Americans are more upbeat about U.S. prospects in Iraq than at any time in the past five years, but nearly two-thirds continue to believe the war is not worth fighting and 70 percent say President-elect Barack Obama should fulfill his campaign promise to withdraw U.S. forces from the country within 16 months, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
The development of nuclear arsenals by both Iran and North Korea could lead to “a cascade of proliferation,” making it more probable that terrorists could get their hands on an atomic weapon, a congressionally chartered commission warned yesterday.
SEOUL — North Korea stepped up its campaign to prove leader Kim Jong-il is well and in control by showing him looking at an electronic copy of a newspaper dated Tuesday in a series of photos released through its official media.
U.S. and South Korean officials have said Mr. Kim, 66, suffered a stroke in August, raising questions about leadership in Asia’s only communist dynasty and about who was making decisions about the North’s nuclear program .
Despite re-emerging in early October in official media reports about making public appearances and seen in undated photographs, there had been no definite and up-to-date image that showed the reclusive leader in good health.
In the series of photographs released by KCNA news agency, Mr. Kim is seen inspecting a library in the northern Jagang province and looking at a computer monitor displaying an electronic copy of the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper dated Dec. 16.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday briefed a half-dozen key Arab states on U.S.-led efforts to stem Iran’s nuclear program but achieved no new consensus on how to prevent Iran from developing the technology for a nuclear weapon.
Strategy at any level can be defined as the assimilation of ends (interests) ways (policies/methods), and means (resources). Developmet of a grand strategy should also align strategies at the strategic (long-term), operational (mid-term) and tactical (short-term) levels. Next challenge is deployment which requires a common framework among the key stakeholders. The fact that the topic is even addressed indicates the need for a strategy for developing strategy.
Wanted: A New Grand Strategy, By Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek, Nov 29, 2008,
Grand strategy sounds like an abstract concept—something academics discuss—and one that bears little relationship to urgent, jarring events on the ground. But in the absence of strategy, any administration will be driven by the news, reacting rather than leading. For a superpower that has global interests and is forced to respond to virtually every problem, it’s all too easy for the urgent to drive out the important.
Strategy begins by looking at the world and identifying America’s interests, the threats to them and the resources available to be deployed. By relating all these, one can develop a set of foreign policies that will advance America’s interests and ideals. When the unexpected happens, one can respond in ways that are aligned with these broader objectives. One uses the urgent to pursue the important. Or, to put it another way: never let a crisis go to waste.
President Bush took credit yesterday for “keeping America safe” from terrorists since Sept. 11, 2001, arguing that his administration had prevented more bloodshed at home through aggressive policies and that such a result should outweigh any second-guessing of his methods. Bush told a friendly audience at the Army War College that he took “a deliberate and comprehensive approach” to preventing terrorism that combined military action overseas with strong defensive measures at home.
Israel Warns U.S. Of Iranian Nuke Attack, (USA Today)…Unattributed, December 18, 2008, Pg. 7
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned that if Iran acquires a nuclear weapon, it could try to attack the United States.
Barak, who spoke Wednesday at a conference of the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, said the world should press Iran to stop it from building nuclear weapons.
“If it built even a primitive nuclear weapon like the type that destroyed Hiroshima, Iran would not hesitate to load it on a ship, arm it with a detonator operated by GPS and sail it into a vital port on the east coast of North America,” he said.
Indicating the possibility of a military strike, Barak said, “We recommend to the world not to take any option off the table, and we mean what we say.”
The Army has released its first new training field manual in six years, highlighting the need for units to be ready to conduct stability operations after traditional combat has ended.
The manual, titled “Training for Full Spectrum Operations” and written at Fort Leavenworth, explains what soldiers can expect in combat.
It replaces a 2002 edition and comes on the heels of the Army’s release earlier this year of its latest operations doctrine, which emphasized that soldiers must be prepared and proficient in offense, defense and stability skills. The Army says it is the first time it has synchronized the manuals for operations and training.
BRIAN WILLIAMS: On our last trip to Afghanistan, we heard it often from the soldiers on the ground. They didn’t like what it was called, the “Other War,” or even worse the “Forgotten War.” They’re in a tough fight there. President Obama will inherit it. He has vowed to pump more soldiers in. He’ll have help in improving the situation there from the point man on the ground in that war, Gen. John Nicholson, a man with one of the toughest jobs in the U.S. military.
Our own Jim Maceda spent some time with Nicholson in Kandahar Province.
JIM MACEDA: He rolls through town like a new sheriff getting used to the neighborhood, but this is the very heart of Taliban country.
REPORTER: So have you had suicide bomber attacks recently in Kandahar City?
MACEDA: Gen. John Nicholson is the first and only U.S. general in Southern Afghanistan and his orders are as clear as they are daunting: start winning the war.
BRIG. GEN. JOHN NICHOLSON [U.S. Army]: We are now going to be able to secure the vast majority of the population in the south and deliver the basic services through the government that they were unable to do this point.
MACEDA: He’s already expanding bases with a 15,000-20,000 additional U.S. troops expected in the coming year, effectively doubling NATO’s punch in the crucial south.
NICHOLSON: We will see more U.S. forces and more U.S. investment in Southern Afghanistan, which will be a game changer.
This will be the first of many visits here –
MACEDA: As much nation-builder as warrior, Nicholson’s day is a whirlwind of meetings with USAID officials, visiting lawmakers, and Afghan leaders. The boss still surprises his longtime military assistant.
MAJ. FRED TANNER [U.S. Army]: His ability – whoever he’s engaging with to be able to think at their level, you know, whether that be a congressman or be a company commander.
MACEDA: But the 51-year-old West Point grad with two Masters Degrees knows how tough victory will be. In 2006, we embedded with then Col. Nicholson and his brigade in Eastern Afghanistan coming under ambush, trying to flush out the Taliban from the Pakistan border. The Taliban was relentless. By the end of that tour, his unit had lost 45 men and 350 wounded – the highest U.S. toll in the war.
NICHOLSON: For me, there’s a moral obligation to my soldiers who’ve sacrificed so much here to come back and deliver on what they started.
MACEDA: And there’s something else.
NICHOLSON: I believe I was spared on 9/11 to do my duty here in Afghanistan.
MACEDA: The plane that struck the Pentagon on 9/11 destroyed his office, killing his closest colleagues. Nicholson should have been there, but instead was moving into a house that day with his family.
NICHOLSON: I’m grateful to have that purpose.
MACEDA: But with Taliban attacks and government corruption on the rise, Nicholson says he’s no Mr. Fixit.
NICHOLSON: You know, Mr. Fixit would imply that I had all the answers, but I certainly don’t.
MACEDA: What he does have is a mission to turn around a war he can’t walk away from.
Jim Maceda, NBC News, Kandahar.
It’s easy to get depressed reading the news out of Afghanistan. The insurgents are getting stronger, the United States is sending another 20,000 troops there — and yet even Defense Secretary Bob Gates admits that American soldiers aren’t a long-term solution. So what to do?
In sorting out these policy dilemmas, it helps to talk to Afghans such as Saad and Jahid Mohseni, who are struggling with these problems every day.
The Mohsenis’ story reminds me that Afghans are like anyone else. They want a normal life, with a decent income, a safe place to raise their kids and good shows to watch on TV. Creating a secure environment may require 20,000 more U.S. troops, but the real breakthrough would be an Afghan government that protects its people rather than allowing criminal gangs to terrorize them.
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