The NYT's David Brooks talks about a new book that outlines why nation states are at a structural disadvantage when fighting the insurgencies of today.

From Reuters via WashingtonPost.com:

NATO is looking at its tactics in Afghanistan to reduce civilian casualties, which have prompted protests from President Hamid Karzai, the alliance's top commander said on Friday.

U.S. Army Gen. John Craddock said NATO understood that civilian casualties cost the alliance credibility among local people whose support was vital to defeating Islamist insurgents from the Taliban movement.
 
"Every time that happens, someone walks away, an Afghan citizen, with a bad feeling towards either NATO or the United States," said Craddock, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander.

"That's what we don't want to happen." ...

Craddock said NATO was looking at all the incidents where civilian casualties had been reported.

He said a preliminary review by the top NATO commander in Afghanistan indicated the military had in most cases followed its rules of engagement, which specify when force can be used.

The rules of engagement would not change, Craddock said, but commanders may decide to change the way they operate.

From the NYT:

The largest society of independent journalists in Russia, long critical of the Kremlin’s curtailment of the independent news media, defied a government eviction notice on Friday, saying it would try to remain in its offices in spite of state pressure.

The refusal by the society, the Russian Union of Journalists, to follow the government’s order punctuated a day of resistance to a fresh round of crackdowns on the independent news media here.

All four of the radio correspondents for the Russian News Service, a network that provides broadcasts heard at the top of every hour on radio stations across the country, have announced their resignations to protest new network policies that censor news and require the dissemination of pro-Kremlin material.