President Obama has asked senior officials for a province-by-province analysis of Afghanistan to determine which regions are being managed effectively by local leaders and which require international help, information that his advisers say will guide his decision on how many additional US troops to send to the battle. Obama made the request in a meeting Monday with Vice President Biden and a small group of senior advisers helping him decide whether to expand the war. The detail he is now seeking also reflects the administration's turn toward Afghanistan's provincial governors, tribal leaders and local militias as potentially more effective partners in the effort than a historically weak central government that is confronting questions of legitimacy after the flawed Aug. 20 presidential election.

--Washington Post

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN

Obama Seeks Study on Local Leaders for Troop Decision - Scott Wilson and Greg Jaffe, Washington Post. President Obama has asked senior officials for a province-by-province analysis of Afghanistan to determine which regions are being managed effectively by local leaders and which require international help, information that his advisers say will guide his decision on how many additional US troops to send to the battle. Obama made the request in a meeting Monday with Vice President Biden and a small group of senior advisers helping him decide whether to expand the war. The detail he is now seeking also reflects the administration's turn toward Afghanistan's provincial governors, tribal leaders and local militias as potentially more effective partners in the effort than a historically weak central government that is confronting questions of legitimacy after the flawed Aug. 20 presidential election. "This is obviously a complicated security environment in Afghanistan, and the president wants the clearest possible understanding of what the challenges are to our forces and what is required to meet that challenge," said a senior administration official who has participated in the Afghanistan policy review and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss it. "Any successful and sustainable strategy must clearly align the resources we provide with the goals we are trying to achieve."

Afghan Runoff Stirs Concern of Repeat Fraud - Gary Thomas, Voice of America. Afghanistan is scheduled to hold its runoff presidential election November 7. But can an electoral process that was so deeply marred by fraud the first time around be fixed in a short time? There is concern the second round of voting will prove to be as flawed as the first. The runoff election between incumbent President Hamid Karzai and his main challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah faces multiple challenges: Taliban intimidation, voter apathy and cynicism, increasingly harsh winter weather, and, most of all, a turnaround time of only two weeks. US Special Envoy on Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke believes the second round of voting will be cleaner than the first. "It is reasonable to hope that there will be less irregularities this time for several reasons," said Richard Holbrooke. "One, there are only two candidates; two, there is the experience factor; three, the international community, including the forces under General McChrystal's command, are going to go all out to help make this a success." The United States wants a relatively clean election while it considers whether to send more troops and resources to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban.

In Afghan Village, French Outreach Yields an Ambush - Yaroslav Trofimov, Wall Street Journal. At 10 a.m. Sunday, a dozen ragged schoolboys, who had been milling around this village's school after a meeting between Western soldiers and local elders, melted away, followed by their white-capped headmaster. Then, 30 seconds after the last boy carried away the blackboard, the ambush began. From crevices in the craggy hills to the north, Afghan insurgents fired machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades at a French Foreign Legion unit that had entered Rodbar earlier in the morning. The ensuing firefight ended only after attack helicopters and heavy mortars pummeled the mountainsides, finally repelling the rebels beyond the ridgeline. Rodbar, a village of several dozen mud houses on the front line between government-held and insurgent-controlled parts of Afghanistan, isn't in some remote outback: It is part of Kabul province's Surobi district, about 50 miles east of the capital. "Surobi is important because it offers the keys to Kabul," says Col. Benoit Durieux, commander of the Foreign Legion task force here. The Foreign Legion's experience in the village illustrates the tough challenges the 100,000 US-led coalition troops face in Afghanistan. One of the most difficult ones: how hard it is to ascertain and win the loyalties of local civilians, a key condition for rolling back the spreading insurgency.

5 UN staffers killed in Kabul - Pamela Constable, Washington Post. A squad of Taliban fighters disguised as police officers stormed a guesthouse in the Afghan capital just after dawn Wednesday, killing five foreign UN workers, including one American, and leaving three other people dead in a two-hour gun battle with Afghan security forces and UN guards. Taliban spokesmen said the attack was the first in a wave of operations intended to disrupt a presidential runoff election scheduled for Nov. 7. The Islamist militia appeared to have targeted the guesthouse because about 20 UN election workers were staying there. Afghan officials said that the attack would not affect the election and that up to 300,000 security forces would be deployed to protect the polls nationwide. But the brazen assault in a quiet, affluent section of this heavily patrolled capital raised questions about the government's ability to secure the hastily scheduled election. Senior UN officials here vowed that the incident would not deter them from continuing their work in Afghanistan. But with all foreign UN workers here now confined to their lodgings and facing more threats of violence, it remained unclear whether the international mission would be able to follow through on its avowed commitment to observe, review and assist with the vote.

Afghan Attack Puts Aid Programs at Risk - Alexandra Zavis, Los Angeles Times. The deaths of five UN employees in a Taliban assault on a Kabul guesthouse Wednesday is forcing the world body and humanitarian agencies to reevaluate the way they operate in Afghanistan, officials said, putting at risk programs aimed at helping millions of people and stabilizing the war-torn country. UN special representative Kai Eide said the attack, which killed eight people, including an American, would not deter his organization from continuing its reconstruction and development work. But already the ability of UN workers to deliver aid has been compromised. With less than two weeks to go before Afghanistan holds a runoff presidential election that is the focus of the world body's current efforts, all employees across the country were placed under lockdown, said Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. "This is the most serious incident that we have experienced in Afghanistan," Edwards said. "Previously when UN staff have been killed, they have usually been in close proximity to the military. It is not often that we are specifically targeted."

UN Chief: Bombing Will Not Deter UN from Afghan Mission - Margaret Besheer, Voice of America. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says Wednesday's suicide attack on a UN guest house in Kabul that killed nine people, including six UN staffers, will not deter the organization from its mission in Afghanistan. From UN headquarters in New York, Margaret Besheer reports Mr. Ban said the United Nations would continue to help the country prepare for the second round of its presidential election scheduled for next month. Mr. Ban told reporters today is a very "sad" and "difficult" day for the United Nations. "The world has lost women and men committed to the values of peace, dignity and respect for all," said Ban Ki-moon. "I condemn this shocking and shameless act and the terrorists who committed this crime." He said those who sacrificed their lives did so to help the Afghan people achieve a brighter future. "Those who gave their lives today came to Afghanistan, armed not with guns or bullets," he said. "They came with a more powerful weapon - hope. Hope for a better day for Afghanistan and a commitment to help its people build a better world and a better future. We will not be deterred from this noble mission. We stand by the people of Afghanistan today, and we will do so tomorrow."

Afghan President's Brother Denies CIA Payments - Voice of America. Afghan President Hamid Karzai's brother has denied an American newspaper report that he receives payments from the CIA. Ahmed Wali Karzai was responding Wednesday to a New York Times report that said he has been on the CIA payroll for much of the past eight years. The newspaper reported that the CIA still pays Karzai, who is accused of being a major player in the booming Afghan heroin trade, for services including recruiting a CIA-run Afghan paramilitary force and providing CIA agents with safehouses. The Times quoted Karzai as denying he has been paid by the CIA or has played a role in the opium trade that helps fund the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan. But Karzai acknowledged providing information to US intelligence officials without compensation. CIA officials declined comment.

Reported Ties From CIA to a Karzai Spur Rebukes - Mark Mazzetti, New York Times. Senior lawmakers from both parties on Wednesday criticized what American officials said were financial ties between the Central Intelligence Agency and Ahmed Wali Karzai, a brother of the Afghan president, with one top Democrat suggesting that intelligence officials had misled him about Mr. Karzai’s role in Afghanistan’s opium trade. The Democrat, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, demanded that members of Congress receive “untainted” information about Mr. Karzai’s drug connections in light of a news report that Mr. Karzai was on the CIA payroll. Mr. Kerry’s statement came days after he said in a public forum that there was no “smoking gun” evidence linking Mr. Karzai to the drug trade. Mr. Kerry said he had repeatedly been assured by intelligence officials that the evidence was inconclusive. Mr. Kerry and other senior members of Congress were reacting to an article in The New York Times on Wednesday in which current and former American officials said that Mr. Karzai, the younger brother of President Hamid Karzai and a powerful figure in southern Afghanistan, was on the CIA payroll for much of the past eight years. The Obama administration is wrestling with a new Afghanistan strategy amid uncertainty about whether President Karzai’s government can survive questions about its legitimacy.

Taliban Stage Pair of Bloody Raids - Yaroslav Trofimov and Matthew Rosenberg, Wall Street Journal. Taliban groups killed more than 100 people in Pakistan and Afghanistan Wednesday, striking a Peshawar women's market and a Kabul guesthouse used by United Nations personnel, just as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in the region. Both attacks were extraordinary: Pakistan's was the country's deadliest in two years; Afghanistan's represented a shift by Taliban leaders toward targeting the UN because of its role in the country's election process. The bigger loss of life Wednesday occurred in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, when a car bomb ripped through the crowded Meena Bazaar, a market selling women's clothes that Taliban zealots deem insufficiently conservative. More than 90 people were killed as a fire sparked by the explosion engulfed the neighborhood, trapping many residents under the rubble of burning buildings. It was the second huge blast this month to hit a market in Peshawar, the main city in northwestern Pakistan, extending a series of bombings seen by the government as retaliation for a military offensive against insurgents in the region. The attack on the UN in Kabul may have more far-reaching repercussions. Five U.N. officials, including one American, were killed, and several others wounded early Wednesday morning when Taliban gunmen stormed a Kabul guesthouse where UN election staff were staying.

US Quietly Speeds Aid for Pakistani Drives on Taliban - Eric Schmitt, New York Times. Even as the Pakistani government plays down the American role in its military operations in Taliban-controlled areas along the border with Afghanistan, the United States has quietly rushed hundreds of millions of dollars in arms, equipment and sophisticated sensors to Pakistani forces in recent months, said senior American and Pakistani officials. During preparations this spring for the Pakistani campaigns in Swat and South Waziristan, President Obama personally intervened at the request of Pakistan’s top army general to speed the delivery of 10 Mi-17 troop transport helicopters. Senior Pentagon officials have also hurried spare parts for Cobra helicopter gunships, night vision goggles, body armor and eavesdropping equipment to the fight. American military surveillance drones are feeding video images and target information to Pakistani ground commanders, and the Pentagon has quietly provided the Pakistani Air Force with high-resolution, infrared sensors for F-16 warplanes, which Pakistan is using to guide bomb attacks on militants’ strongholds in South Waziristan. In addition, the number of American Special Forces soldiers and support personnel who are training and advising Pakistani Army and paramilitary troops has doubled in the past eight months, to as many as 150, an American adviser said. The Americans do not conduct combat operations.

Car Bomb in Northwest Pakistan Kills 100 - Sean Maroney, Voice of America. A car bomb has killed at least 100 people and wounded more than 200 others in a shopping area of the northwestern Pakistan city of Peshawar. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Pakistan just hours earlier for a three-day visit. The blast in Peshawar was the deadliest single attack this year in Pakistan. Witnesses say the explosion hit a crowded market late in the day, Wednesday, killing mostly women and children. A large fire then broke out, engulfing several shops and spewing a cloud of gray smoke over the area. Several buildings collapsed. Rescue workers frantically searched for survivors in the debris. The attack occurred as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with top Pakistani leaders in the capital, Islamabad. She strongly condemned the attack. "These attacks on innocent people are cowardly," said Clinton. "They are not courageous. If the people behind these attacks were so sure of their beliefs, let them join the political process." Speaking alongside the Secretary, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had a defiant message for the militants. "We defeated you in Swat and Malakand," he said. "And the brave soldiers and officers of the Pakistani army will defeat you in Waziristan."

Blast Eclipses Clinton's Pakistan Visit - Karen DeYoung and Haq Nawaz Khan, Washington Post. The deadliest bombing in Pakistan in two years quickly overshadowed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's first official visit here Wednesday, drawing attention away from her goal of promoting a broad US-Pakistan relationship based on more than the shared fight against terrorism. In a dinner toast to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Clinton tried to address the military's battle against Taliban insurgents as well as the US development assistance she came here to highlight. "Those who your brave soldiers are fighting against as we meet here tonight are destroyers, not builders," she told guests at a gathering Zardari hosted in her honor at the presidential palace. Just a few hours earlier, at least 100 people were killed and 200 were injured when a powerful car bomb tore through a crowded market in the northwestern city of Peshawar. Hospital officials said two-thirds of the dead were women and children. News of the attack reached the capital just after 2 p.m., as Clinton was discussing a $125 million energy aid package with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. At a news conference immediately afterward, Clinton said: "I want you to know this fight is not Pakistan's alone. ... These extremists are committed to destroying what is dear to us as much as they are committed to destroying that which is dear to you and to all people. So this is our struggle as well."

Deadly Pakistan Attack Hits Market Filled With Women - Alex Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times. The locale of the latest spasm of violence to strike Pakistan - a car bomb attack that killed 100 people - wasn't surprising. Perched on the fringe of the Taliban-infested badlands along the Afghan border, Peshawar has been hit several times by bombings that have claimed scores of lives this year. But the target Wednesday marked a disturbing twist in the Islamic militants' agenda: a bustling market that catered to women, many of them with children in tow. The blast, fueled by an estimated 220 pounds of explosives, ripped through the Meena Bazaar, a warren of fabric stalls, cosmetics shops and clothing stores that teems with women on afternoon shopping trips. More than 200 people were injured in the explosion, the deadliest terrorist strike ever in the city of 3 million. Several buildings along the market's narrow street were leveled, and the attack sent shock waves through a country already made weary by a monthlong campaign of violence that has now claimed at least 280 lives - 167 of them in Peshawar. At Lady Reading Hospital, wards were filled with badly wounded women, some with their injured children in the next beds.

Transcripts of Defeat - Victor Sebestyen, New York Times opinion. The highly decorated general sat opposite his commander in chief and explained the problems his army faced fighting in the hills around Kabul: “There is no piece of land in Afghanistan that has not been occupied by one of our soldiers at some time or another,” he said. “Nevertheless much of the territory stays in the hands of the terrorists. We control the provincial centers, but we cannot maintain political control over the territory we seize. “Our soldiers are not to blame. They’ve fought incredibly bravely in adverse conditions. But to occupy towns and villages temporarily has little value in such a vast land where the insurgents can just disappear into the hills.” He went on to request extra troops and equipment. “Without them, without a lot more men, this war will continue for a very, very long time,” he said. These sound as if they could be the words of Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top American commander in Afghanistan, to President Obama in recent days or weeks. In fact, they were spoken by Sergei Akhromeyev, the commander of the Soviet armed forces, to the Soviet Union’s Politburo on Nov. 13, 1986.

Troop Level in Afghanistan is the Easy Part - Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times opinion. President Obama's in-house debate on troop levels in Afghanistan isn't over yet, but it's a safe bet what he'll do: split the difference. Obama's military commander, Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, requested between 10,000 and 40,000 additional troops. The president appears headed toward a number in the middle. But the number of troops, as both McChrystal and Obama have said, is not the most important thing. More important are the answers to three questions: Will US goals be limited to make them more achievable? Will Obama make it clear that this troop increase is the last one the Pentagon will get? And can the US succeed in nudging Afghanistan toward a more functional, less corrupt government, without which the whole enterprise will fail? First, the mission. Last March, when he made his initial decision to increase the number of US troops in Afghanistan, Obama declared what he apparently thought was "a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future." The problem was that the military's counterinsurgency strategists took the president at his word and began planning a strategy to prevent Al Qaeda's return to Afghanistan, which in turn meant they would have to prevent Al Qaeda's ally, the Taliban, from controlling Afghan territory. Defeating the Taliban required a counterinsurgency campaign over most of the country. For such an ambitious mission, McChrystal's request for 40,000 US troops atop the 68,000 deployed seems too modest.

Counterterrorism Begs for a Strategy - Richard B. Myers, Washington Times opinion. The world is watching as the United States government grapples with the next steps in Afghanistan. Whatever strategy is finally determined to be appropriate, this will be a decision just for Afghanistan, and perhaps Pakistan. It will not be the development of a global strategy to deal with worldwide violent extremism. The answer in Afghanistan perhaps might be more discernable if viewed in the context of a strategy that dealt with the broader issue of violent extremism. This lack of a comprehensive global strategy has been a problem since 9/11. Sadly, this broader strategy never gets the attention and hard thought it deserves, as the importance and urgency of the moment always trumps the time needed to develop a more strategic view. We met hundreds of times in the White House Situation Room on Iraq and Afghanistan, but only a handful of times on how to address the global problem. There are three fundamental elements of such a strategy.

Keeping Our Allies On Our Side in Afghanistan - Leo Michel and Robert Hunter, Los Angeles Times opinion. 'There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies," observed Winston Churchill in 1945, "and that is fighting without them." It's a truth worth recalling as the Obama administration nears crucial decisions on Afghanistan. American commentators often shortchange allied efforts in Afghanistan, ignoring the facts and insulting our friends. The European allies and Canada provide about half of the 73,000 troops in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, and they account for nearly 40% of Western combat deaths since 2001. Estonia, Denmark, Canada, Britain, the Netherlands and Latvia have lost more soldiers per capita than has the United States. Bravery is not an American monopoly. Most allies report many soldiers volunteering to return to Afghanistan despite the increased violence. A Canadian officer who lost his leg in a roadside bomb attack in 2007 recently returned to Kandahar, in his words, "to do good." Dutch soldiers engaged in the dangerous Uruzgan province since 2006 have none of the uncertainty about their mission that marked those who were accused of failing to stop the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia.

IRAQ

Deep Corruption Rattles Iraq’s Fragile State - Marc Santora, New York Times. As Iraqi officials work to assign blame for the deadly attacks on the heart of the government on Sunday, concern is rising that a greater security threat may come from within the system in the form of corruption, from the top leadership of ministries down to soldiers who man checkpoints. A recent internal report on corruption by the inspector general of the Interior Ministry specifically mentions the bribery of checkpoint guards: The blast on Sunday at the Justice Ministry, surrounded by checkpoints, killed nearly 160 people, while a similar attack in August on the Foreign and Finance Ministries killed at least 122. “These car bombs didn’t come from the sky!” said Judge Abdul Sattar al-Beiriqdar, spokesman for the Higher Judicial Council. “They must have been driven in streets until they reached their target. If there were no corruption, the attackers wouldn’t risk passing through these checkpoints.” But the corruption runs much deeper, endangering the fragile sense of security in Iraq as America draws down its forces, with security services that seem aimed as much at enriching themselves as protecting average Iraqis, according to dozens of interviews with police officers and officials as well as the report by the Interior Ministry.

Kurds Plan to Boycott Iraqi Vote On Kirkuk - Gina Chon, Wall Street Journal. Kurdish lawmakers said they will boycott an Iraqi parliament session on Thursday if members are asked to choose which voter-registration records to use to hold polls in the disputed area of Kirkuk. A national election law has stalled over voting procedures in Kirkuk, a contested, oil-rich region in the north claimed by Kurds, Arabs and Turkomen. To move the legislation forward, parliament's legal committee and Speaker Ayad al-Sammaraie wanted lawmakers to vote Thursday over which voter-registration records to use in Kirkuk. Sunni Arabs and Turkmen favor the 2004 records because that list doesn't account for a big population increase of Kurds in Kirkuk after that year. Under Saddam Hussein's Arabization policy, thousands of Kurds were kicked out of Kirkuk, but returned after the US-led invasion in 2003. The other alternative would use records for 2005 or 2009, favored by the Kurds. On Wednesday, the Kurdish bloc, the second-largest in parliament, said a decision shouldn't be put to a vote but instead negotiated. "If they vote on this, we will not enter the hall and we will boycott the session," independent Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman said.

Iraq to Vote on Kirkuk Balloting Guidelines - Voice of America. A member of the Iraqi parliament's legal committee, Salim Abdullah al-Jibouri, says lawmakers have agreed to vote by Thursday on balloting guidelines for the oil-rich northern region of Kirkuk. A stalemate over the issue of voting guidelines for Kirkuk, an ethnically mixed region that includes Kurdish, Arab and Turkmen communities, has been jeopardizing nationwide elections scheduled for January 16. Among the issues the lawmakers will decide is whether to use current voter records for Kirkuk or a voter registry dating back to 2004. The United Nations has proposed using the 2009 voter records, and that option is supported by the Kurds. Arab lawmakers favor using the 2004 registry. Last week, a UN special envoy, Ad Melkert, involved in the negotiations warned that further delays could undermine both the scheduled date and the credibility of the elections. In April, the United Nations presented a report on reducing ethnic tensions and resolving territorial disputes in areas such as Kirkuk. The report outlined four possible options for the province. It said all of the options were developed with the Iraqi constitution in mind and all of the proposals required a political agreement and some form of a referendum.

For Every Iraqi Party, an Army of Its Own - Najim Abed al-Jabouri, New York Times opinion. Sunday's coordinated suicide bombings in Baghdad, which killed more than 150 people, were a brutal reminder of how far Iraq still has to go in terms of security. While things are far better than a few years ago, one huge task remains: getting the public to trust the Iraqi security forces. From 2005 to 2008, I was the mayor of Tel Afar, a town in Nineveh Province in northern Iraq that become the model for the “clear, hold and build” strategy credited with turning the war around during the surge. In some ways, the story of Tel Afar is indicative of what we are now seeing on a larger scale in Iraq. In 2004, Tel Afar was plagued by insurgency and terrorism, the result of missed chances and poor decisions by both the American and the Iraqi governments. In early 2005, however, I was approached by Col. H. R. McMaster, an innovative American brigade commander (he is now a brigadier general) who agreed with me that security efforts should focus on gaining the confidence of the people and not only on killing the enemy. We went to work building bridges with the population. The Iraqi government needs to apply these same principles to the national security forces. Both the military and the police remain heavily politicized. The police and border officials, for example, are largely answerable to the Interior Ministry, which has been seen (often correctly) as a pawn of Shiite political movements. Members of the security forces are often loyal not to the state but to the person or political party that gave them their jobs.

IRAN

House Panel Approves Bill to Punish Iran - Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times. A House committee, seeking to pressure Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions, approved a bill Wednesday aimed at punishing Tehran by cutting off its access to gasoline and other refined petroleum products. The measure, which would give the president powers to take action against foreign companies that sell refined petroleum to Iran, is popular on Capitol Hill, and three-quarters of House members have cosponsored the legislation. But the measure could undermine Obama administration efforts to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear development program. If talks fail and further sanctions become necessary, administration officials prefer to enact measures supported by many countries, rather than just one. "We prefer this be done in a multilateral fashion," said Ian Kelly, a State Department spokesman. The legislative measure still must win passage by the full House and Senate. But initial approval by the House Foreign Affairs Committee came at a crucial moment. The Iranian leadership is expected to announce today whether it accepts an international proposal to export much of the country's existing stock of enriched uranium to be modified and returned to Iran for medical and research purposes.

Iran to Respond to UN Nuclear Deal by Thursday - Edward Yeranian, Voice of America. Iran's official Arabic-language al Alam TV is reporting Iran's parliament will discuss the United Nations draft nuclear deal proposed by the United States, France and Russia, giving a formal reply to the International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday. The Iranian Student News Agency reported earlier the head of the parliament's national security committee, Alaedin Borujurdi, would put the UN draft nuclear deal between Tehran and the West to a vote of his committee after discussing its pros and cons. The IAEA draft deal calls for Iran to ship its stockpile of low-grade enriched uranium to Russia to be transformed into more highly enriched uranium for use in Tehran's medical research reactor. Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, who was once Tehran's top nuclear negotiator, decried the draft deal Saturday, accusing the West of "trying to cheat and impose [its] will on us," as he put it.Several Iranian politicians close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have demanded Tehran ship only part of its enriched-uranium stockpile abroad until some of the batch shipped to Russia was returned in more highly enriched form. Meir Javedanfar of the MEEPAS Center in Tel Aviv says the Iranian critics of the nuclear deal with the West are suspicious of the terms of the agreement.

Iran's President Appears to Back Nuclear Proposal - Borzou Daragahi and Ramin Mostaghim, Los Angeles Times. Iran's president today appeared to lend support to an International Atomic Energy Agency proposal to ship the bulk of his country's enriched uranium abroad, casting it as a victory for Iranian steadfastness as the world awaits Tehran's formal response to the deal. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the West had changed its policies from "confrontation to cooperation" as a result of Iran's "resistance against enemies," presumably a reference to the United States and its allies. "In the past they said that we had to halt our nuclear activities," he told supporters in the eastern Iranian city of Mashhad, according to state television, which broadcast the speech live. "But today they say, 'Come consult about finding solutions for world problems,' and they want to cooperate for the exchange of fuel and development of nuclear technology and establishing a nuclear plant." Western diplomats and international arms control inspectors eagerly await Tehran's formal response to a proposal to take 1,200 kilograms, or 2,560 pounds, of its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France by year's end to be further refined and fitted for a medical reactor in the Iranian capital.

Tehran Court Gives British Embassy ‘Plotter’ a Four-year Sentence - Catherine Philp, The Times. A senior Iranian employee of the British Embassy in Tehran has been given a four-year prison sentence after being found guilty of fomenting violence at the behest of the British Government, The Times has learnt. Hossein Rassam, 44, the embassy’s political counsellor, was sentenced in a closed courtroom this week, although the outcome is yet to be publicly announced. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office learnt of his sentence on Tuesday and summoned the Iranian ambassador in protest. The British ambassador in Tehran has also lodged an official complaint. Mr Rassam was one of eight Iranian staff at the British Embassy arrested after mass street protests that erupted in cities across Iran following the disputed re-election of President Ahmadinejad on June 12. Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, blamed the protests by opposition supporters on a British plot to bring down the regime. Britain denies any involvement. The embassy staff were among hundreds of people rounded up and detained after the disturbances. Seven others were released without charge but Mr Rassam was sent to the notorious Evin prison in Tehran and charged with being the “kingpin” behind a British plot. In a statement to The Times, David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said that Mr Rassam’s sentence was unacceptable and urged that it be immediately repealed. He dismissed the charges against Mr Rassam as “wholly without foundation”.

Getting Ready for the Islamic Bomb - Washington Times editorial. The White House believes there is an Islamic bomb in your future. Associated Press reported Tuesday that the Obama administration is "quietly laying the groundwork for long-range strategy that could be used to contain a nuclear-equipped Iran and deter its leaders from using atomic weapons." Granted this could be routine contingency planning, but it's believable that President Obama is pursuing an acquiescent policy given his foundering efforts to dissuade Iran from developing a nuclear capability. American planners are pondering whether Iran can be deterred from using nuclear weapons. This is the wrong question. They should instead examine how the United States will be deterred should Iran go nuclear. Even under the current equation (the United States has nuclear weapons and Iran does not), Iran is the number one state sponsor of terrorists, supplies Hamas and Hezbollah with rockets and conventional weapons, and gives materiel, training and intelligence support to extremists in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iran is directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of more American military personnel than any other country since the Vietnam War. Tehran does not lack the will to stand up to the United States even without nuclear weapons. It's chilling to consider how much more bold Iran will be with an atomic arsenal.

Iran: Can Obama Play Hardball? - Robert Kagan, Washington Post opinion. Watching the Obama administration launch its "new era of engagement" over the past 10 months, most seasoned observers have pondered two questions: First, if engagement fails, will the Obama team ever acknowledge that it has failed? And what then? The first question is about to be answered. The main object of the "new era of engagement," Iran, has settled back into its old game-playing. The joint proposal agreed to by the United States, France and Russia, to have Iran ship 70 percent of its low-enriched uranium to Russia this year, was a compromise, as administration officials acknowledge. It might theoretically have delayed Iran's bomb program by a year or so - assuming we know everything about that program - and thus bought some time to get a better and more definitive agreement with Tehran. But it would not have stopped Iran from continuing to enrich uranium, which has been the goal of the United States and Europe for the better part of a decade. The deal, blessed and promoted by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, not exactly a hawk, was really more a test of Iran's intentions than a decisive breakthrough.

UNITED STATES

Islamic Leader Slain in Michigan - Associated Press. Federal authorities Wednesday arrested several members of a radical Sunni Islamic group in the US, killing one of its leaders in a shootout at a Dearborn, Mich., warehouse, the US attorney's office said. Agents were trying to arrest Luqman Ameen Abdullah, 53, on charges that included conspiracy to sell stolen goods and illegal possession and sale of firearms. Authorities also conducted raids elsewhere to try to round up 10 followers named in a federal complaint. No one was charged with terrorism. But Abdullah was "advocating and encouraging his followers to commit violent acts against the United States," FBI agent Gary Leone said in an affidavit filed with the 43-page criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday. FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold said Abdullah refused to surrender, fired a weapon and was killed by gunfire from agents. In the complaint, the FBI said Abdullah, also known as Christopher Thomas, was an imam, or prayer leader, of a radical group named Ummah whose primary mission is to establish an Islamic state within the United States.

Loosening of FBI Rules Stirs Privacy Concerns - Charlie Savage, New York Times. After a Somali-American teenager from Minneapolis committed a suicide bombing in Africa in October 2008, the Federal Bureau of Investigation began investigating whether a Somali Islamist group had recruited him on United States soil. Instead of collecting information only on people about whom they had a tip or links to the teenager, agents fanned out to scrutinize Somali communities, including in Seattle and Columbus, Ohio. The operation unfolded as the Bush administration was relaxing some domestic intelligence-gathering rules. The FBI’s interpretation of those rules was recently made public when it released, in response to a Freedom of Information lawsuit, its “Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide.” The disclosure of the manual has opened the widest window yet onto how agents have been given greater power in the post-Sept. 11 era. In seeking the revised rules, the bureau said it needed greater flexibility to hunt for would-be terrorists inside the United States. But the manual’s details have alarmed privacy advocates.

WORLD

Makeshift Bombs Spread Beyond Afghanistan, Iraq - Thom Shanker, New York Times. American military officers are expressing concern over the spreading use of makeshift bombs beyond the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan to other countries in the region, as well as in East Asia and South America. Improvised explosive devices, as the military calls them, have been the largest killer of American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, showing up with devastating effect in Pakistan and India, but also with less notice in Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Colombia, Somalia and parts of North Africa. Even Russian security forces have faced the devices in the republics of Ingushetia and Dagestan, although attacks in Chechnya have fallen. “There is a robust and constant IED effort among violent extremists who are using it as their weapon of choice,” said Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz, director of the Pentagon’s organization in charge of seeking ways to counter improvised explosives. “That won’t change for decades. We are in this fight for a long time.” General Metz, who will discuss the spread of improvised bombs during testimony on Thursday before a House Armed Services subcommittee, said global IED cases outside Iraq and Afghanistan averaged about 300 per month. The count includes detonations and the discovery of intact devices. The military’s global statistics on the bombs remain classified, to prevent extremists from knowing what the United States knows. But a compilation of worldwide episodes from private-sector security consultants illustrates the threat.

AFRICA

Zimbabwe Officials Refuse Entry to UN Investigator Despite Ministry Invitation - Jan Raath, The Times. The United Nations’ chief torture investigator was stranded at Harare airport last night, barred from entering Zimbabwe even though he had been invited by the country’s Government. Manfred Nowak, the UN special rapporteur on torture, was due to spend a week in the country to investigate allegations of human rights abuses. He had been invited formally by Patrick Chinamasa, the Justice Minister, in February. However, late last night he and his two aides were haggling with immigration officials at the airport after being told that he did not have security clearance and would have to catch the next aircraft out this morning. “I have never been treated in any other country in this way,” he told The Times. “This is a major diplomatic incident.” Human rights agencies in Harare began to grow suspicious on Friday when they discovered that the Justice Ministry had drawn up no programme for Mr Nowak. He was leaving his department’s headquarters in Geneva on Tuesday when a call came from an official at the Zimbabwean Embassy, informing him that the trip had been “postponed” because it was clashing with a visit by three southern African foreign ministers. Mr Nowak rejected the excuse as no way to treat the UN and asked Morgan Tsvangirai, the Prime Minister of the unity Government, to intercede.

For Congo's Military, a Mine of Difficulties - Sarah Childress, Wall Street Journal. The Congolese army has routed guerrillas from mines across the country's east in recent months, shifting control of a handful of mines to the military from ethnic rebel fighters. Human-rights advocates and mineral-industry groups say the military may now be trying to consolidate its own power over Congo's rich mineral mines, with little ability to improve conditions for the thousands of miners scraping a living from the trade. Some groups accusing the military of complicity in mining and trading so-called blood minerals - those mined amid violence, sold to fund conflict, or both. "As long as the region remains so militarized, even more now with these operations, it's very likely that the minerals are very directly profiting - if not [militia groups] - then the army itself," says Carina Tertsakian, a researcher for London-based Global Witness, an independent advocacy group. "The national army doesn't occupy any mines, because they are busy tracking the FDLR," the dominant armed rebel group, says Colette Mikila Embenako, mining minister for the eastern province of South Kivu. Col. Kahimbi Delphin, commander of operations in South Kivu province, says the military isn't profiting from mining.

AMERICAS

US Defends Cuba Policy Amid UN Condemnation - David Gollust, Voice of America. The Obama administration on Wednesday defended the long-running US economic embargo against Cuba in the face of another overwhelming UN General Assembly vote condemning American policy toward the island nation. But administration officials also stressed efforts to reach out to the Cuba's communist government. The Obama administration says it has broken with its predecessors in opening dialogue with Cuba on several fronts. But it also says it does not intend to reward Havana by lifting sanctions until it improves human rights conditions. The comments followed an overwhelming vote in the UN General Assembly on a non-binding resolution condemning the 47-year-old US trade embargo against Cuba and urging Washington lift the restrictions. This is the 18th consecutive year that the assembly has gone on record against US Cuba policy. The number of countries supporting the United States on the matter has dwindled over the years. Wednesday's resolution was 187 votes in favor, three against and two abstentions. Only Israel and the Pacific island state of Palau sided with the United States. Two other Pacific states, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands, abstained.

Chilean Leader’s Legacy: Upended Traditions and Balanced Books - Alexei Barrionuevo, New York Times. At first, breaking the gender barrier in South America did not go smoothly for Michelle Bachelet. In 2006, she had just captured the world’s attention, becoming the first woman to be elected president of this deeply conservative country. And she had done it alone, without the famous husbands that had propelled other female presidents in Latin America. But one month after taking office, Ms. Bachelet faced huge student demonstrations across the country. Her support fell further when a new public transportation system turned chaotic, leading critics to lampoon her with an image of her riding atop a city bus toward the edge of a cliff. “There was the distinct impression that she was not in control,” said Marta Lagos, director of Market Opinion Research International, a polling company in Chile. But with only five months until she leaves office, Ms. Bachelet is increasingly likely to be remembered as one of her country’s most popular leaders. Polls this month show her public approval to be above 70 percent, and in recent weeks she has recorded the highest levels since Chile went from dictatorship to democracy in 1990.

Venezuela Finds 11th Body in Massacre - Chris Kraul and Jenny Carolina Gonzalez, Los Angeles Times. Venezuelan authorities Wednesday recovered the body of the 11th and last man who was kidnapped near the Colombian border and killed execution-style in an incident that has stoked tensions between the neighboring countries. Officials in San Cristobal, the capital of the Venezuelan border state of Tachira, identified the final victim as Jose Luis Arenas, 21, a Colombian whose body was found near the town of El Pinal. The bodies of several other victims had been found there Saturday. Arenas was one of 12 men, 10 of them Colombians, who were kidnapped on a soccer field in southwestern Venezuela on Oct. 11 by unknown assailants. They were held for several days before being killed. Their bodies were found strewn around the countryside. Most of the Colombians were living on the Venezuelan side of the border. The unexplained killings added to tensions that have simmered for two years between the countries. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez refused this week to allow a Colombian air force plane to land in San Cristobal to repatriate the remains. The bodies of the Colombians were later sent back across the land border. Chavez hinted that the Colombians might have been spies, and revealed that his government last month had arrested an agent of the DAS, Colombia's equivalent of the FBI. He said Venezuela would try him on espionage charges.

ASIA PACIFIC

Estrada Begins Unlikely Comeback in Philippines - Carlos H. Conde, New York Times. It was an improbable sight: a slightly hunched man, with a gait that suggested either his age (72) or infirmity (a bad back and knees that required replacement surgery), beating up a taller opponent no older than 30. The older man ducked as the younger one tried to bang him with a piece of wood. He cut him down with a right to the abdomen and a left hook to the face, sending his adversary stumbling to the ground. Then another opponent got smacked in the face and kicked in the midsection with one of those bad knees. Yet another came along, and he, too, went down, crashing into a table. “I missed doing this,” the older man, Joseph Estrada - longtime actor and onetime president of the Philippines - said moments after the director cried “Cut!” Mr. Estrada then walked toward the gate of the bus terminal where the movie was being shot and waved at the gawking crowd, which delightedly waved back. He moved closer to his fans, who giggled, hugged and kissed him, some whipping out cellphone cameras. “Don’t forget me, okay? We will take back Malacanang!” he hollered as he clambered up the hood of a jeepney, the ubiquitous Philippine minibus. The crowd responded by chanting his moniker: “Erap! Erap! Erap!” Malacanang is the presidential palace, and Mr. Estrada managed to stay there for less than half of his six-year term. He was driven from office in 2001, during what is now known as People Power 2, after a Senate impeachment trial on allegations of corruption - including accusations he took kickbacks from gambling lords - was cut short by attempts by Mr. Estrada’s allies to suppress evidence, sending Filipinos to the streets in protest.

EUROPE

Russia's Political Murders - Washington Post editorial. Murders of human rights activists in Russia have been happening with such frequency that some will be tempted to shrug at the brutal slaying on Sunday of Maksharip Aushev, who campaigned against abuses by the security forces in the Caucasian republic of Ingushetia. Mr. Maksharip was driving on a major highway, in broad daylight, when a car pulled up beside him and delivered a fusillade of bullets. His funeral came two months after that of Zarema Sadulayeva, the head of a children's charity in neighboring Chechnya, and her husband, who were shot and stuffed in a car trunk. Those murders, in turn, followed the July 15 killing of Natalya Estemirova, Chechnya's most prominent human rights activist. No one has been arrested, much less held responsible, in any of these cases. No one has been charged for the murder last Jan. 19 of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova, who were gunned down on a busy street just blocks from the Kremlin. The murderers of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was assassinated outside her Moscow apartment three years ago this month, remain at large. These courageous men and women had in common their effort to hold Russian security forces accountable for the extrajudicial killings, torture and rape of innocent civilians in Chechnya, Ingushetia and other Caucasus republics.

MIDDLE EAST

Sunnis Say Crackdown Exposes Political Flaws - Jumana al-Tamimi, Washington Times. Iran's repressive behavior following fraud-tainted presidential elections is spreading ripples across the region, leading some Sunni Muslim religious figures and politicians who admire some aspects of Iran's political system to question a core belief of the Islamic republic. The debate centers on an Iranian institution called the velayet-e faqih, or guardianship of a leading jurist, which for the past 30 years has allowed a Shi'ite Muslim cleric to have the final say on all Iranian foreign and domestic policies. "During the past 30 years, Iran has been a model for Islamic ruling according to the Shi'ite sect," said Issam al Aryan, a top figure in the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the oldest political Islamic group. Judging from the June elections and the mass protests that followed, Mr. Aryan said, "Now I believe there is an attempt to move to another stage." He described it as a transition from the "guardianship of the jurist" to the "guardianship of the people" - an evolution toward democracy that he said could help bridge the gap between the Sunni and Shi'ite branches of Islam. The Brotherhood is a Sunni organization, and Sunni Muslims are a majority in most Arab countries, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Yemen, Iran trade Accusations About Houthi Rebels - Elizabeth Arrott, Voice of America. Yemen's government has confirmed reports its coast guard has seized an Iranian ship with arms it says were destined for Yemeni rebels. Iranian media counters the Yemeni government is using al-Qaida in its war against the Shi'ite rebels. Yemen's Interior Ministry says it is questioning five Iranians found aboard a ship captured earlier this week off Yemen's western coast. Local officials said weapons aboard the ship were destined for al-Houthi rebels, Zaidi Shi'ite followers of the late Malik al-Houthi who claim they are discriminated against in the majority-Sunni nation. The rebels and Iran deny any ties. As for the ship, Tehran first dismissed reports as a media lie. It now says the government charges are baseless. In addition, Iran's PressTV broadcast reports accusing the Yemeni government of seeking outside help. "A Yemeni official has reportedly met one of the top members of al-Qaida in Yemen," said the Iranian television presenter. "The two sides reportedly agreed that Saanaa will provide al-Qaida forces with light weapons." Yemen's government denies turning to al-Qaida in the fight against the rebels.

SOUTH ASIA

Indian PM Makes Fresh Offer of Dialogue to Pakistan - Anjana Pasricha, Voice of America. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has offered to talk on all issues to rival Pakistan provided it cracks down on terror groups based in the country. The Indian leader, who is visiting Indian Kashmir, also called on separatist groups in the region to join a dialogue with his government. Inaugurating a rail link in Indian Kashmir's Anantnag district, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said India and Pakistan can talk on a range of issues such as trade, and easing of travel procedures for families living across the Himalayan region's divided border. But Mr. Singh says for a productive dialogue, it is vital for Pakistan to destroy militant groups, their camps and infrastructure on its soil. The Indian Prime Minister says if Pakistan takes action on this, New Delhi will not be found wanting in its response. The offer of talks comes nearly a year after New Delhi virtually put on hold a peace dialogue between the two countries following last year's terror attacks in Mumbai, which India blamed on terrorists based in Pakistan. Mr. Singh said the five-year-old peace process has been repeatedly setback by terror attacks in India. The peace dialogue had lowered tensions between the rivals, but has flagged amid repeated Indian accusations that Pakistan is not doing enough to clamp down on terror groups operating from the country. Kashmir is split between the two countries, which have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan region.

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.