New Yorker: General Petraeus on exiting Iraq
“One of the keys with counter-insurgency is that every province is a unique case,” Petraeus told me. “What you’re trying to figure out is what works—right here, right now.” In defense of his approach in Iraq, the General and his staff argue, essentially, that they inherited a war of many fronts and managed to stop it, or at least pause it—an achievement that they regard as necessary and remarkable but also insufficient."
WP: how it's playing out in Anbar province
"The Shiite-led government has recently stepped up a campaign to arrest leaders of the Awakening and dismantle parts of the program, whose members receive $300 a month from the U.S. military. Many fighters have abandoned their posts and fled their homes to avoid detention, stoking fears that some will rejoin the insurgency."
NYT: Baghdad's enduring new neighborhoods
"Out of the more than 151,000 families who had fled their houses in Baghdad, just 7,112 had returned to them by mid-July, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Migration. Many of the displaced remain in Baghdad, just in different areas. In one neighborhood alone, Amiriya, in western Baghdad, there are 8,350 displaced families, more than the total number of families who have returned to their houses in all of Baghdad."
IHT: Angola set to vote
“One of the keys with counter-insurgency is that every province is a unique case,” Petraeus told me. “What you’re trying to figure out is what works—right here, right now.” In defense of his approach in Iraq, the General and his staff argue, essentially, that they inherited a war of many fronts and managed to stop it, or at least pause it—an achievement that they regard as necessary and remarkable but also insufficient."
WP: how it's playing out in Anbar province
"The Shiite-led government has recently stepped up a campaign to arrest leaders of the Awakening and dismantle parts of the program, whose members receive $300 a month from the U.S. military. Many fighters have abandoned their posts and fled their homes to avoid detention, stoking fears that some will rejoin the insurgency."
NYT: Baghdad's enduring new neighborhoods
"Out of the more than 151,000 families who had fled their houses in Baghdad, just 7,112 had returned to them by mid-July, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Migration. Many of the displaced remain in Baghdad, just in different areas. In one neighborhood alone, Amiriya, in western Baghdad, there are 8,350 displaced families, more than the total number of families who have returned to their houses in all of Baghdad."
IHT: Angola set to vote
"Democracy is a process, not a destination, and this is part of that process," [former rebel-turned opposition movement Unita leader] said.
"Known for his flamboyant dress-sense and gun-toting female body guards..." makes you want to read on, doesn't it?
AP: Thai PM offers to resign
Slate: dispatches from Somalia
"An ad hoc council of five educated young men tell me there are 13 Somali clans. They warn me not to listen to confused officials who claim otherwise. Hawiye, Darood, Rahanweyne, Issa, Gadabursi, Sheikhal, Isaaq, Biyomal, Gaadsan, Yibro, Midgan, Tumal, and Gaboye are the clans. They make up one tribe and speak one language, Somali. The young men tell me that the father's lineage decides their clan. This genealogy isn't written down. It's an oral society. The clans might as well be like tribes—in fact, the people here call them that—and you can go to town with your Rwanda and Kenya comparisons, because warfare between rival clans destroyed south Somalia after 1991...One day in the middle of this chaos, the elders of Dihoud's subclan invited him to a brainstorming conference. One of their boys had killed three men from another subclan, and the elders from that subclan demanded justice. How would these elders prevent such things in the future, and how could they convince their violent young men to give up their arms? "I am a psychiatrist," Dihoud remembers telling them. "And as I am a psychiatrist, I know we are all paranoid after the war. We are all traumatized. We had blood on our hands. We fought against a dictator, and we killed each other. So everybody is paranoid that somebody is following him. And we think that if we give up the arms, other tribes will attack us. Let us disarm ourselves and give the arms to the government."
IHT: Mugabe might scuttle power-sharing deal if Tsvangirai doesn't sign on
WP: meanwhile, Kenyan leaders working out resource-sharing with family members
WP: IRA no longer a threat
NYT: Brits causing mayhem in Greece
“It’s because of British culture — no one can relax, so they become inebriated to be the people they want to be,” he said...Local officials say the blame lies not just with the tourists themselves, but also with the operators of package tours promising drinking-and-partying vacations, and clubs offering industrial-strength alcohol at rock-bottom prices."
Slate: she stopped a Russian invasion! (or would have anyhow)
AP: Thai PM offers to resign
Slate: dispatches from Somalia
"An ad hoc council of five educated young men tell me there are 13 Somali clans. They warn me not to listen to confused officials who claim otherwise. Hawiye, Darood, Rahanweyne, Issa, Gadabursi, Sheikhal, Isaaq, Biyomal, Gaadsan, Yibro, Midgan, Tumal, and Gaboye are the clans. They make up one tribe and speak one language, Somali. The young men tell me that the father's lineage decides their clan. This genealogy isn't written down. It's an oral society. The clans might as well be like tribes—in fact, the people here call them that—and you can go to town with your Rwanda and Kenya comparisons, because warfare between rival clans destroyed south Somalia after 1991...One day in the middle of this chaos, the elders of Dihoud's subclan invited him to a brainstorming conference. One of their boys had killed three men from another subclan, and the elders from that subclan demanded justice. How would these elders prevent such things in the future, and how could they convince their violent young men to give up their arms? "I am a psychiatrist," Dihoud remembers telling them. "And as I am a psychiatrist, I know we are all paranoid after the war. We are all traumatized. We had blood on our hands. We fought against a dictator, and we killed each other. So everybody is paranoid that somebody is following him. And we think that if we give up the arms, other tribes will attack us. Let us disarm ourselves and give the arms to the government."
IHT: Mugabe might scuttle power-sharing deal if Tsvangirai doesn't sign on
WP: meanwhile, Kenyan leaders working out resource-sharing with family members
WP: IRA no longer a threat
NYT: Brits causing mayhem in Greece
“It’s because of British culture — no one can relax, so they become inebriated to be the people they want to be,” he said...Local officials say the blame lies not just with the tourists themselves, but also with the operators of package tours promising drinking-and-partying vacations, and clubs offering industrial-strength alcohol at rock-bottom prices."
Slate: she stopped a Russian invasion! (or would have anyhow)
