As violence rises in Afghanistan, the power balance between insurgent groups has shifted, with a weakened al-Qaeda relying increasingly on the emboldened Taliban for protection and the manpower to carry out deadly attacks, according to US military and intelligence officials.

-- Washington Post

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN

Obama Receives New Afghan Option - Peter Spiegel and Yochi Dreazen, Wall Street Journal. President Barack Obama on Wednesday will consider a new compromise plan for adding troops to Afghanistan that would deploy 30,000 to 35,000 new forces, including as many as 10,000 military trainers, over the next year or more. The new scenario combines reinforcements for fighting Taliban insurgents with trainers aimed at rapidly increasing the size and capabilities of Afghan troops to take on more operations themselves. It wouldn't aim to eliminate the Taliban, but weaken it until Afghan forces can secure major population centers themselves. A senior military official said this hybrid option is now drawing the most attention at the Pentagon. It will be considered along with options already proposed by the top US commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, when President Obama meets Wednesday with his war council at the White House. Officials said Mr. Obama is now expected to unveil his new Afghanistan strategy shortly after he returns from a trip to Asia on Nov. 19. The issue of troop levels has put Mr. Obama in a difficult position. Gen. McChrystal has argued that tens of thousands of additional troops are needed to successfully curb the Taliban's resurgence. But many Democratic lawmakers have signaled they don't support such a buildup, and the American public's support for the war has waned.

Top Obama Advisers Favor Adding Troops in Afghanistan - Elisabeth Bumiller and David E. Sanger, New York Times. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton are coalescing around a proposal to send 30,000 or more additional American troops to Afghanistan, but President Obama remains unsatisfied with answers he has gotten about how vigorously the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan would help execute a new strategy, administration officials said Tuesday. Mr. Obama is to consider four final options in a meeting with his national security team on Wednesday, his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, told reporters. The options outline different troop levels, other officials said, but they also assume different goals - including how much of Afghanistan the troops would seek to control - and different time frames and expectations for the training of Afghan security forces. Three of the options call for specific levels of additional troops. The low-end option would add 20,000 to 25,000 troops, a middle option calls for about 30,000, and another embraces Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s request for roughly 40,000 more troops. Administration officials said that a fourth option was added only in the past few days. They declined to identify any troop level attached to it. Mr. Gates, a Republican who served as President George W. Bush’s last defense secretary, and who commands considerable respect from the president, is expected to be pivotal in Mr. Obama’s decision. But administration officials cautioned that Mr. Obama had not yet made up his mind, and that other top advisers, among them Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, remained skeptical of the value of a buildup.

Obama, War Council to Review Afghanistan Troop Options - Christi Parsons and Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times. President Obama and his war council plan today to review four basic strategy options for Afghanistan that could increase the number of US troops there by as many as 40,000 or fewer than 10,000. The White House insisted Tuesday that Obama has not decided how many additional troops to send or how he will deploy them, though the White House has narrowed the options to those outlined by his national security team, the Pentagon and Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top US and allied commander in Afghanistan. All four options would retain some elements of a counterinsurgency strategy, current and former officials said. The administration is still considering McChrystal's primary recommendation for a reported 40,000 additional troops. A separate plan calls for sending 34,000 additional troops, said a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Such a plan remains close enough to McChrystal's primary request that it would allow him to conduct almost all of the operations he is contemplating, military officers and advisors said. International troops then could help make up the difference in the number sought by the Pentagon. The White House is considering a third option that McChrystal originally labeled a high-risk plan, which would continue his counterinsurgency strategy but send fewer than 20,000 additional troops.

Obama Aides Accuse Pentagon of Pressuring President Over Afghanistan - Alex Spillius, Daily Telegraph. Aides to Barack Obama have complained that the Pentagon is trying to force the president into committing large numbers of reinforcements to Afghanistan through leaks to the media. Tensions between the White House and senior members of the US armed forces are rising over the toughest decision the president has faced in his first year. Senior military officials and Republicans have accused him of dithering over the troop request from Gen Stanley McChrystal, the US and NATO commander in Afghanistan. McClatchy Newspapers and CBS News have reported that the president is set to announce between 34,000 and 40,000 extra US soldiers, numbers that would be at the upper end of Gen McChrystal's expectations. The reports said he would commit three combat brigades as part of the buildup over the next 12 months, as well support troops, and an additional contingent for training Afghan security forces to combat the Taliban. Two senior administration officials told CNN that they believed the information was being leaked by Pentagon sources trying to box in the president. "People at the Pentagon are trying to force a certain outcome," said one official. Underling the sensitivity of the issue at the White House, Gen James Jones, the national security adviser, made the unusual move of issuing a statement denying that the president had reached even a tentative conclusion.

In Afghanistan, Taliban Surpasses al-Qaeda - Joshua Partlow, Washington Post. As violence rises in Afghanistan, the power balance between insurgent groups has shifted, with a weakened al-Qaeda relying increasingly on the emboldened Taliban for protection and the manpower to carry out deadly attacks, according to US military and intelligence officials. The ascendancy of the Taliban and the relative decline of al-Qaeda have broad implications for the Obama administration as it seeks to define its enemy in Afghanistan and debates deploying tens of thousands of additional troops. Although the war in Afghanistan began as a response to al-Qaeda terrorism, there are perhaps fewer than 100 members of the group left in the country, according to a senior US military intelligence official in Kabul who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The official estimated that there are 300 al-Qaeda members in the tribal areas of Pakistan, where the group is based, compared with tens of thousands of Taliban insurgents on either side of the border. Yet officials and observers here differ over whether the inversion of the groups' traditional power dynamic has led to better or worse relations. Indeed, it may be bringing al-Qaeda closer to certain Taliban factions - most notably, forces loyal to former Taliban cabinet minister Jalaluddin Haqqani - and driving it apart from others, including leader Mohammad Omar's Pakistan-based group. The shifting alliances, analysts say, could have significant bearing on where the US military chooses to focus its firepower.

US Wants More NATO Troops for New Afghanistan Surge - Michael Evans, The Times. President Obama is to ask members of NATO to provide up to 4,000 more troops to help to break the deadlock in Afghanistan. Mr Obama is poised to confirm a surge of more than 30,000 US combat troops, according to senior military sources. He will also urge the rest of NATO to provide thousands of soldiers to train new recruits to the Afghan National Army (ANA). His appeal is set to be largely ignored, however. At present only two NATO members have offered more troops - Britain and Turkey - and no other country is expected to come up with any, according to alliance sources. Such a response would threaten the credibility of the alliance in Afghanistan and represent a considerable snub for Mr Obama, who was viewed as a welcome change after the administration of President Bush. NATO military officials are to meet in Belgium on November 23 at a “force generation” conference in which each ally will be asked to contribute towards the expansion of the ANA, either by sending extra trainers or more money for the training programme. Mr Obama is expected to confirm that the campaign in Afghanistan needs another 40,000 troops, meeting the request made by General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Kabul, more than ten weeks ago, but that a proportion of the 40,000 - up to ten per cent - should be for other NATO countries to provide.

British PM Defends Military Mission in Afghanistan - Tom Rivers, Voice of America. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says the costly, lengthy fight in Afghanistan must go on, but he says he hopes security responsibilities can start to be handed over to local Afghans beginning next year. Facing increasing public criticism of Britain's involvement in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Gordon Brown faced a barrage of questions at his monthly new conference regarding the British mission. Mr. Brown says after eight years of deployment, many in Britain want to know what their forces are still doing there and when will they be coming home. At Tuesday's news conference, Prime Minister Brown expressed once again his rationale for being engaged in the country. "The reasons that we went to Afghanistan in 2001 are still the reasons we are there, that we are trying to protect the streets of Britain from al-Qaida and from the supportive work that could be done on their behalf by the Taliban both in Pakistan and Afghanistan," he said. But in a recent BBC poll, two-fifths of those questioned said they did not even know why British forces are in Afghanistan. And nearly two-thirds of them said they wanted the forces brought home as soon as possible. Mr. Brown was asked about those sentiments being expressed up and down the country. He said his hope was that as more Afghan security forces and police are trained by NATO personnel, the British deployment can be reevaluated.

Britain to Train 10,000 More Afghan Troops to Speed Up Withdrawal - Michael Evans, The Times. Britain is to help to train 10,000 extra Afghan soldiers to serve in Helmand to bring forward the date when British troops can be withdrawn from parts of the province and replaced by Afghanistan’s national army. Under an Afghan-surge plan being discussed between Washington and London, British and American troops in Helmand would split the responsibility 50-50, taking part in an accelerated programme to boost the number of Afghan soldiers and police in the province to more than 17,000. After the murder of five British soldiers by an Afghan policeman trained by Britain’s military instructors, a fast-track system to bring another 10,000 ANA (Afghan National Army) into Helmand could have inherent risks. Major-General Jim Dutton, the British deputy commander of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, warned after the shooting in Nad-e Ali last week that similar incidents might occur. The additional 10,000 Afghan troops being deployed to Helmand will receive basic training in Kabul military schools and then transfer to Helmand, where they will be partnered by British and American units. Under the partnering concept, British troops carry out both combat and training, as they did in Iraq. However, concerns were expressed yesterday over the security implications for accelerating recruitment of Afghans for operations in Helmand.

Bomb Material Cache Uncovered in Afghanistan - Dexter Filkens, New York Times. With fertilizer bombs now the most lethal weapons used against American and NATO soldiers in southern Afghanistan, the bomb-making operation in Kandahar was something close to astonishing. In a pair of raids on Sunday, Afghan police officers and American soldiers discovered a half-million pounds of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer that is used in the overwhelming majority of homemade bombs here. About 2,000 bomb-making devices like timers and triggers were also found, and 15 Afghans were detained. With a typical homemade bomb weighing no more than 60 pounds, the seizure of that much fertilizer - more than 10 tractor-trailer loads - removed potentially thousands of bombs from the streets and trails of southern Afghanistan, officials said. “You can turn a bag of ammonium nitrate into a bomb in a matter of hours,” said Col. Mark Lee, who leads NATO’s effort to stop the bomb makers in southern Afghanistan. “This is a great first step.” The operation in the southern city of Kandahar, which was announced Tuesday, is by far the largest of its type. Ammonium nitrate is illegal in Afghanistan; farmers here are allowed to use other types of fertilizer, like those that are urea-based, on their crops. Most of the ammonium nitrate fertilizer in Afghanistan is believed to be imported from Pakistan.

Bomb Rocks Northwestern Pakistan - Voice of America. A suicide car bomb attack in northwestern Pakistan has killed at least 30 people, including some children. Investigators say the bomb exploded Tuesday on a busy street near a market in the city of Charsadda, some 40 kilometers north of Peshawar. The blast wounded dozens of people and destroyed several buildings. It was the third bombing in the area in three days. On Monday, a suicide bomber in a rickshaw blew himself up at a checkpoint in Peshawar, killing three people. A suicide bomber killed 13 people in a crowded market outside the city on Sunday. Also Monday, officials said a roadside bomb killed two paramilitary troops in the Bajaur tribal region, while fighter jets attacked suspected militant hideouts in three villages in the Kurram agency, killing eight suspected militants. Separately, a Taliban spokesman says the militants are waging a guerrilla war from the South Waziristan region where the Pakistani army has launched an anti-Taliban offensive. The army claims it has killed more than 480 militants since launching the offensive in mid-October. Meanwhile, the Pakistani military said Tuesday that troops killed nine militants and uncovered a private Taliban jail in South Waziristan.

Blast Kills 20 in NW Pakistan - Pamela Constable and Haq Nawaz Khan, Washington Post. A suicide bomber rammed his car into a donkey cart in the northwest town of Charsadda on Tuesday, killing more than 20 people and wounding 45, officials said. It was the third suicide bombing since Saturday in the volatile border region, where army troops have battled Taliban forces for a month. The three blasts in North-West Frontier Province have killed at least 40 people in four days, including a mayor who once backed the Taliban but later led a militia against it. He died Sunday when a suicide bomber set off a blast in a livestock market, where people were buying goats to sacrifice for the upcoming Eid holiday. The latest bombings, all carried out against nonmilitary targets, highlight the human cost of Pakistan's decision to launch a major army offensive against one of the Taliban's main tribal strongholds. The violence increasingly has spilled into heavily populated areas nearby. Army officials say the operation in the South Waziristan tribal area is going well and has strong support among the Pakistani public. But analysts said the militants' aggressive moves beyond tribal borders - especially against local officials who defy them - is opening a deadly new front in a war that could still lose crucial public support.

Car Bomb Adds to Toll in Northwest Pakistan - Ismail Khan, New York Times. The third bomb in three days went off in a crowded intersection in a town in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least 34 civilians and offering a grim marker of the mounting violence around the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar. The car bomb rocked a congested market in the town of Charsadda, a short distance from Peshawar, just as shopkeepers and vendors were about to close their businesses and large number of commuters were waiting at a nearby taxi stand. The blast damaged shops, vehicles and electricity cables, causing power failures in the area that hampered rescue work. About 100 people were wounded, some seriously. “The terrorists, after failing to dent the government’s resolve to stamp out terrorism, are now targeting the civilians hoping to arouse public anger against the government,” said a senior minister for North-West Frontier Province, Bashir Ahmad Bilour. “We will chase them and fight them till the very end,” he added. A district police officer, Riaz Khan, said explosives were planted in a car parked near the intersection. He said preliminary evidence pointed to a suicide attack. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Vietnam Myths Haunt Afghanistan - Washington Times editorial. Adm. Jeremiah A. Denton Jr. is a true American hero. The former senator, retired admiral and naval aviator spent almost eight years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, half of that time in solitary confinement. When forced by his captors to do a television interview in 1966, he blinked the word "torture" in Morse code. He's the kind of man Washington leaders might want to listen to more carefully than the average purveyor of foreign-policy wisdom. Adm. Denton's classic account of his experiences, "When Hell Was in Session," is being re-released today, updated with a new epilogue. In part, Adm. Denton seeks to "correct some of the mythology of the Vietnam War." The version of the war that has come down through pop culture, the media and history books is fatally flawed - and those flaws may well be informing critical decisions at the White House. Adm. Denton argues that the biggest myth, and the central argument of the antiwar left, is that the Vietnam War was unjust. The concurrent myth is that the war was not winnable. President Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara did the right thing but were not good war leaders. They did not conduct the kind of war that would lead to victory. Yet the United States actually won the war militarily during the Nixon administration by escalating the conflict. Concerted strategic bombing "destroyed the North Vietnamese means of continuing their war," and new strategies pacified South Vietnam. The war was lost not on the ground, but in DC backrooms.

The Cost of Dithering - Frederick W. Kagan and Kimberly Kagan, Weekly Standard opinion. General Stanley McChrystal's assessment and force-requirement studies were largely complete by the beginning of August. The White House has stated that the president will not be announcing a decision until the end of November at the earliest. White House officials claim that the delay does not affect the movement of US forces or our prospects for military success next year. These claims are inaccurate. The delay in White House decision-making is protracting and complicating the campaign in Afghanistan and has reduced General McChrystal's ability to prepare for and conduct decisive operations next year. When McChrystal took command of the Afghan war in June, the White House made it clear that he was expected to make dramatic progress within a year - by the summer of 2010. McChrystal worked quickly both to understand the situation and to develop an appropriate course of action that would meet the goals of the White House strategy. His concept of operations aimed to reverse the enemy's momentum and address important problems in Afghan governance. At the same time, he oversaw the establishment of a new three-star headquarters, the deployment of the last of the additional forces his predecessor had requested for election security, the securing of the elections themselves, and major operations in Helmand and elsewhere. He also made the painful decision to pull US forces back from isolated outposts that required too much manpower and were in danger of being overrun. He sought to create conditions for decisive operations in time to meet the expectations of the White House. He was supported in that effort by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen and by CENTCOM Commander General David Petraeus. The White House has not done its part to allow General McChrystal to meet its own deadline. It was slow to receive and act on the assessment he sent, and it deliberately refused even to review his force recommendations for weeks after they were complete. In the intervening months the White House has held a series of seminars on Afghanistan and the region that should have been conducted before the new strategy was announced in March.

IRAQ

Efforts Focus on Iraq’s Election, US Commander Says - John J. Kruzel, American Forces Press Service. A US commander in Baghdad today said all efforts are focused on helping Iraqi forces provide security for upcoming national elections in Iraq. Army Col. Gregory Lusk, commander of the North Carolina National Guard’s 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team, joined a chorus of US officials praising the Iraqi Parliament’s passage this week of key legislation that paves the way for balloting in January. “With the recent passing of the election law, Iraq has indeed reached an important milestone,” he said by satellite in a Pentagon news conference. “All of our efforts since our day of arrival have been dedicated towards accomplishing this goal and setting the conditions and supporting the Iraqi desires for holding these important elections.” After weeks of debate, Iraqi legislators on Nov. 8 approved a new election law to supersede one put in place in 2005, overcoming earlier hurdles that included disputes over Kurd and Arab political representation in Kirkuk - part of Iraq’s multiethnic northern region. About 120,000 US troops are in Iraq, with that number expected to decline to roughly 50,000 by the end of July as the US military mission there transitions from combat to stability operations, in accordance with an agreement between Washington and Baghdad. But even as the 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team, which arrived in May, prepares for its eventual redeployment next year, Lusk said the unit is focused on helping Iraq achieve a safe balloting process. “In conjunction with this historical event, we will also be preparing our soldiers and equipment for our eventual redeployment back to home station,” he said. “However, that will not prevent, nor will it hinder us from accomplishing our mission of supporting the elections.” Beyond the election, Lusk said, the brigade will focus on executing a “responsible and honorable” drawdown as it continues its mission to support Iraqi forces in protecting the population.

Blackwater Said to Pursue Bribes to Iraq After 17 Died - Mark Mazzetti and James Risen, New York Times. Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to former company officials. Blackwater approved the cash payments in December 2007, the officials said, as protests over the deadly shootings in Nisour Square stoked long-simmering anger inside Iraq about reckless practices by the security company’s employees. American and Iraqi investigators had already concluded that the shootings were unjustified, top Iraqi officials were calling for Blackwater’s ouster from the country, and company officials feared that Blackwater might be refused an operating license it would need to retain its contracts with the State Department and private clients, worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Four former executives said in interviews that Gary Jackson, who was then Blackwater’s president, had approved the bribes and that the money was sent from Amman, Jordan, where the company maintains an operations hub, to a top manager in Iraq. The executives, though, said they did not know whether the cash was delivered to Iraqi officials or the identities of the potential recipients.

Minorities in Iraq’s North Seen as Threatened - Sam Dagher, New York Times. The policies and tactics of Kurdish authorities could expose minority groups in northern Iraq to “another full-blown human rights catastrophe” unless the minorities receive better protection, according to a report released Tuesday by Human Rights Watch. Members of the minority groups are being singled out by extremist insurgent groups and also are caught in the middle of a struggle for land and resources between Arabs and the central government on one hand and leaders of Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region on the other, said the report, which was released in the Kurdish region’s capital, Erbil, and focused on Christians, Shabaks and Yazidis in Nineveh Province. The extremist attacks have cost many hundreds of lives and, the report notes, “struck at the social infrastructure of minority communities, leaving victims and others fearful to carry on with their everyday lives.” Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said, “When you talk about wiping out a whole community that has been there since antiquity, it’s a looming catastrophe.”

As We Stand Down, Can They Stand Up? - Max Boot, Weekly Standard opinion. One way to chart the recent course of Iraq's history is by the vehicles that American soldiers drive. When I first came here in the summer of 2003, I remember riding around in open-top, unarmored Humvees. By 2004, a spate of IEDs had made it necessary to move to up-armored Humvees, followed a few years later by heavier MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicles that look as if they wandered off the set of a Star Wars movie. When last here in 2008, I went everywhere in a hulking MRAP. Imagine my surprise, then, to find myself being driven in late October from Camp Victory, the main US base on the outskirts of Baghdad, into the center of town along Route Irish, once notorious as the world's most dangerous road, in a lightly armored Chevrolet Suburban that could not withstand a roadside bomb. In Nasiriyah, a town in southern Iraq that was a major focus of resistance during the initial US invasion in the spring of 2003, I rode into the town center without body armor in an SUV driven by the local police chief. Clearly, despite the headlines about bombings in Baghdad, the situation has improved immeasurably, even if the war is not yet over. US soldiers are still engaged in combat in rural areas alongside the Iraqis. US Special Operations Forces are still carrying out nightly raids on terrorist leaders, though only after they have obtained arrest warrants from an Iraqi judge. That's not something they had to worry about in the past. Nor did they have to turn over suspected terrorists to the Iraqi legal system. Some of the commandos grumble that Iraqi justice is often a revolving door with culprits captured one week released the next, but they no longer have any choice but to work through the local system. The two US detention facilities, Camp Bucca and Camp Cropper, are closing and their detainees are being released or transferred to Iraqi custody.

IRAN

Is Russia Playing Both Sides on Iran Nukes? - Howard LaFranchi, Christian Science Monitor. Iran's failure to respond to an international offer to enrich much of its uranium stockpile outside the country - for use in a Tehran medical research facility - is again raising the prospect of tougher sanctions. Much of the focus of the sanctions debate is falling on Russia, which has blown hot and cold on additional punitive measures on Iran over its nuclear program - but which is sounding open to the idea once again. The attention is reviving lingering questions about Russian assistance - either official or unauthorized – to Iran's nuclear program and weapons research. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and French President Nicolas Sarkozy issued a statement Monday warning Iran that "the international community's patience is not infinite." The two leaders, in Berlin for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, said they "do not rule out" another round of sanctions aimed at the Iranian leadership and its advancing nuclear program. Those words followed comments by President Medvedev over the weekend to German journalists, when he suggested that Russia could support additional sanctions if Iran fails to take the opportunity to cooperate with world powers in its nuclear program. Noting the offers now before the Iranian leadership, Medvedev told Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, "I wouldn't like to see all that ending in the introduction of international sanctions … but if there is no movement forward, no one is excluding such a scenario." The US, Russia, and France last month negotiated a deal with Iranian officials to remove almost three-quarters of Iran's slightly-enriched uranium stockpile to Russia and France for further enrichment to a level needed for a research reactor. Removal of the uranium would ease international concerns about Iran's nuclear intentions and allow for what the Obama administration hopes would be fruitful negotiations with Iran on a range of issues.

Obama's Iran Diplomacy Isn't Working - Con Coughlin, Wall Street Journal opinion. Five months after the first street protests against the sham re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rocked the regime to its core, it's time to assess the Obama Administration's "outstretched hand" policy. From the stalled nuclear talks to the Islamic Republic's deteriorating human-rights situation, it seems the mullahs have tightened, not unclenched, their fists. No doubt, the conservative hard-liners are under pressure. Mounting international criticism of the regime's controversial nuclear program and the refusal of the pro-reform movement to submit to the repression have led to an increase in tension among the ruling elite. But rather than compromising, Tehran has resorted to the kind of repression and coercion that have helped turn Iran into an international pariah during the three decades since the Islamic revolution brought the ayatollahs to power. This week's decision to press espionage charges against three US backpackers who were arrested last July when they crossed, apparently inadvertently, into Iran from Iraq is just the latest development in the regime's campaign to silence its critics - domestic or foreign. Under Sharia law, Iran's legal system, espionage is punishable by death. The three young Americans have become Iranian bargaining chips to pressure the White House.

THE LONG WAR

Justice and Guantanamo Bay - Morris Davis, Wall Street Journal opinion. This past Sunday, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the administration will decide by Nov. 16 which Guantanamo detainees will be tried in military commissions trials, and which of them will stand trial in federal courts. But a decision to use both legal settings is a mistake. It will establish a dangerous legal double standard that gives some detainees superior rights and protections, and relegates others to the inferior rights and protections of military commissions. This will only perpetuate the perception that Guantanamo and justice are mutually exclusive. President George W. Bush authorized military commissions in November 2001, and President Barack Obama ordered them stopped in January 2009. In the intervening seven years - which included a period from September 2005 until October 2007 when I served as chief prosecutor at Guantanamo - only three military commissions trials were completed. Two of the three detainees convicted of war crimes have served their sentences and today they are free men back in their home countries. But the more than 200 that remain inside the detention center have never been convicted, or in most cases even faced charges. The day after his inauguration, Mr. Obama ordered an evaluation of all the detainees to determine who should face criminal prosecution. Administration officials estimate that roughly a quarter of the remaining detainees will be recommended for trial in criminal courts.

UNITED STATES

Soldiers, Family Come Together To Grieve at Fort Hood - Greg Flakus, Voice of America. President Obama spoke at a memorial ceremony at Fort Hood, Texas, Tuesday for the 13 people who died there last week when a gunman opened fire at the large military base. The alleged attacker, who was wounded by police, is an army psychiatrist. The attack on a domestic base, allegedly by a fellow soldier has saddened and shocked many servicemen and their families. The signs of grief are not hard to miss at Fort Hood. Flowers and messages are displayed around the sign at the main entrance and there is a subdued tone on base. But the soldiers carry on and the military family pulls together. Among the visitors Tuesday was a group of women who all have sons serving overseas in different branches of the military. They came from various parts of Texas to offer support to soldiers and families here. Rhonda Lyn Anderson has two sons in the armed forces at other posts, but she came here to do what she could. "The only thing we can do is offer them hugs and prayers and just let them know that we know how they feel," said Rhonda Lyn Anderson. "But for the grace of God that could be one of mine." Katy Canfield has a son in the Marines overseas and she says the attack on this army base has affected men and women from all branches of the military. "They are trained to think about what the enemy outside is going to do to you, but they are really not looking at one of their own attacking them and killing them," said Katy Canfield.

Obama Mourns Victims of Fort Hood Shootings - Peter Baker and Clifford Krauss, New York Times. President Obama took on the role of national eulogist on Tuesday for the first time since assuming office as he led the country in mourning 13 active and retired soldiers gunned down not on a foreign battlefield but here on their home post by one of their own. Standing in front of 13 sets of boots, rifles, helmets and photographs, Mr. Obama vowed that the memory of those slain in a rampage here last week would “endure through the life of our nation.” One by one, he listed the names of those killed and described their hopes and dreams and the families they left behind. “It may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy,” the president told thousands of soldiers and relatives gathered here at the nation’s largest Army post. “But this much we do know: No faith justifies these murderous and craven acts. No just and loving God looks upon them with favor. For what he has done, we know that the killer will be met with justice, in this world and the next.” Although Mr. Obama had spoken at the funeral of Senator Edward M. Kennedy and made a post-midnight visit to Dover Air Force Base to salute the returning dead, this was the first time he had served as the nation’s comforter at a time of major tragedy. These are moments that can define a president, as when Bill Clinton eulogized the Oklahoma City bombing victims or George W. Bush gave voice to the anguish of a nation after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

'Goodbye to Those Who Now Belong to Eternity' - Ann Gerhart, Washington Post. Each blow against America has seemed unimaginable: When 220 soldiers died in the shattered Beirut barracks. When the fertilizer bombs blew apart a federal building and its workforce in Oklahoma City. When the hijackers brought down shining twin towers and more than 3,000 lives. Each time, the president has stepped from the wings to face a sea of his citizens, shocked, angry and suffused with grief. On Tuesday, that heavy task fell to President Obama. At a memorial service five days after the largest mass killing on a US military base, he reached for words of sorrow and solace, then summoned determination. "Neither this country, nor the values that we were founded upon, could exist without men and women like these 13 Americans" who died in a hail of bullets, Obama said. "Their life's work is our security and the freedom that we too often take for granted. Every evening that the sun sets on a tranquil town; every dawn that a flag is unfurled; every moment that an American enjoys life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - that is their legacy." He faced a crowd of several thousand soldiers dressed in desert camouflage fatigues and dusty combat boots. Their black berets formed a rippling acre of funereal bunting under a blue sky. The soldiers are practiced at this ritual; 545 from Fort Hood have died in the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan, so many that new granite tablets keep being added at each company's memorial.

Lawyer Says Suspect Yet To Be Questioned - Mary Pat Flaherty and William Booth, Washington Post. The lawyer hired to represent Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, the alleged gunman in the rampage at Fort Hood, said that his client has not yet been questioned by military or federal authorities and that he will advise him not to speak with investigators. The attorney, retired Col. John P. Galligan, met with Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, on Monday night in his guarded hospital room at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. Galligan said Hasan was able to hold a lucid conversation, though he was medicated for pain from his wounds. Hasan was shot several times. Galligan would not discuss anything Hasan said. "It was a very brief conversation, just 30 minutes, to simply introduce ourselves, and then we left to let him get some rest," Galligan said in an interview at his offices in Belton, 20 miles from Fort Hood. Hasan also agreed to keep his military-appointed attorney, Maj. Christopher Martin. Galligan, 60, has been involved in high-profile cases before. He defended an Army military policeman charged in the 2002 maiming death of a taxi driver who had been detained in Afghanistan. The jury in that case did not send the defendant to prison; he was honorably discharged. The case was the centerpiece of the 2007 documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side," in which Galligan appears and which won an Oscar.

Military Not Told About Ft. Hood Suspect's E-mails - Julian E. Barnes and Josh Meyer, Los Angeles Times. Two high-profile anti-terrorism task forces did not inform the Defense Department about contacts between a radical Islamic cleric and the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people in last week's rampage at Ft. Hood, a senior Defense official said Tuesday. On the day of a memorial service for those killed at the Texas military base, the revelation compounded questions about whether the government had known enough in advance to stop the gunman. The FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Forces investigated e-mails that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan sent over the last year to Anwar al Awlaki, an imam in Yemen who espouses a radical Islamist ideology and who has ties to militants. However, officials said, task force members concluded that the communications posed no threat and had been undertaken as part of Hasan's research on Muslims, the military and post-traumatic stress disorders. Defense officials said Tuesday that the department did not learn about Hasan's contacts with Awlaki until after the Ft. Hood shootings. "There was no US Army or other Department of Defense organization that knew of any contact he had with Muslim extremists," said the senior Defense official, who requested anonymity when discussing the ongoing investigation. At least one of the task forces included a Defense Department investigator, who did not seek to share the intelligence with the military, officials said. Various government agencies assign officials and investigators to the Joint Terrorism Task Forces. But there are strict rules about sharing information that is discussed or developed on a task force. "Any and all information from the task force ... has to be approved by the FBI," the senior Defense official said.

Standing Tall in Harm's Way - David Ignatius, Washington Post opinion. In the aftermath of the Fort Hood shootings, some commentaries have examined the damage to the US Army from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A few have spoken about the alleged shooter, Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, as an extreme version of what can happen with an overstressed force. This picture of a traumatized military is misleading. Certainly, the Army and the other services are stressed by the demands of combat. But what's striking to me this Veterans Day is how healthy the military is, given all the weight it has been carrying for the country these past eight years. Facing a new and disorienting kind of warfare, the military has learned and adapted. Rather than complain about their problems, soldiers have figured out ways to solve them. In truth, the US military may be the most resilient part of American society right now. The soldiers are clearly in better shape than the political class that sent them to war and the economic leadership that has mismanaged the economy. (I'd give the same high marks to young civilians who are serving and sacrificing in hard places -- the Peace Corps and medical volunteers I've met abroad and the teachers in tough inner-city schools.) Through all its difficulties, the military has kept its stride. That sense of balance comes partly from the fact that soldiers are anchored to the American bedrock. This includes the stereotypical small towns in the South and Midwest that have military service in their DNA. But it also counts plenty of hardworking, upwardly mobile Hispanic and African American families in urban America that produce some of the best soldiers I know.

AFRICA

Cross-Examination Begins in War Crimes Trial of Former Liberian President - Scott Stearns, Voice of America. Prosecutors at the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone have begun their cross-examination of former Liberian President Charles Taylor who is facing charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Mr. Taylor is the first witness in his defense and has spent much of the last 13 weeks dismissing the prosecution case against him as a series of lies. So Principal Trial Attorney Brenda Hollis opened her cross-examination by asking Mr. Taylor: Who is lying? "Now Mr. Taylor, you have said to this bench throughout your direct examination that all of this evidence here before you, it's all lies. And you have talked about how perhaps, cunning is not the word you used. But Mr. Taylor, it's true isn't it that of all the people who have come before these judges, you are the one who has the most reason to lie," Hollis said. "Well, counsel, I would disagree with you except you can point to me why would I have the most reason to lie? I have been truthful before this court. Unless you can point to me. I have told this court the truth. And I suggest that you point to me and present the evidentiary fact before this court for to suggest, as you are, that I am lying," Taylor said.

Somali Pirates Deny Arms Seizure - Selah Hennessy, Voice of America. A man who says he is a Somali pirate on board a cargo vessel seized off the coast of Somalia has told VOA that the ship was not carrying weapons. Maritime experts had speculated the ship was illegally transporting arms to Somalia. The company that manages the vessel says it is negotiating with the pirates. VOA spoke by phone to a man who says his name is Issa Abdi Ahmed. He says he is a pirate on board the cargo ship al-Mizan, which was seized by pirates. An arms expert said Monday he believed the ship was carrying weapons to Somalia, in contravention of a UN arms embargo. But Ahmed the alleged pirate whose phone number was given to VOA by the agent operating the ship, says no arms are on board. He says he will soon be negotiating a ransom demand with the owners. Somalia's pirates have stepped up their attacks in recent weeks and now hold at least 11 vessels and more than 200 crew. Ahmed says the pirates are defending the Somali coast from illegal shipping and toxic waste dumping. Mohammed Iqbal, who says he manages the hijacked cargo ship al-Mizan, spoke to VOA from Dubai. He says negotiations with the pirates are under way.

AMERICAS

US Tries to Salvage Honduras Accord - Ginger Thompson, New York Times. Under fire from allies in Latin America and on Capitol Hill, the Obama administration moved Tuesday to try to salvage the American-brokered agreement that had been billed as paving the way for a peaceful end to the coup in Honduras. Instead, the accord seems to have provided the country’s de facto government with a way to stay in power until a presidential election scheduled for the end of this month. The State Department sent Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Craig Kelly to Honduras on Tuesday for meetings with Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted from power as president more than four months ago, and with the head of the de facto government, Roberto Micheletti. Senior administration officials said Mr. Kelly would try to get both men to abide by the terms of an Oct. 30 agreement that called on them to form a coalition government to run the country while the Honduran Congress prepares for a vote on whether to return Mr. Zelaya to power. The deal began to unravel last week when the Congress announced it would postpone a vote on Mr. Zelaya’s return to power until after the election. In protest, Mr. Zelaya then refused to submit names for the coalition government. And the United States, breaking with its allies in Latin America, announced it would recognize the results of the coming presidential election, even if Mr. Zelaya were not reinstated. While the announcement was celebrated by Republicans as a “reversal” of the administration’s policy, it ignited a storm of criticism from Mr. Obama’s allies at home and across Latin America.

9 Colombia Troops Killed in Clash with Rebels - Chris Kraul, Los Angeles Times. Nine Colombian army soldiers were killed in a bloody confrontation with leftist guerrillas early Tuesday along a well-known transit corridor in southwestern Colombia frequented by drug traffickers and insurgents. Analysts believe the attack may be part of a campaign by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to step up its activities before next year's presidential election. President Alvaro Uribe, whose policies have set the FARC back on its heels since he took office in 2002, is expected to seek a third term. The assault also might have been intended to divert the army from its attacks against the FARC leadership, which is thought to be holed up about 70 miles east of the scene of Tuesday's fighting. The military claimed to have killed three members of FARC leader Alfonso Cano's bodyguard in a canyon rain forest over the weekend, the Bogota newspaper El Tiempo reported. The military dead in Tuesday's attack, whose identities were not available late Tuesday, included one officer, Guillermo Gonzalez, governor of the state of Cauca, said in an interview. The battle occurred near Corinto, a town of 12,000 populated largely by indigenous people 200 miles southwest of Bogota, the capital, in the western foothills of Colombia's central mountain range. Gonzalez said fighting between rebels with the FARC's Sixth Front and soldiers attached to Colombia's 29th Army Brigade continued throughout Tuesday and resulted in many guerrilla casualties. News reports of as many as 30 rebel dead could not be confirmed. The rebels attacked the brigade base in Corinto with crude mortars and assaulted army units conducting night patrols around the town, Gonzalez said.

Blackouts Plague Energy-Rich Venezuela - Simon Romero, New York Times. This country may be an energy colossus, with the largest conventional oil reserves outside the Middle East and one of the world’s mightiest hydroelectric systems, but that has not prevented it from enduring serious electricity and water shortages that seem only to be getting worse. President Hugo Chávez has been facing a public outcry in recent weeks over power failures that, after six nationwide blackouts in the last two years, are cutting electricity for hours each day in rural areas and in industrial cities like Valencia and Ciudad Guayana. Now, water rationing has been introduced here in the capital. The deterioration of services is perplexing to many here, especially because the country had grown used to cheap, plentiful electricity and water in recent decades. But even as the oil boom was enriching his government and Mr. Chávez asserted greater control over utilities and other industries in this decade, public services seemed only to decay, adding to residents’ frustrations. With oil revenues declining and the economy slowing, the shortages may have no quick fixes in sight. The government announced some emergency measures this week, including limits on imports of air-conditioning systems, rate increases for consumers of large amounts of power and the building of new gas-fired power plants, which would not be completed until the middle of the next decade.

ASIA PACIFIC

China Ready to Welcome President Obama - Stephanie Ho, Voice of America. Sino-American relations are likely to get a boost when President Barack Obama comes to China later this month. The potential to work together to combat climate change is expected to overshadow more contentious issues, such as trade, military relations and human rights. From tentative beginnings in the 1970's, Sino-American ties have grown into what is often described as one of the most important relationships in the world. China was one highlight of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's first trip abroad. "The inter-dependent world in which we live requires us to find new ways to collaborate and cooperate in the face of unprecedented global challenges and untapped global opportunities," she stated. Ahead of her visit, Clinton indicated that while the US remains concerned about China's poor human rights record, that issue will not be at the top of her agenda. Instead, both countries are stressing joint efforts to combat climate change. China and the United States are the world's top two emitters of the greenhouse gases, which many scientists say contribute to global warming.

North, South Korean Ships Exchange Gunfire - Blaine Harden, Washington Post. A brief naval skirmish erupted Tuesday between North and South Korea, raising tension in Northeast Asia as President Obama prepares this week for a visit to the region. The North and the South blamed each other for the exchange of gunfire - the first such clash in seven years. South Korean officials said a badly damaged North Korean patrol ship retreated in flames after crossing into South Korean waters. It was not clear whether there were any injuries or deaths aboard the North Korean vessel. North Korea issued a statement that blamed the South for "grave armed provocation," saying that ships from South Korea crossed into the North's territory. There were no reports of South Korean casualties. North Korea has complained for decades about the sea border, known as the Northern Limit Line, which was drawn by the US military at the end of the Korean War in 1953. There have been two previous skirmishes in the region, with North Korea's aging naval ships taking a pounding from South Korea's far more modern and better-armed vessels.

US Urges North Korea Not to Escalate Tensions in Yellow Sea - Voice of America. Washington has urged North Korea not to escalate tensions in the Yellow Sea following a naval skirmish between the North and South Korean navies Tuesday. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says Washington hopes Pyongyang will not take any further actions in the area that could be seen as an escalation. South Korea's military says one of its warships first fired warning shots at a North Korean boat that it says crossed the Korean maritime border off the west coast of the Korean peninsula. South Korea says the North Korean patrol boat suffered heavy damage in the exchange before retreating. A South Korean military official described the incident as regrettable and said Seoul has lodged a strong protest with Pyongyang. North Korea's official news agency says its patrol boat was on a mission to confirm an unidentified object on its side of the border. North Korea demanded that South Korea apologize for what it called a grave armed provocation. South Korea says it suffered no casualties. It is not clear if anyone on the North Korean boat was hurt.

Thai Tensions Rise Over Thaksin Shinawatra’s Cambodian Role - Richard Lloyd Parry, The Times. Tensions between Cambodia and Thailand were inflamed yesterday after Thaksin Shinawatra, the ousted Thai Prime Minister, was welcomed in Phnom Penh. Relations between the neighbours - engaged in a border dispute - deteriorated further after Thaksin accepted a new role as economic adviser to the Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen. The move was seen in Bangkok as a provocation and Thai opponents of Thaksin threatened to demonstrate against his return to the region. On Cambodian television, Mr Hun Sen was seen embracing his guest and was said to have described him as an “eternal friend” and “the best adviser with economic leadership”. Thaksin is due to give a lecture to ministers and government officials tomorrow. “Thaksin is here for the economy and not activities related to politics,” Phay Siphan, a spokesman for the Cambodian Cabinet, said. “It is an honour for Cambodia’s economic sector and we hope that Cambodians nationwide welcome him warmly.” Mr Hun Sen’s hospitality had less to do with Thaksin’s economic expertise than with the relationship between Phnom Penh and Bangkok.

MIDDLE EAST

Lebanon's Unity Government Convenes for First Time - Voice of America. Lebanon's unity government has held its first meeting, one day after the formation of a government ended the country's five-month power vacuum. The newly announced Cabinet ministers met with Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman at the presidential palace Tuesday. Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced the new 30-member Cabinet Monday. It includes five ministers appointed by Mr. Suleiman, 15 ministers from Mr. Hariri's coalition and 10 from the opposition. Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria, was given key positions in the new government, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The international community has welcomed the formation of the unity government. Statements of congratulations came in from the European Union, the United States, the United Nations, Syria, Iran and elsewhere. The European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, called on all parties involved to ensure Lebanon's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs Tuesday said the United States looks forward to working with the new government.

Stalled Talks May Kill Israel's Labor Party - Joshua Mitnick, Washington Times. The Israeli Labor Party, which led the Jewish state for its first 30 years, is in danger of unraveling amid frustration over the lack of progress in peace talks with the Palestinians, party members and political analysts say. Labor's former parliamentary whip, Daniel Ben Simon, suggested Sunday that he would support a breakaway group if efforts to restart peace talks remain deadlocked for the next few months. Israeli media outlets have reported that two Labor ministers may join the rebels. "We have to make a serious decision about how long we want to stay in the government and under what circumstances," said Colette Avital, a former Labor Party parliament member and former consul general in New York. The threat to Labor comes as the Palestinian Authority appears in increasing disarray, with President Mahmoud Abbas vowing not to seek re-election next year. A Labor split could undermine the stability of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and shift its policies further to the right, deepening the impasse with the Palestinians and dashing US hopes to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Blair Hails Economic Steps in West Bank - Ethan Bronner, New York Times. Palestinians marked two significant economic breakthroughs on Tuesday, counterpoints to the growing crisis in peace negotiations with Israel: a second cellphone company opened, with a planned investment of hundreds of millions of dollars; and a long-closed crossing point from Israel opened to limited motor traffic. Both events were overseen by Tony Blair, the international envoy to the conflict and former British prime minister, who is focused on Palestinian institutions and economic progress. After two years of pressing Israel and nurturing the Palestinians on both issues, he was manifestly delighted to be cutting ribbons and offering congratulatory remarks. “This is a sign of sovereignty and statehood, and it is vital to build on it,” Mr. Blair said at the ceremony in Ramallah for the local arrival of the Qatari-controlled telephone company Wataniya, which amounts to the single largest foreign investment in the Palestinian economy. “We all know about the political challenges, and we hope they can be overcome.” Both the cellphone company and the crossing required the Israeli occupation authorities here to yield on security issues and both took considerably longer than expected. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to office last spring vowing to create the conditions for West Bank economic improvement, and Mr. Blair said Tuesday that the growth had been significant, probably in double digits.

SOUTH ASIA

In Sri Lanka, Anger Over Detainees' Fate - Emily Wax, Washington Post. Six months after Sri Lanka's decades-old civil war ended with a final assault, about 200,000 people remain trapped in overcrowded government-run camps that were once safe havens for those fleeing the conflict. Facing pressure from the Obama administration and the European Union, the Sri Lankan government last month launched a campaign to resettle tens of thousands of the minority Tamil detainees. But interviews in the country's war-ravaged north reveal that many civilians have merely been shuffled from the large camps to smaller transit ones and are being held against their will. Others have been released, only to be taken from their homes days later with no indication of where they have gone. After the army defeated the Tamil rebels in May, top government officials paraded their success on the streets of Colombo, the capital, and the country's leaders made noble promises about ensuring national harmony. Now analysts say the real test of Sri Lanka's success in building a stable, post-conflict society lies in the fate of these scores of thousands of detainees. Human rights groups say the government is lying about its resettlement efforts; authorities concede they are using the camps as a tool to uncover any remaining Tamil militants but deny they are deliberately stalling civilians' return home.

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.