Afghanistan: Supply Route

Khyber Action Near End, (Washington Post)…Unattributed, January 2, 2009, Pg. 13  

Pakistan will reopen the main supply route for Western forces in Afghanistan in the next few days after security forces achieved most of their objectives in an offensive, a Pakistani official said Thursday.

Authorities suspended the shipment of supplies through the Khyber Pass to the Afghan border on Tuesday to clear the way for the military to launch an offensive aimed at ending surging attacks on the route.

“We have achieved more than 80 percent of objectives, and from tomorrow the curfew will be relaxed, while the main road will be opened in the next two to three days,” Tariq Hayat Khan, the top government administrator in Khyber, told reporters.

The U.S. military sends 75 percent of supplies for the Afghan war through or over Pakistan, including 40 percent of the fuel for its troops, the Pentagon says.

Insurgents in Khyber have been trying to choke off supplies for months and have destroyed hundreds of trucks and killed several drivers.

Khan said 15 people wanted by the government were captured or had surrendered, while 37 hideouts had been destroyed.

nKorea: Diplomacy and Outcomes

OPINION: Obama Promises Bush III On Iran,  (Wall Street Journal)…John R. Bolton, January 2, 2009, Pg. 15

“You’d have to be an idiot to trust the North Koreans,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said recently … 

… the biggest problem ahead is countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

… The (six party) talks are classic multilateral diplomacy, pursued since 2003 with notable deference to North Korea. There’s been about as much engagement with Pyongyang as consenting adults can lawfully have.

Most recently in Beijing, Pyongyang refused to put in writing what U.S. negotiators say it committed to verbally — namely, verifying its commitment to abandon its nuclear program.

… The charade of verification was only one more ploy to squeeze out U.S. concessions, which Mr. Bush’s negotiators seemed prepared to give.

On Iran, also for over five years, Mr. Bush has endorsed vigorous European diplomacy. The Europeans offered every imaginable carrot to persuade Iran to drop its nuclear program in exchange for a different relationship with Europe and America. This produced no change in Iran’s strategic objective of acquiring deliverable nuclear weapons. The only real consequence is that Iran is five years closer to achieving that objective. It now has indigenous mastery over the entire nuclear fuel cycle.

Neither North Korea nor Iran is prepared to voluntarily give up nuclear or ballistic missile programs. 

Iran and North Korea achieved their objectives through diplomacy.  

Mr. Bolton, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, is the author of “Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations” (Simon & Schuster, 2007).

nKorea: New Year Resolutions

A Neutral Note For The New Year, (Los Angeles Times)…Times Wire Reports
North Korea issued a New Year’s message with a promise to strengthen its military, but it broke with tradition by not accusing the U.S. of anything and only briefly mentioning its controversial nuclear program.

Frustrating Editorial, Jan 2, 2009. JoongAng Dailey

The usual tirades and hostile remarks toward Washin, ton were conspicuously absent from yesterday’s editorial, indicating Pyongyang’s expectation that it can build better Washington-Pyongyang ties with the incoming Obama administration.

North Korea’s trade dilemma, Jan 2, 2009. JoongAng Dailey. The North wants to avoid opening up completely while at the same time obtain as much foreign currency as possible.

North slams Lee’s gov’t, goes easy on Washington, Jan 2, 2009. JoongAng Dailey.

The communist nation uses a New Year’s Day joint editorial in the country’s major state-run newspapers to make public its priorities for the year.
The North also reiterated its pledge to bolster military power.

While there was no shortage of direct, harsh and lengthy criticism of the Lee administration, conspicuously absent from Pyongyang’s statement was the usual hostility toward Washington.

The 2008 joint editorial had no mention of the nuclear issue. In 2007, the editorial said the North “had nuclear deterrent power” after conducting the nuclear test in 2006.

Pyongyang even skipped its usual demand that the U.S. forces withdraw from the South.

“Totalitarian and independent survival are our unique methods of revolution,” the editorial said, encouraging its people to work to overcome the immediate food issue.

China: New Report

Inside The Ring, By Bill Gertz, China’s pearls, Washington Times, January 1, 2009 , Pg. B1

 A recently published U.S. military report identifies China as the most significant potential threat for the U.S. military in the future and discloses new details of what it describes as Beijing’s efforts to build political influence and military power along the strategic oil-shipping route from the Middle East to China – a so-called “string of pearls” strategy.

The report, “Joint Operating Environment 2008,” was produced by the Norfolk-based U.S. Joint Forces Command. It lists China as the main emerging nation-state threat that U.S. forces could confront in a future conflict, along with potential threats from Russia, the Middle East and other places in Asia. It was made public Nov. 25.

String of Pearls (Chinese political influence or military presence astride oil routes) — Pakistan: Gwadar Naval Base and surveillance facilities; Sri Lanka: Hamantota container port; Bangladesh: Upgraded port facility; Myanmar: Chittagong port facility, commercial naval base, Surveillance facility, Transportation corridor; Thailand: Kra canal; China: Hainan Island airfield and port; Woody Island airfield; South China Sea oil drilling and survey

NKorea: USS Pueblo Incident, Damages Awarded

Damages Awarded In USS Pueblo Case, (Washington Post)…Unattributed, December 31, 2008 , Pg. 5  

A federal judge awarded more than $65 million to several men who were captured and tortured by North Korea after the communist country seized the U.S. spy ship USS Pueblo during the Cold War.

In entering the judgment against North Korea, which had never responded to the lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. in Washington called the abuse of William Thomas Massie, Dunnie Richard Tuck, Donald Raymond McClarren and Lloyd Bucher “extensive and shocking.”

The Pueblo was seized off North Korea while it was on an intelligence-gathering mission on Jan. 23, 1968. The North said the ship was inside its coastal zone, while the U.S. Navy contended it was in international waters.

One of the ship’s 83 crew members was killed, and 10 were wounded. The crew, led by Bucher, who died in 2004, was released after 11 months of captivity and sometimes torture.

The ship is still in North Korean hands, the only active-duty U.S. warship in the hands of a foreign power.

Israel; Gaza, Cease-Fire?

Amid A Buildup Of Its Forces, Israel Ponders A Cease-Fire, (New York Times)…Ethan Bronner and Taghreed El-Khodary, Dec 31, 2008.

With its punishing air attacks on Gaza about to enter a fifth day, its gunboats gathering near the Gaza port and its ground forces poised for imminent action, Israel said Tuesday that it was considering a 48-hour cease-fire that would also require Hamas to stop its rocket fire.

Nintendo; Countering IEDs

Nintendo Wii Being Adapted To Defuse IEDs, (CNN)…Chris Lawrence, December 28, 2008 . Nintendo Wii Being Adapted To Defuse IEDs , CNN Sunday Morning, 9:00 AM

…The Wii-mote would use an infrared beam to instantly match a soldier’s motions with the robots movement. Potentially, it’s small and light enough that the infantry could use it to say, send robots into a building ahead of troops.

T.J. HOLMES: Moving on here to one of the most popular video consoles out there. People just can’t get enough of the Nintendo Wii.

ABBIE BOUDREAU: But, could it really help save lives on the battlefield? Some scientists say there is a way. Borrowing from a video game to use in combat.

HOLMES: Yeah, scientists adapting remote controls for Nintendo’s Wii to defuse IEDs. CNN’s Chris Lawrence reports it’s an idea many scientists believe can virtually save lives.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CHRIS LAWRENCE: A gun in one hand and a Wii in the other, it’s one possible image of the 21st soldier. Engineers are modifying the video games remote to move military robots.

PETER WILL, ROBOTICS EXPERT: It’s this natural hand-eye coordination. It’s not looking at the keyboard or typing, and getting the motions from typing.

LAWRENCE: The Army uses robots to dismantle explosives and keep soldiers at a safe distance, but the controllers are big, bulky and the operator has to focus on 40 or 50 buttons, that’s a potentially deadly distraction during battle.

The Wii-mote would use an infrared beam to instantly match a soldier’s motions with the robots movement. Potentially, it’s small and light enough that the infantry could use it to say, send robots into a building ahead of troops.

But, the Wii’s greatest benefit could be its biggest drawback. The same way gamers accidentally throw controllers into their TVs, engineers have to account for a soldier’s natural body twitches. So, the goal…

BOB QUINN, VICE PRES, TALON ROBOT OPERATIONS: Is to make sure you’re not having misguided, unintentional movements of the body, make those changes in the robot and have the robot act chaotically because it’s sensing that it’s being moved when the soldier really has no intention of moving it.

LAWRENCE: Bob Quinn works for the company that’s helping integrate the Wii. He says developers still have to extend the range of the controller and make sure its signal can’t be hacked.

QUINN: And allow for the soldier to be able to make those movements without the enemy bringing out their own controllers, and taking over control of the robot.

LAWRENCE: The company tells me they can turn the prototype into a working unit within a year. The Pentagon doesn’t move quite that fast. The Army has to test it, allocate the money. So it will probably be at least three years before it’s actually available to soldiers.

Chris Lawrence, CNN, Los Angeles. (END VIDEOTAPE)

Iran Interests

What Iran Wants, (Washington Post)…Ray Takeyh, Dec 29, 2008.

After an eight-year struggle over whether to engage Iran, the United States may finally be on the verge of launching a direct dialogue with its perennial Middle Eastern adversary. Washington has a long list of grievances to discuss, from sponsoring terrorism to the nuclear issue. The success of any talks will hinge on a critical unknown: What does Iran want? Today, an ascendant Iran views negotiations with the United States as a means of consolidating its gains and achieving American recognition of its regional status.