U.N. Official to Ask U.S. to End C.I.A. Drone Strike

An expected outcome: increasingly bad press for civilian controlled drones operating in active combat roles-

http://ping.fm/2Dmvi

ISAF collaborating with Super Mario?

ISAF seems to be taking the winning of hearts and minds to new levels- http://ping.fm/9wG6V

Security Council votes to end UN mission in Chad and Central African Republic

The trend of reducing peacekeeping missions continues:
http://ping.fm/FoaEA

CIMICweb.net- resource

Not sure who is behind this, but an interesting looking resource nonetheless:
http://ping.fm/zXDE6

Eight U.S. Troops Will Remain in Haiti, Down From 20,000+

Looks like a textbook draw-down of the US support to Haiti- captured well in this quote:

'As Nancy Youssef notes in an excellent piece today for McClatchy, the U.S. military, faced with tightening budgets and a lingering economic crisis, seems to be quietly stepping away from large-scale commitments that require lots of money and manpower. Smarter and smaller seem to be the new watchwords.'

http://ping.fm/2JPjs

Darfur blue helmets to take ‘robust’ defensive action if attacked, says UN-AU envoy

Interesting statement- that attacking peacekeepers 'is a war crime':
http://ping.fm/poSxh

Licences of 172 NGOs in Afghanistan revoked- lack of accountability

http://ping.fm/xH9Bb

Safety of Darfur peacekeepers tops talks between UN, African Union and Sudan

http://ping.fm/wu9DY

UN Peacekeepers airlift Congolese gorillas

http://ping.fm/Juk8H

NYT - Shootings of Afghans on rise at checkpoints

http://ping.fm/lihYM

The new bloggers: security contractors

Have to admit this isn't a source that I've been following: http://ping.fm/vHUUx

How non-lethal weapons could change warfare

'Today, the United States has been actively fighting two wars with high casualty rates for both sides. It would be valuable for the commander in chief and senior military leaders to consider the merits of a nonlethal approach to warfare.'

http://ping.fm/0GANr

Morocco has ordered dozens of Christian aid workers in five major cities to be deported

Related or not to the incident in Pakistan, interesting change in Morocco:

http://ping.fm/OQjLD

Afghanistan war: New rules of engagement don't pit civilians vs. soldiers

'Military tactics are always balanced against strategic objectives, force protection, and humanitarian imperatives. In Afghanistan, international forces have had more than eight years to figure out what hasn’t worked and what will. The new emphasis on civilian protection is a welcome move toward striking the right balance.'

http://ping.fm/o6ESw

World Vision Office Attacked in Pakistan

'ISLAMABAD (AP) -- Suspected militants armed with grenades attacked the offices of an international aid group helping earthquake survivors in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing six employees and wounding several others, police and the organization said.

All the victims of the assault on World Vision, a large Christian humanitarian group, were Pakistanis.'

http://ping.fm/q6P39

Half of Somalia Food Aid Diverted From the Poor

'As much as half the food aid sent to Somalia is diverted from needy people to a web of corrupt contractors, radical Islamist militants and local United Nations staff members, according to a new Security Council report.

The report, which has not yet been made public but was shown to The New York Times by diplomats, outlines a host of problems so grave that it recommends that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon open an independent investigation into the World Food Program’s Somalia operations. It suggests that the program rebuild the food distribution system — which serves at least 2.5 million people and whose aid was worth about $485 million in 2009 — from scratch to break what it describes as a corrupt cartel of Somali distributors.'

http://ping.fm/X4mRG

'U.N. Honors the 101 Who Served and Died in Haiti'

'UNITED NATIONS — It took nearly 15 minutes to read the full roll call of the dead, as a photograph of each person, with the years of their birth and death, flashed on a screen in the darkened hall. White candles flickered on a dais covered with white hydrangeas, orchids and lilies.'

http://ping.fm/WNdML

FP- America Just Isn't Very Good at Nation Building'

This piece doesn't bring up any new points, but stretches the history of US nation building beyond Vietnam to the Thomasites of 1901 in the Philippines. Curious that the focus is always on the inability of the US to develop a civilian corps of deployable expertise- the European experience is not very different:

http://ping.fm/TAHr5

Afghan civilian deaths: NATO starts to say 'sorry'

'In the Afghanistan war, NATO forces chief Gen. Stanley McChrystal publicly apologized Tuesday for 27 Afghan civilian deaths in a US airstrike. The coalition has begun saying 'sorry' more quickly to civilian deaths, as part of a new hearts and minds strategy.'

http://ping.fm/VIy5a

Counterinsurgency, One Stuck Truck at a Time

A new bend on reporting Coalition efforts in Afghanistan, highlighting renewed efforts of soldiers to 'connect' with the civilian populations:

http://ping.fm/0eOmc