Benchmarks: A necessary service -- Part 2 By MARTIN SIEFF UPI Senior News Analyst WASHINGTON, July 31 (UPI) -- In more than two years of monitoring statistics, this column has repeatedly proved to be a reliable guide to general trends in the Iraq war, often long before the rest of the media picked them up.

Outside View: Russia killing INF -- Part 2 By JACOB QUAMME UPI Outside View Commentator WASHINGTON, July 31 (UPI) -- Russian leaders see pulling out of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty as being very much in their own national interests independent of any deterioration in their bilateral relations with the United States.

Outside View: Talking to Iran By DMITRY KOSYREV UPI Outside View Commentator MOSCOW, July 31 (UPI) -- By agreeing to hold talks with Iran, U.S. President Geroge W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have shown that they have abandoned their old notion of an "axis of evil" strategy.

Benchmarks: A necessary service -- Part 1 By MARTIN SIEFF UPI Senior News Analyst WASHINGTON, July 30 (UPI) -- UPI's Iraq Benchmarks column has played a unique role in the American media coverage of the Iraq war.

Outside View: Russia killing INF -- Part 1 By JACOB QUAMME UPI Outside View Commentator WASHINGTON, July 30 (UPI) -- Russian officials have long lamented the loss of their intermediate range missiles under the 1987 INF Treaty.

Outside View: Shanghai Pact plans By NIKITA PETROV UPI Outside View Commentator MOSCOW, July 30 (UPI) -- Russia and China will be holding a new round of joint military exercises next month.

Analysis: U.S. backs Musharraf on terror By LEANDER SCHAERLAECKENS UPI Correspondent WASHINGTON, July 27 (UPI) -- Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf is still America's best bet to deal with Taliban insurgents operating along the Pakistani-Afghan border, an expert said this week.

Military Matters: How to win in Iraq By WILLIAM S. LIND WASHINGTON, July 27 (UPI) --

Outside View: Pakistan nuke threats By ALEXANDER KOLDOBSKY UPI Outside View Commentator MOSCOW, July 27 (UPI) --

BMD Focus: Radars without missiles By MARTIN SIEFF UPI Senior News Analyst WASHINGTON, July 26 (UPI) -- The compromise cuts in U.S. plans to build new ballistic missile defense facilities in Europe, approved by a congressional panel Wednesday, will please nobody.

Outside View: Space war menace -- Part 2 By HELEN CALDICOTT and CRAIG EISENDRATH UPI Outside View Commentators PHILADELPHIA, July 26 (UPI) -- A renewed space race, once started, could end up costing the United States hundreds of billions, if not trillions of dollars.

Outside View: Arctic crisis -- Part 2 By VLADIMIR FROLOV UPI Outside View Commentator MOSCOW, July 26 (UPI) -- A Russian expert warns of a "tough fight" if the United States continues to take action that Russia sees as encroaching on its traditional energy and territorial interests in the Arctic.

BMD Watch: Euro-BMD takes budget hit By MARTIN SIEFF UPI Senior News Analyst WASHINGTON, July 25 (UPI) -- UPI's weekly roundup of news in ballistic missile defense: The latest developments in the fields of R&D, business and procurement and acquisitions.

Outside View: Afghan body count -- Part 2 By ELISE SZABO UPI Outside View Commentator WASHINGTON, July 25 (UPI) -- Carl Conetta, co-director of the Project for Defense Alternatives, which researches security policy and its challenges, estimates anywhere from 1,000 to 1,300 Afghan civilian deaths were due to U.S. aerial bombardment between Oct. 7, 2001, and Jan. 10, 20

Outside View: Arctic crisis -- Part 1 By VLADIMIR FROLOV UPI Outside View Commentator MOSCOW, July 25 (UPI) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush spent most of their time at the "lobster summit" at Kennebunkport, Maine, discussing how to prevent the growing tensions between their two countries from getting out of hand.

Eye on Iraq: Anbar fantasies -- Part 2 By MARTIN SIEFF UPI Senior News Analyst WASHINGTON, July 24 (UPI) --

Outside View: Assessing U.S. peace plans By MARIANNA BELENKAYA UPI Outside View Commentator MOSCOW, July 24 (UPI) -- A Russian analyst welcomes U.S. President George W. Bush's initiative to try and defuse Middle East tensions with a new international peace conference.

Outside View: Afghan body count -- Part 1 By ELISE SZABO UPI Outside View Commentator WASHINGTON, July 24 (UPI) -- U.S. and NATO-led forces appear to be responsible for a growing number of civilian deaths in Afghanistan.

Eye on Iraq: Anbar fantasies -- Part 1 By MARTIN SIEFF UPI Senior News Analyst WASHINGTON, July 23 (UPI) -- Although the relatively improved results from U.S. military operations in Anbar province are real as we have documented, the extreme enthusiasm among pro-war pundits that they have shown the way to victory is unwarranted.

Military Matters: Learning from Norway By WILLIAM S. LIND WASHINGTON, July 23 (UPI) -- While Norway's navy is small compared to that of the United States, it is pioneering a path in training its sailors and officers that the U.S. Navy would do well to follow.

Outside View: Climate change strategies By DMITRY ZAMOLODCHIKOV UPI Outside View Commentator MOSCOW, July 23 (UPI) -- Hurricanes in Russia, scorching heat waves in the United States and snow in Argentina. The Earth is being assailed by all kinds of climatic anomalies -- indisputable signs of global warming.

Benchmarks: Iraq's failing grade By MARTIN SIEFF UPI Senior News Analyst WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- By its own admission, the Bush administration has given itself a failing grade so far on the Iraq war.

Analysis: Hagel wants U.N. to solve Iraq By LEANDER SCHAERLAECKENS UPI Correspondent WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) --

Analysis: Why al-Qaida revived By MARTIN SIEFF UPI Senior News Analyst WASHINGTON, July 19 (UPI) --

Outside View: U.S., Russia power crises By VLADISLAV GRINKEVICH UPI Outside View Commentator MOSCOW, July 19 (UPI) -- The United States and Russia both have to face the inevitability of national security problems ahead from unanticipated electrical power black outs of major cities.

Outside View: Space war menace -- Part 1 By HELEN CALDICOTT and CRAIG EISENDRATH UPI Outside View Commentators PHILADELPHIA, July 19 (UPI) -- The strongest argument against putting American weapons in space is that it will weaken rather than enhance the national security of the United States.

BMD Focus: The sub that Quickbird saw By MARTIN SIEFF UPI Senior News Analyst WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) --

Outside View: CFE crisis looms By PYOTR ROMANOV UPI Outside View Commentator MOSCOW, July 17 (UPI) -- International diplomacy has never been a particularly sane creature, but today it has clearly become even more unbalanced.

BMD Watch: Boeing ABL test success By MARTIN SIEFF UPI Senior News Analyst WASHINGTON, July 17 (UPI) -- UPI's weekly roundup of news in ballistic missile defense: The latest developments in the fields of R&D, business and procurement and acquisitions.

Outside View: Global reach and power By MERRICK CAREY UPI Outside View Commentator WASHINGTON, July 17 (UPI) -- U.S. private sector productivity and technical expertise in the age of globalization are adding to the already remarkable war fighting capability of the U.S. armed forces

Outside View: Bush, Putin still partners By VLADIMIR SIMONOV UPI Outside View Commentator MOSCOW, July 17 (UPI) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin's two-day stay at the Bush family home in Kennebunkport, Maine, was more fruitful than the press and political analysts expected.

Eye on Iraq: Facing realities -- Part 3 By MARTIN SIEFF UPI Senior News Analyst WASHINGTON, July 16 (UPI) -- What works in Anbar with a Sunni Muslim majority area may not work remotely as well, if a tall, in the very different religious, cultural, political and social conditions of much of the rest of Iraq.

Outside View: U.S. vs. Russia on ABM By PYOTR GONCHAROV UPI Outside View Commentator MOSCOW, July 16 (UPI) --

Analysis: Tough times for detained aliens By LEANDER SCHAERLAECKENS UPI Correspondent WASHINGTON, July 16 (UPI) --

BMD Focus: Bulava breakthrough -- Part 2 By MARTIN SIEFF UPI Senior News Analyst WASHINGTON, July 13 (UPI) --

Outside View: Staying the Afghan course By NIKOLAI KHORUNZHY UPI Outside View Commentator MOSCOW, July 13 (UPI) -- Despite all its shortcomings, the international contingent in Afghanistan is doing its best to defend the world from a flood of narcotics and to save the people of Afghanistan from civil war.

Military Matters: Blindness of the West By WILLIAM S. LIND WASHINGTON, July 13 (UPI) -- A Boyd Conference at the Quantico Marine Corps Base Friday was devoting a day to the subject of Fourth Generation War, or 4GW. As a panelist for one session of the conference, I have been asked to answer the question, "As one of the original authors and p

BMD Focus: Bulava breakthrough -- Part 1 By MARTIN SIEFF UPI Senior News Analyst WASHINGTON, July 12 (UPI) -- Russia's Bulava ICBM took wings and flew straight and true last month. The event was little noted in the U.S. media, but it could herald a profound shift in the global balance of power.

Outside View: Russia's space rocket plans By YURY ZAITSEV UPI Outside View Commentator MOSCOW, July 12 (UPI) -- Russia has developed the rockets to make it independent of any other nation, including the United States, for the next generation of satellite launches and missions in space.

Outside View: Muslims need outreach plan By THE FORUM AGAINST ISLAMOPHOBIA and RACISM UPI Outside View Commentator LONDON, July 12 (UPI) -- The recent bomb plots to wreak devastation on the cities of London and Glasgow are an urgent reminder not only of the need to sustain collective efforts in the fight against terrorism, but that perhaps it is high time Muslims critically rethink their meth

Outside View: Bulava ICBM breakthrough By ANDREI KISLYAKOV UPI Outside View Commentator MOSCOW, July 11 (UPI) -- Russian Space Agency head Anatoly Perminov recently congratulated Yury Solomonov, general designer of the Moscow Heat Technology Institute, on the successful submarine launch of a new sea-based strategic missile, the Bulava, which was developed by his ins

BMD Watch: Japan fury over USN leak By MARTIN SIEFF UPI Senior News Analyst WASHINGTON, July 11 (UPI) -- UPI's weekly roundup of news in ballistic missile defense: The latest developments in the fields of R&D, business and procurement and acquisitions.

Eye on Iraq: Facing realities -- Part 2 By MARTIN SIEFF UPI Senior News Analyst WASHINGTON, July 10 (UPI) -- Under the leadership of Gen. David Petraeus, the coalition forces commander in Iraq, U.S. forces in Anbar province are working with locally recruited, independent and already operating security forces rather than ignoring them or seeking to suppress them.

Outside View: Neither peace nor war By PYOTR GONCHAROV UPI Outside View Commentator MOSCOW, July 10 (UPI) --

Analysis: Lynch's case for surge -- Part 2 By PAMELA HESS UPI Senior News Analyst WASHINGTON, July 10 (UPI) -- A senior U.S. general in Iraq has warned that Iraqi security forces will not be capable of operating independently for the foreseeable future.

Analysis: Lynch's case for surge -- Part 1 By PAMELA HESS UPI Pentagon Correspondent WASHINGTON, July 9 (UPI) -- A top U.S. general in Iraq predicted disaster Friday if surge forces are brought home too quickly.

Analysis: Soft partition urged for Iraq By LEANDER SCHAERLAECKENS UPI Correspondent WASHINGTON, July 9 (UPI) -- If the troop surge in Iraq fails to pay dividends; the only thing left to do is to break the country up into three autonomous regions

Eye on Iraq: Facing realities -- Part 1 By MARTIN SIEFF UPI Senior News Analyst WASHINGTON, July 9 (UPI) -- A year and a half later than it should have, but still better late than never, top U.S. military commanders in Iraq are finally waking up to the political and social reality of the splintered, militia-controlled society they are dealing with.

Benchmarks: Relative lull over Fourth week By MARTIN SIEFF UPI Senior News Analyst WASHINGTON, July 6 (UPI) --

Outside View: Chavez vs. U.S. -- Part 2 By ANDREY VASILYEV UPI Outside View Commentator MOSCOW, July 6 (UPI) -- Venezuelan President Hugot Chavez has ambitious plans: He is going to use oil to cement a union of Latin American countries, which he believes should become a new center of force on the continent