The Obama administration is scaling back its ambitions for the Arab-Israeli peace process, focusing on maintaining some degree of low-level dialogue in the face of big divisions between the two sides. US officials began outlining Washington's diminished expectations as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton completes a one-week tour of the Middle East on Wednesday. She had tried to kick-start a new round of talks during stops in Israel and Arab capitals, but the divisions proved too wide to bridge. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused US calls for a complete freeze of settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the Palestinians have ruled out resuming negotiations without the freeze.

-- Wall Street Journal

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN

President Obama Still to Decide Whether to Send More US Troops to Afghanistan - Ravi Khanna, Voice of America. President Barack Obama met last October 30 with his top military commanders to discuss US strategy in Afghanistan as he considers whether to send thousands of more troops to the war torn country. Some analysts in Washington say the primary question is whether the Afghan war is still a war of necessity as Mr. Obama has maintained, and if it serves US national interests. President Obama saw the war's impact first hand when he visited a US military base in Dover, Delaware to witness the return of 18 Americans killed in Afghanistan. "Obviously it was a sobering reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices that our young men and women in uniform are engaging in every single day. Not only our troops, but their families as well," Mr. Obama said. The war weighs heavily on the president's administration as he considers whether to follow the advice of his top commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, for 40,000 additional US troops. Journalist Bob Woodward says President Obama must weigh US national interests, and the first interest is preventing another al-Qaida attack. He says because of US troops in Afghanistan, the terrorist group can not use it as a base to attack the US. The second is regional stability. "The question then becomes what are you willing to pay and expend for that regional stability or stability specifically in Afghanistan," Woodward stated, "If you look at it from that end it tends to take you away from giant troop commitments."

Afghanistan's Karzai Intends to Create Unity Government - Ayaz Gul, Voice of America. Afghanistan's re-elected President Hamid Karzai says he intends to set up a government with maximum representation from across the country and promised to introduce reforms aimed at eradicating corruption as well as strengthening Afghan security forces. He spoke in Kabul a day after the country's election officials declared him winner of the controversial August 20 election. President Hamid Karzai told a news conference in Kabul that improving security and ensuring good governance will remain high on his agenda as he embarks on a new five-year term. In order to achieve these goals, the Afghan leader says he will work towards establishing what he described as "a national unity government". "My government will for all Afghans and all those who want to work with me are most welcomed regardless of whether they opposed me in the election or they supported me in the election," Karzai said. President Karzai's administration has remained under fire from the United States and other Western allies for not taking concrete steps to root out widespread corruption. Earlier, in a telephone call to congratulate him on his re-election, US President Barack Obama urged the Afghan leader to implement reforms and take action against corruption. President Karzai promised to take tough action to overcome these problems.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai Vows Inclusive Government - Jerome Starkey, The Times. Hamid Karzai vowed to crack down on corruption and reach out to his political rivals, a day after he was declared the winner of Afghanistan’s fraud-ridden presidential elections. Flanked by his two vice-presidents, Mr Karzai made a subdued acceptance speech this morning in which he attempted to reassure the international community that he would be the “credible partner” they need to make progress against the Taleban. He promised to eliminate the “dark stain of corruption” that has undermined confidence in his regime. Questions still hang over his mandate after he was declared the victor yesterday without receiving the “50 per cent plus one vote” required by Afghanistan’s constitution. But in the clearest indication yet that he plans to bolster his legitimacy by forging a national unity government, Mr Karzai congratulated his opponent Dr Abdullah Abdullah and pledged an ethnically representative administration. “Our government will be the mirror of Afghanistan so everyone can see themselves in the mirror,” he said. “No one will see themselves distanced in this process. All of us will be included as part of Afghanistan’s government.”

Karzai Vows Corruption Fight, but Avoids Details - Alissa J. Rubin, New York Times. President Hamid Karzai, in his first speech since he was declared the winner of the much disputed presidential election, said Tuesday that he wanted to tackle corruption but made no specific commitments to reorganizing his administration. “Afghanistan has been tarnished by administrative corruption, and I will launch a campaign to clean the government of corruption,” he said. Asked if that might involve changing important ministers and officials, he said: “These problems cannot be solved by changing high-ranking officials. We’ll review the laws and see what problems are in the law, and we will draft some new laws.” Mr. Karzai’s cabinet and members of his campaign office attended the news conference, and he was flanked by his two vice presidents, Karim Khalili and Marshal Muhammad Qasim Fahim. Marshal Fahim is among the powerful Afghans the international community has accused of abuses or corruption and has been pressing Mr. Karzai to act against. He is accused of drug trafficking, as is Mr. Karzai’s brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai. Mr. Karzai said he would try to strengthen an anticorruption commission that was set up last year.

Afghanistan's Karzai Promises an Inclusive Government - Alexandra Zavis, Los Angeles Times. In his first public comments since winning a second term, President Hamid Karzai struck a conciliatory note Tuesday, pledging to form an inclusive government and to tackle corruption, as advocated by the US and many fellow Afghans. But he offered no specific gestures toward his election rival, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. Nor would he commit to measures that might help restore legitimacy to his administration after a turbulent election marred by widespread fraud. The US strategy to stabilize Afghanistan requires a credible government in Kabul that can support military operations and deliver services to help draw civilians away from an escalating Taliban insurgency. But the decision Monday by electoral officials to declare Karzai the victor after Abdullah, citing concerns of more fraud, pulled out of a weekend election runoff, deprived the president of a genuine win at the polls. President Obama may now find it more difficult to justify major troop increases, which his commanders have recommended to bolster the war effort.

Abdullah Camp Negotiated for Cabinet Positions - Joshua Partlow, Washington Post. When Abdullah Abdullah chose to withdraw from the presidential election this week - effectively handing incumbent Hamid Karzai a new term - he described his position as a selfless protest against a flawed electoral system that was not fair for all Afghans. But in the behind-the-scenes negotiations between the Abdullah and Karzai camps, less high-minded motives also were at play. Afghan and Western officials said Abdullah's representatives were seeking a power-sharing deal with Karzai, demanding several senior government positions in talks that continued until hours before he announced his withdrawal Sunday. One Afghan official close to Karzai said that around 2:30 p.m. Saturday, an Abdullah representative handed over a document demanding 11 senior government posts, including cabinet positions, for the candidate's supporters. A Western official said Abdullah's team had earlier demanded five positions. Among the demands was that Attah Mohammed Noor, a strong Abdullah supporter and the governor of Balkh province in the north, would remain in his post and that a son of former president Burhanuddin Rabbani would get a cabinet seat. Abdullah's camp was also pushing for the removal of the interior and defense ministers, close allies of Karzai.

Afghan Electoral Outcome Presents Both Problems, Opportunity for US - Gary Thomas, Voice of America. The end to the presidential electoral drama in Afghanistan came as the Obama administration ponders the future US course there. The outcome is expected to make things easier for the US efforts in some respects, but may also complicate them in others. The Afghan election was rather like a suspenseful film that comes to unsatisfying end with no resolution of outstanding plot lines. Hamid Karzai won re-election by default after his closest challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, pulled out of the runoff, forcing its cancellation. Dr. Abdullah charged the mechanisms of electoral fraud that plagued the first vote - and that mandated a runoff - were still in place to ensure an equally flawed second round. Former US deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia Teresita Schaffer says the tainted outcome was a disappointment for the international community, which had pinned such high hopes on the election. "The UN, the United States, and lots of others have looked to the Afghan elections as a milestone in the stabilization of the government in Afghanistan and also a milestone in Afghanistan's progress in having an orderly constitutionally-based government," said Schaffer. "And the scale of the apparent fraud makes it a not particularly helpful milestone on either of these roads." But says former EU Special Envoy to Afghanistan Francesc Vendrell, there is little the international community can do but make the best of an unpleasant situation. "I think that it makes life more difficult for the US, even though I think the administration, as well as other European governments, will probably claim that things are now fine," said Vendrell. "One is faced with an administration in Kabul that has little legitimacy, but one of course will probably have to try to work with it." The electoral result came as the Obama administration was hunkered down in deep deliberations on a new US strategy in Afghanistan. General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan, is advocating the deployment of additional troops as part of a counter-insurgency strategy to fight the Taliban.

US Gives Karzai Six-month Ultimatum to Stem Afghanistan Corruption - Jerome Starkey and Tom Coghlan, The Times. President Karzai has six months to sideline his brother and reduce corruption or risk losing American support, Afghan officials have told The Times. Senior palace insiders said that President Obama delivered the ultimatum when he congratulated Mr Karzai on his re-election on Monday. Top of his demands was action against corruption, the appointment of “reform-minded ministers” and several high-profile scalps to prove Mr Karzai’s commitment to cleaning up his Government. “If he doesn’t meet the conditions within six months, Obama has told him America will pull out,” said an official with access to Mr Karzai’s inner circle. “Obama said they don’t want their soldiers’ lives wasted for nothing. They want changes in Cabinet, and changes in his personal staff.” It is extremely unlikely that British troops would stay in Afghanistan if US forces were withdrawn.

Five British Soldiers Killed by Rogue Afghan Policeman - Jerome Starkey, The Times. Five British soldiers have been shot dead after a rogue Afghan policeman opened fire inside a police checkpoint. The soldiers, three from the Grenadier Guards and two from the Royal Military Police, died in the Nad-e’Ali district of Helmand Province yesterday afternoon. It is thought a further three Afghan police officers were also killed and up to six men injured. The soldiers had been working and living at the post for two weeks, alongside a detachment of Afghan police whom they had been mentoring. "Without warning one of the ANP (Afghan National Policemen), potentially in concert with another, picked up his weapon and started firing," a military official told The Times. Officials said that the gunman, named locally as Gulbaddin, fled the scene, possibly with his accomplice. Tribal sources have suggested the killer may have had links to the Taleban, although a British army spokesman said that his motives were as yet unknown. "The initial reports suggest a member of the police started firing. He, or they, then fled from the scene before anyone could respond," the official added.

Afghan Policeman Kills 5 British Soldiers - Alissa J. Rubin and Alan Cowell, New York Times. The British Defense Ministry said Wednesday that five soldiers died Tuesday in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, apparently in an attack by what a British officer called a “rogue” Afghan policeman. The death toll represented one of the highest British fatalities in a single attack since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and brought the number of British soldiers to have died in the conflict to 229. Lt. Col. David Wakefield, a British officer in Helmand, said an “individual rogue” Afghan policeman opened fire on British during in the southern province on Tuesday. It was not clear whether the police officer had links to the Taliban insurgents who have been fighting an increasingly bold campaign against Afghan and NATO forces. The police officer was said to have fled after opening fire. Six British soldiers were also wounded. In London, a spokeswoman for the Defense Ministry, who spoke in return for anonymity under ministry rules, said “every effort” was being made to hunt down the attacker. The incident took place at a checkpoint, the British military said. “An Afghan national policeman from the checkpoint started firing without warning before anyone could really respond,” Reuters quoted a Defense Ministry spokesman as saying.

Combat Advisors See Afghan Troops in Action - Stephen Decatur, American Forces Press Service. Afghan soldiers in armored Humvees led a combined convoy of Afghans and Americans down Highway 1. As dawn broke, they passed an Afghan National Police checkpoint and dismounted by an Afghan army combat outpost. Their objective was Shah Hasan Kheyl, a village about a half mile off the road. Starting in August, small, embedded training teams dispersed throughout Afghanistan started getting replaced with combat units from the 82nd Airborne Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team to serve as combat advisors. The battalion-sized operation involved several companies of the Afghan National Army, their combat advisors, the Afghan National Police, and a company from the 2nd Infantry Division’s 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team. It was the first large-scale mission conducted by the Afghan soldiers in conjunction with their new combat advisors, and was aimed at increasing Afghan army presence in the village and surrounding communities in Zabul province. As the soldiers made the uphill journey to the village, they spread out across multiple avenues of approach up terraces and into orchards. Green grass and trees by the Tarnak River made the area look like a completely different country from the broad desert they just came from. People waking up for their morning chores stopped and watched the group coming. Inside the village, Afghan soldiers knocked on doors, searched houses and interviewed the inhabitants. US combat advisors watched and observed their techniques. The people told the Afghan soldiers that the Taliban come in the evening and take their food and water. One boy came to a USparatrooper and told him in English that the Taliban beat him for going to school.

Pakistanis Seek Blame for Bombing - Sabrina Tavernese, New York Times. It has been a week since the bomb exploded at the women’s market here, but people still talk about the images of its aftermath: women’s bodies, naked and broken. A hand with hennaed nails. An arm still wearing bracelets. Even for Peshawar, a city that has long been pummeled by violent attacks, the bombing in the Meena market last week felt different. The violence was aimed not at soldiers or the police, but at society’s most vulnerable members - poor women and children, who made up about half of the bombing’s 114 victims. In two days of interviews, Pakistanis here said they believed the war had taken a dark new turn, with civilians now bearing the brunt of insurgents’ fury. But that does not mean greater public anger at the Taliban. The attack was so disturbing that people refused to believe that their countrymen were the culprits. If anything, it was met with disbelief or anger at the government for failing to protect civilians. “The Taliban talk about morality and women’s dress, but they wouldn’t do such a thing to us,” said Muhamed Orenzeib Khan, a gas station attendant who lost nine members of his family in the blast. “Their target was never the common people.”

Our Man in Kabul - Washington Post editorial. Hamid Karzai said a lot of the right words on Tuesday after his mandate for another term as Afghanistan's president was confirmed. He said he would form an inclusive administration, that he would welcome members of the Taliban who are ready to work with the government, and that he would "use all our forces, by any means, to remove this stain" of corruption. As President Obama pointedly noted in recognizing Mr. Karzai's reelection a day earlier, "the proof is not going to be in words. It's going to be in deeds." True enough -- but it's also the case that the direction of Mr. Karzai's deeds is going to depend to a large degree on whether he believes he can depend on the United States, its forces and especially its president to back him up. So far, the Afghan leader has frequently gotten the opposite message from the Obama administration. Senior envoys such as Vice President Biden have quarreled with him in private, even as Mr. Obama has held Karzai at arm's length in public. This might have made some sense if there were an alternative to Mr. Karzai. But there is none. Even after fraudulent votes were subtracted, Mr. Karzai was far ahead of his leading opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, in the first round of the presidential race.

Unicorns in Kabul - George Will, Washington Post opinion. Actress Cate Blanchett, who has played Queen Elizabeth I, is performing here, portraying someone less than regal - flurried, anxious Blanche DuBois, in Tennessee Williams's "A Streetcar Named Desire." If Obama administration officials involved in formulating Afghanistan policy see her, they should wince when she speaks DuBois's signature line: "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers." The US mission - whatever it is; stay tuned - in that fractured semi-nation depends on substantially increased competence and radically reduced corruption among the strangers governing in, if not much beyond, Kabul. One stranger is Afghanistan's president. We are getting to know him well. On Jan. 29, 2002, just 114 days after the US intervention in Afghanistan began, President George W. Bush, during his State of the Union address, introduced to a joint session of Congress and to a national television audience a man in the gallery of the House chamber -- "the distinguished interim leader of a liberated Afghanistan, Chairman Hamid Karzai." Interim no more, he has won - or at least secured - another five years in office.

The Karzai Calculus - David Ignatius, Washington Post opinion. With the "reelection" of President Hamid Karzai, if that's the right word for a process that featured fraudulent balloting and a canceled runoff, the United States now confronts the hardest puzzle of all about Afghanistan: How to improve governance - which most experts agree is essential to defeating the Taliban - without taking even more control from Afghan officials? President Obama took the first step on this tightrope Monday with a congratulatory phone call to Karzai that was at the same time a backhanded slap. He urged the Afghan president to launch "a much more serious effort to eradicate corruption." Karzai responded Tuesday by promising that, in unspecified ways, he would "eradicate this stain." It's a classic American dilemma: How does a superpower fix problems in a faraway country without dictating policies in a way that ultimately enfeebles the very people we are trying to help? Over the years we've gotten this wrong in Vietnam, the Middle East and Latin America.

The Stunning Victory that Wasn't - Mark Esper, Washington Post opinion. Later this month, the eighth anniversary of a stunning military victory by US armed forces and the CIA will not be observed. I'm referring, of course, to the surrender of Taliban fighters on Nov. 30, 2001, after a prison revolt at Mazar-e-Sharif, barely 80 days after the Sept. 11 attacks. Back then, Bush administration officials and conservative pundits ridiculed those who had warned of a possible quagmire in Afghanistan and gloated over the remarkable display of American power. At that point eight years ago, only a handful of American lives had been lost and what was left of the Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters were to evaporate as if into thin air. It was over. Well, to be sure, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was still at large. And so was Taliban leader Mohammad Omar. Okay, and so were a lot of their cronies. But it was over, right?

IRAQ

Iraqi Logjam Over Vote Law Has US Anxious - Ernesto Londoño and K.I. Ibrahim, Washington Post. An impasse over a law crucial to organizing next year's Iraqi elections is illustrating more starkly than ever the United States' dwindling ability to shape Iraqi politics and settle disputes. US and UN officials have grown increasingly worried in recent days as Iraqi lawmakers have continued to put off a vote amid bickering over how to hold elections in the disputed city of Kirkuk. Because the stalemate threatens to delay the elections, and a delay could paralyze the Iraqi government, US commanders may be forced to reevaluate whether to postpone the pullout of their troops. US Ambassador Christopher R. Hill has spent hours in Iraq's parliament in recent days trying to narrow the divide between Sunnis and Kurds over Kirkuk. Vice President Biden on Sunday called Massoud Barzani, president of the semiautonomous northern Iraqi region of Kurdistan, and asked him to nudge the Kurds in parliament to get behind the latest UN proposal to end the deadlock. American officials, who to varying degrees have run this country for six years, are finding that they can do little these days other than ask and prod.

Iraq Swears by Bomb Detector US Sees as Useless - Rod Nordland, New York Times. Despite major bombings that have rattled the nation, and fears of rising violence as American troops withdraw, Iraq’s security forces have been relying on a device to detect bombs and weapons that the United States military and technical experts say is useless. The small hand-held wand, with a telescopic antenna on a swivel, is being used at hundreds of checkpoints in Iraq. But the device works “on the same principle as a Ouija board” - the power of suggestion - said a retired United States Air Force officer, Lt. Col. Hal Bidlack, who described the wand as nothing more than an explosives divining rod. Still, the Iraqi government has purchased more than 1,500 of the devices, known as the ADE 651, at costs from $16,500 to $60,000 each. Nearly every police checkpoint, and many Iraqi military checkpoints, have one of the devices, which are now normally used in place of physical inspections of vehicles. With violence dropping in the past two years, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has taken down blast walls along dozens of streets, and he contends that Iraqis will safeguard the nation as American troops leave. But the recent bombings of government buildings here have underscored how precarious Iraq remains, especially with the coming parliamentary elections and the violence expected to accompany them. The suicide bombers who managed to get two tons of explosives into downtown Baghdad on Oct. 25, killing 155 people and destroying three ministries, had to pass at least one checkpoint where the ADE 651 is typically deployed, judging from surveillance videos released by Baghdad’s provincial governor. The American military does not use the devices. “I don’t believe there’s a magic wand that can detect explosives,” said Maj. Gen. Richard J. Rowe Jr., who oversees Iraqi police training for the American military. “If there was, we would all be using it. I have no confidence that these work.”

Brigade Prepares for ‘Advise, Assist’ Mission - Donna Miles, American Forces Press Service. As the 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Brigade prepares for its fourth deployment to Iraq, its soldiers are getting lessons in the art of leading from behind as they help to set the stage for the eventual drawdown of US forces in Iraq. The "Raider Brigade" was part of the initial US invasion into Iraq, and returned for two more deployments, in 2005 and 2007. Now, Army Col. Roger Cloutier, the brigade commander, calls it fitting that his soldiers will serve as one of four new “advise-and-assist” brigades tailored specifically to support Iraqi security forces. Cloutier spoke to American Forces Press Service about the new mission last week as his troops wrapped up their month-long rehearsal exercise at the National Training Center here. The rotation was their last major training before they deploy next month to assume a role unlike any they've had before in Iraq. "This rotation was less about 1st Brigade, 3rd ID going out and doing the combat missions, and more about us advising and assisting our Iraqi partners in doing that," Cloutier explained. "Our mission is by, with and through our Iraqi partners. They clearly have the lead," he said. "So the rotation here was focused on that," with training operations and scenarios focused on helping the soldiers learn how to provide support as required without taking charge. To Cloutier, the new mission recognizes major strides made by the Iraqi security forces. "This will be my fourth deployment to Iraq, and each time I have seen the [Iraqi security forces] get stronger and more capable," he said. "So at least in my mind, it is a natural progression." So during the NTC rotation, the Iraqis - portrayed by the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, NTC's permanent opposing force - took the lead in planning and carrying out every operation. During two out-of-sector operations, one at battalion level and one at brigade level, the Iraqi security forces led the planning, with concept development support from the US stability transition teams.

IRAN

Iran's Supreme Leader Throws Cold Water on Nuclear Negotiations - Edward Yeranian, Voice of America. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says that Tehran "does not want negotiations with the West if the "results are pre-determined by the United States." The Ayatollah's remarks follow the government's observance of the 30th anniversary of the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran. The crowd chanted "death to America" as Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told the group of young people that Tehran "does not want negotiations" with the United States, if the terms of any deal amount to a US diktat. He says that the United States and its allies tell us to our faces that they are seeking negotiations, but then, when they do not get what they want, they make threats. Is this, he asks, what they call negotiations? The message came amid an ongoing flurry of contradictory signals by top Iranian officials over Tehran's position on a draft UN nuclear accord that would require sending 80 percent of its low-grade uranium abroad for enrichment. The Ayatollah devoted long portions of his speech to castigating the United States, at a gathering that was billed as a "condemnation of arrogant powers." He went on to defend what he called Tehran's "legitimate rights." He says what Iran wants is nothing more than its legitimate right. Iran, he argues, seeks its independence, freedom, national interests, along with scientific and technological progress. He warns that Iran will confront any opponent that challenges those rights with all its might, and bring them down to their knees.

Iran's Khamenei Rejects US Outreach - Thomas Erdbrink and William Branigin, Washington Post. Iran's supreme leader, spurning what he described as several personal overtures from President Obama, warned Tuesday that negotiating with the United States would be "naive and perverted" and that Iranian politicians should not be "deceived" into starting such talks. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 70, said Obama has approached him several times through oral and written messages. It was the second time that Khamenei, who wields ultimate political and religious authority in Iran, has referred to the president's outreach. The White House has not confirmed sending letters to the Iranian supreme leader but has acknowledged a willingness to talk to Tehran and said it has sought to communicate with Iranian leaders in a variety of ways. In his harshest comments yet on the Obama administration, Khamenei said in a speech Tuesday that the United States has ill intentions toward Iran and is not to be trusted.

In Iran, From Heroes to State Enemies - Michael Slackman, New York Times. Mohsen Mirdamadi had been applauded as a hero by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini for helping to lead the takeover of the United States Embassy in Iran 30 years ago Wednesday. Today, he is in prison, accused as an enemy of the state. Mr. Mirdamadi’s crime was working as a leader of the reform movement, specifically as the general secretary of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, the largest reformist party. But he is hardly alone among former hostage-takers who now find themselves under suspicion and siege by the authorities. As Iran marks the anniversary of an event that helped define its political identity, many former hostage-takers and their allies are committed to the political opposition, and therefore pose a credible threat to the leadership’s legitimacy, analysts said. “The fact that so many of the students of ’79 eventually came to a reformist position in Iranian politics is not such a mystery when you remember that the reformist position in Iranian politics is not necessarily a pro-Western position,” said Michael Axworthy, a former British diplomat and Iran expert who lectures at the University of Exeter. The perception that the hostage siege - once the signature event in the founding of the Islamic republic - has developed into a domestic liability is especially true this year, Iran experts said. Ever since the protests and crackdown after the disputed presidential election last summer, opposition supporters have seized on public anniversaries as a chance to take to the streets, as they are expected to on Wednesday.

Revolutionary Guards Extend Reach to Iran's Media - Farnaz Fassihi, Wall Street Journal. Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps, already an economic, political and military power, is quietly pushing into a new domain: the media. By March, the Revolutionary Guards plan to launch Atlas, a news agency modeled on services such as the Associated Press and the British Broadcasting Corp., according to semiofficial Iranian news sites. The move comes as the Guards are increasing control over the conservative Fars News Agency, which has become the mouthpiece of the Iranian regime. Fars denies that it is linked to the Guards. On Thursday, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the head of the Basij, a Revolutionary Guard volunteer task force, announced what he called a new era of "super media power" cooperation between the media and the Revolutionary Guards, according to official Iranian news outlets. Analysts say the Guards aim to control the official account of events coming out of Iran and offer a counternarrative to reports published by independent and reformist media outlets. The Guards "want to dominate the flow of information and be the ones telling the world what's going on in Iran," says Omid Memarian, a dissident journalist who now lives in the US and who did his military service with the Guards.

UNITED STATES

Clinton Says Washington Following Through on Obama Cairo Promises - Scott Stearns, Voice of America. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says Washington is following through on promises made by President Barack Obama in a June speech to the Muslim world. Clinton met foreign ministers from the Middle East and North Africa at a democracy and development conference in Morocco. Secretary Clinton says many people who heard President Obama's Cairo speech five months ago asked how his vision for a new understanding between the United States and the Muslim world would translate into meaningful changes in people's everyday lives. "It is results not rhetoric that matter in the end. Economic empowerment, education, health care, access to energy and to credit - these are the basics that all communities need to thrive. And the United States seeks to pursue these common aspirations through concrete actions," she said. Clinton spoke in Morocco at a democracy and development conference called the Forum for the Future, which joins foreign ministers from the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations with officials from North Africa and the Middle East. She says Washington is delivering on President Obama's promises by helping local communities develop long-lasting solutions and not by focusing on one-time projects. Clinton says the biggest concern everywhere in the world is the economy: How can people get better jobs to give their children more opportunities?

Army Corps Moves to Protect New Orleans from Flooding - Cain Burdeau, Washington Post. Mindful that the West Bank of New Orleans has regained its pre-Hurricane Katrina population and is primed for growth, the Army Corps of Engineers is launching a $1 billion effort to protect the area from the next storm. New Orleans's population plummeted by 300,000 after Katrina, but residents quickly returned to the west bank of the Mississippi River, many under the mistaken impression that the area was safer. The fact that it didn't flood after the hurricane was mainly chance, however. Engineers say the area's 250,000 residents are exposed to surge waters from a storm coming in at just the right angle, thanks in part to existing navigation and drainage canals that feed in. So the Corps broke ground last week on the West Closure Structure, a floodgate-and-pump system designed to close off those canals and bolster the area's levees. The West Bank is west of the Mississippi River and the French Quarter, in a place tourists generally pass through only if they're on their way to swamp tours. So far, it has been spared catastrophic flooding. Katrina passed to the east in August 2005, and the West Bank was one of the only dry places in the city after levees failed on the East Bank, the main part of the metropolitan area.

Some Sense on Defense Spending - New York Times editorial. Presidents, and those aspiring to be presidents, routinely promise to reform the defense procurement process. And defense contractors, their lobbyists and the military services routinely ensure that never happens. This year has been refreshingly different. President Obama and his defense secretary, Robert Gates, have made a compelling case for ending weapons programs that significantly exceed their budgets or use limited tax dollars to buy more capability than the nation needs. And Congress has agreed - somewhat. The $680 billion defense authorization bill signed into law by President Obama last week pares back or cancels billions of dollars in expensive weapons systems that are either anachronistic, redundant, poorly performing or exceed the military’s real requirements. Even with these reductions, the defense bill is one of the biggest in history, in part because of the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But it sets an important base line for future cuts that need to be far more ambitious.

The Best Allies Money Can Buy - Thomas Friedman, New York Times opinion. In 2003, I was on a trip to Iraq and had arranged an appointment in the Green Zone with a member of the then-Iraqi Governing Council. Security was tight. I was with my Iraqi translator, a middle-aged man who had once been a teacher. When we arrived at the council, after a long walk, I showed my ID to two young uniformed US soldiers. They told me to wait, went inside and out came a man wearing civilian clothes, one of those fishing vests and an Australian bush hat. He never properly identified himself, but it was obvious that he was a “civilian contractor” from the logo on his shirt. When I tried to explain why we were there, he literally told me to shut my mouth until I was told to speak. Then he told my Iraqi translator to sit in the blistering heat while he escorted me - the American - inside to see if our Iraqi interviewee was available. I have to admit it: both my translator and I really wanted to just punch his lights out. But I kept thinking to myself: “Who does this guy report to? If I get in his face and he comes after me, to whom do I complain?” That was my first encounter with one of the many private security guards, service suppliers and aid workers - a k a civilian contractors - who have since become an integral part of the US war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some were even used at Abu Ghraib to do “enhanced interrogations” - a k a torture - of suspected terrorists. Today, there is no operation that is too sensitive not to outsource to the private sector.

AFRICA

Zimbabwe Diamond Trade Under Spotlight - Peta Thornycroft, Voice of America. The so-called Kimberley Process, a joint international government, industry and civil society initiative to stem the flow of conflict diamonds, will decide at its annual meeting in Namibia this week whether to suspend Zimbabwe from its certification plan. The deliberations on Zimbabwe result from a visit to the country earlier this year by a delegation from the Kimberley Process. They heard testimony from witnesses accused by the government of illegal mining, that they had been abused by members of President Robert Mugabe's security forces. Several informal miners at the diamond fields said the Zimbabwe army used helicopter gunships in an operation to take control of the Chiadzwa diamond field in the Marange district of eastern Manicaland last year. They said that many poverty stricken people digging for diamonds were shot and wounded and that an unknown number were killed. Others said they had been beaten and chased away by security forces. The Harare High Court ruled last month that the Chiadswz diamond fields have belonged to a British company, African Consolidated Resources since late 2006. The Zimbabwe mining ministry has ignored the court ruling and ZANU-PF Mines Minister Obert Mpofu said the army and police continue to control the diamond fields because the area is a "security zone".

Equatorial Guinea Frees British Mercenary - Adam Nossiter and Alan Cowell, New York Times. Equatorial Guinea said Tuesday that it had pardoned Simon Mann, a former British special forces officer jailed last year for plotting to overthrow the country’s president in a conspiracy that seemed as much a throwback to the continent’s past as a catalog of bungles. According to a government Web site, Mr. Mann, an alumnus of Britain’s exclusive Eton College and the scion of a wealthy family of brewers, had been pardoned by presidential decree for his part in an episode that also entangled Sir Mark Thatcher, the son of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. “The pardon was allowed for by presidential decree and granted on humanitarian grounds,” the government said in an announcement from Malabo, the capital. It added that Mr. Mann had “shown sufficient and credible signs of repentance and a desire to take his place in society.” Mr. Mann, 56, was ordered to leave Equatorial Guinea within 24 hours and was “absolutely prohibited” from returning, the Web posting said. The authorities said that Mr. Mann’s release was based partly on medical grounds. “We were aware of Mr. Mann’s health,” said the country’s information minister, Jeronimo Osa Osa Ekoro. “He was constantly sick.” Mr. Ekoro added that Mr. Mann’s “behavior, his cooperation during the investigation and his behavior in prison” all weighed in his favor.

ASIA PACIFIC

N. Korea Announces More Production of Nuclear Weapons Material - Kurt Achin, Voice of America. North Korea says it has manufactured more material useable in nuclear weapons. The announcement is widely seen as a tactic to pressure the United States into bilateral talks, and comes a little more than a week before President Obama arrives in Asia. Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency announced Tuesday the country has completed reprocessing 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods, and has made substantial progress in turning plutonium into fuel for nuclear bombs. The announcement comes a week before President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Northeast Asia. North Korea experts view Pyongyang's latest rhetoric as a means of pressuring his administration into scheduling one-on-one talks with the North. The Obama administration has said it is willing to hold talks with North Korea, but only if they linked to the six-nation nuclear negotiations. South Korea is expected to seek President Obama's support for what President Lee Myung-bak, calls a "grand bargain" with the North to resolve the nuclear issue in one sweeping set of negotiations. South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan recently said South Korea also will work closely with the US to uphold international sanctions against the North. Yu says South Korea and related nations have learned from North Korea's broken promises in the past, and its latest nuclear activities, that soft measures alone will not change the North's attitude.

N. Korea Says It Has More Bomb-Grade Plutonium - Choe Sang-Hun, New York Times. North Korea put further pressure on the United States to start bilateral talks by declaring on Tuesday that it had completed reprocessing its spent nuclear fuel for use in a bomb. In early September, North Korea had told the United Nations Security Council that it was in the “final phase” of reprocessing 8,000 spent fuel rods unloaded from its nuclear reactor in Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, and was “weaponizing” plutonium extracted from the rods. If reprocessed with chemicals, the rods could yield enough plutonium for at least one nuclear bomb, according to officials and nuclear experts in Seoul and Washington. Using the same procedure at Yongbyon, North Korea was believed to have already accumulated enough plutonium for six to eight bombs. On Monday, the North’s official news agency, KCNA, said that the country completed reprocessing the 8,000 rods two months ago and had made “significant achievements” in turning the plutonium into an atomic bomb. “We have no option but to strengthen our self-defense nuclear deterrent in the face of increasing nuclear threats and military provocations from hostile forces,” the news agency said.

Visit of High-ranking US Officials to Burma Signals Relations Thaw - Richard Lloyd Parry, The Times. The US Government began a new policy of engagement with the Burmese dictatorship today with the arrival of the most senior Americans to visit the country for more than ten years. Kurt Campbell, the Assistant Secretary of State responsible for Asia, will meet Burma’s Prime Minister, Thein Sein, and the detained democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, in a two day visit that brings to an end an official policy of isolating the junta. Mr Campbell, who is accompanied by his deputy, Scott Marciel, has emphasised that the new policy does not mean the immediate lifting of the array of sanctions against Burma, which has been under continuous military rule since 1962. But it is an acknowledgement of the failure of past efforts to persuade the junta to improve human rights, allow democratic elections and release the country’s 2,100 political prisoners, including Ms Suu Kyi. “Mr Campbell's visit is the beginning of a new US engagement policy toward Myanmar,” said Nyan Win, spokesman for Ms Suu Kyi’s political party, the National League for Democracy, which has cautiously welcomed the change of direction. “This is the first step of the engagement but we have to see what comes out of the new policy.”

Chinese Trial Reveals Vast Web of Corruption - Andrew Jacobs, New York Times. Wen Qiang had a fondness for Louis Vuitton belts, fossilized dinosaur eggs and B-list pop stars. For a public employee in charge of the local judiciary, he also had a lot of money: nearly $3 million that investigators found buried beneath a fish pond. But Mr. Wen’s lavish tastes were nothing compared with the carnal appetites of his sister-in-law, Xie Caiping, known as “the godmother of the Chongqing underworld.” Prosecutors say she ran 30 illegal casinos, including one across the street from the courthouse. She also employed 16 young men who, according to the state-run press, were exceedingly handsome and obliging. In recent weeks, Ms. Xie, Mr. Wen and a cavalcade of ranking officials and lowbrow thugs have been players in a mass public trial that has exposed the unseemly relationships among gangsters, police officers and the sticky-fingered bureaucrats. The spectacle involves more than 9,000 suspects, 50 public officials, a petulant billionaire and criminal organizations that dabbled in drug trafficking, illegal mining, and random acts of savagery, most notably the killing of a man for his unbearably loud karaoke voice. But like all big corruption cases in China, this one is as much about politics as graft. The political machine in Chongqing, a province-size mega-city of 31 million people in the southwest, has been broken up by a new Communist Party boss, Bo Xilai, who is the son of a revolutionary party veteran and has his eye on higher office.

EUROPE

Czech Leader Signs Lisbon Treaty as Tories Concede Defeat Over Referendum - Philippe Naughton, Philip Webster and Roger Boyes, The Times. The Eurosceptic leader of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, has signed the Lisbon treaty, finally giving effect to a much-delayed accord designed to overhaul the institutions of the European Union and give the bloc a greater say in world affairs. The move forced the Tory leadership to concede defeat tonight over their plans to hold a referendum on the treaty with David Cameron promising to clarify his party's policy on Europe tomorrow. William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, said it was “no longer possible” to put the treaty to a popular vote. “Now that the treaty is going to become European law and is going to enter into force, that means a referendum can no longer prevent the creation of the president of the European Council, the loss of British national vetoes,” he said. “These things will already have happened and a referendum cannot unwind them or prevent them.” President Klaus confirmed that he had signed the pact only hours after the text was given the green light by a Czech court which had been asked to rule on its constitutionality. "I signed the Lisbon Treaty today at 1500," he told reporters in Prague as an aircraft prepared to take the Czech articles of ratification to Rome, where the original treaty setting up the EU was signed. Mr Klaus was the last EU leader to ratify the treaty, which began life as the EU Constitution, and his signature means the 27 EU member states can pick their first-ever full-time president as well as a new foreign affairs representative.

European Union Reform Moves Ahead - Dan Bilefsky and Stephen Castle, New York Times. A landmark agreement aimed at giving the European Union a global stature on par with major powers like the United States and China cleared its last major hurdle on Tuesday. The president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, signed the document hours after the country’s Constitutional Court ruled that it was compatible with the Czech Constitution. Mr. Klaus was the last European Union leader to approve the so-called Treaty of Lisbon, which will try to increase Europe’s clout on foreign policy issues and will streamline the organization’s decision-making. The treaty required ratification by all 27 member states. “It’s now absolutely clear that the Lisbon Treaty will enter into force soon,” José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, said in Brussels after the signing. Officials expect the document to become effective Dec. 1, after the Czech Republic’s formal ratification documents are presented to the European Union. The treaty aims to give the European Union a bigger role internationally by creating a full-time presidential post with a two-and-a-half-year term and setting up a more powerful foreign policy chief supported by a network of diplomats around the world. It will put in place a new voting system that reflects countries’ population size, while reducing the opportunities for individual countries to block a proposal. It also gives more power to the directly elected European Parliament.

Radovan Karadzic Appears Before Hague Court, To Mock The Judges - David Charter, The Times. The Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic finally graced the UN war crimes court with his presence today, but used his first appearance to mock the judges and play for more time. Dr Karadzic boycotted the first three days of his trial on 11 war crimes charges and only came today to demand another nine months to prepare his defence, arguing that no imposed counsel could get ready any quicker than him. The 64-year-old defendant, a trained psychiatrist who hoodwinked many with his disguise on the run as a New Age healer and prides himself as a master of mind games, remained seated throughout the hearing in defiance of normal procedure requiring the person speaking to stand. Gone was the wraithlike shadow of the Bosnian Serb leader first seen in the dock in The Hague after his capture 15 months ago. The self-confident figure who finally turned up in court to hector his genocide trial was unmistakably the Supreme Commander, unshakably convinced of his “fundamental rights” to a fair trial and determined to hold the UN process up to ridicule. During the past 15 months in the “Hague Hilton”, the comfortable detention centre for those accused of the worst atrocities in Europe since the Second World War, Dr Karadzic has put on weight, refashioned his trademark quiff and acquired a dapper suit. He also seems to have regained the rhetorical powers that once whipped up a nation to turn on itself in war.

MIDDLE EAST

Clinton to Ask Egypt for Help; Can Cairo Deliver? - Elizabeth Arrott, Voice of America. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is winding up her Middle East trip with a last minute stop in Cairo. While she is expected to seek help in ending the impasse between Israel and the Palestinians, Egypt has increasingly appeared unable to lead Arab opinion on the issue. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton comes to Cairo after angering many Arabs by offering praise for an Israeli offer to curb settlement expansion on occupied Palestinian land, an offer that was met with outrage by many Arabs, who continue to demand Israel halt all construction. But round after failed round of Egyptian-mediated talks to reconcile the Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah continue to underscore how little even traditional leader Egypt can accomplish. Cairo is also still reeling from criticism during Israel's war in the Gaza Strip early this year. Those who decried the plight of Palestinian civilians trapped inside Israeli-blockaded Gaza also pointed to Egypt's role in keeping its border to the besieged territory largely closed. Political analyst Amr Hamzawy of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut says that while Egypt has yet to reconcile Hamas and Fatah, at least it approaches the issue with a peace-based agenda, something no one else has done. As for Gaza, Hamzawy argues Egypt has a right to stop the potential influx of violence.

US Reins In Its Expectations for Middle East Peace Talks - Jay Solomon, Wall Street Journal. The Obama administration is scaling back its ambitions for the Arab-Israeli peace process, focusing on maintaining some degree of low-level dialogue in the face of big divisions between the two sides. US officials began outlining Washington's diminished expectations as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton completes a one-week tour of the Middle East on Wednesday. She had tried to kick-start a new round of talks during stops in Israel and Arab capitals, but the divisions proved too wide to bridge. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused US calls for a complete freeze of settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the Palestinians have ruled out resuming negotiations without the freeze. Mrs. Clinton subsequently pressed Arab leaders to agree to support talks with just a partial Israeli freeze. But barring that, US officials said all sides might be forced to accept a lower level of engagement in the talks to guard against a new round of violence in the Palestinian territories. There is a fear that militant groups, such as Hamas in the Palestinian territories and Hezbollah in Lebanon, could use a political vacuum to spark renewed violence.

US Hope Dims for High-level Israeli-Palestinian Talks Over State - Karen DeYoung and Howard Schneider, Washington Post. The Obama administration has concluded that an early resumption of high-level negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians over a Palestinian state is unlikely in the near future - an acknowledgment that it has fallen short, for now, on one of its major initial foreign policy goals. While still pressing for face-to-face talks between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli President Binyamin Netanyahu, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has begun to urge Arab states to encourage Palestinian participation in lower-level talks with Israel to avoid a vacuum. "We recognize that things have stalled," Clinton spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "We're looking at a variety of ways that increase interaction between the parties in some form." He described the proposals as "baby steps" that would eventually "create a momentum of their own, and the effort can pick up steam." "If there's a vacuum," he said, "there are lots of spoilers willing to take advantage. ... We've too often in the past seen events spiral into violence."

Short-Term Fixes Sought in Mideast - Mark Landler, New York Times. For the last seven months, the Obama administration has labored in vain to bring the Israelis and the Palestinians together, pushing for a loose quid pro quo under which Israel would freeze construction of Jewish settlements while its Arab neighbors undertook diplomatic steps to bolster Israel’s confidence in its security. Now, in the latest acknowledgment that its policy has failed, at least for the moment, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has begun setting the stage for a new phase of Middle East diplomacy, with a more modest goal. She is trying to get the parties talking at any level to avoid a dangerous vacuum until a Plan B emerges. Mrs. Clinton began sketching out this approach Tuesday in a speech and in meetings with Arab foreign ministers during a conference of Arab and Western nations in this city of pink sandstone buildings. She flew to Cairo later to hold talks with the Egyptian leader, Hosni Mubarak. Making it clear that the Israeli government would not agree to President Obama’s call for a complete halt to settlement construction, Mrs. Clinton promoted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s offer as a reasonable compromise that could still form the basis for progress. Mr. Netanyahu has proposed a moratorium on new housing units in the West Bank, but would allow building or finishing about 3,000 more units and would exclude East Jerusalem from any building limits.

Hamas Tested Rocket with a Longer Range, Israel Says - Richard Boudreaux, Los Angeles Times. Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip have test-fired a rocket with a 37-mile range, Israel's military intelligence chief said Tuesday, giving them the capacity to reach deeper into Israel and strike Tel Aviv's southern suburbs and possibly its international airport. Israeli officials said the launch into the Mediterranean Sea was the latest sign of the rebuilding and upgrading of Hamas' arsenal since the Jewish state's crippling 22-day offensive in Gaza last winter, but did not appear to foreshadow an imminent renewal of hostilities. They said the rocket had been supplied by Iran, smuggled in pieces through tunnels from Egypt and assembled in the Palestinian territory. The Hamas movement's military wing refused to confirm or deny the Israeli report; a political spokesman, Fawzi Barzoum, dismissed it as a "fabrication." Most rockets fired from Gaza in the past have been crude, locally made weapons with a range of a few miles. Hamas launched more powerful rockets, which Israel said were imported, before and during the winter conflict. Some landed as far as 25 miles inside Israel, striking the cities of Beersheba and Ashdod.

Palestinians Who See Nonviolence as Their Weapon - Richard Boudreaux, Los Angeles Times. Every Friday, Mohammed Khatib's forces assemble for battle with the Israeli army and gather their weapons: a bullhorn, banners - and a fierce belief that peaceful protest can bring about a Palestinian state. A few hundred strong, they march to the Israeli barrier that separates the tiny farming community of Bilin from much of its land. They chant and shout. A few teenagers throw stones. Khatib helped launch the weekly ritual five years ago in an attempt to "re-brand" a Palestinian struggle often associated with rocket attacks and suicide bombers. "Nonviolence is our most powerful weapon," says the media-savvy secretary of the Bilin village council. "If they cannot accuse us of terrorism, they cannot stop us. The world will support us." The problem is, he doesn't get muchsupport from other Palestinians. After two uprisings in two decades, they seem largely indifferent to his quixotic call for a third.

SOUTH ASIA

India's Space Ambitions Taking Off - Emily Wax, Washington Post. In this seaside village, the children of farmers and fishermen aspire to become something that their impoverished parents never thought possible: astronauts. Through community-based programs, India's space agency has been partnering with schools in remote areas such as this one, helping to teach students about space exploration and cutting-edge technology. The agency is also training thousands of young scientists and, in 2012, will open the nation's first astronaut-training center in the southern city of Bangalore. "I want to be prepared in space sciences so I can go to the moon when India picks its astronauts," said Lakshmi Kannan, 15, pushing her long braids out of her face and clutching her science textbook. Lakshmi's hopes are not unlike India's ambitions, writ small. For years, the country has focused its efforts in space on practical applications - using satellites to collect information on natural disasters, for instance. But India is now moving beyond that traditional focus and has planned its first manned space mission in 2015. The ambitions of the 46-year-old national space program could vastly expand India's international profile in space and catapult it into a space race with China. China, the only country besides the United States and Russia to have launched a manned spacecraft, did so six years ago.

EVENTS

The US Military Academy’s Department of History is pleased to invite you to a West Point Symposium on the History of Irregular Warfare, 18-20 November 2009. The symposium will feature the scholarship of five cadet panel presenters with commentary by distinguished guest scholars, including: Dr. Stephen Biddle as our keynote speaker, Dr. Jeremy Black, Col. Robert Cassidy, Dr. Conrad Crane, Dr. George Herring, Dr. Brian Linn, and Dr. Peter Mansoor. Additionally, Dr. James Le Sueur (Uncivil War: Intellectuals and Identity Politics, 2005) will present a special lecture on Algerian society since 1963. Col. Gian Gentile, a History faculty member, will participate as part of the “Visiting Scholars Panel” with Dr. Crane, Dr. Mansoor, and Col. Cassidy. (Invitation and POC Information) (History of IW Symposium Agenda)

BOOKS

Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan - Doug Stanton.

Horse Soldiers tells the important story of the Special Forces soldiers who first put American boots on the ground in Afghanistan in 2001. Fighting alongside the Northern Alliance, the troops, often riding on horseback, achieved several important victories against the Taliban.

War 2.0: Irregular Warfare in the Information Age - Thomas Rid and Marc Hecker.

War 2.0: Irregular Warfare in the Information Age argues that two intimately connected trends are putting modern armies under huge pressure to adapt: the rise of insurgencies and the rise of the Web. Both in cyberspace and in warfare, the grassroots public has assumed increasing importance in recent years. After the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, Web 2.0 rose from the ashes. This newly interactive and participatory form of the Web promotes and enables offline action. Similarly, after Rumsfeld's attempt to transform the US military into a lean, lethal, computerized force crashed in Iraq in 2003, counterinsurgency rose from the ashes. Counterinsurgency is a social form of war - indeed, the US Army calls it armed social work - in which the local matrix population becomes the center of strategic gravity and public opinion at home the critical vulnerability.

The New Counterinsurgency Era: Transforming the US Military for Modern Wars - David H. Ucko.

Confronting insurgent violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US military has recognized the need to "re-learn" counterinsurgency. But how has the Department of Defense with its mixed efforts responded to this new strategic environment? Has it learned anything from past failures? In The New Counterinsurgency Era, David Ucko examines DoD's institutional obstacles and initially slow response to a changing strategic reality.

Journey into Darkness: Genocide in Rwanda - Thomas P. Odom.

In July 1994, Thomas P. Odom was part of the US Embassy team that responded to the Goma refugee crisis. He witnessed the deaths of 70,000 refugees in a single week. In the previous three months of escalating violence, the Rwandan genocide had claimed 800,000 dead. Now, in this vivid and unsettling new book, Odom offers the first insider look at these devastating events before, during, and after the genocide.

Joker One: A Marine Platoon’s Story of Courage - Donovan Campbell.

Donovan Campbell, first as a Marine and then as a writer, shows us that the dominant emotion in war isn’t hatred or anger or fear. It’s love. His story stands as a poignant tribute to his men–their courage, their dedication, their skill, and their love for one another, even unto death.

The Battle for Peace: A Frontline Vision of America's Power and Purpose - Anthony Zinni and Tony Koltz

The intellectual complement to Zinni and Clancy's bestselling Battle Ready (2004), a narrative memoir salted with specific policy recommendations, this volume provides the former US Central Command chief's analysis of America's current global position. Zinni begins by asserting that America's status as "the most powerful nation in the history of the planet" has created a de facto empire. The US has no choice: if it fails to take the lead, nothing significant happens. At the same time, Americans must recognize that, in a global age, there can be no zero-sum games.

The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education - Craig Mullaney

The Unforgiving Minute is the ultimate's soldier's book - universal in its raw emotion and its understanding of the larger issues of life and death. Mullaney, a master storyteller, plunges the depths of self-doubt, endurance, and courage. The result: a riveting, suspenseful human story, beautifully told. This is a book written under fire - a lyrical, spellbinding tale of war, love, and courage. The Unforgiving Minute is the Three Cups of Tea of soldiering.

Great Powers: America and the World after Bush - Thomas P.M. Barnett

In civilian and military circles alike, The Pentagon’s New Map became one of the most talked about books of 2004. “A combination of Tom Friedman on globalization and Carl von Clausewitz on war, [it is] the red-hot book among the nation’s admirals and generals,” wrote David Ignatius in The Washington Post. Barnett’s second book, Blueprint for Action, demonstrated how to put the first book’s principles to work. Now, in Great Powers, Barnett delivers his most sweeping - and important - book of all.

The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One - David Kilcullen

A remarkably fresh perspective on the War on Terror. Kilcullen takes us "on the ground" to uncover the face of modern warfare, illuminating both the big global war (the "War on Terrorism") and its relation to the associated "small wars" across the globe: Iraq, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Chechnya, Pakistan and North Africa.

The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 - Thomas Ricks

Thomas E. Ricks uses hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with top officers in Iraq and extraordinary on-the-ground reportage to document the inside story of the Iraq War since late 2005 as only he can, examining the events that took place as the military was forced to reckon with itself, the surge was launched, and a very different war began.

Why Vietnam Matters: An Eyewitness Account of Lessons Not Learned - Rufus Phillips

Phillips details how the legendary Edward G. Lansdale helped the South Vietnamese gain and consolidate their independence between 1954 and 1956, and how this later changed to a reliance on American conventional warfare with its highly destructive firepower. He reasons that our failure to understand the Communists, our South Vietnamese allies, or even ourselves took us down the wrong road. In summing up US errors in Vietnam, Phillips draws parallels with the American experience in Iraq and Afghanistan and suggests changes in the US approach. Known for his intellectual integrity and firsthand, long-term knowledge of what went on in Vietnam, the author offers lessons for today in this trenchant account.

Baghdad at Sunrise: A Brigade Commander's War in Iraq - Peter Mansoor

This is a unique contribution to the burgeoning literature on the Iraq war, analyzing the day-to-day performance of a US brigade in Baghdad during 2004-2005. Mansoor uses a broad spectrum of sources to address the military, political and cultural aspects of an operation undertaken with almost no relevant preparation, which tested officers and men to their limits and generated mistakes and misjudgments on a daily basis. The critique is balanced, perceptive and merciless - and Mansoor was the brigade commander. Military history is replete with command memoirs. Most are more or less self-exculpatory. Even the honest ones rarely achieve this level of analysis. The effect is like watching a surgeon perform an operation on himself. Mansoor has been simultaneously a soldier and a scholar, able to synergize directly his military and academic experiences.

The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics, and the Endgame in Iraq - Bing West

From a universally respected combat journalist, a gripping history based on five years of front-line reporting about how the war was turned around - and the choice now facing America. We interpret reality through the clouded prism of our own experience, so it is unsurprising that Bing West sees Iraq through the lens of Vietnam. He served as a Marine officer there, and he thinks politicians and the media caused the American public to turn against a war that could have been won. Now a correspondent for the Atlantic, West has made 15 reporting trips to Iraq over the last six years and is almost as personally invested in the current conflict as he was in Vietnam; this book, his third on Iraq, is his attempt to ensure that the "endgame" in Iraq turns out better than in his last war.

Tell Me How This Ends: General David Petraeus and the Search for a Way Out of Iraq - Linda Robinson

After a series of disastrous missteps in its conduct of the war, the White House in 2006 appointed General David Petraeus as the Commanding General of the coalition forces. Tell Me How This Ends is an inside account of his attempt to turn around a failing war. Linda Robinson conducted extensive interviews with Petraeus and his subordinate commanders and spent weeks with key US and Iraqi divisions. The result is the only book that ties together military operations in Iraq and the internecine political drama that is at the heart of the civil war. Replete with dramatic battles, behind-doors confrontations, and astute analysis, the book tells the full story of the Iraq War’s endgame, and lays out the options that will be facing the next president.

The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008 - Bob Woodward

Woodward interviewed key players, obtained dozens of never-before-published documents, and had nearly three hours of exclusive interviews with President Bush. The result is a stunning, firsthand history of the years from mid-2006, when the White House realizes the Iraq strategy is not working, through the decision to surge another 30,000 US troops in 2007, and into mid-2008, when the war becomes a fault line in the presidential election. As violence in Iraq reaches unnerving levels in 2006, a second front in the war rages at the highest levels of the Bush administration. In his fourth book on President George W. Bush, Bob Woodward takes readers deep inside the tensions, secret debates, unofficial backchannels, distrust and determination within the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, the intelligence agencies and the US military headquarters in Iraq. With unparalleled intimacy and detail, this gripping account of a president at war describes a period of distress and uncertainty within the US government from 2006 through mid-2008. The White House launches a secret strategy review that excludes the military. General George Casey, the commander in Iraq, believes that President Bush does not understand the war and eventually concludes he has lost the president's confidence. The Joint Chiefs of Staff also conduct a secret strategy review that goes nowhere. On the verge of revolt, they worry that the military will be blamed for a failure in Iraq.

We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam - Harold Moore and Joe Galloway

In their stunning follow-up to the classic bestseller We Were Soldiers Once... and Young, Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and Joe Galloway return to Vietnam and reflect on how the war changed them, their men, their enemies, and both countries - often with surprising results. It would be a monumental task for Moore and Galloway to top their classic 1992 memoir. But they come close in this sterling sequel, which tells the backstory of two of the Vietnam War's bloodiest battles (in which Moore participated as a lieutenant colonel), their first book and a 1993 ABC-TV documentary that brought them back to the battlefield. Moore's strong first-person voice reviews the basics of the November 1965 battles, part of the 34-day Battle of the Ia Drang Valley. Among other things, Moore and Galloway (who covered the battle for UPI) offer portraits of two former enemy commanders, generals Nguyen Huu An and Chu Huy Man, whom the authors met - and bonded with - nearly three decades after the battle. This book proves again that Moore is an exceptionally thoughtful, compassionate and courageous leader (he was one of a handful of army officers who studied the history of the Vietnam wars before he arrived) and a strong voice for reconciliation and for honoring the men with whom he served.

In a Time of War: The Proud and Perilous Journey of West Point' Class of 2002 - Bill Murphy

The West Point cadets Murphy follows through their baptism by fire are an admirable sample of young American men and women: intelligent, ambitious and intensely patriotic. Most come from career military families and hold conservative opinions. Murphy describes their four years at West Point with respect even when discussing their love lives and marriages. All yearn for battle, and most get their wish. The book's best passages describe the confusion of moving to Iraq or Afghanistan and fighting insurgents, for which they lack both training and equipment. All feel something is not right but concentrate on the job at hand; some inevitably die or are grievously wounded.

Iraq and the Evolution of American Strategy - Steven Metz

Today the US military is more nimble, mobile, and focused on rapid responses against smaller powers than ever before. One could argue that the Gulf War and the postwar standoff with Saddam Hussein hastened needed military transformation and strategic reassessments in the post–Cold War era. But the preoccupation with Iraq also mired the United States in the Middle East and led to a bloody occupation. What will American strategy look like after US troops leave Iraq? Metz concludes that the United States has a long-standing, continuing problem “developing sound assumptions when the opponent operates within a different psychological and cultural framework.” He sees a pattern of misjudgments about Saddam and Iraq based on Western cultural and historical bias and a pervasive faith in the superiority of America’s worldview and institutions. This myopia contributed to America being caught off guard by Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, then underestimating his longevity, and finally miscalculating the likelihood of a stable and democratic Iraq after he was toppled. With lessons for all readers concerned about America’s role in the world, Dr. Metz’s important new work will especially appeal to scholars and students of strategy and international security studies, as well as to military professionals and DOD civilians. With a foreword by Colin S. Gray.