Quality Leadership Weblog :-)

The U.S. is shrugging off North Korea’s threat to backtrack on an agreement to dismantle its nuclear program.

North Korea says it stopped disabling its nuclear complex this month because the U.S. failed to remove it from a list of states that sponsor terrorism.

State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Wednesday that the U.S. “can’t get overly excited by a down in the situation right now, because this process does go up and down.”

North Korea’s move threatens a six-nation agreement to abandon nuclear weapons in return for energy aid and political concessions.

Removing North Korea from the terrorism list was a U.S. concession, but the U.S. says it will not go forward until North Korea agrees to a plan to verify its nuclear declaration.

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 Georgia War Shows ‘Weak’ Russia, U.S. Official Says,(Washington Post)…Glenn Kessler

Russia’s conflict with Georgia is the sign of a “weak” Russian nation, not a newly assertive one, and Moscow now has put its place in the world order at risk, the top U.S. diplomat for relations with the country said in an interview yesterday.

China’s Unease With Russian Actions Strains Ties
(Wall Street Journal)…Gregory L. White, Andrew Higgins and Andrew Osborn
Russia’s efforts to redraw the map of the Caucasus received a frosty reception from China, a further sign of how Moscow’s conflict with Georgia is scrambling diplomatic alignments in place since the end of the Cold War.

Charlie Wilson’s Peace, (Washington Post), Aug 28, 2008, pg.19…by Charles Wilson

…Defense Secretary Robert Gates was spot-on when he said last month, “The Foreign Service is not the Foreign Legion, and the U.S. military should never be mistaken for a Peace Corps with guns.” We’ve got to get this right.

The writer, a Democrat, represented Texas’s 2nd District in the U.S. House from 1973 to 1997. He is an adviser to the Center for U.S. Global Engagement.

Iran: Letter On Nuclear Program,  (New York Times)…Helene Cooper, August 6, 2008

The Bush administration said Tuesday that Iran’s response to an offer of incentives by six world powers seeking to rein in Tehran’s nuclear ambitions was unacceptable, and American and European officials said their next step would be to go back to the United Nations Security Council to seek additional punitive sanctions.

Clashes With Rebels Deepen War Fears, (Washington Post)…Unattributed, August 8, 2008, Pg. 11

The capital of Georgia’s separatist region of South Ossetia came under heavy fire early Friday, just hours after Georgia’s president declared a unilateral cease-fire, news reports and the rebel government said.

“The assault is coming from all directions,” said a brief statement on the separatist government’s Web site. Officials in South Ossetia and Georgia could not be reached by telephone by the Associated Press for confirmation early Friday.

The Interfax news agency, reporting from the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, cited Vladimir Ivanov, an official of the peacekeeping forces in South Ossetia, as saying the fire included salvos by truck-launched Grad missiles.

A week of clashes and escalating tension in South Ossetia has raised fears of an all-out war that could draw in Russia, which has close ties with South Ossetia’s separatist leadership.

At Russia’s request, the United Nations Security Council began meeting in emergency session starting at 11 p.m. Thursday in New York.

Will Israel Attack Iran? The Atlantic, Robert D. Kaplan, 07.07.08

Bottom line: precisely because the U. S. dominates the airspace around Iran, it has checkmated itself. Israel will find it very hard to pull America’s chestnuts out of the fire in Iran. An Israeli attack is, in the last analysis, still unlikely. The problem of a nuclear Iran is far from being solved.

Unilateral Action By U.S. A Growing Fear In Pakistan
(New York Times)…Jane Perlez, July 22, 2008,
Pg. 8

Strong suggestions by the United States that it could resort to unilateral intervention against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan are generating increasing anxiety in the Pakistani press and among government officials, who warn that such an action could backfire.

Russian Bombers Could Be Deployed To Cuba
(Washington Post)…Peter Finn, July 22, 2008
Pg. 10

Russian bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons could be deployed to Cuba in response to U.S. plans to install a missile defense system in Eastern Europe, a Russian newspaper reported Monday, citing an unnamed senior Russian air force official.

"While they are deploying the missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, our strategic bombers will already be landing in Cuba," Izvestia quoted the source as saying.

The United States says it wants to deploy tracking radar in the Czech Republic and 10 missile interceptors in Poland as a defensive measure against missiles that might be fired from countries such as Iran. U.S. officials insist that the system presents no threat to Russia, which, they say, could easily overwhelm it by launching multiple missiles at the same time.

Afghanistan Doesn’t Need A ‘Surge’
(Wall Street Journal)…Ann Marlowe, July 22, 2008
Pg. 17

Afghanistan needs many things, but two more brigades of U.S. troops are not among them.

…. Is bringing in thousands of American troops the answer?

"No!" the official said. "It’s using Special Forces to get the bad guys who are infiltrating from Pakistan. Our enemy only attacks when they expect to win. If we have to go after them, we need the capacity to hunt them with stealth over trackless mountainsides for which our infantry, cavalry and airborne soldiers are not trained or equipped to operate." Defeating the enemy is best accomplished by highly trained fighters who travel light.

Counterinsurgency is not one-size-fits-all. While there are best practices, they must be applied in a nuanced way. In poorly governed countries where insurgencies are likely to arise, the solution may vary from valley to valley.

Ms. Marlowe is a New York-based writer. This year she completed her 10th trip to Afghanistan and her third embed with U.S. forces there.

Filipino War’s Lessons For Iraq
(USA Today)…Michael Medved, July 22, 2008, Pg. 11

A century ago, success seemed unlikely in an unpopular war — that is, until the tide turned. Can the shift in the Philippines show the way forward today?

…  For one thing, the United States lost 4,234 troops on Filipino battlefields — a close match to the raw number killed in Iraq.

..  In 1900, the inexperienced but charismatic "anti-imperialist" Democrat who challenged the war was 40-year-old William Jennings Bryan, "Boy Orator of the Platte."

… Like 2008, the nation’s leading celebrities decried the "senseless" bloodletting and focused on alleged U.S. atrocities.

… For the most part, America’s volunteer troops maintained high morale, resenting anti-war activists back home because they understood this agitation encouraged the enemy.

Nationally syndicated radio talk host Michael Medved is the author of the upcoming book The 10 Big Lies About America. He is a member of USA TODAY’s board of contributors.