offensives

LAT: US, Iraqi forces launch offensive in Diyala
NYT: Iraqi forces weren't notified of the plans until late, but it still wasn't enough to prevent insurgent targets from eluding the troops
Slate: Diyala's different than Anbar, and we're in to a 'post-surge' period:
"There is no doubt that this quantity of U.S. troops will clear this small area of insurgents and al-Qaida fighters. The only question for the near term is whether our troops will kill, capture, or merely push those fighters out of the breadbasket. This has been the pattern for U.S. military operations since 2003, and yet the insurgency continues. The more important question is whether the U.S. military—and its partners in the Iraqi army and police—can secure the area for the long term, and do so with fewer and fewer U.S. troops as the surge ends."
LAT: 6 American soldiers die in a house rigged to explode
WP: UN survey estimates that 151,000 Iraqis died in the 3 years after the invasion (90% of them the direct result of US military operations)
WP: new strategy: let Iraqis figure it out

SWJ: there's a new book out on counterinsurgency and inter-agency fighting

AP: Colombia captures #2 leader of ELN. hopes renewed for advances in peace talks with guerrilla group.
MH: how the FARC lost track of the little boy they offered in the exchange.
Gdn: Chávez sends helicopters to retrieve 2 hostages this morning, including the boy's mother

WP: Bush predicts Palestinian state "will emerge" soon

WP: US federal gov't to sue landowners who haven't allowed border wall construction on their property

IHT: 3,000 more US troops to head to Afghanistan

BBC: Charles Taylor on trial

BBC: talks continue to falter in Kenya

Slate: the finer points of US democracy