agency against her brother's rule in the 1960s. She made the revelation to a Spanish-language television channel (Univision-Noticias 23) in Florida Sunday in a report on her newly-published memoirs. Juanita Castro explained that, while she initially supported her brother's 1959 overthrow of the Batista dictatorship, she became disillusioned with the executions of political opponents and Cuba's move toward communism. Castro, now 76, said she was approached by the CIA in the early 1960s. She said she used her home in Havana to shelter those persecuted by her brother's government before she went into exile. Juanita Castro fled Cuba for Mexico in 1964 and eventually settled in Florida. She ran a pharmacy in Miami and was a vocal critic of her brother's rule. After nearly five decades in power, Fidel Castro transferred power on a provisional basis to his brother Raul in 2006. Raul officially became president in February 2008. Juanita Castro's memoirs, "Fidel and Raul, My Brothers: The Secret History", hit bookstore shelves Monday.

Castro's Sister Says She Collaborated with CIA - Associated Press. One of Fidel Castro's sisters says in a new memoir that she collaborated with the CIA against her brother, starting shortly after the United States' failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961. Juanita Castro, 76, initially supported her brother's 1959 overthrow of the Batista dictatorship but quickly grew disillusioned, according to the Spanish-language memoir, which was released Monday. In it, Castro says the wife of the Brazilian ambassador to Cuba persuaded her to meet a CIA officer during a trip to Mexico in 1961. By then, her house had become a sanctuary for anti-communists, and Fidel Castro had warned her about getting involved with the "gusanos," or worms, as those who opposed the revolution were called. Castro said in "My Brothers Fidel and Raul: The Secret Story," that she traveled to Mexico City under the pretense of visiting her younger sister, Enma. There she also secretly met a CIA officer who identified himself as "Enrique" at the elegant Camino Real hotel. A spokesman for the CIA declined to comment on Castro's account.

ASIA PACIFIC

Mr. Kim's Scam - Washington Post editorial. Suppose that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il decided last January to try luring the Obama administration into the same lucrative and fraudulent transaction his regime pulled off with the two previous US presidents. In that case, Mr. Kim may feel he's getting close to executing another sting. The scam goes like this: Pyongyang raises tension by firing off missiles, ejecting inspectors from its nuclear facilities, testing bombs and promising to produce more. Then it turns conciliatory, suggesting it might be willing to freeze its nuclear program and even begin to dismantle it in exchange for economic and political concessions. Next it begins talks, collecting as much in cash and diplomatic recognition as it can from Washington and its Asian allies. Finally, it breaks off the process before it has taken any irreversible step to give up its weapons or the means to produce them. Mr. Kim has already run through the first two phases of his scheme in the past nine months.

EUROPE

First Day of Karadzic Trial Ends - Lauren Comiteau, Voice of America. Making good on his threat, former Serb leader Radovan Karadzic failed to appear in court for the opening of his trial on 11 counts of crimes against humanity and genocide, adjourning the proceedings in a mere 20 minutes. Radovan Karadzic's failure to show up angered both judges and prosecutors. Prosecutor Hildegard Uertz-Retzlaff accused Karadzic of manipulating the court, now that he has exhausted all the legal avenues to grant the extension he wants to prepare his case. "He also says, as soon as I am prepared, I will be happy to inform the trial chamber and OTP [Office of the Prosecutor] a few weeks in advance. In other words, the trial can only start if the accused says it should," the prosecutor said. She told judges they have two choices: either assign Karadzic a lawyer or let him continue to obstruct the proceedings. Judges said they will reconvene Tuesday to try and start the trial again and urged Karadzic to attend. But his legal advisors in Belgrade say he will not attend Tuesday's hearings until he is granted his several-month extension.

Fury as Karadzic Refuses to Turn up for War Crimes Trial - David Charter, The Times. The victims of Radovan Karadzic voiced outrage yesterday after the former Bosnian Serb leader made a mockery of the first day of justice for the worst atrocities seen in Europe since the Second World War. Dr Karadzic, 64, remained in the plush detention centre nicknamed the “Hague Hilton” rather than face charges of genocide and war crimes in his trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. He has vowed to do the same today. It was too much to bear for the Mothers of Srebrenica, the relatives of about 8,000 men and boys murdered allegedly on Dr Karadzic’s orders in a UN safe haven 14 years ago. The families arrived in three bus-loads from Bosnia hoping to see justice done. Standing outside the UN court in the rain, Munira Subasic, 62, whose husband and brother died in the massacre, said: “It feels like they are being killed all over again.” The Mothers of Srebrenica fear a repeat of the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav leader, who escaped judgment when he died in custody in 2006, after stringing out his trial for more than four years with delays and courtroom histrionics. “They cannot do this like Milosevic. He died and justice died with him,” Mrs Subasic said. “We know there is enough evidence against Karadzic and we pray it will not take time because we need justice.” There was uproar in the public gallery among the victims’ relatives present when the four judges, faced with empty chairs on the defence side of the court, adjourned and filed out after a hearing lasting less than 20 minutes.

Karadzic Refuses to Appear on First Day of His Trial - Marlise Simons, New York Times. On the first day of his trial, Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader who stands accused of genocide against Bosnia’s Muslim population, refused to appear in court on Monday and sent word once again that he wanted more time to prepare his defense in proceedings that aim to cover three years of warfare and widespread brutality against civilians. With no lawyers present to represent Mr. Karadzic, a potentially historic moment - the trial of the most senior Bosnian Serb leader called to account for the horrors of the 1990s - fell flat. The presiding judge, a soft-spoken jurist from South Korea, ended the session in less than 20 minutes but warned that the trial would continue on Tuesday anyway. Even from his cell, Mr. Karadzic, a former psychiatrist turned extreme Serbian nationalist, managed to distress a number of the victims’ families. More than 160 people had made the 24-hour trek by bus from Bosnia to the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague, and part of the group watched through the bulletproof glass of the public gallery. As the short session closed, many in the group shouted in anger and frustration. Munira Subasic, one of the organizers of the group, said the majority had to return to Bosnia during the night because they had no money for hotel rooms. Several women who said they had lost husbands and sons in the war said they felt betrayed by the court.

Trying Karadzic - New York Times editorial. Radovan Karadzic, accused of ordering some of the worst atrocities in Europe since World War II, is still tormenting his victims. More than 160 Bosnian Muslims traveled to the Hague for the start of the former Bosnian Serb leader’s war crimes trial on Monday only to have him boycott the proceeding. Judges with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yuogoslavia adjourned the session and promised to begin on Tuesday with or without Mr. Karadzic in the dock. The trial must go ahead. After so many years of anguish, the relatives of the thousands of who were killed deserve a chance at justice. It took 13 years and enormous international pressure to persuade Serbian authorities to finally arrest Mr. Karadzic. (He was living in Belgrade posing as a New Age healer.) He faces 11 charges of war crimes and genocide, for his role in the 43-month siege of Sarajevo, the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica and the so-called ethnic-cleansing campaign against Bosnian Muslims and Croats. Slobodan Milosevic, the murderous former Yugoslav leader, played similar games with the war crimes court for four years, only to die of a heart attack before a formal verdict was rendered. Mr. Karadzic seems equally determined to mock the court and draw things out. He refused to send a lawyer to Monday’s hearing, refused to enter pleas, demanded more time to prepare for trial and - unsuccessfully - claimed immunity from prosecution, asserting that he had cut a deal with the former United States peace envoy, Richard Holbrooke, in 1996. Mr. Holbrooke has denied this. The court must accord Mr. Karadzic appropriate rights, but it cannot let him control the process.

MIDDLE EAST

Opportunities Fade Amid Sense of Isolation in Gaza - Ethan Bronner, New York Times. The bank executive sits in a suit and tie behind his broad empty desk with plenty of time to talk. Almost no loans are being issued or corporate plans made. The Texas-trained engineer closed his firm because nothing is being built. The business student who dreamed of attending an American university - filling a computer file with meticulous hopes and plans - has stopped dreaming. He goes from school to a part-time job to home, where he joins his merchant father who sits unemployed. Ten months after the Israeli military said it invaded this Palestinian coastal strip to stop the daily rocket fire of its Islamist rulers, there are many ways to measure the misery of Gaza. Bits of rubble are being cleared, but nothing is going up. Several thousand homes remain destroyed. Several dozen families still live in United Nations tents strung amid their ruined houses. A three-year-old embargo on Hamas imposed by Israel and Egypt keeps nearly all factories shut and supplies away. Eighty percent of the population gets some form of assistance. But the misery of the educated and professional class has a particular poignancy. Many abroad view Gaza as a large slum, yet there is near universal literacy here and infant mortality is low by regional standards. Midsize glass towers gleam. Many thousands have advanced degrees. Half a dozen stylish restaurants fill each day with young women - a few with heads uncovered - carrying laptop computers, and with the underemployed, who smoke hookahs and lament their future.

Gaza: Hamas Tightens, then Backs Off, Islamic Social Strictures - Erin Cunningham, Christian Science Monitor. Like many high-schoolers in Gaza City, Diana Hawajiri often favors trendy jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, and a head scarf. But when she showed up after the summer break, signs posted at her government-run school announced that it was mandatory for all female students to wear the jalibab - a loose dress designed to shroud the female figure. Diana complied. And though the decision was later rescinded, she still wears the garment to avoid criticism both at school and in public, she says. The warnings appeared at the same time a similar Hamas government-sponsored campaign condemned Western-style clothing and other "vices." The government also issued a decree ordering female lawyers to cover their heads in court. After a media outcry, Hamas backtracked on some measures - and denied any plan to implement strict Islamic law in the territory it has controlled since ousting Fatah fighters two years ago.

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.