Army chiefs are drawing up plans to withdraw British troops from outlying bases in Afghanistan. In what would be a significant change of strategy against the growing Taliban insurgency, they are considering abandoning several bases including Musa Qala, the scene of bloody battles that claimed 15 British lives. Army forces would attempt to hold only the larger towns in Helmand province. It is understood the new “retrenchment” strategy is backed by the head of the army, General Sir David Richards..

-- The Times

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN

All Afghan War Options by Obama Aides Said to Call for More Troops - Peter Baker and Helene Cooper, New York Times. Advisers to President Obama are preparing three options for escalating the war effort in Afghanistan, all of them calling for more American troops, as he moves closer to a decision on the way forward in the eight-year-old war, officials said Saturday. The options include Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s request for roughly another 40,000 troops; a middle scenario sending about 30,000 more troops; and a lower alternative involving 20,000 to 25,000 reinforcements, according to the officials, who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Officials hope to present the options to Mr. Obama this week before he leaves on a trip to Asia. While some civilian and military officials believe Mr. Obama is seeking a middle ground in the debate over Afghanistan, aides denied he has made any decision or is leaning toward any of the options. Still, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates appears to be supportive of the middle option, some officials said, and his view is thought to be pivotal because of Mr. Obama’s respect for him and his status as a holdover from a Republican administration. The three options define the contours of a debate that has played out in public for more than two months. General McChrystal, the top American and allied commander in Afghanistan, and his advocates argue the war cannot be won without a major infusion of forces to protect the population and ultimately turn it against the Taliban. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and others oppose a buildup in a war they believe cannot be won through conventional means and that diverts attention from Pakistan, where Al Qaeda is primarily located. There are currently 68,000 American troops in Afghanistan.

Obama Leaning Toward 34,000 More Troops for Afghanistan - Jonathan S. Landay, John Walcott and Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy Newspapers. President Barack Obama is nearing a decision to send more than 30,000 additional US troops to Afghanistan next year, but he may not announce it until after he consults with key allies and completes a trip to Asia later this month, administration and military officials have told McClatchy. As it now stands, the administration's plan calls for sending three Army brigades from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky. and the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, NY and a Marine brigade, for a total of as many as 23,000 additional combat and support troops. Another 7,000 troops would man and support a new division headquarters for the international force's Regional Command (RC) South in Kandahar, the Taliban birthplace where the US is due to take command in 2010. Some 4,000 additional US trainers are likely to be sent as well, the officials said. The first additional combat brigade probably would arrive in Afghanistan next March, the officials said, with the other three following at roughly three-month intervals, meaning that all the additional US troops probably wouldn't be deployed until the end of next year. Army brigades number 3,500 to 5,000 soldiers; a Marine brigade has about 8,000 troops. The plan would fall well short of the 80,000 troops that Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top US military commander in Afghanistan, suggested as a "low-risk option" that would offer the best chance to contain the Taliban-led insurgency and stabilize Afghanistan.

Is it Time to Pull Out of Afghanistan? - Christina Lamb, The Times. After another bloody week in Afghanistan I stood in the Field of Remembrance by Westminster Abbey and wondered if the war was worth it. The 60,000 small wooden crosses sent in by the public, each pinned with a red poppy representing the blood of the fallen, tell of a nation always willing to make sacrifices. This year a record number were sent in and, for the first time, there is a section marked Current Conflicts. Among the crowds gathering on Friday morning to pay their respects after news of a seventh soldier killed in Helmand in seven days, few passed without wiping away a tear. Everyone seemed headed for the section marked War in Afghanistan. There each cross carries a passport photograph, 229 young men and one woman, 93 of whom died this year. To me, having covered the war for its eight years, some of the names were familiar, guys with whom I had shared a joke or come under Taliban fire. To their families they were beloved husbands, fathers, daughter and sons - many just 18 years old. It seemed a terrible irony that the symbol of the fallen - a poppy - should be partly what is fuelling and funding this deadly war. As Big Ben struck 12 o’clock, I watched a young woman kneel and weep. “She lost her boyfriend in Sangin,” said her friend standing nearby. “Isn’t that enough now?”

Army Wants to Retreat in Afghanistan - Christina Lamb, Jonathan Oliver and Stephen Grey, The Times. Army chiefs are drawing up plans to withdraw British troops from outlying bases in Afghanistan. In what would be a significant change of strategy against the growing Taliban insurgency, they are considering abandoning several bases including Musa Qala, the scene of bloody battles that claimed 15 British lives. Army forces would attempt to hold only the larger towns in Helmand province. It is understood the new “retrenchment” strategy is backed by the head of the army, General Sir David Richards. Gordon Brown has yet to take a final decision, however. Ministers are concerned the new strategy would be branded defeatist. Quitting Musa Qala risks provoking a backlash from the families of soldiers who died there. The town was captured in 2007 by the Taliban after British troops withdrew and retaken by NATO forces in a costly operation later that year. A senior British commander said: “The new strategy will have to be handled sensitively. But we can’t do everything, everywhere. We must concentrate our efforts in a few geographical areas. We have to select specific areas to hold and then do the job properly.” The retrenchment plan comes after a week when the former Middle East minister Kim Howells sparked a political debate by demanding the total withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan.

Armed Forces Reputation is at Risk in Afghanistan, MoD Chiefs Warn - Michael Evans and Philip Webster, The Times. The long-term future and reputation of Britain’s Armed Forces is at risk unless progress is made in Afghanistan, the two most senior officials at the Ministry of Defence warn in an internal document seen by The Times. The pronouncement by Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of the Defence Staff, and Sir Bill Jeffrey, the Permanent Secretary, leaves no room for the possibility of early withdrawal from Afghanistan. “Planning within Defence should be based on the assumption of a rolling three-year military commitment to Afghanistan, reviewed annually,” they say in a jointly signed document circulated as guidance to MoD staff preparing for next year’s defence review. Their unequivocal statement of commitment appeared out of step with a more conditional speech on Afghanistan given by Gordon Brown yesterday. He was accused by the Opposition of sending out mixed messages and making empty threats after warning President Karzai, the Afghan leader, that he was not prepared to put the lives of soldiers “in harm’s way” for a government that did not stand up to corruption. Mr Brown emphasised the importance of keeping the international alliance together in Afghanistan but then said: “We will succeed or fail together.” While insisting that British troops must stay, he said he had told President Karzai that he would forfeit the right to international support if he failed to root out corruption and improve his governance of the country.

Afghanistan Rejects UN Criticism of Karzai - Voice of America. Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry has rejected comments from the top UN official in the country warning President Hamid Karzai to combat corruption or risk losing international support. A Foreign Ministry statement issued Saturday says UN special representative Kai Eide "exceeded his authority as a representative of an impartial international organization." On Thursday, Eide said the Afghan government risks support by allowing - in his words - "warlords and power-brokers" to "play their own games." The Afghan Foreign Ministry defended the Karzai administration, saying it has made combatting corruption one of the "pre-conditions for a peaceful and stable Afghanistan." The ministry said similar comments to Eide's from the international community in recent days violate "respect for Afghanistan's national sovereignty." British Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued one of the strongest warnings to Mr. Karzai Friday, saying British military support depends on the Afghan leader's ability to combat corruption. The UN Security Council Friday called on Mr. Karzai to promote good governance and to improve security.

Afghanistan Government Says Foreign Officials are Interfering - Alexandra Zavis, Los Angeles Times. President Hamid Karzai's government lashed out Saturday at his foreign critics, accusing a top UN official and other international figures of interfering in Afghanistan's internal affairs. The Foreign Ministry took issue with United Nations Special Representative Kai Eide, who recently issued a list of reforms that he said he expected Karzai to make. Such comments "exceeded international norms" and "violated respect for Afghanistan's national sovereignty," the ministry said in a statement. In an incident that could exacerbate tensions between Karzai's government and the West, international and Afghan forces Saturday were trying to determine whether a NATO airstrike in the northwest killed eight Afghans and injured 22 people, including five US troops. The casualties, most of them Afghan soldiers and policemen, occurred during a joint search for two US paratroopers missing since Wednesday. At a news conference Thursday, Eide warned Karzai that he risked losing the support of international donors and troops if he did not cleanse his government of corruption and warlords.

Afghanistan: Marines Bring Some Calm in Helmand - Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times. When 500 US Marines descended on this Taliban stronghold overnight, Afghan civilians were immediately suspicious about the intentions of the heavily armed Americans. One question dominated all others: How long will the Americans stay? Five months later, there is still no clear answer. "The No. 1 question the Marines get is: 'When are you going home?' " said Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, an Iraq combat veteran and now the top Marine in Afghanistan. "They can't believe we're staying." Three battalions landed 4,500 troops in Helmand province in the early hours of July 2, the largest airborne assault since Vietnam. But the long-term US commitment to Helmand is unclear, as President Obama and Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, continue to reevaluate US strategy. One issue is whether US forces should be massed more closely to large population centers, including Kabul, the capital, which could mean depleting the forces in rural regions like Helmand. In mid-June about 200 Marines arrived here to relieve a beleaguered British platoon. Days later, 500 more arrived in helicopters to establish a central base, called Geronimo, and then smaller ones, including Cherokee here in Nawa. After 10 days of intense fighting, the Marines pushed Taliban fighters out of several small villages. The troops fanned out and announced to startled villagers that they had arrived to protect the population from the Taliban. But a whisper campaign, which Marines blame on the Taliban, suggested that the Americans would leave as soon as President Hamid Karzai was reelected. The message was clear: Anyone who cooperates with the Americans is marked for death.

Afghanistan: NATO Strike Kills 7 Afghan Security Members - Sean Maroney, Voice of America. The Afghan government says a NATO air strike has mistakenly killed seven members of the Afghan security forces in Badghis province. NATO and Afghan forces are investigating the incident in western Afghanistan that killed members of the country's army and police. Earlier, NATO said 25 international and Afghan soldiers were wounded in the area. Officials initially blamed "insurgent activity" for the casualties, but later said it was possible the soldiers were hit by friendly fire. Afghanistan's Interior Ministry spokesman Zamary Bashary tells VOA that this is a sad incident. "We have lost forces that are fighting in order to bring security for Afghanistan. But such attacks will never deter our partnership [with international forces]. This is clear that this was a mistake," he said. He added that incidents such as this one are rare, especially after the United States imposed new restrictions on air strikes in an effort to avoid civilian casualties. "The new strategy actually has worked, and it has reduced the number of civilian casualties," he said. The troops were conducting an operation to find two missing US soldiers who are believed to have drowned.

Afghans Say 20 Died in NATO Airstrike - Joshua Partlow and Javed Hamdard, Washington Post. Afghan officials said Saturday that a NATO airstrike had inadvertently killed several Afghan soldiers and policemen a day earlier in northwestern Afghanistan. The airstrike took place amid fighting in Badghis province as Afghan and US troops were looking for two American paratroopers who disappeared in the area Wednesday. The US military said the soldiers on the search operation came under an attack that killed four Afghan soldiers and two policemen and wounded five American and 17 Afghan troops. Afghan officials said the NATO airstrike hit a coalition base in the area or hit near it. The district's mayor, Abdul Shukor, put the death toll at 20 - six Afghan soldiers, two policemen and 12 civilians. Shukor described the bombing site as a military checkpoint near a warehouse. A NATO statement said authorities were investigating whether "close air support" caused some of the casualties. A US military spokesman, Lt. Col. Todd Vician, said Saturday that the casualties resulted from a "hostile engagement, not an accident." He said he had no reports of civilian casualties in the area.

Pakistan Army: 12 Militants Killed in Recent Fighting - Voice of America. Pakistan's military says soldiers killed 12 militants in recent operations targeting Taliban insurgents in South Waziristan. The military said security forces battled militants Friday as they fought for control of Makeen - an area considered the main base of the Pakistani Taliban. The military statement also says troops battled to tighten their control over Sararogha, which is another Taliban stronghold. Five Pakistani soldiers were wounded in the operations. The accounts of the Pakistan army's offensive in the tribal region near the Afghan border are difficult to verify, as journalists and aid workers are not allowed into the battle zone. In other violence Saturday, police say two women teachers were wounded when a grenade was thrown into a school in the southwestern city of Quetta.

Blast Rocks Crowded Market in Northwest Pakistan - Associated Press. A suicide bomber apparently targeting an anti-Taliban mayor struck a crowded market Sunday in northwest Pakistan, killing the mayor and 11 other people and injuring dozens, police said. The morning attack took place in the town of Adazai, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of the main northwest city of Peshawar. The market was crowded with shoppers and goats being sold to celebrate the upcoming Muslim festival of Eid. The mayor, Abdul Malik, who was initially reported to have survived, died in the attack, said Sahibzada Anis, the top official in Peshawar. Malik, who had once been a Taliban supporter, had later switched sides and formed a local militia to help fight the militants. ''Malik had survived several attacks on his life in the recent past, since he turned against the militants,'' said Anis. ''But today the militants have finally killed him.''

IRAQ

Iraqi Lawmakers Fail to Vote on Election Law - Voice of America. The Iraqi parliament has again failed to approve a law that would govern next year's national elections. Iraqi lawmakers say they will consider the bill again on Sunday. Their repeated failure to reach a consensus on the controversial bill has raised doubts that the elections will take place as planned on January 16. The election commission chief, Faraj al-Haidari, had warned parliament that if it did not approve the bill this week, there would not be enough time to get ready for the vote. Lawmakers cannot agree on the voting guidelines for Kirkuk, an oil-rich province that is home to Kurdish, Arab and Turkmen communities. Some parliamentarians support using current voter records for Kirkuk, which would favor Kurds. Others have suggested using a voter registry dating back to 2004, which would favor Arabs.

Marooned on Sea of Iraqi Oil, But Unable to Tap Its Wealth - Timothy Williams, New York Times. The orange glow of the giant natural gas flares in the oil fields around Basra represents this bustling city’s wealth of natural resources. But for the impoverished people who live near them, the flames only serve as a reminder of their inability to share in the riches that lie beneath their feet. The area around Basra, Iraq’s second largest city and main port, accounts for as much as 80 percent of the country’s oil production. It has emerged as Iraq’s best hope for stability and prosperity as it prepares to sell off its top undeveloped oil fields to foreign companies at an auction next month. Of the five largest fields that will be bid on, four are in or around Basra. Despite the riches trapped below its oil fields, though, this city of three million is among Iraq’s poorest places. People in neighborhoods within a few miles of fields with so much oil that it floats atop the surface in huge black pools live amid mud and feces. Carts pulled by overworked donkeys compete with cars for space on streets. Childhood cancer rates are the highest in the country. The city’s salty tap water makes people ill. And there is more garbage on the streets than municipal collectors can make a dent in. The hundreds of thousands who live in the villages around the fields all dream of finding oil work, but that is unlikely. Those who apply are almost always told they lack the education or experience for oil work. But they believe that their only real deficiency is a lack of connections and money for bribes.

IRAN

Medvedev Says Russia May Back Sanctions on Iran if Nuclear Deal Falls Apart - Ellen Barry, New York Times. President Dmitri A. Medvedev said Russia might back sanctions against Iran if the Iranians did not take a “constructive position” on an international plan to temporarily diminish their stockpile of enriched uranium. The statement, made in an interview with Der Spiegel and released by the Kremlin, resembles one Mr. Medvedev made in September after meeting with President Obama in New York. But it takes on added significance now because Iran has equivocated on the international agreement. That deal would require Iran to ship its low-enriched uranium out of the country for processing, easing fears that the fuel would be used for nuclear bombs. “If agreements are reached on the programs linked to uranium enrichment and its use for peaceful purposes in Iran, we will with pleasure take part in these programs,” Mr. Medvedev said. “If the Iranian leadership takes a less constructive position, then anything is possible, in theory.

Iran Lawmakers Say Tehran Will Reject UN-Backed Nuclear Deal - Voice of America. Some Iranian lawmakers are saying Iran will reject a UN-backed proposal for Iran's uranium to be enriched abroad. The semi-official ISNA news agency quotes a prominent conservative lawmaker laeddin Boroujerdi saying Iran will not send away any of its 1,200 kilograms of enriched uranium. France, Russia and the US are urging Iran to trade about 7 percent of its low-enriched uranium for nuclear fuel, which would assuage international fears the stockpile would be used to make a bomb. Another conservative lawmaker, Hossein Naqvi Hosseini, said Iran could not trust the international promises, therefore it could not accept such an agreement. He said Iran could buy uranium directly from another country or enrich it themselves. Russia's president Dmitri Medvedev says if Iran "takes a less constructive stance" in international talks, the possibility of further sanctions could not be excluded. In an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, Mr. Medvedev said sanctions usually represent a step in a "dangerous direction." But he said they may be necessary, nonetheless. The International Atomic Energy Agency says it has not yet heard a formal response to the proposal from Iran. The UN Security Council has hit Iran with three sets of sanctions for its refusal to stop enriching uranium, a process that can be used to make nuclear weapons. Iran says its atomic program is aimed at generating electricity.

Iran Media Says Foreign Journalists Released From Custody - Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post. Iran's judiciary has freed three foreign nationals who were arrested Wednesday during demonstrations on the 30th anniversary of the US Embassy takeover here, state-run media reported Saturday. "Three foreign nationals, one Canadian and two Germans ... have been freed," the Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Tehran's prosecutor general, Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi, as saying late Friday. An Iranian reporter arrested while covering the rally for Agence France-Presse has also been released, according to the semiofficial Iranian Students News Agency. The semiofficial Fars News Agency had reported Friday that three foreign reporters - one Japanese and two Canadians - were arrested Wednesday and charged with "unauthorized reporting." It was unclear Saturday whether a Japanese journalist was being held. During a rally Wednesday commemorating the 1979 seizure of the US Embassy, anti-government demonstrators gathered to protest against the government, which they call illegitimate. The confrontation led to clashes between security forces and protesters in the center of the capital. Foreign journalists were ordered to report only from the official demonstration.

Iran's 'Great Satan' Addiction - David Ignatius, Washington Post opinion. The Iranians have a word they use to describe a political impasse. They speak of it as a bombast, which means a dead-end street, or a knot that can't be untied. That's a good description of the deadlocked debate in Tehran over the nuclear issue. It has been more than a month since what was touted as a breakthrough meeting with the Iranians in Geneva over their nuclear program. But the Iranians now seem to be backpedaling -- disavowing the tentative agreement that their own negotiators had signaled they supported. "The feeling now is that the Iranians are unable to decide," says a senior European diplomat involved in the talks. Abbas Milani, a Stanford professor who closely follows events in Iran, agrees: "They clearly want to back out of the deal." It's a measure of the political turmoil in Tehran that the chief proponent of engagement with the United States over the past month has been the hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He has been attacked for his supposed willingness to make concessions to the West, including by some of the "green movement" reformers who defied him in the June presidential election.

Obama's Unlearned Lesson - Oliver North, Washington Times opinion. Thirty years ago last week, a group of Iranian "students" shouting "death to America" stormed the US Embassy in Tehran, taking nearly 100 hostages - among them 65 Americans. Though foreign national employees and some Americans were released within a few weeks, the remaining 52 were held for 444 days. For the American people, it was an introduction to militant Islam. For President Carter, intent on "engaging" the radical regime that had replaced Shah Reza Pahlavi, it was a disaster. The Obama administration appears to have missed the lessons of that debacle. Though Mr. Carter described the embassy takeover as "a disappointing development" and "surprising," it shouldn't have been. Strikes, mass demonstrations and student protests throughout Iran began early in 1978. In September, the shah responded by declaring martial law. It didn't help. On Jan. 16, 1979, the shah, seriously ill with cancer, fled and sought refuge in Morocco, Mexico and the United States. Two weeks later, on Feb. 1, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned from exile in France to be greeted by more than 5 million devotees lining the streets of Tehran. Ten days later, he proclaimed himself Iran's supreme leader.

UNITED STATES

Officials Cast Wide Net in Search for Answers - Greg Jaffe, Ann Gerhart and William booth, Washington Post. Military and federal officials investigating Thursday's mass shooting at this sprawling Army post spent the weekend poring over evidence they seized from the apartment of the alleged shooter, Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, including his computer and multiple e-mail accounts he may have controlled, according to a law enforcement source. Investigators have interviewed 170 witnesses and plan to question more as they try to piece together what might have motivated Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, to gun down 12 soldiers and one civilian, Army officials said. Hasan was sitting with hundreds of other soldiers, filling out paperwork in a cubicle, when he suddenly stood up and opened fire, said Army officials. More than a dozen of those who were killed and wounded Thursday were soldiers who were close to deploying with him and would have served alongside him in Afghanistan as mental health professionals. Two of those killed were captains; one was a psychologist who had come to America barely able to read English. Of the 38 who were injured Thursday, fewer than half remain hospitalized. Two victims remain in the surgical critical unit. All evidence suggests that Hasan acted alone, said a spokesman for the Army's Criminal Investigative Division and investigators have released no information that would link the case to a terrorist group. Texas Gov. Rick Perry told reporters at a news conference Saturday that the shooting was an "isolated" incident, and President Obama, after being briefed by FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, cautioned that the public should not rush to judgment about the case.

Preliminary Inquiry Finds No Link to Terror Plot - David Johnston and Eric Schmitt, New York Times. After two days of inquiry into the mass shooting at Fort Hood, investigators have tentatively concluded that it was not part of a terrorist plot. Rather, they have come to believe that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused in the shootings, acted out under a welter of emotional, ideological and religious pressures, according to interviews with federal officials who have been briefed on the inquiry. Investigators have not ruled out the possibility that Major Hasan believed he was carrying out an extremist’s suicide mission. But the investigators, working with behavioral experts, suggested that he might have long suffered from emotional problems that were exacerbated by the tensions of his work with veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who returned home with serious psychiatric problems. They said his counseling activities with the veterans appear to have further fueled his anger and hardened his increasingly militant views as he was seeming to move toward more extreme religious beliefs - all of which boiled over as he faced being shipped overseas, an assignment he bitterly opposed.

Fort Hood Shooting: Texas Army Killer Linked to September 11 Terrorists - Philip Sherwell and Alex Spillius, Daily Telegraph. Major Nidal Malik Hasan worshipped at a mosque led by a radical imam said to be a "spiritual adviser" to three of the hijackers who attacked America on Sept 11, 2001. Hasan, the sole suspect in the massacre of 13 fellow US soldiers in Texas, attended the controversial Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Great Falls, Virginia, in 2001 at the same time as two of the September 11 terrorists, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. His mother's funeral was held there in May that year. The preacher at the time was Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Yemeni scholar who was banned from addressing a meeting in London by video link in August because he is accused of supporting attacks on British troops and backing terrorist organisations. Hasan's eyes "lit up" when he mentioned his deep respect for al-Awlaki's teachings, according to a fellow Muslim officer at the Fort Hood base in Texas, the scene of Thursday's horrific shooting spree. As investigators look at Hasan's motives and mindset, his attendance at the mosque could be an important piece of the jigsaw. Al-Awlaki moved to Dar al-Hijrah as imam in January, 2001, from the west coast, and three months later the September 11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hamzi and Hani Hanjour began attending his services. A third hijacker attended his services in California. Hasan was praying at Dar al-Hijrah at about the same time, and the FBI will now want to investigate whether he met the two terrorists.

Dark Motives of Army Base Killer - Tony Allen-Mills and Alex Hannaford, The Times. A month after his arrival in Texas in July, Major Nidal Malik Hasan walked into Guns Galore, a weapons shop near the sprawling Fort Hood military base, and spent $1,000 on a high-powered, Belgian-made semi-automatic pistol that is said by its manufacturer to be “lightweight and easily concealable ... It will defeat the enemy in all close combat situations”. It was an unusual purchase for an army psychiatrist who had never shown any interest in guns and who had spent almost all his military career learning how to deal with the consequences of gun violence at the US Army’s Walter Reed medical centre in Washington. Army investigators now believe that Hasan’s 5.7-calibre FN Herstal tactical pistol was the only gun he fired in the horrific seven-minute rampage that killed 13 people and injured at least 30 others at the Fort Hood base last Thursday. In army offices crowded with hundreds of soldiers, Hasan, a 39-year-old American-born Muslim of Palestinian descent, was somehow able to fire at least 100 times, pausing repeatedly to reload 20-round magazines, before he was shot by military police. He was carrying another pistol, a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum, but does not appear to have used it. At one point, said Specialist Eliot Valdez, who witnessed the aftermath of the assault, Hasan was shooting the occupants of a crowded room like “fish in a barrel ... It was too easy, you can close your eyes and hit eight people”.

Too Scared to Recognize Terrorism - Washington Times editorial. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was declared "not a terrorist" before the facts were out - even before officials were sure whether the attacker was alive or dead. Failing to honestly name a terrorist attack despite the evidence is as destructive and dishonest as leaping to call an attack terrorism without the facts to support that. Apparently, the claim was based largely on the fact that Maj. Hasan appears to have been a lone gunman. However, terrorism is defined not by the number of people involved, but by the motivations and intentions of the attacker. If reports about him are true, Maj. Hasan clearly was a terrorist. He reportedly was upset about the activities of the United States in the Middle East and purportedly had made postings about suicide attacks on jihadist forums. He told an associate that "maybe the Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor"; he was videotaped on the morning of the attack wearing traditional white clothing in the manner of someone about to martyr himself. The same day, he divested himself of belongings and handed out Korans, and he shouted the battle cry of the jihadists, "Allahu Akbar!" before opening fire. If these reports are true, this was not just terrorism; it was Islamic jihadist terrorism.

The Hole at the Heart of Our Strategy - Mark Steyn, National Review opinion. Thirteen dead and 31 wounded would be a bad day for the US military in Afghanistan, and a great victory for the Taliban. When it happens in Texas, in the heart of the biggest military base in the nation, at a processing center for soldiers either returning from or deploying to combat overseas, it is not merely a “tragedy” (as too many people called it) but a glimpse of a potentially fatal flaw at the heart of what we have called, since 9/11, the “War on Terror.” Brave soldiers trained to hunt down and kill America’s enemy abroad were killed in the safety and security of home by, in essence, the same enemy - a man who believes in and supports everything the enemy does. And he’s a US Army major. And his superior officers and other authorities knew about his beliefs but seemed to think it was just a bit of harmless multicultural diversity - as if believing that “the Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor” (i.e., his fellow American soldiers) and writing Internet paeans to the “noble” “heroism” of suicide bombers and, indeed, objectively supporting the other side in an active war is to be regarded as just some kind of alternative lifestyle that adds to the general vibrancy of the base.

UNITED STATES FOREIGN POLICY

Listen to the Dissidents - Jim Hoagland, Washington Post opinion. Barack Obama's extended hand was whacked across the knuckles by the leaders of Iran, Syria and assorted other thuggeries last week. But the Obama administration did manage a good demonstration in Burma of how its brand of engagement can and should work. Kurt Campbell, the State Department's top Asia official, traveled to the isolated military dictatorship to talk with its corrupt junta. But Campbell also insisted on having a highly visible meeting with the leader of the country's democracy movement, Aung San Suu Kyi, and then publicly called on her persecutors to grant her party more freedoms. This is the balance that has been missing in Obama's outreach to other authoritarian states. Demonstrators on the streets of Tehran underlined the president's missing link Wednesday by chanting: "Obama, Obama - either you're with them or you're with us," as Iranian police beat them, according to news accounts. Obama and his advisers need to take the dissidents' message to heart. The dissident - a hero and catalyst for enormous change in the Soviet empire, China, the Philippines and elsewhere only two decades ago - has become a largely neglected and absent figure in this administration's diplomacy. Media coverage of political protest globally also seems to have waned since the end of the Cold War.

UNITED STATES NAVY

USS New York Receives Official Commission - Gerry J. Gilmore, American Forces Press Service. A new Navy ship named in honor of the courage displayed by New York City’s residents during and after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks received its official commission today. The USS New York recalls “the searing memories of Sept. 11” as well as “the bravery of the rescuers, the resolve of the survivors, the compassion of this city and the patriotism of this great country,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said during the ship’s commissioning ceremony at New York City harbor. Clinton was a member of the US Senate representing New York state during 9/11. Part of the bow, or front, of the new ship, Clinton said, is constructed of 7.5 tons of melted-down steel taken from the wreckage of the World Trade Center’s twin towers that were destroyed during the terrorist attacks. The motto of the USS New York, Clinton said, is “Strength Forged through Sacrifice: Never Forget.” No one “will ever forget the image of twisted girders and shattered beams looming above the smoldering pile” of wreckage, Clinton said. The USS New York is a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship. It was christened March 1 in a New Orleans’ shipyard by Dotty England, the ship’s sponsor and wife of former Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England. The USS New York and its crew, Clinton said, will join in the fight against terrorism and extremism and also perform humanitarian missions worldwide. The new ship’s first commander is Navy Cmdr. F. Curtis Jones, a native of Binghamton, N.Y. The vessel has a crew of more than 350 sailors and can transport a landing force of 800 Marines and their equipment. Clinton was accompanied at the ceremony by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus; Navy Adm. Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations; Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James T. Conway; and other senior officials.

AFRICA

UN Running Out of Food Aid for Somalia - Ariel David, Associated Press. The United Nations says it is running out of food for millions of starving Somalis, in part because the United States is delaying aid amid fears it could be intercepted by militants linked to al-Qaeda. Last month, the UN World Food Program began cutting rations by up to half for some people in the lawless, impoverished East African nation, and it will run out of supplies in December, the Rome-based agency said Saturday. "WFP's food assistance supply line to Somalia is effectively broken," said Peter Smerdon, a spokesman for the agency in Nairobi. "The pipeline break is partly because [the US government] has delayed US assistance to Somalia." The US State Department confirmed it had concerns that militants could get their hands on humanitarian assistance and had suspended food shipments.

ICC Prosecutor Promises Speed in Kenya Proceedings - Alan Boswell, Voice of America. The International Criminal Court's (ICC) chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, ended a crucial visit to Kenya Saturday detailing his plan to speedily investigate and then prosecute the top suspects of the nation's post-election violence. The prosecutor wants to name those to be charged before the campaign season begins for the 2012 elections. Ocampo announced on Thursday that he was invoking his prosecutorial powers to ask the Court to authorize investigations into crimes committed during the violence following the disputed December 2007 presidential election. The International Criminal Court announced on Friday that the Kenya case had been assigned a pre-trial chamber at the prosecutor's request. The statement from Ocampo came after Kenya's president and prime minister informed the prosecutor during a face-to-face meeting that they would not refer the case themselves to the ICC. Kenya is a signatory to the Court's governing statute and is legally obliged to cooperate with the Court's proceedings. The two Kenyan leaders announced they would fulfill their legal requirements under international law.

AMERICAS

US Disappointed at Breakdown in Honduras Political Talks - David Gollust, Voice of America. The United States Friday expressed disappointment that efforts to resolve the four-month-long political crisis in Honduras have hit another roadblock. Rival parties in the dispute over who is the Central American country's rightful president failed to meet a deadline Thursday for setting up a national unity government. Although ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya says efforts to resolve the crisis have failed, the State Department is urging the sides to return to negotiations and resolve differences so the country can have internationally-recognized elections at the end of this month. The United States was an active supporter of talks that yielded an apparent breakthrough last week under which the Honduran Congress would decide whether Mr. Zelaya, removed by the military last June, would return to office to complete his term, or interim president Roberto Micheletti would continue to run the government until a new president takes office in January. The sides were able to agree on preliminary steps to implement what's being called the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord. But Thursday, despite a commitment to seek a unity government, Micheletti said he was forming a cabinet without the participation of Mr. Zelaya, who declared the process a failure. At a news briefing, State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly called on both sides to act in the interests of the Honduran people and return to the bargaining table and reach agreement on a unity government, which he said would change the political dynamics of the country in a positive way.

Democracy Wins in Honduras - Jaime Daremblum, Weekly Standard opinion. The four-month Honduran political crisis appears to be over. Last week, Honduran officials signed an agreement to establish a provisional "unity" government and allow the Honduran Congress to determine the fate of Manuel Zelaya, who was removed as president in late June for constitutional violations. At first, some media outlets reported that the deal would automatically restore Zelaya as president, but that was inaccurate. Zelaya could be restored--but Honduran legislators will make the final call. The United States, which helped broker the accord, agreed to end sanctions against Honduras and recognize the legitimacy of its November 29 elections. This represents a major triumph for Honduran democracy. The Obama administration had previously argued that the termination of US sanctions and the acceptance of this month's Honduran elections were both contingent on Zelaya's reinstatement as president. At some point, the administration decided that Honduras should be permitted to make its own decision about the Hugo Chávez acolyte. If the Obama administration still believed that Zelaya's removal was an illegal "military coup" and an assault on democracy, it would not have endorsed an agreement that lets the Honduran Congress reject Zelaya's return to the presidency.

Mexican Army Seizes Large Opium Shipment - Associated Press. The Mexican army said Saturday it has seized a shipment of almost a quarter-ton of opium in the country's northern mountains, one of the largest such seizures made in Mexico. The 448 pounds of opium paste was found Thursday hidden in nine plastic containers in the township of Guadalupe y Calvo, in the border state of Chihuahua, the Defense Department said in a statement. Seven rifles, three pistols and nearly 10,000 rounds of ammunition were found along with the opium, which can be refined to make heroin. The army said it could have yielded 200,000 doses of heroin or similar drugs. The Defense Department called it "the largest seizure of opium paste ever in our country." However, police in the southern state of Guerrero seized 627 pounds of opium paste near the resort of Acapulco in 1999. Also Saturday, one policeman was killed and four wounded in an attack by gunmen in a drug-plagued part of southern Mexico. Gunmen opened fire on two police patrol vehicles responding to reports of a dead body left on a roadside. Authorities in the town of La Union, in Guerrero state near the border with Michoacan, said the unidentified gunmen fled following the attack. The victims were Guerrero state police officers.

ASIA PACIFIC

New Friction and Vast Agenda Await Obama on China Trip - Ian Johnson, Wall Street Journal. When President Barack Obama arrives in Shanghai for a four-day China visit, he will be accorded all the normal pomp and circumstance: He'll mingle with top leaders and ordinary people, local media will be filled with stories, and speeches will be rife with words like "vision" and "partnership." But the greeting won't be as warm as those he has received in other parts of the world, where he frequently has been seen as a transformative figure. That is because Mr. Obama - who arrives Nov. 15 during an eight-day tour of the region - will be largely continuing previous administrations' policies on China. He will also face new friction over long-term problems, and he and his hosts will have to contend with a range of global issues that have overtaken the summit agenda. Mr. Obama follows an administration that is widely credited with success here. The Bush team - building on progress made during the Clinton administration - deepened trade, expanded exchanges and resolved conflicts peacefully. "Little Bush," as the Chinese call the 43rd US president, was widely liked.

Thousands of Japanese Protest US Base Plan - Isabel Reynolds, Reuters. Thousands of Japanese gathered in sweltering heat on the southern island of Okinawa on Sunday to demand that a US Marine base be moved out of the region, days ahead of a visit by President Barack Obama. The row over the re-siting of the Futenma air base threatens to stall a realignment of the 47,000 US military personnel in Japan and sour defense ties between the two countries, seen as key in a region home to a rising China and an unpredictable North Korea. It could also prove a domestic headache for Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, whose support ratings have slipped since his landslide election victory in August. "Okinawa's future is for us, the Okinawan people to decide," Ginowan mayor Yoichi Iha told a supportive crowd which spilled out of an open-air theater by the beach. "We cannot let America decide for us." Organizers put the number of protesters at 21,000.

EUROPE

US Officials Optimistic About New Nuclear Treaty With Russia - Mary Beth Sheridan and Walter Pincus. Washington Post. After months of negotiations with Russia, Obama administration officials are hopeful about a breakthrough - possibly this week - that would enable the two sides to sign a successor to their most extensive nuclear weapons treaty before it expires Dec. 5. The optimism stems from a trip to Moscow in late October by national security adviser James L. Jones, who gave his Kremlin counterpart a package of proposals for the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, according to US and Russian officials. Moscow has not yet formally responded, but high-level Russian officials have reacted positively, senior US officials said. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in remarks released Saturday that both sides "have every chance to agree on a new treaty, determine new [weapons] levels and control measures and sign a legally binding document [by] the end of the year." With US policymakers and the Pentagon united behind Jones's proposals, Kremlin policymakers have gone back to the Russian military to get its approval or perhaps recommendations for counterproposals.

For Russia’s Communists, Ousting Putin Is a Priority - Yulia Taranova, New York Times. Along with the perennial calls for “land for farmers” and “factories for workers,” Communists who marched in Moscow on the Saturday anniversary of the 1917 revolution offered a slogan of more recent vintage: “Russia without Putin.” As the Nov. 7 holiday approached, leaders of Russia’s Communist Party - with 13 percent of the electorate the country’s largest opposition faction - have made it clear that they prefer President Dmitri A. Medvedev to his predecessor, and the current prime minister, Vladimir V. Putin. Speaking at the party’s annual plenum last week, the party’s president, Gennady A. Zyuganov, said the so-called tandem government of Mr. Putin and Mr. Medvedev was collapsing. He said opposition politicians “are eager to support the president if he ever decides to go on a real but not declarative struggle for those principles that he stands for.” Mr. Putin remains Russia’s most popular politician, with Mr. Medvedev trailing him by around 10 points in most polls. Approval ratings for both leaders dipped last month amid widespread allegations of fraud in local elections; on Oct. 25, the Public Opinion Foundation reported that Mr. Putin’s trust rating fell to 66 percent from 72 percent, the lowest point since he became prime minister, though he regained four points of that loss last week.

MIDDLE EAST

Israelis Unsure of US Support - Joshua Mitnick, Washington Times. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be in the United States this week, but he might not see President Obama. Ten months into the Obama administration, persistent tension with Mr. Netanyahu has eroded the president's standing among Israelis. They are giving him low grades for his initial, unsuccessful foray into Middle East peacemaking and feel slighted that he hasn't shown them as much empathy he has shown their Arab neighbors. Though Israelis still see the United States as their most important ally and many view Mr. Obama positively, the president is nonetheless faulted by both supporters and detractors for not reaching out to the Israeli public as he publicly sparred with Mr. Netanyahu over Israel's continued expansion of settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The criticism is reflected in two recent surveys, which suggested that among Israeli Jews, only about 6 percent of respondents see Mr. Obama's Middle East policy as "pro-Israeli." Many Israelis say that Mr. Obama is perceived as taking a harsh tone with the Jewish state while trying to appease Arab public opinion.

Hezbollah Agrees to Unity Coalition - Bassem Mroue, Associated Press. Lebanon's Syrian-backed factions finally agreed on a unity government proposed by their pro-Western rivals Saturday, ending a four-month deadlock in the deeply divided country. The announcement by the opposition coalition dominated by the militant Hezbollah group came after a meeting late Friday night between the groups' leaders, including Hassan Nasrallah. Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri was informed the next day. The agreement would end a political deadlock that has threatened to send the fragile nation spiraling back into violence. Mr. Hariri has been trying to form a Cabinet since June, when his Western-backed coalition narrowly defeated Hezbollah and its allies and retained a slim majority in the 128-member legislature. Both groups agreed from the beginning on a complicated power-sharing formula that gives Mr. Hariri's coalition 15 seats in the next government and the Hezbollah-led minority 10 seats, with five other seats to be filled by President Michel Suleiman, who is seen as a neutral figure. Since then they had not been able to agree on which posts each group would take.

A Continued Political Stalemate - Mohamad Bazzi, Washington Times opinion. Five months after holding parliamentary elections, Lebanon is still without a government. The pro-Western coalition that won the vote is floundering in the morass of Lebanon's sectarian politics, and the country is once again drifting toward crisis. What is wrong with Lebanon, and why is it so hard to form a government? After the June 7 elections, a simplistic narrative emerged in the West: Because Hezbollah and its allies were defeated at the polls, the Shi'ite militant group would lose some of its luster and a pro-US political coalition would rule Lebanon. But in fact, Hezbollah remains the country's dominant military and political force. Hezbollah holds the key to both domestic and external stability: Its actions will determine whether there is another war with Israel or whether Lebanon will once again be wracked by internal conflict. The current political vacuum gives Hezbollah free rein to continue its military buildup in southern Lebanon. Saad Hariri, the Sunni leader and US-backed prime-minister-designate, has been unable to form a Cabinet - with the defection of Druze chieftain Walid Jumblatt to the Hezbollah camp just the latest of Mr. Hariri's problems. But this political maneuvering is only a symptom of a much deeper problem: an antiquated power-sharing system adopted six decades ago.

Call White House, Ask for Barack - Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times opinion. The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has become a bad play. It is obvious that all the parties are just acting out the same old scenes, with the same old tired clichés - and that no one believes any of it anymore. There is no romance, no sex, no excitement, no urgency - not even a sense of importance anymore. The only thing driving the peace process today is inertia and diplomatic habit. Yes, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has left the realm of diplomacy. It is now more of a calisthenic, like weight-lifting or sit-ups, something diplomats do to stay in shape, but not because they believe anything is going to happen. And yet, as much as we, the audience, know this to be true, we can never quite abandon hope for peace in the Holy Land. It is our habit. Indeed, as I ranted about this to a Jordanian friend the other day, he said it all reminded him of an old story. “These two guys are watching a cowboy and Indian movie. And in the opening scene, an Indian is hiding behind a rock about to ambush the handsome cowboy,” he explained. “ ‘I bet that Indian is going to kill that cowboy,’ one guy says to the other. ‘Never happen,’ his friend answers. ‘The cowboy is not going to be killed in the opening scene.’ ‘I’ll bet you $10 he gets killed,’ the guy says. ‘I’ll take that bet,’ says his friend. “Sure enough, a few minutes later, the cowboy is killed and the friend pays the $10. After the movie is over the guy says to his friend, ‘Look, I have to give you back your $10. I’d actually seen this movie before. I knew what was going to happen.’ His friend answers: ‘No, you can keep the $10. I’d seen the movie, too. I just thought it would end differently this time.’ ”

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.