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.

-- Washington Post

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN

US Tries New Tack Against Taliban - Anand Gopal, Wall Street Journal. The US-led coalition and the Afghan government are launching an initiative to persuade Taliban insurgents to lay down their weapons, offering jobs and protection to the militants who choose to abandon their fight. While President Hamid Karzai's government has been trying to woo these insurgents for years, the new program marks the first time that the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces are systematically reaching out to Taliban fighters. The tactic comes as the US prepares to announce Tuesday how many additional troops it will send to Afghanistan as part of a new strategy aimed at bringing the eight-year war to a successful end. US officials also hope America's European allies will raise their troop contributions as part of the new push. The Afghan government has had a reconciliation program in place since 2004, and claims to have turned more than 8,000 insurgents. That program, however, is widely derided as corrupt and ineffective. Insurgents were enticed with offers of jobs but rarely received the promised assistance, leading many to rejoin the fight. Western officials behind the new reconciliation program say they believe the majority of insurgents are fighting for money - the Taliban often pay their members - or personal grievances. Luring such men from the battlefield is a central component of America's new counterinsurgency strategy crafted by US Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top allied commander here.

Afghan President Reaches out to Taliban on Eid al-Adha - Sean Maroney, Voice of America. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeated his call to the Taliban and other extremist groups to lay down their weapons and help rebuild Afghanistan. Mr. Karzai made his appeal for peace in a speech Friday, marking the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday. Afghan President Hamid Karzai's appeal for reconciliation echoed elements of his inaugural address last week. Mr. Karzai says he is once again calling on his Afghan brothers - the Taliban and other Islamist militants groups - to come back to their homeland to work toward peace, stability and prosperity. But hours after Mr. Karzai's speech Friday, the governor of Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province survived an assassination attempt when a bomb targeting his convoy exploded as he headed to prayers for the Eid holiday. No one immediately claimed responsibility, but Kandahar province is a stronghold for the Afghan Taliban. President Karzai's appeal for peace also comes two days after a statement attributed to Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar appeared on a Taliban Web site. The statement said the reclusive militant leader will never agree to talks that prolong the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan. Mullah Omar has maintained a policy that rejects any negotiations before the international forces leave.

Afghans Offer Jobs to Taliban Rank and File if They Defect - Dexter Filkens, New York Times. The American-backed campaign to persuade legions of Taliban gunmen to stop fighting got under way here recently, in an ornate palace filled with Afghan tribal leaders and one very large former warlord leading the way. “OK, I want you guys to go out there and persuade the Taliban to sit down and talk,” Gul Agha Shirzai, the governor of Jalalabad, told a group of 25 tribal leaders from four eastern provinces. In a previous incarnation, Mr. Shirzai was the American-picked governor of Kandahar Province after the Taliban fell in 2001. “Do whatever you have to do,” the rotund Mr. Shirzai told the assembled elders. “I’ll back you up.” After about two hours of talking, Mr. Shirzai and the tribal elders rose, left for their respective provinces and promised to start turning the enemy. The meeting is part of a battlefield push to lure local fighters and commanders away from the Taliban by offering them jobs in development projects that Afghan tribal leaders help select, paid by the American military and the Afghan government. By enlisting the tribal leaders to help choose the development projects, the Americans also hope to help strengthen both the Afghan government and the Pashtun tribal networks.

Kandahar Governor Escapes Assassination - Laura King, Los Angeles Times. The governor of a violent southern province in Afghanistan escaped assassination Friday, even as President Hamid Karzai renewed his calls to insurgents to lay down their weapons. Kandahar Gov. Tooryalai Wesa was on his way to prayers on the first day of Eid al-Adha, the main Muslim holiday of the year, when a remote-controlled bomb exploded under his convoy. Wesa was uninjured, but a policeman helping guard him was hurt, the governor's office said. The province is home to Afghanistan's second-largest city, also called Kandahar, which is the country's southern hub and a key battleground. Next week, the Obama administration is expected to announce the deployment of tens of thousands more American troops.Many of them will be sent to the province, birthplace of the Taliban movement and the scene of heavy fighting in recent months. Last month was the most lethal of the 8-year-old war for American troops, with nearly 60 US service members killed. In a message to mark the start of Eid al-Adha, Karzai appealed again to insurgents to give up the fight and join pro-government forces. "To all our brothers who stand armed against the country, I hope that for the sake of peace, stability and development, they return to the national fold and to their families," said the Afghan leader, who was sworn in last week for a second five-year term.

NATO Has Lost its Way in Afghanistan, Army Chief Tells Muslims - Michael Evans, The Times. NATO has lost its way in Afghanistan and needs to rediscover the conviction to succeed against the Taleban, the head of the Army has admitted. In a frank interview with a Muslim newspaper, General Sir David Richards, the Chief of the General Staff, compared the success of the initial operation to topple the Taleban in 2001 with the present counter-insurgency campaign that has led to thousands of casualties among NATO troops over the past eight years. Speaking to Muslim News, General Richards said: “Look at the huge popularity of the NATO intervention in 2001. What we’ve done is lost our way a bit and need to find it again and have the moral and physical conviction that we can do these things.” General Richards has acknowledged previously that the strategy had failed in Afghanistan and needed to be revitalised to ensure victory. He is known to support the strategy outlined by General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, which is based on large-scale reinforcements to protect urban populations and to accelerate the training of the Afghan National Army. Next week President Obama is expected to announce a surge in American troops of at least 30,000. General Richards spoke to Muslim News to get across the message that British troops were in Afghanistan to protect Muslims from the Taleban. “The Taleban kill many more Muslims than we do,” he said.

Australian Leader Will Visit Obama - Scott Wilson, Washington Post. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will visit the White House on Monday as President Obama begins a week during which he will announce his war strategy in Afghanistan and appeal to allies such as Australia for more help. The White House announced the meeting Friday. It said the two men would "confer on a range of issues, including Afghanistan and climate change in the run-up to Copenhagen," referring to the United Nations environmental conference to be held in the Danish capital next month. Obama administration officials said that much of the discussion would focus on whether Australia would contribute more troops to the Afghan mission. They indicated that Rudd would be the first of several allied leaders whom Obama intends to meet with on the issue in the coming weeks. Rudd announced in April that he would send 450 additional troops to Afghanistan, bringing the Australian deployment to more than 1,500 soldiers. About 100,000 international forces operate in Afghanistan under Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, 68,000 of them US soldiers and Marines. At the time of his announcement, Rudd said: "We cannot ignore this cold, hard strategic fact: Less security in Afghanistan means less security for Australians. Handing Afghanistan back to terrorist control will increase the threat to all Australians."

Merkel Loses Cabinet Ally After Fallout from Afghan Raid Spreads - Roger Boyes, The Times. One of Angela Merkel’s key Cabinet ministers has resigned after fresh information emerged about his role in a bungled air raid that killed dozens of Afghan civilians. Franz Josef Jung, who was Defence Minister in September when as many as 142 Afghans were bombed by American warplanes on the banks of the Kunduz river, said that he was “taking over political responsibility for the internal information policy of the Defence Ministry”. The move takes some of the pressure off Ms Merkel, who is facing demands from the US to boost German troop numbers in Afghanistan from 4,500 to more than 6,000. The Chancellor will have an uphill task persuading the German public that they should become more deeply committed to Afghanistan, the country’s first significant combat mission since the Second World War. However, Mr Jung’s forced resignation from his post of Employment Minister has wrongfooted the Government, which has been in office for barely a month. “After only four weeks in power the Government has stumbled into a government crisis,” said Andrea Nahles, chairman of the opposition Social Democrats. The Afghan debacle seems likely to haunt the Chancellor for months to come. It demonstrates that Germans will accept a continuing presence in the war only if the activities of their troops are very precisely circumscribed: the incident on the Kunduz river, when German forces called in two American F15 jets to bomb two petrol lorries that had been hijacked by Taleban forces, was the first case of German military involvement in civilian deaths for three generations.

2 Afghans Allege Abuse at US Site - Joshua Partlow and Julie Tate, Washington Post. Two Afghan teenagers held in US detention north of Kabul this year said they were beaten by American guards, photographed naked, deprived of sleep and held in solitary confinement in concrete cells for at least two weeks while undergoing daily interrogation about their alleged links to the Taliban. The accounts could not be independently substantiated. But in successive, on-the-record interviews, the teenagers presented a detailed, consistent portrait suggesting that the abusive treatment of suspected insurgents has in some cases continued under the Obama administration, despite steps that President Obama has said would put an end to the harsh interrogation practices authorized by the Bush administration after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The two teenagers - Issa Mohammad, 17, and Abdul Rashid, who said he is younger than 16 - said in interviews this week that they were punched and slapped in the face by their captors during their time at Bagram air base, where they were held in individual cells. Rashid said his interrogator forced him to look at pornography alongside a photograph of his mother. The holding center described by the teenagers appeared to have been a facility run by US Special Operations forces that is separate from the Bagram Theater Internment Facility, the main American-run prison, which holds about 700 detainees.

When to Leak - Washington Times editorial. Today's topic is: Leaks. Leaks happen in every ship of state. Leaks are decried by every captain of every ship of state. And yet, sometimes a well-placed leak can actually keep a ship of state afloat. All of this is worth noting because leaks - carefully whispered by anonymous sources with eponymous motives that correlate to the building in which they work or the party in which they are registered - have played major roles in Mr. Obama's troop decisions. First, was the late summer anonymous leak of the request from America's top general in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, for 44,000 more troops. Who leaked it? Consider what it accomplished - suddenly the president seemed cornered in his Oval Office. Most Republicans began demanding he fulfill his general's request - now. Liberal Democrats began mounting a counterforce pressure, opposing more troops, especially given the corrupt Afghan regime of President Hamid Karzai. Troop security and safety became mixed with politics. On Nov. 12, anonymous sources with seemingly opposite motives hit the daily double of leaks - lead story in the New York Times and The Washington Post: The US ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl W. Eikenberry, had written two classified cables voicing reservations about sending more troops given the Karzai administration's rampant corruption and gross mismanagement. Mr. Eikenberry is no garden variety ambassador - he is also a distinguished Army general and was a West Point classmate of both Gen. McChrystal and his boss, Gen. David Petraeus. Perhaps you think that double leak was mere coincidence (Perhaps you are still awaiting a visit from the Tooth Fairy.) Then again, perhaps you remembered that just three days earlier, Mr. Karzai had given a bizarre interview to PBS Margaret Warner on the Jim Lehrer Newshour in which he repeatedly suggested America doesn't really care about his country - for which US troops are fighting and dying. That infuriated Mr. Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, et al.

Get Real on Afghanistan - Colbert I. King, Washington Post opinion. The selection of the US Military Academy at West Point for President Obama's announcement of his new Afghanistan war strategy is media manipulation worthy of Michael Deaver, the legendary image protector of Ronald Reagan. What better setting than an audience of military cadets to project Obama as the reluctant warrior and commander in chief who, because of circumstances not of his making, is forced to commit the nation's finest to a war not of his choosing? Makes for a great visual, too. It's also a good way for Obama to get his war message across to national security think-tankers who have been banging their spoons for escalation, to Republicans who demand that he give the generals what they want, and to conservatives who say he is a ditherer, not a doer. Tuesday night's event should go down well with the cadets. But what about the millions of Americans across the country who will be tuned in? Many will be older and grayer than the cadets, and they are past the point of being impressed by dramatic photo ops and symbolic poses. They don't want orchestration; they want answers.

Afghanistan: The Speech You'll Miss - Jim Hoagland, Washington Post opinion. My fellow Americans, This is not the speech you expected to hear. But my wordsmiths are tied in knots writing an acceptance speech for the only Nobel Peace Prize ever awarded for making speeches. So I am going to tell you how I really feel about Afghanistan. Which is: steamed. I want to accomplish three goals tonight without naming them. First, to let those know-it-alls, Generals Petraeus and McChrystal, know one more thing: This is the last big troop increase you get, so make it work. I am not going down the incrementalist road that wrecked Lyndon Johnson's presidency. This is not July 1965, when Westmoreland jumped the shark of escalation in Vietnam and then never stopped asking for more troops. For all the trouble he has been, Dick Holbrooke helped by recalling that history in the shadowboxing that dominated my long war council meetings. Joe Biden has been good in there, too. He's been willing, though not happy, to be characterized in the media as being ready to bug out now. This helped us push back against McChrystal's effort to box me in at 40,000 additional US soldiers.

IRAQ

Iraqi leaders Press Ahead on Tentative Election Deal - Anthony Shadid and Nada Bakri, Washington Post. Iraqi politicians pushed ahead Friday with a compromise on a contested election measure, awaiting approval from Kurdish officials on a deal that would increase the number of seats in parliament as a way to mute criticism and allow a vote crucial to US withdrawal plans. Even with a potential breakthrough, the parliamentary elections originally set for Jan. 16 will be delayed until at least mid-February, Iraqi lawmakers and election officials said. The Obama administration has viewed the elections as a milestone in its plans to withdraw all but 50,000 troops from Iraq by August, and longer delays in the vote could complicate that timetable. In a statement Friday, Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni whose veto of the measure last week plunged Iraqi politics into crisis, called the preliminary agreement "a great step in the right direction." He said he expected Iraq's electoral commission to announce "good news" about efforts to address parties' objections to the legislation. But Hashimi cautioned: "It's still early to talk about ratifying the law, because we are awaiting the electoral commission's interpretation of the agreement."

IRAN

IAEA Board Censures Iran Over Nuke Program - Lisa Bryant, Voice of America. The board of the International Atomic Energy Agency has censured Iran for its nuclear program, in a motion endorsed Friday by all five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. Twenty five nations in the 35-member board of the International Atomic Energy Agency voted in favor of the censure motion, which calls on Iran to halt construction of a recently revealed uranium enrichment plant. The measure says the plant violates a United Nations Security Council resolution. The motion also demands that Iran cease enriching uranium. The vote is the first motion against Iran by the Vienna-based agency since 2006. It reflects a sense that efforts to get Tehran to halt its nuclear program are going nowhere. Those frustrations were aired on Thursday by outgoing IAEA chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, who discussed the issue with the board. Mr. ElBaradei also discussed Iran's reluctance to have its uranium enriched overseas.

US Says IAEA Vote Shows 'Deficit of Confidence' in Iran's Nuclear Intentions - David Gollust, Voice of America. The United State says the International Atomic Energy Agency's vote Friday censuring Iran shows a growing international "deficit of confidence" over Tehran's insistence that its nuclear program is peaceful. The White House says time is running out for diplomacy on the Iranian program. The Obama administration had been working intensively, behind the scenes, in support of a strong rebuke of Iran over its lack of cooperation on the nuclear issue. It says Friday's IAEA vote, which had the support of major world powers including Russia and China, shows the urgent need for Iran to address the growing confidence deficit over its nuclear intentions. The governing board of the UN nuclear watchdog group voted by a 25 to three margin with six abstentions in Vienna to censure Iran for concealing the existence, until recently, of a largely-underground uranium enrichment facility near the city of Qom. The measure, the first of its kind against Iran in nearly four years, reflected growing international impatience over Iran's refusal to fully embrace a plan it appeared to accept two months ago that would have greatly eased concerns about its nuclear program. Under the proposal by IAEA chief Mohamed elBaradei, Iran would send abroad much of the enriched uranium it has stockpiled in exchange for more highly-enriched fuel for a medical research reactor in Tehran.

Russia and China Endorse Agency’s Rebuke of Iran - Helene Cooper and William J. Broad, New York Times. The United Nations nuclear watchdog demanded Friday that Iran immediately freeze operations at a once secret uranium enrichment plant, a sharp rebuke that bore added weight because it was endorsed by Russia and China. The governing body of the watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, meeting in Vienna, also expressed “serious concern” about potential military aspects of Iran’s nuclear program. Administration officials held up the statement as a victory for President Obama’s diplomatic efforts to coax both Russia and China to increase the pressure on Iran. They said that they had begun working on a sanctions package, which would be brought before the United Nations Security Council if Iran did not meet the year-end deadline imposed by Mr. Obama to make progress on the issue. “Today’s overwhelming vote at the IAEA’s Board of Governors demonstrates the resolve and unity of the international community with regard to Iran’s nuclear program,” the White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said in a statement. “Indeed, the fact that 25 countries from all parts of the world cast their votes in favor shows the urgent need for Iran to address the growing international deficit of confidence in its intentions.”

White House Praises IAEA's Censures of Iran - Joseph Weber, Washington Times. The majority of the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency voted Friday to censure Iran for defying orders to curb its nuclear program, drawing praise from the White House. "Today's overwhelming vote ... demonstrates the resolve and unity of the international community with regard to Iran's nuclear program," said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. "It underscores broad consensus in calling upon Iran to live up to its international obligations and offer transparency in its nuclear program." The board has representatives from 34 countries, and 25 of them voted in favor of the resolution to censure Iran. The resolution -backed by the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - censures Iran for secretly building a uranium-enrichment facility and demands that construction stop immediately. Mr. Gibbs said the vote "also underscores a commitment to strengthen the rules of the international system, and to support the ability of the IAEA and UN Security Council to enforce the rules of the road, and to hold Iran accountable to those rules. "Indeed, the fact that 25 countries from all parts of the world cast their votes in favor shows the urgent need for Iran to address the growing international deficit of confidence in its intentions."

Latest UN Censure of Iran May Start More Confrontational Phase - Glenn Kessler and Joby Warrick, Washington Post. The resounding censure of Iran on Friday by the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, signals the start of a potentially more confrontational phase in the Obama administration's dealings with the Islamic republic, including the prospect of strengthened US-led efforts to cut off Iran's economic links to the world. Iran will face a "package of consequences" if it does not soon become a "willing partner" in talks on its nuclear ambitions, a senior US official warned, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "We hope Iran takes note of that clear message." The 35-nation board approved by 25 to 3 a resolution rebuking Iran for its continued defiance of UN resolutions that demand a halt to uranium enrichment and other activities US officials think are aimed at developing nuclear weapons. The declaration is particularly critical of Iran's secret construction of a second enrichment plant inside mountain bunkers near the ancient city of Qom, southwest of Tehran.

Russia and China Demand Iran Halt Secret Nuclear Site - Catherine Philp, The Times. World powers united in condemnation of Iran’s nuclear activities yesterday in a rare show of international consensus on the threat posed by Tehran’s continued nuclear defiance. China and Russia joined the United States, Britain, France and Germany in backing an International Atomic Energy Agency resolution censuring Iran and ordering it to halt construction of a secret uranium enrichment plant. The resolution, the first since February 2006, passed with 25 votes and six abstentions. Only Malaysia, Venezuela and Cuba supported Iran. Following the vote, Russia urged Tehran to “react with full seriousness to the signal contained in the resolution ... and to ensure full co-operation with the agency.” China, which has shared Moscow’s reluctance to take a hard line with Tehran, was reportedly persuaded to support the resolution after an emergency meeting with the US National Security Advisor in Beijing last week. The last-minute trip came after Iran backtracked on a deal to remove most of its nuclear fuel stockpile abroad in return for material needed for its medical research reactor.

Iran Seizes Human Rights Lawyer's Nobel Prize - Voice of America. Iran has frozen the bank accounts of Iranian Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi and confiscated her Peace Prize medal. Ebadi and her colleagues say the government is demanding $400,000 in back taxes on her $1.3 million prize. But Ebadi and her colleagues say such prize money is not taxed under Iranian law. Norway's Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere called the confiscation of Ebadi's medal "shocking" and said it was the first time in the 108-year history of the prize that it has been confiscated by national authorities. He said Iran's actions are a sign of the increasing pressure Tehran is putting on the human rights lawyer and dissident. The Norwegian Foreign Ministry summoned Iran's envoy (charge d'affaires) in Oslo to protest the action. The ministry also expressed "grave concern" about the treatment of Ebadi's husband, saying he had been arrested in Tehran and severely beaten. Tehran has not publicly responded to the charges. Ebadi became the first Iranian and first Muslim woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003.

Iranians Defend Freezing of Assets of Nobel Laureate - Nazila Fathi, New York Times. Iran denounced charges by the Norwegian government that it had illegally confiscated a Nobel Peace Prize winner’s medal and frozen her bank account, the IRNA news agency reported Friday. Iran called the assertion an interference in its internal affairs and said the Nobelist, Shirin Ebadi, owed taxes to the government. “We are surprised that Norwegian officials can make such hasty and biased comments and disregard the laws and regulations of other countries,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, was quoted as saying. Mr. Mehmanparast denied that Ms. Ebadi’s medal, which she won in 2003, had been confiscated, but his comments indicated that her assets had been frozen. “We do not understand how Norwegian officials are trying to justify people’s negligence to pay tax,” he said. Norway’s Foreign Ministry summoned Iran’s chargé d’affaires to protest the confiscation. Norway’s government administers the prize. Iran has demanded about $400,000 in taxes on Ms. Ebadi’s prize money, which amounted to $1.3 million. Ms. Ebadi, a human rights lawyer, has said that under Iranian law, there are no taxes on such prizes.

ISLAM

Muslim Pilgrims Hold Ritual Stoning of Satan Amid Tight Security - Edward Yeranian, Voice of America. Tens of thousands of Muslim pilgrims are performing the ritual "stoning of the devil," Friday, outside of Mecca, in Saudi Arabia, in one of the high points of the annual Hajj. Security has been tight and both King Abdallah and other leaders have emphasized the need to protect the kingdom against "infiltrators" from Yemen. Crowds of pilgrims cast stones at a series of concrete pillars or "jumrat" outside of Mecca, Friday, in a ritual meant to symbolize the renunciation of Satan. Saudi security forces kept a watchful eye on pilgrims, deploying tanks, armored personnel carriers, police vehicles and helicopters to maintain the peace. Some 2,000 security cameras were used to monitor strategic locations. Sheikh Osman Khayat delivered the sermon before pilgrims at Mecca's Grand Mosque, calling for unity among muslims and decrying divisions provoked by what he called malevolent forces. The sheikh went on to denounce invaders and infiltrators from Yemen and those who support them. He says that we must avoid divisions among Muslims and fight those who are trying to sow divisions, ignoring their calls to provoke strife. He says these people are now showing their true identities and acting with outright aggression, infiltrating Saudi Arabia's southern border with weapons and equipment.

UNITED STATES

At Quantico, The Ultimate Test - Christian Davenport, Washington Post. This is no Parris Island, the legendary boot camp in South Carolina where the drill instructors' ferocity explodes almost the instant that recruits arrive. But for the next six weeks, as Col. Rick Mancini told the candidates in his orientation speech, "every part of your body, your mind, your spirit will be tested. ... Your world will be rocked." For the US Marine Corps, this season's crop of candidates is vitally important. Marines are leading the way in Afghanistan and continuing the fight in Iraq, with increased numbers to satisfy the demands of the two simultaneous wars. The Marines need more young men and women who are willing to face combat while most of their peers stay home. And so last summer, the deadliest since the war in Afghanistan began, Quantico welcomed its second-largest officer candidate class since the Vietnam War. Despite the surprisingly easy start in July, this will be a grueling, sleep-deprived test for the 310 members of India Company. Those who pass can return next summer for another round of training toward becoming officers in the Corps. But 15 to 30 percent of the candidates usually wash out, which is fine with the Marines, who know that not everyone is right for the rigorous lifestyle.

AFRICA

'We’re Everybody’s Enemy, That’s How it is to be a Hutu' - Tristan McConnell, The Times. Dressed in a pink cotton tracksuit, Corporal Innocent Rakundo looks an unlikely member of the FDLR, one of Africa’s most feared rebel armies. He fiddles with a pen as he describes the 15 years he spent living and fighting in the forests of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. In the shifting web of political allegiances, commercial interests and military power that stretches across the region, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, better known by their French acronym, are out of favour and under siege. The FDLR’s Europe-based president and vicepresident were arrested in Germany this month, charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. In eastern Congo’s forested hills, FDLR fighters are under assault by the UN-backed Congolese Army, which began a fresh offensive in March. Footsoldiers such as Corporal Rakundo are abandoning the group in growing numbers and its ability to trade in conflict minerals such as gold, coltan and tin ore has been hampered. Yet the FDLR, led by Bosco “The Terminator” Ntaganda, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, is far from a spent force. A leaked United Nations investigators’ report seen by The Times states that UN peacekeeper-backed offensives against the FDLR “have failed to dismantle the organisation’s political and military structures on the ground”.

AMERICAS

Region Finds US Lacking on Honduras - Ginger Thompson, New York Times. Drug cartels are running amok in Mexico, Raúl Castro is tightening his grip on Cuba and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela is making mischief with Russia and Iran, but it is a relatively obscure backwater, Honduras, that has provided the Obama administration with its first test in Latin America. The ouster of Manuel Zelaya, the Honduran populist president, five months ago propelled the deeply impoverished country onto President Obama’s packed agenda. The question now is whether his administration’s support for the presidential election being held there on Sunday will be seen as a stamp of approval for a coup or, as senior administration members maintain, the beginning of the end of the crisis. Most countries in the region see it as the former. Haunted by ghosts of authoritarian governments not long in the grave, countries like Brazil, Argentina and Chile have argued that an election held by an illegal government is, by definition, illegal. They worry that if Mr. Obama appears to set aside that principle in Honduras, where the United States has long been a power broker, what would Washington do if democracy were threatened in a more powerful country where it wields less influence?

Honduras's Democratic Solution - New York Times editorial. A breach has opened among those countries that have sought to resolve the political crisis in the Central American nation of Honduras. One group is focused on restoring democracy to the country, through support for a national election scheduled for Sunday. A second faction places priority on putting ousted president Manuel Zelaya back in office - even though few Hondurans want him back and his legal term expires in just two months. To its credit, the Obama administration is leading the support for the democratic option, even though that means departing from its policy of seeking consensus with the region's big powers. Elections have often been used to restore constitutional order in unstable countries; they brought a peaceful end to Augusto Pinochet's right-wing dictatorship in Chile and to the leftist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. In the case of Honduras, the election solution is particularly appropriate, since one had been scheduled before Mr. Zelaya was arrested and illegally deported from the country in June. The candidates for president were chosen by a legal and orderly democratic process, with high participation; the vote will be supervised by an independent tribunal also established before the crisis. Polls show that Hondurans are eager for the elections to occur. They have little taste for Mr. Zelaya, who embraced the leftist populism of Hugo Chávez while in office and was trying to follow the Venezuelan's model for dismantling democratic institutions.

Ahmadinejad Boosts Latin America Ties - Juan Forero, Washington Post. Ever isolated by the United States and its European allies, Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is increasingly forging ties in Latin America, and not just with fervently anti-American leaders such as Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. On Monday, Ahmadinejad met with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, a vibrant democracy of 190 million that has the world's eighth-largest economy and warm ties with the United States. The meeting raised concerns in Washington, which has advocated sanctions to pressure Iran to give up its nuclear program. "From Iran's point of view, it's wonderful," said Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. "They have a willing dupe in Lula, who is apparently willing to extend official courtesy to make the Iranian regime seem like a legitimate regime." In recent months, Iran has come under stepped-up criticism for what Western leaders say is the secret construction of a uranium-enrichment plant that could be used to make an atomic bomb. On Friday, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog voted to rebuke Iran, with rare support from China and Russia. But in Latin America, Iran has found close cooperation among an anti-Washington alliance that includes Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua. Ahmadinejad and the leaders of those countries have signed numerous cooperation agreements, in which Iran has pledged to build milk plants and tractor factories and to provide low-interest loans. Venezuela's government has gone further, announcing that Iran is helping in the search for uranium, which Chávez said would be used for peaceful purposes.

ASIA PACIFIC

Philippine Mayor Charged With Mass Murder for Election-Related Massacre - Voice of America. Philippine authorities have charged a town mayor with mass murder in connection with an election-related massacre of 57 people that shocked the nation. Andal Ampatuan Jr. was charged Friday after authorities flew him to the capital, Manila, from the southern Philippines, where he turned himself in the day before. Ampatuan is the mayor of Datu Unsay, a town in Maguindanao province, where he is suspected of orchestrating Monday's attack on a convoy of journalists, supporters and relatives of a rival politician. The convoy was traveling to register politician Ismael Mangudadatu as a candidate for provincial governor when about 100 gunmen ambushed it and slaughtered the occupants. The dead included Mangudadatu's wife, sisters and 29 journalists. Authorities suspect Ampatuan of ordering the massacre to stop Mangudadatu from running for governor, a post held by Ampatuan's father, Andal Ampatuan Sr. Mangudadatu filed his candidacy Friday, saying only death could keep him from contesting next year's election. The Ampatuan clan has ruled Maguindanao unopposed for years. Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. had been grooming the younger Ampatuan to succeed him. Media groups say Monday's massacre was the deadliest single attack on journalists ever recorded anywhere.

Philippine Official Says Victims Were Sexually Mutilated - Carlos H. Conde, New York Times. Most or all of the 22 women among the 57 people massacred Monday in the southern Philippines were sexually mutilated, the authorities said Friday, adding grim details to the catalog of horrors that has already emerged. “Even the private parts of the women were shot at,” the justice secretary, Agnes Devanadera, said on national television. “It was horrible. It was not done to just one. It was done practically to all the women.” While work continued to identify all the dead, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said that it appeared that 30 journalists and their assistants had been killed. About a dozen of the victims were the relatives, lawyers or supporters of Esmael Mangudadatu, a local politician whose determination to challenge the entrenched Ampatuan clan in a gubernatorial election apparently touched off the violence. Investigators said that the rest of the victims, perhaps as many as 15, happened to be stopped at a checkpoint along the highway in Ampatuan, a town in Maguindanao Province, when the convoy of Mangudadatu supporters and journalists was stopped by police officers and militiamen loyal to the Ampatuans. They were killed to eliminate witnesses, investigators said. Ms. Devanadera said that several of the men accused of taking part in the slaughter had surrendered and offered to testify. Though the killings violated a traditional custom against harming women, the men seemed to be troubled more by the deaths of the journalists and the bystanders.

Khmer Rouge Trial Adjourns; Accused Death Camp Commander Awaits Sentence - Luke Hunt, Voice of America. In Cambodia, the trial of a prison commandant who ruled over the deaths of at least 12,000 people has wrapped up. But, it will be months before a verdict and sentence are issued. In the last minutes of his trial, the man accused of running a Khmer Rouge death camp Friday asked for an acquittal. The three Cambodian and two international judges ignored the request and ended the trial. In summing up the trial of Kang Guek Eav, also known as Duch, his lawyers downplayed the role of the S-21 death camp he ran. S-21 was housed in a Phnom Penh school when the Khmer Rouge ruled from 1975 to 1979. Duch has admitted running the prison and has apologized for his role. But his lawyers have argued he was not a senior official in the Khmer Rouge and he acted to protect himself and his family. Helen Jarvis is head of the court's victims unit and says many will be relieved that the court has wrapped up the trial, which began in February. "For the last seven months they have been here almost every single day, and have been following the ups and downs, they've been on the edge of their seats, crying, angry, upset, worried, everything," said Helen Jarvis. "Their emotions have been absolute high pitched for seven months. She says victims of the Khmer Rouge now will wait for a verdict and sentence. The prosecutors have asked for 40 years in prison, although many victims want Duch to serve a life sentence.

China Jails Environmentalist Wanted in US - Dan Levin, New York Times. Justin Franchi Solondz, an environmental activist from New Jersey who spent years evading charges of ecoterrorism in the United States by hiding out in China, was sentenced to three years in prison by a local court on Friday on charges of manufacturing drugs in this backpacker haven. After serving his time, Mr. Solondz, 30, who is on the FBI’s wanted list, will be deported to the United States, where he faces charges stemming from what the authorities say was his role in an arson rampage that destroyed buildings in three western states as a member of a group related to the environmental extremist organization Earth Liberation Front. He was indicted in absentia in 2006. The story of Mr. Solondz’s life on the lam spanned three continents, involved at least two aliases and ended in a smoky bar in one of the world’s most authoritarian countries. Mr. Solondz’s journey started in the fall of 2005, when he joined his mother in Italy for a wedding and then traveled around Europe and Asia. His parents say he stopped communicating with them in March 2006, just before the FBI announced the charges.

EUROPE

Russian Train Derails Killing Dozens - Associated Press. An express train carrying hundreds of passengers from Moscow to St. Petersburg derailed, killing at least 39 people and injuring scores of others, emergency officials said. The state-run railway company said the derailment late Friday could have been the result of sabotage, raising fears that the luxury train, popular with business executives and government officials, was the target of a terrorist attack. The last three cars of the 14-car Nevsky Express left the tracks in the Tver province northwest of Moscow, the Emergency Situations Ministry said. Minister Sergei Shoigu said Saturday morning that 39 people were dead and 18 missing. Health Minister Tatyana Golikova told reporters at the scene that 95 people were being treated in hospitals in the Tver and Novgorod region. State-run Vesti-24 television showed grainy footage hours after the derailment of a dented passenger car flipped on its side, laying across the tracks.

MIDDLE EAST

Israeli Military Says Air Force Thwarted a Gaza Rocket Attack - Isabel Kershner, New York Times. The Israeli military said the air force attacked a group of Palestinian militants in northern Gaza early Friday as they were about to fire rockets at Israel, a week after the Hamas rulers of Gaza announced that they had secured the agreement of other groups to halt rocket fire in order to prevent retaliatory attacks. Palestinian medics said four militants had been wounded in the airstrike, but the Israeli military said one member of the squad, from a small Islamic extremist group influenced by Al Qaeda, had been. Such groups are rivals of Hamas, but the military said it held Hamas responsible for maintaining calm. Israeli strikes against militants have been rare since the end of last winter’s Gaza war. There has been a steep decline in rocket fire since Israel’s military offensive ended last January, but the sporadic attacks have continued. Several mortar shells have been launched in the last week. Hamas, the Islamic group that took control of Gaza in 2007, has an interest in maintaining quiet so as not to upset the delicate negotiations under way for a deal with Israel to exchange a captured soldier, Staff Sgt. Gilad Shalit, for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Ehud Olmert Still Dreams of Peace - Greg Sheridan, The Australian. Ehud Olmert is a giant of contemporary Middle East politics. As Israel's prime minister he made war - twice - in Lebanon in 2006, and in the Gaza Strip earlier this year. He's also tried to make peace, offering the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, the most extensive concessions any Israeli leader has ever brought to the table in the search for a settlement. Now Olmert's out of office, not because he lost an election but because he is fighting corruption charges in the courts. Previous such charges against him came to nothing and Olmert has always asserted his innocence. In Sydney this week, I conducted, perhaps, the longest interview and discussion Olmert has undertaken with any media since leaving office in March after more than three years as prime minister. Dressed in jeans and black T-shirt with a Red Bull logo, Olmert looked pretty chipper for a balding lawyer with a modest paunch in his early 60s who'd just flown 24 hours from Israel. For 90 minutes in the boardroom of Sydney's Park Hyatt, and then over a relaxed lunch with his wife, Aliza, at Circular Quay, Olmert talked with remarkable frankness about the military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon, the historic peace deal he offered the Palestinians, President Barack Obama's Middle East policy and the options for action against Iran.

Piracy Threatens Fishermen in Yemen - Heather Murdock, Washington Times. Deeply tanned teenage boys dragged four yellowfin tuna off the small fishing boat and ran up the beach. The boys were strong, but the fish were fat and at least three feet long. They slapped the fish down in the concrete and tile market. It was dinner time, and hungry shoppers were looking to buy. Anwar Abdulkader Aisa, who fishes for tuna and kingfish in his 23-foot boat, said he still makes a living in the Gulf of Aden, but his income has been cut in half. One third of the piracy in the world takes place in the gulf, a roughly 200-mile wide strip of water that separates Yemen from Somalia. About a year ago, international forces moved into the area to fight a rising threat from Somali pirates. Led by the European Union, the armada relies on naval support from NATO and more than 25 countries, including the United States, China, Russia and India. But despite the display of military might, piracy in the area doubled in 2009, according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB). One of the world's busiest sea lanes, more than 25,000 merchant ships pass through the Gulf of Aden every year. Between January and September this year, there were 100 attempted and actual pirate attacks. There were half as many during the same period last year. In 2005, there were eight. Traditional fishermen, who catch most of Yemen's fish exports, are caught in the middle. "[The pirates] will kill you for a small thing like a boat engine," Mr. Aisa said. "The international forces are also a threat." Standing on a small beach on a muggy night in November, he said aircraft from all over the world harass fishermen in Yemeni-flagged traditional fishing boats. Almost every day they hover over his boat, he said. Usually they move on after they are convinced the boat is for fishing. About seven of his colleagues have been arrested.

Diplomacy 101 - New York Times editorial. We were thrilled when President Obama decided to plunge fully into the Middle East peace effort. He appointed a skilled special envoy, George Mitchell, and demanded that Israel freeze settlements, Palestinians crack down on anti-Israel violence and Arab leaders demonstrate their readiness to reach out to Israel. Nine months later, the president’s promising peace initiative has unraveled. The Israelis have refused to stop all building. The Palestinians say that they won’t talk to the Israelis until they do, and President Mahmoud Abbas is so despondent he has threatened to quit. Arab states are refusing to do anything. Mr. Obama’s own credibility is so diminished (his approval rating in Israel is 4 percent) that serious negotiations may be farther off than ever. Peacemaking takes strategic skill. But we see no sign that President Obama and Mr. Mitchell were thinking more than one move down the board. The president went public with his demand for a full freeze on settlements before securing Israel’s commitment. And he and his aides apparently had no plan for what they would do if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said no. Most important, they allowed the controversy to obscure the real goal: nudging Israel and the Palestinians into peace talks.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Mideast's Big Loser - Los Angeles Times editorial. There are reports of a deal to exchange hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for captured Israeli Sgt. Gilad Shalit. This is welcome news because the Islamic militant group Hamas has held the 23-year-old soldier as a human pawn, virtually incommunicado, since his capture on the Gaza Strip border in June 2006. Shalit's release would be a political boon for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of a country with obligatory military service and that identifies with the soldier's plight and his family's pain. Similarly, among Palestinians, Hamas would benefit from being seen as a liberator of prisoners from Israeli jails - especially if the swap is made by the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha beginning Friday. Unless there is also something in the agreement for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, however, the moderate West Bank administrator will once again seem the loser. Abbas, 74, has been growing politically weaker in recent months, undercut by Israel and the Obama administration, as well as by Hamas. Efforts to reconcile his Fatah faction with Hamas have stalled, and elections scheduled for January had to be postponed because Hamas refuses to allow them to take place in Gaza, the territory under its control.

SOUTH ASIA

Sri Lanka Sets Presidential Election for January 26 - Steve Herman, Voice of America. President Mahinda Rajakpaksa is hoping for a mandate from the people in the wake of this year's crushing defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which ended a devastating quarter-century civil war. The two main, rival opposition parties are indicating they will support Sarath Fonseka. The just-retired General led the Army during the final three-year offensive against the LTTE rebels. Rifts emerged between the president and the general after the war's end with General Fonseka accusing Mr. Rajapaksa of sidelining him and falsely suspecting him of planning a coup. A top analyst, Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu, who heads the Center for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, tells VOA News General Fonseka could pose a strong challenge to the President. "That calculation is based on General Fonseka also being able to claim credit for the victory against the LTTE," said Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu. "So in terms of the wider population and particularly the majority [Sinhalese] community I think the two are seen as people who are architects of the victory over the LTTE. The issue is going to be as to how the minorities are going to vote." The Tamil and Muslim minorities make up about one-fourth of the electorate and thus could hold the balance of power in a close election.

President Asif Ali Zardari Faces New Legal Threat to Rule in Pakistan - Zahid Hussain, The Times. Pakistan will be thrown into political turmoil today with the expiry of an amnesty that has protected the President and thousands of key allies from a wave of lawsuits. Several corruption and murder cases are now set to entangle President Zardari, prompting questions and legal challenges about his suitability to govern the country. Last week the Government released a list of about 8,000 politicians and bureaucrats who had been shielded by an immunity decree, including Mr Zardari and his interior and defence ministers. Their protection from prosecution disappeared after the Government, stymied by a Supreme Court ruling, failed to renew the expiring amnesty. As part of his presidential privileges, Mr Zardari is personally protected from prosecution as long as he remains in office but analysts said that the restoration of graft cases involving key allies could prove politically fatal. Several petitions are also pending before the Supreme Court, challenging Mr Zardari’s eligibility to hold the country’s top office, and the court may now decide his political future.

In Pakistan, Much Bitterness Over Sugar Crisis - Pamela Constable, Washington Post. From the busy and bucolic scene in this Punjab province village, it is hard to tell that Pakistan is in the throes of a national sugar crisis. Fields of tall green cane line the roads, and flatbed trucks piled with ripe stalks head for a modern mill that steadily crushes tons of cane into refined white crystals. But 200 miles north, in the crowded and chaotic city of Rawalpindi, the frustration of people waiting in long lines for emergency sugar rations often erupts into tirades against the government, the hoarders, the black marketeers and especially the wealthy families that dominate Pakistan's lucrative sugar industry. "Without sugar, my children will be crying when I get home. It is all because of strong people, the big owners and traders who have a lot of influence," said Syed Inayat, 40, a trash collector who was waiting for his sugar ration outside a government store one recent morning. Half a century ago, a sugar shortage helped bring down Pakistan's military regime. For the past four months, a similar shortage has led to skyrocketing prices and empty market shelves, sending consumers and officials into a panic.

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.