the Basra bungle

NYT: confusion reigns over what happened in Basra, starting with Maliki's orders to launch assault...
"But the Iraqi operation was not what the United States expected. Instead of methodically building up their combat power and gradually stepping up operations against renegade militias, Mr. Maliki’s forces lunged into the city, attacking before all of the Iraqi reinforcements had even arrived. By the following Tuesday, a major fight was on.
'The sense we had was that this would be a long-term effort: increased pressure gradually squeezing the Special Groups,' Mr. Crocker said in an interview, using the American term for Iranian-backed militias. 'That is not what kind of emerged.'
'Nothing was in place from our side,' he added. 'It all had to be put together.' "
NYT: ...and continuing with how many Iraqis deserted during the fight. NYT combines police and army, cites an estimate at 4%
"The crisis created by the desertions and other problems with the Basra operation was serious enough that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki hastily began funneling some 10,000 recruits from local Shiite tribes into his armed forces. That move has already generated anger among Sunni tribesmen whom Mr. Maliki has been much less eager to recruit despite their cooperation with the government in its fight against Sunni insurgents and criminal gangs."
WP: meanwhile, the Post cites an Iraqi source who says 30% left. the estimate for total fighters involved was about half of NYT's. maybe they didn't include the police?
LAT: then there's this evaluation of the police from yesterday's LAT
"'Police work where they live and are inherently influenced by the politics of their community,' said a Western security official, who estimated police desertions at more than 50% in Mahdi Army strongholds such as Baghdad's Sadr City and parts of Basra...
Like many soldiers in this area, Hussein has friends and relatives in Shula who faced repercussions if the military confronted the militias there.
'People were calling me on my cellphone, threatening to kill my kids,' said Hussein, a husky man with a gray-flecked mustache and a red beret perched on his head. He commands the 4th Battalion of the 22nd Brigade in the Iraqi army's 6th Division."
USAT: Ambassador Cocker says "Thousands of tribesmen in the southern city of Basra have volunteered to join Iraqi security forces since al-Sadr agreed to a cease-fire on Sunday."
NYT: (op-ed) the US should train more military advisers for Iraq and Afghanistan
NYT: rumor has it that the NIE's report is rosy, but critics of the classified doc say it reads like a summary of press reports. this installment has no public version, which some Dems are criticizing.
IHT: no wonder the humor is black

Slate: a photo-journalist's view of war in Chechnya and Iraq

NYT: rising star of Al-Qaeda

WP: the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan complicates US operations
Ind: warlords funneling cash from heroin sales into weapons acquisition

WP: former KLA commander, former prime minister of Kosovo, acquitted of war crimes

WP: still unclear what Mugabe will do; "inner circle" appears to be fracturing
Gdn: he may step down in exchange for immunity from prosecution for past crimes

Gdn: Kenyan officials reach deal, will announce 40-member cabinet Sunday

Gdn: Sarkozy will travel to Colombia to receive Betancourt if released; France will take in freed FARC prisoners

WP: Uighurs protested during Tibet crackdown
"Like the Tibetans, Xinjiang's approximately 16 million Uighur Muslims speak their own language, have their own customs and, at one point in history, set up their own government. They have long chafed under the Han Chinese-dominated government in Beijing and in the 1990s mounted a series of attacks against Chinese officials and institutions during which Beijing says more than 150 people died."

Ind: (Raul) Castro increasing Cubans' freedoms: now they can watch Seinfeld re-runs

Gdn: Cyprus removes barriers between Greek and Turkish sides, compares coffee

Slate: accountability for the lawyers who gave the green light? nah.
"Lawfare was described by Air Force Brig. Gen. Charles Dunlap as 'the strategy of using or misusing law as a substitute for traditional military means to achieve an operational objective.' Ordinary acts of foreign policy become bogged down in a maze of after-the-fact legal consequences. Donald Rumsfeld saw this form of warfare as a limit on American military authority. He was determined to find a solution to what he called 'the judicialization of international politics.'...As we are beginning to learn, the growing tendency to conduct wars in the courtroom hasn't actually constrained anyone at all over the past seven years. The expanded role of all these laws and lawyers in the war on terror has had the opposite effect: The Bush administration has proven time and again that the Rule of Law is only as definitive as its most inventive lawyers.
In short, the Bush solution to the paralysis of lawfare seems to be to hire lawyers who don't believe in the law. "

LAT: arithmetic of Aztec land surveys finally understood

the Root: daily drug war dose: 5 things to know about crack