Indian Navy – India sets an ambitious exercise schedule for the next few months.

• Agence France-Presse:
  Indian navy to hold exercises with Oman, US, Russia: report

US Navy – More about the status of US aircraft carriers in the Gulf.

• Virginian Pilot: Some carriers may head home soon
• Washington Post: Some Ships, Planes Likely to Start Homeward

US Marines – The Marines are battling for Tikrit???

• BBC: US forces enter Tikrit
• BBC: U.S. Marines Move to Occupy Tikrit

US Marines – ???as others try to keep the peace.

• Washington Post: Marines Get Hands-On Civics Lesson

US Coast Guard – Some analysts have suggested that the increasingly
overburdened Coast Guard needs to hand off certain nonsecurity functions,
but the service’s chief officer said Tuesday that would be a mistake.

• Virginian Pilot: Coast Guard will
  rise to challenge, chief says

US Coast Guard – In some ways, what the crew members of the U.S.
Coast Guard cutter Wrangell have been doing in the Persian Gulf is similar
to the work they do at home in Maine.

• Portland Press Herald: Iraq tour tests endurance of crew on Maine cutter

Background – Strategy – Thomas Ricks and Rick Atkinson review the war to date.

• Washington Post: Confused Start, Decisive End

Background – Strategy – Colonel John Boyd’s influence on the US war plan.

• Post Gazette: How the bold run to Baghdad paid off

Background – Strategy – How the victory over Iraq empowers the transformation lobby.

• Daily Telegraph: ‘Fight light, fight fast’ theory advances

Background – Civilian Casualties – William Arkin on how the US should handle the issue of civilian casualties.

• Los Angeles Times: U.S. Should Heed the Pain of Grieving Iraqi Families