Laura Rozen in Politico.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is headed to Israel Sunday for meetings with his Israeli Defense Force counterparts on cooperation, Israeli daily Haaretz reports:

"During his visit, Admiral Mullen will meet with Minister of Defense Ehud Barak, IDF General Gabi Ashkenazi, as well as other senior IDF commanders to discuss the two countries mutual security concerns, including the situation in Iran," the paper said.

Nafeez Ahmed writes.

Despite his campaign promises, over a year into his presidency, Obama has been unable to deliver the change that Americans and the world alike had hoped for. Part of the problem is that neocon ideology is alive and well, reaching into the corridors of the White House, and dominating the airwaves.

Indeed, back in January 2009, after Obama had just announced his appointments, prominent neoconservative icons, intellectuals and ideologues were virtually jumping for joy.

Joshua Foust on the Registan blog.

Perhaps because of the appalling rhetoric of counternarcotics in this country it can be difficult to bring the discussion of drugs into a more empirical discussion. In Afghanistan in particular, we have the pervasive meme that opium=Taliban, with entire books written about the topic, despite copious data to the contrary. So even though opium provides at best 25-30% of the Taliban's overall income (which is another way of saying they tax all agriculture but opium generates the most money), our leaders still labor under the belief that destroying opium will destroy the Taliban.

Robert Fisk in the Independent.

Can peace in the Middle East be achieved while both Israelis and Palestinians refuse to give ground? Robert Fisk takes a road trip through a divided land, from Ben-Gurion's Tel Aviv villa to Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the besieged Gaza Strip.

McClatchy report.

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, one of Afghanistan's most brutal Islamist warlords, is holding tentative peace talks with the government of Afghanistan that could cause a split in the Taliban-led insurgency, Afghan politicians in Kabul said Wednesday.

From the Registan blog.

Now that we are, finally, attacking an area we've been promising to attack since last October, the media is dutifully reporting on it. And by "reporting," I really mean "repeating whatever the nearest uniform happens to mumble about it." Because really, why should anyone there or in the home office check easily checked facts about Afghanistan? What matters is getting the story out, even if most of it is ISAF deliberately trying to spin a specific version of reality. So with that in mind, let's talk myths!

Haaretz report.

Four-star General Kevin Chilton was in Israel last week. He is head of the U.S. Strategic Command, whose sphere of operations includes responsibility for missiles on submarines and in underground silos, as well as bombers and satellites, and computer-network warfare. If American forces were to take part in an offensive campaign against Iran, Chilton would play a significant part in preparing them for battle and in long-distance missile launches, although responsibility for the theater itself would be retained by Gen. David Petraeus, of Central Command.

Juan Cole comments.

McClatchy's Saeed Shah reports that only about 1200 residents have fled the Afghan city of Marjah in Nad Ali district, ahead of a major NATO/ Afghan invasion planned for later this week. The city of 80,000 is controlled by some 2000 Taliban fighters and there are many heroin labs, the profits of which help to support the Taliban.

...

The refusal of locals to leave in any large numbers may be what prompted US commanders to begin telling the people of Marjah to 'stay inside their homes' and stay out of the way of the fighting. This message is a 180 degree reversal of the earlier message, that locals should leave.

In Foreign Policy.

They're back! The "Bomb Iran" crowd is making a big return to the political center stage after months of puzzlement over what to do about developments in the Islamic Republic. Hawks such as Daniel Pipes and John Bolton are arguing that Iran is dead-set on its pursuit of a nuclear arsenal -- and point to developments such as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's announcement this weekend that Iran would enrich its uranium stocks to 20 percent to argue that diplomatic avenues have reached a dead end.

Reuters report.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates spoke to leaders in Turkey, Italy and France about the "urgent need" to move forward on sanctions as soon as possible, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters.

Telegraph report. Of course there is no mention anywhere in the article of how many Afghan civilians have died.

Three soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan taking the British death toll above the number killed in the Falklands War. The deaths brought the total dead since operations began in October 2001 to 256.

Reuters report.

Afghan villagers should stay inside and "keep their heads down" when thousands of U.S. Marines launch a massive assault on a densely-populated district in coming days, NATO's civilian representative to Afghanistan said Tuesday.

U.S.-led NATO forces are planning one of the 8-year-old war's biggest offensives to seize Marjah, a patchwork of desert canals and opium fields that is now the last large Taliban-held bastion in Helmand, Afghanistan's most violent province.

Independent report.

The US military has not given a start date for the operation to clear insurgents from the Helmand province town of Marjah, the biggest community in the south under insurgent control. But the military has said fighting will start soon and many residents weren't taking any chances.

Juan Cole comments.

It is a trick of the Washington Establishment to scare apparently easily frightened Americans into a conviction that some small, poor, third world country is a dire threat to the most massively funded and armed military in the world. Repeating falsehoods is one way the Big Lie is implanted, that then allows US belligerence to be unquestioned at home.

The Leveretts comment.

It is hard to avoid concluding that the Obama Administration is deliberately overstating its alleged "progress" in persuading Moscow to support tougher sanctions against Iran.

Guardian report.

Geological surveys suggest there could be up to 60bn barrels beneath the seabed around the British territory, a bonanza that would transform islands famed for sheep, fish and remoteness.