WE ARE HEROES

thepoliticalnotebook:

This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism. Subscribe here to receive this round-up by email.

• In a vote of 138 in favor, 9 no, 41 abstaining, the UN General Assembly voted to recognize Palestine as a “non-member observer state,” implicitly acknowledging its sovereignty. Here is the country-by-country breakdown, via the UNGA president’s Twitter feed. Despite contestations by the US, Canada, and of course, Israel, many see this as serious step not only toward recognition of Palestine, but also towards peace.
• Yasser Arafat’s body has been exhumed so that poison tests can be conducted.
• Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak has announced his retirement from public life. 
• On the history of the IDF and social media as a combat/political tool.
• The NYT’s David Carr eloquently lashes out at using war as a cover for targeting journalists, following the deaths and the targeting of journalists by Israel in the recent conflict with Hamas.
• The Washington Post’s ombudsman defends the paper’s publication of the painful photo of Palestinian BBC Arabic journalist holding his dead baby son, saying “The dead baby was real. The bombing was real.”
• Following some questionable tweeting, the NYT’s Jerusalem bureau chief is getting her Twitter timeline edited, which itself raises some questions regarding journalistic/editorial practices and social media.
• Syria has been taken offline.
• The BBC reports on the month’s successes by the Syrian opposition.
• Southern separatists have been offered half of the seats at a planned reconciliation conference in Yemen.
• Last week, when Egyptian President Morsy made a set of power moves, he set off a crisis in Egyptian politics, complete with large scale protests and violent protester clashes with police. Now, Egyptian Islamists have pushed through an approval of a draft of a constitution without the participation of liberal and Christian members of the constitutional assembly, an action which will only inflame the situation further. 
• The USIP released a special report on the politics of security sector reform in Egypt.
• Tunisia sent in the army to quell protests in the town of Siliana.
• The military commander of the M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo has agreed to withdraw from Goma.
• Qatari poet Mohamed Bin Rasheed al-Deeb has been sentenced to life in prison for writing a poem critical of the government and in support of revolution.
• Colum Lynch writes for The Washington Post that Qatar’s reputation as a reliable US ally and a neutral broker in the Middle East is increasingly ambiguous.
• Tear gas and stun grenades were used in clashes that broke out in Manama, Bahrain, following annual Ashura services. 
• The Iranian police have accepted partial responsibility for the death of blogger Sattar Beheshti.
• The US has given Iran a deadline of March for cooperating with the IAEA.
• Iran has delayed the start-up of plutonium-producing Arak reactor.
• That super fancy vertical-takeoff Iranian drone? Photoshop.
• Mark Grossman, the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, will step down in December.
• A report released on Wednesday details how political interference obstructed the probe into the Kabul Bank fraud.
• On the dangers to private security guards in Kabul.
• Pakistani veteran journalist Hamid Mir narrowly escaped assassination.
• Pakistan test-fired a nuclear-capable ballistic missile, the Hatf V Ghauri, with a range of 800 miles (1300km)
• The doctor, Shakil Afridi, who allegedly assisted the US in its operation against Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad, is on hunger strike.
• The UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia cleared Kosovo’s ex-prime minister Ramush Haradinaj of war crimes for the second time in a retrial. 
• Russian prisoners in Penal Colony 6, in Kopeysk, near the city of Chelyabinsk, protested over the weekend, taking to the top of the complex’s buildings and waving banners reading “help us please” and claiming torture. The prison has a history of abuse.
• China has said it is considering participating in US-hosted military drills in the Pacific, which would be a surprising bit of cooperation.
• Kim Jong-Un has replaced his defense minister with a hardline general.
• DHS is evaluating the use of deadly force along the US-Mexico border. 
• A new move is afoot to more clearly lay out rules and policy on drone warfare in this administration.
• ProPublica’s Justin Elliott examines whether or not U.S. drones have become a counterinsurgency force for Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.
• At a pre-trial hearing, Bradley Manning gives evidence for the first time.
• Research facilities are finding some luck in using the currently criminalized MDMA (ecstasy) as a treatment for PTSD in returning servicemembers. 
• Military dogs also suffer from PTSD.
• Doctors should start asking their adult patients whether or not they are veterans, because military service can have serious health impacts later on. 
• On the power of helmet cameras and fragments of point-of-view combat footage.
• Four female servicemembers have filed suit in district court to challenge the Combat Exclusion Policy under the 5th amendment.
• Will Michele Flournoy become the first female Secretary of Defense?
• And Gawker interviewed Julian Assange.

If you would like to receive this round-up as a weekly email, you can sign up through this form, or email me directly at torierosedeghett@gmail.com.

Photo: Cairo. An anti-Morsy protester in Tahrir Square throws a tear gas cannister back towards police. Asma Waguih/Reuters.

thepoliticalnotebook:

This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism. Subscribe here to receive this round-up by email.

• The exchange of fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza continues. A solidarity visit with Palestinians by Egypt’s prime minister hints at work towards a truce.
• Hussein Ibish writes about the current conflict for Foreign Policy. This particular exchange of violence, which began with the Israeli assassination of Hamas military commander Ahmed al-Jaabari, and is “the result of a swirl of events that are reshaping power structures within Hamas and its relationships with regional forces.”
• The story behind the photo: a widely-circulated photo from the violence between Israel and Gaza of father holding the body of his infant son is a photo of BBC Arabic journalist Jihad Masharawi and his eleven-month-old son, Omar, killed when an Israeli round hit their home.
• Social media companies are stymied by how to respond to the IDF-Hamas parallel social media war, with dueling Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, etc accounts posting updates of casualty counts and strikes along with graphic photos of dead children and warnings to one another.
• Some geographic comparison (for US readers) to contextualize the size of the conflict. Via @acarvin.
• Palestine is continuing with its UN bid for recognition as an observing state despite US objection.
• Pictures show evidence of rebel fighters in Syria having obtained more advanced missile systems.
• An excellent long read on the extent of the cyberwar in Syria in Bloomberg Businessweek.
• The number of displaced Syrians is at 2.5 million.
• France has recognized the new Syrian opposition coalition.
• How the Brotherhood builds power in the Syrian opposition.
• Rania Abouzeid visits Aleppo.
• Serious protests broke out in Amman, Jordan, initially over fuel subsidy cuts, but extending to general protests against the government.
• The closed door hearings on Benghazi continue.
• Opposition to Iraqi president Nouri al-Maliki are campaigning for term limits to prevent him from getting a third term.
• Kenya’s military is deploying to the Samburu region to aid police after a massacre killed 42 officers in an ambush by cattle rustlers.
• Côte d’Ivoire president Alassane Ouattara has dissolved his government.
• Strange to think, but within the next twenty years, the US dependence on Persian Gulf oil will dwindle. 
• Afghan warlord and former mujahideen commander Mohammed Ismail Khan has re-mobilized his militia. He is currently the country’s energy and water minister, and many lawmakers are calling for him to lose his position.
• The New York Times’ Taimoor Shah recalls the horror of reporting on the Panjwai Massacre, for which Staff Sgt. Bales has begun hearings.
• The Army is seeking the death penalty for Bales.
• The US and Afghanistan are in talks regarding post-2014 troop presence.
• Pakistan began the release of some Afghan Taliban prisoners whom Kabul believes may be useful in peace negotiations.
• The US denied an extradition request from Russia for the arms dealer Viktor Bout.
• Myanmar released prisoners as a gesture of goodwill ahead of President Obama’s visit.
• China has unveiled its top leaders in the leadership transition.
• Abu Qatada won his last-minute appeal against deportation to Jordan from Britain to face terrorism charges.
• A day of general strike saw unrest in 23 European states.
• An investigation into the abuse scandal at Lackland Air Force Base found that 48 female student were subject to sexual assault or harassment by their trainers. 23 trainers were involved.
• Since last Friday we’ve managed to witness a train crash that won’t seem to stop crashing in the form of General Petraeus, Paula Broadwell, General Allen, Jill Kelley and her FBI friend. This has caused publishers to push up the publication dates of books about fallen generals.
• The New York Times has a video discussing some of the legal implications of the Petraeus fiasco.
• Spencer Ackerman writes honestly about his own role in the mythmaking surrounding General Petraeus.
• The CIA dismissed Paula Broadwell’s October claims about Benghazi, saying they were “no longer in the detention business.” Excellent turn of phrase, there.
• Former CIA director Gen. Hayden and former acting director John Mclaughlin are encouraging the CIA to undergo a shift away from the regional and topical single-mindedness of the past decade and return to some good old-fashioned spying.
• Former AFRICOM commander and four star Army Gen. William “Kip” Ward has been demoted to three stars and ordered to repay unauthorized spending of DOD money.
• Panetta has launched a review of military officers’ ethics training.
• President Obama signed a directive in early October to give the military the ability to aggressively thwart cyberattacks.
• A helpful what-to-read on cybersecurity from Foreign Affairs.
• ProPublica tells the story of a family’s quest for the lost casualty report for their son.
• A new study confirms longtime suspicions that, in many instances, limbs are better off amputated than saved in damaged form. 
• Five writers, three of them veterans, respond to Chris Hedges’ July essay “War is Betrayal: Persistent Myths of Combat.”

If you would like to receive this round-up as a weekly email, you can sign up through this form, or email me directly at torierosedeghett@gmail.com.

Photo: West Bank, outside of the Israeli military prison Ofer, near Ramallah. A Palestinian protester demonstrating against military operations in Gaza runs from clouds of tear gas. Thursday. Majdi Mohammed/AP. More photos of the escalating operations between Israel and Gaza here at The Sacramento Bee.