Iraq's factions pulled the country back from crisis Thursday, reaching a tentative compromise on contested legislation to organize elections next year and potentially avoiding a second veto that could have delayed the vote for months. If the deal holds - politicians were being briefed on it Thursday evening - it would offer another example of what has become politics as usual in Iraq: A mounting crisis threatens to cast the country into further ethnic and sectarian strife, before a closed-door solution is reached at what appears to be the last minute.
AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN
Soviets' Afghan Ordeal Vexed Gates on Troop-Surge Plan - Yaroslav Trofimov, Wall Street Journal. The future of the war in Afghanistan was on the line as Gen. Stanley McChrystal met with Defense Secretary Robert Gates in a secret rendezvous at a Belgian airbase in August. Gen. McChrystal, the top Western commander in Afghanistan, pushed for more US troops to roll back the spreading Taliban-led insurgency. Mr. Gates, officials say, was skeptical. A quarter-century ago, he was a top Central Intelligence Agency officer aiding the anti-Soviet rebels in Afghanistan, and he remembered how a 1985 decision by the Soviet Union to widen that earlier war had failed to turn the tide. In a speech to the nation Tuesday from West Point, President Barack Obama will announce his decision on a request by Gen. McChrystal for 40,000 more US troops, to join some 100,000 Western soldiers already here. Washington is also prodding reluctant allies to send as many as 10,000 additional soldiers. Debate inside the Obama administration on the troop increase has been intense, with Vice President Joe Biden cold to Gen. McChrystal's request and the US ambassador to Afghanistan warning that such a surge would lessen pressure on the Kabul government to take over its own security. Mr. Gates's stance became a crucial factor in these deliberations. After initially challenging Gen. McChrystal to persuade him the result wouldn't mirror the Soviets' experience, the defense secretary is now backing a compromise of some 30,000 to 35,000 additional US troops, close to the number likely to be endorsed by Mr. Obama.
Holiday in Afghanistan - Greg Jaffe, Washington Post. The Marine Corps Osprey, an unwieldy, gray contraption that flies like an airplane but lands like a helicopter, raced through the sky before it slowed to a hover and alighted several hundred yards from this tiny village. Several hundred Afghans raced out of low-slung mud houses to catch a glimpse of the strange aircraft carrying the Marine commandant, Gen. James Conway. He'd come from the Pentagon to offer Thanksgiving greetings to about 50 Marines manning one of the primitive bases here. For the Marines at the Golestan base and some three dozen other small outposts and patrol bases scattered throughout surrounding Helmand province, the Thanksgiving holiday offered a brief respite before President Obama unveils his new strategy for Afghanistan next week. The strategy is expected to include more than 30,000 additional troops, White House officials say. The first tranche of new forces, consisting of about 9,000 Marines, is destined for Helmand. Once on the ground, the troops will push into some of the Taliban's toughest sanctuaries, which US commanders have held off confronting until more US or Afghan forces come on line. "It's going to get busy out here," Conway told the Marines on Thanksgiving Day. "There are places where we don't go out here. These are the places that we are going to have to crack open."
Marines of Charlie Company in Afghanistan Have Much to be Thankful For - Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times. For the Marines of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment, this Thanksgiving in Afghanistan brought one overriding thing to be thankful for: They're about to go home. Within days, the Marines will return to Camp Pendleton after a seven-month deployment that included engaging in firefights with the Taliban, dodging roadside bombs and trying to breathe life into a moribund local government. Although four members of the battalion have been killed in action, Charlie Company has had no fatalities. "I'm just thankful that all my Marine brothers in Charlie Company are going home to their families," said Sgt. Sal Sanchez of Riverside, who added that his holiday thoughts were with his wife, Maggie, and their children, Brandon, 3, and Julien, 1. Whereas Marines at smaller outposts in this onetime Taliban stronghold enjoyed a Thanksgiving meal of turkey, ham, cranberry sauce, gravy, rice and Gatorade on Thursday, here at the larger Combat Outpost Cherokee, plans for a special dinner went awry. Three words: frozen pot roast. A military mix-up meant that the cook was never alerted that a helicopter had brought two brick-hard, 80-pound roasts. Sgt. Sean Ross, the cook, said that by the time he was told about them, it would have taken until 1 a.m. today to thaw and cook the meal, at which time the temperature would be in the low 40s - not especially the most festive ambience for a holiday meal. The pot roast, Ross said, would be served today. "I don't think people will care that much: We're still going home," Ross said, his M-16 at the ready in case Taliban fighters attempted a last-minute attack.
Taliban Open Up Front in Once-Quiet Afghan North - Carlotta Gall, New York Times. Far from the heartland of the Taliban insurgency in the south, this once peaceful northern province was one place American and Afghan officials thought they did not have to worry about. Afghan officials cut the police force here by a third two years ago and again earlier this year. Security was left to a few thousand German peacekeepers. Only one Afghan logistics battalion was stationed here. But over the last two years the Taliban have steadily staged a resurgence in Kunduz, where they now threaten a vital NATO supply line and employ more sophisticated tactics. In November, residents listened to air raids by NATO forces for five consecutive nights, the first heavy fighting since the Taliban were overthrown eight years ago. The turnabout vividly demonstrates how security has broken down even in unexpected parts of Afghanistan. It also points to the hard choices facing American, NATO and Afghan officials even if President Obama decides to send more soldiers to Afghanistan, as he is expected to announce next week.
NATO Chief: Allies Must Send More Troops to Afghanistan - Associated Press. NATO's secretary general says NATO member states must follow the lead of the United States and send more troops to Afghanistan. Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters in Berlin Thursday it is critically important that a US announcement of additional troops is followed by similar announcements from US allies in NATO. Rasmussen says he is contacting NATO members and pressing them to commit more soldiers. He made the comments after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The White House says President Barack Obama will announce his long-awaited strategy for Afghanistan on Tuesday night in a speech at the US military academy at West Point in New York. News reports say Mr. Obama is most likely to call for the deployment of at least 30,000 more US troops. There are currently 68,000 US troops in Afghanistan. In a message posted on a Taliban Web site Wednesday, the Taliban's reclusive leader Mullah Omar said militants will defeat international troops, regardless of the number deployed. In other news, NATO says its troops are assisting in the search for a cargo helicopter that is missing in Afghanistan.
Germany's Top Soldier Wolfgang Schneiderhan Quits Over Airstrike Blunder - Roger Boyes, The Times. A leading Nato general has been forced to resign after an air raid that killed dozens of Afghan civilians. Wolfgang Schneiderhan, the Inspector-General of the German Army, is the first top Nato commander to resign over a botched operation in Afghanistan. His departure came after politically embarrassing video footage of the German-ordered airstrike was made public. The scandal raises questions about Germany’s willingness to support President Obama’s drive to reinforce troops in the region and highlights the country’s increasingly nervous strategy towards Afghanistan - its first big overseas deployment since the Second World War. The resignation, together with that of a junior defence minister, which was in effect a dismissal, was announced to the German parliament yesterday by Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, the Defence Minister. Images from the airstrike, taken from a US F15 fighter, show a large number of people gathered around two petrol lorries hijacked by Taleban fighters in September. The people were locals siphoning petrol from the tankers. Yet Franz Josef Jung, then the Defence Minister, played down the possibility of civilian casualties, fearing that it would undermine public support for the Afghan mission. In a parliament debate yesterday, the former Defence Minister was branded a liar. “The Chancellor should dismiss Jung [now Employment Minister] without further ado,” said Paul Schäfer, a defence expert belonging to Die Linke, a leftist opposition party. “Such a minister is either dishonourable or incompetent.”
In Afghanistan, Real Leverage Starts with More Troops - Frederick W. Kagan and Kimberly Kagan, Washington Post opinion. The president will soon announce the deployment of additional US forces to Afghanistan, in a speech likely to emphasize the importance of political progress there. Legitimacy is the most important outcome of a counterinsurgency strategy, not, as some have suggested, an input. It is unfortunate that much of the debate has ignored the role that additional military forces can play in building legitimacy and effective government in a counterinsurgency. Adding forces gives us leverage; military forces are vital to the success of any political strategy because they contribute directly to improving governance as well as to improving security. The recent American experience in Iraq illustrates how US forces and diplomacy helped correct the behaviors of a sometimes malign government in ways that helped neutralize insurgent groups. In early 2007, many Iraqi leaders were using instruments of state to support sectarian death squads. The dysfunctional government could not secure the population, pass laws or provide services to its people. The implementation of a fully resourced counterinsurgency strategy - enabled by the deployment of nearly six additional US combat brigades - transformed Iraq's government within 18 months. Opponents of the surge argued that Iraqis would "step up" politically and militarily only if they knew that US forces would leave. Instead, before committing to the fight, political leaders and populations throughout Iraq assessed whether US forces would stay long enough to secure them. Iraqis stepped up precisely because of the absence of conditionality and time limits on US force levels.
Prosecuting American 'War Crimes' - Daniel Schwammenthal, Wall Street Journal opinion. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed "great regret" in August that the US is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court (ICC). This has fueled speculation that the Obama administration may reverse another Bush policy and sign up for what could lead to the trial of Americans for war crimes in The Hague. The ICC's chief prosecutor, though, has no intention of waiting for Washington to submit to the court's authority. Luis Moreno Ocampo says he already has jurisdiction - at least with respect to Afghanistan. Because Kabul in 2003 ratified the Rome Statute - the ICC's founding treaty - all soldiers on Afghan territory, even those from nontreaty countries, fall under the ICC's oversight, Mr. Ocampo told me. And the chief prosecutor says he is already conducting a "preliminary examination" into whether NATO troops, including American soldiers, fighting the Taliban may have to be put in the dock. "We have to check if crimes against humanity, war crimes or genocide have been committed in Afghanistan," Mr. Ocampo told me. "There are serious allegations against the Taliban and al Qaeda and serious allegations about warlords, even against some who are connected with members of the government." Taking up his inquiry of Allied soldiers, he added, "there are different reports about problems with bombings and there are also allegations about torture." It was clear who the targets of these particular inquiries are but the chief prosecutor shied away from spelling it out. Asked repeatedly whether the examination of bombings and torture allegations refers to NATO and US soldiers, Mr. Ocampo finally stated that "we are investigating whoever commits war crimes, including the group you mentioned."
IRAQ
Iraqis Reach Tentative Compromise on Amended Election Measure - Anthony Shadid and Nada Bakri, Washington Post. Iraq's factions pulled the country back from crisis Thursday, reaching a tentative compromise on contested legislation to organize elections next year and potentially avoiding a second veto that could have delayed the vote for months. If the deal holds - politicians were being briefed on it Thursday evening - it would offer another example of what has become politics as usual in Iraq: A mounting crisis threatens to cast the country into further ethnic and sectarian strife, before a closed-door solution is reached at what appears to be the last minute. "We've reached an understanding," declared Abdul-Ilah Kazem, a spokesman for Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni Arab and key player in the crisis. The crisis appeared to move a long way toward being settled on the eve of a major Muslim holiday, as lawmakers shuttled between UN and election officials in hopes of convincing them that all parties could be satisfied. Although security has improved in the past year, the crisis had led to Sunni Arab and even Kurdish calls for a boycott of the elections, which will choose a parliament and, in turn, a government that will preside over Iraq as the United States withdraws the last of its 115,000 troops.
IRAN
UN Nuclear Chief: Negotiations With Iran at 'Dead End' - Lisa Bryant, Voice of America. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency says the organization has reached a dead end in a probe into Iran's nuclear program. The IAEA's board is meeting to consider a resolution condemning Iran's nuclear program. In remarks to the International Atomic Energy Agency's board, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei expressed frustration over Iran's failure to cooperate with the Vienna-based agency. Mr. ElBaradei leaves office at the end of November, and his remarks have grown sharply more critical of Iran in recent months. On Thursday, he said he was disappointed that Iran had not agreed on a deal to further enrich its uranium overseas. The deal has the support of the United States, Russia and France and it aims to provide a safeguard that Iran's uranium is not being used to make a nuclear weapon. "In my view the proposed agreement presents a unique opportunity after many years of animosity and hostility to address a humanitarian need and create a space for negotiation. This opportunity should be seized and it would be highly regrettable if it was missed," he said. Mr. ElBaradei also criticized Iran for hiding its efforts to build a uranium enrichment site until early September. Iran began building the site two years ago, and he says, plans to make it operational by 2011.
UN Nuclear Agency Calls Iran Inquiry ‘Dead End’ - David E. Sanger and William J. Broad, New York Times. The director general of the United Nations nuclear watchdog declared in unusually blunt language on Thursday that Iran had stonewalled investigators about evidence that the country had worked on nuclear weapons design, and that his efforts to reveal the truth had “effectively reached a dead end.” The comments by the official, Mohamed ElBaradei, came four days before he is to leave office after 12 years at the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. His remarks refocus attention on Iran’s alleged work on weapons design at the moment that the West is debating how to respond after Tehran backed away from a commitment it made in early October to temporarily send much of its nuclear fuel abroad. Dr. ElBaradei’s remarks also came as President Obama’s end-of-year deadline is approaching to reassess whether the United States should move toward what Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has termed “crippling sanctions” on Iran. Israeli officials, meanwhile, have said that they will not consider taking military action until Mr. Obama’s deadline runs out, leaving hanging the suggestion - maybe the bluff - that they are preparing for that possibility in 2010.
IAEA Chief Says Iran Has Brought Nuclear Probe to a Standstill - George Jahn, Washington Post. The International Atomic Energy Agency probe of Iran's nuclear program is at a dead end because Tehran is not cooperating, the chief of the UN nuclear watchdog said Thursday in an unusually blunt expression of frustration four days before he leaves office. Mohamed ElBaradei also warned that international confidence in Iran's assertions of purely peaceful intent shrank after its belated revelation of a previously secret nuclear facility. And he criticized Iran for not accepting an internationally endorsed plan meant to delay its achieving the ability to make nuclear weapons. "There has been no movement on remaining issues of concern which need to be clarified for the agency to verify the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program," ElBaradei said at the opening session of the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors. "We have effectively reached a dead end, unless Iran engages fully with us." "Issues of concern" is the IAEA term for indications that Iran has experimented with nuclear weapons programs, including missile-delivery systems and tests of explosives that could serve as nuclear-bomb detonators.
IAEA Chief Says Iran Talks at 'Dead End' - David Crawford and Mathew Karnitschnig, Wall Street Journal. Iran appeared headed for further confrontation with the US and other world powers over its nuclear program after the chief of the United Nations' atomic watchdog said the agency's cooperation with Tehran had reached a "dead end." The declaration by Mohamed ElBaradei, departing director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, sets the stage for the UN's Security Council to impose new sanctions against Tehran. Diplomats said the IAEA's 35-member board of governors would likely approve a resolution on Friday rebuking Iran for failing to comply with its international obligations. A draft of the resolution being discussed by IAEA governors Thursday expressed "serious concern" about Iran's course and called for the matter to be taken up by the Security Council. German Ambassador Rüdiger Lüdeking told the governors that Iran's "disregard" of its obligations toward the IAEA "cannot be ignored" because the IAEA's outstanding questions presented to Iran "relate to possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear program." One Western diplomat said at least 22 governors, four more than required for passage, are expected to vote for the resolution. The resolution, put forward by Germany, is supported by governors from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, UK, France, Russia and China, diplomats said.
Iran Seizes Nobel Winner Shirin Edabi’s Medal - Martin Fletcher, The Times. Iran has confiscated the Nobel peace medal and diploma of Shirin Ebadi, the human rights lawyer who is one of the hardline regime’s most outspoken critics. Her bank account has also been frozen on the pretext that she owes almost £250,000 in tax. The seizure of the award, unprecedented in its 108-year history, caused outrage in Oslo, where the Nobel Peace Committee is based. The Norwegian Government summoned the Iranian envoy to protest, and the committee said that it would make a formal complaint. “Such an act leaves us feeling shock and disbelief,” said Jonas Gahr Støre, the Norwegian Foreign Minister. Geir Lundestad, secretary of the committee, said that Iran’s action was unacceptable. “A laureate has never been treated like that. Even political dissidents such as [Andrei] Sakharov and [Lech] Walesa were better treated in their countries,” he added, referring to the Russian dissident and the Polish trade union leader, both of whom won the prize while living in the Soviet bloc. In 2003 Dr Ebadi became the first Iranian and first Muslim woman to win the peace prize, which was awarded for her campaign for democracy and human rights. She was abroad during President Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election in June and has spent the past five months travelling the world to draw attention to the regime’s alleged electoral fraud and suppression of the opposition. “I am effectively in exile,” she said recently.
Iranian Officials Seize Activist's Nobel Medal - Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post. Iranian authorities have confiscated the Nobel Peace Prize medal awarded to Shirin Ebadi in 2003 for her work as a lawyer and human rights activist, a close associate of hers said Thursday. The seizure is part of an increasing campaign against Ebadi's family and associates, several of whom have been interrogated and arrested, said Nargess Mohammadi, deputy head of Ebadi's organization, Human Rights Defenders. The medal was kept in a safety box in an Iranian state bank. Ebadi was abroad when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's June 12 election victory sparked street protests and a crackdown on dissidents. She has not returned to the country, fearing arrest. "The government wants to scare Ebadi from returning to Iran," said Mohammadi, a lawyer.
UNITED STATES
War Crimes Envoy Has Personal Touch - Colum Lynch, Washington Post. Stephen J. Rapp, the new US ambassador at large for war crimes, knows what it feels like to be victimized. As a 21-year-old congressional intern, Rapp was kidnapped by three men, pistol-whipped, had a gun barrel shoved in his mouth, and then was thrown into the trunk of his 1961 Chevrolet. His captors took the car on a 4 1/2 -hour crime spree from the District to Alexandria before abandoning it south of the Pentagon. Rapp was released the next morning after a passerby heard him screaming for help. The ordeal has served as a touchstone for Rapp, now 60, who was sworn in last month as the State Department's point man on war crimes. The Harvard graduate has spent much of his career pursuing violent criminals, initially as a federal prosecutor in Iowa. During the past decade, Rapp has served as a UN prosecutor for Rwanda and Sierra Leone, where he has tried some of the world's most violent alleged mass murderers, including former Liberian president Charles Taylor. "I see myself as a champion of those folks," said Rapp, recalling the thousands of Sierra Leonean civilians who were raped, mutilated and killed by the country's ruthless rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) during a decade-long conflict that ended in 2002. In February, Rapp became the first international prosecutor to secure war crimes convictions for perpetrators of rape and sexual enslavement, a practice that led to the forced marriage of thousands of rural girls and women to RUF combatants.
Enabling the Next Fort Hood? - Michael Bloomberg and Thomas Kean, Washington Post opinion. The news from Fort Hood shocked the nation: American soldiers shot on American soil. Thirteen dead and 38 injured. It was almost too terrible to believe. Almost. Unfortunately, the Fort Hood rampage was not the first time that our military personnel have been murdered in the United States this year. In June, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad shot and killed an Army private and wounded another soldier at a military recruiting station in Little Rock. In both cases, the loss of these young soldiers was compounded by a disturbing reality: The assailants had been under investigation by the FBI. In the more recent case, it would be easy enough to point fingers at the FBI. Its counterterrorism agents concluded that Maj. Nidal Hasan's communications with the radical cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi - an al-Qaeda sympathizer who acted as a "spiritual adviser" to two of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers - were for professional reasons. A full investigation will reveal whether other red flags should have resulted in preventive action, but here is one thing we already know: A federal law repeatedly supported by Congress interfered with the FBI's ability to find out about Hasan's purchase of a handgun. Knowledge of that purchase might - and should - have triggered great scrutiny. And it could have saved lives.
Obama Made the Right Call on KSM - Thomas Wilner, Wall Street Journal opinion. The Obama administration's decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other 9/11 conspirators in federal court marks a fundamental shift in the way we fight terrorism. For eight years we have allowed the terrorists to intimidate us into abandoning our laws and institutions. This decision shows that we're strong enough to face the threat of terrorism without compromising the rule of law. The premeditated murder of innocent civilians far from any battlefield is not the act of a warrior, but of a criminal. The prior administration detained these men indefinitely as "enemy combatants." But the laws of war allow only temporary detention of combatants until the end of the armed conflict in which they were captured. They were never intended to authorize the detention of people for terrorist activities far from the battlefield. Moreover, calling these people combatants elevates them to a status they do not deserve. Judge William Young got it right in rejecting the claims of Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber: "You are not an enemy combatant. . . . You are not a soldier in any war. To call you a soldier gives you far too much stature . . . . You're no warrior. You are a terrorist, a species of criminal guilty of multiple attempted murders. . . . You're no big deal." Anyone who suggests that our criminal justice system will coddle these terrorists is simply not familiar with the record. In a detailed study prepared in 2006 under the Bush administration, the Justice Department reported "impressive success" in convicting terrorists. Between September 2001 and June 2006, it obtained convictions against more than 250 people for terrorism-related offenses, covering a range of activities, from completed acts of terrorism to the "early stages of terrorist planning."
AFRICA
Poverty Could Imperil the Amnesty in Niger Delta - Adam Nossiter, New York Times. A wary peace has settled over this strategic region, a major world oil supplier and for years a combustible nexus of third world militancy, deprivation and government corruption. But just two months after Nigeria’s leaders declared an amnesty program for armed vigilantes a success, there already are signs that the relative quiet may not last long. Although civilians and others are no longer being killed in the confused crossfire between militants, thugs and the army, and militants are no longer regularly blowing up oil pipelines, former fighters recently rampaged near a university here, beating and raping students, according to a government spokesman and residents in the area. One of the top rebel commanders who disarmed his militia is already expressing impatience with the government’s pace of bringing jobs and development money to the region. And the country’s leaders remain vague about how they plan to solve the complex, underlying problems that have kept the people of the Niger Delta impoverished and angry. Analysts who study the region and activists say it is unclear if a majority of militants gave up their guns and suggest that the government will need to act quickly to find legal sources of income for the fighters, who were making big money stealing oil from the blown-up pipelines and kidnapping oil workers for ransom. Barring that, they say, they expect renewed violence to once again imperil the Delta’s people and an industry that supplies as much as 12 percent of the United States’ oil.
Kenyans Draw Weapons over Shrinking Resources - Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times. Tales of conflict emerging from this remote, arid region of Kenya have disturbing echoes of the lethal building blocks that turned Darfur into a killing ground in western Sudan. Tribes that lived side by side for decades say they've been pushed to warfare by competition for disappearing water and pasture. The government is accused of exacerbating tensions by taking sides and arming combatants who once used spears and arrows. The aim, all sides say, is no longer just to steal land or cattle, but to drive the enemy away forever. It's a combustible mix of forces that the United Nations estimates has resulted in at least 400 deaths in northern Kenya this year. Moreover, experts worry that it's just the beginning of a new era of climate-driven conflict in Africa. "There is a lesson in Darfur," said Richard Odingo, vice chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a global scientific body that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore. "Every dry area has the potential to be a flash point if we are not careful."
UN Begins Inquiry Into Guinea Violence - Scott Stearns, Voice of America. A United Nations commission of inquiry has opened its investigation into the killing of opposition protesters in Guinea. Guinea's military government is promising to cooperate fully with the inquiry into September's violence. The UN commission and its investigators are in Conakry to find out what happened when soldiers opened fire on opposition demonstrators September 28th. Human rights groups in Guinea say at least 157 people were killed protesting the expected presidential candidacy of military ruler Captain Moussa Camara. The military government says 57 people were killed, most in the crush of people fleeing the main sports stadium. Captain Camara has expressed his "profound sympathy" for the families of those killed. But because he was not at the stadium, he says he is not responsible for the violence. Instead, he blames his political opponents and what he calls "uncontrollable elements" of the military. The UN commission is working with the Guinean Organization of Human Rights, which has recorded 100 cases of rape on September 28, including a woman who spoke at the human rights headquarters before meeting with UN investigators.
AMERICAS
Drug Lords Finding Safe Haven in Bolivia - Martin Arostegui, Washington Times. Narco-trafficking cartels are migrating to the Andes region in Bolivia, where a diminished U.S. presence has allowed a boom in cocaine production and the opening of new drug routes, regional anti-drug officials say. Recent studies by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime show a steep rise in cocaine production in Bolivia and a smaller increase in Peru. They also show a drop in Colombian cocaine output, which is subject to increased anti-drug efforts by the US and Colombian governments. Potentially more significant is Bolivia's emergence as a major hub for jungle laboratories that turn coca paste, which can be imported from anywhere in the Andean region, into refined cocaine. "Like never before we have discovered these types of factories around the country," said Col. Oscar Nina, chief of Bolivia's police anti-drug unit. He added that his unit has destroyed more than 20 cocaine laboratories so far this year. In addition, he recently warned of the increasing presence of powerful Mexican crime organizations that control drug movements. Other law enforcement officials say Colombians connected with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a leftist guerrilla group known by its Spanish acronym as FARC, are also shifting some operations to Bolivia because of recent military pressures on rebel-held areas.
A Hug from Lula - Washington Post editorial. For several years, US policy in Latin America has aimed at forging a partnership with Brazil. Like the Bush administration before it, the Obama administration sees Latin America's largest country as an emerging superpower whose economic dynamism and relatively stable democracy make it a natural ally. But Brazil's potential has been frequently overestimated in the past; an old saw says it will always be the country of the future. And this week its popular but erratic president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is doing his best to prove the cynics right. On Monday Mr. Lula literally gave a bear hug to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who thereby recorded a major advance in his effort to prop up his shaky domestic and international standing. Heading an extremist regime that is rejected by the majority of Iranians - and that has just spurned a compromise on its outlaw nuclear program - the Iranian president headed abroad in search of friends. He found few: Gambia and Senegal in Africa; and Hugo Chávez's Venezuela, along with two of its satellites, Bolivia and Nicaragua. Mr. Ahmadinejad's world tour would have looked pathetic and served to underline the growing isolation of his hard-line clique, if not for the warm welcome from Mr. Lula.
Alone, and Right, on Honduras - Edward Schumacher-Matos, Washington Post opinion. The United States finds itself pretty much alone in supporting elections to be held this Sunday in embattled Honduras. It's enough to make you wonder whether, following the unilateral misadventures under George W. Bush, we might once again be on the wrong side of history. With the exception of Panama, almost everyone else in the world maintains that the elections are illegitimate as long as the country's last elected president, Manuel Zelaya, remains deposed. The former lumber baron is hunkered down inside the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, sleeping on sofas and blustering to the media. I firmly believe in multilateralism and compromise. As every spouse learns, the most important words to maintain peace are "yes, dear." But this is one of those times when you have to stand on principle. My bet is that the world will come around to Washington's view. Though Zelaya was escorted out of the country at gunpoint while in his pajamas nearly five months ago, a realization has slowly spread across Latin America and Europe that this was not a standard military coup. The Honduran Supreme Court had ordered Zelaya's removal from office after he resorted to mob rule to carry out a referendum that the courts, the Honduran Congress, the electoral commission and his own attorney general had ruled unconstitutional. Zelaya, seeking to lift presidential term limits much as Venezuela's Hugo Chávez had done, had created a constitutional crisis.
ASIA PACIFIC
China Joins US in Pledge of Hard Targets on Emissions - Edward Wong and Keith Bradsher, New York Times. The Chinese government announced Thursday that it had set a target to slow the growth of its greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, a day after the Obama administration set a provisional target for reducing United States emissions. The Chinese offer, which focuses on energy efficiency, contrasts with the strategy of the United States and most other nations to reduce total emissions. China has resisted demands from American and European negotiators to adopt binding limits on its emissions, arguing that environmental concerns must be balanced with economic growth and that developed countries must first demonstrate a significant commitment to reducing their own emissions. With its enormous population and breathtaking pace of economic development, China surpassed the United States two years ago as the largest emitter of greenhouse gases. It was unclear whether the timing of China’s announcement was coincidental, though the Chinese have been preparing an opening position ahead of international talks on climate change in Copenhagen next month. In the past, Beijing has tried to avoid looking as if it has been directly influenced by American decisions.
Philippine Massacre Suspect Turns Himself In, Military Still Pursuing Gunmen - Voice of America. The main suspect in a brutal massacre of 57 people in the southern Philippines has turned himself in to authorities but has not been formally arrested. The Philippine military is still pursuing gunmen loyal to the man, Andal Ampatuan Jr., who are believed to have carried out the killings to stop a political rival. Andal Ampatuan Jr. on Thursday turned himself in to Philippine authorities. He is now being investigated on suspicion that he was behind one of the worst cases of election-related violence in the country's history and the largest massacre of journalists. Ampatuan and his militia are suspected of being behind the abduction and killing Monday of a convoy of supporters of his political rival, Ismael Mangudadatu, and at least 18 journalists accompanying them on the southern island of Mindanao. They were stopped at a checkpoint by a militia as they were going to register Mangudadatu to challenge Ampatuan for governor of Maguindanao province in next year's elections. Ampatuan told journalists he was innocent as he was being taken to Manila, where he will be investigated along with four police officers suspected of taking part in the massacre. Romeo Brawner is a spokesman for the Armed Forces of the Philippines. He says although there are four witnesses who say the men were at the scene of the crime, they have not been formally arrested, and authorities are expected to decide in the coming days whether or not to lay charges against them.
North Korea Finds Latest Ally: South Korean Rice Farmers - Kurt Achin, Voice of America. North Korea has experienced chronic food shortages for about two decades, mainly due to the government's political isolation and mismanagement. Belts in the North have tightened even further since South Korea's president stopped sending large amounts of rice. Now, South Korean farmers say there is too much rice on the market here, and they find they have a vested interest in rekindling generosity toward the North. Demonstrations like this one, just a few hundred meters from South Korea's parliament in Seoul, are frequent. The livelihood of South Korean rice farmers is one of the country's most sensitive political topics. The government subsidizes rice production and shields the market from most imports. Still, farmers make impassioned pleas, and sometimes take drastic action, to demand even more aid. These days, politics add a new twist to the usual drama. "We have been crying at the top of our voices, start sending rice to North Korea again! We should try to consume more rice here at home, but if we can't consume it all, then we must resume North Korean rice aid," said Democratic Party chairman Chung Sye Kyun.
South Korea Admits Civilian Killings During War - Choe Sang-Hun, New York Times. In the opening months of the Korean War, the South Korean military and the police executed at least 4,900 civilians who had earlier signed up - often under force - for re-education classes meant to turn them against Communism, the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission announced Thursday. The government killed the civilians out of fear that they would help the Communists who were invading from the north and forcing South Korean and American forces into retreat during the first desperate weeks of the war, the commission said. Although the panel has reported on similar civilian massacres in the past, the announcement Thursday represented the first time that a state investigative agency confirmed the nature and scale of what is known as “the National Guidance League incident” - one of the most horrific and controversial episodes of the war. The anti-Communist and authoritarian government of President Syngman Rhee had set up the league to re-educate people who had disavowed Communism in the months before the war, and forced an estimated 300,000 South Koreans to join. At the time, the government was facing a vicious and prolonged insurgency by leftist guerrillas.
MIDDLE EAST
Half-Truths Dim Chances for Renewing Mideast Talks - Ethan Bronner, New York Times. In recent years, the international community has made one central demand of Israel and one of the Palestinians to create conditions for a two-state solution: Israel must stop building settlements on land the Palestinians want for their state, and the Palestinians must dismantle terrorist networks and end violent attacks on Israelis. This week, a casual observer could have concluded that each had carried out its duty and that peace talks would move forward. Israel announced a 10-month settlement freeze on Wednesday; as to the Palestinians, violent attacks against Israelis have essentially ended. As Palestinian officials like to point out, trained Palestinian security forces have been keeping order in West Bank cities for more than a year. But the casual observer would probably be mistaken. There are unlikely to be peace talks soon. In fact, tensions seem set to rise, partly because the claims of each side amount to half-truths, as the other is the first to note. The 10-month settlement freeze excludes more than 2,500 housing units being built or recently authorized. The moratorium allows a limited number of schools, synagogues and community centers, the kind of “natural growth” banned by the dormant 2003 “road map” for peace, agreed to by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia. In other words, although this represents a painful political concession by the Israeli government and is causing it internal trouble, there will never be a moment in the coming months when construction will stop in West Bank settlements.
Palestinians Reject Israeli Settlement Offer - Mil Arcega, Voice of America. A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says peace talks cannot resume until Israel also halts settlement activity in East Jerusalem. His comments come a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed a 10-month halt for new building permits for Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank - a move welcomed by Washington. After making what it called an "unprecedented step" towards achieving peace in the Middle East, Israel said the next move is up to the Palestinians. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev called on Palestinians to move quickly. "We've called for a total cessation of all new settlement building for a period of 10 months," said Regev. "Now this is an important step and now I think the Palestinians have to answer in kind." But instead of accepting the proposed halt in settlement construction in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinian leaders rejected the peace offering, as "nothing new".
SOUTH ASIA
Mumbai Marks Anniversary of Last Year's Terror Attack - Voice of America. Citizens of Mumbai took part in a string of ceremonies Thursday to honor the more than 160 victims killed in last year's terror attack. One year after ten Pakistani gunmen attacked India's financial capital, many say they still feel vulnerable. Mumbai's security forces marched from the iconic Gateway of India and along the Arabian Sea Thursday to mark the anniversary of the Mumbai terror attack. One year ago, ten Pakistani gunmen seized India's financial capital in a three day massacre that left more than 160 people dead. The Pakistani-based terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Taiba is blamed for the attack. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, speaking to reporters in Washington, took a moment to honor the fallen victims. "The supreme sacrifice that so many of our countrymen and women and those from far distant foreign lands made last November will not go in vain," Mr. Sing said. Back in Mumbai, citizens watched as Mumbai's Police Commandos, Quick Response Team (QRT), State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) and the city's elite-unit Force One showcased new weaponry and sea-patrol vehicles.
India's Plan to Open Site of Bhopal Chemical Disaster Brings Protest - Rama Lakshmi, Washington Post. Twenty-five years after poisonous plumes of chemicals leaked from the Union Carbide factory here, survivors are protesting a government plan to open the site to the public. Officials said this week that visitors would be allowed to tour the plant to commemorate the disaster and help people come to terms with it. "Just like we go to Hiroshima, Chernobyl and Ground Zero in New York to remember and pray for victims, so many people from around the world want to visit the Bhopal Union Carbide factory to learn about the disaster," said Babulal Gaur, minister of relief and rehabilitation for the Bhopal victims. A court in Madhya Pradesh state, of which Bhopal is the capital, on Wednesday ordered that the guarded gates of the factory be opened to let people tour from a barricaded distance of 20 feet. The first tours are planned for next month to coincide with the anniversary of the disaster. But survivors say the site is still contaminated and are demanding a complete cleanup of one of the world's worst industrial disasters, which killed more than 15,274 people.
EVENTS
An Evening of Counterinsurgency at the Pritzker Military Library. Hearts and minds? Overrated. If you want to run a successful counterinsurgency, it all starts with the person at the top. On Thursday, December 3rd, Mark Moyar will appear at the Pritzker Military Library to discuss his new book, A Question of Command: Counterinsurgency from the Civil War to Iraq. This event is free and open to the public. The presentation will begin at 6 p.m., preceded by a reception for Library members at 5 p.m. It will be webcast live on pritzkermilitarylibrary.org and recorded for later broadcast on WYCC-TV/Channel 20. Moyar takes issue with much of the current U.S. Army / Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual, which guided the “surge” in Iraq. Though its creation was overseen by Gen. David Petraeus, whose leadership he considers a near-perfect model for counterinsurgency, Moyar finds the general’s most important qualities de-valued in the manual, which suffers from what he calls a “population-centric” emphasis toward defeating an insurgency by depriving it of public support. Using case studies from the Philippines, Vietnam, and other conflicts over the last 150 years, Moyar argues instead that counterinsurgencies succeed or fail based on the leaders involved: their ability to inspire subordinates, adapt to complex situations, unify civilian and military efforts, and identify capable sub-commanders, both from their own ranks and the target population. Though A Question of Command describes historical insurgencies around the world, Moyar posits that the American South, after the Civil War, may have been the best model for the situation in Iraq. Whereas Grant and Sherman had led major victories on the battlefield, it was lesser-known leaders like Brig. Gen. Robert F. Catterson and Maj. Lewis Merrill who had the most success against insurgent forces such as the Ku Klux Klan. A Question of Command attempts to capture the qualities and decisions that set those leaders apart, making their successors easier to find. Mark Moyar is Professor of National Security Affairs at the Marine Corps University. He is also the author of Triumph Forsaken: the Vietnam War, 1954-1965 and Phoenix and the Birds of Prey: Counterinsurgency and Counterterrorism in Vietnam. Moyar’s writings have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and other publications. He received a B.A. summa cum laude from Harvard and a Ph.D. from Cambridge. Seating for this event is limited, so reservations are recommended. Call 312.587.0234 or email events@pritzkermilitarylibrary.net.
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.
