Morning Brief, Friday, January 5

Brent Stirton/Getty Images Washington Speaking of personnel changes, the Bush administration is ready to make a bunch of ’em, starting with counterinsurgency guru Lt. Gen. David Petraeus as the new top commander in Iraq. If any outsider can save Iraq at this point, he’s probably the guy, despite his relatively junior seniority. Other shifts: Zalmay ...

By , a former managing editor of Foreign Policy.
605081_petraeus9.jpg
605081_petraeus9.jpg

Brent Stirton/Getty Images



Brent Stirton/Getty Images

Washington

Speaking of personnel changes, the Bush administration is ready to make a bunch of ’em, starting with counterinsurgency guru Lt. Gen. David Petraeus as the new top commander in Iraq. If any outsider can save Iraq at this point, he’s probably the guy, despite his relatively junior seniority.

Other shifts:

Jubilant,” nay, “Joyful” Democrats took control of Congress yesterday. New House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s first priority? Ethics reform, because, as she once said, “it takes a woman to clean house.”

Iraq and Middle East

Libya’s latest brilliant PR move: a statue of Saddam Hussein at his hanging. Maybe it’s because, as Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak said yesterday, Saddam has become a martyr in the region.

As expected, al Qaeda’s #2 called for a jihad against the Ethiopian “crusader invader forces” in Somalia. Meanwhile, chaos reigns in that Mogadishu and beyond.

Rival Palestinian factions are burying the hatchet yet again. This time, they promise, it’ll be different.

Europe 

The new archbishop of Warsaw, Poland, was a communist informant in the 70s. 

President Bush assented to German PM Angela Merkel’s call for a new drive for Middle East peace. Also, no back rubs this time.

The European Commission is calling for an “industrial revolution” for green energy. 

Asia

Is North Korea going to test another nuclear device?

China to Iran: “respond seriously” to the U.N. Security Council. 

Elsewhere

The new director of the World Health Organization says her top priority is to make Africans and women healthier.

Pakistan wants Afghan refugees to go back home.

Blake Hounshell is a former managing editor of Foreign Policy.

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