Today's Headlines and Commentary

Secretary of State Hilary Clinton staunchly defended the Iraq withdrawal on several Sunday talk shows; her remarks on ABC's The Week are available here, beginning at minute 6:54.  However, President Obama's announcement was met with harsh criticism from many quarters, reports William M. Welch of USA Today. An editorial in the Washington Post argues that:

Mr. Obama’s decision to carry out a complete withdrawal sharply increases the risk that painfully won security gains in Iraq will come undone; that Iran will be handed a crucial strategic advantage in its regional cold war with the United States; and that a potentially invaluable U.S. alliance with an emerging Iraqi democracy will wither.

Two interesting articles on the fiscal constraints the U.S. faces in Iraq: this Post piece arguing that funds for the Iraqi police training program are badly mismanaged, and this New York Times piece outlining the many reconstruction programs the U.S. has had to scale back. In a unusual show of  force, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that Afghanistan would support Pakistan if it ever went to war with the United States, according to Ray Rivera and Sangar Rahimi of the Times. Secretary Clinton confirmed that U.S. officials secretly met with members of the Haqqani network in an effort to begin peace talks, Joby Warrick of the Post informs us. Yet another demand for the Obama administration to release the memo justifying the targeted killing of Awlaki, this time from the Post editorial board. The head of Libya's Transitional National Council declared the country officially "liberated" yesterday, says Mary Beth Sheridan of the Post. Tarek Mehanna, a Massachusets man accused of providing material support to Al Qaeda, finally goes on trial today, report Denise Lavoie of the AP, and Laurel J. Sweet of the Boston Herald. Here's your moment of Zen to start off the week. For more interesting law and security-related articles, follow us on Twitter and visit the Georgetown Center on National Security and the Law’s Security Law Brief. Feel free to email me noteworthy articles I may have missed at singh.lawfare@gmail.com.