September 07, 2010

Gen. McChrystal's seminar syllabus

Over the weekend, the Yale Daily News published the syllabus for ousted Afghanistan commander Stanley's McChrystal's seminar, "Leadership in Operation"(INRL 690) As a graduate student myself, the reading coursework load is relatively light (I say that out of jealously more than anything.) Most intriguing are the titles of some of the lectures, which clearly reflect the peaks and pitfalls of his career. On Nov. 16, the former general will give a lecture titled “Communicating the Story – the Media Environment.” There are lectures on “Navigating Politics” and ““Coping With Failure.”

The lecture series seems to center around McChrystal’s professional experience rather than a broader look at how military leaders have performed during past American wars.

Here is the full list of lecture titles:
7th September 2010: “The Importance of Leading Differently – The Changing Operating Environment”

14th September 2010: “Case Study: The Changing Military 1972-2010”

21st September 2010: “Role of a Leader”

27th September 2010 (6-8pm): “Coping With Failure”

28th September 2010 (Assignment 1 Due): “Building Teams – What Makes Some Great”

5th October 2010: “Driving Change and Operating Differently”

12th October 2010: “Navigating Politics”

19th October 2010: “Making Difficult Decisions Pt. 1 – How We Decide”

26th October 2010 (Assignment 2 Due): “Making Difficult Decisions Pt. 2 – Dealing With Risk”

2nd November 2010: “Loyalty, Trust and Relationships”

9th November 2010: “Dealing With Cultural Differences”

16th November 2010: “Communicating the Story – the Media Environment”

30th November 2010 (Assignment 3 Due): “The Leader – the Personal Impact of Responsibility, Notoriety and Other Realities”

7th December 2010: “The Future Leader”

A research assistant for the course told the Yale Daily News that "while students enrolled in the class are free to talk with the media about their impressions of the class, the seminar itself will be off the record." If only such stipulations had been so clearly articulated when a Rolling Stone reporter came to interview the general and his staff, how different things might be now. 

USA’s AABs working BTW ISF in post RDOF in Iraq

I was in Iraq recently with the Secretary of Defense for the change of command ceremony and what struck me beyond the pomp and pageantry was how much things had changed. In a way, the U.S. military bases now look like much of Baghdad – stripped down and abandoned.  All that equipment moved out from when a record 170,000 troops were stationed there. What remains are 50,000 U.S. troops charged primarily with training their Iraqi counterparts. They patrol the streets of Iraqi cities that are too often are filled with empty homes, left behind by more than 2 million exiles and thousands killed.

The military didn’t just change its mission.  It added a whole new collection of acronyms to the Iraq war lexicon. I was only in Iraq overnight and here are the ones I came across.

ISF—Iraqi security forces, an oldie but now a staple of any acronym-filled conversation.  The U.S. military, mostly the USA (U.S. Army) is there to work….

BTW—by, with and through the Iraqis. Because, you see, there are no longer U.S. combat forces in Iraq. They are….

AAB—Advise and Assist brigades. And they are now in charge now that the United States has completed its….

RDOF—Responsible Drawdown of Forces.

I guess it would not feel like a new mission in Iraq without new terms to describe it. 

September 01, 2010

Gamal's in town

With concerns about the health of 82-year-old Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and a widespread expectation in Egypt that he will try to hand off power to his son Gamal, we decided to find out if Gamal accompanied his father to Washington for this week's Middle East peace extravaganza.

The word from the Egyptian Embassy is that, yes he is - but he's not participating in the peace talks themselves.

Embassy spokesman Karim Haggag told us by email:  "Gamal is here accompanying President Mubarak as he has done numerous times in the past. He is not part of the official delegation and will therefore not be participating in any of the official meetings."

The official delegation, Haggag said, is: 

- Foreign Minister Ahmad Aboulgheit
- Information Minister Anas El Fiki
- Chief of Intelligence Omar Suleiman
- Chief of the Presidential Cabinet Zakariya Azmi

August 31, 2010

Afghan ambassador to US leaving post following embarassing photo release

Said T. Jawad, Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States, announced today that he will be leaving his post on Sept. 22 after seven years.

"With deep appreciation for your friendship and support, I would like to inform you that my tenure . . . is ending," Jawad wrote in a "Dear Friend" letter issued by the Afghan embassy.

Jawad gave no reason for his departure, although reports from Kabul said he was fired. He indicated that he would be leaving public service, saying that he was committed "to continuing to contribute to Afghanistan's future in my private capacity as well as through the newly formed Foundation for Afghanistan." Jawad announced the creation of the aid organization in a speech at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies in March.

Abduljalil Ghafoory, a spokesman for the Afghan embassy, told Nukes and Spooks that there was nothing unusual about Jawad's departure, saying that "an ambassador has a fixed period of time to serve." And he insisted that there was "no connection" with the publication several weeks ago in Afghan newspapers and on several websites of pictures purportedly taken at an Afghan embassy party that appeared to be part of an elaborate smear campaign against Jawad that succeeded in igniting a political firestorm back in poor, war-torn and highly conservative Muslim country.

The pictures showed men and women clad in Western dresses with bare arms and legs sitting together on a carpet at the embassy. They were listening to a noted Afghan singer, Mozdah Jamalzadah, who was wearing a tight-fitting dress, the hem of which ended above her knees. Other photos showed Jawad's son dancing with a young woman, as other women danced around them, as well as Jawad, his wife and son posed in front of a booze-filled bar.

Such conduct would be regarded as culturally and religiously offensive in overwhelmingly Muslim Afghanistan, where dancing between the sexes is rarely, if ever, permitted, alcohol consumption is banned and women traditionally wear clothes that at the very least cover their legs, arms and necks - most also drape scarves over their hair - and many wear full-length body-embracing burkas.

As if that wasn't enough, the picture captions claimed that the event was held on Aug. 12 to break the daily fast on the second night of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The resulting outrage in Afghanistan provoked by the photos included a call from a senior lawmaker for Jawad's resignation.

But Jawad was quoted in an Aug. 20 story in Newsweek as saying no such party took place and that he was on an official trip to South America on the night that it supposedly took place. He contended that the photos were either old or faked. The story also quoted a spokesperson for the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, who is posed in one picture with Jawad and his wife, as saying that Holbrooke had not been to a party at the Afghan embassy in more than a year.

Newsweek also noted that the clothes worn by Jawad, his wife and son in the photo taken in front of the bar were different that those they were wearing in other photos.

So the release of the photos appeared deliberately aimed at dealing a serious political blow to Jawad. Still, there is little doubt that they were real and depicted him and his family in highly un-Islamic situations that would have been highly embarrassing to his boss, embattled President Hamid Karzai.

August 30, 2010

Obama imposes new NK sanctions

From today's guest contributor, McClatchy economics correspondent Kevin G. Hall:

            The Obama administration targeted five North Korean entities on Monday in an attempt to further isolate Pyongyang internationally.

President Barack Obama signed an executive order Monday, allowing the Treasury and State Departments to sanction North Korean individuals and entities for a range of illicit activities.

Among those directly targeted in the order were the Reconnaissance General Bureau and Lt. Gen. Kim Yong Chol, North Korea’s top intelligence arm; Green Pine Associated Corp., described as a North Korean conventional arms dealer; and Office 39 of the Korean Worker’s Party, said to be the slush-fund manager for the North Korean leadership.

Monday’s sanctions also target Korea Taesong Trading Co. and Korea Heungjin Trading Co., trading firms alleged to be fronts for procuring missile technology. The Munitions Industry Department and Second Academy of Natural Sciences were targeted for their role in ballistic missile production. Three individuals tied to the prohibited nuclear program_ Ri Je-son and Ri Hong-sop and Yun Ho-lin_ were also cited by the U.S. agencies.

The list of wrongs alleged to have been committed by Yun Ho-lin include procuring items for uranium enrichment and for involvement in purchase of “sensitive material linked to the construction of a nuclear reactor in Syria.”

Israel bombed a suspected nuclear reactor site on Sept. 6, 2007, and North Korean personnel were allegedly at the scene. Syria offered a surprisingly muted response at the time, adding to the mystery surrounding the Israeli raid.

Obama’s order Monday allows the U.S. government to seize any assets in the United States tied to the three entities and significantly, allows the seizure of assets in the United States of any entity anywhere that does business with them. This could put more pressure on Chinese and other Asian banks and financial intermediaries with U.S. operations.

In a briefing for reporters, State and Treasury officials declined to say much about Office 39, but in a fact sheet they said Office 39 had previously used Macau-based Banco Delta Asia to launder illicit proceeds for the regime. Earlier reporting by McClatchy questioned the veracity of claims that Banco Delta laundered fake US $100 bills.

The new sanctions Monday included more cautious language about North Korea’s alleged manufacture of fake $100 bills, so perfect they’ve been dubbed “supernotes.” President George W. Bush publicly accused North Korea of making the bills, but Monday’s language referred in more-guarded language to “definitive connections between the supernote and the government of North Korea.”

During the briefing, Robert Einhorn, the State Department’s special advisor on nuclear non-proliferation efforts, described as coincidence the timing of the new sanctions. They followed by days former President Jimmy Carter’s trip to Pyonyang to win the humanitarian release from prison of an American citizen who had crossed illegally into North Korea.

August 26, 2010

"Non-combat" Iraq troops still get combat pay

Since the 4/2 Stryker brigade left Iraq earlier this month, there has been quite a debate about whether combat missions are officially over in Iraq. The U.S. military says that there are now only training brigades left, outfitted with things like more engineers to train their Iraqi counterparts. And on Tuesday, President Obama is scheduled to give an Oval Office speech declaring the end of the combat phase of the war. So does that mean combat is over?

August 24, 2010

Mideast peace talks scuttlebutt

    The kids are headed back to school, the days are steadily growing shorter, and Labor Day is almost upon us. That can only mean one thing:  the 2010-2011 diplomatic season is about to begin! Those summer vacations will soon be a distant memory.

    First up, even before Labor Day hits, are the Middle East peace talks. Dignitaries and their delegations will descend on DC for meetings and dinner at the White House on September 1, followed by the formal launch of Israeli-Palestinian direct talks at the State Department on September 2.

   At the White House, all eyes will be on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, making his first visit to Washington in some time. Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt since 1981, is now 82 and guessing about the state of his health has become an increasingly anxious parlor game for U.S. officials. While his regime's human rights record is much criticized, Mubarak has been a constant in the Middle East for three decades, generally supporting U.S. goals and standing by the "cold peace" with Israel made by his predecessor, Anwar Sadat.

  One Middle Eastern diplomat whose leaders recently held talks with Mubarak reported that he is alert and engaged, which is at odds with media reports that he is virtually on his deathbed.

  The Obama-ites have not said much about what is supposed to happen after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meet at the State Department, to kick off the peace negotiations that it took President Barack Obama 19 months to arrange. The agenda, structure -- and the very future -- of the talks is vague.

  We hear a second round of talks is supposed to take place in mid-September and, if they haven't broken down by then, a third round somewhere in the Middle East in October.

August 17, 2010

New poll shows Afghan war opposition at highest-ever level

A new poll shows opposition to the war in Afghanistan reaching an all-time high.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey published today put opposition to the nearly nine-year-old conflict at 62 percent.

Moreover, only three out of 10 Americans are confident that the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai can handle the crisis, according to the poll.

The poll was published two days after the new U.S. commander of NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, Army Gen. David Petraeus, said in television and newspaper interviews that time will be needed for the Obama administration's counter-insurgency strategy to work.

In other finding, the survey of 1,009 Americans showed that an all-time high of 69 percent oppose the war in Iraq. At the same time, 65 percent support President Barack Obama's decision to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of this month, leaving 50,000 there for training Iraqi security forces and other non-combat duties.

August 16, 2010

Gates says he is eyeing 2011 retirement

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the only holdover from the Bush administration, told Foreign Policy magazine in an interview posted Monday that he hopes to retire by the end of 2011.  In an interview with Fred Kaplan, Gates said:

“The point of all of that is I think that by next year I'll be in a position where, you know, we're going to know whether the strategy is working in Afghanistan. We'll have completed the surge. We'll have done the assessment in December. And it seems like somewhere there in 2011 is a logical opportunity to hand off.

I think that it would be a mistake to wait until January 2012. First of all, I think we might have trouble getting the kind of person they want if there's a possibility that they might only be in the job for a year. You know, who knows what the election situation will look like. But also I just think this is not the kind of job you want to fill in the spring of a presidential election. So I think sometime in 2011 sounds pretty good.”

Now, this is not causing the stir at the Pentagon the way you might think it would, namely because everyone here has heard this from Gates before. After all, this was the same secretary who proudly boasted about carrying a clock that counted down to the end of the Bush administration – and by extension his tenure as Secretary of Defense. Then he stayed on.

Then there was word that he would stay for just a year into the Obama administration. That year came and went, and he stayed on.  And even in this interview, he leaves some room open to extend his tenure.

Gates, who will be 67 in September, became secretary of defense in December 2006, after the ousting of Donald Rumsfeld amid dismal mid term election results.

What I found most interesting is that his reasons for staying are not his push to reform the budget, which we had assumed drove him to extend his term, but the war in Afghanistan. We had thought that he stayed to fundamentally shape the budget, which takes several budget cycles to even begin to reshape. But it seems his decision to stay is driven by the deadlines of the war, when the Obama administration signaled it may consider a change of course.

His announcement comes as he just proposed a second round of cuts to the Defense Department budget, including the elimination of Joint Forces Command. He faces a lot of opposition in Congress, particularly in from memberswhose districts face job cuts in an already frail economic climate. If Gates is seen as a lame duck, will opponents to his proposals simply wait him out? Or will they fear that he will keep extending his term until he sees the changes through? When it comes to Gates and his tenure as the Secretary of Defense, anything is possible.

August 11, 2010

Iran: The Way We Were

As the stand-off over Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program hovers this summer somewhere between sanctions, diplomacy and the threat of military force, here's a timely reminder that today's adversaries can be yesterday's friends and vice versa.

These old pics, from the '60s and '70s are making their way around the 'Net. ... Recent European Union sanctions on Iran bar Iranian cargo flights from EU airports...