http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HH26Ak03.html
Syria draws a line at the border
Syria draws a line at the border
By Sami Moubayed
DAMASCUS - When United Nations Resolution 1701 was passed on August 11, it was seen as a diplomatic breakthrough to end 33 days of war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Many today, however, are having serious doubts whether this ceasefire will last and whether 1701 is actually a diplomatic victory - or failure - for the UN. In addition to a ceasefire, the resolution demands the deployment of the Lebanese army, and eventually multinational troops, on the border to prevent any future
war between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Hezbollah. It gives Israel the right to self-defense, however, while denying this right to Hezbollah, explaining why the party's secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, accepted the resolution "with reservations".
If implemented to the word, the resolution would deprive Hezbollah of the territory it has used to wage war against Israel since the 1980s. A Hezbollah that is deprived of southern Lebanon would be a Hezbollah that cannot fire rockets against northern Israel. The resolution also asked for implementation of Resolution 1559, which calls for the complete disarming of Hezbollah, and strongly says that no arms should be transferred to the Lebanese military group.
The first loophole in 1701 is that it does not give any mechanism for the disarming of Hezbollah, something that neither the United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL) nor the Lebanese army - nor Israel - has been able to do. The expanded UN troop presence on the border will not be able to disarm Hezbollah. If the troops try to do that, they will certainly be attacked.
This was something made clear by French Major-General Alain Pelligrini, the UNIFIL commander in Lebanon, who said: "The Israelis cannot ask UNIFIL to disarm Hezbollah. This is not written in our mandate." He added that the ceasefire "is tense, very fragile, very volatile. Any provocation or misunderstanding could escalate very, very rapidly."
Speaking to the Financial Times on August 3, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert related what he saw as the perfect objective of UNIFIL in Lebanon. He said it should aim at "stopping violence against innocent Israelis from Lebanon and disarming this murderous organization, the Hezbollah, which is the long arm of Iran".
Olmert's distorted version of UNIFIL, however, seems to be very different from the one that is likely to emerge in Lebanon in the coming weeks. French newspaper Le Monde leaked a 21-page document distributed at the UN last week showing what the new expanded UNIFIL troops would look like.
First, very clearly, they would not be authorized to disarm Hezbollah. They would also lack the authority to search Hezbollah strongholds or bunkers. Second, they are authorized "to use force, up to and including deadly force", to implement peace on the Lebanese-Israeli border and to defend themselves against attack by either the IDF or Hezbollah. Third, they have to protect civilians, and fourth, they will have to provide backup to the Lebanese army.
Actually, bringing 15,000 troops from the Lebanese army to the border is easy. It has even been accepted by Nasrallah, who previously had rejected deployment of the Lebanese army to the south. Deploying an equal number of multinational troops is more difficult - but doable.
The history of multinational troops in Lebanon during the Israeli invasion of 1982 showed that these troops are vulnerable and could be driven out of Lebanon with ease. In October 1983, an attack on US marines in Lebanon led to the killing of 241 US and 58 French troops and the exodus of about 5,000 multinational troops from Lebanon.
No Arab country today, except Morocco, is willing to take part in such a force, since it would be viewed by the Arab street as a multinational force used to protect Israel from Hezbollah. Given Hezbollah's popularity in the Arab world, such a step would be political suicide - even for moderate Arab regimes such as Egypt and Jordan.
Turkey showed willingness to send troops to Lebanon, but this proposal was vetoed by the Lebanese-Armenians, who cannot forget Turkish massacres against the Armenians under the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Germany at first showed similar willingness to comply, but then backed down and said it would send advisers rather than troops. As one German journalist told this correspondent, this U-turn was because German troops on the border with Israel would be entitled to shoot - and use - "deadly force" to prevent any confrontation between the IDF and Hezbollah. Because of the historical luggage carried by the Germans from World War II, a German soldier today simply cannot fire against an Israeli.
Yet despite these obstacles, Greece, France and Italy, which alone will contribute 2,000-3,000 troops to UNIFIL, have all agreed to send troops. On Thursday, French President Jacques Chirac agreed to increase the number of French troops to 2,000.
Olmert made things more difficult for the UN by saying he would not accept troops at UNIFIL whose countries didn't have diplomatic relations with Israel. He was referring to Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh. The Israeli premier does not have the luxury of hand-picking what countries will join the multinational troops in Lebanon, since not many countries have shown great enthusiasm to get involved in a new war in the Middle East.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said on Wednesday that UNIFIL forces in Lebanon would have two missions. One would be to let the Lebanese army deploy in the south. The second would be "to guarantee the embargo on arms delivery across all borders - I repeat - across all borders".
The Syrian factor
The minister was referring to the Syria-Lebanon border, which is considered by many in Lebanon and the international community to be the only source from which Syria can channel arms to Hezbollah.
According to Resolution 1701, this supply of arms must end, to bring Hezbollah to a gradual military end. Syria immediately snapped back by turning down the request to station troops on Lebanon's side of the Syrian-Lebanese border, with authority to administer checkpoints searching for arms coming in from Syria.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Dubai TV that UNIFIL troops on Lebanon's border with Syria "is an infringement on Lebanese sovereignty and a hostile position" toward Syria. He added, "First, this means creating hostile conditions between Syria and Lebanon. Second, it is a hostile move toward Syria, and naturally it will create problems."
Assad's Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualim threatened from a state visit to Finland that if multinational troops were stationed on the Syrian-Lebanese border, Syria would close its border with Lebanon. The White House immediately responded to Syria's stance through its spokeswoman Dana Perino, who said, "If the president of Syria were not supplying Hezbollah, this wouldn't have been a problem in the first place."
Closing the border with Lebanon is an old trick practiced by the Syrians ever since prime minister Khalid al-Azm did it in 1950 to prevent the influx of Lebanese goods into Syria. President Adib al-Shishakli did it again in 1954 when he accused Lebanon of supporting a Druze uprising against his regime in Damascus. President Shukri al-Quwatli did it in 1957 when Lebanon retaliated to a series of overt Syrian intelligence operations on its territory by funding anti-regime activities in Damascus to obstruct Syria's honeymoon with Egypt.
It was semi-repeated by Assad last summer when Lebanese cargo trucks were held up for weeks at the Syrian border, causing some goods to rot, and forcing Prime Minister Fouad al-Siniora to go to Syria to solve the crisis.
This was at the apex of strained Syrian-Lebanese relations over the murder of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri. If Syria does carry out its threats and shut the border with Lebanon, it would cause a severe economic crisis in its neighbor, since Syria is the only land route for Lebanon.
The other country bordering Lebanon is Israel, with which diplomatic relations and passage routes are impossible at this stage. Currently, all sea routes to Lebanon are sealed by the Israelis, and so is landing at Lebanese airports.
With Israel controlling the skies and waters, and Syria controlling the ground routes, Lebanon would be stranded, with no connection to the outside world. Syria believes that only through such a harsh measure can it force the Lebanese government to say no to international troops on the Syrian border.
After all, it cannot say no to the troops itself, since they would not be stationed on its territory, but Damascus can use its leverage in Lebanon to force Siniora to say no. It does not mind UN troops on the Lebanese-Israeli border, nor does it mind the deployment of the Lebanese army, but it is categorically opposed to troops on the border with Syria.
Olmert has that he had no immediate plans of ending the air and sea blockade on Lebanon until an international peacekeeping force was deployed on Lebanon's borders, to prevent the arming of Hezbollah and their attacks on north Israel.
As things stand, multinational troops will be placed on the Syrian-Lebanese border in addition to the Lebanese-Israeli border. Otherwise, they would be useless. But if that happens, Syria could strangle Lebanon by closing down the border. Yet Olmert's rules say that only when Syria's border is monitored - meaning when Syria's ground route is closed - will Lebanon regain its air and sea routes.
To understand Syria's position one must understand how the Syrian regime is thinking in relation to the Israeli war in Lebanon. Assad claimed victory in this war, for his unconditional backing of Hezbollah, just as Syria claimed co-victory with Hezbollah when it liberated south Lebanon from the Israelis in May 2000.
The Syrians will not let Resolution 1701 destroy these victories by ruining or disarming Hezbollah. Not only is patrolling the Syrian border offensive to the Syrians, but if this is done, it would actually mean that no arms would in fact arrive in Lebanon to be used by Hezbollah. It would mean the military end to the Lebanese group - something Syria will not permit.
Hezbollah is the last-standing Syrian card in Lebanon. It is the card that will launch a political coup in Lebanon against the coalition government of Saad al-Hariri - the group that launched its own putsch against Syria in 2005 and drove the Syrian army out of Lebanon.
Syria will do all that is in its power to preserve Hezbollah. The Syrians believe that if this means obstructing UNIFIL on Lebanon's border with Syria, ruining Resolution 1701 or shutting Syria's border with Lebanon - then so be it. All is fair in love and war for Damascus, especially when it comes to Lebanon.
Sami Moubayed is a Syrian political analyst.
(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing .)
Full Version: AMERICA'S ROLE IN THE NEW MIDEAST CONFLICT
Common Ground Common Sense > Issues that Affect Our Lives > Foreign Policy and National Defense > Foreign Policy & National Defense Issues Archive
AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM JAMES Q. WILSON (AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE, AUGUST 23): The greatest barrier to American influence on the world today is probably not our system of government or even our unequalled military power, but our popular culture. As Martha Bayles and others have pointed out, this is not what we exported right after the Second World War when, with government aid, we sent abroad artists, jazz musicians, and gifted writers to show what America could produce. Our earlier efforts at public diplomacy were a success; our most recent efforts at consumerism confirm in the minds of many leaders that we are a corrupt, violent, and mindless people.
http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all.../pub_detail.asp
VISION GAP, PART II: THE CASE FOR PUTTING DEMOCRACY PROMOTION AT THE CENTER OF A NEW PROGRESSIVE FOREIGN POLICY VISION - SHADI HAMID (AMERICAN PROSPECT, AUGUST 24): Public Diplomacy: The importance of improving our image abroad cannot be overstated. The more people hate us, the more easily they can be convinced to take up arms against us and our allies.
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?sectio...articleId=11919
WAR ON LEBANON -- MAJOR PLAYERS IRAN, SYRIA, HEZBOLLAH, ISRAEL AND USA - (PEACEJOURNALISM.COM, NEPAL, AUGUST 23): World Security Network (WSN): "What do you think really of the democratisation program initiated by the Bush administration as a public diplomacy in the Middle East?" B. Ghalioun, a French-Syrian professor of political sociology at the Sorbonne University: 'I think that the US led democratisation project -- if ever it were really meant to be achieved and not just words in the air -- is now almost in the past as there is no talk about it anymore.'
http://peacejournalism.com/ReadArticle.asp?ArticleID=10380
HUNTING MONSTERS IN JERUSALEM - TOM BARRY (ASIA TIMES, AUGUST 25): Chief Middle East adviser at the White House's National Security Council (NSC) Elliott Abrams embodies the administration's zealous, ideological and dangerously delusional vision of US foreign policy in the Middle East. During the Reagan administration, Abrams was the government's nexus between the militarists in the NSC and the public-diplomacy operatives in the State Department, White House and National Endowment for Democracy.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HH26Ak01.html
TZIPI, YOU FAILED: WHILE THE WORLD WAS ARDUOUSLY BUYING NASRALLA'S LIES, YOU REMAINED IN YOUR OFFICE. ISRAEL WAS DEFEATED IN THE MEDIA WAR PRIMARILY BECAUSE OF YOU - ZVI MAZEL (YNETNEWS, ISRAEL, AUGUST 24): How unfortunate it is to discover that the Israel foreign ministry still doesn't recognize the extent of the media's importance; that it has yet to become acquainted with the arena of public diplomacy.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3295183,00.html
PROBLEM OF MARKETING, NOT PR: ISRAEL IS 20 YEARS AHEAD OF HIZBULLAH IN MILITARY MIGHT, AND 10 YEARS BEHIND IN MARKETING - RA'ANAN GISSIN (ISRAEL AND PUBLIC RELATIONS, JULY 30): At the end of the day we must remember that Israel's PR (note: there is no good English translation for the Hebrew word "hasbara") is uniquely Israeli, both due to its special position and due to the fact that many groups around the world don't recognize the country's right to exist.
http://www.tampabayprimer.org/index.cfm?ac...iewArt&art=1415
SEE ALSO
http://tundratabloid.blogspot.com/2006/08/...r-happened.html
http://jiw.blogspot.com/2006/08/critical-i...eli-public.html
RUSSIA FACES ISLAMIC RADICALISM - ZLATICA HOKE/ANYA ARDAYEVA (VOICE OF AMERICA, AUGUST 23): Ilan Berman, Vice President for Policy at the American Foreign Policy Council: "I think there is a pretty substantial effort in Central Asia right now for formulating public diplomacy, broadcasting, things like that, along counter-terrorism lines, certainly in order to reinforce the power of the authoritarian state in many cases."
http://www.voanews.com/english/NewsAnalysi...08-23-voa49.cfm
NEW YORK LAW SCHOOL'S CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL LAW LAUNCHES IRAN PROJECT - (PRESS RELEASE, NEW YORK LAW SCHOOL NY, AUGUST 23): Network 20/20 is an independent membership organization that helps prepare next generation leaders in the U.S. to participate meaningfully in public diplomacy and the creation and execution of policies promoting global public security.
http://www.nyls.edu/pages/4969.asp
AMERICA BY NUMBERS: LOTS OF DATA, BUT LITTLE INSIGHT, ABOUT GLOBAL OPINION [REVIEW OF 'AMERICA AGAINST THE WORLD: HOW WE ARE DIFFERENT AND WHY WE ARE DISLIKED' BY ANDREW KOHUT AND BRUCE STOKES] - PAUL HOLLANDER (WEEKLY STANDARD, AUGUST 21): In the end, major questions about the recent growth of anti-Americanism remain unanswered in this book.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/570teosa.asp
NEW YORK MAN CHARGED WITH ENABLING HEZBOLLAH TELEVISION BROADCASTS - TIMOTHY WILLIAMS AND WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM (NEW YORK TIMES, AUGUST 25): The Hezbollah station, Al Manar -- or 'the beacon' in Arabic -- was designated a global terrorist entity by the United States Treasury Department in March of this year. Mark Dubowitz, who heads a Washington-based policy group that has monitored Al Manar -- through a project called the Coalition Against Terrorist Media -- has campaigned for its removal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/25/nyregion...agewanted=print
HEZBOLLAH DIDN'T WIN - AMIR TAHERI (WALL STREET JOURNAL, AUGUST 25): "Hezbollah won the propaganda war because many in the West wanted it to win as a means of settling score with the United States," says Egyptian columnist Ali al-Ibrahim. "But the Arabs have become wise enough to know TV victory from real victory."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1156464200...in_commentaries
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
THE 'WAR PRESIDENT'S' LATEST FIASCO - ERIC MARGOLIS (LEWROCKWELL.COM, AUGUST 22): Hezbullah is now the Muslim World?s new hero after battling Israel's mighty armed forces to a humiliating draw. Any hope of damping down the Islamic World's surging hatred of the US, Britain, Australia and Israel (now add Canada) was killed in Lebanon.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis44.html
A VOTE FOR CIVILIZATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST: TRACKING ARAB LARGE-CAPS THROUGH THE ISRAEL-HEZBOLLAH CRISIS - JERRY BOWYER (NATIONAL REVIEW, AUGUST 21): Reporters can poll the 'Arab street' all they want, but to find out what the locals really believe, you have to watch one of the most powerful ballots a man can cast -- his nest egg.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=M2NlN...WIzZWQ1MmZjZWY=
ISRAEL'S 'MORAL HIGH GROUND' IT KEEPS GETTING LOWER... - JUSTIN RAIMONDO (ANTIWAR.COM, AUGUST 23): The "narrative" Israel is trying to sell the American public is that the Jewish state is once again being targeted by "terrorists."
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=9595
NO U.S. ROLE IN LEBANON - DREW BENNETT (BALTIMORE SUN, AUGUST 24): Our actions regarding Lebanon have limited our strategic options. Our support for Israel appears to overshadow any ability to remain impartial.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
AND THE LOSER IS... EVERYONE LEON HADAR (ANTIWAR.COM, AUGUST 24): U.S. leaders are likely to begin questioning their long-held axiom that Israel is a "strategic asset" of the United States in the Middle East. From the U.S. perspective, the crisis marked the final collapse of President Bush's ambitious plan to remake and "democratize" the Middle East.
http://www.antiwar.com/hadar/?articleid=9599
RICE CATCHES FLAK AS MIDEAST DEAL FALTERS: REPUBLICAN CRITICS SAY WHITE HOUSE OVERSOLD STRENGTH OF PACT TO END ISRAEL-HEZBOLLAH WAR - NEIL KING JR. (WALL STREET JOURNAL, AUGUST 25): The deal Ms. Rice helped create, U.N. resolution 1701, lays out aims and demands that rely almost entirely on the will of a shaky international community. While the deal has stopped the fighting, few argue that it is likely to achieve Ms. Rice's larger goals.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1156464950...ays_us_page_one
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
THE NEW AXIS OF INTERVENTION - JOHN FEFFER (ASIA TIMES, AUGUST 25): In a world Thomas Hobbes called the "war of all against all" both aggressive countries like the US and Israel and aggressive non-state actors like al-Qaeda and the Islamic courts will feel right at home.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HH25Ak02.html
IRAN SCORES IN WORLD WAR - ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE (WASHINGTON TIMES, AUGUST 24): http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...23-084117-7697r
YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK IN THE MIDDLE EAST - ARIANNA HUFFINGTON (HUFFINGTON POST, AUGUST 24): According to a new report by Chatham House, a British think tank, after spending over $400 billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States has succeeded... in making Iran the top dog in the region.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huff...html?view=print
ARTFUL IRAN OUTPLAYS HESITANT AMERICA - PHILIP STEPHENS (FINANCIAL TIMES, AUGUST 24)
https://registration.ft.com/registration/ba...00779e2340.html
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
A WEAKER US HAND IN THE MIDEAST: WITH AMERICAN LEVERAGE SEEN AS DIMINISHED, IRAN AND OTHERS HAVE MORE ROOM TO MOVE IN - HOWARD LAFRANCHI (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, AUGUST 24)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0824/p01s02-usfp.html
http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all.../pub_detail.asp
VISION GAP, PART II: THE CASE FOR PUTTING DEMOCRACY PROMOTION AT THE CENTER OF A NEW PROGRESSIVE FOREIGN POLICY VISION - SHADI HAMID (AMERICAN PROSPECT, AUGUST 24): Public Diplomacy: The importance of improving our image abroad cannot be overstated. The more people hate us, the more easily they can be convinced to take up arms against us and our allies.
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?sectio...articleId=11919
WAR ON LEBANON -- MAJOR PLAYERS IRAN, SYRIA, HEZBOLLAH, ISRAEL AND USA - (PEACEJOURNALISM.COM, NEPAL, AUGUST 23): World Security Network (WSN): "What do you think really of the democratisation program initiated by the Bush administration as a public diplomacy in the Middle East?" B. Ghalioun, a French-Syrian professor of political sociology at the Sorbonne University: 'I think that the US led democratisation project -- if ever it were really meant to be achieved and not just words in the air -- is now almost in the past as there is no talk about it anymore.'
http://peacejournalism.com/ReadArticle.asp?ArticleID=10380
HUNTING MONSTERS IN JERUSALEM - TOM BARRY (ASIA TIMES, AUGUST 25): Chief Middle East adviser at the White House's National Security Council (NSC) Elliott Abrams embodies the administration's zealous, ideological and dangerously delusional vision of US foreign policy in the Middle East. During the Reagan administration, Abrams was the government's nexus between the militarists in the NSC and the public-diplomacy operatives in the State Department, White House and National Endowment for Democracy.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HH26Ak01.html
TZIPI, YOU FAILED: WHILE THE WORLD WAS ARDUOUSLY BUYING NASRALLA'S LIES, YOU REMAINED IN YOUR OFFICE. ISRAEL WAS DEFEATED IN THE MEDIA WAR PRIMARILY BECAUSE OF YOU - ZVI MAZEL (YNETNEWS, ISRAEL, AUGUST 24): How unfortunate it is to discover that the Israel foreign ministry still doesn't recognize the extent of the media's importance; that it has yet to become acquainted with the arena of public diplomacy.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3295183,00.html
PROBLEM OF MARKETING, NOT PR: ISRAEL IS 20 YEARS AHEAD OF HIZBULLAH IN MILITARY MIGHT, AND 10 YEARS BEHIND IN MARKETING - RA'ANAN GISSIN (ISRAEL AND PUBLIC RELATIONS, JULY 30): At the end of the day we must remember that Israel's PR (note: there is no good English translation for the Hebrew word "hasbara") is uniquely Israeli, both due to its special position and due to the fact that many groups around the world don't recognize the country's right to exist.
http://www.tampabayprimer.org/index.cfm?ac...iewArt&art=1415
SEE ALSO
http://tundratabloid.blogspot.com/2006/08/...r-happened.html
http://jiw.blogspot.com/2006/08/critical-i...eli-public.html
RUSSIA FACES ISLAMIC RADICALISM - ZLATICA HOKE/ANYA ARDAYEVA (VOICE OF AMERICA, AUGUST 23): Ilan Berman, Vice President for Policy at the American Foreign Policy Council: "I think there is a pretty substantial effort in Central Asia right now for formulating public diplomacy, broadcasting, things like that, along counter-terrorism lines, certainly in order to reinforce the power of the authoritarian state in many cases."
http://www.voanews.com/english/NewsAnalysi...08-23-voa49.cfm
NEW YORK LAW SCHOOL'S CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL LAW LAUNCHES IRAN PROJECT - (PRESS RELEASE, NEW YORK LAW SCHOOL NY, AUGUST 23): Network 20/20 is an independent membership organization that helps prepare next generation leaders in the U.S. to participate meaningfully in public diplomacy and the creation and execution of policies promoting global public security.
http://www.nyls.edu/pages/4969.asp
AMERICA BY NUMBERS: LOTS OF DATA, BUT LITTLE INSIGHT, ABOUT GLOBAL OPINION [REVIEW OF 'AMERICA AGAINST THE WORLD: HOW WE ARE DIFFERENT AND WHY WE ARE DISLIKED' BY ANDREW KOHUT AND BRUCE STOKES] - PAUL HOLLANDER (WEEKLY STANDARD, AUGUST 21): In the end, major questions about the recent growth of anti-Americanism remain unanswered in this book.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/570teosa.asp
NEW YORK MAN CHARGED WITH ENABLING HEZBOLLAH TELEVISION BROADCASTS - TIMOTHY WILLIAMS AND WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM (NEW YORK TIMES, AUGUST 25): The Hezbollah station, Al Manar -- or 'the beacon' in Arabic -- was designated a global terrorist entity by the United States Treasury Department in March of this year. Mark Dubowitz, who heads a Washington-based policy group that has monitored Al Manar -- through a project called the Coalition Against Terrorist Media -- has campaigned for its removal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/25/nyregion...agewanted=print
HEZBOLLAH DIDN'T WIN - AMIR TAHERI (WALL STREET JOURNAL, AUGUST 25): "Hezbollah won the propaganda war because many in the West wanted it to win as a means of settling score with the United States," says Egyptian columnist Ali al-Ibrahim. "But the Arabs have become wise enough to know TV victory from real victory."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1156464200...in_commentaries
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
THE 'WAR PRESIDENT'S' LATEST FIASCO - ERIC MARGOLIS (LEWROCKWELL.COM, AUGUST 22): Hezbullah is now the Muslim World?s new hero after battling Israel's mighty armed forces to a humiliating draw. Any hope of damping down the Islamic World's surging hatred of the US, Britain, Australia and Israel (now add Canada) was killed in Lebanon.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis44.html
A VOTE FOR CIVILIZATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST: TRACKING ARAB LARGE-CAPS THROUGH THE ISRAEL-HEZBOLLAH CRISIS - JERRY BOWYER (NATIONAL REVIEW, AUGUST 21): Reporters can poll the 'Arab street' all they want, but to find out what the locals really believe, you have to watch one of the most powerful ballots a man can cast -- his nest egg.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=M2NlN...WIzZWQ1MmZjZWY=
ISRAEL'S 'MORAL HIGH GROUND' IT KEEPS GETTING LOWER... - JUSTIN RAIMONDO (ANTIWAR.COM, AUGUST 23): The "narrative" Israel is trying to sell the American public is that the Jewish state is once again being targeted by "terrorists."
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=9595
NO U.S. ROLE IN LEBANON - DREW BENNETT (BALTIMORE SUN, AUGUST 24): Our actions regarding Lebanon have limited our strategic options. Our support for Israel appears to overshadow any ability to remain impartial.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
AND THE LOSER IS... EVERYONE LEON HADAR (ANTIWAR.COM, AUGUST 24): U.S. leaders are likely to begin questioning their long-held axiom that Israel is a "strategic asset" of the United States in the Middle East. From the U.S. perspective, the crisis marked the final collapse of President Bush's ambitious plan to remake and "democratize" the Middle East.
http://www.antiwar.com/hadar/?articleid=9599
RICE CATCHES FLAK AS MIDEAST DEAL FALTERS: REPUBLICAN CRITICS SAY WHITE HOUSE OVERSOLD STRENGTH OF PACT TO END ISRAEL-HEZBOLLAH WAR - NEIL KING JR. (WALL STREET JOURNAL, AUGUST 25): The deal Ms. Rice helped create, U.N. resolution 1701, lays out aims and demands that rely almost entirely on the will of a shaky international community. While the deal has stopped the fighting, few argue that it is likely to achieve Ms. Rice's larger goals.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1156464950...ays_us_page_one
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
THE NEW AXIS OF INTERVENTION - JOHN FEFFER (ASIA TIMES, AUGUST 25): In a world Thomas Hobbes called the "war of all against all" both aggressive countries like the US and Israel and aggressive non-state actors like al-Qaeda and the Islamic courts will feel right at home.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HH25Ak02.html
IRAN SCORES IN WORLD WAR - ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE (WASHINGTON TIMES, AUGUST 24): http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...23-084117-7697r
YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK IN THE MIDDLE EAST - ARIANNA HUFFINGTON (HUFFINGTON POST, AUGUST 24): According to a new report by Chatham House, a British think tank, after spending over $400 billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States has succeeded... in making Iran the top dog in the region.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huff...html?view=print
ARTFUL IRAN OUTPLAYS HESITANT AMERICA - PHILIP STEPHENS (FINANCIAL TIMES, AUGUST 24)
https://registration.ft.com/registration/ba...00779e2340.html
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
A WEAKER US HAND IN THE MIDEAST: WITH AMERICAN LEVERAGE SEEN AS DIMINISHED, IRAN AND OTHERS HAVE MORE ROOM TO MOVE IN - HOWARD LAFRANCHI (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, AUGUST 24)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0824/p01s02-usfp.html
America's Rottweiler
By Uri Avnery
The Second Lebanon War is considered by many as a "War by Proxy". That's to say: Hizbullah is the Dobermann of Iran, we are the Rottweiler of America. Hizbullah gets money, rockets and support from the Islamic Republic, we get money, cluster bombs and support from the United States of America.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14717.htm
By Uri Avnery
The Second Lebanon War is considered by many as a "War by Proxy". That's to say: Hizbullah is the Dobermann of Iran, we are the Rottweiler of America. Hizbullah gets money, rockets and support from the Islamic Republic, we get money, cluster bombs and support from the United States of America.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14717.htm
U.S. Freezes Assets Of Hezbollah Unit
By Glenn Kessler
The Bush administration moved yesterday against a key fundraising arm of Hezbollah, the militant Shiite Muslim movement that is part of Lebanon's government, ordering a freeze on its assets in the United States and making it illegal for Americans to contribute to the organization.
To view the entire article, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...er=emailarticle
By Glenn Kessler
The Bush administration moved yesterday against a key fundraising arm of Hezbollah, the militant Shiite Muslim movement that is part of Lebanon's government, ordering a freeze on its assets in the United States and making it illegal for Americans to contribute to the organization.
To view the entire article, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...er=emailarticle
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_na...ontemplates.htm
-- --
August 31, 2006 at 08:09:08
US Army Contemplates Redrawing Middle East Map to Stave-off Looming Global Meltdown
by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
http://www.opednews.com
In a little-noted article printed in early August in the Armed Forces Journal, a monthly magazine for officers and leaders in the United States military community, early retired Major Ralph Peters sets out the latest ideas in current US strategic thinking. And they are extremely disturbing.
Ethnically Cleansing the Entire Middle East
Maj. Peters, formerly assigned to the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence where he was responsible for future warfare, candidly outlines how the map of the Middle East should be fundamentally re-drawn, in a new imperial endeavour designed to correct past errors. "Without such major boundary revisions, we shall never see a more peaceful Middle East," he observes, but then adds wryly: "Oh, and one other dirty little secret from 5,000 years of history: Ethnic cleansing works."
Thus, acknowledging that the sweeping reconfiguration of borders he proposes would necessarily involve massive ethnic cleansing and accompanying bloodshed on perhaps a genocidal scale, he insists that unless it is implemented, "we may take it as an article of faith that a portion of the bloodshed in the region will continue to be our own." Among his proposals are the need to establish "an independent Kurdish state" to guarantee the long-denied right to Kurdish self-determination. But behind the humanitarian sentiments, Maj. Peters declares that: "A Free Kurdistan, stretching from Diyarbakir through Tabriz, would be the most pro-Western state between Bulgaria and Japan."
He chastises the United States and its coalition partners for missing "a glorious chance" to fracture Iraq, which "should have been divided into three smaller states immediately." This would leave "Iraq's three Sunni-majority provinces as a truncated state that might eventually choose to unify with a Syria that loses its littoral to a Mediterranean-oriented Greater Lebanon: Phoenecia reborn." Meanwhile, the Shia south of old Iraq "would form the basis of an Arab Shia State rimming much of the Persian Gulf." Jordan, a US-Israeli friend in the region, would "retain its current territory, with some southward expansion at Saudi expense. For its part, the unnatural state of Saudi Arabia would suffer as great a dismantling as Pakistan." Iran too would "lose a great deal of territory to Unified Azerbaijan, Free Kurdistan, the Arab Shia State and Free Baluchistan, but would gain the provinces around Herat in today's Afghanistan." Although this vast imperial programme could be impossible to implement now, with time, "new and natural borders will emerge", driven by "the inevitable attendant bloodshed."
As for the goals of this plan, Maj. Peters is equally candid. While including the necessary caveats about fighting "for security from terrorism, for the prospect of democracy", he also mentions the third important issue -- "and for access to oil supplies in a region that is destined to fight itself".
The whole thing sounds disturbingly familiar, especially to those who have read the musings of then Israeli Foreign Ministry official Oded Yinon.
Keeping the World Safe... for Our Economy
Despite trying to dress up his vision as an exercise in attempting to selflessly democratize the Middle East, in a contribution to the quarterly US Army War College journal Parameters almost a decade ago, he acknowledged with some jubilation that: "Those of us who can sort, digest, synthesize, and apply relevant knowledge soar--professionally, financially, politically, militarily, and socially. We, the winners, are a minority." This minority will inevitably conflict with the vast majority of the world's population. "For the world masses, devastated by information they cannot manage or effectively interpret, life is 'nasty, brutish . . . and short-circuited.'" In "every country and region", these masses who can neither "understand the new world", nor "profit from its uncertainties... will become the violent enemies of their inadequate governments, of their more fortunate neighbors, and ultimately of the United States." The coming clash, then, is not really about blood, faith, ethnicity, at all. It is about the gap between the haves and the have-nots. "We are entering a new American century", he says, in a veiled reference to the Bush administration Project of the same name founded in the same year he was writing. In the new century, "we will become still wealthier, culturally more lethal, and increasingly powerful. We will excite hatreds without precedent."
In predicting the future course for the US Army, Maj. Peters argues that: "We will see countries and continents divide between rich and poor in a reversal of 20th-century economic trends." In this context, he says, "we in the United States will continue to be perceived as the ultimate haves", and therefore, "terrorism will be the most common form of violence", along with "transnational criminality, civil strife, secessions, border conflicts, and conventional wars." Meanwhile, "in defense of its interests", the US "will be required to intervene in some of these contests." And then he sums it all up in one tidy paragraph:
"There will be no peace. At any given moment for the rest of our lifetimes, there will be multiple conflicts in mutating forms around the globe. Violent conflict will dominate the headlines, but cultural and economic struggles will be steadier and ultimately more decisive. The de facto role of the US armed forces will be to keep the world safe for our economy and open to our cultural assault. To those ends, we will do a fair amount of killing."
So what's prompted Maj. Peter's decision to air his vision for the Middle East in the Armed Forces Journal at this time in the wake of the latest Middle East crisis? A number of critical developments.
Source: Imminent Global Crises Converge
According to an American source with high-level access to the US military, political and intelligence establishment, Western policymakers are in no doubt that the world faces the imminent convergence of multiple global crises. These crises threaten not only to undermine the basis of Western power in its current military and geopolitical configurations, but also to destabilize the entire foundations of industrial civilization.
The source said that the latest petroleum data indicates that "global oil production most likely peaked two years ago." This is consistent with the findings of respected geologists such as leading oil depletion expert Dr. Colin Campbell, who in the late 90s predicted that world oil production would peak in the early 21st century. "We have come to the end of the first half of the Oil Age," said Dr. Campbell, who has a doctorate in geology from the University of Oxford and more than 40 years of experience in the oil industry. Similarly, Kenneth Deffeyes, a geologist and professor emeritus at Princeton University, estimates the occurrence of the peak near the end of last year.
The source also said that leading US financial analysts privately believe that "a collapse of the global banking system is imminent by 2008." Although the warning is consistent with the public findings of other experts, this is the first time that a more precise date has been estimated. In a prescient analysis drawing on highly placed financial sources, US historian Gabriel Kolko, professor emeritus at York University, concluded in late July that:
"All the factors which make for crashes – excessive leveraging, rising interest rates, etc. – exist... Contradictions now wrack the world's financial system, and a growing consensus now exists between those who endorse it and those, like myself, who believe the status quo is both crisis-prone as well as immoral. If we are to believe the institutions and personalities who have been in the forefront of the defense of capitalism, and we should, it may very well be on the verge of serious crises."
The source also commented on the danger posed by rapid climate change. Although most conventional estimates suggest that global climate catastrophe is not due before another 30 odd years, he argued that the multiplication of several "tipping-points" suggested that a series of devastating climatic events could be "triggered within the next 10 to 15 years." Once again, this is consistent with the findings of other experts, most recently a joint task-force report by the Institute for Public Policy Research in the UK, the Center for American Progress in the US, and the Australia Institute, which said in January last year that if the average world temperature rises "two degrees centigrade above the average world temperature prevailing in 1750 before the industrial revolution", it would trigger an irreversible chain of climatic disasters. In its report, the task-force says:
"The possibilities include reaching climatic tipping points leading, for example, to the loss of the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets (which, between them, could raise sea level more than 10 meters over the space of a few centuries), the shutdown of the thermohaline ocean circulation (and, with it, the Gulf Stream), and the transformation of the planet's forests and soils from a net sink of carbon to a net source of carbon."
The source also revealed that US generals had repeatedly war-gamed a prospective conflict with Iran, but consistently found that the simulations predicted "an absolute nuclear disaster", from which no clear winner would emerge. The scenarios gamed were so dismal, he said, that the generals briefed administration officials to avoid such a war at all costs. However, the source said that the Bush administration is ignoring the fears of the US military.
In this context, it would seem that the musings of Maj. Peters issue less from a concerted confidence in US power, than from a sense of growing desperation and unease as the political, financial and energy architecture of the global system is increasingly fragmenting under the weight of its own inherent instability. Despite the seeming gloominess of the situation, however, there is clearly fundamental dissent about the current trajectory of American and Western policy at the highest levels of power. The source remarked that "humanity is on the verge of a precipice, and either we'll all just drop off the edge, or we'll evolve. I'm not sure what that new human being might look like, but it will clearly have to involve a completely new set of ideas and values, a new way of looking at the world that respects life and nature."
nafeez.blogspot.com
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed is the author of The London Bombings: An Independent Inquiry. He teaches courses in International Relations at the School of Social Sciences and Cultural Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, where he is doing his PhD studying imperialism and genocide. Since 9/11, he has authored three other books revealing the realpolitik behind the rhetoric of the "War on Terror", The War on Freedom, Behind the War on Terror, and The War on Truth: 9/11, Disinformation and the Anatomy of Terrorism. In summer 2005, he testified as an expert witness in US Congress about his research on international terrorism.
-- --
August 31, 2006 at 08:09:08
US Army Contemplates Redrawing Middle East Map to Stave-off Looming Global Meltdown
by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
http://www.opednews.com
In a little-noted article printed in early August in the Armed Forces Journal, a monthly magazine for officers and leaders in the United States military community, early retired Major Ralph Peters sets out the latest ideas in current US strategic thinking. And they are extremely disturbing.
Ethnically Cleansing the Entire Middle East
Maj. Peters, formerly assigned to the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence where he was responsible for future warfare, candidly outlines how the map of the Middle East should be fundamentally re-drawn, in a new imperial endeavour designed to correct past errors. "Without such major boundary revisions, we shall never see a more peaceful Middle East," he observes, but then adds wryly: "Oh, and one other dirty little secret from 5,000 years of history: Ethnic cleansing works."
Thus, acknowledging that the sweeping reconfiguration of borders he proposes would necessarily involve massive ethnic cleansing and accompanying bloodshed on perhaps a genocidal scale, he insists that unless it is implemented, "we may take it as an article of faith that a portion of the bloodshed in the region will continue to be our own." Among his proposals are the need to establish "an independent Kurdish state" to guarantee the long-denied right to Kurdish self-determination. But behind the humanitarian sentiments, Maj. Peters declares that: "A Free Kurdistan, stretching from Diyarbakir through Tabriz, would be the most pro-Western state between Bulgaria and Japan."
He chastises the United States and its coalition partners for missing "a glorious chance" to fracture Iraq, which "should have been divided into three smaller states immediately." This would leave "Iraq's three Sunni-majority provinces as a truncated state that might eventually choose to unify with a Syria that loses its littoral to a Mediterranean-oriented Greater Lebanon: Phoenecia reborn." Meanwhile, the Shia south of old Iraq "would form the basis of an Arab Shia State rimming much of the Persian Gulf." Jordan, a US-Israeli friend in the region, would "retain its current territory, with some southward expansion at Saudi expense. For its part, the unnatural state of Saudi Arabia would suffer as great a dismantling as Pakistan." Iran too would "lose a great deal of territory to Unified Azerbaijan, Free Kurdistan, the Arab Shia State and Free Baluchistan, but would gain the provinces around Herat in today's Afghanistan." Although this vast imperial programme could be impossible to implement now, with time, "new and natural borders will emerge", driven by "the inevitable attendant bloodshed."
As for the goals of this plan, Maj. Peters is equally candid. While including the necessary caveats about fighting "for security from terrorism, for the prospect of democracy", he also mentions the third important issue -- "and for access to oil supplies in a region that is destined to fight itself".
The whole thing sounds disturbingly familiar, especially to those who have read the musings of then Israeli Foreign Ministry official Oded Yinon.
Keeping the World Safe... for Our Economy
Despite trying to dress up his vision as an exercise in attempting to selflessly democratize the Middle East, in a contribution to the quarterly US Army War College journal Parameters almost a decade ago, he acknowledged with some jubilation that: "Those of us who can sort, digest, synthesize, and apply relevant knowledge soar--professionally, financially, politically, militarily, and socially. We, the winners, are a minority." This minority will inevitably conflict with the vast majority of the world's population. "For the world masses, devastated by information they cannot manage or effectively interpret, life is 'nasty, brutish . . . and short-circuited.'" In "every country and region", these masses who can neither "understand the new world", nor "profit from its uncertainties... will become the violent enemies of their inadequate governments, of their more fortunate neighbors, and ultimately of the United States." The coming clash, then, is not really about blood, faith, ethnicity, at all. It is about the gap between the haves and the have-nots. "We are entering a new American century", he says, in a veiled reference to the Bush administration Project of the same name founded in the same year he was writing. In the new century, "we will become still wealthier, culturally more lethal, and increasingly powerful. We will excite hatreds without precedent."
In predicting the future course for the US Army, Maj. Peters argues that: "We will see countries and continents divide between rich and poor in a reversal of 20th-century economic trends." In this context, he says, "we in the United States will continue to be perceived as the ultimate haves", and therefore, "terrorism will be the most common form of violence", along with "transnational criminality, civil strife, secessions, border conflicts, and conventional wars." Meanwhile, "in defense of its interests", the US "will be required to intervene in some of these contests." And then he sums it all up in one tidy paragraph:
"There will be no peace. At any given moment for the rest of our lifetimes, there will be multiple conflicts in mutating forms around the globe. Violent conflict will dominate the headlines, but cultural and economic struggles will be steadier and ultimately more decisive. The de facto role of the US armed forces will be to keep the world safe for our economy and open to our cultural assault. To those ends, we will do a fair amount of killing."
So what's prompted Maj. Peter's decision to air his vision for the Middle East in the Armed Forces Journal at this time in the wake of the latest Middle East crisis? A number of critical developments.
Source: Imminent Global Crises Converge
According to an American source with high-level access to the US military, political and intelligence establishment, Western policymakers are in no doubt that the world faces the imminent convergence of multiple global crises. These crises threaten not only to undermine the basis of Western power in its current military and geopolitical configurations, but also to destabilize the entire foundations of industrial civilization.
The source said that the latest petroleum data indicates that "global oil production most likely peaked two years ago." This is consistent with the findings of respected geologists such as leading oil depletion expert Dr. Colin Campbell, who in the late 90s predicted that world oil production would peak in the early 21st century. "We have come to the end of the first half of the Oil Age," said Dr. Campbell, who has a doctorate in geology from the University of Oxford and more than 40 years of experience in the oil industry. Similarly, Kenneth Deffeyes, a geologist and professor emeritus at Princeton University, estimates the occurrence of the peak near the end of last year.
The source also said that leading US financial analysts privately believe that "a collapse of the global banking system is imminent by 2008." Although the warning is consistent with the public findings of other experts, this is the first time that a more precise date has been estimated. In a prescient analysis drawing on highly placed financial sources, US historian Gabriel Kolko, professor emeritus at York University, concluded in late July that:
"All the factors which make for crashes – excessive leveraging, rising interest rates, etc. – exist... Contradictions now wrack the world's financial system, and a growing consensus now exists between those who endorse it and those, like myself, who believe the status quo is both crisis-prone as well as immoral. If we are to believe the institutions and personalities who have been in the forefront of the defense of capitalism, and we should, it may very well be on the verge of serious crises."
The source also commented on the danger posed by rapid climate change. Although most conventional estimates suggest that global climate catastrophe is not due before another 30 odd years, he argued that the multiplication of several "tipping-points" suggested that a series of devastating climatic events could be "triggered within the next 10 to 15 years." Once again, this is consistent with the findings of other experts, most recently a joint task-force report by the Institute for Public Policy Research in the UK, the Center for American Progress in the US, and the Australia Institute, which said in January last year that if the average world temperature rises "two degrees centigrade above the average world temperature prevailing in 1750 before the industrial revolution", it would trigger an irreversible chain of climatic disasters. In its report, the task-force says:
"The possibilities include reaching climatic tipping points leading, for example, to the loss of the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets (which, between them, could raise sea level more than 10 meters over the space of a few centuries), the shutdown of the thermohaline ocean circulation (and, with it, the Gulf Stream), and the transformation of the planet's forests and soils from a net sink of carbon to a net source of carbon."
The source also revealed that US generals had repeatedly war-gamed a prospective conflict with Iran, but consistently found that the simulations predicted "an absolute nuclear disaster", from which no clear winner would emerge. The scenarios gamed were so dismal, he said, that the generals briefed administration officials to avoid such a war at all costs. However, the source said that the Bush administration is ignoring the fears of the US military.
In this context, it would seem that the musings of Maj. Peters issue less from a concerted confidence in US power, than from a sense of growing desperation and unease as the political, financial and energy architecture of the global system is increasingly fragmenting under the weight of its own inherent instability. Despite the seeming gloominess of the situation, however, there is clearly fundamental dissent about the current trajectory of American and Western policy at the highest levels of power. The source remarked that "humanity is on the verge of a precipice, and either we'll all just drop off the edge, or we'll evolve. I'm not sure what that new human being might look like, but it will clearly have to involve a completely new set of ideas and values, a new way of looking at the world that respects life and nature."
nafeez.blogspot.com
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed is the author of The London Bombings: An Independent Inquiry. He teaches courses in International Relations at the School of Social Sciences and Cultural Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, where he is doing his PhD studying imperialism and genocide. Since 9/11, he has authored three other books revealing the realpolitik behind the rhetoric of the "War on Terror", The War on Freedom, Behind the War on Terror, and The War on Truth: 9/11, Disinformation and the Anatomy of Terrorism. In summer 2005, he testified as an expert witness in US Congress about his research on international terrorism.
The Nafeez Ahmed article above prompts an idea for a forthcoming symposium to be aired on C-SPAN.
Guest speakers to be invited could include the following:
Jesus
Buddha
The Dalai Lama
Mike Ruppert (via satellite from who knows where)
Catherine Austin Fitts
Carolyn Baker, Ph.D.
Mahatma Gandhi
David Ray Griffin
DWB04
Other suggestions for invitees are welcome.
Guest speakers to be invited could include the following:
Jesus
Buddha
The Dalai Lama
Mike Ruppert (via satellite from who knows where)
Catherine Austin Fitts
Carolyn Baker, Ph.D.
Mahatma Gandhi
David Ray Griffin
DWB04
Other suggestions for invitees are welcome.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?con...&articleId=3147
-- -- --
The Next Phase of the Middle East War
by Michel Chossudovsky
September 4, 2006
GlobalResearch.ca
Israel's war on Lebanon is an integral part of a US sponsored "military roadmap".
The war on Lebanon, which has resulted in countless atrocities including the destruction of the nation's economy and civilian infrastructure, is "a stage" in a sequence of carefully planned military operations.
Lebanon constitutes a strategic corridor between Israel and North-western Syria. [See http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?con...&articleId=2824 ] The underlying objective of this war was the militarization of Lebanon, including the stationing of foreign troops, as a precondition for carrying out the next phase of a broader military agenda.
Formally under a UN mandate, the foreign troops to be stationed on Lebanese soil on the immediate border with Syria, are largely although not exclusively from NATO countries. This military force mandated by the UN Security Council is by no means neutral. It responds directly to US and Israeli interests.
Moreover, the timely withdrawal of Syrian troops, following the February 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has contributed to opening up a "new space". The withdrawal of Syrian troops served Israel. The timely pullout was of strategic significance, it certainly was a major factor in the timing and planning of the July 2006 IDF attacks on Lebanon.
In the aftermath of the Israeli bombings and the "ceasefire", UN Security Council Resolution 1701, drafted by France and the US in close consultation with the Israeli government, has paved the way for the militarization of Lebanon, under a bogus UN mandate.
The Next Phase of the Middle East War
Confirmed by official statements and military documents, the US in close coordination with Britain (and in consultation with its NATO partners), is planning to launch a war directed against Iran and Syria. US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton has already initiated the draft of a UN Security Council resolution with a view to imposing sanctions on Tehran for its alleged (nonexistent) nuclear weapons program. Whether this resolution is adopted is not the main issue. The US may decide to proceed in defiance of the Security Council, following a veto by Russia and/or China. The vote of France and Britain, among the permanent members has already been secured.
US military sources have confirmed that an aerial attack, pursuant to a sanctions regime on Iran, with or without UN approval, would involve a large scale deployment comparable to the US "shock and awe" bombing raids on Iraq in March 2003:
American air strikes on Iran would vastly exceed the scope of the 1981 Israeli attack on the Osiraq nuclear center in Iraq, and would more resemble the opening days of the 2003 air campaign against Iraq. Using the full force of operational B-2 stealth bombers, staging from Diego Garcia or flying direct from the United States, possibly supplemented by F-117 stealth fighters staging from al Udeid in Qatar or some other location in theater, the two-dozen suspect nuclear sites would be targeted.
Military planners could tailor their target list to reflect the preferences of the Administration by having limited air strikes that would target only the most crucial facilities ... or the United States could opt for a far more comprehensive set of strikes against a comprehensive range of WMD related targets, as well as conventional and unconventional forces that might be used to counterattack against US forces in Iraq
(See Globalsecurity.org at http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iran-strikes.htm
The aerial bombing plans have been fully operational ("in an advanced state of readiness") since June 2005. The various components of the military operation are firmly under US Command, coordinated by the Pentagon and US Strategic Command Headquarters (USSTRATCOM) at the Offutt Air Force base in Nebraska.
In November 2004, US Strategic Command conducted a major exercise of a "global strike plan" entitled "Global Lightening". The latter involved a simulated attack using both conventional and nuclear weapons against a "fictitious enemy" [Iran]. Following the "Global Lightening" exercise, US Strategic Command declared "an advanced state of readiness".
The operational implementation of the Global Strike is called CONCEPT PLAN (CONPLAN) 8022. The latter is described as "an actual plan that the Navy and the Air Force translate into strike package for their submarines and bombers,'
The command structure of the operation is centralized and ultimately The Pentagon will decide on the sequence; " if and when" to launch military operations against Iran and Syria. Israeli military actions and those of other coalition partners including Turkey, would be carried out in close coordination with the Pentagon.
Ground War
While the threat of punitive aerial bombardments of Iran's nuclear facilities have been announced repeatedly by the Bush administration, recent developments suggest that an all out ground war is also under preparation.
CONPLAN constitutes only one component of the Middle East military agenda. CONPLAN 8022 does not contemplate a ground war. It posits "no boots on the ground", which was the initial assumption envisaged in relation to the proposed aerial attacks on Iran.
US and Israeli military planners are fully aware that the aerial "punitive bombings" will almost inevitably lead coalition forces into a ground war scenario in which they will have to confront Iranian and Syrian forces in the battlefield.
Tehran has confirmed that it will retaliate if attacked, in the form of ballistic missile strikes directed against Israel as well as against US military facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf, which would immediately lead us into a scenario of military escalation and all out war.
Iranian troops could cross the Iran-Iraq border and confront coalition forces inside Iraq. Israeli troops and/or Special Forces could enter into Syria.
The foreign troops stationed in Lebanon under UN mandate would respond to the diktats of the US led coalition and the prior commitments reached with Washington and Tel Aviv in the context of the various military alliances (NATO-Israel, Turkey-Israel, GUUAM, etc).
War Games
These military preparations have also been marked, quite recently, by the conduct of war games.
In late August, Iran was involved in the conduct of war games in major regions of the country, including border areas with Turkey, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Iran's Defense Minister General Mostafa Mohammad Najjar has confirmed the deployment of enhanced military capabilities including weapons systems and troops on the Iranian border: "[Iranian] forces are supervising all movements by trans-regional troops and their agents around the Iranian borders" (FARS news, 2 September 2006)
Barely acknowledged by the Western media, military exercises organized by Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan under the Collective Security Treaty Organization, (CSTO) were also launched in late August. These war games, officially tagged as part of a counter terrorism program, were conducted in response to US-Israeli military threats in the region including the planned attacks against Iran. (See Michel Chossudovsky, August 2006). In turn, China an Kazakhstan held concurrent war games under the auspices of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
Azerbaijan and neighboring Georgia have close military ties to Washington. Both countries are part of GUUAM, a military alliance with the US and NATO.
Turkey is a close ally of Israel. [See http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?con...&articleId=2906 ]. Since 2005, Israel has deployed Special Forces in the mountainous areas of Turkey bordering Iran and Syria with the collaboration of the Ankara government: Pakistan is also a close ally of the US and Britain. Georgia has a longstanding military cooperation agreement with the US and Israel. Meanwhile, the USS Enterprise, America's largest aircraft carrier is en route to the Persian Gulf.
Map; Copyright Eric Waddell, Global Research 2003
US Troop Build-up
US troops in Iraq have been increased to 140,000 as confirmed by recent Pentagon statements (Reuters, 2 September 2006) These plans have been coupled with a the compulsory recall of "inactive servicemen" as well as the expansion of mercenary forces. (Mahdi Darius Namzaroaya, August 2006)
The Pentagon justifies the troop build-up as part of a "routine" process of replacement and rotation, required in its ongoing war against "terrorists" in Iraq. The speeding up of military recruitment is also occurring in the core countries of the Anglo-American coalition including Great Britain. Australia and Canada (see also Recruiting Canada). Canada and Australia are aligned with the US. Australian Prime Minister John Howard as well as Canada's Steven Harper have confirmed their commitment to the US-Israeli war and have promised an expansion of the armed forces in their respective countries.
Meanwhile British troops stationed in Iraq have been redeployed to the Iranian border in southern Iraq. This redeployment has been casually presented by Britain's Ambassador to Iraq as part of a "crack down on smuggling and the entrance of weapons into Iraq from Iran".
While British officials are maintaining no desire or preparations for a conflict with Iran, more British troops are being mobilized and deployed to Iraq at the same time. The Light Infantry of the 2nd Battalion, another unit with rapid deployment capabilities, is deploying to the southern Iraqi border with Iran. The 2nd Battalion is being sent to Iraq under the pretext of working in the Rear Operations Battle Group which will provide escorts for military convoys and security for British forces and bases in Basra. (See Mahdi Darius Namzaroaya, August 2006)
The Role of Israel
In the wake of the war on Lebanon. Israel's military plans and pronouncements are increasingly explicit. Tel Aviv has announced plans to wage a pre-emptive "full-scale war" against Iran and Syria, implying the deployment of both air and ground force. These war plans are now said to at the top of the defense agenda:
"Israel is preparing for a possible war with both Iran and Syria, according to Israeli political and military sources."
(...)
“The challenge from Iran and Syria is now top of the Israeli defense agenda, higher than the Palestinian one,” said an Israeli defense source. Shortly before the war in Lebanon Major-General Eliezer Shkedi, the commander of the air force, was placed in charge of the “Iranian front”, a new position in the Israeli Defense Forces. His job will be to command any future strikes on Iran and Syria."
(...)
In the past we prepared for a possible military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities,” said one insider, “but Iran’s growing confidence after the war in Lebanon means we have to prepare for a full-scale war, in which Syria will be an important player.”
(...)
As a result of the change in the defense priorities, the budget for the Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza is to be reduced." (Sunday Times, 3 September 2006)
Media Disinformation
The Western media is beating the drums of war.
The Sunday Times views Israel's war plans as legitimate acts of self defense, to prevent Tehran from launching an all out nuclear attack on Israel: "Iran and Syria have ballistic missiles that can cover most of Israel, including Tel Aviv. An emergency budget has now been assigned to building modern shelters."
The fact that Iran does not possess nuclear weapons capabilities as confirmed by the IAEA report does not seem to be an issue for debate.
Media disinformation has contributed to creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation. The announcement on August 10 by the British Home Office of a foiled large scale terror attack to simultaneously blow up as many as ten airplanes, conveys the impression that it is the Western World rather than the Middle East which is under attack.
Realities are twisted upside down. The disinformation campaign has gone into full gear. The British and US media are increasingly pointing towards "preemptive war" as an act of "self defense" against Al Qaeda and the State sponsors of terrorism, who are allegedly preparing a Second 911.
The underlying objective, through fear and intimidation, is ultimately to build public acceptance for the next stage of the Middle East "war on terrorism" which is directed against Syria and Iran.
The antiwar movement has also been weakened.
While China and Russia will oppose the US led war at the diplomatic level as well as at the UN Security Council, Washington has secured the support of France and Germany. While Russia and China have military cooperation agreements with Iran, they would most probably not would intervene militarily in favor of Iran.
NATO is broadly supportive of the US led military agenda. In February 2005, NATO signed a military cooperation agreement with Israel.
Nuclear Weapons against Iran
The use of tactical nuclear weapons by the US and Israel against Iran, is contemplated, ironically in retaliation for Iran's nonexistent nuclear weapons program.
The Bush administration's new nuclear doctrine contains specific "guidelines" which allow for "preemptive" nuclear strikes against "rogue enemies" which "possess" or are "developing" weapons of mass destruction (WMD). (2001 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) and Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations (DJNO)).
CONPLAN 8022, referred to above, is 'the overall umbrella plan for sort of the pre-planned strategic scenarios involving nuclear weapons.'
'It's specifically focused on these new types of threats -- Iran, North Korea -- proliferation and potentially terrorists too,' he said. 'There's nothing that says that they can't use CONPLAN 8022 in limited scenarios against Russian and Chinese targets.'(According to Hans Kristensen, of the Nuclear Information Project, quoted in Japanese economic News Wire, op cit)
The mission of JFCCSGS is to implement CONPLAN 8022, in other words to trigger a nuclear war with Iran.
The Commander in Chief, namely George W. Bush would instruct the Secretary of Defense, who would then instruct the Joint Chiefs of staff to activate CONPLAN 8022.
The use of nuclear weapons against Iran would be coordinated with Israel, which possesses a sophisticated nuclear arsenal.
The use of nuclear weapons by Israel or the US cannot be excluded, particularly in view of the fact that tactical nuclear weapons have now been reclassified as a variant of the conventional bunker buster bombs and are authorized for use in conventional war theaters. ("they are harmless to civilians because the explosion is underground").
In this regard, Israel and the US rather than Iran constitute a nuclear threat.
The World is at a Critical Crossroads
The Bush Administration has embarked upon a military adventure which threatens the future of humanity. This is not an overstatement. If aerial bombardments were to be launched against Iran, they would trigger a ground war and the escalation of the conflict to a much broader region. Even in the case of aerial and missile using conventional warheads, the bombings would unleash a nuclear nightmare resulting from the spread of nuclear radiation following the destruction of Iran's nuclear energy facilities.
Throughout history, the structure of military alliances has played a crucial role in triggering major military conflicts. In contrast to the situation prevailing prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, America's ongoing military adventure is now firmly supported by the Franco-German alliance. Moreover, Israel is slated to play a direct role in this military operation.
NATO is firmly aligned with the Anglo-American-Israeli military axis, which also includes Australia and Canada. In 2005, NATO signed a military cooperation agreement with Israel, and Israel has a longstanding bilateral military agreement with Turkey.
Iran has observer status in The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and is slated to become a full member of SCO. China and Russia have far-reaching military cooperation agreements with
China and Russia are firmly opposed to a US-led military operation in the diplomatic arena. While the US sponsored military plan threatens Russian and Chinese interests in Central Asia and the Caspian sea basin, it is unlikely that they would intervene militarily on the side of Iran or Syria.
The planned attack on Iran must be understood in relation to the existing active war theaters in the Middle East, namely Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon-Palestine.
The conflict could easily spread from the Middle East to the Caspian sea basin. It could also involve the participation of Azerbaijan and Georgia, where US troops are stationed.
Military action against Iran and Syria would directly involve Israel's participation, which in turn would trigger a broader war throughout the Middle East, not to mention the further implosion in the Palestinian occupied territories. Turkey is closely associated with the proposed aerial attacks.
If the US-UK-Israeli war plans were to proceed, the broader Middle East- Central Asian region would flare up, from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Afghan-Chinese border. At present, there are three distinct war theaters: Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine-Lebanon. An attack directed against Iran would serve to integrate these war theaters transforming the broader Middle East Central Asian region into an integrated war zone. (see map above)
In turn the US sponsored aerial bombardments directed against Iran could contribute to triggering a ground war characterized by Iranian attacks directed against coalition troops in Iraq. In turn, Israeli forces would enter into Syria.
An attack on Iran would have a direct impact on the resistance movement inside Iraq. It would also put pressure on America's overstretched military capabilities and resources in both the Iraqi and Afghan war theaters.
In other words, the shaky geopolitics of the Central Asia- Middle East region, the three existing war theaters in which America is currently, involved, the direct participation of Israel and Turkey, the structure of US sponsored military alliances, etc. raises the specter of a broader conflict.
The war against Iran is part of a longer term US military agenda which seeks to militarize the entire Caspian sea basin, eventually leading to the destabilization and conquest of the Russian Federation.
The Pentagon's Second 911
The economic and political dislocations resulting from this military agenda are far-reaching.
If the attacks directed against Iran and Syria were to proceed, martial law and/or a state of emergency could be declared in the US and possibly Britain on the pretext that the homeland is under attack by Iran sponsored terrorists. The purpose of these measures would essentially be to curb antiwar movement and provide legitimacy to an illegal war.
The Pentagon has intimated in this regard, in an official statement, that "another [9/11] attack could create both a justification and an opportunity to retaliate against some known targets [Iran and Syria]". In a timely statement, barely a few days following the onslaught of the bombing of Lebanon, Vice President Cheney reiterated his warning: "The enemy that struck on 9/11 is fractured and weakened, yet still lethal, still determined to hit us again" (Waterloo Courier, Iowa, 19 July 2006).
Reversing the Tide of War
The issues raised in this article do not necessarily imply that the war will take place.
What the analysis of official statments and military documents onfirms is that
a) the war is part of a political agenda and
military plans to launch an attack on Iran and Syria are "in an advanced stage of readiness".
The issue is not whether the war will inevitably take place but what are the instruments at our disposal which will enable us to shunt and ultimately disarm this global military agenda.
War criminals occupy positions of authority. The citizenry is galvanized into supporting the rulers, who are "committed to their safety and well-being". Through media disinformation, war is given a humanitarian mandate.
The legitimacy of the war must be addressed. Antiwar sentiment alone does not disarm a military agenda. High ranking officials of the Bush administration, members of the military and the US Congress have been granted the authority to uphold an illegal war.
The corporate backers and sponsors of war and war crimes must also be targeted including the oil companies, the defense contractors, the financial institutions and the corporate media, which has become an integral part of the war propaganda machine.
There is a sense of urgency. In the weeks and months ahead, the antiwar movement must act, consistently, and address a number of key issues.
1. The role of media disinformation in sustaining the military agenda is crucial.
We will not succeed in our endeavours unless the propaganda apparatus is weakened and eventually dismantled. It is essential to inform our fellow citizens on the causes and consequences of the US-led war, not to mention the extensive war crimes and atrocities which are routinely obfuscated by the media. This is no easy task. It requires an effective counter-propaganda program which refutes mainstream media assertions.
It is essential that the relevant information and analysis reaches the broader public. The Western media is controlled by a handful of powerful business syndicates. The media conglomerates which control network TV and the printed press must be challenged through cohesive actions which reveal the lies and falsehoods.
2. There is opposition within the political establishment in the US as well as within the ranks of the Armed Forces.
While this opposition does not necessarily question to overall direction of US foreign policy, it is firmly opposed to military adventurism, including the use of nuclear weapons. These voices within the institutions of the State, the Military and the business establishment are important because they can be usefully channeled to discredit and ultimately dismantle the "war on terrorism" consensus. The broadest possible alliance of political and social forces is, therefore, required to prevent a military adventure which in a very real sense threatens the future of humanity.
3. The structure of military alliances must be addressed. A timely shift in military alliances could potentially reverse the course of history.
Whereas France and Germany are broadly supportive of the US led war, there are strong voices in both countries as well as within the European Union, which firmly oppose the US led military agenda, both at the grassroots level as well within the political system itself.
It is essential that the commitments made by European heads of government and heads of state, to Washington be cancelled or nullified, through pressure exerted at the appropriate political levels. This applies, In particular, to the unbending support of the Bush adminstration's military agenda by President Jacques Chirac and Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The weakening of the system of alliances which commit Western Europe to supporting the Anglo-American military axis, could indeed contribute reverse the tide. Washington would hesitate to wage a war on Iran without the support of France and Germany.
4. The holding of large antiwar rallies is important and essential. But in will not in itself reverse the tide of war unless it is accompanied by the development of a cohesive antiwar network.
What is required is a grass roots antiwar network, a mass movement at national and international levels, which challenges the legitimacy of the main military and political actors, as well as their corporate sponsors, and which would ultimately be instrumental in unseating those who rule in our name. The construction of this type of network will take time to develop. Initially it should focus of developing an antiwar stance within existing citizens' organizations (e.g. trade unions, community organizations, professional regroupings, student federations, municipal councils, etc.).
5. 9/11 plays a crucial and central role in the propaganda campaign.
The threat of an Al Qaeda "Attack on America" is being used profusely by the Bush administration and its indefectible British ally to galvanize public opinion in support of a global military agenda. Revealing the lies behind 911 would serve to undermine the legitimacy of the "war on terrorism". Without 911, the war criminals in high office do not have a leg to stand on. The entire national security construct collapses like a deck of cards. Known and documented, the "Islamic terror network" is a creation of the US intelligence apparatus. Several of the terror alerts were based on fake intelligence as revealed in the recent foiled "liquid bomb attack". There is evidence that the several of the terrorist "mass casualty events" which have resulted in civilian casualties were triggered by the military and/or intelligence services. The "war on terrorism" is bogus. The 911 narrative as conveyed by the 911 Commission report is fabricated. The Bush administration is involved in acts of cover-up and complicity at the highest levels of government.
-- --
Michel Chossudovsky is the author of the international best seller "The Globalization of Poverty " published in eleven languages. He is Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Center for Research on Globalization. His most recent book is America’s "War on Terrorism", Global Research, 2005.
-- -- --
The Next Phase of the Middle East War
by Michel Chossudovsky
September 4, 2006
GlobalResearch.ca
Israel's war on Lebanon is an integral part of a US sponsored "military roadmap".
The war on Lebanon, which has resulted in countless atrocities including the destruction of the nation's economy and civilian infrastructure, is "a stage" in a sequence of carefully planned military operations.
Lebanon constitutes a strategic corridor between Israel and North-western Syria. [See http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?con...&articleId=2824 ] The underlying objective of this war was the militarization of Lebanon, including the stationing of foreign troops, as a precondition for carrying out the next phase of a broader military agenda.
Formally under a UN mandate, the foreign troops to be stationed on Lebanese soil on the immediate border with Syria, are largely although not exclusively from NATO countries. This military force mandated by the UN Security Council is by no means neutral. It responds directly to US and Israeli interests.
Moreover, the timely withdrawal of Syrian troops, following the February 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has contributed to opening up a "new space". The withdrawal of Syrian troops served Israel. The timely pullout was of strategic significance, it certainly was a major factor in the timing and planning of the July 2006 IDF attacks on Lebanon.
In the aftermath of the Israeli bombings and the "ceasefire", UN Security Council Resolution 1701, drafted by France and the US in close consultation with the Israeli government, has paved the way for the militarization of Lebanon, under a bogus UN mandate.
The Next Phase of the Middle East War
Confirmed by official statements and military documents, the US in close coordination with Britain (and in consultation with its NATO partners), is planning to launch a war directed against Iran and Syria. US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton has already initiated the draft of a UN Security Council resolution with a view to imposing sanctions on Tehran for its alleged (nonexistent) nuclear weapons program. Whether this resolution is adopted is not the main issue. The US may decide to proceed in defiance of the Security Council, following a veto by Russia and/or China. The vote of France and Britain, among the permanent members has already been secured.
US military sources have confirmed that an aerial attack, pursuant to a sanctions regime on Iran, with or without UN approval, would involve a large scale deployment comparable to the US "shock and awe" bombing raids on Iraq in March 2003:
American air strikes on Iran would vastly exceed the scope of the 1981 Israeli attack on the Osiraq nuclear center in Iraq, and would more resemble the opening days of the 2003 air campaign against Iraq. Using the full force of operational B-2 stealth bombers, staging from Diego Garcia or flying direct from the United States, possibly supplemented by F-117 stealth fighters staging from al Udeid in Qatar or some other location in theater, the two-dozen suspect nuclear sites would be targeted.
Military planners could tailor their target list to reflect the preferences of the Administration by having limited air strikes that would target only the most crucial facilities ... or the United States could opt for a far more comprehensive set of strikes against a comprehensive range of WMD related targets, as well as conventional and unconventional forces that might be used to counterattack against US forces in Iraq
(See Globalsecurity.org at http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iran-strikes.htm
The aerial bombing plans have been fully operational ("in an advanced state of readiness") since June 2005. The various components of the military operation are firmly under US Command, coordinated by the Pentagon and US Strategic Command Headquarters (USSTRATCOM) at the Offutt Air Force base in Nebraska.
In November 2004, US Strategic Command conducted a major exercise of a "global strike plan" entitled "Global Lightening". The latter involved a simulated attack using both conventional and nuclear weapons against a "fictitious enemy" [Iran]. Following the "Global Lightening" exercise, US Strategic Command declared "an advanced state of readiness".
The operational implementation of the Global Strike is called CONCEPT PLAN (CONPLAN) 8022. The latter is described as "an actual plan that the Navy and the Air Force translate into strike package for their submarines and bombers,'
The command structure of the operation is centralized and ultimately The Pentagon will decide on the sequence; " if and when" to launch military operations against Iran and Syria. Israeli military actions and those of other coalition partners including Turkey, would be carried out in close coordination with the Pentagon.
Ground War
While the threat of punitive aerial bombardments of Iran's nuclear facilities have been announced repeatedly by the Bush administration, recent developments suggest that an all out ground war is also under preparation.
CONPLAN constitutes only one component of the Middle East military agenda. CONPLAN 8022 does not contemplate a ground war. It posits "no boots on the ground", which was the initial assumption envisaged in relation to the proposed aerial attacks on Iran.
US and Israeli military planners are fully aware that the aerial "punitive bombings" will almost inevitably lead coalition forces into a ground war scenario in which they will have to confront Iranian and Syrian forces in the battlefield.
Tehran has confirmed that it will retaliate if attacked, in the form of ballistic missile strikes directed against Israel as well as against US military facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf, which would immediately lead us into a scenario of military escalation and all out war.
Iranian troops could cross the Iran-Iraq border and confront coalition forces inside Iraq. Israeli troops and/or Special Forces could enter into Syria.
The foreign troops stationed in Lebanon under UN mandate would respond to the diktats of the US led coalition and the prior commitments reached with Washington and Tel Aviv in the context of the various military alliances (NATO-Israel, Turkey-Israel, GUUAM, etc).
War Games
These military preparations have also been marked, quite recently, by the conduct of war games.
In late August, Iran was involved in the conduct of war games in major regions of the country, including border areas with Turkey, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Iran's Defense Minister General Mostafa Mohammad Najjar has confirmed the deployment of enhanced military capabilities including weapons systems and troops on the Iranian border: "[Iranian] forces are supervising all movements by trans-regional troops and their agents around the Iranian borders" (FARS news, 2 September 2006)
Barely acknowledged by the Western media, military exercises organized by Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan under the Collective Security Treaty Organization, (CSTO) were also launched in late August. These war games, officially tagged as part of a counter terrorism program, were conducted in response to US-Israeli military threats in the region including the planned attacks against Iran. (See Michel Chossudovsky, August 2006). In turn, China an Kazakhstan held concurrent war games under the auspices of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
Azerbaijan and neighboring Georgia have close military ties to Washington. Both countries are part of GUUAM, a military alliance with the US and NATO.
Turkey is a close ally of Israel. [See http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?con...&articleId=2906 ]. Since 2005, Israel has deployed Special Forces in the mountainous areas of Turkey bordering Iran and Syria with the collaboration of the Ankara government: Pakistan is also a close ally of the US and Britain. Georgia has a longstanding military cooperation agreement with the US and Israel. Meanwhile, the USS Enterprise, America's largest aircraft carrier is en route to the Persian Gulf.
Map; Copyright Eric Waddell, Global Research 2003
US Troop Build-up
US troops in Iraq have been increased to 140,000 as confirmed by recent Pentagon statements (Reuters, 2 September 2006) These plans have been coupled with a the compulsory recall of "inactive servicemen" as well as the expansion of mercenary forces. (Mahdi Darius Namzaroaya, August 2006)
The Pentagon justifies the troop build-up as part of a "routine" process of replacement and rotation, required in its ongoing war against "terrorists" in Iraq. The speeding up of military recruitment is also occurring in the core countries of the Anglo-American coalition including Great Britain. Australia and Canada (see also Recruiting Canada). Canada and Australia are aligned with the US. Australian Prime Minister John Howard as well as Canada's Steven Harper have confirmed their commitment to the US-Israeli war and have promised an expansion of the armed forces in their respective countries.
Meanwhile British troops stationed in Iraq have been redeployed to the Iranian border in southern Iraq. This redeployment has been casually presented by Britain's Ambassador to Iraq as part of a "crack down on smuggling and the entrance of weapons into Iraq from Iran".
While British officials are maintaining no desire or preparations for a conflict with Iran, more British troops are being mobilized and deployed to Iraq at the same time. The Light Infantry of the 2nd Battalion, another unit with rapid deployment capabilities, is deploying to the southern Iraqi border with Iran. The 2nd Battalion is being sent to Iraq under the pretext of working in the Rear Operations Battle Group which will provide escorts for military convoys and security for British forces and bases in Basra. (See Mahdi Darius Namzaroaya, August 2006)
The Role of Israel
In the wake of the war on Lebanon. Israel's military plans and pronouncements are increasingly explicit. Tel Aviv has announced plans to wage a pre-emptive "full-scale war" against Iran and Syria, implying the deployment of both air and ground force. These war plans are now said to at the top of the defense agenda:
"Israel is preparing for a possible war with both Iran and Syria, according to Israeli political and military sources."
(...)
“The challenge from Iran and Syria is now top of the Israeli defense agenda, higher than the Palestinian one,” said an Israeli defense source. Shortly before the war in Lebanon Major-General Eliezer Shkedi, the commander of the air force, was placed in charge of the “Iranian front”, a new position in the Israeli Defense Forces. His job will be to command any future strikes on Iran and Syria."
(...)
In the past we prepared for a possible military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities,” said one insider, “but Iran’s growing confidence after the war in Lebanon means we have to prepare for a full-scale war, in which Syria will be an important player.”
(...)
As a result of the change in the defense priorities, the budget for the Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza is to be reduced." (Sunday Times, 3 September 2006)
Media Disinformation
The Western media is beating the drums of war.
The Sunday Times views Israel's war plans as legitimate acts of self defense, to prevent Tehran from launching an all out nuclear attack on Israel: "Iran and Syria have ballistic missiles that can cover most of Israel, including Tel Aviv. An emergency budget has now been assigned to building modern shelters."
The fact that Iran does not possess nuclear weapons capabilities as confirmed by the IAEA report does not seem to be an issue for debate.
Media disinformation has contributed to creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation. The announcement on August 10 by the British Home Office of a foiled large scale terror attack to simultaneously blow up as many as ten airplanes, conveys the impression that it is the Western World rather than the Middle East which is under attack.
Realities are twisted upside down. The disinformation campaign has gone into full gear. The British and US media are increasingly pointing towards "preemptive war" as an act of "self defense" against Al Qaeda and the State sponsors of terrorism, who are allegedly preparing a Second 911.
The underlying objective, through fear and intimidation, is ultimately to build public acceptance for the next stage of the Middle East "war on terrorism" which is directed against Syria and Iran.
The antiwar movement has also been weakened.
While China and Russia will oppose the US led war at the diplomatic level as well as at the UN Security Council, Washington has secured the support of France and Germany. While Russia and China have military cooperation agreements with Iran, they would most probably not would intervene militarily in favor of Iran.
NATO is broadly supportive of the US led military agenda. In February 2005, NATO signed a military cooperation agreement with Israel.
Nuclear Weapons against Iran
The use of tactical nuclear weapons by the US and Israel against Iran, is contemplated, ironically in retaliation for Iran's nonexistent nuclear weapons program.
The Bush administration's new nuclear doctrine contains specific "guidelines" which allow for "preemptive" nuclear strikes against "rogue enemies" which "possess" or are "developing" weapons of mass destruction (WMD). (2001 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) and Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations (DJNO)).
CONPLAN 8022, referred to above, is 'the overall umbrella plan for sort of the pre-planned strategic scenarios involving nuclear weapons.'
'It's specifically focused on these new types of threats -- Iran, North Korea -- proliferation and potentially terrorists too,' he said. 'There's nothing that says that they can't use CONPLAN 8022 in limited scenarios against Russian and Chinese targets.'(According to Hans Kristensen, of the Nuclear Information Project, quoted in Japanese economic News Wire, op cit)
The mission of JFCCSGS is to implement CONPLAN 8022, in other words to trigger a nuclear war with Iran.
The Commander in Chief, namely George W. Bush would instruct the Secretary of Defense, who would then instruct the Joint Chiefs of staff to activate CONPLAN 8022.
The use of nuclear weapons against Iran would be coordinated with Israel, which possesses a sophisticated nuclear arsenal.
The use of nuclear weapons by Israel or the US cannot be excluded, particularly in view of the fact that tactical nuclear weapons have now been reclassified as a variant of the conventional bunker buster bombs and are authorized for use in conventional war theaters. ("they are harmless to civilians because the explosion is underground").
In this regard, Israel and the US rather than Iran constitute a nuclear threat.
The World is at a Critical Crossroads
The Bush Administration has embarked upon a military adventure which threatens the future of humanity. This is not an overstatement. If aerial bombardments were to be launched against Iran, they would trigger a ground war and the escalation of the conflict to a much broader region. Even in the case of aerial and missile using conventional warheads, the bombings would unleash a nuclear nightmare resulting from the spread of nuclear radiation following the destruction of Iran's nuclear energy facilities.
Throughout history, the structure of military alliances has played a crucial role in triggering major military conflicts. In contrast to the situation prevailing prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, America's ongoing military adventure is now firmly supported by the Franco-German alliance. Moreover, Israel is slated to play a direct role in this military operation.
NATO is firmly aligned with the Anglo-American-Israeli military axis, which also includes Australia and Canada. In 2005, NATO signed a military cooperation agreement with Israel, and Israel has a longstanding bilateral military agreement with Turkey.
Iran has observer status in The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and is slated to become a full member of SCO. China and Russia have far-reaching military cooperation agreements with
China and Russia are firmly opposed to a US-led military operation in the diplomatic arena. While the US sponsored military plan threatens Russian and Chinese interests in Central Asia and the Caspian sea basin, it is unlikely that they would intervene militarily on the side of Iran or Syria.
The planned attack on Iran must be understood in relation to the existing active war theaters in the Middle East, namely Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon-Palestine.
The conflict could easily spread from the Middle East to the Caspian sea basin. It could also involve the participation of Azerbaijan and Georgia, where US troops are stationed.
Military action against Iran and Syria would directly involve Israel's participation, which in turn would trigger a broader war throughout the Middle East, not to mention the further implosion in the Palestinian occupied territories. Turkey is closely associated with the proposed aerial attacks.
If the US-UK-Israeli war plans were to proceed, the broader Middle East- Central Asian region would flare up, from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Afghan-Chinese border. At present, there are three distinct war theaters: Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine-Lebanon. An attack directed against Iran would serve to integrate these war theaters transforming the broader Middle East Central Asian region into an integrated war zone. (see map above)
In turn the US sponsored aerial bombardments directed against Iran could contribute to triggering a ground war characterized by Iranian attacks directed against coalition troops in Iraq. In turn, Israeli forces would enter into Syria.
An attack on Iran would have a direct impact on the resistance movement inside Iraq. It would also put pressure on America's overstretched military capabilities and resources in both the Iraqi and Afghan war theaters.
In other words, the shaky geopolitics of the Central Asia- Middle East region, the three existing war theaters in which America is currently, involved, the direct participation of Israel and Turkey, the structure of US sponsored military alliances, etc. raises the specter of a broader conflict.
The war against Iran is part of a longer term US military agenda which seeks to militarize the entire Caspian sea basin, eventually leading to the destabilization and conquest of the Russian Federation.
The Pentagon's Second 911
The economic and political dislocations resulting from this military agenda are far-reaching.
If the attacks directed against Iran and Syria were to proceed, martial law and/or a state of emergency could be declared in the US and possibly Britain on the pretext that the homeland is under attack by Iran sponsored terrorists. The purpose of these measures would essentially be to curb antiwar movement and provide legitimacy to an illegal war.
The Pentagon has intimated in this regard, in an official statement, that "another [9/11] attack could create both a justification and an opportunity to retaliate against some known targets [Iran and Syria]". In a timely statement, barely a few days following the onslaught of the bombing of Lebanon, Vice President Cheney reiterated his warning: "The enemy that struck on 9/11 is fractured and weakened, yet still lethal, still determined to hit us again" (Waterloo Courier, Iowa, 19 July 2006).
Reversing the Tide of War
The issues raised in this article do not necessarily imply that the war will take place.
What the analysis of official statments and military documents onfirms is that
a) the war is part of a political agenda and
military plans to launch an attack on Iran and Syria are "in an advanced stage of readiness". The issue is not whether the war will inevitably take place but what are the instruments at our disposal which will enable us to shunt and ultimately disarm this global military agenda.
War criminals occupy positions of authority. The citizenry is galvanized into supporting the rulers, who are "committed to their safety and well-being". Through media disinformation, war is given a humanitarian mandate.
The legitimacy of the war must be addressed. Antiwar sentiment alone does not disarm a military agenda. High ranking officials of the Bush administration, members of the military and the US Congress have been granted the authority to uphold an illegal war.
The corporate backers and sponsors of war and war crimes must also be targeted including the oil companies, the defense contractors, the financial institutions and the corporate media, which has become an integral part of the war propaganda machine.
There is a sense of urgency. In the weeks and months ahead, the antiwar movement must act, consistently, and address a number of key issues.
1. The role of media disinformation in sustaining the military agenda is crucial.
We will not succeed in our endeavours unless the propaganda apparatus is weakened and eventually dismantled. It is essential to inform our fellow citizens on the causes and consequences of the US-led war, not to mention the extensive war crimes and atrocities which are routinely obfuscated by the media. This is no easy task. It requires an effective counter-propaganda program which refutes mainstream media assertions.
It is essential that the relevant information and analysis reaches the broader public. The Western media is controlled by a handful of powerful business syndicates. The media conglomerates which control network TV and the printed press must be challenged through cohesive actions which reveal the lies and falsehoods.
2. There is opposition within the political establishment in the US as well as within the ranks of the Armed Forces.
While this opposition does not necessarily question to overall direction of US foreign policy, it is firmly opposed to military adventurism, including the use of nuclear weapons. These voices within the institutions of the State, the Military and the business establishment are important because they can be usefully channeled to discredit and ultimately dismantle the "war on terrorism" consensus. The broadest possible alliance of political and social forces is, therefore, required to prevent a military adventure which in a very real sense threatens the future of humanity.
3. The structure of military alliances must be addressed. A timely shift in military alliances could potentially reverse the course of history.
Whereas France and Germany are broadly supportive of the US led war, there are strong voices in both countries as well as within the European Union, which firmly oppose the US led military agenda, both at the grassroots level as well within the political system itself.
It is essential that the commitments made by European heads of government and heads of state, to Washington be cancelled or nullified, through pressure exerted at the appropriate political levels. This applies, In particular, to the unbending support of the Bush adminstration's military agenda by President Jacques Chirac and Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The weakening of the system of alliances which commit Western Europe to supporting the Anglo-American military axis, could indeed contribute reverse the tide. Washington would hesitate to wage a war on Iran without the support of France and Germany.
4. The holding of large antiwar rallies is important and essential. But in will not in itself reverse the tide of war unless it is accompanied by the development of a cohesive antiwar network.
What is required is a grass roots antiwar network, a mass movement at national and international levels, which challenges the legitimacy of the main military and political actors, as well as their corporate sponsors, and which would ultimately be instrumental in unseating those who rule in our name. The construction of this type of network will take time to develop. Initially it should focus of developing an antiwar stance within existing citizens' organizations (e.g. trade unions, community organizations, professional regroupings, student federations, municipal councils, etc.).
5. 9/11 plays a crucial and central role in the propaganda campaign.
The threat of an Al Qaeda "Attack on America" is being used profusely by the Bush administration and its indefectible British ally to galvanize public opinion in support of a global military agenda. Revealing the lies behind 911 would serve to undermine the legitimacy of the "war on terrorism". Without 911, the war criminals in high office do not have a leg to stand on. The entire national security construct collapses like a deck of cards. Known and documented, the "Islamic terror network" is a creation of the US intelligence apparatus. Several of the terror alerts were based on fake intelligence as revealed in the recent foiled "liquid bomb attack". There is evidence that the several of the terrorist "mass casualty events" which have resulted in civilian casualties were triggered by the military and/or intelligence services. The "war on terrorism" is bogus. The 911 narrative as conveyed by the 911 Commission report is fabricated. The Bush administration is involved in acts of cover-up and complicity at the highest levels of government.
-- --
Michel Chossudovsky is the author of the international best seller "The Globalization of Poverty " published in eleven languages. He is Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Center for Research on Globalization. His most recent book is America’s "War on Terrorism", Global Research, 2005.
Binyamin Netanyahu is coming to DC as I type this to visit Cheney and some US Senators, only JP has covered this, and I have seen zero in the US media. Is is me, or shouldn't someone in the media here cover this and ask who is attending and find out what will be discussed?
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...rticle/ShowFull
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...rticle/ShowFull
INDIVIDUALS, SMALL GROUPS CITED AS TERRORIST THREATS: U.S. STRATEGY CALLS DEMOCRACY A WEAPON - KAREN DEYOUNG (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 6): The National Strategy for Combating Terrorism says that "[t]hrough outreach programs and public diplomacy we will reveal the terrorists' violent extremist ideology for what it is -- a form of totalitarianism following in the path of fascism and Nazism."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0501399_pf.html
SEE ALSO
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6090500481.html
FIVE YEARS AFTER: IS THE U.S. WINNING THIS WAR? -- AL QAEDA HAS SUFFERED SETBACKS, BUT AMERICA MAY HAVE LOST GROUND IN THE LONG-TERM FIGHT, EXPERTS SAY. STATISTICS CAN'T TELL THE FULL STORY - DOYLE MCMANUS (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 10): The Bush administration's aim isn't to persuade the world's Muslims to like the U.S. -- the focus of the administration's unsuccessful early "public diplomacy" efforts. Instead, the main goal is to de-legitimize terrorism -- to convince Muslims that Bin Laden and his followers threaten Muslim communities as much as they threaten New York or Washington.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na...1,4687707.story
COUNTERTERROR STRATEGY LACKS COHERENCE OXFORD ANALYTICA (FORBES, SEPTEMBER 12): Most of the counter-terrorism effort has gone into "hard power" tasks. Public diplomacy and activities aimed at communicating a more positive message to Muslim populations and social policies for countering the marginalization of Muslim communities have been comparatively neglected.
http://www.forbes.com/home/business/2006/0...0912oxford.html
BUSH WARNS OF ENDURING TERROR THREAT: WORDS OF BIN LADEN, ALLIES SHOW THEIR GOALS, HE SAYS - MICHAEL A. FLETCHER (WASHINGTON, SEPTEMBER 6): The bipartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies issued a report saying, inter alia, that the administration's attempts at public diplomacy are "undermined by perceived U.S. unilateralism."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0500312_pf.html
SEE ALSO
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/200...cus/focus4.html
WHAT I HAVE LEARNED ABOUT PUBLIC DIPLOMACY - JANET STEELE (JAKARTA POST, SEPTEMBER 12): Mutual understanding is not about political expediency or promoting narrow U.S. policy interests, it is about listening to one another and respecting differences. This is the real meaning of public diplomacy.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaileditor...0911.F04&irec=3
GIVING MUSLIMS HOPE - THOMAS H. KEAN AND LEE H. HAMILTON (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 10): We should cultivate educational and cultural exchanges, and vigorous public diplomacy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/opinion/...agewanted=print
FIVE YEARS FROM GROUND ZERO UNITY, LIES IN RUINS - ALEX MASSIE (SCOTSMAN, SEPTEMBER 10): Bush's efforts at public diplomacy have been every bit as feeble in the Arab world as they have been with regard to its European allies.
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1336062006
BUSH'S HEZBOLLAH HANGOVER - ASHRAF FAHIM (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 6): Rice clearly realizes that when it comes to US foreign policy in the Middle East, it is possible to fool a lot of Americans a lot of the time. It is harder, however, to fool anybody in the Arab world any of the time, rendering stillborn US efforts at public diplomacy.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HI06Ak02.html
VIA
http://www.kimandrewelliott.com/
JOHNS HOPKINS SOURCES FOR SEPT. 11 ANNIVERSARY COVERAGE PRESS RELEASE (ASCRIBE SEPTEMBER 6): Waleed Hazbun, assistant professor of political science: "I am interested in the failure of American public diplomacy efforts. ... The more the Bush Administration seeks to define its global strategy in terms of the global war on terrorism or a fight against 'islamo-fascism,' rather than engaging with the understandings and interests of the peoples of the Middle East, the less likely to the U.S. will be able to succeed in 'the struggle of ideas.'"
http://newswire.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold...r=2006&public=0
REMEMBERING SEPT. 11 ONCE MORE, BUT NO CHANGE - HASAN ABU NIMAH (JORDAN TIMES, SEPTEMBER 6): The United States has made repeated attempts to paper over the reasons why people in the Middle East view it with increasing anger and disapproval -- by using "public diplomacy," US-government funded radio and television and other tools. All these efforts have failed miserably, and the underlying issues -- US support for Israeli colonialism and US opposition to genuinely democratic elections --- keep reemerging.
http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?...=1093126212#top
CAN THE WEST DEFEAT THE ISLAMIST THREAT? HERE ARE TEN REASONS WHY NOT - DAVID SELBOURNE (TIMES, U.K., SEPTEMBER 8): If the war declared by al-Qaeda and other Islamists is under way war, one of ten good reasons why, as things stand, Islam will not be defeated in it is the extent of political division in the non-Muslim world about what is afoot. Divided counsels have dictated everything from reliance on 'public diplomacy' to 'aking out Islamic sites, Mecca included.'http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,6-2349195,00.html
U.S. PUBLIC RELATIONS ON IRAQ WAR NEED TRUTH, HONESTY ABOUT AMERICA - STEVE HAMMONS (UFODIGEST, CANADA - SEPTEMBER 6): A sound and effective public diplomacy needs to communicate truthfully and honestly when implementing persuasion operations and programs
http://www.ufodigest.com/news/0906/iraqwar.html
THE LONG WAR: A SELF-DEFEATING PROPHECY - MICHAEL VLAHOS (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 9): In Saudi Arabia, reforms are going nowhere fast, and cannot be usefully encouraged by the United States, except at the ethereal margins of "public diplomacy."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HI09Aa01.html
GAO SEEKS STRATEGIC PLAN ON BROADCASTS TO ARAB WORLD ASSOCIATED PRESS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 6): Despite claims of success by the Bush administration, radio broadcasts and satellite telecasts by the U.S. government to the Arab world lack reliable audience estimates and accuracy checks. That is the conclusion of the Government Accountability Office, Congress's watchdog agency.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6090501206.html
FIVE YEARS AFTER 9/11: U.S. DIPLOMAT CHARTS PROGRESS OF WAR ON TERROR - (RFE/RL, SEPTEMBER 8): U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Colleen Graffy, visiting RFE/RL headquarters in Prague ahead of the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks against the United States, spoke with RFE/RL correspondent Eugene Tomiuc.
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/...345db6a1e4.html
U.S. SEEKS TO ENCOURAGE IRANIAN VISITS - GEORGE GEDDA, ASSOCIATED PRESS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 6): The Bush administration wants to open cultural exchanges with archrival Iran this fall despite tensions between Washington and Tehran about its nuclear program.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0600265_pf.html
U.S. SCHOOLS COMPETE FOR SAUDI STUDENTS - GARANCE BURKE, ASSOCIATED PRESS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 9): Thousands of students from Saudi Arabia are enrolling on college campuses across the United States this semester under a new educational exchange program brokered by President Bush and Saudi King Abdullah.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0900139_pf.html
THE NEXT BOLD MOVE: IT'S TIME FOR BUSH TO REACH OUT TO SHIITES - WILLIAM MCKENZIE (DALLASNEWS.COM, SEPTEMBER 12): Our diplomats will need to think about more than political leaders and fervently court religious ones. This will require Karen Hughes' public diplomacy shop to get ambassadors thinking differently, which she's tried to do.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...5b972.html'
ARAB AMERICA'S SEPTEMBER 11 - MOUSTAFA BAYOUMI (NATION, NY, SEPTEMBER 7): In June Karen Hughes recruited four Muslim American "civilian ambassadors" to travel to Europe and display how warmly the United States welcomes its Muslims. But the question of whether American Muslims have more freedom than their co-religionists do in Europe or elsewhere is not really the issue.
http://www.pej.org/html/modules.php?op=mod...order=0&thold=0
(scroll down link for item)
THE NEW AND MAYBE IMPROVED KAREN HUGHES SHOW GOES ON THE ROAD - AL KAMEN (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 11): We're told public diplomacy czarina Ms. Hughes is hitting the road next month to Europe, the Middle East and South Asia. Let's hope with some new material.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1000797_pf.html
IRAN'S FORMER PRESIDENT TAKES VEILED SWIPE AT BUSH - WILLIAM DOUGLAS, MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS (KNIGHT-RIDDER WASHINGTON BUREAU, SEPTEMBER 7): Mehrzad Boroujerdi, a political science professor at Syracuse University: "In a subtle way, Iran is trying to send a signal that, at least, let's engage in public diplomacy."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/15463914.htm
ISRAEL TO RE-BRAND ITSELF IN THE WORLD (ISRAEL TODAY, ISRAEL, SEPTEMBER 12): Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi: "[F]or a long time Israel has ignored the part of public diplomacy because of lack of resources and it's about time to invest more in the battle for public image. The return we will get will be greater than anyone could imagine"
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=9460
OSAMA'S SPIN LESSONS - JOHN TIERNEY (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 12): Once again Osama has beaten America at an American game: public relations. He may be sitting powerlessly in a cave, but his image is as scary as ever.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/12/opini...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
DARK MILESTONE: MORE AMERICANS HAVE NOW DIED IN IRAQ THAN DIED ON 9/11 R.J. ESKOW (HUFFINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 11)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/dar...html?view=print
SITUATION CALLED DIRE IN WEST IRAQ: ANBAR IS LOST POLITICALLY, MARINE ANALYST SAYS - THOMAS E. RICKS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 11)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1001204_pf.html
US INTEL REPORT: IRAQ'S ANBAR PROVINCE 'POLITICALLY LOST': CHIEF MARINE ANALYST SAYS REGION'S POLITICAL VACUUM BEING FILLED BY AL QAEDA - TOM REGAN (CSMONITOR.COM, SEPTEMBER 12)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0911/dailyUpdate.html
US "DEFEATED POLITICALLY" IN AL-ANBAR - JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, SEPTEMBER 11): 'A painful realization is setting in that it is more and more likely that Iraq is going to be partitioned. ... I continue to resist it.'
http://www.juancole.com/
(scroll down text for item)
UNWINDING BUSH: HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO CORRECT THE PRESIDENT'S MISTAKES? -JONATHAN RAUCH (REASON, SEPTEMBER 11): The Iraq adventure fueled a precipitous decline in America's image abroad, and Bush's pugnacious style during his first term and his tin ear for foreign opinion made a bad situation worse.
http://www.reason.com/rauch/091106.shtml
PRESIDENT BUSH'S REALITY EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 12): The nation needs to hear a workable plan to stabilize a fractured, disintegrating country -- Iraq -- and end the violence. If such a strategy exists, it seems unlikely that Mr. Bush could see it through the filter of his fantasies.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/12/opinion/...agewanted=print
EVEN DATING IS PERILOUS IN POLARIZED BAGHDAD: RISING TENSION BETWEEN SUNNIS, SHIITES NEARLY PUTS END TO MIXED RELATIONSHIPS - AMIT R. PALEY (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 12)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6091101044.html
REINFORCE BAGHDAD - WILLIAM KRISTOL AND RICH LOWRY (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 12): More U.S. troops in Iraq would improve our chances of winning a decisive battle at a decisive moment.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1100879_pf.html
MORAL FORCE: IN IRAQ, THE UNITED STATES ISN'T THE PROBLEM; IT'S THE SOLUTION - LAWRENCE F. KAPLAN (NEW REPUBLIC, SEPTEMBER 12): The moral cost of abandoning a country we have turned inside-out seems not to have made the slightest impression on opinion-makers.
http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=w060911&s=kaplan091206
THE BEST WAR EVER YOUTUBE (SEPTEMBER 9): This video chronicles how the U.S. defeated itself by believing its own propaganda that the invasion and occupation of Iraq would be a cakewalk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qGAqA-muYU
CALLING IRAN'S BLUFF: A HISTORY LESSON FOR THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION - FRED KAPLAN (SLATE, SEPTEMBER 11): Why not take up the Iranians on every diplomatic gambit they throw at us, if just to show the world that we're trying to settle this conflict and (assuming they back away from each gambit once we pursue it) the Iranians aren't? At the very least, we might regain some much-needed credibility.
http://www.slate.com/id/2149362/
STARTING ANOTHER WAR - NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 12): Iran's government is so corrupt, tyrannical and incompetent that it will eventually collapse -- unless we attack its nuclear sites and trigger a nationalistic surge of support for the regime.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/12/opini...agewanted=print
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THE 'CONFUSION' IS IN BUSH POLICY - TRUDY RUBIN (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 12): If we bomb Iran, Tehran is bound to retaliate against U.S. interests in Iraq, where it has many agents and is allied with Iraq's Shiite leaders. Bombing Iran would doom any slim U.S. hopes of salvaging stability in Baghdad.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
WOBBLY DIPLOMACY: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SUPPORT THAT THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION SAID IT HAD FOR SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAN? EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 11): The resistance to sanctions of Russia and China only raises the chances that President Bush will see force as the only way to stop an Iranian bomb.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1000889_pf.html
PROXY TERRORISM FROM IRAN: IT'S TIME TO BRING THE FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISTS TO THE COUNTRIES THAT ARM AND FUND THEM - NATAN SHARANSKY (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 12): By failing to hold Iran accountable for its brazen support of Hezbollah, the free world has undermined a central pillar in the war on terror and given the Iranian regime a huge weapon for achieving its ambitions.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail
WAR WITHIN WAR - MAX RODENBECK (NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, SEPTEMBER 21): For the time being, Israel's bungled offensive appears to have empowered the forces opposed to it, and opposed to a regional Pax Americana.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19250
ANTI-JUDAISM: JEWS ARE UNDER ATTACK. AND NO ONE SEEMS MUCH CONCERNED - WILLIAM KRISTOL (WEEKLY STANDARD, SEPTEMBER 11): University of Chicago political science professor John Mearsheimer, along with his sidekick, Stephen Walt of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government spoke to the Council on American-Islamic Relations and attacked the "Israel lobby" for its pernicious deeds, singling out several Jews who served or serve in the Bush administration. Much of the world is in denial about the jihadist threat.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...5aslgc.asp?pg=2
HOPE FLICKERS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: IF HAMAS TRULY DOES ACCEPT A TWO-STATE SOLUTION, IT'S TIME FOR A CARROT EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 12): As Hamas makes concrete steps toward peace, it should get real economic benefits. Moving too quickly, as the Europeans favor, or too slowly, as the Americans and Israelis tend to do, could extinguish this latest glimmer of hope.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-...pinion-leftrail
U.S. MUST ACT TO END PALESTINIAN HEALTH CRISIS - MICHAEL MORSE (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 12)
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
TURNING ISLAMISTS INTO DEMOCRATS - MONITOR'S VIEW (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 12): A factor now at work in the Palestinian-Israeli saga that seems to be pushing the concerned parties in the right direction has been the pressure of international sanctions led by the United States, the European Union, and Israel.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0912/p08s02-comv.html
THE WAR WITH AL-QAEDA - JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, SEPTEMBER 11): The Arab world mostly just dislikes US policy, mainly because of kneejerk support for Israeli depredations against Palestinians. The dislike doesn't change that much, though we reached a nadir in 2003-2004.
http://www.juancole.com/
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A NEW MIDDLE EAST - ROBERT MALLEY (NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, SEPTEMBER 21): Arab public opinion is increasingly radicalized and governments allied with the US stand doubly discredited. America's standing in the region may well recover, but it is increasingly difficult to see how, or when.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19301
FIVE YEARS AFTER 9/11: A SHIFTED VIEW OF THE WORLD: THE WINNERS AND LOSERS THAT ARE STILL CHURNING THE WORLD'S POLITICS - PETER GRIER AND MARK RICE-OXLEY (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 11): While Europe may have become a target and center of operations for terrorist cells, the US and Islam are the two poles around which 21st-century geopolitics may increasingly revolve.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0911/p01s02-usgn.html
ARAB REFLECTIONS ON THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11 MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVACK, SEPTEMBER 11): It shouldn't be surprising that most Arabs continue to pour scorn on Bush and his approach to the war on terror.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...reflection.html
BLAMING THE VICTIM: WHEN IT COMES TO 9/11 THE ARAB MEDIA IGNORES THE ATTACK AND CONCENTRATES ON THE AMERICAN RESPONSE TO IT - MOHAMMED FADHIL (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, SEPTEMBER 12)
http://www.opinionjournal.com/federation/f...e/?id=110008928
HOW SAFE A WORLD? EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 11): Al Qaeda's appeal to many Muslims has more to do with the perception that the United States has become an oppressor than with the particulars of the group's intolerant world-view.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...a_world?mode=PF
THE WAR FOR ISLAM: OSAMA BIN LADEN MAY GO DOWN IN HISTORY NOT ONLY AS THE MURDEROUS CRIMINAL WHO DECLARED HOLY WAR ON THE UNITED STATES, BUT ALSO AS A RADICAL FIGURE IN WHAT HAS COME TO BE CALLED THE ISLAMIC REFORMATION -- THE EPIC STRUGGLE TO DEFINE THE FAITH OF OVER A BILLION PEOPLE - REZA ASLAN (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 10)
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/art...r_islam?mode=PF
WHOSE WAR ON TERROR? - MAI YAMANI (TOMPAINE.COM, SEPTEMBER 11): The Bush administration, having proclaimed a war on terror, invaded and occupied countries and yet failed to see that these events were being linked in the eyes of people in the region.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/1...r_on_terror.php
STATE OF TERRORISM ADDRESS: WHAT WOULD OSAMA BIN LADEN SAY TO JIHADISTS FIVE YEARS LATER? - BRIAN MICHAEL JENKINS (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 11): "For us, it [the first truly global jihad] is a mere instant in a conflict that began centuries ago and will last until Judgment Day."
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-...inion-rightrail
A PROVOCATIVE LOOK AT THE IMAGES OF 9/11 [REVIEW OF 'WATCHING THE WORLD CHANGE: THE STORIES BEHIND THE IMAGES OF 9/11' BY DAVID FRIEND] - DAVID GREENBERG (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 10): Modern terrorism hinges on spectacle, on getting the whole world to watch a monstrous event.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/boo...1,5307261.story
THE REAL JACK BAUERS: THERE ARE REAL REASONS WE HAVEN'T BEEN ATTACKED AGAIN - PETER KIRSANOW (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 11): Many of the victories against terrorists have been won by the military?s elite units -- special-forces/counterterrorism units and others that the media knows little, if anything about.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTE3M...2ViZTZjYWM5YWQ=
REMEMBERING THE 'BLESSED TERROR' - SUZANNE FIELDS (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 1): The radical Islamic theology appeals to death, the "blessed terror."
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...10-101234-1321r
WAR OF WORDS - MICHELLE MALKIN (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 11): Jihadis: these are our enemies -- from Mohamed Atta and company to the Butchers of Beslan, to the throat-slitters in Karachi and Baghdad and Mindanao, to the bombers of Bali, Madrid and London, to their funders and imams and enablers worldwide.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...10-102745-1881r
MILESTONE NO. 5 - JOHN CAREY (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 11): The war on terror we are engaged in may best carry this new definition: We will do what we have to do, on all levels throughout the world, to keep the enemy on the run, off-balance and living in fear.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...10-102742-6703r
THE THREAT THEN AND NOW - ED ROYCE (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 11): All means of national power must be harnessed to combat radical Islam.
(Ed Royce, California Republican, is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.)
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...10-102740-2599r
SOLIDARITY - CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS (WALL STREET JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 11): Clerical fanaticism means to fight a war which can only have one victor. "We" -- and our allies -- simply have to become more ruthless and more experienced.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1157...6550358908.html
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
LIKE THAT DAY ON 9/11, FAITH REMAINS A FIRST RESPONDER - JANET HORTON (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 11): The raw willpower of the terrorists will never overcome the courage and faith of the American people.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0911/p09s01-coop.html
THE END OF CIVILIZATION - JAMES CARROLL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 11): America's enemy has triumphed already in the way Americans regard one another as enemies.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...ization?mode=PF
LOSING THE WAR ON TERROR: WHY MILITANTS ARE BEATING TECHNOLOGY FIVE YEARS AFTER SEPT. 11 - AHMED RASHID (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 11): Guerrillas are learning faster than Western armies, and the West makes appalling strategic mistakes while the extremists make brilliant tactical moves.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1001145_pf.html
9/11/06 EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 11): The war against terror we meant to fight in Afghanistan is at best stuck in neutral, with the Taliban resurgent and the best economic news involving a bumper crop of opium. Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9/11 when it was invaded, is now a breeding ground for a new generation of terrorists.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/11/opinion/...agewanted=print
THINKING BEYOND VIOLENCE - AZIZ HUQ (TOMPAINE.COM, SEPTEMBER 11): America's continued support of undemocratic regimes, and its failure to support real democracies, is today tilling the soil once more for a new crop of jihadists.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/1...nd_violence.php
BIN LADEN'S VICTORY - RICHARD COHEN (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 12): By using torture, by the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, by employing "extraordinary renditions" of suspects to countries where they could be tortured, by insisting on going it almost alone in Iraq, by telling the international community to shove it, by declaring a war for an idée fixe -- this fierce obsession with Hussein goes back a long way -- the United States has made itself reviled in much of the world.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1100880_pf.html
WHAT WE LOST AFTER 9/11 - HELENA COBBAN (TOMPAINE.COM, SEPTEMBER 11): In the name of what they called their "Global War on Terror" the Bush administration proceeded to invade and occupy two distant countries, to subvert the governance structures of many others, establish a globe-girdling network of "black-hole" prisons into which suspects disappeared without trial, and assault many of our liberties here at home.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/1...t_after_911.php
THE DAY THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING WASN'T 9/11 - IRA CHERNUS (TOMDISPATCH, SEPTEMBER 10): There is a growing awareness that the Bush Global War on Terror is doing more harm than good.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=119758
GAPING HOLES IN THE 9/11 NARRATIVE: FIVE YEARS OUT FROM THE ATTACKS, WHY DO WE STILL KNOW SO LITTLE ABOUT WHAT REALLY HAPPENED THAT DAY? - ROBERT SCHEER (TRUTHDIG, SEPTEMBER 11/COMMON DREAMS): Despite this sorry record of neglect in Southwest Asia and the creation of a quagmire and recruiting poster for terrorism in Iraq, Bush once again arrogantly asserts that his policies have made us safer.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0911-25.htm
NOW IT'S UP TO THE PEOPLE...- THE CENTRALITY OF WAR IN THE PRESIDENCY OF GEORGE W. BUSH - COL. DAN SMITH (COUNTERPUNCH, SEPTEMBER 11): After five years of the permanent war presidency, the U.S. and the world appear neither safer nor better.
http://www.counterpunch.org/smith09112006.html
PROMISES NOT KEPT - PAUL KRUGMAN (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 11): The perpetrators of 9/11 are still at large, five years later, and that they have re-established a large safe haven.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/11/opini...agewanted=print
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A WAR OF WORDS - EUGENE ROBINSON (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 12): By far the most fateful post-Sept. 11 coinage is "war on terrorism." The phrase that has come to define our era is entirely suspect, except perhaps the "on."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1100883_pf.html
THE NEVER-ENDING WAR: THE PRESIDENT USES THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF OUR NATIONAL TRAGEDY TO PROMISE A GLOBAL CONFLICT THAT WILL LAST DECADES - WALTER SHAPIRO (SALON, SEPTEMBER 12)
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/...eech/print.html
HOW BAD IS HE?: BUSH RAN AS A MODERATE, TACKED RIGHT AND GOVERNED INEFFECTUALLY -- BEFORE 9/11. SINCE THEN HE'S BECOME THE MOST RADICAL AMERICAN PRESIDENT IN HISTORY -- AND ARGUABLY THE WORST - SIDNEY BLUMENTHAL (SALON, SEPTEMBER 12): Bush used the "global war on terrorism" to impose a "unitary executive" of absolute power, disdainful of the Congress and brushing aside the judicial branch when he felt it necessary In foreign policy.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/09/...erpt/print.html
9/11/06: FIVE YEARS LATER, SOME COMPLACENCY HAS RETURNED, BUT WITH THE NEW KNOWLEDGE THAT OUR EASILY DISTRACTED OPENNESS IS ALSO A STRENGTH EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 11): In Washington, the war on terror has been institutionalized, like the war on poverty, or cancer: something for politicians to talk about while the rest of us go about our business.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-...pinion-leftrail
AMERICA'S WARRIOR NATION - THE LEGACY OF 9/11: THE SHORTCOMINGS OF THE AMERICAN LEADER WERE ALARMINGLY EXPOSED ON THE DAY THE TERRORISTS STRUCK. HE AND HIS ACOLYTES ARE NOW LEADING THEIR EMPIRE TOWARDS PERMANENT CONFLICT WITH ISLAM - GORE VIDAL (INDEPENDENT, SEPTEMBER 10)
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentat...icle1433329.ece
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5 YEARS AFTER 9/11: THE GROWTH OF SUICIDE TERRORISM - ROBERT A. PAPE (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 11): Suicide terrorism is mainly a response to foreign occupation rather than a product of Islamic fundamentalism.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...ncommentary-hed
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0501399_pf.html
SEE ALSO
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6090500481.html
FIVE YEARS AFTER: IS THE U.S. WINNING THIS WAR? -- AL QAEDA HAS SUFFERED SETBACKS, BUT AMERICA MAY HAVE LOST GROUND IN THE LONG-TERM FIGHT, EXPERTS SAY. STATISTICS CAN'T TELL THE FULL STORY - DOYLE MCMANUS (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 10): The Bush administration's aim isn't to persuade the world's Muslims to like the U.S. -- the focus of the administration's unsuccessful early "public diplomacy" efforts. Instead, the main goal is to de-legitimize terrorism -- to convince Muslims that Bin Laden and his followers threaten Muslim communities as much as they threaten New York or Washington.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na...1,4687707.story
COUNTERTERROR STRATEGY LACKS COHERENCE OXFORD ANALYTICA (FORBES, SEPTEMBER 12): Most of the counter-terrorism effort has gone into "hard power" tasks. Public diplomacy and activities aimed at communicating a more positive message to Muslim populations and social policies for countering the marginalization of Muslim communities have been comparatively neglected.
http://www.forbes.com/home/business/2006/0...0912oxford.html
BUSH WARNS OF ENDURING TERROR THREAT: WORDS OF BIN LADEN, ALLIES SHOW THEIR GOALS, HE SAYS - MICHAEL A. FLETCHER (WASHINGTON, SEPTEMBER 6): The bipartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies issued a report saying, inter alia, that the administration's attempts at public diplomacy are "undermined by perceived U.S. unilateralism."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0500312_pf.html
SEE ALSO
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/200...cus/focus4.html
WHAT I HAVE LEARNED ABOUT PUBLIC DIPLOMACY - JANET STEELE (JAKARTA POST, SEPTEMBER 12): Mutual understanding is not about political expediency or promoting narrow U.S. policy interests, it is about listening to one another and respecting differences. This is the real meaning of public diplomacy.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaileditor...0911.F04&irec=3
GIVING MUSLIMS HOPE - THOMAS H. KEAN AND LEE H. HAMILTON (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 10): We should cultivate educational and cultural exchanges, and vigorous public diplomacy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/opinion/...agewanted=print
FIVE YEARS FROM GROUND ZERO UNITY, LIES IN RUINS - ALEX MASSIE (SCOTSMAN, SEPTEMBER 10): Bush's efforts at public diplomacy have been every bit as feeble in the Arab world as they have been with regard to its European allies.
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1336062006
BUSH'S HEZBOLLAH HANGOVER - ASHRAF FAHIM (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 6): Rice clearly realizes that when it comes to US foreign policy in the Middle East, it is possible to fool a lot of Americans a lot of the time. It is harder, however, to fool anybody in the Arab world any of the time, rendering stillborn US efforts at public diplomacy.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HI06Ak02.html
VIA
http://www.kimandrewelliott.com/
JOHNS HOPKINS SOURCES FOR SEPT. 11 ANNIVERSARY COVERAGE PRESS RELEASE (ASCRIBE SEPTEMBER 6): Waleed Hazbun, assistant professor of political science: "I am interested in the failure of American public diplomacy efforts. ... The more the Bush Administration seeks to define its global strategy in terms of the global war on terrorism or a fight against 'islamo-fascism,' rather than engaging with the understandings and interests of the peoples of the Middle East, the less likely to the U.S. will be able to succeed in 'the struggle of ideas.'"
http://newswire.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold...r=2006&public=0
REMEMBERING SEPT. 11 ONCE MORE, BUT NO CHANGE - HASAN ABU NIMAH (JORDAN TIMES, SEPTEMBER 6): The United States has made repeated attempts to paper over the reasons why people in the Middle East view it with increasing anger and disapproval -- by using "public diplomacy," US-government funded radio and television and other tools. All these efforts have failed miserably, and the underlying issues -- US support for Israeli colonialism and US opposition to genuinely democratic elections --- keep reemerging.
http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?...=1093126212#top
CAN THE WEST DEFEAT THE ISLAMIST THREAT? HERE ARE TEN REASONS WHY NOT - DAVID SELBOURNE (TIMES, U.K., SEPTEMBER 8): If the war declared by al-Qaeda and other Islamists is under way war, one of ten good reasons why, as things stand, Islam will not be defeated in it is the extent of political division in the non-Muslim world about what is afoot. Divided counsels have dictated everything from reliance on 'public diplomacy' to 'aking out Islamic sites, Mecca included.'http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,6-2349195,00.html
U.S. PUBLIC RELATIONS ON IRAQ WAR NEED TRUTH, HONESTY ABOUT AMERICA - STEVE HAMMONS (UFODIGEST, CANADA - SEPTEMBER 6): A sound and effective public diplomacy needs to communicate truthfully and honestly when implementing persuasion operations and programs
http://www.ufodigest.com/news/0906/iraqwar.html
THE LONG WAR: A SELF-DEFEATING PROPHECY - MICHAEL VLAHOS (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 9): In Saudi Arabia, reforms are going nowhere fast, and cannot be usefully encouraged by the United States, except at the ethereal margins of "public diplomacy."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HI09Aa01.html
GAO SEEKS STRATEGIC PLAN ON BROADCASTS TO ARAB WORLD ASSOCIATED PRESS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 6): Despite claims of success by the Bush administration, radio broadcasts and satellite telecasts by the U.S. government to the Arab world lack reliable audience estimates and accuracy checks. That is the conclusion of the Government Accountability Office, Congress's watchdog agency.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6090501206.html
FIVE YEARS AFTER 9/11: U.S. DIPLOMAT CHARTS PROGRESS OF WAR ON TERROR - (RFE/RL, SEPTEMBER 8): U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Colleen Graffy, visiting RFE/RL headquarters in Prague ahead of the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks against the United States, spoke with RFE/RL correspondent Eugene Tomiuc.
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/...345db6a1e4.html
U.S. SEEKS TO ENCOURAGE IRANIAN VISITS - GEORGE GEDDA, ASSOCIATED PRESS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 6): The Bush administration wants to open cultural exchanges with archrival Iran this fall despite tensions between Washington and Tehran about its nuclear program.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0600265_pf.html
U.S. SCHOOLS COMPETE FOR SAUDI STUDENTS - GARANCE BURKE, ASSOCIATED PRESS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 9): Thousands of students from Saudi Arabia are enrolling on college campuses across the United States this semester under a new educational exchange program brokered by President Bush and Saudi King Abdullah.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0900139_pf.html
THE NEXT BOLD MOVE: IT'S TIME FOR BUSH TO REACH OUT TO SHIITES - WILLIAM MCKENZIE (DALLASNEWS.COM, SEPTEMBER 12): Our diplomats will need to think about more than political leaders and fervently court religious ones. This will require Karen Hughes' public diplomacy shop to get ambassadors thinking differently, which she's tried to do.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...5b972.html'
ARAB AMERICA'S SEPTEMBER 11 - MOUSTAFA BAYOUMI (NATION, NY, SEPTEMBER 7): In June Karen Hughes recruited four Muslim American "civilian ambassadors" to travel to Europe and display how warmly the United States welcomes its Muslims. But the question of whether American Muslims have more freedom than their co-religionists do in Europe or elsewhere is not really the issue.
http://www.pej.org/html/modules.php?op=mod...order=0&thold=0
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THE NEW AND MAYBE IMPROVED KAREN HUGHES SHOW GOES ON THE ROAD - AL KAMEN (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 11): We're told public diplomacy czarina Ms. Hughes is hitting the road next month to Europe, the Middle East and South Asia. Let's hope with some new material.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1000797_pf.html
IRAN'S FORMER PRESIDENT TAKES VEILED SWIPE AT BUSH - WILLIAM DOUGLAS, MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS (KNIGHT-RIDDER WASHINGTON BUREAU, SEPTEMBER 7): Mehrzad Boroujerdi, a political science professor at Syracuse University: "In a subtle way, Iran is trying to send a signal that, at least, let's engage in public diplomacy."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/15463914.htm
ISRAEL TO RE-BRAND ITSELF IN THE WORLD (ISRAEL TODAY, ISRAEL, SEPTEMBER 12): Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi: "[F]or a long time Israel has ignored the part of public diplomacy because of lack of resources and it's about time to invest more in the battle for public image. The return we will get will be greater than anyone could imagine"
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=9460
OSAMA'S SPIN LESSONS - JOHN TIERNEY (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 12): Once again Osama has beaten America at an American game: public relations. He may be sitting powerlessly in a cave, but his image is as scary as ever.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/12/opini...agewanted=print
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DARK MILESTONE: MORE AMERICANS HAVE NOW DIED IN IRAQ THAN DIED ON 9/11 R.J. ESKOW (HUFFINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 11)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/dar...html?view=print
SITUATION CALLED DIRE IN WEST IRAQ: ANBAR IS LOST POLITICALLY, MARINE ANALYST SAYS - THOMAS E. RICKS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 11)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1001204_pf.html
US INTEL REPORT: IRAQ'S ANBAR PROVINCE 'POLITICALLY LOST': CHIEF MARINE ANALYST SAYS REGION'S POLITICAL VACUUM BEING FILLED BY AL QAEDA - TOM REGAN (CSMONITOR.COM, SEPTEMBER 12)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0911/dailyUpdate.html
US "DEFEATED POLITICALLY" IN AL-ANBAR - JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, SEPTEMBER 11): 'A painful realization is setting in that it is more and more likely that Iraq is going to be partitioned. ... I continue to resist it.'
http://www.juancole.com/
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UNWINDING BUSH: HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO CORRECT THE PRESIDENT'S MISTAKES? -JONATHAN RAUCH (REASON, SEPTEMBER 11): The Iraq adventure fueled a precipitous decline in America's image abroad, and Bush's pugnacious style during his first term and his tin ear for foreign opinion made a bad situation worse.
http://www.reason.com/rauch/091106.shtml
PRESIDENT BUSH'S REALITY EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 12): The nation needs to hear a workable plan to stabilize a fractured, disintegrating country -- Iraq -- and end the violence. If such a strategy exists, it seems unlikely that Mr. Bush could see it through the filter of his fantasies.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/12/opinion/...agewanted=print
EVEN DATING IS PERILOUS IN POLARIZED BAGHDAD: RISING TENSION BETWEEN SUNNIS, SHIITES NEARLY PUTS END TO MIXED RELATIONSHIPS - AMIT R. PALEY (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 12)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6091101044.html
REINFORCE BAGHDAD - WILLIAM KRISTOL AND RICH LOWRY (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 12): More U.S. troops in Iraq would improve our chances of winning a decisive battle at a decisive moment.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1100879_pf.html
MORAL FORCE: IN IRAQ, THE UNITED STATES ISN'T THE PROBLEM; IT'S THE SOLUTION - LAWRENCE F. KAPLAN (NEW REPUBLIC, SEPTEMBER 12): The moral cost of abandoning a country we have turned inside-out seems not to have made the slightest impression on opinion-makers.
http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=w060911&s=kaplan091206
THE BEST WAR EVER YOUTUBE (SEPTEMBER 9): This video chronicles how the U.S. defeated itself by believing its own propaganda that the invasion and occupation of Iraq would be a cakewalk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qGAqA-muYU
CALLING IRAN'S BLUFF: A HISTORY LESSON FOR THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION - FRED KAPLAN (SLATE, SEPTEMBER 11): Why not take up the Iranians on every diplomatic gambit they throw at us, if just to show the world that we're trying to settle this conflict and (assuming they back away from each gambit once we pursue it) the Iranians aren't? At the very least, we might regain some much-needed credibility.
http://www.slate.com/id/2149362/
STARTING ANOTHER WAR - NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 12): Iran's government is so corrupt, tyrannical and incompetent that it will eventually collapse -- unless we attack its nuclear sites and trigger a nationalistic surge of support for the regime.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/12/opini...agewanted=print
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THE 'CONFUSION' IS IN BUSH POLICY - TRUDY RUBIN (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 12): If we bomb Iran, Tehran is bound to retaliate against U.S. interests in Iraq, where it has many agents and is allied with Iraq's Shiite leaders. Bombing Iran would doom any slim U.S. hopes of salvaging stability in Baghdad.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
WOBBLY DIPLOMACY: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SUPPORT THAT THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION SAID IT HAD FOR SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAN? EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 11): The resistance to sanctions of Russia and China only raises the chances that President Bush will see force as the only way to stop an Iranian bomb.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1000889_pf.html
PROXY TERRORISM FROM IRAN: IT'S TIME TO BRING THE FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISTS TO THE COUNTRIES THAT ARM AND FUND THEM - NATAN SHARANSKY (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 12): By failing to hold Iran accountable for its brazen support of Hezbollah, the free world has undermined a central pillar in the war on terror and given the Iranian regime a huge weapon for achieving its ambitions.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail
WAR WITHIN WAR - MAX RODENBECK (NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, SEPTEMBER 21): For the time being, Israel's bungled offensive appears to have empowered the forces opposed to it, and opposed to a regional Pax Americana.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19250
ANTI-JUDAISM: JEWS ARE UNDER ATTACK. AND NO ONE SEEMS MUCH CONCERNED - WILLIAM KRISTOL (WEEKLY STANDARD, SEPTEMBER 11): University of Chicago political science professor John Mearsheimer, along with his sidekick, Stephen Walt of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government spoke to the Council on American-Islamic Relations and attacked the "Israel lobby" for its pernicious deeds, singling out several Jews who served or serve in the Bush administration. Much of the world is in denial about the jihadist threat.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...5aslgc.asp?pg=2
HOPE FLICKERS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: IF HAMAS TRULY DOES ACCEPT A TWO-STATE SOLUTION, IT'S TIME FOR A CARROT EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 12): As Hamas makes concrete steps toward peace, it should get real economic benefits. Moving too quickly, as the Europeans favor, or too slowly, as the Americans and Israelis tend to do, could extinguish this latest glimmer of hope.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-...pinion-leftrail
U.S. MUST ACT TO END PALESTINIAN HEALTH CRISIS - MICHAEL MORSE (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 12)
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
TURNING ISLAMISTS INTO DEMOCRATS - MONITOR'S VIEW (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 12): A factor now at work in the Palestinian-Israeli saga that seems to be pushing the concerned parties in the right direction has been the pressure of international sanctions led by the United States, the European Union, and Israel.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0912/p08s02-comv.html
THE WAR WITH AL-QAEDA - JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, SEPTEMBER 11): The Arab world mostly just dislikes US policy, mainly because of kneejerk support for Israeli depredations against Palestinians. The dislike doesn't change that much, though we reached a nadir in 2003-2004.
http://www.juancole.com/
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A NEW MIDDLE EAST - ROBERT MALLEY (NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, SEPTEMBER 21): Arab public opinion is increasingly radicalized and governments allied with the US stand doubly discredited. America's standing in the region may well recover, but it is increasingly difficult to see how, or when.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19301
FIVE YEARS AFTER 9/11: A SHIFTED VIEW OF THE WORLD: THE WINNERS AND LOSERS THAT ARE STILL CHURNING THE WORLD'S POLITICS - PETER GRIER AND MARK RICE-OXLEY (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 11): While Europe may have become a target and center of operations for terrorist cells, the US and Islam are the two poles around which 21st-century geopolitics may increasingly revolve.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0911/p01s02-usgn.html
ARAB REFLECTIONS ON THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11 MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVACK, SEPTEMBER 11): It shouldn't be surprising that most Arabs continue to pour scorn on Bush and his approach to the war on terror.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...reflection.html
BLAMING THE VICTIM: WHEN IT COMES TO 9/11 THE ARAB MEDIA IGNORES THE ATTACK AND CONCENTRATES ON THE AMERICAN RESPONSE TO IT - MOHAMMED FADHIL (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, SEPTEMBER 12)
http://www.opinionjournal.com/federation/f...e/?id=110008928
HOW SAFE A WORLD? EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 11): Al Qaeda's appeal to many Muslims has more to do with the perception that the United States has become an oppressor than with the particulars of the group's intolerant world-view.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...a_world?mode=PF
THE WAR FOR ISLAM: OSAMA BIN LADEN MAY GO DOWN IN HISTORY NOT ONLY AS THE MURDEROUS CRIMINAL WHO DECLARED HOLY WAR ON THE UNITED STATES, BUT ALSO AS A RADICAL FIGURE IN WHAT HAS COME TO BE CALLED THE ISLAMIC REFORMATION -- THE EPIC STRUGGLE TO DEFINE THE FAITH OF OVER A BILLION PEOPLE - REZA ASLAN (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 10)
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/art...r_islam?mode=PF
WHOSE WAR ON TERROR? - MAI YAMANI (TOMPAINE.COM, SEPTEMBER 11): The Bush administration, having proclaimed a war on terror, invaded and occupied countries and yet failed to see that these events were being linked in the eyes of people in the region.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/1...r_on_terror.php
STATE OF TERRORISM ADDRESS: WHAT WOULD OSAMA BIN LADEN SAY TO JIHADISTS FIVE YEARS LATER? - BRIAN MICHAEL JENKINS (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 11): "For us, it [the first truly global jihad] is a mere instant in a conflict that began centuries ago and will last until Judgment Day."
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-...inion-rightrail
A PROVOCATIVE LOOK AT THE IMAGES OF 9/11 [REVIEW OF 'WATCHING THE WORLD CHANGE: THE STORIES BEHIND THE IMAGES OF 9/11' BY DAVID FRIEND] - DAVID GREENBERG (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 10): Modern terrorism hinges on spectacle, on getting the whole world to watch a monstrous event.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/boo...1,5307261.story
THE REAL JACK BAUERS: THERE ARE REAL REASONS WE HAVEN'T BEEN ATTACKED AGAIN - PETER KIRSANOW (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 11): Many of the victories against terrorists have been won by the military?s elite units -- special-forces/counterterrorism units and others that the media knows little, if anything about.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTE3M...2ViZTZjYWM5YWQ=
REMEMBERING THE 'BLESSED TERROR' - SUZANNE FIELDS (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 1): The radical Islamic theology appeals to death, the "blessed terror."
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...10-101234-1321r
WAR OF WORDS - MICHELLE MALKIN (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 11): Jihadis: these are our enemies -- from Mohamed Atta and company to the Butchers of Beslan, to the throat-slitters in Karachi and Baghdad and Mindanao, to the bombers of Bali, Madrid and London, to their funders and imams and enablers worldwide.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...10-102745-1881r
MILESTONE NO. 5 - JOHN CAREY (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 11): The war on terror we are engaged in may best carry this new definition: We will do what we have to do, on all levels throughout the world, to keep the enemy on the run, off-balance and living in fear.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...10-102742-6703r
THE THREAT THEN AND NOW - ED ROYCE (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 11): All means of national power must be harnessed to combat radical Islam.
(Ed Royce, California Republican, is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.)
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...10-102740-2599r
SOLIDARITY - CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS (WALL STREET JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 11): Clerical fanaticism means to fight a war which can only have one victor. "We" -- and our allies -- simply have to become more ruthless and more experienced.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1157...6550358908.html
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LIKE THAT DAY ON 9/11, FAITH REMAINS A FIRST RESPONDER - JANET HORTON (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 11): The raw willpower of the terrorists will never overcome the courage and faith of the American people.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0911/p09s01-coop.html
THE END OF CIVILIZATION - JAMES CARROLL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 11): America's enemy has triumphed already in the way Americans regard one another as enemies.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...ization?mode=PF
LOSING THE WAR ON TERROR: WHY MILITANTS ARE BEATING TECHNOLOGY FIVE YEARS AFTER SEPT. 11 - AHMED RASHID (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 11): Guerrillas are learning faster than Western armies, and the West makes appalling strategic mistakes while the extremists make brilliant tactical moves.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1001145_pf.html
9/11/06 EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 11): The war against terror we meant to fight in Afghanistan is at best stuck in neutral, with the Taliban resurgent and the best economic news involving a bumper crop of opium. Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9/11 when it was invaded, is now a breeding ground for a new generation of terrorists.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/11/opinion/...agewanted=print
THINKING BEYOND VIOLENCE - AZIZ HUQ (TOMPAINE.COM, SEPTEMBER 11): America's continued support of undemocratic regimes, and its failure to support real democracies, is today tilling the soil once more for a new crop of jihadists.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/1...nd_violence.php
BIN LADEN'S VICTORY - RICHARD COHEN (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 12): By using torture, by the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, by employing "extraordinary renditions" of suspects to countries where they could be tortured, by insisting on going it almost alone in Iraq, by telling the international community to shove it, by declaring a war for an idée fixe -- this fierce obsession with Hussein goes back a long way -- the United States has made itself reviled in much of the world.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1100880_pf.html
WHAT WE LOST AFTER 9/11 - HELENA COBBAN (TOMPAINE.COM, SEPTEMBER 11): In the name of what they called their "Global War on Terror" the Bush administration proceeded to invade and occupy two distant countries, to subvert the governance structures of many others, establish a globe-girdling network of "black-hole" prisons into which suspects disappeared without trial, and assault many of our liberties here at home.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/1...t_after_911.php
THE DAY THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING WASN'T 9/11 - IRA CHERNUS (TOMDISPATCH, SEPTEMBER 10): There is a growing awareness that the Bush Global War on Terror is doing more harm than good.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=119758
GAPING HOLES IN THE 9/11 NARRATIVE: FIVE YEARS OUT FROM THE ATTACKS, WHY DO WE STILL KNOW SO LITTLE ABOUT WHAT REALLY HAPPENED THAT DAY? - ROBERT SCHEER (TRUTHDIG, SEPTEMBER 11/COMMON DREAMS): Despite this sorry record of neglect in Southwest Asia and the creation of a quagmire and recruiting poster for terrorism in Iraq, Bush once again arrogantly asserts that his policies have made us safer.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0911-25.htm
NOW IT'S UP TO THE PEOPLE...- THE CENTRALITY OF WAR IN THE PRESIDENCY OF GEORGE W. BUSH - COL. DAN SMITH (COUNTERPUNCH, SEPTEMBER 11): After five years of the permanent war presidency, the U.S. and the world appear neither safer nor better.
http://www.counterpunch.org/smith09112006.html
PROMISES NOT KEPT - PAUL KRUGMAN (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 11): The perpetrators of 9/11 are still at large, five years later, and that they have re-established a large safe haven.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/11/opini...agewanted=print
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A WAR OF WORDS - EUGENE ROBINSON (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 12): By far the most fateful post-Sept. 11 coinage is "war on terrorism." The phrase that has come to define our era is entirely suspect, except perhaps the "on."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1100883_pf.html
THE NEVER-ENDING WAR: THE PRESIDENT USES THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF OUR NATIONAL TRAGEDY TO PROMISE A GLOBAL CONFLICT THAT WILL LAST DECADES - WALTER SHAPIRO (SALON, SEPTEMBER 12)
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/...eech/print.html
HOW BAD IS HE?: BUSH RAN AS A MODERATE, TACKED RIGHT AND GOVERNED INEFFECTUALLY -- BEFORE 9/11. SINCE THEN HE'S BECOME THE MOST RADICAL AMERICAN PRESIDENT IN HISTORY -- AND ARGUABLY THE WORST - SIDNEY BLUMENTHAL (SALON, SEPTEMBER 12): Bush used the "global war on terrorism" to impose a "unitary executive" of absolute power, disdainful of the Congress and brushing aside the judicial branch when he felt it necessary In foreign policy.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/09/...erpt/print.html
9/11/06: FIVE YEARS LATER, SOME COMPLACENCY HAS RETURNED, BUT WITH THE NEW KNOWLEDGE THAT OUR EASILY DISTRACTED OPENNESS IS ALSO A STRENGTH EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 11): In Washington, the war on terror has been institutionalized, like the war on poverty, or cancer: something for politicians to talk about while the rest of us go about our business.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-...pinion-leftrail
AMERICA'S WARRIOR NATION - THE LEGACY OF 9/11: THE SHORTCOMINGS OF THE AMERICAN LEADER WERE ALARMINGLY EXPOSED ON THE DAY THE TERRORISTS STRUCK. HE AND HIS ACOLYTES ARE NOW LEADING THEIR EMPIRE TOWARDS PERMANENT CONFLICT WITH ISLAM - GORE VIDAL (INDEPENDENT, SEPTEMBER 10)
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentat...icle1433329.ece
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5 YEARS AFTER 9/11: THE GROWTH OF SUICIDE TERRORISM - ROBERT A. PAPE (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 11): Suicide terrorism is mainly a response to foreign occupation rather than a product of Islamic fundamentalism.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...ncommentary-hed
QUOTATIONS FOR THE DAY
'WHERE ARE THE MOTHERS ORGANIZING AGAINST TERRORISM AS AMERICAN MOTHERS DID AGAINST DRUNKEN DRIVING?'
--Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes, in her 'here's the Outrage? A United World Must Resolutely Condemn Terror?'(USA Today, September 12)
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/...three12.art.htm
"I'M A NEOCONSERVATIVE WHO'S BEEN MUGGED BY REALITY."
--John Agresto, the president of St. John's College in Santa Fe, N.M., who came to Iraq to build a whole new university system and left having accomplished almost nothing; cited in Sidney Blumenthal, "Emerald City Exposed" (Salon, September 13)
http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/20...iraq/print.html
WHERE'S THE OUTRAGE? A UNITED WORLD MUST RESOLUTELY CONDEMN TERROR KAREN HUGHES (USA TODAY, SEPTEMBER 12): "I believe most of us hope that terrorism is an aberration. Unfortunately, I do not believe it is true. Part of my job is to look at the propaganda being spread on Internet sites and TV sets around the world. It is chilling. ... Our challenge is to launch a new grassroots movement across all faiths and continents, a movement that clearly states that no grievance, no complaint, no matter how legitimate, can ever justify the targeting and killing of innocent civilians'
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/...three12.art.htm
SEE ALSO
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1200770_pf.html
(scroll down link for item, "Where's the Outrage?")
http://www.republicansocialtheatre.com/200...you-mad-people/
http://www.extrememortman.com/foreign-poli...blic-diplomacy/
http://www.mountainrunner.us/2006/09/wheres_the_outr.html
http://cheatseekingmissiles.blogspot.com/2...-to-terror.html
http://www.isthatlegal.org/archives/2006/0...a_never_ag.html
WHITE HOUSE TALK - DAN FROOMKIN (Q & A, WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 13): 'Danville, Ill.: Does anyone know what Karen Hughes is doing? Other than writing op-eds for USA Today? Dan Froomkin: What she's not doing, I'm betting, is having much influence on her good friend George anymore. Her job at the State Department is to win over the Islamic world, and he isn't giving her much to work with.'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1601290_pf.html
BUSH'S LAME JUSTIFICATION FOR IRAQ - HELEN THOMAS (FALLS CHURCH NEWS PRESS, VA, SEPTEMBER 14): Karen Hughes -- the president's close confidante -- has been given the impossible mission of making friends for the U.S. in the Middle East. She will fail in this mission unless U.S. foreign policy is transformed.
http://www.fcnp.com/index.php?option=com_c...d=217&Itemid=35
SLIP SLIDING AWAY - JOHN ZOGBY (DAILY NEWS, SEPTEMBER 7): 'I had the privilege of serving on the congressionally-created Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy with several distinguished colleagues in 2003. The commission did an admirable job -- but our mandate did not include any discussion of U.S. policy in the region. And that is an unfortunate blind spot -- because it is America's policy that remains the core problem.'
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opin...2p-378743c.html
A NARRATIVE FOR A LONG WAR OPINION SHAPERS IN WASHINGTON WORRY THAT THEY ARE LOSING THE WAR OF IDEAS WITH THE JIHADISTS. BUT ARE THEY? - REPORTER: STAN CORREY (AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION): Among those interviewed are Marc Lynch, John Rendon, Kylie Morris, Faisal Devji, William Mccants, Steven Corman, Ted Sorensen, Adel Iskandar, John Brown. Stan Correy: 'What is the Arabic term for public diplomacy?' Adel Iskandar [communications specialist from the American University in Washington, D.C]: 'It's called Ikhteraq, which means to penetrate or break through, or tear through, which is a very active, invasive term. It doesn't resonate the same way as public diplomacy.'
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbriefin...06/1716276.htm#
VIA
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...c_diplomac.html
MR. REID'S 'KILL BILL' MOMENT EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 14): Senate minority leader Harry Reid's "real security" amendment to the port-security bill, voted down 57-41, had several useful ideas, like public-diplomacy improvements, which no one can reasonably oppose. But there were also laughers.
http://washingtontimes.com/functions/print...13-085942-8376r
KHATAMI'S PUBLIC DIPLOMACY COUP: A LESSON IN HOW TO DO IT WELL - PATRICIA LEE SHARPE (WHIRLED VIEW, SEPTEMBER 12): Iran's ex-president Mahmoud Khatami, during his visit to the U.S., gave us this week a masterful example of public diplomacy.
http://whirledview.typepad.com/whirledview...mis_public.html
KUWAIT SEES THREE MAJOR THREATS IN MIDDLE EAST KUNA (KUWAIT TIMES, KUWAIT, SEPTEMBER 14): The head of the American Studies Unit at Kuwait University, Dr. Abdullah Al-Shaijy, urged NATO to exert more efforts in the public diplomacy domain to correct its image, which has been perceived as negative by the public opinion and observers in the Gulf region.
http://www.kuwaittimes.net/Navariednews.as...rtid=1793033732
THE MEN WHO WANT KOFI ANNAN'S JOB: KOFI ANNAN WILL STEP DOWN AS UN SECRETARY GENERAL AT THE END OF THE YEAR, AND THE RACE TO SUCCEED HIM IS GATHERING PACE BBC NEWS (SEPTEMBER 14): One of the candidates, India's Shashi Tharoor, the 50-year-old under secretary-general for communications and public information in the UN, is said to be excellent at public diplomacy.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5334820.stm
TORTURE 'R' US [CORRECTIONS DEPARTMENT] TOM ENGELHARDT (NATION, SEPTEMBER 13): Torture is regularly named as such only when the President denies that we do it or that he ordered it.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=121030
TORTURED LOGIC EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 13): The difference between torture and the "alternative procedures" euphemistically called by President Bush for eliciting information from prisoners suspected of being terrorists seems to be who's conducting the interrogation and where it takes place.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/o...la-news-comment
PRISONERS - GEORGE PACKER (NEW YORKER, SEPTEMBER 11): No good intelligence is going to come from abusive practices.
http://www.newyorker.com/printables/talk/0...8ta_talk_packer
STREAM OF CONSCIENCE: WHY IT MATTERS WHAT DEFINITION OF TORTURE WE USE - DAHLIA LITHWICK (SLATE, SEPTEMBER 13)
http://www.slate.com/id/2149564/
AN ALTERNATIVE SET OF INTERROGATION PROCEDURES - JOANNE MARINER (FINDLAW.COM, SEPTEMBER 12/COMMON DREAMS)
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0912-31.htm
THE BATTLE FOR GUANTÁNAMO - TIM GOLDEN (NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, SEPTEMBER 17): What privileges and freedoms the detainees are allowed may come even more into question as the Guantánamo population is winnowed down to a harder core and joined by the most notorious terror suspects captured by the C.I.A.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/magazine...agewanted=print
ENACT THE PRESIDENT'S CODE FOR MILITARY COMMISSIONS: THE MCCAIN/GRAHAM/WARNER OBJECTIONS ARE MERITLESS - ANDREW C. MCCARTHY (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 13): The president's proposal for procedures for terrorist trials would allow us to protect the nation's critical secrets from those pledged to kill us, yet conduct war-crimes trials that easily surpass the modicum of due process owed to terrorists whose atrocities mock the laws of war.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YzM4M...TQ4OTU1OGE5Mjc=
THOSE POOR, POOR TERRORISTS - WILLIAM MURCHISON (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 14): God bless Americans. You won't catch anyone else celebrating the rights of those trying to kill them.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...13-085943-8607r
IS IT THE PR, OR THE POLICY? - BILL BERKOWITZ (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 14): As early as September 2003, less than six months after the invasion of Iraq, the administration determined that the best way to sell its policy was to make its highest ranking officials -- including the president -- available for safe media opportunities.
http://www.antiwar.com/ips/berkowitz.php?articleid=9698
BUSH USES 9/11 SPEECH TO PROMOTE MORE KILLING IN IRAQ - STEPHEN ZUNES (FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS, SEPTEMBER 13/COMMON DREAMS)
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0913-35.htm
TRICKERY CONTINUES ON REASONS FOR WAR - DERRICK Z. JACKSON (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 13): Three and a half years and tens of thousands of bodies after the Great False War in Iraq began, Vice President Dick Cheney still tells us it ?was the right thing to do, and if we had it to do over again, we'd do exactly the same thing."
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...for_war?mode=PF
THE REALITY IN IRAQ - H.D.S. GREENWAY (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 12): The best that can be hoped for is some compromises that will halt Iraq's increasingly vicious civil war.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...in_iraq?mode=PF
THE IRAQ WAR: MISSION IMPOSSIBLE -- AFTER THE WARSAW PACT FELL APART, AMERICANS FELT SAFER THAN EVER. JOLTED BY 9/11, US PRESIDENT BUSH AND HIS ADVISORS RESOLVED TO DETER ANY FUTURE ATTACKS. BUT OUSTING SADDAM HUSSEIN ONLY PUT IRAQ ON THE BRINK OF CIVIL WAR AND EXPOSED THE VULNERABILITY OF THE WORLD'S ONLY SUPERPOWER - HANS HOYNG AND GEORG MASCOLO (SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL, SEPTEMBER 12)
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/internatio...,436560,00.html
WHY WE CAN'T SEND MORE TROOPS - LAWRENCE J. KORB AND PETER OGDEN (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 14): Sending more troops to Iraq would, at the moment, threaten to break our nation's all-volunteer Army and undermine our national security.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1301575_pf.html
UNDERSTANDING WHY IRAQ IS A DISASTER - THOMAS GALE MOORE (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 12): For most Americans, products of the largely secular West, it is hard to understand the depth of feeling that the occupation of an Arab/Muslim country generates among the inhabitants.
http://www.antiwar.com/moore/?articleid=9684
EMERALD CITY EXPOSED: JOURNALIST RAJIV CHANDRASEKARAN PULLS BACK THE CURTAIN ON THE GREEN ZONE IN BAGHDAD TO REVEAL THE FLOPS AND FAILURES OF THE BUSH WAR TEAM - SIDNEY BLUMENTHAL (SALON, SEPTEMBER 13): The Green Zone, according to Chandrasekaran, was "Baghdad's Little America," an insular bubble where Americans went to familiar fast-food joints, watched the latest movies, lived in air-conditioned comfort, had their laundry cleaned and pressed promptly, drove GMC Suburbans and listened to a military FM radio station, "Freedom Radio," that played "classic rock and rah-rah messages."
http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/20...iraq/print.html
BLOOD MONEY IN IRAQ - T. CHRISTIAN MILLER (TOMPAINE.COM, SEPTEMBER 13): Many, if not most, contractors and government officials in Iraq were good people doing a nearly impossible job. That said, Iraq did not have to be the Wild West.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/1...ney_in_iraq.php
IRAN: AHMADINEJAD DECLARES TIES WITH IRAQ 'EXCELLENT': IRANIAN PRESIDENT MAHMUD AHMADINEJAD TODAY PLEDGED TO HELP AUTHORITIES IN NEIGHBORING IRAQ TO STABILIZE THEIR COUNTRY - GOLNAZ ESFANDIARI (RFE/RL, SEPTEMBER 12)
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/...dd2813f25f.html
BACK FROM THE BRINK, IRAN AND THE US MUST NOW BUILD COMITY: ON HIS US TRIP, KHATAMI URGED MILD RHETORIC AND OFFERED A WAY FORWARD ON IRAQ - HELENA COBBAN (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 14)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0914/p09s01-coop.html
TERRORIST NETWORK DISCONNECT - GARETH PORTER (TOMPAINE.COM, SEPTEMBER 13): The real history of the international politics of al-Qaida shows that the Bush administration is being compromised by its ties with countries aligned with the terrorists against Iran.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/1..._disconnect.php
LAND FOR NATO - THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 13): The fact that Condi Rice and the French foreign minister, working with the U.N., were able to secure an international peacekeeping force in south Lebanon is a potentially key achievement.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/13/opini...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
UNESCO SENDS EXPERTS TO ASSESS WAR'S EFFECTS ON LEBANON?S CULTURAL HERITAGE ? UN NEWS CENTRE (SEPTEMBER 11)
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?News...4&Cr=Leban&Cr1=
TURNING AROUND TURKISH OPINION - MONITOR'S VIEW (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 13): In Turkey opinion is also moving swiftly away from familiar ties with the West. Turks are warming significantly to their eastern neighbor, Iran.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0913/p08s02-comv.html
BLAIR ATTACKS EUROPE'S "MAD ANTI - AMERICANS" REUTERS (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPEMBER 13): British Prime Minister Tony Blair launched a withering attack on Thursday on what he called ?mad anti-Americanism" among European politicians.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-s...agewanted=print
LABOR'S LOVE LOST: HOW BRITONS CAME TO HATE TONY BLAIR AND AMERICA, AND WHY THE NEXT PRIME MINISTER WILL PAY THE PRICE - ANDREW BROWN (SALON, SEPTEMBER 13)
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/...lair/print.html
PROPER APPRECIATION FOR THE ANGLO-AMERICAN ALLIANCE: FOR HIS LOYALTY TO THE US, CONGRESS SHOULD GRANT TONY BLAIR HONORARY CITIZENSHIP - JOHN HUGHES (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 13)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0913/p09s01-cojh.html
PAKISTAN'S SEPARATE PEACE: PRESIDENT MUSHARRAF STRIKES A DEAL THAT MAY SPARE HIMSELF AND HIS TROOPS, AT THE LIKELY EXPENSE OF AMERICANS EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 13)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1201691_pf.html
DON'T LOSE SEOUL, AMERICA: THE SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT VISITS BUSH TODAY, AT A TIME WHEN THE TWO COUNTRIES' CRUCIAL ALLIANCE IS SEVERELY WEAKENED - G. JOHN IKENBERRY AND MITCHELL B. REISS (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 13): A self-confident new generation of South Koreans doesn't recall the shared sacrifices of the Korean War and doesn't reflexively defer to the United States.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail
CHINA'S ECHO CHAMBER EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 13): China has long prided itself on its ability to master capitalism without indulging in the messy business of democracy. So Beijing got a twofer this week when it gave the state-run Xinhua news agency monopoly control over the lucrative financial news business and the power to administer broad censorship rules for all foreign news entering China.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/13/opinion/...agewanted=print
BUSH TO HOLD TALKS WITH KAZAKH LEADER ON ALI G'S BORAT TRUTHDIG (SEPTEMBER 13): When the president meets with Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev in Maine, the two will reportedly discuss the way in which Kazakstan?s image has been savaged by the Sacha Baron Cohen character, Borat.
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/ite...bush_ali_borat/
SEE ALSO
http://www.wonkette.com/politics/borat/whi...-war-200416.php
THE FASCIST DISEASE: "ISLAMIC FASCISM" IS AN ACCURATE -- AND IMPORTANT -- TERM - JOSEPH LOCONTE (WEEKLY STANDARD, SEPTEMBER 14)
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/695odaut.asp
ISLAMIC FASCISM: THE NEW HYSTERIA - ALAN MAASS (COUNTERPUNCH, SEPTEMBER 12): The chieftains of the never-ending "war on terror" are peddling a newly updated enemy: "Islamic fascism."
http://www.counterpunch.org/maass09122006.html
THINK AGAIN: IT'S WISE TO CHALLENGE SOME 9-11 ASSUMPTIONS - JUAN COLE (JSONLINE, SEPTEMBER 9): As al-Qaida struggles to strike again, the United States wrestles with a confused war on terror that won't end until Americans are forced to choose between Medicare and missiles.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?i...55&format=print
DON'T TURN WAR ON TERROR TO CIVILIZATION CLASH LIU XUECHENG (PEOPLE?S DAILY, BEIJING, SEPTEMBER 13)
http://english.people.com.cn/200609/13/eng...913_302465.html
IS AL-QAIDA DEFEATED? - STEVE CHAPMAN (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 13): Five years on from the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the most striking event is the one that didn't occur. There has been no attack on American soil linked to Osama bin Laden and his colleagues.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
SUBVERTING DEMOCRACY WITH THE BIG LIE - ROBERT SCHEER (TRUTHDIG, SEPTEMBER 13/COMMON DREAMS): If this 'war on terror' is really so important to the worldwide battle for freedom, why have we allowed this democracy-mocking demagogue to lead us through it?
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0913-34.htm
THERE IS NO WAR ON TERROR - ROBERT DREYFUSS (TOMPAINE, SEPTEMBER 13): After 9/11, the Bush administration launched an open-ended war on an ambiguous enemy ("terror") while offering the nation no definition of what victory would look like.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/1...r_on_terror.php
"VICTORY WOULD BE A FATA MORGANA": FORMER US NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI DISCUSSES THE ERRORS COMMITTED BY THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IN ITS WAR ON TERROR, THE DISASTROUS CAMPAIGN IN IRAQ, AND THE RISKS OF A GLOBAL UPRISING AGAINST INEQUALITY ? INTERVIEW (SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL, SEPTEMBER 12)
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/internatio...,436607,00.html
FEAR WILL KEEP THEM IN LINE ... FEAR OF THIS DEATH RAY - WONKETTE (SEPTEMBER 13): 'The latest victory plan in the War On Terror comes from the Bush Administration's mole at the Air Force, Secretary Michael W. Wynne. And it's sure to succeed! Wynne wants to use 'non lethal weapons' on civilian populations ... in the United States! It gets better. Wynne actually announced that the Pentagon should 'test' these death-ray machines on Americans in 'crowd-control situations.'
http://www.wonkette.com/politics/terrorism...-ray-200396.php
WHY THEY HATE OUR MOVIES HOWARD SUBER (HUFFINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 13): What American movies are selling is the Unstated State Religion of America: Individualism -- the belief that the most important power in the world lies within each person.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howard-suber...html?view=print
CAN CONDI COMEUP TO CAMBRIDGE? - PAUL BEDARD (U.S. WORLD & NEWS REPORT, SEPTEMBER 10): Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former provost of Stanford, the so-called Harvard of the West, is one of the two leading choices to replace Larry Summers as Harvard president.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/whis...whisplead_2.htm
'WHERE ARE THE MOTHERS ORGANIZING AGAINST TERRORISM AS AMERICAN MOTHERS DID AGAINST DRUNKEN DRIVING?'
--Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes, in her 'here's the Outrage? A United World Must Resolutely Condemn Terror?'(USA Today, September 12)
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/...three12.art.htm
"I'M A NEOCONSERVATIVE WHO'S BEEN MUGGED BY REALITY."
--John Agresto, the president of St. John's College in Santa Fe, N.M., who came to Iraq to build a whole new university system and left having accomplished almost nothing; cited in Sidney Blumenthal, "Emerald City Exposed" (Salon, September 13)
http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/20...iraq/print.html
WHERE'S THE OUTRAGE? A UNITED WORLD MUST RESOLUTELY CONDEMN TERROR KAREN HUGHES (USA TODAY, SEPTEMBER 12): "I believe most of us hope that terrorism is an aberration. Unfortunately, I do not believe it is true. Part of my job is to look at the propaganda being spread on Internet sites and TV sets around the world. It is chilling. ... Our challenge is to launch a new grassroots movement across all faiths and continents, a movement that clearly states that no grievance, no complaint, no matter how legitimate, can ever justify the targeting and killing of innocent civilians'
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/...three12.art.htm
SEE ALSO
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1200770_pf.html
(scroll down link for item, "Where's the Outrage?")
http://www.republicansocialtheatre.com/200...you-mad-people/
http://www.extrememortman.com/foreign-poli...blic-diplomacy/
http://www.mountainrunner.us/2006/09/wheres_the_outr.html
http://cheatseekingmissiles.blogspot.com/2...-to-terror.html
http://www.isthatlegal.org/archives/2006/0...a_never_ag.html
WHITE HOUSE TALK - DAN FROOMKIN (Q & A, WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 13): 'Danville, Ill.: Does anyone know what Karen Hughes is doing? Other than writing op-eds for USA Today? Dan Froomkin: What she's not doing, I'm betting, is having much influence on her good friend George anymore. Her job at the State Department is to win over the Islamic world, and he isn't giving her much to work with.'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1601290_pf.html
BUSH'S LAME JUSTIFICATION FOR IRAQ - HELEN THOMAS (FALLS CHURCH NEWS PRESS, VA, SEPTEMBER 14): Karen Hughes -- the president's close confidante -- has been given the impossible mission of making friends for the U.S. in the Middle East. She will fail in this mission unless U.S. foreign policy is transformed.
http://www.fcnp.com/index.php?option=com_c...d=217&Itemid=35
SLIP SLIDING AWAY - JOHN ZOGBY (DAILY NEWS, SEPTEMBER 7): 'I had the privilege of serving on the congressionally-created Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy with several distinguished colleagues in 2003. The commission did an admirable job -- but our mandate did not include any discussion of U.S. policy in the region. And that is an unfortunate blind spot -- because it is America's policy that remains the core problem.'
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opin...2p-378743c.html
A NARRATIVE FOR A LONG WAR OPINION SHAPERS IN WASHINGTON WORRY THAT THEY ARE LOSING THE WAR OF IDEAS WITH THE JIHADISTS. BUT ARE THEY? - REPORTER: STAN CORREY (AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION): Among those interviewed are Marc Lynch, John Rendon, Kylie Morris, Faisal Devji, William Mccants, Steven Corman, Ted Sorensen, Adel Iskandar, John Brown. Stan Correy: 'What is the Arabic term for public diplomacy?' Adel Iskandar [communications specialist from the American University in Washington, D.C]: 'It's called Ikhteraq, which means to penetrate or break through, or tear through, which is a very active, invasive term. It doesn't resonate the same way as public diplomacy.'
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbriefin...06/1716276.htm#
VIA
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...c_diplomac.html
MR. REID'S 'KILL BILL' MOMENT EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 14): Senate minority leader Harry Reid's "real security" amendment to the port-security bill, voted down 57-41, had several useful ideas, like public-diplomacy improvements, which no one can reasonably oppose. But there were also laughers.
http://washingtontimes.com/functions/print...13-085942-8376r
KHATAMI'S PUBLIC DIPLOMACY COUP: A LESSON IN HOW TO DO IT WELL - PATRICIA LEE SHARPE (WHIRLED VIEW, SEPTEMBER 12): Iran's ex-president Mahmoud Khatami, during his visit to the U.S., gave us this week a masterful example of public diplomacy.
http://whirledview.typepad.com/whirledview...mis_public.html
KUWAIT SEES THREE MAJOR THREATS IN MIDDLE EAST KUNA (KUWAIT TIMES, KUWAIT, SEPTEMBER 14): The head of the American Studies Unit at Kuwait University, Dr. Abdullah Al-Shaijy, urged NATO to exert more efforts in the public diplomacy domain to correct its image, which has been perceived as negative by the public opinion and observers in the Gulf region.
http://www.kuwaittimes.net/Navariednews.as...rtid=1793033732
THE MEN WHO WANT KOFI ANNAN'S JOB: KOFI ANNAN WILL STEP DOWN AS UN SECRETARY GENERAL AT THE END OF THE YEAR, AND THE RACE TO SUCCEED HIM IS GATHERING PACE BBC NEWS (SEPTEMBER 14): One of the candidates, India's Shashi Tharoor, the 50-year-old under secretary-general for communications and public information in the UN, is said to be excellent at public diplomacy.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5334820.stm
TORTURE 'R' US [CORRECTIONS DEPARTMENT] TOM ENGELHARDT (NATION, SEPTEMBER 13): Torture is regularly named as such only when the President denies that we do it or that he ordered it.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=121030
TORTURED LOGIC EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 13): The difference between torture and the "alternative procedures" euphemistically called by President Bush for eliciting information from prisoners suspected of being terrorists seems to be who's conducting the interrogation and where it takes place.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/o...la-news-comment
PRISONERS - GEORGE PACKER (NEW YORKER, SEPTEMBER 11): No good intelligence is going to come from abusive practices.
http://www.newyorker.com/printables/talk/0...8ta_talk_packer
STREAM OF CONSCIENCE: WHY IT MATTERS WHAT DEFINITION OF TORTURE WE USE - DAHLIA LITHWICK (SLATE, SEPTEMBER 13)
http://www.slate.com/id/2149564/
AN ALTERNATIVE SET OF INTERROGATION PROCEDURES - JOANNE MARINER (FINDLAW.COM, SEPTEMBER 12/COMMON DREAMS)
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0912-31.htm
THE BATTLE FOR GUANTÁNAMO - TIM GOLDEN (NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, SEPTEMBER 17): What privileges and freedoms the detainees are allowed may come even more into question as the Guantánamo population is winnowed down to a harder core and joined by the most notorious terror suspects captured by the C.I.A.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/magazine...agewanted=print
ENACT THE PRESIDENT'S CODE FOR MILITARY COMMISSIONS: THE MCCAIN/GRAHAM/WARNER OBJECTIONS ARE MERITLESS - ANDREW C. MCCARTHY (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 13): The president's proposal for procedures for terrorist trials would allow us to protect the nation's critical secrets from those pledged to kill us, yet conduct war-crimes trials that easily surpass the modicum of due process owed to terrorists whose atrocities mock the laws of war.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YzM4M...TQ4OTU1OGE5Mjc=
THOSE POOR, POOR TERRORISTS - WILLIAM MURCHISON (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 14): God bless Americans. You won't catch anyone else celebrating the rights of those trying to kill them.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...13-085943-8607r
IS IT THE PR, OR THE POLICY? - BILL BERKOWITZ (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 14): As early as September 2003, less than six months after the invasion of Iraq, the administration determined that the best way to sell its policy was to make its highest ranking officials -- including the president -- available for safe media opportunities.
http://www.antiwar.com/ips/berkowitz.php?articleid=9698
BUSH USES 9/11 SPEECH TO PROMOTE MORE KILLING IN IRAQ - STEPHEN ZUNES (FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS, SEPTEMBER 13/COMMON DREAMS)
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0913-35.htm
TRICKERY CONTINUES ON REASONS FOR WAR - DERRICK Z. JACKSON (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 13): Three and a half years and tens of thousands of bodies after the Great False War in Iraq began, Vice President Dick Cheney still tells us it ?was the right thing to do, and if we had it to do over again, we'd do exactly the same thing."
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...for_war?mode=PF
THE REALITY IN IRAQ - H.D.S. GREENWAY (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 12): The best that can be hoped for is some compromises that will halt Iraq's increasingly vicious civil war.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...in_iraq?mode=PF
THE IRAQ WAR: MISSION IMPOSSIBLE -- AFTER THE WARSAW PACT FELL APART, AMERICANS FELT SAFER THAN EVER. JOLTED BY 9/11, US PRESIDENT BUSH AND HIS ADVISORS RESOLVED TO DETER ANY FUTURE ATTACKS. BUT OUSTING SADDAM HUSSEIN ONLY PUT IRAQ ON THE BRINK OF CIVIL WAR AND EXPOSED THE VULNERABILITY OF THE WORLD'S ONLY SUPERPOWER - HANS HOYNG AND GEORG MASCOLO (SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL, SEPTEMBER 12)
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/internatio...,436560,00.html
WHY WE CAN'T SEND MORE TROOPS - LAWRENCE J. KORB AND PETER OGDEN (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 14): Sending more troops to Iraq would, at the moment, threaten to break our nation's all-volunteer Army and undermine our national security.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1301575_pf.html
UNDERSTANDING WHY IRAQ IS A DISASTER - THOMAS GALE MOORE (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 12): For most Americans, products of the largely secular West, it is hard to understand the depth of feeling that the occupation of an Arab/Muslim country generates among the inhabitants.
http://www.antiwar.com/moore/?articleid=9684
EMERALD CITY EXPOSED: JOURNALIST RAJIV CHANDRASEKARAN PULLS BACK THE CURTAIN ON THE GREEN ZONE IN BAGHDAD TO REVEAL THE FLOPS AND FAILURES OF THE BUSH WAR TEAM - SIDNEY BLUMENTHAL (SALON, SEPTEMBER 13): The Green Zone, according to Chandrasekaran, was "Baghdad's Little America," an insular bubble where Americans went to familiar fast-food joints, watched the latest movies, lived in air-conditioned comfort, had their laundry cleaned and pressed promptly, drove GMC Suburbans and listened to a military FM radio station, "Freedom Radio," that played "classic rock and rah-rah messages."
http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/20...iraq/print.html
BLOOD MONEY IN IRAQ - T. CHRISTIAN MILLER (TOMPAINE.COM, SEPTEMBER 13): Many, if not most, contractors and government officials in Iraq were good people doing a nearly impossible job. That said, Iraq did not have to be the Wild West.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/1...ney_in_iraq.php
IRAN: AHMADINEJAD DECLARES TIES WITH IRAQ 'EXCELLENT': IRANIAN PRESIDENT MAHMUD AHMADINEJAD TODAY PLEDGED TO HELP AUTHORITIES IN NEIGHBORING IRAQ TO STABILIZE THEIR COUNTRY - GOLNAZ ESFANDIARI (RFE/RL, SEPTEMBER 12)
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/...dd2813f25f.html
BACK FROM THE BRINK, IRAN AND THE US MUST NOW BUILD COMITY: ON HIS US TRIP, KHATAMI URGED MILD RHETORIC AND OFFERED A WAY FORWARD ON IRAQ - HELENA COBBAN (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 14)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0914/p09s01-coop.html
TERRORIST NETWORK DISCONNECT - GARETH PORTER (TOMPAINE.COM, SEPTEMBER 13): The real history of the international politics of al-Qaida shows that the Bush administration is being compromised by its ties with countries aligned with the terrorists against Iran.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/1..._disconnect.php
LAND FOR NATO - THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 13): The fact that Condi Rice and the French foreign minister, working with the U.N., were able to secure an international peacekeeping force in south Lebanon is a potentially key achievement.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/13/opini...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
UNESCO SENDS EXPERTS TO ASSESS WAR'S EFFECTS ON LEBANON?S CULTURAL HERITAGE ? UN NEWS CENTRE (SEPTEMBER 11)
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?News...4&Cr=Leban&Cr1=
TURNING AROUND TURKISH OPINION - MONITOR'S VIEW (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 13): In Turkey opinion is also moving swiftly away from familiar ties with the West. Turks are warming significantly to their eastern neighbor, Iran.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0913/p08s02-comv.html
BLAIR ATTACKS EUROPE'S "MAD ANTI - AMERICANS" REUTERS (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPEMBER 13): British Prime Minister Tony Blair launched a withering attack on Thursday on what he called ?mad anti-Americanism" among European politicians.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-s...agewanted=print
LABOR'S LOVE LOST: HOW BRITONS CAME TO HATE TONY BLAIR AND AMERICA, AND WHY THE NEXT PRIME MINISTER WILL PAY THE PRICE - ANDREW BROWN (SALON, SEPTEMBER 13)
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/...lair/print.html
PROPER APPRECIATION FOR THE ANGLO-AMERICAN ALLIANCE: FOR HIS LOYALTY TO THE US, CONGRESS SHOULD GRANT TONY BLAIR HONORARY CITIZENSHIP - JOHN HUGHES (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 13)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0913/p09s01-cojh.html
PAKISTAN'S SEPARATE PEACE: PRESIDENT MUSHARRAF STRIKES A DEAL THAT MAY SPARE HIMSELF AND HIS TROOPS, AT THE LIKELY EXPENSE OF AMERICANS EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 13)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1201691_pf.html
DON'T LOSE SEOUL, AMERICA: THE SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT VISITS BUSH TODAY, AT A TIME WHEN THE TWO COUNTRIES' CRUCIAL ALLIANCE IS SEVERELY WEAKENED - G. JOHN IKENBERRY AND MITCHELL B. REISS (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 13): A self-confident new generation of South Koreans doesn't recall the shared sacrifices of the Korean War and doesn't reflexively defer to the United States.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail
CHINA'S ECHO CHAMBER EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 13): China has long prided itself on its ability to master capitalism without indulging in the messy business of democracy. So Beijing got a twofer this week when it gave the state-run Xinhua news agency monopoly control over the lucrative financial news business and the power to administer broad censorship rules for all foreign news entering China.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/13/opinion/...agewanted=print
BUSH TO HOLD TALKS WITH KAZAKH LEADER ON ALI G'S BORAT TRUTHDIG (SEPTEMBER 13): When the president meets with Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev in Maine, the two will reportedly discuss the way in which Kazakstan?s image has been savaged by the Sacha Baron Cohen character, Borat.
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/ite...bush_ali_borat/
SEE ALSO
http://www.wonkette.com/politics/borat/whi...-war-200416.php
THE FASCIST DISEASE: "ISLAMIC FASCISM" IS AN ACCURATE -- AND IMPORTANT -- TERM - JOSEPH LOCONTE (WEEKLY STANDARD, SEPTEMBER 14)
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/695odaut.asp
ISLAMIC FASCISM: THE NEW HYSTERIA - ALAN MAASS (COUNTERPUNCH, SEPTEMBER 12): The chieftains of the never-ending "war on terror" are peddling a newly updated enemy: "Islamic fascism."
http://www.counterpunch.org/maass09122006.html
THINK AGAIN: IT'S WISE TO CHALLENGE SOME 9-11 ASSUMPTIONS - JUAN COLE (JSONLINE, SEPTEMBER 9): As al-Qaida struggles to strike again, the United States wrestles with a confused war on terror that won't end until Americans are forced to choose between Medicare and missiles.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?i...55&format=print
DON'T TURN WAR ON TERROR TO CIVILIZATION CLASH LIU XUECHENG (PEOPLE?S DAILY, BEIJING, SEPTEMBER 13)
http://english.people.com.cn/200609/13/eng...913_302465.html
IS AL-QAIDA DEFEATED? - STEVE CHAPMAN (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 13): Five years on from the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the most striking event is the one that didn't occur. There has been no attack on American soil linked to Osama bin Laden and his colleagues.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
SUBVERTING DEMOCRACY WITH THE BIG LIE - ROBERT SCHEER (TRUTHDIG, SEPTEMBER 13/COMMON DREAMS): If this 'war on terror' is really so important to the worldwide battle for freedom, why have we allowed this democracy-mocking demagogue to lead us through it?
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0913-34.htm
THERE IS NO WAR ON TERROR - ROBERT DREYFUSS (TOMPAINE, SEPTEMBER 13): After 9/11, the Bush administration launched an open-ended war on an ambiguous enemy ("terror") while offering the nation no definition of what victory would look like.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/1...r_on_terror.php
"VICTORY WOULD BE A FATA MORGANA": FORMER US NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI DISCUSSES THE ERRORS COMMITTED BY THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IN ITS WAR ON TERROR, THE DISASTROUS CAMPAIGN IN IRAQ, AND THE RISKS OF A GLOBAL UPRISING AGAINST INEQUALITY ? INTERVIEW (SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL, SEPTEMBER 12)
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/internatio...,436607,00.html
FEAR WILL KEEP THEM IN LINE ... FEAR OF THIS DEATH RAY - WONKETTE (SEPTEMBER 13): 'The latest victory plan in the War On Terror comes from the Bush Administration's mole at the Air Force, Secretary Michael W. Wynne. And it's sure to succeed! Wynne wants to use 'non lethal weapons' on civilian populations ... in the United States! It gets better. Wynne actually announced that the Pentagon should 'test' these death-ray machines on Americans in 'crowd-control situations.'
http://www.wonkette.com/politics/terrorism...-ray-200396.php
WHY THEY HATE OUR MOVIES HOWARD SUBER (HUFFINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 13): What American movies are selling is the Unstated State Religion of America: Individualism -- the belief that the most important power in the world lies within each person.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howard-suber...html?view=print
CAN CONDI COMEUP TO CAMBRIDGE? - PAUL BEDARD (U.S. WORLD & NEWS REPORT, SEPTEMBER 10): Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former provost of Stanford, the so-called Harvard of the West, is one of the two leading choices to replace Larry Summers as Harvard president.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/whis...whisplead_2.htm
QUOTATIONS FOR THE DAY
'I FELT A SENSE OF DETERMINATION AND CONVICTION ABOUT DOING EVERYTHING THAT IS NECESSARY TO PROJECT THE PEOPLE.'
--President George W. Bush; cited in 'Transcript: President Bush's News Conference' (New York Times, September 15)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/washingt...agewanted=print
BUSH'S MESSAGE TO IRAN - DAVID IGNATIUS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 15): 'I asked Bush what next steps he would favor in opening dialogue with Iran. 'I would like to see more cultural exchanges,' he said. 'I would like to see university exchanges. I would like to see more people-to-people exchanges.?"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1401415_pf.html
FIRST LADY, GLOBAL MISSION - MARK SILVA (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 16): The first lady's office is already deeply involved in promoting Laura Bush as "the face of public diplomacy.' The first lady is able to highlight U.S. initiatives abroad that represent an American commitment to solving some of the world's problems -- chief among them: Illiteracy, public health and a lack of women's rights in many nations.
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_t..._lady_glob.html
WILLIE HORTON REDUX: KAREN HUGHES BREAKS HER SILENCE ? JOHN BROWN (PRWATCH.ORG, CENTER FOR MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2006): What Hughes's narrow-minded politicking article in USA Today -- far being from a noble call for a United World -- really reflects is what at heart has been the main problem of the administration's public diplomacy from the very day George W. Bush assumed the presidential office: that he and his provincial cohorts have no real interest in the outside world except as a extension of domestic politics.
http://www.prwatch.org/node/5176
SEE ALSO
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/9/15/115935/861
CRUSADER CODPIECE DIGBY (HULLABALOO, SEPTEMBER 14): The administration and its allies succumb to bin Laden's taunts when it comes to important matters of policy and then turn around and overtly help bin Laden recruit terrorists with ridiculous rhetoric about Great Awakenings and the war on terror. (Meanwhile, he's got his inane undersecretary of state for public diplomacy running around the mid-east talking about her experiences being a suburban soccer mom.)
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2006_09_01_...820954229994577
(scroll down link for item)
THE FAR ENEMY BILLMON (WHISKEY BAR: FREE THINKING IN A DIRTY GLASS, SEPTEMBER 14): Instead of using public diplomacy to highlight and, where possible, promote the enormous diversity of Islam, the Cheneyites are now doing precisely the opposite. They're conjuring up the spectre of a vast, monolithic and powerful Islamic fundamentalist movement, implacably hostile to the West.
http://billmon.org/archives/002726.html
NEW POLL ON PENTAGON'S ROLE IN PUBLIC DIPLOMACY: WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT RUNNING AMERICA'S PUBLIC DIPLOMACY EFFORTS? - (MOUNTAIN RUNNER BLOG, SEPTEMBER 15). The blog seeks readers' views on this question.
http://www.mountainrunner.us/2006/09/new_poll_on_pen.html
THE STORY ON IRAN: SUSPECTING THE AMERICAN MEDIA AREN'T PORTRAYING AN ACCURATE PICTURE OF LIFE INSIDE IRAN, A RETIRED HONOLULU JOURNALIST SET OUT TO GET A FIRST-HAND LOOK AT LIFE IN THE SO-CALLED "AXIS OF EVIL" NATION - WEBSTER NOLAN (HONOLULU STAR-BULLETIN, HI, SEPTEMBER 17): The Iranian president, like the U.S. president, needs to acquire some skills in public diplomacy.
http://starbulletin.com/2006/09/17/editorial/special.html
THERES NOTHING NEW ABOUT KOREA' 'NEW' ANTI-AMERICANISM - JOSHUA (KOREA LIBERATOR, SEPTEMBER 16): 'Some have tried to popularize the idea that anti-Americanism is a new development in Korea, either to tie it to policies with which they disagree, or to inflate their own sense of importance. ... If I blame anyone, I blame our diplomats ... for not conducting public diplomacy.'
http://www.korealiberator.org/2006/09/16/t...ti-americanism/
SIZING UP WHERE THE US STANDS, 5 YEARS AFTER 9/11 (ECCENTRIC STAR, SEPTEMBER 11)
http://eccentricstar.typepad.com/public_di...g_up_where.html
THEATER OF WAR [REVIEW OF FRANK RICH'S 'THE GREATEST STORY EVER SOLD?] - IAN BURUMA (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 17): What is fascinating about the era of George W. Bush is that the spinmeisters, fake news reporters, photo-op creators, disinformation experts, intelligence manipulators, fictional heroes and public relations men posing as commentators operate in a world where virtual reality has already threatened to eclipse empirical investigation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/books/re...agewanted=print
PRESIDENTIAL PR: LOST IN THE BUSH SPIN CYCLE - RAMZY BAROUD: (COUNTERPUNCH, SEPTEMBER 15) Instead of facing up to its mistakes, the administration has labored to lie about the initial motives, change the objectives whenever suitable, and play on the fear factor, adamantly trying to terrify an already vulnerable and fear-stricken public.
http://www.counterpunch.org/baroud09152006.html
POPE: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OSAMA! MANY HAPPY RETURNS! MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, SEPTEMBER 15): Where earlier this year al-Qaeda Central seemed a bit slow on the uptake (it took Zawahiri over a month to weigh in on the Danish cartoons), it is now releasing a flood of videos and tapes of dizzying variety.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...happy_birt.html
TERRORISTS RELEASE "TRAINING" VIDEO GAME: "NIGHT OF BUSH CAPTURING" WONKETTE (SEPTEMBER 15)
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/184656.php
HOW TO PLAY HARDBALL - MORTIMER B. ZUCKERMAN (U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, SEPTEMBER 17): Surely it must be possible to work out a formula that enables our government to protect us against a "ticking bomb" terrorist who has information that could save many innocents from imminent danger but who refuses to divulge it.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/artic...0917/25edit.htm
COMMENTARY: THE WEEKEND INTERVIEW -- REAR ADM. HARRY HARRIS: WAR INSIDE THE WIRE - JAMES TARANTO (WALL STREET JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 16): Far from being held "beyond the laws of civilized nations" -- laws that terrorists, by definition, reject -- the detainees at Guantanamo enjoy a panoply of procedural protections.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1158...0867165122.html
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
GENEVA CONTENTION REVIEW & OUTLOOK (WALL STREET JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 18): If Senators John McCain, John Warner, Lindsey Graham and Susan Collins get their way, they will make it impossible for any government agency to squeeze the next al Qaeda terrorist who may have information about a ticking bomb in an American city.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1158...4150865804.html
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PLEASE, EXPLAIN, SEN. MCCAIN EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 16): Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee John McCain should explain why he is endangering a vital interrogation program that has saved many American lives.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...15-090717-1667r
LISTEN TO MCCAIN AND POWELL EDITORIAL (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 17): The Bush administration often argues that many of those who reject its policies in the war on terrorism are not serious about protecting the nation -- and in some cases, it has a point. But that argument can't be deployed against many of the chief critics of its proposals addressing the treatment of detainees held in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...newsopinion-hed
REBELLING AGAINST TORTURE AND BUSH - ROBERT KUTTNER (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 26): Republican Senators John McCain, John Warner, and Lindsey Graham are bravely resisting the Bush administration's insane doctrine that the United States should become the first signatory government to take exceptions to the Geneva agreements on humane treatment of prisoners.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...nd_bush?mode=PF
CALL CRUELTY WHAT IT IS - TOM MALINOWSKI (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 18): President Bush is urging Congress to let the CIA keep using "alternative" interrogation procedures, techniques which he insists are not torture.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1700516_pf.html
NO RUBBER STAMP FOR BUSH: THE PRESIDENT DESERVES EVEN MORE RESISTANCE TO HIS METHOD OF WAGING WAR ON TERROR ? EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 17): On the treatment of detainees, the president has been especially disingenuous.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-...pinion-leftrail
KING OF PAIN - PAUL KRUGMAN (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 18): Torture appeals to the president and the vice president precisely because it's a violation of both law and tradition.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/18/opini...agewanted=print
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THE KAFKA STRATEGY - BOB HERBERT (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 18): The reason President Bush has been trying so frantically to get Congressional passage of his plan to interrogate and try terror suspects is that he needs its contorted interpretations of the law to keep important cases from falling apart, and to cover the collective keisters of higher-ups who may have authorized or condoned war crimes.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/18/opini...agewanted=print
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THE VIEW FROM GUANTÁNAMO - ABU BAKKER QASSIM (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 16): 'Tirana, Albania. I have been greatly saddened to hear that the Congress of the United States, a country I deeply admire, is considering new laws that would deny prisoners at Guantánamo Bay the right to challenge their detentions in federal court.'
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/opinion/...agewanted=print
STAMPEDING CONGRESS EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 15): Stampeded by the fear of looking weak on terrorism, lawmakers are rushing to pass a bill demanded by the president that would have minimal impact on antiterrorist operations but could cause profound damage to justice and the American way.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/opinion/...agewanted=print
TORTURE AND THE CONTENT OF OUR CHARACTER - JEREMY BRECHER & BRENDAN SMITH (NATION, SEPTEMBER 15): By revealing recently that the government had been holding captives in secret jails and aims to try them at Guantánamo Bay, Bush and his advisers signaled that they are clearly hoping for an upswell of public support for Republicans who are "tough on terror."
http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20061002&s=brecher
A LICENSE TO ABUSE: MR. BUSH SAYS HE HAS "ONE QUESTION" FOR CONGRESS. THE RIGHT ANSWER TO IT IS "NO" EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 17): News that the United States has used torture techniques has gravely damaged U.S. standing in the world and the fight against terrorism.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1600587_pf.html
DERELICT ON DETAINEES - AZIZ HUQ (TOMPAINE.COM, SEPTEMBER 15): The Warner Bill (also backed By Sens. Mccain and Graham) contains provisions that seem to delegate to the president sweeping detention powers that would permit the administration to bury the fact that it has swallowed up tens or hundreds of people during its counterterrorism operations who have little or no connection to actual terrorism.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/1...n_detainees.php
U.S. WARTIME PRISON NETWORK GROWS INTO LEGAL VACUUM FOR 14,000: 'I LIVED WITH THE AMERICANS FOR ONE YEAR AND EIGHT MONTHS AS IF I WAS LIVING IN HELL' - ASSOCIATED PRESS (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 17): Captured on battlefields, pulled from beds at midnight, grabbed off streets as suspected insurgents, tens of thousands now have passed through U.S. detention, the vast majority in Iraq.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationwor...world-headlines
IRAQ WAR'S SIGNATURE WOUND: BRAIN INJURY - JORDAN ROBERTSON, ASSOCIATED PRESS (SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, SEPTEMBER 15)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/111...n_Injuries.html
U.S. MILITARY HOLDS AP PHOTOGRAPHER IN IRAQ FOR 5 MONTHS: MAN WAS ACCUSED OF BEING A SECURITY THREAT - ROBERT TANNER, ASSOCIATED PRESS (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 17)
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bal-photo...-home-headlines
FORTUNE CHANGES FOR IRAQ STREET: IN CITY KNOWN FOR ITS LOVE FOR BOOKS, GUARDIANS OF LITERARY TRADITION ARE FORCED TO SHUT DOWN SHOP - SUDARSAN RAGHAVAN (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 18)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6091700695.html
THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ: U.S. FRUSTRATED BY PACE OF CHANGE IN IRAQ -- OFFICIALS PRAISE MANY OF PRIME MINISTER MALIKI'S GOALS, INCLUDING QUELLING MILITIAS. BUT HIS POLITICAL TIES MAKE IT DIFFICULT FOR HIM TO PURSUE THAT AIM - PAUL RICHTER (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 16)
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wa...1,2083725.story
WHERE IRAQ ITSELF FINDS HOPE - BARHAM SALIH (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 17): We Iraqis must recognize that it is up to us to resolve our problems. Outsiders cannot deliver for us. (The writer is deputy prime minister of Iraq.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1501067_pf.html
DESPITE THE MESS, WE CAN'T LEAVE NOW - TRUDY RUBIN (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 15): What President Bush has neglected to say is that Americans face a bitter choice produced by the mess the White House has made: Pull out U.S. troops soon and face certain disaster, or leave them in to enforce a policy that is failing. There is, of course, a third choice: Change a failed U.S. policy.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
THE RIGHT TROOPS IN THE RIGHT PLACES - SETH MOULTON (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 15): Pushing for withdrawal timelines is not helping the struggle in Iraq; encouraging the military to better fight the insurgency will. After all, winning the war would be the best reason to leave.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/opinion/...agewanted=print
THE LONGER THE WAR, THE LARGER THE LIES - FRANK RICH (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 17): We don?t have any more troops, and supporters of the war, starting with Mr. Bush, don?t want to ask American voters to make any sacrifices to provide them.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/opini...agewanted=print
WHAT TO TALK ABOUT WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT IRAQ SUZANNE NOSSEL (SEPTEMBER 17): Favoring the continued prosecution of the war gives a blank check to a team that had led us into disaster, and promises only more of the same.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/suzanne-noss...-y_b_29650.html
PERMISSION TO SPEAK FREELY: THE [FILM] GROUND TRUTH IS A VITAL DEBRIEFING ABOUT IRAQ - DANA STEVENS (SLATE, SEPTEMBER 15)
http://www.slate.com/id/2149691/
VIRTUALLY DEAD IN IRAQ: TO PROTEST THE WAR IN IRAQ, A MEDIA ARTIST INFILTRATES THE U.S. ARMY'S POPULAR ONLINE VIDEO GAME AND GETS HIMSELF SHOT. WHILE ANGRY GAMERS, SOLDIERS AND EVEN SOME PEACE ACTIVISTS CALL HIM A NUISANCE, OTHERS SAY HIS MESSAGE HITS HOME - REBECCA CLARREN (SALON, SEPTEMBER 16)
http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2006/09/1...army/print.html
AT PLAY IN IRAN'S BACKYARD EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 17): Even while Iran's supreme leader was telling Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki that Iraq's stability requires the departure of US troops, the specter of Iranian dominance appears to be one more reason why Bush is not extricating America from Iraq.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...ackyard?mode=PF
THE TEHRAN CALCULUS - CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 15): As its weak, nonnuclear Persian Gulf neighbors accommodate to it, jihadist Iran will gain control of the most strategic region on the globe.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1401413_pf.html
VIEW FROM AMERICA: THE NEXT CATASTROPHE WAITING - JONATHAN S. TOBIN (JERUSALEM POST, SEPTEMBER 16): At some point, whether in the last years of the George W. Bush administration or in the term of his successor, an American president is going to have to face his people with the distasteful proposition of either letting the lunatics in Iran go nuclear or taking drastic action that might include military force.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...ticle%2FPrinter
EDITOR'S NOTES: MIRI EISIN TAKES ON THE WORLD DAVID HOROWITZ (JERUSALEM POST, SEPTEMBER 14): Interview with Miri Eisin, "Foreign Press & Public Affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister" of Israel.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...ticle%2FPrinter
NEOCONS AMID LEBANON'S RUBBLE: A CHALLENGE TO KRAUTHAMMER'S ISRAEL-AS-STRATEGIC-ASSET ARGUMENT - LEON HADAR (NATIONAL INTEREST, SEPTEMBER 14): One of the main casualties of the latest crisis in the Middle East has been another favorite neoconservative paradigm, according to which the United States should regard Israel as a major "strategic asset" in the Middle East, which in turn is rooted in a neoconservative axiom of sort, that what is good for Israel's strategic interest is good for America and vice versa.
http://www.nationalinterest.org/Article.aspx?id=12062
PEACE FROM WEAKNESS EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 16): Since the disasters of the recent war in Lebanon are so plain to see, the local actors should not be allowed to go on careening from one tragedy to the next. At one time or another, past US predecessors have tried to play the role of mediator, and the time has come for President Bush to take that risk as well.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...eakness?mode=PF
A REAL TEST FOR THE PALESTINIANS EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 18): Hamas's admission of weakness could provide at least a chance to quell the violence and resuscitate peace talks. The Bush administration should not squander the opportunity.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/18/opinion/...agewanted=print
AN ENDLESS VACUUM IN THE MIDDLE EAST: WHY THERE'S NO JUMP-STARTING THE PEACE PROCESS - JACKSON DIEHL (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 18): Both Olmert's government and the Bush administration know that this would be the ideal moment to put a new, game-changing plan on the table. But as a visit to Washington last week by Olmert's foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, made clear, they haven't got one.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1700543_pf.html
SYRIA, US SHROUDED IN THE FOG OF WAR - SAMI MOUBAYED (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 15): Washington might disagree with Damascus on particular issues related to Palestine, Iraq or Lebanon, but in the "war on terror,"Syria and the United States have common interests.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HI15Ak01.html
AFGHAN GOVERNMENT FAILURE REOPENS DOOR TO THE TALIBAN: ANALYSTS SAY U.S. FOCUS ON IRAQ IS HURTING MISSION, ALLOWING INSURGENCY TO GROW
- ANNA BADKHEN (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, SEPTEMBER 17)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...&type=printable
IN AFGHANISTAN, DISENCHANTED PUBLIC PROVIDES OPENING FOR TALIBAN ? (ECCENTRIC STAR, SEPTEMBER 16)
http://eccentricstar.typepad.com/public_di...ghanistan_.html
TALK TO THE TALIBAN - GREG MILLS (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 18)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/18/opinion/...agewanted=print
LET THEM DRINK COKE!: LOSING HEARTS AND MINDS IN AFGHANISTAN - BRIAN CLOUGHLEY (COUNTERPUNCH, SEPTEMBER 16/17): Three quarters of Afghans drink filthy water -- when they can get any water at all. So what's the international solution? Coca Cola, of course. The great American export. On September 10 President Hamid Karzai opened a 25 million-dollar Coca-Cola bottling plant in Kabul.
http://www.counterpunch.org/cloughley09162006.html
KOREA-US: SWAN SONG FOR AN ALLIANCE - SUNG-YOON LEE (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 16): South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's summit with President George W. Bushmay be the swan song of the US-South Korea alliance.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Korea/HI16Dg02.html
WHY THE JIHAD IS DOOMED BRADLEY BURSTON (HAARETZ, SEPTEMBER 16): In the end, moderate Muslims will gain the upper hand over hothead spokesmen in the West, if only to save Islam, and its good name, from Islamists.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/761845.html
POPE GETS IT WRONG ON ISLAM - JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, SEPTEMBER 15): The idea of holy war or jihad (which is about defending the community or at most about establishing rule by Muslims, not about imposing the faith on individuals by force) is also not a Quranic doctrine. The doctrine was elaborated much later, on the Umayyad-Byzantine frontier, long after the Prophet's death.
http://www.juancole.com/
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HEAD-IN-THE-SAND LIBERALS: WESTERN CIVILIZATION REALLY IS AT RISK FROM MUSLIM EXTREMISTS - SAM HARRIS (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 18): A cult of death is forming in the Muslim world -- for reasons that are perfectly explicable in terms of the Islamic doctrines of martyrdom and jihad. The truth is that we are not fighting a "war on terror." We are fighting a pestilential theology and a longing for paradise.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail
THE COSTS OF CRYING WOLF: IF AMERICANS SEEM BURNED OUT AND CYNICAL ABOUT THE TERRORIST THREAT, THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION HAS ONLY ITSELF TO BLAME - KIRSTEN A. POWERS (AMERICAN PROSPECT, SEPTEMBER 15)
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?sectio...articleId=11998
DEFENDING DEGENERACY OF AMERICA - JOHN BENNETT (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 15): It is obvious that we as a nation aren't serious about fighting terrorism.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...ncommentary-hed
WHY WE CAN'T WIN THE "WAR ON TERROR": A PROVOCATIVE NEW BOOK FROM AN EXPERT ON TERRORISM ARGUES THAT BUSH'S TOUGH-GUY STANCE IS MAKING THINGS MUCH WORSE -- AND THAT WE SHOULD NEGOTIATE WITH AL-QAIDA - GARY KAMIYA (SALON, SEPTEMBER 15): Louise Richardson's admirably clearheaded "What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the Threat" helps dissipate the fog of emotionalism, patriotic chest beating and just plain bad thinking that have swirled around America ever since 9/11.
http://www.salon.com/books/review/2006/09/...dson/print.html
TERROR FLICKS: MOVIES DO A BETTER JOB COVERING THE WAR THAN THE NEWS MEDIA DO - DANIEL HENNINGER (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, SEPTEMBER 15): The war on terror is more complex, nuanced and indeed more interesting than the general public has been given to believe.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/d...r/?id=110008949
FACILE 'FASCIST' TERMINOLOGY - ARNOLD BEICHMAN (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 15): What the Islamic terrorists are doing is not "fascism," it's terrorism, pure and simple based on their reading of the Koran supported by guest appearances of Osama bin Laden.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...14-090748-2554r
TERRORISM'S OTHER CASUALTY: TRUTH - VICTOR DAVIS HANSON (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 15): In this war evidence means nothing -- superstition, bias and delusion everything.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...ncommentary-hed
ARAB FILM FESTIVAL : MOVIES TELL GRIPPING, HEARTBREAKING STORIES OF WAR - JONATHAN CURIEL (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, SEPTEMBER 17): Overall, the movies in the Arab Film Festival, now in its 10th year, revealed an Arab world that is complex, contradictory, depressing, uplifting, beautiful, religious, religious, historic, modern and in transition -- all at the same time, all cascading into people's lives at a time when war and violence are a common backdrop (though conflict is absent in many of the films).
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...&type=printable
THE UNITED NATIONS: LIGHTEN UP ON BOLTON -- HE'S SMART, TOUGH AND WILLING TO STICK IT TO THE U.N. - JONAH GOLDBERG (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 17)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-...inion-rightrail
THE UNITED NATIONS: GIVE BOLTON THE BOOT -- THE U.S. SHOULDN'T HAVE AN INEFFECTIVE BULLY AS ITS U.N. ENVOY - STEPHEN SCHLESINGER (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 17)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-...inion-rightrail
CLEMONS ON BOLTON JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, SEPTEMBER 15): Bolton is a slippery character who has made all kinds of scurrilous and unsupported charges over the years.
http://www.juancole.com/
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HOW TO REFORM THE U.N. - JAYANTHA DHANAPALA (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 15): The United Nations is not only a platform and a forum; it is a repository of universal values and an incubator of ideas that must motivate a dedicated staff and benefit people.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...14-090752-5178r
SECURITY PROBES HOLD UP DIPLOMATS - NICHOLAS KRALEV (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 18): Dozens of Foreign Service officers say their careers are in ruins because their security clearances were suspended based on suspicions or unsubstantiated accusations.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...18-123314-2094r
'I FELT A SENSE OF DETERMINATION AND CONVICTION ABOUT DOING EVERYTHING THAT IS NECESSARY TO PROJECT THE PEOPLE.'
--President George W. Bush; cited in 'Transcript: President Bush's News Conference' (New York Times, September 15)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/washingt...agewanted=print
BUSH'S MESSAGE TO IRAN - DAVID IGNATIUS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 15): 'I asked Bush what next steps he would favor in opening dialogue with Iran. 'I would like to see more cultural exchanges,' he said. 'I would like to see university exchanges. I would like to see more people-to-people exchanges.?"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1401415_pf.html
FIRST LADY, GLOBAL MISSION - MARK SILVA (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 16): The first lady's office is already deeply involved in promoting Laura Bush as "the face of public diplomacy.' The first lady is able to highlight U.S. initiatives abroad that represent an American commitment to solving some of the world's problems -- chief among them: Illiteracy, public health and a lack of women's rights in many nations.
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_t..._lady_glob.html
WILLIE HORTON REDUX: KAREN HUGHES BREAKS HER SILENCE ? JOHN BROWN (PRWATCH.ORG, CENTER FOR MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2006): What Hughes's narrow-minded politicking article in USA Today -- far being from a noble call for a United World -- really reflects is what at heart has been the main problem of the administration's public diplomacy from the very day George W. Bush assumed the presidential office: that he and his provincial cohorts have no real interest in the outside world except as a extension of domestic politics.
http://www.prwatch.org/node/5176
SEE ALSO
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/9/15/115935/861
CRUSADER CODPIECE DIGBY (HULLABALOO, SEPTEMBER 14): The administration and its allies succumb to bin Laden's taunts when it comes to important matters of policy and then turn around and overtly help bin Laden recruit terrorists with ridiculous rhetoric about Great Awakenings and the war on terror. (Meanwhile, he's got his inane undersecretary of state for public diplomacy running around the mid-east talking about her experiences being a suburban soccer mom.)
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2006_09_01_...820954229994577
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THE FAR ENEMY BILLMON (WHISKEY BAR: FREE THINKING IN A DIRTY GLASS, SEPTEMBER 14): Instead of using public diplomacy to highlight and, where possible, promote the enormous diversity of Islam, the Cheneyites are now doing precisely the opposite. They're conjuring up the spectre of a vast, monolithic and powerful Islamic fundamentalist movement, implacably hostile to the West.
http://billmon.org/archives/002726.html
NEW POLL ON PENTAGON'S ROLE IN PUBLIC DIPLOMACY: WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT RUNNING AMERICA'S PUBLIC DIPLOMACY EFFORTS? - (MOUNTAIN RUNNER BLOG, SEPTEMBER 15). The blog seeks readers' views on this question.
http://www.mountainrunner.us/2006/09/new_poll_on_pen.html
THE STORY ON IRAN: SUSPECTING THE AMERICAN MEDIA AREN'T PORTRAYING AN ACCURATE PICTURE OF LIFE INSIDE IRAN, A RETIRED HONOLULU JOURNALIST SET OUT TO GET A FIRST-HAND LOOK AT LIFE IN THE SO-CALLED "AXIS OF EVIL" NATION - WEBSTER NOLAN (HONOLULU STAR-BULLETIN, HI, SEPTEMBER 17): The Iranian president, like the U.S. president, needs to acquire some skills in public diplomacy.
http://starbulletin.com/2006/09/17/editorial/special.html
THERES NOTHING NEW ABOUT KOREA' 'NEW' ANTI-AMERICANISM - JOSHUA (KOREA LIBERATOR, SEPTEMBER 16): 'Some have tried to popularize the idea that anti-Americanism is a new development in Korea, either to tie it to policies with which they disagree, or to inflate their own sense of importance. ... If I blame anyone, I blame our diplomats ... for not conducting public diplomacy.'
http://www.korealiberator.org/2006/09/16/t...ti-americanism/
SIZING UP WHERE THE US STANDS, 5 YEARS AFTER 9/11 (ECCENTRIC STAR, SEPTEMBER 11)
http://eccentricstar.typepad.com/public_di...g_up_where.html
THEATER OF WAR [REVIEW OF FRANK RICH'S 'THE GREATEST STORY EVER SOLD?] - IAN BURUMA (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 17): What is fascinating about the era of George W. Bush is that the spinmeisters, fake news reporters, photo-op creators, disinformation experts, intelligence manipulators, fictional heroes and public relations men posing as commentators operate in a world where virtual reality has already threatened to eclipse empirical investigation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/books/re...agewanted=print
PRESIDENTIAL PR: LOST IN THE BUSH SPIN CYCLE - RAMZY BAROUD: (COUNTERPUNCH, SEPTEMBER 15) Instead of facing up to its mistakes, the administration has labored to lie about the initial motives, change the objectives whenever suitable, and play on the fear factor, adamantly trying to terrify an already vulnerable and fear-stricken public.
http://www.counterpunch.org/baroud09152006.html
POPE: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OSAMA! MANY HAPPY RETURNS! MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, SEPTEMBER 15): Where earlier this year al-Qaeda Central seemed a bit slow on the uptake (it took Zawahiri over a month to weigh in on the Danish cartoons), it is now releasing a flood of videos and tapes of dizzying variety.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...happy_birt.html
TERRORISTS RELEASE "TRAINING" VIDEO GAME: "NIGHT OF BUSH CAPTURING" WONKETTE (SEPTEMBER 15)
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/184656.php
HOW TO PLAY HARDBALL - MORTIMER B. ZUCKERMAN (U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, SEPTEMBER 17): Surely it must be possible to work out a formula that enables our government to protect us against a "ticking bomb" terrorist who has information that could save many innocents from imminent danger but who refuses to divulge it.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/artic...0917/25edit.htm
COMMENTARY: THE WEEKEND INTERVIEW -- REAR ADM. HARRY HARRIS: WAR INSIDE THE WIRE - JAMES TARANTO (WALL STREET JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 16): Far from being held "beyond the laws of civilized nations" -- laws that terrorists, by definition, reject -- the detainees at Guantanamo enjoy a panoply of procedural protections.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1158...0867165122.html
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
GENEVA CONTENTION REVIEW & OUTLOOK (WALL STREET JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 18): If Senators John McCain, John Warner, Lindsey Graham and Susan Collins get their way, they will make it impossible for any government agency to squeeze the next al Qaeda terrorist who may have information about a ticking bomb in an American city.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1158...4150865804.html
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
PLEASE, EXPLAIN, SEN. MCCAIN EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 16): Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee John McCain should explain why he is endangering a vital interrogation program that has saved many American lives.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...15-090717-1667r
LISTEN TO MCCAIN AND POWELL EDITORIAL (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 17): The Bush administration often argues that many of those who reject its policies in the war on terrorism are not serious about protecting the nation -- and in some cases, it has a point. But that argument can't be deployed against many of the chief critics of its proposals addressing the treatment of detainees held in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...newsopinion-hed
REBELLING AGAINST TORTURE AND BUSH - ROBERT KUTTNER (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 26): Republican Senators John McCain, John Warner, and Lindsey Graham are bravely resisting the Bush administration's insane doctrine that the United States should become the first signatory government to take exceptions to the Geneva agreements on humane treatment of prisoners.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...nd_bush?mode=PF
CALL CRUELTY WHAT IT IS - TOM MALINOWSKI (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 18): President Bush is urging Congress to let the CIA keep using "alternative" interrogation procedures, techniques which he insists are not torture.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1700516_pf.html
NO RUBBER STAMP FOR BUSH: THE PRESIDENT DESERVES EVEN MORE RESISTANCE TO HIS METHOD OF WAGING WAR ON TERROR ? EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 17): On the treatment of detainees, the president has been especially disingenuous.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-...pinion-leftrail
KING OF PAIN - PAUL KRUGMAN (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 18): Torture appeals to the president and the vice president precisely because it's a violation of both law and tradition.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/18/opini...agewanted=print
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THE KAFKA STRATEGY - BOB HERBERT (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 18): The reason President Bush has been trying so frantically to get Congressional passage of his plan to interrogate and try terror suspects is that he needs its contorted interpretations of the law to keep important cases from falling apart, and to cover the collective keisters of higher-ups who may have authorized or condoned war crimes.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/18/opini...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
THE VIEW FROM GUANTÁNAMO - ABU BAKKER QASSIM (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 16): 'Tirana, Albania. I have been greatly saddened to hear that the Congress of the United States, a country I deeply admire, is considering new laws that would deny prisoners at Guantánamo Bay the right to challenge their detentions in federal court.'
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/opinion/...agewanted=print
STAMPEDING CONGRESS EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 15): Stampeded by the fear of looking weak on terrorism, lawmakers are rushing to pass a bill demanded by the president that would have minimal impact on antiterrorist operations but could cause profound damage to justice and the American way.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/opinion/...agewanted=print
TORTURE AND THE CONTENT OF OUR CHARACTER - JEREMY BRECHER & BRENDAN SMITH (NATION, SEPTEMBER 15): By revealing recently that the government had been holding captives in secret jails and aims to try them at Guantánamo Bay, Bush and his advisers signaled that they are clearly hoping for an upswell of public support for Republicans who are "tough on terror."
http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20061002&s=brecher
A LICENSE TO ABUSE: MR. BUSH SAYS HE HAS "ONE QUESTION" FOR CONGRESS. THE RIGHT ANSWER TO IT IS "NO" EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 17): News that the United States has used torture techniques has gravely damaged U.S. standing in the world and the fight against terrorism.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1600587_pf.html
DERELICT ON DETAINEES - AZIZ HUQ (TOMPAINE.COM, SEPTEMBER 15): The Warner Bill (also backed By Sens. Mccain and Graham) contains provisions that seem to delegate to the president sweeping detention powers that would permit the administration to bury the fact that it has swallowed up tens or hundreds of people during its counterterrorism operations who have little or no connection to actual terrorism.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/1...n_detainees.php
U.S. WARTIME PRISON NETWORK GROWS INTO LEGAL VACUUM FOR 14,000: 'I LIVED WITH THE AMERICANS FOR ONE YEAR AND EIGHT MONTHS AS IF I WAS LIVING IN HELL' - ASSOCIATED PRESS (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 17): Captured on battlefields, pulled from beds at midnight, grabbed off streets as suspected insurgents, tens of thousands now have passed through U.S. detention, the vast majority in Iraq.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationwor...world-headlines
IRAQ WAR'S SIGNATURE WOUND: BRAIN INJURY - JORDAN ROBERTSON, ASSOCIATED PRESS (SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, SEPTEMBER 15)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/111...n_Injuries.html
U.S. MILITARY HOLDS AP PHOTOGRAPHER IN IRAQ FOR 5 MONTHS: MAN WAS ACCUSED OF BEING A SECURITY THREAT - ROBERT TANNER, ASSOCIATED PRESS (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 17)
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bal-photo...-home-headlines
FORTUNE CHANGES FOR IRAQ STREET: IN CITY KNOWN FOR ITS LOVE FOR BOOKS, GUARDIANS OF LITERARY TRADITION ARE FORCED TO SHUT DOWN SHOP - SUDARSAN RAGHAVAN (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 18)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6091700695.html
THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ: U.S. FRUSTRATED BY PACE OF CHANGE IN IRAQ -- OFFICIALS PRAISE MANY OF PRIME MINISTER MALIKI'S GOALS, INCLUDING QUELLING MILITIAS. BUT HIS POLITICAL TIES MAKE IT DIFFICULT FOR HIM TO PURSUE THAT AIM - PAUL RICHTER (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 16)
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wa...1,2083725.story
WHERE IRAQ ITSELF FINDS HOPE - BARHAM SALIH (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 17): We Iraqis must recognize that it is up to us to resolve our problems. Outsiders cannot deliver for us. (The writer is deputy prime minister of Iraq.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1501067_pf.html
DESPITE THE MESS, WE CAN'T LEAVE NOW - TRUDY RUBIN (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 15): What President Bush has neglected to say is that Americans face a bitter choice produced by the mess the White House has made: Pull out U.S. troops soon and face certain disaster, or leave them in to enforce a policy that is failing. There is, of course, a third choice: Change a failed U.S. policy.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
THE RIGHT TROOPS IN THE RIGHT PLACES - SETH MOULTON (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 15): Pushing for withdrawal timelines is not helping the struggle in Iraq; encouraging the military to better fight the insurgency will. After all, winning the war would be the best reason to leave.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/opinion/...agewanted=print
THE LONGER THE WAR, THE LARGER THE LIES - FRANK RICH (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 17): We don?t have any more troops, and supporters of the war, starting with Mr. Bush, don?t want to ask American voters to make any sacrifices to provide them.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/opini...agewanted=print
WHAT TO TALK ABOUT WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT IRAQ SUZANNE NOSSEL (SEPTEMBER 17): Favoring the continued prosecution of the war gives a blank check to a team that had led us into disaster, and promises only more of the same.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/suzanne-noss...-y_b_29650.html
PERMISSION TO SPEAK FREELY: THE [FILM] GROUND TRUTH IS A VITAL DEBRIEFING ABOUT IRAQ - DANA STEVENS (SLATE, SEPTEMBER 15)
http://www.slate.com/id/2149691/
VIRTUALLY DEAD IN IRAQ: TO PROTEST THE WAR IN IRAQ, A MEDIA ARTIST INFILTRATES THE U.S. ARMY'S POPULAR ONLINE VIDEO GAME AND GETS HIMSELF SHOT. WHILE ANGRY GAMERS, SOLDIERS AND EVEN SOME PEACE ACTIVISTS CALL HIM A NUISANCE, OTHERS SAY HIS MESSAGE HITS HOME - REBECCA CLARREN (SALON, SEPTEMBER 16)
http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2006/09/1...army/print.html
AT PLAY IN IRAN'S BACKYARD EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 17): Even while Iran's supreme leader was telling Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki that Iraq's stability requires the departure of US troops, the specter of Iranian dominance appears to be one more reason why Bush is not extricating America from Iraq.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...ackyard?mode=PF
THE TEHRAN CALCULUS - CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 15): As its weak, nonnuclear Persian Gulf neighbors accommodate to it, jihadist Iran will gain control of the most strategic region on the globe.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1401413_pf.html
VIEW FROM AMERICA: THE NEXT CATASTROPHE WAITING - JONATHAN S. TOBIN (JERUSALEM POST, SEPTEMBER 16): At some point, whether in the last years of the George W. Bush administration or in the term of his successor, an American president is going to have to face his people with the distasteful proposition of either letting the lunatics in Iran go nuclear or taking drastic action that might include military force.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...ticle%2FPrinter
EDITOR'S NOTES: MIRI EISIN TAKES ON THE WORLD DAVID HOROWITZ (JERUSALEM POST, SEPTEMBER 14): Interview with Miri Eisin, "Foreign Press & Public Affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister" of Israel.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...ticle%2FPrinter
NEOCONS AMID LEBANON'S RUBBLE: A CHALLENGE TO KRAUTHAMMER'S ISRAEL-AS-STRATEGIC-ASSET ARGUMENT - LEON HADAR (NATIONAL INTEREST, SEPTEMBER 14): One of the main casualties of the latest crisis in the Middle East has been another favorite neoconservative paradigm, according to which the United States should regard Israel as a major "strategic asset" in the Middle East, which in turn is rooted in a neoconservative axiom of sort, that what is good for Israel's strategic interest is good for America and vice versa.
http://www.nationalinterest.org/Article.aspx?id=12062
PEACE FROM WEAKNESS EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 16): Since the disasters of the recent war in Lebanon are so plain to see, the local actors should not be allowed to go on careening from one tragedy to the next. At one time or another, past US predecessors have tried to play the role of mediator, and the time has come for President Bush to take that risk as well.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...eakness?mode=PF
A REAL TEST FOR THE PALESTINIANS EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 18): Hamas's admission of weakness could provide at least a chance to quell the violence and resuscitate peace talks. The Bush administration should not squander the opportunity.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/18/opinion/...agewanted=print
AN ENDLESS VACUUM IN THE MIDDLE EAST: WHY THERE'S NO JUMP-STARTING THE PEACE PROCESS - JACKSON DIEHL (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 18): Both Olmert's government and the Bush administration know that this would be the ideal moment to put a new, game-changing plan on the table. But as a visit to Washington last week by Olmert's foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, made clear, they haven't got one.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1700543_pf.html
SYRIA, US SHROUDED IN THE FOG OF WAR - SAMI MOUBAYED (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 15): Washington might disagree with Damascus on particular issues related to Palestine, Iraq or Lebanon, but in the "war on terror,"Syria and the United States have common interests.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HI15Ak01.html
AFGHAN GOVERNMENT FAILURE REOPENS DOOR TO THE TALIBAN: ANALYSTS SAY U.S. FOCUS ON IRAQ IS HURTING MISSION, ALLOWING INSURGENCY TO GROW
- ANNA BADKHEN (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, SEPTEMBER 17)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...&type=printable
IN AFGHANISTAN, DISENCHANTED PUBLIC PROVIDES OPENING FOR TALIBAN ? (ECCENTRIC STAR, SEPTEMBER 16)
http://eccentricstar.typepad.com/public_di...ghanistan_.html
TALK TO THE TALIBAN - GREG MILLS (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 18)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/18/opinion/...agewanted=print
LET THEM DRINK COKE!: LOSING HEARTS AND MINDS IN AFGHANISTAN - BRIAN CLOUGHLEY (COUNTERPUNCH, SEPTEMBER 16/17): Three quarters of Afghans drink filthy water -- when they can get any water at all. So what's the international solution? Coca Cola, of course. The great American export. On September 10 President Hamid Karzai opened a 25 million-dollar Coca-Cola bottling plant in Kabul.
http://www.counterpunch.org/cloughley09162006.html
KOREA-US: SWAN SONG FOR AN ALLIANCE - SUNG-YOON LEE (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 16): South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's summit with President George W. Bushmay be the swan song of the US-South Korea alliance.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Korea/HI16Dg02.html
WHY THE JIHAD IS DOOMED BRADLEY BURSTON (HAARETZ, SEPTEMBER 16): In the end, moderate Muslims will gain the upper hand over hothead spokesmen in the West, if only to save Islam, and its good name, from Islamists.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/761845.html
POPE GETS IT WRONG ON ISLAM - JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, SEPTEMBER 15): The idea of holy war or jihad (which is about defending the community or at most about establishing rule by Muslims, not about imposing the faith on individuals by force) is also not a Quranic doctrine. The doctrine was elaborated much later, on the Umayyad-Byzantine frontier, long after the Prophet's death.
http://www.juancole.com/
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HEAD-IN-THE-SAND LIBERALS: WESTERN CIVILIZATION REALLY IS AT RISK FROM MUSLIM EXTREMISTS - SAM HARRIS (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 18): A cult of death is forming in the Muslim world -- for reasons that are perfectly explicable in terms of the Islamic doctrines of martyrdom and jihad. The truth is that we are not fighting a "war on terror." We are fighting a pestilential theology and a longing for paradise.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail
THE COSTS OF CRYING WOLF: IF AMERICANS SEEM BURNED OUT AND CYNICAL ABOUT THE TERRORIST THREAT, THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION HAS ONLY ITSELF TO BLAME - KIRSTEN A. POWERS (AMERICAN PROSPECT, SEPTEMBER 15)
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?sectio...articleId=11998
DEFENDING DEGENERACY OF AMERICA - JOHN BENNETT (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 15): It is obvious that we as a nation aren't serious about fighting terrorism.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...ncommentary-hed
WHY WE CAN'T WIN THE "WAR ON TERROR": A PROVOCATIVE NEW BOOK FROM AN EXPERT ON TERRORISM ARGUES THAT BUSH'S TOUGH-GUY STANCE IS MAKING THINGS MUCH WORSE -- AND THAT WE SHOULD NEGOTIATE WITH AL-QAIDA - GARY KAMIYA (SALON, SEPTEMBER 15): Louise Richardson's admirably clearheaded "What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the Threat" helps dissipate the fog of emotionalism, patriotic chest beating and just plain bad thinking that have swirled around America ever since 9/11.
http://www.salon.com/books/review/2006/09/...dson/print.html
TERROR FLICKS: MOVIES DO A BETTER JOB COVERING THE WAR THAN THE NEWS MEDIA DO - DANIEL HENNINGER (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, SEPTEMBER 15): The war on terror is more complex, nuanced and indeed more interesting than the general public has been given to believe.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/d...r/?id=110008949
FACILE 'FASCIST' TERMINOLOGY - ARNOLD BEICHMAN (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 15): What the Islamic terrorists are doing is not "fascism," it's terrorism, pure and simple based on their reading of the Koran supported by guest appearances of Osama bin Laden.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...14-090748-2554r
TERRORISM'S OTHER CASUALTY: TRUTH - VICTOR DAVIS HANSON (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 15): In this war evidence means nothing -- superstition, bias and delusion everything.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...ncommentary-hed
ARAB FILM FESTIVAL : MOVIES TELL GRIPPING, HEARTBREAKING STORIES OF WAR - JONATHAN CURIEL (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, SEPTEMBER 17): Overall, the movies in the Arab Film Festival, now in its 10th year, revealed an Arab world that is complex, contradictory, depressing, uplifting, beautiful, religious, religious, historic, modern and in transition -- all at the same time, all cascading into people's lives at a time when war and violence are a common backdrop (though conflict is absent in many of the films).
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...&type=printable
THE UNITED NATIONS: LIGHTEN UP ON BOLTON -- HE'S SMART, TOUGH AND WILLING TO STICK IT TO THE U.N. - JONAH GOLDBERG (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 17)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-...inion-rightrail
THE UNITED NATIONS: GIVE BOLTON THE BOOT -- THE U.S. SHOULDN'T HAVE AN INEFFECTIVE BULLY AS ITS U.N. ENVOY - STEPHEN SCHLESINGER (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 17)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-...inion-rightrail
CLEMONS ON BOLTON JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, SEPTEMBER 15): Bolton is a slippery character who has made all kinds of scurrilous and unsupported charges over the years.
http://www.juancole.com/
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HOW TO REFORM THE U.N. - JAYANTHA DHANAPALA (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 15): The United Nations is not only a platform and a forum; it is a repository of universal values and an incubator of ideas that must motivate a dedicated staff and benefit people.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...14-090752-5178r
SECURITY PROBES HOLD UP DIPLOMATS - NICHOLAS KRALEV (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 18): Dozens of Foreign Service officers say their careers are in ruins because their security clearances were suspended based on suspicions or unsubstantiated accusations.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...18-123314-2094r
ASSESSING THE PRESIDENT'S U.N. SPEECH - SYMPOSIUM (W@TURTLE BAY, NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 19): Brett D. Schaefer, Heritage Foundation: 'The president's General Assembly speech was a rare opportunity to ... appeal directly to the people in repressed countries. ... It was a powerful message and a deft attempt at public diplomacy by an Administration that frequently seems incapable of communicating effectively.'
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MWJlN...jJjMzRiNjgwOTM=
PRESIDENT BUSH SPEAKS TO THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE EAST - MARIO LOYOLA (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 19): Those who criticize the speech the President just gave before the UN General Assembly should consider that its purpose more than anything as an act of public diplomacy.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Z...jU3NDgwOTMwMTQ=
SEE ALSO
http://www.thepoliticalpitbull.com/2006/09...ress_to_the.php
WHAT'S WRONG WITH AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY?: IN A WORD: BUSH JUSTIN RAIMONDO (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 20): The remnants of the president's conservative fan club over at National Review, in the person of one Mario Loyola, hail Bush's oration at the UN as a triumph of "public diplomacy," but this kind of diplomacy is straight out of Bizarro World.
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=9720
CAN KAREN HUGHES CHANGE AMERICA'S IMAGE? SHE'S TRYING - MORTON M. KONDRACKE (LEADER -CALL, SEPTEMBER 18): When asked whether she thought the U.S. was losing the ideological war, Hughes said, "I'm an optimistic person. I think we have a long way to go. We have a lot more to do." Hughes and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice seem to have persuaded Bush -- temporarily, at least -- to drop the label "Islamic-fascism" from his speeches.
http://www.leadercall.com/opinion/local_st...rces_printstory
FAIR AND BALANCED? AL JAZEERA IS PLANNING TO BRING ENGLISH-LANGUAGE NEWS TO AN AMERICAN AUDIENCE - ABIGAIL LAVIN (WEEKLY STANDARD, SEPTEMBER 20): In public statements, Karen Hughes has embraced an end to this administration's "informal policy of ignoring Al Jazeera," and the Pentagon has offered AJI a seat in its briefing room. Unlike Al Hurra, the American propaganda channel widely regarded as a laughingstock in the Middle East, a good relationship with Al Jazeera could burnish the United States' image abroad.
Http://www.weeklystandard.com/content/publ...2udgca.asp?pg=2
AMERICAN MORALITY BACK IN PLAY FAREED ZAKARIA (BUFFALO NEWS, SEPTEMBER 19): Former Secretary of State Colin Powell: "Part of the war on terror is an ideological and political struggle. Our moral posture is one of our best weapons. We're not doing so well on the public-diplomacy front."
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20060919/1007331.asp
IT'S TIME TO GET OUT OF IRAQ CAREFULLY - STEVE ANDREASEN (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, SEPTEMBER 18): Public diplomacy does not take place in a policy vacuum. To improve our "image" in the region, we will need an unprecedented degree of bipartisanship in Congress, and an administration committed to begin withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq. http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/ed...al/15551775.htm
BUSH CLEARS TASK FORCE TO MEET WITH IRANIANS JIM LOBE (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 20): The director of the Baker Institute, Edward Djerejian, who mentored public-diplomacy chief and longtime Bush adviser, Karen Hughes: "Despite the tragedy we see unfolding in the region on all sides, this crisis [last month's conflict between Israel and Hezbollah] does represent an opportunity to get on with the real core issues in the region, and this will require contacting and dealing with all the players. All the players."
http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=9721
THIS WEEK IN THE NEW YORKER (NEW YORKER, SEPTEMBER 9): Mike McCurry, who was Clinton's press secretary from 1995 to 1998: "Bill Clinton ... is delivering to us now a model of what he might have to do as First Spouse, as an emissary rebuilding America's reputation in the world, the premier overseas ambassador, the chief of public diplomacy."
http://www.newyorker.com/printables/press/..._press_releases
US: PR JOINS FIGHT FOR HEARTS AND MINDS: GOVERNMENTS TURN TO PRIVATE FIRMS: DAVID ROBERTSON (TIMES, LONDON, SEPTEMBER 18): The United States Government is thought to have earmarked at least $400 million since the terrorist atrocities of September 11, 2001, to enlist private companies to supply skills and ideas for an information war, covering propaganda and psychological operations (psyops).
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14122
BUSH DETAINEE PLAN FUELS DOUBTS OVER U.S.: POWELL REUTERS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 19)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6091900038.html
TORTURE IS TORTURE: BUSH'S 'PROGRAM' DISGRACES ALL AMERICANS - EUGENE ROBINSON (SEPTEMBER 19)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1800995_pf.html
TIME FOR INTEGRITY: MCCAIN SHOULD STICK TO HIS PRINCIPLES - RICHARD COHEN (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 19): The United States cannot conduct itself as its enemies have. We do not torture.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1800994_pf.html
SOLDIERS VERSUS BUSH EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 18): Congress should pass an amended version of the Senate committee bill that does not subject detainees to the limbo of Guantanamo with no access to the courts.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...us_bush?mode=PF
BUSH'S PALTRY EXCUSE FOR SUBVERTING GENEVA CONVENTION - ROBERT S. RIVKIN (COMMON DREAMS, SEPTEMBER 19): President Bush claims to be worried that our CIA interrogators are confused by the rules that govern them. This claim is hogwash.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0919-31.htm
BUSH APPOINTEES ATTEMPT TO BROW BEAT SENIOR US MILITARY OFFICERS - U.S. ARMY COLONEL (RETIRED) ANN WRIGHT (COMMON DREAMS, SEPTEMBER 18): The administration policy condoning torture and now the silencing of professional views of proposed policies concerning the rules for military commissions trying terrorism suspects undermine the 'good order and discipline' of the military and are dangerous for our country.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0918-25.htm
FIGHTING FOR OUR HONOR - H.D.S. GREENWAY (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 19): Worse than what the U.S. is doing in Iraq and Afghanistan is the danger of abandoning the high ground on the treatment of prisoners and giving in to moral decay at home.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...r_honor?mode=PF
INTO A MORAL DESERT - HAROLD MEYERSON (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 20): We've abandoned our own moral and legal norms, as the administration's determination to create a loophole in the Geneva Conventions makes unmistakably clear.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1901440_pf.html
JUDGE, JURY, AND TORTURER - JAMES CARROLL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 18): The best way to combat terrorism is to wrap accused terrorists in the cloth of the law they would rip asunder.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...orturer?mode=PF
CLARIFYING TORTURE: MR. PRESIDENT, WHAT PART OF PROHIBITING "CRUEL TREATMENT AND TORTURE" DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND? - RONALD BAILEY (REASON, SEPTEMBER 18)
http://www.reason.com/links/links091806.shtml
THE GOP'S TORTURED LOGIC: THE REPUBLICANS WHO NOW AGREE WITH THE PRESIDENT THAT THE WAR CRIMES ACT IS TOO VAGUE SAID SOMETHING VERY DIFFERENT 10 YEARS AGO - MARK BENJAMIN (SALON, SEPTEMBER 19)
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/09/...nter/print.html
THE PRISONERS SPEAK [REVIEW OF FILMS ABOUT GUANTANAMO] - JONATHAN RABAN (NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, OCTOBER 5): Liberals, appalled by Guantánamo and all it represents, have cheered too early and too often when the Supreme Court has appeared to bring the camp within the sway of national and international law, only to see the administration wriggle out from under each new decision.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19356
RULES FOR THE REAL WORLD EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 20): Congress needs to pass an effective law on the handling of prisoners that not only provides for legal military tribunals but also deals with the wrongly imprisoned men at Guantánamo Bay.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/20/opinion/20wed1.html
PROPHETIC JUSTICE: THE UNITED STATES IS NOW PROSECUTING SUSPECTED TERRORISTS ON THE BASIS OF THEIR INTENTIONS, NOT JUST THEIR ACTIONS. BUT IN THE CASE OF ISLAMIC EXTREMISTS, HOW CAN AMERICAN JURORS FAIRLY WEIGH WORDS AND BELIEFS WHEN MUSLIMS THEMSELVES CAN'T AGREE ON WHAT THEY MEAN? AMY WALDMAN (ATLANTIC MONTHLY, OCTOBER)
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200610/waldman-islam
TORTURED BY MISTAKE: THE CASE OF MAHER ARAR SHOWS WHY THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S SECRET DETENTION PROGRAM IS WRONG EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 20)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1901547_pf.html
MCCAIN'S DUBIOUS HIGH GROUND: JOHN MCCAIN AND HIS BAND OF REPUBLICAN REBELS DEFYING PRESIDENT BUSH ON THE ISSUE OF INTERROGATION HAVE A STRANGE ATTACHMENT TO CONFUSED ARGUMENTATION - RICH LOWRY (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 19)
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YjRiN...GJhYjQ0MDNhNzk=
HANG TOUGH, MR. PRESIDENT EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 18): President Bush rightly defines reasonable rules for interrogating terrorists.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...17-093228-6826r
WHEN MIRANDA MET OSAMA: WILL TERRORISTS GET LAWYERS THE MOMENT THEY'RE CAPTURED ON THE BATTLEFIELD? - BRENDAN MINITER (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, SEPTEMBER19): To keep up war momentum, the U.S. now needs to put terrorists on trial.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/b...r/?id=110008962
IRAQI JOURNALISTS CAUGHT IN CROSSFIRE - AARON GLANTZ (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 19): The press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders says the reporters being arrested by the U.S. military are just trying to do their jobs.
http://www.antiwar.com/glantz/?articleid=9712
I WAS A PR INTERN IN IRAQ: IN THIS ASTONISHING CONFESSIONAL BY AN OXFORD GRADUATE WHO WORKED IN THE GREEN ZONE OF BAGHDAD, WE SEE THE PERVERSITY OF THE AMERICAN VERSION OF A 'FREE PRESS' IN IRAQ - WILLEM MARX (HARPER'S, SEPTEMBER 18/ALTERNET): The Baghdad Press Center was an office that the U.S. State Department funded to provide Iraqi reporters with equipment and to train them in journalistic ethics and professional conduct. And yet we were hiring these same Iraqi reporters to work indirectly for the U.S. military.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/41479/
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IRAQ: TRYING TO SPIN THE UNSPINNABLE - ASHRAF FAHIM (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 20): As electoral defeat looms, rather than portraying Iraq as a success story unheralded by the ambulance-chasing media (as was his wont), Bush now switches the topic to a proven winner, conflating Iraq with the "war on terror.?
http://atimes.com/atimes/middle_east/hi20ak01.html
U.S. LOSES 7,000 TROOPS IN IRAQ WONKETTE (SEPTEMBER 19): It's hard to make any plans for getting out of Iraq -- or any plans for anything, ever -- when the Department of Defense has no idea how many American troops are in Iraq
http://www.wonkette.com/politics/iraq/us-l...iraq-201766.php
NO ONE DARES TO HELP: THE WOUNDED DIE ALONE ON BAGHDAD'S STREETS. AN OFFER OF AID COULD BE YOUR OWN DEATH SENTENCE, AN IRAQI REPORTER WRITES (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 20):
Because this account of daily life in Baghdad reveals where the writer lives, his name is not being used to protect his safety. He is a 54-year-old Iraqi reporter in The Times' Baghdad Bureau.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...-home-headlines
DOUBTS INCREASE ABOUT STRENGTH OF IRAQ's PREMIER - EDWARD WONG (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 20): Senior Iraqi and American officials are beginning to question whether Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has the political muscle and decisiveness to hold Iraq together as it hovers on the edge of a full civil war.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/20/world/mi...agewanted=print
ARE WE WINNING IN IRAQ?: THE DEFEATISM IS UNWARRANTED - MACKUBIN THOMAS OWENS (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 19): We have broken the back of the Sunni insurgency, the main threat to the Iraqi government.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Njk4N...WZhMGMzYmU1OWM=
CHENEY: THE FATAL TOUCH - JOAN DIDION (NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, OCTOBER 5): In the apparently higher interest of consolidating the political advantage of war Cheney had made misrepresentations that facilitated a war in Iraq that promised to further destabilize the Middle East. He had compromised both America's image in the world and its image of itself.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19376
DEJA VU ON IRAN - ARI BERMAN (NATION, SEPTEMBER 19): Is the Bush Administration mistaking Iran for pre-war Iraq? Recent events certainly sound eerily familiar.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=122903
WHAT WOULD WAR LOOK LIKE? A FLURRY OF MILITARY MANEUVERS IN THE MIDDLE EAST INCREASES SPECULATION THAT CONFLICT WITH IRAN IS NO LONGER QUITE SO UNTHINKABLE. HERE'S HOW THE U.S. WOULD FIGHT SUCH A WAR -- AND THE HUGE PRICE IT WOULD HAVE TO PAY TO WIN IT - MICHAEL DUFFY (TIME, SEPTEMBER 17)
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout...1535817,00.html
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
AT WAR? THE U.S. VS. IRAN: ONE SIDE IS PLAYING FOR REAL, THE OTHER ONLY FOR TIME - MICHAEL RUBIN (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, SEPTEMBER 19): The Iranian leadership will say anything and do anything to buy the time necessary to acquire nuclear capability. That Foggy Bottom still advises against any strategy that might undercut the possibility of some illusionary breakthrough signals triumph not of realism but of negligence.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/fe...ml?id=110008968
WHY SANCTIONS ON IRAN WILL FAIL - HOSSEIN ASKARI (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 19): US President George W. Bush is calling for multilateral sanctions on Iran. Sanctions won't succeed in cowing Iran, but they will indeed have ominous consequences for the United States and the rest of the world.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HI19Ak01.html
DON'T PANIC ABOUT IRAN; OFFER A DEAL - TED GALEN CARPENTER (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 20): It would be tragic if we ignited a terrible war merely to thwart a remote, hypothetical threat.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
REFLECTIONS ON 9/11- GORE VIDAL (TRUTHDIG, SEPTEMBER 19): In the last five years American behavior in the Middle East has been barbarous and will not soon be forgiven.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200609...flections_9_11/
U.N.-DIPLOMATIC BUSH GOES TO TURTLE BAYAND SAYS NOTHING - FRED KAPLAN (SLATE, SEPTEMBER 19): The sad fact is that, even among Middle Eastern countries governed by aspiring or actual democrats, the United States is less and less a moral model. And President Bush made clear that he's not going to do anything differently.
http://www.slate.com/id/2149995/
BUSH BURIES THE LEAD: PRESIDENT'S UN SPEECH CONTAINS SIGNIFICANT AFTERTHOUGHT ON MIDDLE EAST PEACE EDITORIALS (LOS ANGELES TIMES,
SEPTEMBER 20): The buried lead in Bush's U.N. remarks about the democratization of the Middle East was his announcement of a potentially significant U.S. initiative for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-...pinion-leftrail
AFGHANISTAN: A TALE OF NEVER ENDING TRAGEDY JOHN RYAN (HUFFINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 19)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-ryan/af...ne_b_29804.html
EUROPEAN ROLE REVERSAL - HELLE DALE (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 20): In Europe, the most important source of allies for the United States, 57 percent now consider American leadership undesirable, and a mere 18 percent approve of the leadership of President Bush, this according to the poll "Transatlantic Trends 2006" released in September by the German Marshall Fund. This is why the impending exit of British Prime Minister Tony Blair is an event that could have major implications for U.S. foreign policy.
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20060919-091308-4673r.htm
ISLAM IN EUROPE - TIMOTHY GARTON ASH (NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, OCTOBER 5): In the relationship with Islam as a religion, it makes sense to encourage those versions of Islam that are compatible with the fundamentals of a modern, liberal, and democratic Europe.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19371
PUTTING A DIFFERENT FACE ON ISLAM IN AMERICA - NEIL MACFARQUHAR (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 20): This month, Professor Ingrid Mattson, a 43-year-old convert, was elected president of the Islamic Society of North America, the largest umbrella organization for Muslim groups in the United States and Canada, making her a prominent voice for a faith ever more under assault by critics who paint it as the main font of terrorism.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/20/nyregion...agewanted=print
THE RICH GET RICHER: GROWING INCOME DISPARITY DOESN?T PRESAGE A NEW LABOR MOVEMENT AT HOME ? BUT IT MAY SIGNAL MORE TERRORISM FOR US ABROAD - JAMES KURTH (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, SEPTEMBER 25): Only Islamism is now beginning to mount a serious threat to the security of the rich, and that threat is also directed at all the other groups and peoples that the Islamists despise as well.
http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_09_25/cover.html
JIHAD, THE LORD'S SUPPER, AND ETERNAL LIFE ? SPENGLER (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 19): There is no Grace in Islam, no miracle, no expiatory sacrifice, no expression of love for mankind such that each Muslim need not be a sacrifice. On the contrary, the concept of jihad, in which the congregation of Islam is also the army, states that every single Muslim must sacrifice himself personally.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HI19Aa02.html
A WISDOM AND JUDGMENT DEFICIENCY IN TERROR WAR - CAL THOMAS (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 20): The jihadists know nothing but intimidation and domination.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
TAKE IT FROM HIM: AMERICAN IS SAFER? TERRORISM, IRAQ AND THE POLITICAL USES OF FEAR FIVE YEARS INTO THE "LONG WAR" - FRIDA BERRIGAN (COMMON DREAMS, SEPTEMBER 19): Groups employing terrorist tactics are a threat to be countered, a problem to be addressed, but they are not a rival to American power -- unless we allow them to be.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0918-30.htm
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING - JOHN MUELLER, FOREIGN AFFAIRS (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 18): If it is so easy to pull off an attack and if terrorists are so demonically competent, why have they not done it? One reasonable explanation is that almost no terrorists exist in the United States and few have the means or the inclination to strike from abroad.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...newsopinion-hed
SEE ALSO
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20060901faco...ist-threat.html
BUSH'S USEFUL IDIOTS: TONY JUDT ON THE STRANGE DEATH OF LIBERAL AMERICA (LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS, SEPTEMBER 21): The alacrity with which many of America's most prominent liberals have censored themselves in the name of the War on Terror, the enthusiasm with which they have invented ideological and moral cover for war and war crimes and proffered that cover to their political enemies: all this is a bad sign.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n18/judt01_.html
CHENEY SAYS HOPES OF WORLD REST ON U.S. - TOM RAUM, ASSOCIATED PRESS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 19): Vice President Dick Cheney: "The war on terror is a test of our strength, a test of our capabilities, and above all a test of our character."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1900599_pf.html
HOSTAGE TO IRAN AGAIN? - MAUREEN DOWD (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 20): W. has now put so many bad actors in the terror stew -- some of whom hate each other -- and has justified so many sketchy programs under the war-on-terror rubric, that the word ?terror? is losing all meaning and just becoming a marketing slogan.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/20/opini...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
BUSH'S BRAIN FOUND LACKING: A SLEW OF NEW BOOKS ON KARL ROVE MAKE US QUESTION WHETHER THE PRESIDENT'S DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF IS TRULY THE MACHIAVELLIAN GENIUS SO MANY IN WASHINGTON CLAIM - WALTER SHAPIRO (SALON, SEPTEMBER 19): When it comes to Iraq, Iran or Afghanistan, it is certainly easier to feel the gravitational force of Cheney's office than perturbations from Planet Rove. The best guess -- until we see definitive evidence to the contrary -- is that Rove primarily devotes his energies to the packaging and politics of global policies that others have decided.
http://www.salon.com/books/review/2006/09/19/rove/print.html
FROM VENICE, A LESSON ON EMPIRE - DAVID IGNATIUS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 20): How does a nation maintain a far-flung network of commercial interests without subverting its values at home? How does a nation have the benefits of imperial reach without the ruinous costs of empire? It's a debate that will widen as America moves toward its post-Iraq introspection.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1901438_pf.html
ISLAMIST RADICALS IN PRISON: HOW MANY? THE US HAS FEWER CASES OF RADICALIZATION THAN EUROPE, BUT EXPERTS CALL FOR MORE STUDY AND PREVENTIVE STRATEGIES - ALEXANDRA MARKS (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 20): The United States has the world's largest prison population, with more than 2 million inmates. It also has the world's highest incarceration rate -- 701 of every 100,000 people are in prison or jail.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0920/p03s02-ussc.html
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MWJlN...jJjMzRiNjgwOTM=
PRESIDENT BUSH SPEAKS TO THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE EAST - MARIO LOYOLA (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 19): Those who criticize the speech the President just gave before the UN General Assembly should consider that its purpose more than anything as an act of public diplomacy.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Z...jU3NDgwOTMwMTQ=
SEE ALSO
http://www.thepoliticalpitbull.com/2006/09...ress_to_the.php
WHAT'S WRONG WITH AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY?: IN A WORD: BUSH JUSTIN RAIMONDO (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 20): The remnants of the president's conservative fan club over at National Review, in the person of one Mario Loyola, hail Bush's oration at the UN as a triumph of "public diplomacy," but this kind of diplomacy is straight out of Bizarro World.
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=9720
CAN KAREN HUGHES CHANGE AMERICA'S IMAGE? SHE'S TRYING - MORTON M. KONDRACKE (LEADER -CALL, SEPTEMBER 18): When asked whether she thought the U.S. was losing the ideological war, Hughes said, "I'm an optimistic person. I think we have a long way to go. We have a lot more to do." Hughes and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice seem to have persuaded Bush -- temporarily, at least -- to drop the label "Islamic-fascism" from his speeches.
http://www.leadercall.com/opinion/local_st...rces_printstory
FAIR AND BALANCED? AL JAZEERA IS PLANNING TO BRING ENGLISH-LANGUAGE NEWS TO AN AMERICAN AUDIENCE - ABIGAIL LAVIN (WEEKLY STANDARD, SEPTEMBER 20): In public statements, Karen Hughes has embraced an end to this administration's "informal policy of ignoring Al Jazeera," and the Pentagon has offered AJI a seat in its briefing room. Unlike Al Hurra, the American propaganda channel widely regarded as a laughingstock in the Middle East, a good relationship with Al Jazeera could burnish the United States' image abroad.
Http://www.weeklystandard.com/content/publ...2udgca.asp?pg=2
AMERICAN MORALITY BACK IN PLAY FAREED ZAKARIA (BUFFALO NEWS, SEPTEMBER 19): Former Secretary of State Colin Powell: "Part of the war on terror is an ideological and political struggle. Our moral posture is one of our best weapons. We're not doing so well on the public-diplomacy front."
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20060919/1007331.asp
IT'S TIME TO GET OUT OF IRAQ CAREFULLY - STEVE ANDREASEN (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, SEPTEMBER 18): Public diplomacy does not take place in a policy vacuum. To improve our "image" in the region, we will need an unprecedented degree of bipartisanship in Congress, and an administration committed to begin withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq. http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/ed...al/15551775.htm
BUSH CLEARS TASK FORCE TO MEET WITH IRANIANS JIM LOBE (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 20): The director of the Baker Institute, Edward Djerejian, who mentored public-diplomacy chief and longtime Bush adviser, Karen Hughes: "Despite the tragedy we see unfolding in the region on all sides, this crisis [last month's conflict between Israel and Hezbollah] does represent an opportunity to get on with the real core issues in the region, and this will require contacting and dealing with all the players. All the players."
http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=9721
THIS WEEK IN THE NEW YORKER (NEW YORKER, SEPTEMBER 9): Mike McCurry, who was Clinton's press secretary from 1995 to 1998: "Bill Clinton ... is delivering to us now a model of what he might have to do as First Spouse, as an emissary rebuilding America's reputation in the world, the premier overseas ambassador, the chief of public diplomacy."
http://www.newyorker.com/printables/press/..._press_releases
US: PR JOINS FIGHT FOR HEARTS AND MINDS: GOVERNMENTS TURN TO PRIVATE FIRMS: DAVID ROBERTSON (TIMES, LONDON, SEPTEMBER 18): The United States Government is thought to have earmarked at least $400 million since the terrorist atrocities of September 11, 2001, to enlist private companies to supply skills and ideas for an information war, covering propaganda and psychological operations (psyops).
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14122
BUSH DETAINEE PLAN FUELS DOUBTS OVER U.S.: POWELL REUTERS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 19)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6091900038.html
TORTURE IS TORTURE: BUSH'S 'PROGRAM' DISGRACES ALL AMERICANS - EUGENE ROBINSON (SEPTEMBER 19)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1800995_pf.html
TIME FOR INTEGRITY: MCCAIN SHOULD STICK TO HIS PRINCIPLES - RICHARD COHEN (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 19): The United States cannot conduct itself as its enemies have. We do not torture.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1800994_pf.html
SOLDIERS VERSUS BUSH EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 18): Congress should pass an amended version of the Senate committee bill that does not subject detainees to the limbo of Guantanamo with no access to the courts.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...us_bush?mode=PF
BUSH'S PALTRY EXCUSE FOR SUBVERTING GENEVA CONVENTION - ROBERT S. RIVKIN (COMMON DREAMS, SEPTEMBER 19): President Bush claims to be worried that our CIA interrogators are confused by the rules that govern them. This claim is hogwash.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0919-31.htm
BUSH APPOINTEES ATTEMPT TO BROW BEAT SENIOR US MILITARY OFFICERS - U.S. ARMY COLONEL (RETIRED) ANN WRIGHT (COMMON DREAMS, SEPTEMBER 18): The administration policy condoning torture and now the silencing of professional views of proposed policies concerning the rules for military commissions trying terrorism suspects undermine the 'good order and discipline' of the military and are dangerous for our country.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0918-25.htm
FIGHTING FOR OUR HONOR - H.D.S. GREENWAY (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 19): Worse than what the U.S. is doing in Iraq and Afghanistan is the danger of abandoning the high ground on the treatment of prisoners and giving in to moral decay at home.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...r_honor?mode=PF
INTO A MORAL DESERT - HAROLD MEYERSON (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 20): We've abandoned our own moral and legal norms, as the administration's determination to create a loophole in the Geneva Conventions makes unmistakably clear.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1901440_pf.html
JUDGE, JURY, AND TORTURER - JAMES CARROLL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 18): The best way to combat terrorism is to wrap accused terrorists in the cloth of the law they would rip asunder.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...orturer?mode=PF
CLARIFYING TORTURE: MR. PRESIDENT, WHAT PART OF PROHIBITING "CRUEL TREATMENT AND TORTURE" DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND? - RONALD BAILEY (REASON, SEPTEMBER 18)
http://www.reason.com/links/links091806.shtml
THE GOP'S TORTURED LOGIC: THE REPUBLICANS WHO NOW AGREE WITH THE PRESIDENT THAT THE WAR CRIMES ACT IS TOO VAGUE SAID SOMETHING VERY DIFFERENT 10 YEARS AGO - MARK BENJAMIN (SALON, SEPTEMBER 19)
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/09/...nter/print.html
THE PRISONERS SPEAK [REVIEW OF FILMS ABOUT GUANTANAMO] - JONATHAN RABAN (NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, OCTOBER 5): Liberals, appalled by Guantánamo and all it represents, have cheered too early and too often when the Supreme Court has appeared to bring the camp within the sway of national and international law, only to see the administration wriggle out from under each new decision.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19356
RULES FOR THE REAL WORLD EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 20): Congress needs to pass an effective law on the handling of prisoners that not only provides for legal military tribunals but also deals with the wrongly imprisoned men at Guantánamo Bay.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/20/opinion/20wed1.html
PROPHETIC JUSTICE: THE UNITED STATES IS NOW PROSECUTING SUSPECTED TERRORISTS ON THE BASIS OF THEIR INTENTIONS, NOT JUST THEIR ACTIONS. BUT IN THE CASE OF ISLAMIC EXTREMISTS, HOW CAN AMERICAN JURORS FAIRLY WEIGH WORDS AND BELIEFS WHEN MUSLIMS THEMSELVES CAN'T AGREE ON WHAT THEY MEAN? AMY WALDMAN (ATLANTIC MONTHLY, OCTOBER)
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200610/waldman-islam
TORTURED BY MISTAKE: THE CASE OF MAHER ARAR SHOWS WHY THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S SECRET DETENTION PROGRAM IS WRONG EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 20)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1901547_pf.html
MCCAIN'S DUBIOUS HIGH GROUND: JOHN MCCAIN AND HIS BAND OF REPUBLICAN REBELS DEFYING PRESIDENT BUSH ON THE ISSUE OF INTERROGATION HAVE A STRANGE ATTACHMENT TO CONFUSED ARGUMENTATION - RICH LOWRY (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 19)
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YjRiN...GJhYjQ0MDNhNzk=
HANG TOUGH, MR. PRESIDENT EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 18): President Bush rightly defines reasonable rules for interrogating terrorists.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...17-093228-6826r
WHEN MIRANDA MET OSAMA: WILL TERRORISTS GET LAWYERS THE MOMENT THEY'RE CAPTURED ON THE BATTLEFIELD? - BRENDAN MINITER (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, SEPTEMBER19): To keep up war momentum, the U.S. now needs to put terrorists on trial.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/b...r/?id=110008962
IRAQI JOURNALISTS CAUGHT IN CROSSFIRE - AARON GLANTZ (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 19): The press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders says the reporters being arrested by the U.S. military are just trying to do their jobs.
http://www.antiwar.com/glantz/?articleid=9712
I WAS A PR INTERN IN IRAQ: IN THIS ASTONISHING CONFESSIONAL BY AN OXFORD GRADUATE WHO WORKED IN THE GREEN ZONE OF BAGHDAD, WE SEE THE PERVERSITY OF THE AMERICAN VERSION OF A 'FREE PRESS' IN IRAQ - WILLEM MARX (HARPER'S, SEPTEMBER 18/ALTERNET): The Baghdad Press Center was an office that the U.S. State Department funded to provide Iraqi reporters with equipment and to train them in journalistic ethics and professional conduct. And yet we were hiring these same Iraqi reporters to work indirectly for the U.S. military.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/41479/
(scroll down link for item)
IRAQ: TRYING TO SPIN THE UNSPINNABLE - ASHRAF FAHIM (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 20): As electoral defeat looms, rather than portraying Iraq as a success story unheralded by the ambulance-chasing media (as was his wont), Bush now switches the topic to a proven winner, conflating Iraq with the "war on terror.?
http://atimes.com/atimes/middle_east/hi20ak01.html
U.S. LOSES 7,000 TROOPS IN IRAQ WONKETTE (SEPTEMBER 19): It's hard to make any plans for getting out of Iraq -- or any plans for anything, ever -- when the Department of Defense has no idea how many American troops are in Iraq
http://www.wonkette.com/politics/iraq/us-l...iraq-201766.php
NO ONE DARES TO HELP: THE WOUNDED DIE ALONE ON BAGHDAD'S STREETS. AN OFFER OF AID COULD BE YOUR OWN DEATH SENTENCE, AN IRAQI REPORTER WRITES (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 20):
Because this account of daily life in Baghdad reveals where the writer lives, his name is not being used to protect his safety. He is a 54-year-old Iraqi reporter in The Times' Baghdad Bureau.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...-home-headlines
DOUBTS INCREASE ABOUT STRENGTH OF IRAQ's PREMIER - EDWARD WONG (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 20): Senior Iraqi and American officials are beginning to question whether Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has the political muscle and decisiveness to hold Iraq together as it hovers on the edge of a full civil war.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/20/world/mi...agewanted=print
ARE WE WINNING IN IRAQ?: THE DEFEATISM IS UNWARRANTED - MACKUBIN THOMAS OWENS (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 19): We have broken the back of the Sunni insurgency, the main threat to the Iraqi government.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Njk4N...WZhMGMzYmU1OWM=
CHENEY: THE FATAL TOUCH - JOAN DIDION (NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, OCTOBER 5): In the apparently higher interest of consolidating the political advantage of war Cheney had made misrepresentations that facilitated a war in Iraq that promised to further destabilize the Middle East. He had compromised both America's image in the world and its image of itself.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19376
DEJA VU ON IRAN - ARI BERMAN (NATION, SEPTEMBER 19): Is the Bush Administration mistaking Iran for pre-war Iraq? Recent events certainly sound eerily familiar.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=122903
WHAT WOULD WAR LOOK LIKE? A FLURRY OF MILITARY MANEUVERS IN THE MIDDLE EAST INCREASES SPECULATION THAT CONFLICT WITH IRAN IS NO LONGER QUITE SO UNTHINKABLE. HERE'S HOW THE U.S. WOULD FIGHT SUCH A WAR -- AND THE HUGE PRICE IT WOULD HAVE TO PAY TO WIN IT - MICHAEL DUFFY (TIME, SEPTEMBER 17)
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout...1535817,00.html
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
AT WAR? THE U.S. VS. IRAN: ONE SIDE IS PLAYING FOR REAL, THE OTHER ONLY FOR TIME - MICHAEL RUBIN (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, SEPTEMBER 19): The Iranian leadership will say anything and do anything to buy the time necessary to acquire nuclear capability. That Foggy Bottom still advises against any strategy that might undercut the possibility of some illusionary breakthrough signals triumph not of realism but of negligence.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/fe...ml?id=110008968
WHY SANCTIONS ON IRAN WILL FAIL - HOSSEIN ASKARI (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 19): US President George W. Bush is calling for multilateral sanctions on Iran. Sanctions won't succeed in cowing Iran, but they will indeed have ominous consequences for the United States and the rest of the world.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HI19Ak01.html
DON'T PANIC ABOUT IRAN; OFFER A DEAL - TED GALEN CARPENTER (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 20): It would be tragic if we ignited a terrible war merely to thwart a remote, hypothetical threat.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
REFLECTIONS ON 9/11- GORE VIDAL (TRUTHDIG, SEPTEMBER 19): In the last five years American behavior in the Middle East has been barbarous and will not soon be forgiven.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200609...flections_9_11/
U.N.-DIPLOMATIC BUSH GOES TO TURTLE BAYAND SAYS NOTHING - FRED KAPLAN (SLATE, SEPTEMBER 19): The sad fact is that, even among Middle Eastern countries governed by aspiring or actual democrats, the United States is less and less a moral model. And President Bush made clear that he's not going to do anything differently.
http://www.slate.com/id/2149995/
BUSH BURIES THE LEAD: PRESIDENT'S UN SPEECH CONTAINS SIGNIFICANT AFTERTHOUGHT ON MIDDLE EAST PEACE EDITORIALS (LOS ANGELES TIMES,
SEPTEMBER 20): The buried lead in Bush's U.N. remarks about the democratization of the Middle East was his announcement of a potentially significant U.S. initiative for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-...pinion-leftrail
AFGHANISTAN: A TALE OF NEVER ENDING TRAGEDY JOHN RYAN (HUFFINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 19)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-ryan/af...ne_b_29804.html
EUROPEAN ROLE REVERSAL - HELLE DALE (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 20): In Europe, the most important source of allies for the United States, 57 percent now consider American leadership undesirable, and a mere 18 percent approve of the leadership of President Bush, this according to the poll "Transatlantic Trends 2006" released in September by the German Marshall Fund. This is why the impending exit of British Prime Minister Tony Blair is an event that could have major implications for U.S. foreign policy.
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20060919-091308-4673r.htm
ISLAM IN EUROPE - TIMOTHY GARTON ASH (NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, OCTOBER 5): In the relationship with Islam as a religion, it makes sense to encourage those versions of Islam that are compatible with the fundamentals of a modern, liberal, and democratic Europe.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19371
PUTTING A DIFFERENT FACE ON ISLAM IN AMERICA - NEIL MACFARQUHAR (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 20): This month, Professor Ingrid Mattson, a 43-year-old convert, was elected president of the Islamic Society of North America, the largest umbrella organization for Muslim groups in the United States and Canada, making her a prominent voice for a faith ever more under assault by critics who paint it as the main font of terrorism.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/20/nyregion...agewanted=print
THE RICH GET RICHER: GROWING INCOME DISPARITY DOESN?T PRESAGE A NEW LABOR MOVEMENT AT HOME ? BUT IT MAY SIGNAL MORE TERRORISM FOR US ABROAD - JAMES KURTH (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, SEPTEMBER 25): Only Islamism is now beginning to mount a serious threat to the security of the rich, and that threat is also directed at all the other groups and peoples that the Islamists despise as well.
http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_09_25/cover.html
JIHAD, THE LORD'S SUPPER, AND ETERNAL LIFE ? SPENGLER (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 19): There is no Grace in Islam, no miracle, no expiatory sacrifice, no expression of love for mankind such that each Muslim need not be a sacrifice. On the contrary, the concept of jihad, in which the congregation of Islam is also the army, states that every single Muslim must sacrifice himself personally.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HI19Aa02.html
A WISDOM AND JUDGMENT DEFICIENCY IN TERROR WAR - CAL THOMAS (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 20): The jihadists know nothing but intimidation and domination.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
TAKE IT FROM HIM: AMERICAN IS SAFER? TERRORISM, IRAQ AND THE POLITICAL USES OF FEAR FIVE YEARS INTO THE "LONG WAR" - FRIDA BERRIGAN (COMMON DREAMS, SEPTEMBER 19): Groups employing terrorist tactics are a threat to be countered, a problem to be addressed, but they are not a rival to American power -- unless we allow them to be.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0918-30.htm
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING - JOHN MUELLER, FOREIGN AFFAIRS (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 18): If it is so easy to pull off an attack and if terrorists are so demonically competent, why have they not done it? One reasonable explanation is that almost no terrorists exist in the United States and few have the means or the inclination to strike from abroad.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...newsopinion-hed
SEE ALSO
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20060901faco...ist-threat.html
BUSH'S USEFUL IDIOTS: TONY JUDT ON THE STRANGE DEATH OF LIBERAL AMERICA (LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS, SEPTEMBER 21): The alacrity with which many of America's most prominent liberals have censored themselves in the name of the War on Terror, the enthusiasm with which they have invented ideological and moral cover for war and war crimes and proffered that cover to their political enemies: all this is a bad sign.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n18/judt01_.html
CHENEY SAYS HOPES OF WORLD REST ON U.S. - TOM RAUM, ASSOCIATED PRESS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 19): Vice President Dick Cheney: "The war on terror is a test of our strength, a test of our capabilities, and above all a test of our character."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1900599_pf.html
HOSTAGE TO IRAN AGAIN? - MAUREEN DOWD (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 20): W. has now put so many bad actors in the terror stew -- some of whom hate each other -- and has justified so many sketchy programs under the war-on-terror rubric, that the word ?terror? is losing all meaning and just becoming a marketing slogan.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/20/opini...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
BUSH'S BRAIN FOUND LACKING: A SLEW OF NEW BOOKS ON KARL ROVE MAKE US QUESTION WHETHER THE PRESIDENT'S DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF IS TRULY THE MACHIAVELLIAN GENIUS SO MANY IN WASHINGTON CLAIM - WALTER SHAPIRO (SALON, SEPTEMBER 19): When it comes to Iraq, Iran or Afghanistan, it is certainly easier to feel the gravitational force of Cheney's office than perturbations from Planet Rove. The best guess -- until we see definitive evidence to the contrary -- is that Rove primarily devotes his energies to the packaging and politics of global policies that others have decided.
http://www.salon.com/books/review/2006/09/19/rove/print.html
FROM VENICE, A LESSON ON EMPIRE - DAVID IGNATIUS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 20): How does a nation maintain a far-flung network of commercial interests without subverting its values at home? How does a nation have the benefits of imperial reach without the ruinous costs of empire? It's a debate that will widen as America moves toward its post-Iraq introspection.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1901438_pf.html
ISLAMIST RADICALS IN PRISON: HOW MANY? THE US HAS FEWER CASES OF RADICALIZATION THAN EUROPE, BUT EXPERTS CALL FOR MORE STUDY AND PREVENTIVE STRATEGIES - ALEXANDRA MARKS (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 20): The United States has the world's largest prison population, with more than 2 million inmates. It also has the world's highest incarceration rate -- 701 of every 100,000 people are in prison or jail.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0920/p03s02-ussc.html
Middle East Policy [http://www.mepc.org/journal_vol13/0609.asp] has just published a revised, updated, and unabridged version of " The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt. The article may be found online at: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/1...67.2006.00260.x
A Turning Point In History
By Dan Lieberman
20 September, 2006
Countercurrents.org
http://www.countercurrents.org/leb-lieberman200906.htm
Debates concerning the causes and consequences of the war between Israel and Hezbollah have obscured the exact nature and deep meaning of the conflict. The war might prove to be a turning point in world history.
Who started the War?
Without seeking international support to free its abducted soldiers, and immediately after a military excursion into Lebanon failed to locate its captured soldiers, Israel had its navy blockade Lebanon and had its air force bomb several targets, including Beirut's airport and Hezbollah's headquarters in southern Beirut. More than twenty four hours after these attacks, Hezbollah fired long range rockets into Israel.
By killing several Israeli soldiers and abducting two of them, while firing mortars at the Israel town of Shlomi (that did little damage), Hezbollah started an unjustified skirmish; no doubt about that. However, Israel, after learning it could not use a ground campaign to retrieve its military personnel, escalated hostilities that could have and should have been contained, and started a pulverizing war. Israel’s initial strategy resembled NATO's war against Yugoslavia, in which NATO used aerial warfare to punish Yugoslavia, which lacked adequate defenses against guided missiles launched from airplanes. No need to use troops and no need to occupy terrain. Hezbollah started a low-level conflict and Israel propelled the skirmish into a war.
What were the Strategies in the Attacks?
Hezbollah initially pursued its usual strategy in an attempt to fulfill its usual purposes. The militant Lebanese Shi'ite organization continued its harassment of Israel with anticipation of increasing its prestige by forcing Israel to negotiate. The “Party of God” expected to receive Israel’s maps of mined territory in Lebanon, a prisoner exchange and international recognition of its claim to ownership of the Sheeba farms.
This strategy had one difference from previous operations. Hezbollah mentioned the Palestinian conflict in its arguments and referred to Palestinian prisoners in Israel’s prisons. Although not proven, Hezbollah must have hoped to combine its strategy with those of the Palestinians and make it one Moslem effort against Israel’s encroachments into Arab territories and Jerusalem.
Israel had one simple short term strategy: free its soldiers without negotiations and concessions! Don’t help Hezbollah to become more recognized. Get the soldiers out and drop the matter. Its strategy failed.
The short term objectives of both contestants faded fast and exposed their long term objectives.
The Shi'ite Islamist organization proceeded with its ultimate strategy – the use of terror bombing to force a truce and also to motivate Jews to leave Israel. Rocket attacks, as another terror weapon, succeeded. Israel had only 42 civilian casualties, not much more than two suicide bombings, but the rockets appeared more ominous. Immigration to Israel has been slowing but now it might be halted. An average of 25,000 Israelis leave their nation yearly and the emigration from Israel might increase. Recent figures from the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies show that: “Some 313,000 Jews have left Jerusalem over the last 25 years, 105,000 more than those who moved to the capital during the same period.”
Israel derived its long-term strategy from the failures of earlier experiences. Israel learned from previous occupations that it lacks sufficient resources to occupy hostile lands. Its new policy has endeavored to control antagonists by other means. Examine Israel’s previous occupations in Lebanon and Gaza, and it becomes obvious that Israel only removed its soldiers. It still controls Lebanon and Gaza air space and shipping lanes, engages in targeted assassinations in both areas and is able to enter Gaza with minimal interference.
Israel noted that accession to power by a radical Muslim group can initiate sectarian strife. Israel succeeded in stimulating several weeks of sectarian warfare between Hamas and Fatah. It modeled its new strategy from that experience and from observations of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. By generating sectarian strife, Israel could have its antagonists destroy one another and reduce their ability of confrontation. If the strategy, which has partially succeeded in Palestine, could succeed in Lebanon, then it is probable that Israel would have applied the same strategy in Syria and Iran. Nevertheless, despite bombing mainly Shi’ite neighborhoods and saturating Christian neighborhoods with propaganda which blamed Hezbollah for the war and for the havoc committed upon the Lebanese people and which also urged the Christian population to engage the militant Islamic party, the sectarian warfare strategy failed.
What were the Successes and Failures?
Hezbollah’s power was greatly exaggerated. Except for the intense rocket barrage, Hezbollah was more smoke than fire, Hezbollah didn’t have the power to create any offensive and deter Israel’s air and sea power from daily destroying Lebanon’s infrastructure. Anti-tank missiles stopped Israel’s tanks and that effort, coupled with world opinion turning against Israel, prevented Hezbollah’s defeat – Hezbollah’s success was not victory; it was survival.
Israel took the offensive. Its military tried to destroy Hezbollah’s ability to attack Israel again and attempted to reduce Lebanon to an impotent state. However, ground troops, as they worked their way into southern Lebanon, learned that ultimate victory, which was defined as destruction of Hezbollah, could not be achieved without massive destruction of the Lebanese population and Lebanon’s infrastructure. By not exhibiting a winning offensive that accomplished objectives, observers proclaimed Israel to be a loser. Since there are those who like winners and despise losers, Israel lost some of its previous support.
Israel lost the public relations war. From the images on the TV screens, the world perceived a different Israel – a highly aggressive and non-compromising Israel that uses excessive power with diminished regard for civilian life. Particularly disturbing was a missile attack on a convoy containing Lebanese families fleeing the village of Marwahin, close to the Israeli border. Israel warned the villagers to evacuate and although the villagers proceeded on the only available road, Israeli warplanes bombed them and killed 16 persons. .
Hezbollah deserved criticism for its rocket attacks on Israeli cities. However, the barrages of 100-200 pound rockets caused minimal damage and served to emphasize the excessive damage caused by Israel’s 1000-2000 pound guided missiles. To compensate for its aggressive actions, Israel tried to arouse hostility against Hezbollah by accusing the Lebanese organization of operating rocket launchers in heavily populated areas and intentionally inviting reprisals that would inflict harm on civilians. The accusations damaged Israel’s credibility. An example of a pro-Israel statement:
The IDF, as has been well publicized, warned the citizens of Lebanon of impending attacks and did everything in its power to avoid the loss of civilian life. Hezbollah, in contrast, operates from civilian areas and uses Lebanese civilians as shields while firing missiles at Israel’s cities. It does this knowing that in order to protect its own citizens, Israel will be forced to endanger the lives of Lebanese civilians, and the result will inevitably be to increase civilian deaths, no matter how precise Israel’s weaponry. And these deaths in turn will be used to ratchet up the violence and hate
(1) Warnings of some attacks didn't relieve accusations of criminal actions by Israel due to unwarranted attacks on bridges, roads, power plants and entire neighborhoods in Beirut
(2) Israeli pilots didn’t supply photographs of rocket launchers being housed in populated areas.
(3) Non-biased reports from those who surveyed areas after Israeli bombings didn’t disclose rocket launchers.
(4) Long-distance multiple rocket launchers cannot operate in populated areas. They need to fire rockets from areas where there are no obstructions. They are usually stationed in fields and hidden by foliage.
(5) Israel showed little concern for its own population by not agreeing to a truce at an earlier time and by engaging in a last day and meaningless offensive action that resulted in the deaths of seventeen Israeli soldiers.
Perceptions after the truce: A different Hezbollah was perceived; a well-organized and social-minded institution that had support from the Lebanese people and quickly assisted in relief programs without prejudice. Previous perceptions of Israel as a defenseless and embattled state were modified. Israel lost its moral ground.
Israel’s citizens became exhausted with war. For Israel, war has become endless. The endless wars solve immediate problems and create new problems. Wherever Israel goes it meets enemies. Saddam Hussein is gone, and now Iran, a major antagonist, has an almost direct path thorough Iraq to Syria and to Israel. The new Israeli population does not have Zionist idealists but are persons, mainly Russians, who came to Israel for economic opportunities. Their principal interest is comfortable living. They don’t want to sit in their living rooms, and while watching television or listening to music, suddenly experience a Katyusha rocket fall in their lap. They can easily leave, go back to the old country, which now has increased opportunities, or go to another country. They have bags and can travel.
The United States lost prestige. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice reluctantly traveled with her fashion show and accomplished what she promised the U.S. would not do – a ceasefire without guarantees of Hezbollah’s destruction. By approving on day thirty-two what could have been achieved on day two and, if so, saved lives, the U.S. must have alienated international bodies and lost trust from much of the world.
A Turning Point in History
A number of established concepts that had moved the world in the last decades were destroyed. Other concepts that will move the world in the future were established.
A powerful and seemingly unimpeded movement, that expanded a Zionist dream to the establishment of a state and succeeded in rapid growth in size and population, has been halted. This could be the end of the Zionist dream; a decisive moment in history.
Lack of victory forces Israel to rework its military and reinvigorate an angry population before embarking on another aggressive action. Israel cannot afford another non-victory. Israel now has no strategy to overcome Syria. If it replaces Bashar Al-Assad’s government, Israel will face Hezbollahs in Syria and Lebanon. Israel can bomb Iran nuclear installations, but if Iran, with a population of 70 million and a vast area, is able to retaliate with missiles, the smaller Israel will not easily survive. Israel has a dilemma – the time to challenge the enemy is when a nation has a large military advantage – but it might be a fatal victory. The Palestinians have offered a truce, and back channels will be used to lessen tensions. Israel needs to rest and devise a new strategy. The Middle East, outside of Iraq and Palestine, will probably become less threatening.
The concept of preemptive war, pioneered by Israel and adopted by the U.S., has proven to be a failure. It has been shown in Iraq and Lebanon that preemptive war can only succeed if the enemy is totally destroyed and if the conditions that created the antagonisms are totally suppressed and then replaced.
The arguments between western nations and Islam cannot be resolved by force. In Lebanon, an addition to that of Iraq, Islam has displayed elements that are prepared to sacrifice everything, human and material, to prevent encroachments upon their lives. Prevention of mutual destruction of east and west is a choice between genocide and compromise.
The notion that a major military power can be provoked into war by an infraction upon their psyche without a major infraction upon their territory has alarmed other nations. Only the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction can save the weak from the strong. The war will stimulate a new and more aggressive arms race.
Israel’s proposition that the release of a few soldiers is worth more than the destruction of a nation and massive killings of people, and its targeting of Shi’ite populations, tarnished its image and branded it as a megalomaniac and racist state. Israel lost the trust of a part of the world that previously supported it. The European Union, in particular, has finally displayed incipient movements geared to prevent Israel and the United States from shaping the Middle East to their own designs. The EU will work more independently to secure an equitable Middle East peace.
Nations will be reluctant to depend on the U.S. The U.S. demonstrated that it is not a positive force for world peace. Unfortunately, as a result, countries might once again form blocs, similar to those before WWI, and make defense pacts in which an attack on one means an attack on all.
More ominous is that Israel still has the nuclear option and could use it to prevent the end of the Zionist dream.
Dan Lieberman is the Editor of Alternative Insight, a monthly web based newsletter, http://www.alternativeinsight.com. Freelance writer of many articles on the Middle East conflict
danlan2000@att.net
By Dan Lieberman
20 September, 2006
Countercurrents.org
http://www.countercurrents.org/leb-lieberman200906.htm
Debates concerning the causes and consequences of the war between Israel and Hezbollah have obscured the exact nature and deep meaning of the conflict. The war might prove to be a turning point in world history.
Who started the War?
Without seeking international support to free its abducted soldiers, and immediately after a military excursion into Lebanon failed to locate its captured soldiers, Israel had its navy blockade Lebanon and had its air force bomb several targets, including Beirut's airport and Hezbollah's headquarters in southern Beirut. More than twenty four hours after these attacks, Hezbollah fired long range rockets into Israel.
By killing several Israeli soldiers and abducting two of them, while firing mortars at the Israel town of Shlomi (that did little damage), Hezbollah started an unjustified skirmish; no doubt about that. However, Israel, after learning it could not use a ground campaign to retrieve its military personnel, escalated hostilities that could have and should have been contained, and started a pulverizing war. Israel’s initial strategy resembled NATO's war against Yugoslavia, in which NATO used aerial warfare to punish Yugoslavia, which lacked adequate defenses against guided missiles launched from airplanes. No need to use troops and no need to occupy terrain. Hezbollah started a low-level conflict and Israel propelled the skirmish into a war.
What were the Strategies in the Attacks?
Hezbollah initially pursued its usual strategy in an attempt to fulfill its usual purposes. The militant Lebanese Shi'ite organization continued its harassment of Israel with anticipation of increasing its prestige by forcing Israel to negotiate. The “Party of God” expected to receive Israel’s maps of mined territory in Lebanon, a prisoner exchange and international recognition of its claim to ownership of the Sheeba farms.
This strategy had one difference from previous operations. Hezbollah mentioned the Palestinian conflict in its arguments and referred to Palestinian prisoners in Israel’s prisons. Although not proven, Hezbollah must have hoped to combine its strategy with those of the Palestinians and make it one Moslem effort against Israel’s encroachments into Arab territories and Jerusalem.
Israel had one simple short term strategy: free its soldiers without negotiations and concessions! Don’t help Hezbollah to become more recognized. Get the soldiers out and drop the matter. Its strategy failed.
The short term objectives of both contestants faded fast and exposed their long term objectives.
The Shi'ite Islamist organization proceeded with its ultimate strategy – the use of terror bombing to force a truce and also to motivate Jews to leave Israel. Rocket attacks, as another terror weapon, succeeded. Israel had only 42 civilian casualties, not much more than two suicide bombings, but the rockets appeared more ominous. Immigration to Israel has been slowing but now it might be halted. An average of 25,000 Israelis leave their nation yearly and the emigration from Israel might increase. Recent figures from the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies show that: “Some 313,000 Jews have left Jerusalem over the last 25 years, 105,000 more than those who moved to the capital during the same period.”
Israel derived its long-term strategy from the failures of earlier experiences. Israel learned from previous occupations that it lacks sufficient resources to occupy hostile lands. Its new policy has endeavored to control antagonists by other means. Examine Israel’s previous occupations in Lebanon and Gaza, and it becomes obvious that Israel only removed its soldiers. It still controls Lebanon and Gaza air space and shipping lanes, engages in targeted assassinations in both areas and is able to enter Gaza with minimal interference.
Israel noted that accession to power by a radical Muslim group can initiate sectarian strife. Israel succeeded in stimulating several weeks of sectarian warfare between Hamas and Fatah. It modeled its new strategy from that experience and from observations of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. By generating sectarian strife, Israel could have its antagonists destroy one another and reduce their ability of confrontation. If the strategy, which has partially succeeded in Palestine, could succeed in Lebanon, then it is probable that Israel would have applied the same strategy in Syria and Iran. Nevertheless, despite bombing mainly Shi’ite neighborhoods and saturating Christian neighborhoods with propaganda which blamed Hezbollah for the war and for the havoc committed upon the Lebanese people and which also urged the Christian population to engage the militant Islamic party, the sectarian warfare strategy failed.
What were the Successes and Failures?
Hezbollah’s power was greatly exaggerated. Except for the intense rocket barrage, Hezbollah was more smoke than fire, Hezbollah didn’t have the power to create any offensive and deter Israel’s air and sea power from daily destroying Lebanon’s infrastructure. Anti-tank missiles stopped Israel’s tanks and that effort, coupled with world opinion turning against Israel, prevented Hezbollah’s defeat – Hezbollah’s success was not victory; it was survival.
Israel took the offensive. Its military tried to destroy Hezbollah’s ability to attack Israel again and attempted to reduce Lebanon to an impotent state. However, ground troops, as they worked their way into southern Lebanon, learned that ultimate victory, which was defined as destruction of Hezbollah, could not be achieved without massive destruction of the Lebanese population and Lebanon’s infrastructure. By not exhibiting a winning offensive that accomplished objectives, observers proclaimed Israel to be a loser. Since there are those who like winners and despise losers, Israel lost some of its previous support.
Israel lost the public relations war. From the images on the TV screens, the world perceived a different Israel – a highly aggressive and non-compromising Israel that uses excessive power with diminished regard for civilian life. Particularly disturbing was a missile attack on a convoy containing Lebanese families fleeing the village of Marwahin, close to the Israeli border. Israel warned the villagers to evacuate and although the villagers proceeded on the only available road, Israeli warplanes bombed them and killed 16 persons. .
Hezbollah deserved criticism for its rocket attacks on Israeli cities. However, the barrages of 100-200 pound rockets caused minimal damage and served to emphasize the excessive damage caused by Israel’s 1000-2000 pound guided missiles. To compensate for its aggressive actions, Israel tried to arouse hostility against Hezbollah by accusing the Lebanese organization of operating rocket launchers in heavily populated areas and intentionally inviting reprisals that would inflict harm on civilians. The accusations damaged Israel’s credibility. An example of a pro-Israel statement:
The IDF, as has been well publicized, warned the citizens of Lebanon of impending attacks and did everything in its power to avoid the loss of civilian life. Hezbollah, in contrast, operates from civilian areas and uses Lebanese civilians as shields while firing missiles at Israel’s cities. It does this knowing that in order to protect its own citizens, Israel will be forced to endanger the lives of Lebanese civilians, and the result will inevitably be to increase civilian deaths, no matter how precise Israel’s weaponry. And these deaths in turn will be used to ratchet up the violence and hate
(1) Warnings of some attacks didn't relieve accusations of criminal actions by Israel due to unwarranted attacks on bridges, roads, power plants and entire neighborhoods in Beirut
(2) Israeli pilots didn’t supply photographs of rocket launchers being housed in populated areas.
(3) Non-biased reports from those who surveyed areas after Israeli bombings didn’t disclose rocket launchers.
(4) Long-distance multiple rocket launchers cannot operate in populated areas. They need to fire rockets from areas where there are no obstructions. They are usually stationed in fields and hidden by foliage.
(5) Israel showed little concern for its own population by not agreeing to a truce at an earlier time and by engaging in a last day and meaningless offensive action that resulted in the deaths of seventeen Israeli soldiers.
Perceptions after the truce: A different Hezbollah was perceived; a well-organized and social-minded institution that had support from the Lebanese people and quickly assisted in relief programs without prejudice. Previous perceptions of Israel as a defenseless and embattled state were modified. Israel lost its moral ground.
Israel’s citizens became exhausted with war. For Israel, war has become endless. The endless wars solve immediate problems and create new problems. Wherever Israel goes it meets enemies. Saddam Hussein is gone, and now Iran, a major antagonist, has an almost direct path thorough Iraq to Syria and to Israel. The new Israeli population does not have Zionist idealists but are persons, mainly Russians, who came to Israel for economic opportunities. Their principal interest is comfortable living. They don’t want to sit in their living rooms, and while watching television or listening to music, suddenly experience a Katyusha rocket fall in their lap. They can easily leave, go back to the old country, which now has increased opportunities, or go to another country. They have bags and can travel.
The United States lost prestige. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice reluctantly traveled with her fashion show and accomplished what she promised the U.S. would not do – a ceasefire without guarantees of Hezbollah’s destruction. By approving on day thirty-two what could have been achieved on day two and, if so, saved lives, the U.S. must have alienated international bodies and lost trust from much of the world.
A Turning Point in History
A number of established concepts that had moved the world in the last decades were destroyed. Other concepts that will move the world in the future were established.
A powerful and seemingly unimpeded movement, that expanded a Zionist dream to the establishment of a state and succeeded in rapid growth in size and population, has been halted. This could be the end of the Zionist dream; a decisive moment in history.
Lack of victory forces Israel to rework its military and reinvigorate an angry population before embarking on another aggressive action. Israel cannot afford another non-victory. Israel now has no strategy to overcome Syria. If it replaces Bashar Al-Assad’s government, Israel will face Hezbollahs in Syria and Lebanon. Israel can bomb Iran nuclear installations, but if Iran, with a population of 70 million and a vast area, is able to retaliate with missiles, the smaller Israel will not easily survive. Israel has a dilemma – the time to challenge the enemy is when a nation has a large military advantage – but it might be a fatal victory. The Palestinians have offered a truce, and back channels will be used to lessen tensions. Israel needs to rest and devise a new strategy. The Middle East, outside of Iraq and Palestine, will probably become less threatening.
The concept of preemptive war, pioneered by Israel and adopted by the U.S., has proven to be a failure. It has been shown in Iraq and Lebanon that preemptive war can only succeed if the enemy is totally destroyed and if the conditions that created the antagonisms are totally suppressed and then replaced.
The arguments between western nations and Islam cannot be resolved by force. In Lebanon, an addition to that of Iraq, Islam has displayed elements that are prepared to sacrifice everything, human and material, to prevent encroachments upon their lives. Prevention of mutual destruction of east and west is a choice between genocide and compromise.
The notion that a major military power can be provoked into war by an infraction upon their psyche without a major infraction upon their territory has alarmed other nations. Only the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction can save the weak from the strong. The war will stimulate a new and more aggressive arms race.
Israel’s proposition that the release of a few soldiers is worth more than the destruction of a nation and massive killings of people, and its targeting of Shi’ite populations, tarnished its image and branded it as a megalomaniac and racist state. Israel lost the trust of a part of the world that previously supported it. The European Union, in particular, has finally displayed incipient movements geared to prevent Israel and the United States from shaping the Middle East to their own designs. The EU will work more independently to secure an equitable Middle East peace.
Nations will be reluctant to depend on the U.S. The U.S. demonstrated that it is not a positive force for world peace. Unfortunately, as a result, countries might once again form blocs, similar to those before WWI, and make defense pacts in which an attack on one means an attack on all.
More ominous is that Israel still has the nuclear option and could use it to prevent the end of the Zionist dream.
Dan Lieberman is the Editor of Alternative Insight, a monthly web based newsletter, http://www.alternativeinsight.com. Freelance writer of many articles on the Middle East conflict
danlan2000@att.net
ANTI-AMERICANISM IS PROVIDING A GLUE: THE RHETORIC FROM THE LEADERS OF IRAN, SUDAN AND VENEZUELA AT THE U.N. SHARED A THEME OF OUTRAGE AT THE U.S., DESPITE THEIR DIFFERENCES - PAUL RICHTER (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 22): Though the U.S. government has doubled its spending on public diplomacy, a poll this year by the Pew Charitable Trusts showed wide dissatisfaction with a central pillar of U.S. foreign policy, the "war against terrorism."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...-home-headlines
'RESPONSE FROM SENATOR FEINGOLD' - RUSS FEINGOLD (BELOIT DAILY NEWS, WI, SEPTEMBER 20): We risk offending peaceful Muslims around the world by using the phrase linking their religion with fascism. In fact, when Karen Hughes, the President's own Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy, was asked about this phrase, she said she doesn't 'use religious terms because I'm afraid that people do hear them wrongly around the world.'
http://www.beloitdailynews.com/articles/20...tters/let05.txt
JUST SHUT UP - DIANA WEST (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 22): Just read through George W. Bush's address to the world body. "Islamic fascists" are out. "Extremists who use terror as a weapon to create fear" are in. We probably have presidential pal and roving ambassador Karen Hughes to thank for Mr. Bush's discreet-to-the-point-of-incomprehensible talk.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...21-085730-9234r
THE POPE'S DIVISIONS - REUEL MARC GERECHT (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, SEPTEMBER 21): We need to stop treating Muslims like children, and viewing our public diplomacy with Islamic countries as popularity contests.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/fe...ml?id=110008973
U.S. RESEARCHER URGES MEASURABLE INFORMATION WAR ON EXTREMISM: MARSHALL CENTER SPEAKER DISCUSSES COLD WAR-STYLE INFORMATION STRATEGIES - VINCE CRAWLEY (WASHINGTON FILE, SEPTEMBER 21): Raphael Perl, a specialist in international affairs for the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS), proposes using Cold War-style information and containment strategies to prevent the spread of Islamic extremism, and recommends immediate action to start gathering data on public diplomacy efforts in Muslim communities worldwide.
http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display....elwarC0.5602228
PART TWO: WHAT IF THE PRESIDENT REQUESTED YOUR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ADVICE? - ALVIN SNYDER (UNITED OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CENTER ON PUBLIC DIPLOMACY, PUBLIC DIPLOMACY BOG, SEPTEMBER 21): Here is more from those who played along with our fantasy of receiving a call from the president -- this or any president -- who then asks advice on how to improve America?s public diplomacy.
http://uscpublicdiplomacy.com/index.php/ne...plomacy_advice/
WHY THE FIREBRANDS GET HEARD - EUGENE ROBINSON (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 22): For all its talk about public diplomacy and spreading the U.S. gospel throughout the world, the Bush administration does an appallingly lousy job of it.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2101512_pf.html
OUR ENEMY, THE STATE MICHAEL ROSEN (TSC CENTRAL, SEPTEMBER 22): It's universally recognized that our public diplomacy is a shambles.
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=092206D
CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS - CARLOS ALBERTO MONTANER (WALL STREET JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 21): To think that just because a journalist participates in a VOA program and receives $100 he will sell his conscience to the government is to have a terrible opinion of journalists.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1158...6035469583.html
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
THANK YOU, AMERICA - TOM ENGELHARDT (NATION, SEPTEMBER 20): Kurdistan Development Corporation is the "official investment site" http://www.kurdistancorporation.com/ for Kurdistan, the Other Iraq. So the semi-autonomous government of Kurdistan has put up money to thank the Bush administration in its time of need. But this "thank you" campaign is being run by an "A-list" Republican PR firm, Russo, Marsh, and Rogers. Now, the Pentagon is plugging "the Other Iraq" by sending out glowing press releases about its latest trade fair, as is the Voice of America. Is the Bush administration, in essence, using our money to thank itself?
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=123403
THE MISSION: RECONCILE AMERICA AND THE WORLD - CORINE LESNES (LE MONDE, FRANCE, SEPTEMBER 20): Created officially in 2003, Business for Diplomatic Action now contains representatives of McDonald's, Microsoft and Exxon. The overseers of the business world are worried that they can no longer escape the decline in America's image.
http://www.watchingamerica.com/lemonde000099.shtml
LINK MAY NOT BE ACCESSIBLE
ARTICLE IN FRENCH AT
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/imprimer_element...0-814917,0.html
IT'S 1938 ALL OVER AGAIN: A DECISIVE BATTLE - MICHAEL NOVAK (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 21): The only way our enemies can win is through psychological warfare, by way of the media.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=N2E4Z...GVlMWZjMjk2MDc=
CLASH OF VISIONS OVER CIA INTERROGATIONS: CAN THE BROAD TERMS OF THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS BE MORE CLEARLY DEFINED WITHOUT WEAKENING THEM? - WARREN RICHEY (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 21)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0921/p03s03-uspo.html
OUR TORTURER-IN-CHIEF: UNTIL BUSH TOOK OFFICE, THE U.S. HAD NO PROBLEM DEFINING WHAT IS CRUEL AND INHUMAN - ROSA BROOKS (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 22)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions
WHERE TORTURE GOT HIM: BUSH'S EFFORT TO GUT THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS HAS ANTAGONIZED THE MILITARY, SPLIT REPUBLICANS, AND UNDERCUT HIS WAR ON TERROR - SIDNEY BLUMENTHAL (SALON, SEPTEMBER 21): Bush's standoff on torture threatens to leave no policy whatsoever -- and threatens to leave his war on terror in a twilight zone beyond the rule of law.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/20...ture/print.html
A BAD BARGAIN - EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTMBER 21): Here is a way to measure how seriously President Bush was willing to compromise on the military tribunals bill: Less than an hour after an agreement was announced yesterday with three leading Republican senators, the White House was already laying a path to wiggle out of its one real concession.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/22/opinion/...agewanted=print
INTERROGATORS LEFT OUT IN THE COLD: WHITE HOUSE LEGAL AND POLITICAL MISSTEPS LED TO AN UNNEEDED DUEL OVER DETAINEES - DAVID IGNATIUS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 22): Senator McCain and the White House should have agreed long ago on a clear legal framework for the CIA officers asked to do the dirty work.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2101509_pf.html
HYPOCRISY AMONG TORTURE OPPONENTS - MARIE COCCO (TRUTHDIG, SEPTEMBER 20): We already have convinced the world that we are ruthless hypocrites who?ve abandoned the values we want others to embrace.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200609...ocrisy_torture/
FUTURE SHOCK: EVIDENCE OF PLANS TO TORTURE US DEMONSTRATORS R.J. ESKOW (HUFFINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 20)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/fut...-o_b_29911.html
IS THIS TORTURE? - THE USA SHOW "THE 4400" FEATURED THIS DRAMATIZED DEPICTION OF "WATERBOARDING" IN WHICH VICTIMS ARE MADE TO FEEL AS THOUGH THEY ARE DROWNING (TRUTHDIG, SEPTEMBER 20)
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/20060...s_this_torture/
THE GUANTANAMO 14 - R. EMMETT TYRRELL JR. (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 22): If aggressive interrogation has prevented further September 11-type events, no practice thus far revealed is beyond the pale.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...21-085721-1451r
NEARLY 6,600 CIVILIANS KILLED IN IRAQ IN TWO MONTHS: UN AFP (YAHOO!NEWS, SEPTEMBER 20)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060920/wl_mi...fp/iraqunrestun
HOME RAIDS PROVOKE INCREASED UNREST IN IRAQ - DAHR JAMAIL WITH ALI AL-FADHILY (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 21): Renewed raids at Iraqi homes by joint U.S.-Iraqi security forces are angering Iraqis -- while failing to improve the worsening security situation.
http://www.antiwar.com/jamail/?articleid=9723
NEW TERROR THAT STALKS IRAQ'S REPUBLIC OF FEAR - PATRICK COCKBURN (INDEPENDENT, SEPTEMBER 22): The state of terror now gripping Iraq is as bad as it was under Saddam Hussein.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle...icle1696153.ece
THE FIXER MEETS HIS MATCH: JAMES BAKER'S IRAQ STUDY GROUP IS SUPPOSED TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO FIX THE IRAQ WAR AND CONVINCE THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION TO ACCEPT THE PLAN. TO DO THE FIRST PART, THE GROUP MAY LIKELY ADVOCATE WITHDRAWAL. THE SECOND PART IS ANYONE'S GUESS - ROBERT DREYFUSS (AMERICAN PROSPECT, SEPTEMBER 20)
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?sectio...articleId=12035
IRAQ - MY PLAN TO GET US OUT! CARL JEFFERS (HUFFINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 20)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-jeffers...s-_b_29889.html
WHY WE ARE REALLY IN IRAQ: BUSH DRAGGED THE U.S. TO WAR SO THE GOP COULD WIN MIDTERM ELECTIONS -- AND THE PRESS WENT ALONG FOR THE RIDE -- ARGUES THE NEW YORK TIMES' FRANK RICH - GARY KAMIYA (SALON, SEPTEMBER 21): "How do you run as a vainglorious 'war president' if the war looks as if it's winding down and the number one evildoer has escaped?" The answer: Wag the dog. Attack Iraq.
http://www.salon.com/books/review/2006/09/21/rich/print.html
WIN-WIN-WIN-WIN SITUATION - MICHAEL KINSLEY (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 22): If you trace the concept of "victory" in Bush's remarks on Iraq, and those of subordinates, you discover a war that was won 3 1/2 years ago and today has barely started.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2101511_pf.html
US TROOPS IN IRAQ ARE TEHRAN'S 'HOSTAGES' - GARETH PORTER (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 22): The underlying reality in Iraq, which the Bush administration does not appear to grasp fully, is that the United States is now dependent on the sufferance of Iran and its Iraqi Shi'ite political-military allies to continue the occupation.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HI22Ak01.html
WE'RE NOT GOING TO IRAN - ROBERT DREYFUSS (TOMPAINE.COM, SEPTEMBER 20): Suddenly, stabilizing Iraq -- and minimizing the political fallout from Iraq at home -- may be more important to the Bush administration than sparking yet another conflagration in the region.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/2...ing_to_iran.php
LINK MAY NOT BE ACCESSIBLE
LESSONS FROM U.N. WEEK - DAVID BROOKS (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 21): With America exhausted by Iraq, with the threat of Iranian sanctions dissolving before our eyes, Western policy is drifting toward the option that most resembles passivity.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/opini...agewanted=print
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THE 'PROGRESS' ON IRAN EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 21): Thus far, negotiations and diplomacy have yielded little of substance.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...20-090620-6347r
BUSH BLOWS BELLIGERENT BUGLE AT UN - MATTHEW ROTHSCHILD (PROGRESSIVE, SEPTEMBER 20/COMMON DREAMS): Bush's speech to the U.N. on Tuesday was part of his lead-up to the bombing of Iran and/or Syria, and he once again appeared to be getting a kick out of his bellicosity.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0920-20.htm
PENTAGON IRAN OFFICE MIMICS FORMER IRAQ OFFICE - MARY LOUISE KELLY (NPR, SEPTEMBER 20): The Pentagon? new desk to work on Iran policy worries some at the CIA, who point out that many of the new Iran-desk staffers are the same people who staffed the now-notorious Office of Special Plans in the run-up to the Iraq war.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6108983
WHY BUSH IS TAKING A MORE DIPLOMATIC APPROACH ON IRAN - HOWARD LAFRANCHI (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 21)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0921/p01s01-usfp.html
IRAN WAR, DIPLOMACY ON PARALLEL TRACKS JIM LOBE (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 21): Washington's continued backing for European efforts to engage Iran despite the passage of last month's Security Council deadline suggests that Bush is committed to diplomacy; however, the hawks have also been active.
http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=9725
THE FORTUNE COOKIE GAME: CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING IN THE DEBATE OVER DEMOCRACY PROMOTION IN THE MIDDLE EAST. WHATEVER THE GIVEN POLICY OBJECTIVE, THE METHOD CAN'T BE UNILATERAL - MATTHEW YGLESIAS (AMERICAN PROSPECT, SEPTEMBER 19): If we want to work effectively for reforms that would benefit the populations of Middle Eastern countries, we'll need to do it through international institutions.
http://www.prospect.org/web/printfriendly-view.ww?id=12026
BUSH AT THE UN: ANNOTATED - STEPHEN ZUNES (FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS, SEPTEMBER 20/COMMON DREAMS): Few of the foreign delegations or international journalists present could take seriously Bush's rhetoric in his September 19 UN speech regarding the promotion of democracy in the Middle East, given the reality of U.S. policy in the region.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0920-34.htm
BUSH EVADES THE ISSUES - IAN WILLIAMS (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 21): The one redeeming aspect of Bush's cartoonish tour of the Middle East in his recent UN speech was that he lowered the "terrorist" word count and more often replaced it with his latest buzzword, "extremism; but if this speech was addressed to the people of the region, it was certainly one of the most inept ever.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HI21Aa03.html
BUSH IN THE CHINA SHOP SUZANNA NOSSEL (HUNFIINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 20): There was no nod to any global issue apart from terrorism and the spread of democracy in the Middle East in Bush's UN speech.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/suzanne-noss...op_b_29909.html
CHAVEZ'S ANTI-U.S. FERVOR: EMERGING FORCE AMONG NONALIGNED NATIONS - ROBERT COLLIER (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, SEPTEMBER 21)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...&type=printable
DEALING WITH THE DEVIL - WILLIAM M. ARKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, SEPTEMBER 21): Hugo Chavez and Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speak for a huge segment of world opinion and we dismiss their histrionics at our peril.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarnin..._the_devil.html
ANTI-AMERICANISM IS A BIG HIT AT U.N.: VENEZUELA'S HUGO CHÁVEZ PROVIDES THEATRICAL PERFORMANCE THAT RESONATES WITH SOME - NEIL KING JR. (WALL STREET JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 21)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1158768611...ays_us_page_one
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NO HUGO AWARD FOR SECURITY COUNCIL: VENEZUELA'S CLOWN-PRESIDENT SHOULD BE THWARTED IN HIS ATTEMPT TO GET ON THE U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL: EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 22): Chavez's anti-American tirades may be a hit in much of the developing world, but few sane people will be laughing if he achieves his appallingly realistic goal of winning a rotating seat on the U.N. Security Council.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editor...ment-editorials
SHOCKED! BY CHAVEZ ? REVIEW & OUTLOOK (WALL STREET JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 22): Chavez's speech amounted to a justification of terrorism against the U.S., and in fact he is one of the world's most outspoken defenders of such terrorist state sponsors as Iran.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1158...3340070812.html
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ACROSS LATIN AMERICA, MANDARIN IS IN THE AIR - JUAN FORERO (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 22): China is dispatching teachers abroad, sending people to countries that just a few years ago gave short shrift to the idea of strengthening ties with Beijing.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2101626_pf.html
MULTIFRONT WAR AGAINST RADICAL ISLAMISTS STRATEGY PRESS RELEASE, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT, SEPTEMBER 21): Philip Zelikow, Counselor of the State Department: "But when you step back from this terrorist phenomenon, one thing that's worth some perspective ... is to observe the historically unprecedented nihilism and barbarity of these terrorists. ... An anarchist of 1906 would regard the terrorist activities perpetrated by these groups as appalling -- the beheadings on television and so on. The anarchists were people who would plant dynamite in a public street and even they would be appalled by the things that these groups are willing to do and countenance."
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0609/S00390.htm
HOUSE INTELLIGENCE REPORT: THE MENACING MENACE MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, SEPTEMBER 21): The House Intelligence Committee just released a new report, al-Qaeda: The Many Faces of an Islamist Extremist Threat. It's a primarily political document, unexceptional in every way, offering very little which is either new or interesting, while some of it is actively misleading.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark..._intellige.html
KISSINGER ON THE JIHADIST THREAT - EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 22): Henry Kissinger, whose vision of the world is as clear as his head is hard, recognizes the threat to world order that would be posed by Islamic fascists armed with nuclear weapons.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...21-085729-1762r
BEING NICE WILL GET US KILLED: ENOUGH WITH THE OLIVE BRANCHES TO THE ISLAMOFASCISTS - DEROY MURDOCK (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 21): Throwing olive branches at Islamofascists is beyond futile. This is the War on Terror, not the Summer Olympics on Terror.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Mzc3M...DdjOTFiZjg4NGI=
FAILINGS OF THE RUMSFELD DOCTRINE: INTENSE AIR POWER AND SMALL GROUPS OF TROOPS DIDN'T WIN IN IRAQ OR AFGHANISTAN - CARL ROBICHAUD (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 21): The Rumsfeld doctrine's corollaries are that America operates best when unencumbered by international institutions, that state-building is a distraction, and that force can accomplish political objectives with few long-term repercussions.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0921/p09s02-coop.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...-home-headlines
'RESPONSE FROM SENATOR FEINGOLD' - RUSS FEINGOLD (BELOIT DAILY NEWS, WI, SEPTEMBER 20): We risk offending peaceful Muslims around the world by using the phrase linking their religion with fascism. In fact, when Karen Hughes, the President's own Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy, was asked about this phrase, she said she doesn't 'use religious terms because I'm afraid that people do hear them wrongly around the world.'
http://www.beloitdailynews.com/articles/20...tters/let05.txt
JUST SHUT UP - DIANA WEST (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 22): Just read through George W. Bush's address to the world body. "Islamic fascists" are out. "Extremists who use terror as a weapon to create fear" are in. We probably have presidential pal and roving ambassador Karen Hughes to thank for Mr. Bush's discreet-to-the-point-of-incomprehensible talk.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...21-085730-9234r
THE POPE'S DIVISIONS - REUEL MARC GERECHT (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, SEPTEMBER 21): We need to stop treating Muslims like children, and viewing our public diplomacy with Islamic countries as popularity contests.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/fe...ml?id=110008973
U.S. RESEARCHER URGES MEASURABLE INFORMATION WAR ON EXTREMISM: MARSHALL CENTER SPEAKER DISCUSSES COLD WAR-STYLE INFORMATION STRATEGIES - VINCE CRAWLEY (WASHINGTON FILE, SEPTEMBER 21): Raphael Perl, a specialist in international affairs for the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS), proposes using Cold War-style information and containment strategies to prevent the spread of Islamic extremism, and recommends immediate action to start gathering data on public diplomacy efforts in Muslim communities worldwide.
http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display....elwarC0.5602228
PART TWO: WHAT IF THE PRESIDENT REQUESTED YOUR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ADVICE? - ALVIN SNYDER (UNITED OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CENTER ON PUBLIC DIPLOMACY, PUBLIC DIPLOMACY BOG, SEPTEMBER 21): Here is more from those who played along with our fantasy of receiving a call from the president -- this or any president -- who then asks advice on how to improve America?s public diplomacy.
http://uscpublicdiplomacy.com/index.php/ne...plomacy_advice/
WHY THE FIREBRANDS GET HEARD - EUGENE ROBINSON (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 22): For all its talk about public diplomacy and spreading the U.S. gospel throughout the world, the Bush administration does an appallingly lousy job of it.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2101512_pf.html
OUR ENEMY, THE STATE MICHAEL ROSEN (TSC CENTRAL, SEPTEMBER 22): It's universally recognized that our public diplomacy is a shambles.
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=092206D
CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS - CARLOS ALBERTO MONTANER (WALL STREET JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 21): To think that just because a journalist participates in a VOA program and receives $100 he will sell his conscience to the government is to have a terrible opinion of journalists.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1158...6035469583.html
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THANK YOU, AMERICA - TOM ENGELHARDT (NATION, SEPTEMBER 20): Kurdistan Development Corporation is the "official investment site" http://www.kurdistancorporation.com/ for Kurdistan, the Other Iraq. So the semi-autonomous government of Kurdistan has put up money to thank the Bush administration in its time of need. But this "thank you" campaign is being run by an "A-list" Republican PR firm, Russo, Marsh, and Rogers. Now, the Pentagon is plugging "the Other Iraq" by sending out glowing press releases about its latest trade fair, as is the Voice of America. Is the Bush administration, in essence, using our money to thank itself?
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=123403
THE MISSION: RECONCILE AMERICA AND THE WORLD - CORINE LESNES (LE MONDE, FRANCE, SEPTEMBER 20): Created officially in 2003, Business for Diplomatic Action now contains representatives of McDonald's, Microsoft and Exxon. The overseers of the business world are worried that they can no longer escape the decline in America's image.
http://www.watchingamerica.com/lemonde000099.shtml
LINK MAY NOT BE ACCESSIBLE
ARTICLE IN FRENCH AT
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/imprimer_element...0-814917,0.html
IT'S 1938 ALL OVER AGAIN: A DECISIVE BATTLE - MICHAEL NOVAK (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 21): The only way our enemies can win is through psychological warfare, by way of the media.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=N2E4Z...GVlMWZjMjk2MDc=
CLASH OF VISIONS OVER CIA INTERROGATIONS: CAN THE BROAD TERMS OF THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS BE MORE CLEARLY DEFINED WITHOUT WEAKENING THEM? - WARREN RICHEY (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 21)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0921/p03s03-uspo.html
OUR TORTURER-IN-CHIEF: UNTIL BUSH TOOK OFFICE, THE U.S. HAD NO PROBLEM DEFINING WHAT IS CRUEL AND INHUMAN - ROSA BROOKS (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 22)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions
WHERE TORTURE GOT HIM: BUSH'S EFFORT TO GUT THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS HAS ANTAGONIZED THE MILITARY, SPLIT REPUBLICANS, AND UNDERCUT HIS WAR ON TERROR - SIDNEY BLUMENTHAL (SALON, SEPTEMBER 21): Bush's standoff on torture threatens to leave no policy whatsoever -- and threatens to leave his war on terror in a twilight zone beyond the rule of law.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/20...ture/print.html
A BAD BARGAIN - EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTMBER 21): Here is a way to measure how seriously President Bush was willing to compromise on the military tribunals bill: Less than an hour after an agreement was announced yesterday with three leading Republican senators, the White House was already laying a path to wiggle out of its one real concession.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/22/opinion/...agewanted=print
INTERROGATORS LEFT OUT IN THE COLD: WHITE HOUSE LEGAL AND POLITICAL MISSTEPS LED TO AN UNNEEDED DUEL OVER DETAINEES - DAVID IGNATIUS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 22): Senator McCain and the White House should have agreed long ago on a clear legal framework for the CIA officers asked to do the dirty work.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2101509_pf.html
HYPOCRISY AMONG TORTURE OPPONENTS - MARIE COCCO (TRUTHDIG, SEPTEMBER 20): We already have convinced the world that we are ruthless hypocrites who?ve abandoned the values we want others to embrace.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200609...ocrisy_torture/
FUTURE SHOCK: EVIDENCE OF PLANS TO TORTURE US DEMONSTRATORS R.J. ESKOW (HUFFINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 20)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/fut...-o_b_29911.html
IS THIS TORTURE? - THE USA SHOW "THE 4400" FEATURED THIS DRAMATIZED DEPICTION OF "WATERBOARDING" IN WHICH VICTIMS ARE MADE TO FEEL AS THOUGH THEY ARE DROWNING (TRUTHDIG, SEPTEMBER 20)
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/20060...s_this_torture/
THE GUANTANAMO 14 - R. EMMETT TYRRELL JR. (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 22): If aggressive interrogation has prevented further September 11-type events, no practice thus far revealed is beyond the pale.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...21-085721-1451r
NEARLY 6,600 CIVILIANS KILLED IN IRAQ IN TWO MONTHS: UN AFP (YAHOO!NEWS, SEPTEMBER 20)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060920/wl_mi...fp/iraqunrestun
HOME RAIDS PROVOKE INCREASED UNREST IN IRAQ - DAHR JAMAIL WITH ALI AL-FADHILY (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 21): Renewed raids at Iraqi homes by joint U.S.-Iraqi security forces are angering Iraqis -- while failing to improve the worsening security situation.
http://www.antiwar.com/jamail/?articleid=9723
NEW TERROR THAT STALKS IRAQ'S REPUBLIC OF FEAR - PATRICK COCKBURN (INDEPENDENT, SEPTEMBER 22): The state of terror now gripping Iraq is as bad as it was under Saddam Hussein.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle...icle1696153.ece
THE FIXER MEETS HIS MATCH: JAMES BAKER'S IRAQ STUDY GROUP IS SUPPOSED TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO FIX THE IRAQ WAR AND CONVINCE THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION TO ACCEPT THE PLAN. TO DO THE FIRST PART, THE GROUP MAY LIKELY ADVOCATE WITHDRAWAL. THE SECOND PART IS ANYONE'S GUESS - ROBERT DREYFUSS (AMERICAN PROSPECT, SEPTEMBER 20)
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?sectio...articleId=12035
IRAQ - MY PLAN TO GET US OUT! CARL JEFFERS (HUFFINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 20)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-jeffers...s-_b_29889.html
WHY WE ARE REALLY IN IRAQ: BUSH DRAGGED THE U.S. TO WAR SO THE GOP COULD WIN MIDTERM ELECTIONS -- AND THE PRESS WENT ALONG FOR THE RIDE -- ARGUES THE NEW YORK TIMES' FRANK RICH - GARY KAMIYA (SALON, SEPTEMBER 21): "How do you run as a vainglorious 'war president' if the war looks as if it's winding down and the number one evildoer has escaped?" The answer: Wag the dog. Attack Iraq.
http://www.salon.com/books/review/2006/09/21/rich/print.html
WIN-WIN-WIN-WIN SITUATION - MICHAEL KINSLEY (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 22): If you trace the concept of "victory" in Bush's remarks on Iraq, and those of subordinates, you discover a war that was won 3 1/2 years ago and today has barely started.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2101511_pf.html
US TROOPS IN IRAQ ARE TEHRAN'S 'HOSTAGES' - GARETH PORTER (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 22): The underlying reality in Iraq, which the Bush administration does not appear to grasp fully, is that the United States is now dependent on the sufferance of Iran and its Iraqi Shi'ite political-military allies to continue the occupation.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HI22Ak01.html
WE'RE NOT GOING TO IRAN - ROBERT DREYFUSS (TOMPAINE.COM, SEPTEMBER 20): Suddenly, stabilizing Iraq -- and minimizing the political fallout from Iraq at home -- may be more important to the Bush administration than sparking yet another conflagration in the region.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/2...ing_to_iran.php
LINK MAY NOT BE ACCESSIBLE
LESSONS FROM U.N. WEEK - DAVID BROOKS (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 21): With America exhausted by Iraq, with the threat of Iranian sanctions dissolving before our eyes, Western policy is drifting toward the option that most resembles passivity.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/opini...agewanted=print
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THE 'PROGRESS' ON IRAN EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 21): Thus far, negotiations and diplomacy have yielded little of substance.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...20-090620-6347r
BUSH BLOWS BELLIGERENT BUGLE AT UN - MATTHEW ROTHSCHILD (PROGRESSIVE, SEPTEMBER 20/COMMON DREAMS): Bush's speech to the U.N. on Tuesday was part of his lead-up to the bombing of Iran and/or Syria, and he once again appeared to be getting a kick out of his bellicosity.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0920-20.htm
PENTAGON IRAN OFFICE MIMICS FORMER IRAQ OFFICE - MARY LOUISE KELLY (NPR, SEPTEMBER 20): The Pentagon? new desk to work on Iran policy worries some at the CIA, who point out that many of the new Iran-desk staffers are the same people who staffed the now-notorious Office of Special Plans in the run-up to the Iraq war.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6108983
WHY BUSH IS TAKING A MORE DIPLOMATIC APPROACH ON IRAN - HOWARD LAFRANCHI (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 21)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0921/p01s01-usfp.html
IRAN WAR, DIPLOMACY ON PARALLEL TRACKS JIM LOBE (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 21): Washington's continued backing for European efforts to engage Iran despite the passage of last month's Security Council deadline suggests that Bush is committed to diplomacy; however, the hawks have also been active.
http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=9725
THE FORTUNE COOKIE GAME: CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING IN THE DEBATE OVER DEMOCRACY PROMOTION IN THE MIDDLE EAST. WHATEVER THE GIVEN POLICY OBJECTIVE, THE METHOD CAN'T BE UNILATERAL - MATTHEW YGLESIAS (AMERICAN PROSPECT, SEPTEMBER 19): If we want to work effectively for reforms that would benefit the populations of Middle Eastern countries, we'll need to do it through international institutions.
http://www.prospect.org/web/printfriendly-view.ww?id=12026
BUSH AT THE UN: ANNOTATED - STEPHEN ZUNES (FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS, SEPTEMBER 20/COMMON DREAMS): Few of the foreign delegations or international journalists present could take seriously Bush's rhetoric in his September 19 UN speech regarding the promotion of democracy in the Middle East, given the reality of U.S. policy in the region.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0920-34.htm
BUSH EVADES THE ISSUES - IAN WILLIAMS (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 21): The one redeeming aspect of Bush's cartoonish tour of the Middle East in his recent UN speech was that he lowered the "terrorist" word count and more often replaced it with his latest buzzword, "extremism; but if this speech was addressed to the people of the region, it was certainly one of the most inept ever.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HI21Aa03.html
BUSH IN THE CHINA SHOP SUZANNA NOSSEL (HUNFIINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 20): There was no nod to any global issue apart from terrorism and the spread of democracy in the Middle East in Bush's UN speech.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/suzanne-noss...op_b_29909.html
CHAVEZ'S ANTI-U.S. FERVOR: EMERGING FORCE AMONG NONALIGNED NATIONS - ROBERT COLLIER (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, SEPTEMBER 21)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...&type=printable
DEALING WITH THE DEVIL - WILLIAM M. ARKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, SEPTEMBER 21): Hugo Chavez and Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speak for a huge segment of world opinion and we dismiss their histrionics at our peril.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarnin..._the_devil.html
ANTI-AMERICANISM IS A BIG HIT AT U.N.: VENEZUELA'S HUGO CHÁVEZ PROVIDES THEATRICAL PERFORMANCE THAT RESONATES WITH SOME - NEIL KING JR. (WALL STREET JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 21)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1158768611...ays_us_page_one
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NO HUGO AWARD FOR SECURITY COUNCIL: VENEZUELA'S CLOWN-PRESIDENT SHOULD BE THWARTED IN HIS ATTEMPT TO GET ON THE U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL: EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 22): Chavez's anti-American tirades may be a hit in much of the developing world, but few sane people will be laughing if he achieves his appallingly realistic goal of winning a rotating seat on the U.N. Security Council.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editor...ment-editorials
SHOCKED! BY CHAVEZ ? REVIEW & OUTLOOK (WALL STREET JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 22): Chavez's speech amounted to a justification of terrorism against the U.S., and in fact he is one of the world's most outspoken defenders of such terrorist state sponsors as Iran.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1158...3340070812.html
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
ACROSS LATIN AMERICA, MANDARIN IS IN THE AIR - JUAN FORERO (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 22): China is dispatching teachers abroad, sending people to countries that just a few years ago gave short shrift to the idea of strengthening ties with Beijing.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2101626_pf.html
MULTIFRONT WAR AGAINST RADICAL ISLAMISTS STRATEGY PRESS RELEASE, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT, SEPTEMBER 21): Philip Zelikow, Counselor of the State Department: "But when you step back from this terrorist phenomenon, one thing that's worth some perspective ... is to observe the historically unprecedented nihilism and barbarity of these terrorists. ... An anarchist of 1906 would regard the terrorist activities perpetrated by these groups as appalling -- the beheadings on television and so on. The anarchists were people who would plant dynamite in a public street and even they would be appalled by the things that these groups are willing to do and countenance."
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0609/S00390.htm
HOUSE INTELLIGENCE REPORT: THE MENACING MENACE MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, SEPTEMBER 21): The House Intelligence Committee just released a new report, al-Qaeda: The Many Faces of an Islamist Extremist Threat. It's a primarily political document, unexceptional in every way, offering very little which is either new or interesting, while some of it is actively misleading.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark..._intellige.html
KISSINGER ON THE JIHADIST THREAT - EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 22): Henry Kissinger, whose vision of the world is as clear as his head is hard, recognizes the threat to world order that would be posed by Islamic fascists armed with nuclear weapons.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...21-085729-1762r
BEING NICE WILL GET US KILLED: ENOUGH WITH THE OLIVE BRANCHES TO THE ISLAMOFASCISTS - DEROY MURDOCK (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 21): Throwing olive branches at Islamofascists is beyond futile. This is the War on Terror, not the Summer Olympics on Terror.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Mzc3M...DdjOTFiZjg4NGI=
FAILINGS OF THE RUMSFELD DOCTRINE: INTENSE AIR POWER AND SMALL GROUPS OF TROOPS DIDN'T WIN IN IRAQ OR AFGHANISTAN - CARL ROBICHAUD (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 21): The Rumsfeld doctrine's corollaries are that America operates best when unencumbered by international institutions, that state-building is a distraction, and that force can accomplish political objectives with few long-term repercussions.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0921/p09s02-coop.html
I have not seen this reported in the US press. It is an ongoing story with an unresolved American angle. The bombs and bomblets discussed in the story were made in the USA and given to the Israeli defense Forces as part of our military aid program. Toward the end of the fighting, Israel asked for emergency resupply of these and related munitions. The Department of State was reported at the time to have held up the request. Perhaps it has since been approved.
Deadly harvest: The Lebanese fields sown with cluster bombs
Lebanese villagers must risk death in fields 'flooded' with more than a million Israeli cluster bombs - or leave crops to rot
By Patrick Cockburn in Nabatiyeh
Published: 18 September 2006
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle...icle1616665.ece
The war in Lebanon has not ended. Every day, some of the million bomblets which were fired by Israeli artillery during the last three days of the conflict kill four people in southern Lebanon and wound many more.
The casualty figures will rise sharply in the next month as villagers begin the harvest, picking olives from trees whose leaves and branches hide bombs that explode at the smallest movement. Lebanon's farmers are caught in a deadly dilemma: to risk the harvest, or to leave the produce on which they depend to rot in the fields.
In a coma in a hospital bed in Nabatiyeh lies Hussein Ali Ahmad, a 70-year-old man from the village of Yohmor. He was pruning an orange tree outside his house last week when he dislodged a bomblet; it exploded, sending pieces of shrapnel into his brain, lungs and kidneys. "I know he can hear me because he squeezes my hand when I talk to him," said his daughter, Suwad, as she sat beside her father's bed in the hospital.
At least 83 people have been killed by cluster munitions since the ceasefire, according to independent monitors.
Some Israeli officers are protesting at the use of cluster bombs, each containing 644 small but lethal bomblets, against civilian targets in Lebanon. A commander in the MLRS (multiple launch rocket systems) unit told the Israeli daily Haaretz that the army had fired 1,800 cluster rockets, spraying 1.2 million bomblets over houses and fields. "In Lebanon, we covered entire villages with cluster bombs," he said. "What we did there was crazy and monstrous." What makes the cluster bombs so dangerous is that 30 per cent of the bomblets do not detonate on impact. They can lie for years - often difficult to see because of their small size, on roofs, in gardens, in trees, beside roads or in rubbish - waiting to explode when disturbed.
In Nabatiyeh, the modern 100-bed government hospital has received 19 victims of cluster bombs since the end of the war. As we arrived, a new patient, Ahmad Sabah, a laboratory technician at the hospital, was being rushed into the emergency room. A burly man of 45, he was unconscious on a stretcher. Earlier in the morning, he had gone up to the flat roof of his house to check the water tank. While there, he must have touched a pile of logs he was keeping for winter fires. Unknown to him, a bomblet had fallen into the woodpile a month earlier. The logs shielded him from the full force of the blast, but when we saw him, doctors were still trying to find out the extent of his injuries.
"For us, the war is still going on, though there was a cease-fire on 14 August," said Dr Hassan Wazni, the director of the hospital. "If the cluster bombs had all exploded at the time they landed, it would not be so bad, but they are still killing and maiming people."
The bomblets may be small, but they explode with devastating force. On the morning of the ceasefire, Hadi Hatab, an 11-year old boy, was brought dying to the hospital. "He must have been holding the bomb close to him," Dr Wazni said. "It took off his hands and legs and the lower part of his body."
We went to Yohmor to find where Hussein Ali Ahmad had received his terrible wounds while pruning his orange tree. The village is at the end of a broken road, six miles south of Nabatiyeh, and is overlooked by the ruins of Beaufort Castle, a crusader fortress on a ridge above the deep valley along which the Litani river runs.
Israeli bombs and shells have turned about a third of the houses in Yohmor into concrete sandwiches, one floor falling on top of another under the impact of explosions. Some families camp in the ruins. Villagers said that they were most worried by the cluster bombs still infesting their gardens, roofs and fruit trees. In the village street, were the white vehicles of the Manchester-based Mines Advisory Group (MAG), whose teams are trying to clear the bomblets.
It is not an easy job. Whenever members of one of the MAG teams finds and removes a bomblet, they put a stick, painted red on top and then yellow, in the ground. There are so many of these sticks that it looks as if some sinister plant had taken root and is flourishing in the village.
"The cluster bombs all landed in the last days of the war," said Nuhar Hejazi, a surprisingly cheerful 65-year-old woman. "There were 35 on the roof of our house and 200 in our garden so we can't visit our olive trees." People in Yohmor depend on their olive trees and the harvest should begin now before the rains, but the trees are still full of bomblets. "My husband and I make 20 cans of oil a year which we need to sell," Mrs Hejazi says. "Now we don't know what to do." The sheer number of the bomblets makes it almost impossible to remove them all.
Frederic Gras, a de-mining expert formerly in the French navy, who is leading the MAG teams in Yohmor, says: "In the area north of the Litani river, you have three or four people being killed every day by cluster bombs. The Israeli army knows that 30 per cent of them do not explode at the time they are fired so they become anti-personnel mines."
Why did the Israeli army do it? The number of cluster bombs fired must have been greater than 1.2 million because, in addition to those fired in rockets, many more were fired in 155mm artillery shells. One Israeli gunner said he had been told to "flood" the area at which they were firing but was given no specific targets. M. Gras, who personally defuses 160 to 180 bomblets a day, says this is the first time he seen cluster bombs used against heavily populated villages.
An editorial in Haaretz said that the mass use of this weapon by the Israeli Defence Forces was a desperate last-minute attempt to stop Hizbollah's rocket fire into northern Israel. Whatever the reason for the bombardment, the villagers in south Lebanon will suffer death and injury from cluster bombs as they pick their olives and oranges for years to come.
Deadly harvest: The Lebanese fields sown with cluster bombs
Lebanese villagers must risk death in fields 'flooded' with more than a million Israeli cluster bombs - or leave crops to rot
By Patrick Cockburn in Nabatiyeh
Published: 18 September 2006
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle...icle1616665.ece
The war in Lebanon has not ended. Every day, some of the million bomblets which were fired by Israeli artillery during the last three days of the conflict kill four people in southern Lebanon and wound many more.
The casualty figures will rise sharply in the next month as villagers begin the harvest, picking olives from trees whose leaves and branches hide bombs that explode at the smallest movement. Lebanon's farmers are caught in a deadly dilemma: to risk the harvest, or to leave the produce on which they depend to rot in the fields.
In a coma in a hospital bed in Nabatiyeh lies Hussein Ali Ahmad, a 70-year-old man from the village of Yohmor. He was pruning an orange tree outside his house last week when he dislodged a bomblet; it exploded, sending pieces of shrapnel into his brain, lungs and kidneys. "I know he can hear me because he squeezes my hand when I talk to him," said his daughter, Suwad, as she sat beside her father's bed in the hospital.
At least 83 people have been killed by cluster munitions since the ceasefire, according to independent monitors.
Some Israeli officers are protesting at the use of cluster bombs, each containing 644 small but lethal bomblets, against civilian targets in Lebanon. A commander in the MLRS (multiple launch rocket systems) unit told the Israeli daily Haaretz that the army had fired 1,800 cluster rockets, spraying 1.2 million bomblets over houses and fields. "In Lebanon, we covered entire villages with cluster bombs," he said. "What we did there was crazy and monstrous." What makes the cluster bombs so dangerous is that 30 per cent of the bomblets do not detonate on impact. They can lie for years - often difficult to see because of their small size, on roofs, in gardens, in trees, beside roads or in rubbish - waiting to explode when disturbed.
In Nabatiyeh, the modern 100-bed government hospital has received 19 victims of cluster bombs since the end of the war. As we arrived, a new patient, Ahmad Sabah, a laboratory technician at the hospital, was being rushed into the emergency room. A burly man of 45, he was unconscious on a stretcher. Earlier in the morning, he had gone up to the flat roof of his house to check the water tank. While there, he must have touched a pile of logs he was keeping for winter fires. Unknown to him, a bomblet had fallen into the woodpile a month earlier. The logs shielded him from the full force of the blast, but when we saw him, doctors were still trying to find out the extent of his injuries.
"For us, the war is still going on, though there was a cease-fire on 14 August," said Dr Hassan Wazni, the director of the hospital. "If the cluster bombs had all exploded at the time they landed, it would not be so bad, but they are still killing and maiming people."
The bomblets may be small, but they explode with devastating force. On the morning of the ceasefire, Hadi Hatab, an 11-year old boy, was brought dying to the hospital. "He must have been holding the bomb close to him," Dr Wazni said. "It took off his hands and legs and the lower part of his body."
We went to Yohmor to find where Hussein Ali Ahmad had received his terrible wounds while pruning his orange tree. The village is at the end of a broken road, six miles south of Nabatiyeh, and is overlooked by the ruins of Beaufort Castle, a crusader fortress on a ridge above the deep valley along which the Litani river runs.
Israeli bombs and shells have turned about a third of the houses in Yohmor into concrete sandwiches, one floor falling on top of another under the impact of explosions. Some families camp in the ruins. Villagers said that they were most worried by the cluster bombs still infesting their gardens, roofs and fruit trees. In the village street, were the white vehicles of the Manchester-based Mines Advisory Group (MAG), whose teams are trying to clear the bomblets.
It is not an easy job. Whenever members of one of the MAG teams finds and removes a bomblet, they put a stick, painted red on top and then yellow, in the ground. There are so many of these sticks that it looks as if some sinister plant had taken root and is flourishing in the village.
"The cluster bombs all landed in the last days of the war," said Nuhar Hejazi, a surprisingly cheerful 65-year-old woman. "There were 35 on the roof of our house and 200 in our garden so we can't visit our olive trees." People in Yohmor depend on their olive trees and the harvest should begin now before the rains, but the trees are still full of bomblets. "My husband and I make 20 cans of oil a year which we need to sell," Mrs Hejazi says. "Now we don't know what to do." The sheer number of the bomblets makes it almost impossible to remove them all.
Frederic Gras, a de-mining expert formerly in the French navy, who is leading the MAG teams in Yohmor, says: "In the area north of the Litani river, you have three or four people being killed every day by cluster bombs. The Israeli army knows that 30 per cent of them do not explode at the time they are fired so they become anti-personnel mines."
Why did the Israeli army do it? The number of cluster bombs fired must have been greater than 1.2 million because, in addition to those fired in rockets, many more were fired in 155mm artillery shells. One Israeli gunner said he had been told to "flood" the area at which they were firing but was given no specific targets. M. Gras, who personally defuses 160 to 180 bomblets a day, says this is the first time he seen cluster bombs used against heavily populated villages.
An editorial in Haaretz said that the mass use of this weapon by the Israeli Defence Forces was a desperate last-minute attempt to stop Hizbollah's rocket fire into northern Israel. Whatever the reason for the bombardment, the villagers in south Lebanon will suffer death and injury from cluster bombs as they pick their olives and oranges for years to come.
QUOTE(Snuffysmith @ Sep 23 2006, 02:57 PM)
Why did the Israeli army do it? The number of cluster bombs fired must have been greater than 1.2 million because, in addition to those fired in rockets, many more were fired in 155mm artillery shells. One Israeli gunner said he had been told to "flood" the area at which they were firing but was given no specific targets. M. Gras, who personally defuses 160 to 180 bomblets a day, says this is the first time he seen cluster bombs used against heavily populated villages.
An editorial in Haaretz said that the mass use of this weapon by the Israeli Defence Forces was a desperate last-minute attempt to stop Hizbollah's rocket fire into northern Israel. Whatever the reason for the bombardment, the villagers in south Lebanon will suffer death and injury from cluster bombs as they pick their olives and oranges for years to come.
An editorial in Haaretz said that the mass use of this weapon by the Israeli Defence Forces was a desperate last-minute attempt to stop Hizbollah's rocket fire into northern Israel. Whatever the reason for the bombardment, the villagers in south Lebanon will suffer death and injury from cluster bombs as they pick their olives and oranges for years to come.
Hezbollah has just declared they have no intention of giving up their arms.
I wonder what would be the fate of Lebanon if they did give up all their weaponry.
Reading the above article posted by the Snuff should give everyone a pretty clear idea
One man allowed the savage destruction of Lebanese civilians and property as he turned his back on the helpless Lebanese.
" The Devil "
A.B.
http://wpherald.com/articles/1417/1/Analys...l-analysts.html
Analysis: U.S. experts alarmed over Mideast crisis
By Jacob Russell | Published Sep/22/2006 | Peace and Conflict , Middle East | Rating:
Unease among both conservative and liberal analysts
By Jacob Russell
UPI Correspondent
WASHINGTON -- Several prominent policy analysts warned this week that America's foreign policy had to be urgently re-evaluated to prevent wider disaster.
The Bush administration should even consider evacuating its military forces from the Middle East, according to experts speaking a meeting of he Green Institute think tank Wednesday.
The meeting reflected the growing unease among both traditionally conservative and liberal foreign policy analysts in the U.S. capital about the consequences of the deteriorating situations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the growing anti-American sentiments expressed throughout the region.
"This is really an effort to assess where we are right now in the wake of the catastrophe with Iraq and Afghanistan," panelist Roger Morris, senior fellow with the Green Institute, said. "We want, above all, to point the way out. We want to ask: what are the alternatives here?"
The think tank, hosted by the Green Institute as part of its Global Policy 360 project, and led by Steven Schmidt, co-director for GP360, explored current U.S. policy in Iraq and the Middle East as well as current national security concerning Iraq, Lebanon, Iran and Israel. Leading the discussion were four panelists, each with differing political backgrounds.
"It's an example of people coming together who agree on one thing and are willing to engage in healthy discussion even though they may not agree on other issues," panelist Charles Pena said. Peña is a senior fellow of the Independent Institute and an adviser to the Status Military Reform Project at the Center for Defense Information. "We are fueling hatred in the Muslim world against us," he said.
The only reason America should stay in Iraq is to prove itself as a fair but powerful mediator, particularly in Lebanon, said Sascha Mueller-Kraenner, director for Europe and North America at the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
"The rule is you break it, you buy it," he said. "The mess in Iraq was produced by American politics and American allies and there is no way you can leave Iraq a wreck. You have to repair what you do."
No Iraq "fix" possible
Experts at the meeting agreed that the situation in Iraq was now so chaotic and the prospects there so grim that no "fix" was possible. Peña said the United States had to choose the least bad of a series of bad options, because otherwise the war would continue in the Middle East for decades and it would drain the U.S. budget while paving the way for more serious terrorist acts.
"Maybe the current situation is elevated to the point that it's headed straight for disaster," said panelist Winslow Wheeler, director of the CDI's Straus Military Reform Project. America must leave, but it must be sensitive to its allies' concerns in a practical way, he concluded. "We can't leave in a manner like we came in."
Wheeler, said he thought the Bush administration may have learned from its mistakes in the Middle East but that it was now using the prospect of chaos there as a means of frightening the American public for leverage.
The majority of the U.S. media, as well as American politicians, had failed to adequately discuss alternatives to the Middle East crisis and offer practical solutions, the analysts said.
"We can't underestimate the importance of this," Morris said. "A lot of Washington ideas begin in think tanks. Sometimes it takes 20 to 30 years for change to take place... The progressive community needs to build new forums like this one that will discuss with candor and honesty the real problems with national security."
Most of the speakers at the meeting had already been identified as critics of the Iraq conflict and administration policies in conducting it. However, the broad range of political backgrounds they and their institutions represented reflected the growing unease and possible indications of future realignments across the political spectrum in Washington.
Analysis: U.S. experts alarmed over Mideast crisis
By Jacob Russell | Published Sep/22/2006 | Peace and Conflict , Middle East | Rating:
Unease among both conservative and liberal analysts
By Jacob Russell
UPI Correspondent
WASHINGTON -- Several prominent policy analysts warned this week that America's foreign policy had to be urgently re-evaluated to prevent wider disaster.
The Bush administration should even consider evacuating its military forces from the Middle East, according to experts speaking a meeting of he Green Institute think tank Wednesday.
The meeting reflected the growing unease among both traditionally conservative and liberal foreign policy analysts in the U.S. capital about the consequences of the deteriorating situations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the growing anti-American sentiments expressed throughout the region.
"This is really an effort to assess where we are right now in the wake of the catastrophe with Iraq and Afghanistan," panelist Roger Morris, senior fellow with the Green Institute, said. "We want, above all, to point the way out. We want to ask: what are the alternatives here?"
The think tank, hosted by the Green Institute as part of its Global Policy 360 project, and led by Steven Schmidt, co-director for GP360, explored current U.S. policy in Iraq and the Middle East as well as current national security concerning Iraq, Lebanon, Iran and Israel. Leading the discussion were four panelists, each with differing political backgrounds.
"It's an example of people coming together who agree on one thing and are willing to engage in healthy discussion even though they may not agree on other issues," panelist Charles Pena said. Peña is a senior fellow of the Independent Institute and an adviser to the Status Military Reform Project at the Center for Defense Information. "We are fueling hatred in the Muslim world against us," he said.
The only reason America should stay in Iraq is to prove itself as a fair but powerful mediator, particularly in Lebanon, said Sascha Mueller-Kraenner, director for Europe and North America at the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
"The rule is you break it, you buy it," he said. "The mess in Iraq was produced by American politics and American allies and there is no way you can leave Iraq a wreck. You have to repair what you do."
No Iraq "fix" possible
Experts at the meeting agreed that the situation in Iraq was now so chaotic and the prospects there so grim that no "fix" was possible. Peña said the United States had to choose the least bad of a series of bad options, because otherwise the war would continue in the Middle East for decades and it would drain the U.S. budget while paving the way for more serious terrorist acts.
"Maybe the current situation is elevated to the point that it's headed straight for disaster," said panelist Winslow Wheeler, director of the CDI's Straus Military Reform Project. America must leave, but it must be sensitive to its allies' concerns in a practical way, he concluded. "We can't leave in a manner like we came in."
Wheeler, said he thought the Bush administration may have learned from its mistakes in the Middle East but that it was now using the prospect of chaos there as a means of frightening the American public for leverage.
The majority of the U.S. media, as well as American politicians, had failed to adequately discuss alternatives to the Middle East crisis and offer practical solutions, the analysts said.
"We can't underestimate the importance of this," Morris said. "A lot of Washington ideas begin in think tanks. Sometimes it takes 20 to 30 years for change to take place... The progressive community needs to build new forums like this one that will discuss with candor and honesty the real problems with national security."
Most of the speakers at the meeting had already been identified as critics of the Iraq conflict and administration policies in conducting it. However, the broad range of political backgrounds they and their institutions represented reflected the growing unease and possible indications of future realignments across the political spectrum in Washington.
WHAT IRANIANS LEAST EXPECT: WHAT IF BUSH PUBLICLY OFFERED TO OPEN AN EMBASSY IN TEHRAN? - FAREED ZAKARIA (NEWSWEEK, OCTOBER 2): If we're going to outsmart Iranian president Ahmadinejad, we need clever, compelling arguments of our own. Instead we have tended to threaten, bully and intimidate. No wonder he's winning the public diplomacy.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14975333/site/newsweek/
US-IRAN RELATIONS: PERILS AND PROMISES - HOOSHANG AMIRAHMADI (PAYVAND'S IRAN NEWS ..., SEPTEMBER 22): EU Dependency and US Public Diplomacy: The US' public relations ploy to sway public opinion toward the US position on Iran has been clearly articulated by President Bush and Secretary of State Rice.
http://www.payvand.com/news/06/sep/1254.html
IRAN WAR IN OCTOBER? EVERETT (DISAGREEMENT WITHOUT BEING DISAGREEABLE, SEPTEMBER 24): The president's UN speech may have been the start of an attempt to frame the military action as an opportunity for the Iranian people to overthrow their oppressors, but much more needs to be done if such attempts at public diplomacy are to be successful.
http://dwobd.blogspot.com/
HOW THE UN MEETING TURNED INTO A FESTIVAL OF ANTI-AMERICANISM - AND BOOSTED DUBYA'S ELECTION HOPES - DAVID USBORNE (INDEPENDENT, SEPTEMBER 23): With the help of Iran's unflinching leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and a few others, Mr. Chavez successfully hijacked this year's UN General Assembly and turned it into a raucous carnival of anti-Americanism. Nile Gardiner, of the Heritage Foundation, said: "This is a huge public diplomacy challenge, but also a strategic threat."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politi...icle1705645.ece
BUSH RAGES: 'I AM NOT BEELZEBUB, LORD OF SULFUR' - MIKE WHITNEY (AL-JAZEERAH, SEPTEMBER 22): And where was Bush when Chavez delivered his broadside ....hiding behind Karen Hughes's skirts, picking out a new eye-liner for his next televised harangue against Muslims, retrieving his Yale pom-poms from the dry-cleaners?
http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20edito...e%20Whitney.htm
STUFF HAPPENS AGAIN IN BAGHDAD - FRANK RICH (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 24): Our public diplomacy efforts in Iraq were equally tone-deaf to Iraqis and their neighbors. Karen Hughes is a presidential flack whose patronizing photo-op tour of the region last year earned mostly ridicule. Our broadcasting outreach is supervised by a longtime Karl Rove pal, Kenneth Tomlinson, who last month was found by State Department investigators to be using his office -- literally -- to run a ?horse-racing operation.?
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/opini...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
WHAT WOULD JEFFERSON SAY ABOUT IRAQ? OPPOSED TO "WARS OF CHOICE," HE WOULD HAVE A LOT TO SAY ABOUT THE FORCEFUL IMPOSITION OF DEMOCRACY - R.K. RAMAZANI (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, SEPTEMBER 24): If asked how best to spread democracy, Jefferson would have suggested three alternative and peaceful methods. First among these would be America's own example of liberal democratic practices. Second would be effective use of what we now call public diplomacy. Third, and most important, Jefferson would have advocated expanding American educational initiatives, such as the Fulbright exchange program.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/ed...al/15592459.htm
US DELEGATION TO VISIT LEBANON AND DISCUSS REBUILDING (YA LIBNAN, LEBANON, SEPTEMBER 23): The group will be led by Dina Powell, Deputy Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs.
http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2006/09/post_21.php
CONDI TALKS TOUGH ON DARFUR - (NEWS FROM AFRICA, SEPTEMBER 24): After falling to the back burners of public diplomacy, it seems that maybe Darfur in Sudan is moving up the US administration's list of concerns.
http://twoandtwomakesfive.blogs.com/two_an...from_afric.html
(scroll down link for item)
WORD FOR WORD: 'ISLAMO-FASCISM' HAD ITS MOMENT - SHERYL GAY STOLBERG (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 24): Even Karen Hughes, the former counselor to Mr. Bush who now runs the public diplomacy arm of the State Department, pushed back from the term 'Islamo-fascist,' telling CNN's Wolf Blitzer that she typically does not 'use religious terms' for fear they will be misinterpreted around the world.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/weekinre...24stolberg.html?
ATTACKS SPARK TOUGHER GUANTANAMO JAIL - ASSOCIATED PRESS (USA TODAY SEPTEMBER 23): The military is toughening a new jailhouse for suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban militants to protect guards after a spate of attacks and evidence that detainees have organized themselves into groups to mount uprisings, officials said.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-09...itmo-jail_x.htm
TORTURE CHIC: SIGN OF DECADENCE ALAN BOCK (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 23): The eagerness of the top two guys in the administration, plenty of others in the political classes and all too many who consider themselves thinkers or intellectuals to see torture become quasi-official policy of the United States, which used to have a reputation as the freest land on earth, verges on the sadistic and pornographic.
http://www.antiwar.com/bock/?articleid=9739
WE'VE SUNK TO BIN LADEN'S LEVEL - JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY (MIAMI HERALD, SEPTEMBER 23/COMMON DREAMS): The torture of prisoners is not only illegal under American and international law it is, put simply, immoral and unjust. It is also un-American.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0923-27.htm
A TORTURED POLICY EDITORIAL (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, SEPTEMBER 24): The upshot is a disgraceful policy on detainees that bends American norms of justice, all wrapped in the flag-waving war on terrorism.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...&type=printable
POWELL BELATEDLY JOINS BID TO SAVE OUR NATION'S SOUL - LEONARD PITTS JR. (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 22): Even if we had to choose between saving Americans and preserving America, it should be an easy call. Kill me before you kill my country.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
ARE WE REALLY SO FEARFUL? - ARIEL DORFMAN (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 24): Are we so fearful, so in love with our own security and steeped in our own pain, that we are really willing to let people be tortured in the name of America?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2201303_pf.html
DOES TORTURE WORK? - EDWIDGE DANTICAT (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 24): We are all endorsers of torture when it is done in our name.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2201304_pf.html
FIRING POTENT WORDS, FROM A TANK - ARTHUR T. HADLEY (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 25): 'I've seen firsthand the power of Geneva Conventions, both to compel surrenders and to broadcast, for the world, our determination to live up to our highest ideals.'
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/25/opinion/...agewanted=print
AMERICAN STANDARD OPINION (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 24): The compromise approved last week by the GOP renegades draws the line at "redefining" the Geneva Conventions, but then leaves it to the president to "interpret" the conventions pretty much as he sees fit.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/b...inion-headlines
DO UNTO YOUR ENEMY... - PAUL RIECKHOFF (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 25): If America continues to erode the meaning of the Geneva Conventions, we will cede the ground upon which to prosecute dictators and warlords.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/25/opinion/...agewanted=print
SYRIA AND THE US: FELLOW TRAVELERS AT THE CROSSROADS FOR TERRORISM - AMY GOODMAN AND DAVID GOODMAN (MOTHER JONES, SEPTEMBER 23): When President Bush made torture a centerpiece of his foreign policy, he bound himself intimately to the world's worst human rights abusers.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0923-20.htm
TORTURE IS A MORAL ISSUE RELIGIOUS LEADERS FROM CONNECTICUT, SIGNATORIES (NATION, SEPTEMBER 23): The detainee legislation seems not to be about protecting our military personnel or even US citizens; rather, it appears to be designed to protect the leaders at the top of the chain of command who have tolerated, promoted, and justified torture.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061009/moral_compass
PARSING WORDS ABOUT TORTURE - STEVE CHAPMAN (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 25): Mr. Bush's stated policy is, "We do not torture." Anyone who really believes in the logic behind his policies ought to be asking, "Why on earth not?"
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
EXPLOITATION OF 9/11 WAS SHAMEFUL - ANDREW GREELEY (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, SEPTEMBER 22): The administration, not able to find Osama bin Laden, now plans to drag some of his henchmen -- tortured and illegally imprisoned -- before kangaroo military courts to prove how tough on terrorists it really is before the election. Do the marketers of such propaganda have no shame at all?
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0922-30.htm
AMERICA'S DETAINEES FACE GRAVE INJUSTICE - JONATHAN HAFETZ (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 22)
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
TORTURE EXHIBIT A - WILLIAM FISHER (TOMPAINE.COM, SEPTEMBER 22): The compromise bill agreed on by the White House and the famous 'Republican rebels' -- Senators McCain, Lindsey Graham, John Warner, Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and others -- fails to mention extraordinary rendition explicitly.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/2...e_exhibit_a.php
THE ABUSE CAN CONTINUE: SENATORS WON'T AUTHORIZE TORTURE, BUT THEY WON'T PREVENT IT, EITHER ? EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 22)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6092101647.html
COMPROMISED EDITORS (NEW REPUBLIC, SEPTEMBER 21): The compromise proposed by GOP Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and John Warner takes the administration's proposals as a starting point and then proceeds to roll back only a few of its more odious provisions.
http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=200610...editorial100206
BUSH GETS HIS WAY - DAN FROOMKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, SEPTEMBER 22): On the central issue of whether the CIA should continue using interrogation methods on suspected terrorists that many say constitute torture, the White House got its way, winning agreement from the "maverick" Republican senators who had refused to go along with an overt undoing of the Geneva Conventions.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2200703_pf.html
TURNING BACK THE CLOCK ON RAPE EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 23): The bill on jailing, interrogating and trying terror suspects contains narrow definitions of rape and sexual assault that must be fixed before Congress can responsibly pass the legislation.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/edit...html?offset=10&
A TORTUROUS COMPROMISE EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 23): After delaying legal action against hundreds of detainees for almost five years, the administration should work with Congress to devise interrogation and trial rules that civilized peoples expect.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...promise?mode=PF
TWO-TIERED TORTURE STANDARDS: BY ALLOWING THE CIA LEEWAY IN INTERROGATIONS, THE SENATE GAVE UP TOO MUCH IN ITS COMPROMISE WITH BUSH ? EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 24)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editor...ment-editorials
CIA VALUES SHOW IN STAND ON DETAINEES - GREG MILLER (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 24): On the detainee issue, the CIA is less swayed by concerns that other nations might retaliate against U.S. prisoners, and more inclined to consider any cost worth paying for the intelligence it generates.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wa...,1,770657.story
WHY RETIRED MILITARY BRASS DON'T WANT TORTURE: FIRSTHAND COMBAT EXPERIENCES COMPEL OLD GUARD TO ATTACK BUSH'S 'ALTERNATIVE INTERROGATION' - CHARLES KAISER (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 24)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions
HE WROTE THE BOOK ON TORTURE [REVIEW OF WAR BY OTHER MEANS: AN INSIDER'S ACCOUNT OF THE WAR ON TERROR BY JOHN YOO] - JAMES BOVARD (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, OCTOBER 9): John Yoo, the former Justice Department official, implies that the torture scandal may be largely a liberal media concoction. Though this book went to press in July 2006, Yoo relies on dubious data from September 2004 to exonerate the federal torturers.
http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_10_09/review.html
UN REPORT: TORTURE IN IRAQ 'TOTALLY OUT OF HAND': BUSH ADMINISTRATION REJECTS CLAIM THAT TORTURE MAY BE WORSE THAN UNDER SADDAM HUSSEIN - TOM REGAN (CSMONITOR.COM, SEPTEMBER 24)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0922/dailyUpdate.html
IN IRAQ, A JOURNALIST IN LIMBO - TOM CURLEY (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 23): Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi photographer who helped the Associated Press win a Pulitzer Prize last year, is now in his sixth month in a U.S. Army prison in Iraq. He doesn't understand why he's there, and neither do his AP colleagues.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2201444_pf.html
DUE PROCESS, BULLDOZED - BOB HERBERT (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 25): Several Iraqi journalists working for international news organizations have been held without charge by American and Iraqi forces. The absence of concrete evidence in so many of the cases is disturbing, to say the least.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/25/opini...agewanted=print
CITY OF DEATH: THE BATTLE FOR BAGHDAD - BERNHARD ZAND (SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL, SEPTEMBER 22): Once the most progressive city in the Arab world, Baghdad has been ravaged by war and bombings. Everyone wants out, but not everyone can afford to leave -- and car bomb explosions are a daily fact of life.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiege...,438429,00.html
WAR'S FORGOTTEN WOMEN - LIZETTE ALVAREZ (INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 24): Despite longstanding predictions that the United States would shudder when its women were killed in action, female military deaths have stirred no less -- and no more -- reaction at home than the deaths of the nearly 2,700 male dead.
http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file.../news/women.php
OUR FIVE IRAQ WARS - JAMES JAY CARAFANO (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 24): What the United States needs to do is finish the job in Iraq -- and that means strengthening Iraq's security forces so they can handle the insurgency.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...23-084009-2950r
FACING FACTS ON IRAQ EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 24): There is nothing about Iraq -- including withdrawal scenarios -- that is anything but ominous.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/opinion/...agewanted=print
THE FACTS ON THE GROUND: MINI-GULAGS, HIRED GUNS, LOBBYISTS, AND A REALITY BUILT ON FEAR - TOM ENGELHARDT (TOMDISPATCH, SEPTEMBER 21): While Iraq and future Iraq policy are constantly in the news, almost all the American facts-on-the-ground in that country have come into being without consultation with the American people or, in any serious way, Congress (or testing in the courts).
http://tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=123690
BE READY FOR CIVIL WAR - DANIEL GALLINGTON (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 15): Civil war may happen in Iraq no matter what we do or what we want -- and we had better be thinking about how it would support our longer-term policy objectives.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...24-085113-5472r
SPY AGENCIES SAY IRAQ WAR WORSENS TERROR THREAT - MARK MAZZETTI (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 24): The classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct role to the Iraq war in fueling radicalism than that presented either in recent White House documents or in a report released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee, according to several officials in Washington involved in preparing the assessment or who have read the final document.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/world/mi...agewanted=print
NEGROPONTE HIGHLIGHTS U.S. SUCCESSES: INTELLIGENCE VIEW THAT WAR IS INCREASING TERROR IS 'FRACTION OF JUDGMENTS,' HE SAYS - NEWS SERVICES (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 25)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6092400986.html
CLOSING OF A NATION - DAVID BROOKS (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 24): Iraq is the most xenophobic, sexist and reactionary society on earth.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/opini...agewanted=print
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PLAYING SHELL GAMES ON RESPONSIBILITY WITH IRAQ - DERRICK Z. JACKSON (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 23): The same White House that trashed generals and bean counters for saying it would take hundreds of thousands of more troops and billions more dollars to secure Iraq is now blaming the puppet government for not securing the country.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...th_iraq?mode=PF
DIVIDING IRAQ WOULD JUST MEAN MORE THREATS: SEPARATE SUNNI, SHIITE AND KURD STATES ARE A SEDUCTIVE SOLUTION, BUT A SINGLE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT IS IRAQ'S BEST CHANCE FOR STABILITY - W. ROBERT PEARSON (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 24)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions
THE TROOPS STAY ON: PRESIDENT BUSH HELD OFF ON FORCE CUTS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN THIS FALL. THERE'S GOOD REASON -- BUT IS THERE A GOOD PLAN? ? EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 23)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2201442_pf.html
LOSING AFGHANISTAN - JOHN KERRY (WALL STREET JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 25): Where allies have pledged troops and assistance in Afghanistan, they must follow through. But we must lead by example. That's how you win hearts and minds, and show the world the true face of America -- and that's how you win the war on terror. (Mr. Kerry, a senator from Massachusetts, was the 2004 Democratic nominee for president.)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1159138897...in_commentaries
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THE KEY TO AFGHANISTAN: MORE TIME - JIM HOAGLAND (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 24): The struggle in Afghanistan needs resources, it needs time -- and it needs never to be forgotten.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2201396_pf.html
A SILENCE IN THE AFGHAN MOUNTAINS: THE CONCEALMENT OF TWO DETAINEE DEATHS PAINTS A TROUBLING PICTURE OF ABUSE BY U.S. SPECIAL FORCES UNITS DEPLOYED TO THE COUNTRY - KEVIN SACK AND CRAIG PYES (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 24)
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/na...-home-headlines
BUSH'S OPTIONS ON IRAN - ROBERT KUTTNER (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 23): Iran is far larger and more powerful than Iraq. Far from making war inevitable, that reality limits American options.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...on_iran?mode=PF
IRANIAN RHETORIC ASIDE, IT MAY BE TIME TO TALK - ROGER COHEN (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 23): In the Bush-led quest to transform the Middle East, a stick has been applied in Iraq. Its corollary almost certainly has to be a carrot deployed in Iran.
http://select.nytimes.com/iht/2006/09/23/w...agewanted=print
AHMADINEJAD'S GAUNTLET: THE U.S. AND IRAN NEED EACH OTHER TOO MUCH NOT TO FIND ACCOMMODATION - DAVID IGNATIUS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 24): That's the challenge: Can America and Iran find a formula that will meet each side's security interests, and thereby allow Iran to return fully to the community of nations after 27 years?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2201393_pf.html
IRAN'S UNSUBTLE LEADER EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 24): The transparent purpose of Ahmadinejad's brief against the Security Council is to delegitimize the resolution that the council passed at the end of August calling on Iran to suspend its enrichment of uranium and comply with the requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial..._leader?mode=PF
WASHINGTON IS SIGNALING TEHRAN - ZE'EV SCHIFF (HAARETZ.COM, SEPTEMBER 24): Washington is saying, effectively, that it will help Iran to develop into a regional power with economic capability if Iran is willing to forgo nuclear weapons. Tehran, for its part, is hesitating.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.j...SubContrassID=0
IRAN: CALLS FOR DIALOGUE WITH THE UNITED STATES - DAVID CULP (COMMON DREAMS, SEPTEMBER 22): When he spoke about the nuclear weapons issues, the Iranian president was offering a reasonable basis for real negotiations.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0922-27.htm
WAR SIGNALS? - DAVE LINDORFF (NATION, SEPTEMBER 22/COMMON DREAMS): Bush Administration and the Pentagon have issued orders for a major "strike group" of ships, including the nuclear aircraft carrier Eisenhower as well as a cruiser, destroyer, frigate, submarine escort and supply ship, to head for the Persian Gulf, just off Iran's western coast.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0922-28.htm
WORLD POLITICS AND SHOW BIZ: ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE JUSTIN RAIMONDO (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 22): The regionalization of the Iraq war, the strong possibility that the U.S., not Iran, will use nuclear weapons -- in short, a cataclysmic clash of civilizations is on the immediate horizon.
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=9732
MORE BUSH DIPLOMACY - GORDON PRATHER (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 23): Bush still intends to nuke the Mullahs.
http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=9737
AS CRAZY AS IT SOUNDS CHARLEY REESE (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 23): President George Bush might be planning to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities.
http://www.antiwar.com/reese/?articleid=9736
US-IRAN SHOOTOUT IS INEVITABLE LEON HADAR (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 23):
http://www.antiwar.com/hadar/?articleid=9738
THE OCTOBER SURPRISE GARY HART (HUFFINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 23): It should come as no surprise if the Bush Administration undertakes a preemptive war against Iran sometime before the November election.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-hart/th...se_b_30086.html
SPEAKING WITH THE ENEMY: COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS CHIEF EXPLAINS WHY HIS ORGANIZATION HOSTED A DISCUSSION WITH IRAN'S PRESIDENT - RICHARD N. HAASS (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 23)
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/o...1,3492119.story
THE POWER OF PUBLIC OPINION - PATRICK MCELWEE (COMMON DREAMS, SEPTEMBER 22): Despite the propaganda onslaught, 19 percent believe Iran poses no threat at all to the U.S. and an additional 55 percent of the population believe Iran can be handled diplomatically.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0922-34.htm
FROM THE NEW "ANTI-SEMITISM" TO NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST: HOW ISRAEL IS ENGINEERING THE "CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS" - JONATHAN COOK (COUNTERPUNCH, SEPTEMBER 23/24): As ever, the main target of the new anti-Semitism campaign were audiences in the US, Israel's generous patron. There, members of the Israel lobby were turning into a chorus of doom.
http://www.counterpunch.org/cook09232006.html
DO SOMETHING - OPINION (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 22): Washington should be prepared to facilitate Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' efforts to reopen a dialogue with the Israelis.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/b...inion-headlines
DELUSION IN DAMASCUS: BASHAR ASSAD BELIEVES THAT SYRIA WON THE LEBANESE WAR ?EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 24): The many statesmen who have tried to do business with the Syrian president in the past -- such as former secretary of state Colin L. Powell or Egypt's Hosni Mubarak -- have discovered his assurances to secure the Syrian border are not only worthless but deliberately mendacious.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2300722_pf.html
AXIS OF SKETCHY ALLIES - MAUREEN DOWD (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 24): The administration?s great ally in the war on terror is General Musharraf, a dictator who appears to be harboring terrorists, including the one we want most.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/23/opini...agewanted=print
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DEMOCRACY IN THE MUSLIM WORLD - LORENZO VIDINO (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 24): Promotion of democracy is an ambitious goal whose prospects for success are unclear. What can produce immediate gains is a head-on challenge of the enemy's ideological shortcomings.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...m_world?mode=PF
VARIETIES OF DEMOCRACY - SARAH L. GILDEA / F. ANDY MESSING ( WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 25): Our experience with democracy is relatively successful, but we must be wary of forcing our brand of freedom and democracy on others, or risk disillusionment and failure.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...24-085115-9442r
AS CHÁVEZ TALKS TOUGH, THE BUSH TEAM YAWNS EDWARD M. GOMEZ (WORLD VIEWS, SF GATE, SEPTEMBER 23)
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/det...5&entry_id=9140
CHÁVEZ'S INFERNO - ALVARO VARGAS LLOSA (WALL STREET JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 25): Chávez's eighth circle of hell is fraudulent anti-Americanism. Since oil makes up half the government's revenue and the U.S. is the principal destination of Venezuelan oil, he pays daily homage to U.S. capitalism.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1159141344...in_commentaries
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HURRICANE CHÁVEZ: WHAT'S WORSE FOR ENERGY SECURITY: A NATURAL DISASTER OR A PETRO-BULLY? EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 24): To the extent that Mr. Chávez's wild talk stirs up anti-American feeling, he must be regarded as an irritant.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2300721_pf.html
DEVIL IN DISGUISE
EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 22): Chávez has been brandishing anti-Americanism ever since he became president in 1998. Chávez is criticizing the leading force behind a world economic system that has enriched his country and enhanced his power.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...isguise?mode=PF
A WHIFF OF THE DEVIL - JEFF JACOBY (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 24): As night descends on Venezuela, thuggish rulers everywhere are finding Chávez a kindred spirit. There was indeed an odor of sulfur at the UN last week, but it didn't come from President Bush.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...e_devil?mode=PF
TRASH TALK AT THE U.N.: CHAVEZ DELUSION - STEPHEN JOHNSON (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 22): When he spoke at the U.N. General Assembly this week, President Chávez made it clear that his objective is to lead a global coalition to confront the United States.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTY3Y...DYzYjdhNTMwYjc=
DIFFERENCES ASIDE, IT'S ALL POLITICS - MARK H. TEETER (MOSCOW TIMES, SEPTEMBER 25): Is somebody willing to put real, visible effort into developing avenues and areas for Russian-U.S. cooperation now, to engage and interact? Or is the best we both can hope for an uncomfortable, ill-defined stasis that benefits no discernible good cause?
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2006/09/25/009.html
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT REINHOLD NIEBUHR: NO ONE IS ALL GOOD OR ALL EVIL - EMILY L. HAUSER (SEPTEMBER 24): President Bush has long painted the international community, and the nation's foreign policy, in stark terms. "Islamo-fascists" and, before them, the "axis of evil," described our many enemies in black and white.
Yet as Bush divides the world this way, more Americans are beginning to question his strict breakdown of good and evil.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...perspective-hed
RENOUNCING BUSH'S FAILURES IS A START: THE PRESIDENT'S ONETIME LAPDOGS SHOULD ALSO RETHINK THE EXTREMIST IDEOLOGY THAT GOT US HERE - TODD GITLIN (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 23): The core of the Bush problem is an extremist worldview. Bush's aggressive go-it-alone attitude kicked in long before 9/11. "You're either with us or you're with the terrorists" was just an extension of Bush's rejection of the Kyoto Protocol (the international global warming agreement) and the International Criminal Court.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions
WHY WE CAN'T WIN - JON BASIL UTLEY (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 22): America is incapable of organizing itself to successfully impose our will by force upon small foreign nations, much less the world.
http://www.antiwar.com/utley/?articleid=9728
A FOREIGN POLICY OF FAILURE DOUG BANDOW (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 22): The United States today is weaker, more isolated, and more vulnerable because of the Bush administration's policies.
http://www.antiwar.com/bandow/?articleid=9726
THE NEW GLOBAL POPULISM - KAVEH L. AFRASIABI (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 23): What sets this year's General Assembly gathering somewhat apart is the window it has opened onto a global realignment consisting of many Third World nations forming a coherent anti-US bloc.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HI23Aa02.html
THE WAR OF THE HACKS - COLBERT I. KING (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 23): The terrorist ilk that attacked on Sept. 11 must be broken -- not chased, harassed or condemned from a U.N. podium, but broken. That means: Take them down here, there or anywhere they're found.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2201439_pf.html
QUOTATIONS FOR THE DAY
"SHOW ME WHERE THE ROADS END, AND I WILL SHOW YOU WHERE THE TALIBAN BEGINS."
--Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan; cited in Jim Hoagland, 'The Key to Afghanistan: More Time (Washington post, September 24)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2201396_pf.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14975333/site/newsweek/
US-IRAN RELATIONS: PERILS AND PROMISES - HOOSHANG AMIRAHMADI (PAYVAND'S IRAN NEWS ..., SEPTEMBER 22): EU Dependency and US Public Diplomacy: The US' public relations ploy to sway public opinion toward the US position on Iran has been clearly articulated by President Bush and Secretary of State Rice.
http://www.payvand.com/news/06/sep/1254.html
IRAN WAR IN OCTOBER? EVERETT (DISAGREEMENT WITHOUT BEING DISAGREEABLE, SEPTEMBER 24): The president's UN speech may have been the start of an attempt to frame the military action as an opportunity for the Iranian people to overthrow their oppressors, but much more needs to be done if such attempts at public diplomacy are to be successful.
http://dwobd.blogspot.com/
HOW THE UN MEETING TURNED INTO A FESTIVAL OF ANTI-AMERICANISM - AND BOOSTED DUBYA'S ELECTION HOPES - DAVID USBORNE (INDEPENDENT, SEPTEMBER 23): With the help of Iran's unflinching leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and a few others, Mr. Chavez successfully hijacked this year's UN General Assembly and turned it into a raucous carnival of anti-Americanism. Nile Gardiner, of the Heritage Foundation, said: "This is a huge public diplomacy challenge, but also a strategic threat."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politi...icle1705645.ece
BUSH RAGES: 'I AM NOT BEELZEBUB, LORD OF SULFUR' - MIKE WHITNEY (AL-JAZEERAH, SEPTEMBER 22): And where was Bush when Chavez delivered his broadside ....hiding behind Karen Hughes's skirts, picking out a new eye-liner for his next televised harangue against Muslims, retrieving his Yale pom-poms from the dry-cleaners?
http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20edito...e%20Whitney.htm
STUFF HAPPENS AGAIN IN BAGHDAD - FRANK RICH (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 24): Our public diplomacy efforts in Iraq were equally tone-deaf to Iraqis and their neighbors. Karen Hughes is a presidential flack whose patronizing photo-op tour of the region last year earned mostly ridicule. Our broadcasting outreach is supervised by a longtime Karl Rove pal, Kenneth Tomlinson, who last month was found by State Department investigators to be using his office -- literally -- to run a ?horse-racing operation.?
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/opini...agewanted=print
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WHAT WOULD JEFFERSON SAY ABOUT IRAQ? OPPOSED TO "WARS OF CHOICE," HE WOULD HAVE A LOT TO SAY ABOUT THE FORCEFUL IMPOSITION OF DEMOCRACY - R.K. RAMAZANI (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, SEPTEMBER 24): If asked how best to spread democracy, Jefferson would have suggested three alternative and peaceful methods. First among these would be America's own example of liberal democratic practices. Second would be effective use of what we now call public diplomacy. Third, and most important, Jefferson would have advocated expanding American educational initiatives, such as the Fulbright exchange program.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/ed...al/15592459.htm
US DELEGATION TO VISIT LEBANON AND DISCUSS REBUILDING (YA LIBNAN, LEBANON, SEPTEMBER 23): The group will be led by Dina Powell, Deputy Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs.
http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2006/09/post_21.php
CONDI TALKS TOUGH ON DARFUR - (NEWS FROM AFRICA, SEPTEMBER 24): After falling to the back burners of public diplomacy, it seems that maybe Darfur in Sudan is moving up the US administration's list of concerns.
http://twoandtwomakesfive.blogs.com/two_an...from_afric.html
(scroll down link for item)
WORD FOR WORD: 'ISLAMO-FASCISM' HAD ITS MOMENT - SHERYL GAY STOLBERG (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 24): Even Karen Hughes, the former counselor to Mr. Bush who now runs the public diplomacy arm of the State Department, pushed back from the term 'Islamo-fascist,' telling CNN's Wolf Blitzer that she typically does not 'use religious terms' for fear they will be misinterpreted around the world.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/weekinre...24stolberg.html?
ATTACKS SPARK TOUGHER GUANTANAMO JAIL - ASSOCIATED PRESS (USA TODAY SEPTEMBER 23): The military is toughening a new jailhouse for suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban militants to protect guards after a spate of attacks and evidence that detainees have organized themselves into groups to mount uprisings, officials said.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-09...itmo-jail_x.htm
TORTURE CHIC: SIGN OF DECADENCE ALAN BOCK (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 23): The eagerness of the top two guys in the administration, plenty of others in the political classes and all too many who consider themselves thinkers or intellectuals to see torture become quasi-official policy of the United States, which used to have a reputation as the freest land on earth, verges on the sadistic and pornographic.
http://www.antiwar.com/bock/?articleid=9739
WE'VE SUNK TO BIN LADEN'S LEVEL - JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY (MIAMI HERALD, SEPTEMBER 23/COMMON DREAMS): The torture of prisoners is not only illegal under American and international law it is, put simply, immoral and unjust. It is also un-American.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0923-27.htm
A TORTURED POLICY EDITORIAL (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, SEPTEMBER 24): The upshot is a disgraceful policy on detainees that bends American norms of justice, all wrapped in the flag-waving war on terrorism.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...&type=printable
POWELL BELATEDLY JOINS BID TO SAVE OUR NATION'S SOUL - LEONARD PITTS JR. (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 22): Even if we had to choose between saving Americans and preserving America, it should be an easy call. Kill me before you kill my country.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
ARE WE REALLY SO FEARFUL? - ARIEL DORFMAN (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 24): Are we so fearful, so in love with our own security and steeped in our own pain, that we are really willing to let people be tortured in the name of America?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2201303_pf.html
DOES TORTURE WORK? - EDWIDGE DANTICAT (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 24): We are all endorsers of torture when it is done in our name.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2201304_pf.html
FIRING POTENT WORDS, FROM A TANK - ARTHUR T. HADLEY (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 25): 'I've seen firsthand the power of Geneva Conventions, both to compel surrenders and to broadcast, for the world, our determination to live up to our highest ideals.'
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/25/opinion/...agewanted=print
AMERICAN STANDARD OPINION (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 24): The compromise approved last week by the GOP renegades draws the line at "redefining" the Geneva Conventions, but then leaves it to the president to "interpret" the conventions pretty much as he sees fit.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/b...inion-headlines
DO UNTO YOUR ENEMY... - PAUL RIECKHOFF (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 25): If America continues to erode the meaning of the Geneva Conventions, we will cede the ground upon which to prosecute dictators and warlords.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/25/opinion/...agewanted=print
SYRIA AND THE US: FELLOW TRAVELERS AT THE CROSSROADS FOR TERRORISM - AMY GOODMAN AND DAVID GOODMAN (MOTHER JONES, SEPTEMBER 23): When President Bush made torture a centerpiece of his foreign policy, he bound himself intimately to the world's worst human rights abusers.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0923-20.htm
TORTURE IS A MORAL ISSUE RELIGIOUS LEADERS FROM CONNECTICUT, SIGNATORIES (NATION, SEPTEMBER 23): The detainee legislation seems not to be about protecting our military personnel or even US citizens; rather, it appears to be designed to protect the leaders at the top of the chain of command who have tolerated, promoted, and justified torture.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061009/moral_compass
PARSING WORDS ABOUT TORTURE - STEVE CHAPMAN (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 25): Mr. Bush's stated policy is, "We do not torture." Anyone who really believes in the logic behind his policies ought to be asking, "Why on earth not?"
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
EXPLOITATION OF 9/11 WAS SHAMEFUL - ANDREW GREELEY (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, SEPTEMBER 22): The administration, not able to find Osama bin Laden, now plans to drag some of his henchmen -- tortured and illegally imprisoned -- before kangaroo military courts to prove how tough on terrorists it really is before the election. Do the marketers of such propaganda have no shame at all?
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0922-30.htm
AMERICA'S DETAINEES FACE GRAVE INJUSTICE - JONATHAN HAFETZ (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 22)
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
TORTURE EXHIBIT A - WILLIAM FISHER (TOMPAINE.COM, SEPTEMBER 22): The compromise bill agreed on by the White House and the famous 'Republican rebels' -- Senators McCain, Lindsey Graham, John Warner, Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and others -- fails to mention extraordinary rendition explicitly.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/2...e_exhibit_a.php
THE ABUSE CAN CONTINUE: SENATORS WON'T AUTHORIZE TORTURE, BUT THEY WON'T PREVENT IT, EITHER ? EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 22)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6092101647.html
COMPROMISED EDITORS (NEW REPUBLIC, SEPTEMBER 21): The compromise proposed by GOP Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and John Warner takes the administration's proposals as a starting point and then proceeds to roll back only a few of its more odious provisions.
http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=200610...editorial100206
BUSH GETS HIS WAY - DAN FROOMKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, SEPTEMBER 22): On the central issue of whether the CIA should continue using interrogation methods on suspected terrorists that many say constitute torture, the White House got its way, winning agreement from the "maverick" Republican senators who had refused to go along with an overt undoing of the Geneva Conventions.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2200703_pf.html
TURNING BACK THE CLOCK ON RAPE EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 23): The bill on jailing, interrogating and trying terror suspects contains narrow definitions of rape and sexual assault that must be fixed before Congress can responsibly pass the legislation.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/edit...html?offset=10&
A TORTUROUS COMPROMISE EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 23): After delaying legal action against hundreds of detainees for almost five years, the administration should work with Congress to devise interrogation and trial rules that civilized peoples expect.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...promise?mode=PF
TWO-TIERED TORTURE STANDARDS: BY ALLOWING THE CIA LEEWAY IN INTERROGATIONS, THE SENATE GAVE UP TOO MUCH IN ITS COMPROMISE WITH BUSH ? EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 24)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editor...ment-editorials
CIA VALUES SHOW IN STAND ON DETAINEES - GREG MILLER (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 24): On the detainee issue, the CIA is less swayed by concerns that other nations might retaliate against U.S. prisoners, and more inclined to consider any cost worth paying for the intelligence it generates.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wa...,1,770657.story
WHY RETIRED MILITARY BRASS DON'T WANT TORTURE: FIRSTHAND COMBAT EXPERIENCES COMPEL OLD GUARD TO ATTACK BUSH'S 'ALTERNATIVE INTERROGATION' - CHARLES KAISER (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 24)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions
HE WROTE THE BOOK ON TORTURE [REVIEW OF WAR BY OTHER MEANS: AN INSIDER'S ACCOUNT OF THE WAR ON TERROR BY JOHN YOO] - JAMES BOVARD (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, OCTOBER 9): John Yoo, the former Justice Department official, implies that the torture scandal may be largely a liberal media concoction. Though this book went to press in July 2006, Yoo relies on dubious data from September 2004 to exonerate the federal torturers.
http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_10_09/review.html
UN REPORT: TORTURE IN IRAQ 'TOTALLY OUT OF HAND': BUSH ADMINISTRATION REJECTS CLAIM THAT TORTURE MAY BE WORSE THAN UNDER SADDAM HUSSEIN - TOM REGAN (CSMONITOR.COM, SEPTEMBER 24)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0922/dailyUpdate.html
IN IRAQ, A JOURNALIST IN LIMBO - TOM CURLEY (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 23): Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi photographer who helped the Associated Press win a Pulitzer Prize last year, is now in his sixth month in a U.S. Army prison in Iraq. He doesn't understand why he's there, and neither do his AP colleagues.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2201444_pf.html
DUE PROCESS, BULLDOZED - BOB HERBERT (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 25): Several Iraqi journalists working for international news organizations have been held without charge by American and Iraqi forces. The absence of concrete evidence in so many of the cases is disturbing, to say the least.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/25/opini...agewanted=print
CITY OF DEATH: THE BATTLE FOR BAGHDAD - BERNHARD ZAND (SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL, SEPTEMBER 22): Once the most progressive city in the Arab world, Baghdad has been ravaged by war and bombings. Everyone wants out, but not everyone can afford to leave -- and car bomb explosions are a daily fact of life.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiege...,438429,00.html
WAR'S FORGOTTEN WOMEN - LIZETTE ALVAREZ (INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 24): Despite longstanding predictions that the United States would shudder when its women were killed in action, female military deaths have stirred no less -- and no more -- reaction at home than the deaths of the nearly 2,700 male dead.
http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file.../news/women.php
OUR FIVE IRAQ WARS - JAMES JAY CARAFANO (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 24): What the United States needs to do is finish the job in Iraq -- and that means strengthening Iraq's security forces so they can handle the insurgency.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...23-084009-2950r
FACING FACTS ON IRAQ EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 24): There is nothing about Iraq -- including withdrawal scenarios -- that is anything but ominous.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/opinion/...agewanted=print
THE FACTS ON THE GROUND: MINI-GULAGS, HIRED GUNS, LOBBYISTS, AND A REALITY BUILT ON FEAR - TOM ENGELHARDT (TOMDISPATCH, SEPTEMBER 21): While Iraq and future Iraq policy are constantly in the news, almost all the American facts-on-the-ground in that country have come into being without consultation with the American people or, in any serious way, Congress (or testing in the courts).
http://tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=123690
BE READY FOR CIVIL WAR - DANIEL GALLINGTON (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 15): Civil war may happen in Iraq no matter what we do or what we want -- and we had better be thinking about how it would support our longer-term policy objectives.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...24-085113-5472r
SPY AGENCIES SAY IRAQ WAR WORSENS TERROR THREAT - MARK MAZZETTI (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 24): The classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct role to the Iraq war in fueling radicalism than that presented either in recent White House documents or in a report released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee, according to several officials in Washington involved in preparing the assessment or who have read the final document.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/world/mi...agewanted=print
NEGROPONTE HIGHLIGHTS U.S. SUCCESSES: INTELLIGENCE VIEW THAT WAR IS INCREASING TERROR IS 'FRACTION OF JUDGMENTS,' HE SAYS - NEWS SERVICES (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 25)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6092400986.html
CLOSING OF A NATION - DAVID BROOKS (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 24): Iraq is the most xenophobic, sexist and reactionary society on earth.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/opini...agewanted=print
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PLAYING SHELL GAMES ON RESPONSIBILITY WITH IRAQ - DERRICK Z. JACKSON (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 23): The same White House that trashed generals and bean counters for saying it would take hundreds of thousands of more troops and billions more dollars to secure Iraq is now blaming the puppet government for not securing the country.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...th_iraq?mode=PF
DIVIDING IRAQ WOULD JUST MEAN MORE THREATS: SEPARATE SUNNI, SHIITE AND KURD STATES ARE A SEDUCTIVE SOLUTION, BUT A SINGLE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT IS IRAQ'S BEST CHANCE FOR STABILITY - W. ROBERT PEARSON (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 24)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions
THE TROOPS STAY ON: PRESIDENT BUSH HELD OFF ON FORCE CUTS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN THIS FALL. THERE'S GOOD REASON -- BUT IS THERE A GOOD PLAN? ? EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 23)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2201442_pf.html
LOSING AFGHANISTAN - JOHN KERRY (WALL STREET JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 25): Where allies have pledged troops and assistance in Afghanistan, they must follow through. But we must lead by example. That's how you win hearts and minds, and show the world the true face of America -- and that's how you win the war on terror. (Mr. Kerry, a senator from Massachusetts, was the 2004 Democratic nominee for president.)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1159138897...in_commentaries
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
THE KEY TO AFGHANISTAN: MORE TIME - JIM HOAGLAND (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 24): The struggle in Afghanistan needs resources, it needs time -- and it needs never to be forgotten.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2201396_pf.html
A SILENCE IN THE AFGHAN MOUNTAINS: THE CONCEALMENT OF TWO DETAINEE DEATHS PAINTS A TROUBLING PICTURE OF ABUSE BY U.S. SPECIAL FORCES UNITS DEPLOYED TO THE COUNTRY - KEVIN SACK AND CRAIG PYES (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 24)
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/na...-home-headlines
BUSH'S OPTIONS ON IRAN - ROBERT KUTTNER (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 23): Iran is far larger and more powerful than Iraq. Far from making war inevitable, that reality limits American options.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...on_iran?mode=PF
IRANIAN RHETORIC ASIDE, IT MAY BE TIME TO TALK - ROGER COHEN (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 23): In the Bush-led quest to transform the Middle East, a stick has been applied in Iraq. Its corollary almost certainly has to be a carrot deployed in Iran.
http://select.nytimes.com/iht/2006/09/23/w...agewanted=print
AHMADINEJAD'S GAUNTLET: THE U.S. AND IRAN NEED EACH OTHER TOO MUCH NOT TO FIND ACCOMMODATION - DAVID IGNATIUS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 24): That's the challenge: Can America and Iran find a formula that will meet each side's security interests, and thereby allow Iran to return fully to the community of nations after 27 years?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2201393_pf.html
IRAN'S UNSUBTLE LEADER EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 24): The transparent purpose of Ahmadinejad's brief against the Security Council is to delegitimize the resolution that the council passed at the end of August calling on Iran to suspend its enrichment of uranium and comply with the requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial..._leader?mode=PF
WASHINGTON IS SIGNALING TEHRAN - ZE'EV SCHIFF (HAARETZ.COM, SEPTEMBER 24): Washington is saying, effectively, that it will help Iran to develop into a regional power with economic capability if Iran is willing to forgo nuclear weapons. Tehran, for its part, is hesitating.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.j...SubContrassID=0
IRAN: CALLS FOR DIALOGUE WITH THE UNITED STATES - DAVID CULP (COMMON DREAMS, SEPTEMBER 22): When he spoke about the nuclear weapons issues, the Iranian president was offering a reasonable basis for real negotiations.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0922-27.htm
WAR SIGNALS? - DAVE LINDORFF (NATION, SEPTEMBER 22/COMMON DREAMS): Bush Administration and the Pentagon have issued orders for a major "strike group" of ships, including the nuclear aircraft carrier Eisenhower as well as a cruiser, destroyer, frigate, submarine escort and supply ship, to head for the Persian Gulf, just off Iran's western coast.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0922-28.htm
WORLD POLITICS AND SHOW BIZ: ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE JUSTIN RAIMONDO (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 22): The regionalization of the Iraq war, the strong possibility that the U.S., not Iran, will use nuclear weapons -- in short, a cataclysmic clash of civilizations is on the immediate horizon.
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=9732
MORE BUSH DIPLOMACY - GORDON PRATHER (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 23): Bush still intends to nuke the Mullahs.
http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=9737
AS CRAZY AS IT SOUNDS CHARLEY REESE (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 23): President George Bush might be planning to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities.
http://www.antiwar.com/reese/?articleid=9736
US-IRAN SHOOTOUT IS INEVITABLE LEON HADAR (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 23):
http://www.antiwar.com/hadar/?articleid=9738
THE OCTOBER SURPRISE GARY HART (HUFFINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 23): It should come as no surprise if the Bush Administration undertakes a preemptive war against Iran sometime before the November election.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-hart/th...se_b_30086.html
SPEAKING WITH THE ENEMY: COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS CHIEF EXPLAINS WHY HIS ORGANIZATION HOSTED A DISCUSSION WITH IRAN'S PRESIDENT - RICHARD N. HAASS (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 23)
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/o...1,3492119.story
THE POWER OF PUBLIC OPINION - PATRICK MCELWEE (COMMON DREAMS, SEPTEMBER 22): Despite the propaganda onslaught, 19 percent believe Iran poses no threat at all to the U.S. and an additional 55 percent of the population believe Iran can be handled diplomatically.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0922-34.htm
FROM THE NEW "ANTI-SEMITISM" TO NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST: HOW ISRAEL IS ENGINEERING THE "CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS" - JONATHAN COOK (COUNTERPUNCH, SEPTEMBER 23/24): As ever, the main target of the new anti-Semitism campaign were audiences in the US, Israel's generous patron. There, members of the Israel lobby were turning into a chorus of doom.
http://www.counterpunch.org/cook09232006.html
DO SOMETHING - OPINION (BALTIMORE SUN, SEPTEMBER 22): Washington should be prepared to facilitate Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' efforts to reopen a dialogue with the Israelis.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/b...inion-headlines
DELUSION IN DAMASCUS: BASHAR ASSAD BELIEVES THAT SYRIA WON THE LEBANESE WAR ?EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 24): The many statesmen who have tried to do business with the Syrian president in the past -- such as former secretary of state Colin L. Powell or Egypt's Hosni Mubarak -- have discovered his assurances to secure the Syrian border are not only worthless but deliberately mendacious.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2300722_pf.html
AXIS OF SKETCHY ALLIES - MAUREEN DOWD (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 24): The administration?s great ally in the war on terror is General Musharraf, a dictator who appears to be harboring terrorists, including the one we want most.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/23/opini...agewanted=print
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DEMOCRACY IN THE MUSLIM WORLD - LORENZO VIDINO (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 24): Promotion of democracy is an ambitious goal whose prospects for success are unclear. What can produce immediate gains is a head-on challenge of the enemy's ideological shortcomings.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...m_world?mode=PF
VARIETIES OF DEMOCRACY - SARAH L. GILDEA / F. ANDY MESSING ( WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 25): Our experience with democracy is relatively successful, but we must be wary of forcing our brand of freedom and democracy on others, or risk disillusionment and failure.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...24-085115-9442r
AS CHÁVEZ TALKS TOUGH, THE BUSH TEAM YAWNS EDWARD M. GOMEZ (WORLD VIEWS, SF GATE, SEPTEMBER 23)
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/det...5&entry_id=9140
CHÁVEZ'S INFERNO - ALVARO VARGAS LLOSA (WALL STREET JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 25): Chávez's eighth circle of hell is fraudulent anti-Americanism. Since oil makes up half the government's revenue and the U.S. is the principal destination of Venezuelan oil, he pays daily homage to U.S. capitalism.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1159141344...in_commentaries
PAID SUSBCRIPTION
HURRICANE CHÁVEZ: WHAT'S WORSE FOR ENERGY SECURITY: A NATURAL DISASTER OR A PETRO-BULLY? EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 24): To the extent that Mr. Chávez's wild talk stirs up anti-American feeling, he must be regarded as an irritant.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2300721_pf.html
DEVIL IN DISGUISE
EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 22): Chávez has been brandishing anti-Americanism ever since he became president in 1998. Chávez is criticizing the leading force behind a world economic system that has enriched his country and enhanced his power.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...isguise?mode=PF
A WHIFF OF THE DEVIL - JEFF JACOBY (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 24): As night descends on Venezuela, thuggish rulers everywhere are finding Chávez a kindred spirit. There was indeed an odor of sulfur at the UN last week, but it didn't come from President Bush.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...e_devil?mode=PF
TRASH TALK AT THE U.N.: CHAVEZ DELUSION - STEPHEN JOHNSON (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 22): When he spoke at the U.N. General Assembly this week, President Chávez made it clear that his objective is to lead a global coalition to confront the United States.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTY3Y...DYzYjdhNTMwYjc=
DIFFERENCES ASIDE, IT'S ALL POLITICS - MARK H. TEETER (MOSCOW TIMES, SEPTEMBER 25): Is somebody willing to put real, visible effort into developing avenues and areas for Russian-U.S. cooperation now, to engage and interact? Or is the best we both can hope for an uncomfortable, ill-defined stasis that benefits no discernible good cause?
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2006/09/25/009.html
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT REINHOLD NIEBUHR: NO ONE IS ALL GOOD OR ALL EVIL - EMILY L. HAUSER (SEPTEMBER 24): President Bush has long painted the international community, and the nation's foreign policy, in stark terms. "Islamo-fascists" and, before them, the "axis of evil," described our many enemies in black and white.
Yet as Bush divides the world this way, more Americans are beginning to question his strict breakdown of good and evil.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...perspective-hed
RENOUNCING BUSH'S FAILURES IS A START: THE PRESIDENT'S ONETIME LAPDOGS SHOULD ALSO RETHINK THE EXTREMIST IDEOLOGY THAT GOT US HERE - TODD GITLIN (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 23): The core of the Bush problem is an extremist worldview. Bush's aggressive go-it-alone attitude kicked in long before 9/11. "You're either with us or you're with the terrorists" was just an extension of Bush's rejection of the Kyoto Protocol (the international global warming agreement) and the International Criminal Court.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions
WHY WE CAN'T WIN - JON BASIL UTLEY (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 22): America is incapable of organizing itself to successfully impose our will by force upon small foreign nations, much less the world.
http://www.antiwar.com/utley/?articleid=9728
A FOREIGN POLICY OF FAILURE DOUG BANDOW (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 22): The United States today is weaker, more isolated, and more vulnerable because of the Bush administration's policies.
http://www.antiwar.com/bandow/?articleid=9726
THE NEW GLOBAL POPULISM - KAVEH L. AFRASIABI (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 23): What sets this year's General Assembly gathering somewhat apart is the window it has opened onto a global realignment consisting of many Third World nations forming a coherent anti-US bloc.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HI23Aa02.html
THE WAR OF THE HACKS - COLBERT I. KING (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 23): The terrorist ilk that attacked on Sept. 11 must be broken -- not chased, harassed or condemned from a U.N. podium, but broken. That means: Take them down here, there or anywhere they're found.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2201439_pf.html
QUOTATIONS FOR THE DAY
"SHOW ME WHERE THE ROADS END, AND I WILL SHOW YOU WHERE THE TALIBAN BEGINS."
--Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan; cited in Jim Hoagland, 'The Key to Afghanistan: More Time (Washington post, September 24)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2201396_pf.html
This is from the official USG transcript of the press briefing Elliott Abrams gave on the President's meeting with Abbas. It strengthens my perception that in cases like this, when the spokesman says something is clear--it isn't.
Carl Coon
MR. JONES: Last question.
Q I just wanted to ask about settlements in the West Bank. After the war with Hezbollah, Israel announced that they were going to go ahead and build the settlements. And there were a lot of Israeli analysts who are saying, okay, now, after this war, we don't see a withdrawal from the West Bank anytime soon. Can you tell us if the President has had any conversations about these settlements, given that he's talking about a Palestinian state as such an important objective?
MR. ABRAMS: Well, I guess I can say two things. First, the President -- at the time that Prime Minister Olmert announced his realignment plan and came to Washington, as you know, the President supported it and continues to support the idea that there should be a withdrawal of Israeli settlements in the West Bank as we move closer to peace.
I think I would -- the second thing, though, is I don't think that Israel has announced any new settlements. I think there was an announcement last week that several of the settlements west of the fence are expanding, with additional housing starts in them, rather than new settlements.
But I think our position has been made clear over time and was made clear during the late July 2005 Sharon meeting with the President, where he talked -- gave a sense of his view about settlements on the West Bank, the major blocks, and so forth.
Q So there's been no new discussions with the Israelis about that announcement of expanding settlements in the West Bank?
MR. ABRAMS: I think there has been -- I believe that either -- I believe the U.S. embassy may have sought further details to what exactly was announced because they are aware that we are concerned about any expansion of settlements that has any impact on the life and interest of Palestinians living near those settlements.
MR. JONES: Thank you very much.
PS: here are references to the press briefing and the antecedent meeting:
Transcript of the Meeting between President Bush and President Abbas, Waldorf Astoria, New York, New York http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/20...20060920-1.html
Press Briefing by Elliott Abrams on the President's Bilateral Meeting with President Abbas
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/20...20060920-2.html
Carl Coon
MR. JONES: Last question.
Q I just wanted to ask about settlements in the West Bank. After the war with Hezbollah, Israel announced that they were going to go ahead and build the settlements. And there were a lot of Israeli analysts who are saying, okay, now, after this war, we don't see a withdrawal from the West Bank anytime soon. Can you tell us if the President has had any conversations about these settlements, given that he's talking about a Palestinian state as such an important objective?
MR. ABRAMS: Well, I guess I can say two things. First, the President -- at the time that Prime Minister Olmert announced his realignment plan and came to Washington, as you know, the President supported it and continues to support the idea that there should be a withdrawal of Israeli settlements in the West Bank as we move closer to peace.
I think I would -- the second thing, though, is I don't think that Israel has announced any new settlements. I think there was an announcement last week that several of the settlements west of the fence are expanding, with additional housing starts in them, rather than new settlements.
But I think our position has been made clear over time and was made clear during the late July 2005 Sharon meeting with the President, where he talked -- gave a sense of his view about settlements on the West Bank, the major blocks, and so forth.
Q So there's been no new discussions with the Israelis about that announcement of expanding settlements in the West Bank?
MR. ABRAMS: I think there has been -- I believe that either -- I believe the U.S. embassy may have sought further details to what exactly was announced because they are aware that we are concerned about any expansion of settlements that has any impact on the life and interest of Palestinians living near those settlements.
MR. JONES: Thank you very much.
PS: here are references to the press briefing and the antecedent meeting:
Transcript of the Meeting between President Bush and President Abbas, Waldorf Astoria, New York, New York http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/20...20060920-1.html
Press Briefing by Elliott Abrams on the President's Bilateral Meeting with President Abbas
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/20...20060920-2.html
http://www.agenceglobal.com/Article.asp?Id=1055
New Impetus for the Middle East
by Rami G. Khouri Released: 26 Sep 2006
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BEIRUT -- When the finest American and international minds speak, we should listen carefully. Two important documents came to light this week that nicely capture the extreme poles of the current political condition of the Middle East -- we either work hard for comprehensive peace touching on all the key disputes in the region, or we suffer the consequences of the existing conflicts and the spread of terror that they spawn.
The expanding terror problem was revealed in American press reports about a classified 30-page U.S. National Intelligence Estimate that says the Iraq war has become a primary recruitment vehicle for potential terrorists, whose numbers may be increasing faster than the effort to deter and defeat them. The report notes that the Iraq war has probably heightened rather than reduced the threat of terror attacks against the United States or other targets. This is partly because radical terror networks seem to have spread and decentralized, including the use of over 5000 radical Islamist web sites, leaving Al-Qaeda more as an inspiration than a direct manager of terror attacks.
The radicalizing impact of the Anglo-American-led war in Iraq is no surprise. Many people in the Middle East and elsewhere warned the U.S. and UK governments before the war that such a brazen bid to change Middle Eastern political realities through the instrument of Western armies would generate a strong counter-reaction, including a probable spike in terror. Washington and London concluded that the risks were worth taking, given the importance they attached to removing the former Baathist regime in Baghdad as a means of triggering similar changes in other Middle Eastern lands.
The American intelligence agencies’ analysis is important for two particular reasons. First, it is a remarkable example of the sort of self-critical honesty and transparency that are hallmarks of democratic systems. Critical as I am of the American policy in Iraq, I am a great admirer of an American governance system that examines its own policies so bluntly, giving the emperor the bad news when necessary. I know of nothing vaguely similar ever happening in any Arab country, where the prevailing tradition is for yes-men to tell the great leader that all is well in the realm due largely to his endless wisdom and munificence. If reckless and adventuresome militarism in Iraq is a sign of the worst of American political culture, speaking the unpleasant truth about this ongoing rash endeavor is a sign of the best American ways.
The second, more important, point is that many of the same dynamics that pertained to the Anglo-American desire to attack Iraq in early 2003 apply today to the situation with Iran. Serious accusations are made against Iran, and many evil motives and intentions are ascribed to its government, with little solid or indisputable evidence. The consequences of an Anglo-American-Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities would probably be much worse than what we’ve witnessed in the wake of the Iraq assault. This is because political tensions are so much more intense in the region today than they were in 2003, Iran’s formidable capacity and reach, and the growing linkages between situations like Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine-Israel.
This is why the other text released this week, by the International Crisis Group (ICG), is worth pondering and acting upon. ICG launched a new global advocacy initiative designed “to generate new political momentum for a comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict,” with major funding for the initiative announced at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York. Resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict would significantly reduce tensions in the region, and probably gradually weaken or decouple Iranian ties with Palestinian and Lebanese groups and Syria.
The ICG initiative includes:
• mobilizing respected ex-officials from the United States and other countries around a statement of support and concrete actions for a comprehensive settlement, and a new process to achieve it, following the input of several brainstorming sessions;
• convening a high-level group of former U.S. government officials to generate bipartisan support for the U.S. administration to engage fully in efforts to achieve a comprehensive resolution; and,
• producing a series of ICG reports and briefings on the Arab-Israeli conflict and individual countries, to provide information, analysis and guidance to policy-makers.
The last half decade has revealed the consequences of leaving the Middle East to drift in a sea of its own dysfunctional governments, stressed societies, indigenous autocracy and militancy, foreign invasions, and local occupations. We suffer today the heavy legacy of a deadly combination of local and foreign hegemons. The antidote requires a concerted effort to resolve the core, and oldest, dispute in the region -- the Arab-Israeli conflict -- according to established international legal principles and UN resolutions, which would make it easier to reduce tensions and resolve disputes in other parts of the Middle East.
This week reminds us of three essential elements needed for such a change in direction for the Middle East: ending Anglo-American neo-colonial military adventures, resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict, and promoting more honest, open and accountable governance throughout the Middle East.
Rami G. Khouri is an internationally syndicated columnist, the director of the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut, and editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star.
Copyright ©2006 Rami G. Khouri / Agence Global
----------------
Released: 26 September 2006
Word Count: 837
----------------
For rights and permissions, contact:
rights@agenceglobal.com, 1.336.686.9002 or 1.212.731.0757
New Impetus for the Middle East
by Rami G. Khouri Released: 26 Sep 2006
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BEIRUT -- When the finest American and international minds speak, we should listen carefully. Two important documents came to light this week that nicely capture the extreme poles of the current political condition of the Middle East -- we either work hard for comprehensive peace touching on all the key disputes in the region, or we suffer the consequences of the existing conflicts and the spread of terror that they spawn.
The expanding terror problem was revealed in American press reports about a classified 30-page U.S. National Intelligence Estimate that says the Iraq war has become a primary recruitment vehicle for potential terrorists, whose numbers may be increasing faster than the effort to deter and defeat them. The report notes that the Iraq war has probably heightened rather than reduced the threat of terror attacks against the United States or other targets. This is partly because radical terror networks seem to have spread and decentralized, including the use of over 5000 radical Islamist web sites, leaving Al-Qaeda more as an inspiration than a direct manager of terror attacks.
The radicalizing impact of the Anglo-American-led war in Iraq is no surprise. Many people in the Middle East and elsewhere warned the U.S. and UK governments before the war that such a brazen bid to change Middle Eastern political realities through the instrument of Western armies would generate a strong counter-reaction, including a probable spike in terror. Washington and London concluded that the risks were worth taking, given the importance they attached to removing the former Baathist regime in Baghdad as a means of triggering similar changes in other Middle Eastern lands.
The American intelligence agencies’ analysis is important for two particular reasons. First, it is a remarkable example of the sort of self-critical honesty and transparency that are hallmarks of democratic systems. Critical as I am of the American policy in Iraq, I am a great admirer of an American governance system that examines its own policies so bluntly, giving the emperor the bad news when necessary. I know of nothing vaguely similar ever happening in any Arab country, where the prevailing tradition is for yes-men to tell the great leader that all is well in the realm due largely to his endless wisdom and munificence. If reckless and adventuresome militarism in Iraq is a sign of the worst of American political culture, speaking the unpleasant truth about this ongoing rash endeavor is a sign of the best American ways.
The second, more important, point is that many of the same dynamics that pertained to the Anglo-American desire to attack Iraq in early 2003 apply today to the situation with Iran. Serious accusations are made against Iran, and many evil motives and intentions are ascribed to its government, with little solid or indisputable evidence. The consequences of an Anglo-American-Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities would probably be much worse than what we’ve witnessed in the wake of the Iraq assault. This is because political tensions are so much more intense in the region today than they were in 2003, Iran’s formidable capacity and reach, and the growing linkages between situations like Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine-Israel.
This is why the other text released this week, by the International Crisis Group (ICG), is worth pondering and acting upon. ICG launched a new global advocacy initiative designed “to generate new political momentum for a comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict,” with major funding for the initiative announced at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York. Resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict would significantly reduce tensions in the region, and probably gradually weaken or decouple Iranian ties with Palestinian and Lebanese groups and Syria.
The ICG initiative includes:
• mobilizing respected ex-officials from the United States and other countries around a statement of support and concrete actions for a comprehensive settlement, and a new process to achieve it, following the input of several brainstorming sessions;
• convening a high-level group of former U.S. government officials to generate bipartisan support for the U.S. administration to engage fully in efforts to achieve a comprehensive resolution; and,
• producing a series of ICG reports and briefings on the Arab-Israeli conflict and individual countries, to provide information, analysis and guidance to policy-makers.
The last half decade has revealed the consequences of leaving the Middle East to drift in a sea of its own dysfunctional governments, stressed societies, indigenous autocracy and militancy, foreign invasions, and local occupations. We suffer today the heavy legacy of a deadly combination of local and foreign hegemons. The antidote requires a concerted effort to resolve the core, and oldest, dispute in the region -- the Arab-Israeli conflict -- according to established international legal principles and UN resolutions, which would make it easier to reduce tensions and resolve disputes in other parts of the Middle East.
This week reminds us of three essential elements needed for such a change in direction for the Middle East: ending Anglo-American neo-colonial military adventures, resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict, and promoting more honest, open and accountable governance throughout the Middle East.
Rami G. Khouri is an internationally syndicated columnist, the director of the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut, and editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star.
Copyright ©2006 Rami G. Khouri / Agence Global
----------------
Released: 26 September 2006
Word Count: 837
----------------
For rights and permissions, contact:
rights@agenceglobal.com, 1.336.686.9002 or 1.212.731.0757
HUGHES: FIXING U.S. IMAGE MAY TAKE YEARS - ANNE GEARAN, AP (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, SEPTEMBER 28): It may take decades to change anti-American feelings around the world that have been aggravated by war in Iraq, U.S. policy toward Israel and America's "sex and violence" culture, said the State Department official in charge of dealing with the U.S. image abroad, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...&type=printable
RICE, THE RETURN OF THE BAD COP? - SHMUEL ROSNER (HAARETZ, SEPTEMBER 26): A few weeks ago, a pro-Israel activist complained bitterly about the damaging influence of Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes on U.S. policy. On the whole, this is a complaint that should not come as a surprise. Hughes is in charge of improving the American image around the world, including the Arab world; and during her visits to Arab capitals, she hears, and then reports at home, that the U.S. has no chance of improving its position as long as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains unresolved.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/rosnerB...listSrc=Y&art=1
RECONSIDER FUNDING FOR UNITED NATIONS - EDITORIAL (WHEELING NEWS REGISTER, WV, SEPTEMBER 28): Congress might better divert some of the billions that now go down the U.N. rat hole instead to defense and U.S. public diplomacy efforts abroad.
http://www.news-register.net/editorials/ar...articleID=11012
KEITH OLBERMANN TAKES A LOOK BACK AT BUSH'S FIRST MONTHS IN OFFICE LEADING UP TO 9/11 - (CROOKS AND LIARS, SEPTEMBER 27): Commentator Olbermann: "On January 25th, five days after Mr. Bush took office, counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke sent Rice a memo, attaching to it a document entitled 'Strategy for Eliminating the Threat... of al Qaeda. It was, Clarke wrote, 'developed by the last Administration to give to you...[incorporating] diplomatic, economic, military, public diplomacy and intelligence tools.'"
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/09/27/k...ding-up-to-911/
BLUEPRINT FOR AN AMERICAN EMPIRE - GREG GRANDIN (ALTERNET, SEPTEMBER 27): To confront an adversarial press, tame a presumptuous Congress, and make inroads on college campuses, the Reagan administration orchestrated a sophisticated and centralized "public diplomacy" campaign that deployed techniques drawn from both the PR world and the intelligence community.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/41972/
U.S. SENATE PASSES NEW DETAINEE RULES - KATE ZERNIKE (INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 28): The U.S. Senate approved a measure on Thursday on the interrogations and trials of terrorism suspects, establishing far-reaching rules to deal with what President George W. Bush has called the most dangerous combatants in a different type of war.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/09/29/ame....0929detain.php
RUSHING OFF A CLIFF EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 28): Last week, the White House and three Republican senators announced a terrible deal on this legislation that gave Mr. Bush most of what he wanted, including a blanket waiver for crimes Americans may have committed in the service of his antiterrorism policies. Americans of the future will know that in 2006, Congress passed a tyrannical law that will be ranked with the low points in American democracy, our generations version of the Alien and Sedition Acts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/28/opinion/...agewanted=print
DON'T SUSPEND HABEAS CORPUS: ANY BILL THAT DENIES THAT BASIC RIGHT TO DETAINEES SHOULD BE REJECTED - EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 28)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-...-opinion-center
HABEAS CORPUS, R.I.P. (1215 - 2006) - MOLLY IVINS (TRUTHDIG, SEPTEMBER 28/COMMON DREAMS): With a smug stroke of his pen, President Bush is set to wipe out a safeguard against illegal imprisonment that has endured as a cornerstone of legal justice since the Magna Carta.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0928-20.htm
OUTSOURCING TORTURE EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 28): If the United States would adhere to its "high standards" in dealing with Muslims, it might look to them for assistance against Islamic extremists. Instead, Congress and President Bush risk torturing detainees and embittering their communities.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...torture?mode=PF
ACCOUNTING FOR THE DETAINEES - WILLIAM H. TAFT IV (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 27): Some years ago the United States was a leading voice in deploring regimes that "disappeared" their opponents. It's time to reestablish our credentials as a critic of this practice.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2601143_pf.html
A FAIR, SAFE WAY TO CLOSE GUANTANANAMO - MAX PAUL FRIEDMAN (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 27): Conditional release for those who do not appear dangerous, trials for those who do: This approach worked during WWII and can be refined now.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0927/p09s01-coop.html
WHAT IRAQIS WANT: ONCE MORE WITH FEELING MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, SEPTEMBER 27): A large majority of Iraqis do, in fact, want American troops out as soon as possible.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...iraqis_wan.html
SEE ALSO
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/28/poll.iraq/
http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=9762
IRAQI JOURNALISTS ADD LAWS TO LIST OF DANGERS - PAUL VON ZIELBAUER (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 29): Under a broad new set of laws criminalizing speech that ridicules the government or its officials, some resurrected verbatim from Saddam HusseinVs penal code, roughly a dozen Iraqi journalists have been charged with offending public officials in the past year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/world/mi...agewanted=print
IRAQ CONTRACTOR'S WORK IS FURTHER CRITICIZED - 13 OF 14 PROJECTS FOUND WANTING BY AUDIT - GRIFF WITTE (WASHINGTON, SEPTEMBER 29): The contractor that botched construction of a $75 million police academy in Baghdad so badly that human waste dripped from the ceilings has produced shoddy work on 13 out of 14 projects reviewed by federal auditors, the top official monitoring Iraq's reconstruction told Congress yesterday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2801048_pf.html
IRAQ AT THE GATES OF HELL: GEORGE BUSH'S IRAQ IN 21 QUESTIONS - TOM ENGELHARDT (TOMDISPATCH, SEPTEMBER 28): Iraq is the tragedy of our times, an event that has brought out, and will continue to bring out, the worst in us all. It is carnage incarnate.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=125142
THE MYTHS AND REALITIES OF IRAQ - NIKOLAS GVOSDEV AND RAY TAKEYH (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 29): The problems that the American invasion was to avert have only grown worse.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...of_iraq?mode=PF
STAY THE COURSE IN IRAQ? WHAT COURSE?: IF IRAQ IS THE CENTRAL FRONT FOR THE WAR ON TERROR, IT'S ONLY BECAUSE THE WAR THERE HAS MADE IT SO - DANIEL SCHORR (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 29)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0929/p09s02-cods.html
INFIDEL DOCUMENTS - FOUAD AJAMI (WALL STREET JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 28): We needn't give credence to the assertion of President Bush -- that the jihadists would turn up in our cities if we pulled up stakes from Baghdad -- to recognize that a terrible price would be paid were we to opt for a hasty and unseemly withdrawal from Iraq.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1159...6922176290.html
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
100 DEAD IN IRAQ ON THURSDAY; INCLUDING 60 BODIES FOUND IN BAGHDAD (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, SEPTEMBER 29): Bush accused the Democrats of being the party of "cut and run," on Thursday. But when you are losing a guerrilla war, you should begin considering an orderly retreat. Otherwise you will be stuck in an ever worsening quagmire.
http://www.juancole.com/
(scroll down link for item)
A WAR WE HAVE TO WIN - JEFF JACOBY (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 27): Has US military action in Iraq inflamed the global jihad? Undoubtedly. But just imagine how galvanized it would be by a US retreat.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial..._to_win?mode=PF
FIGHTING THEM OVER THERE: IRAQ IS NOT A BREEDING GROUND FOR TERRORISTS, IT'S A DUMPING GROUND - LEE SMITH (WEEKLY STANDARD, SEPTEMBER 28): We should start to see Iraq the way Arab regimes see such jihad-zones, as a far away place for Muslim fanatics to go and die.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/745vhonu.asp
IRAQ AND JIHAD -- A CONSENSUS SURFACES: THE CONTINUING SPREAD OF ISLAMIST TERRORISM AROUND THE WORLD -- CITED IN AN INTELLIGENCE REPORT -- IS UNLIKELY TO ALTER BUSH'S COURSE - PETER GRIER (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 28)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0928/p01s02-usfp.htm
OF COURSE IRAQ MADE IT WORSE - DANIEL BENJAMIN AND STEVEN SIMON (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 29): The invasion of Iraq was the wrong answer to the terrorist challenge, for which we will pay a high price for years to come.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6092801455.html
TERRORISTS' 'EXCUSE DU JOUR': IF THERE WERE NO IRAQ WAR, EXTREMISTS WOULD JUST FIND ANOTHER RALLYING CRY - JONAH GOLDBERG (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 28)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail
NEW WOODWARD BOOK SAYS BUSH IGNORED URGENT WARNING ON IRAQ - DAVID E. SANGER (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 29): As its title indicates, "State of Denial" by Bob Woodward follows the storyline of an administration that seemed to have only a foggy notion that early military success in Iraq had given way to resentment of the occupiers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/washingt...agewanted=print
TWO WARS, ONE MISSION: FAVORING THE 'GOOD WAR' IN AFGHANISTAN OVER IRAQ IGNORES THAT THE TWO COUNTRIES' FATES ARE INTERTWINED - RICH LOWRY AND DAVID B. RIVKIN JR. (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 28)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions
MISSING FROM THE NIE: AFGHANISTAN - PAUL SPERRY (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 29): The media missed the real story regarding the National Intelligence Estimate of the global terror threat. It's not what's in the declassified executive summary of the report -- Iraq, which was unavoidable -- it's what's absent from it -- Afghanistan, where the Taliban are making a frightening and bloody comeback.
http://www.antiwar.com/sperry/?articleid=9766
WHEN HAMID MET PERVEZ - EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 29): Mr. Bush needs to focus on the real problems of Afghan security and reconstruction.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/opinion/...agewanted=print
AFGHANISTAN'S GOOD NEWS: SEEDS OF ECONOMIC PROGRESS - BY KARL F. INDERFURTH (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 29)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0929/p09s01-coop.html
USE BRINKMANSHIP ON IRAN: ANY DIPLOMATIC EFFORT BY THE U.S. WON'T WORK UNLESS BACKED UP BY A CREDIBLE THREAT OF FORCE - ROBERT D. KAPLAN (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 29)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail
IRAN'S URANIUM GLITCH: TECHNICAL TROUBLES OFFER TIME FOR DIPLOMACY - DAVID IGNATIUS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 29): Intelligence analysts believe that Iran is encountering technical difficulties in mastering the complex process of uranium enrichment. That means the West may have a bit more time than previously expected to pursue a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear standoff.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2801453_pf.html
UNEASY PARTNERS: PAKISTAN AND THE UNITED STATES - EHSAN AHRARI (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 29)
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/ahrari.php?articleid=9764
THE MUSHARRAF EXCEPTION - ROBERT L. POLLOCK (WALL STREET JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 29): Over the longer term, the credibility of our efforts to address the root causes of terror will require nudging Pakistan, too, back toward the democratic path.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1159...8500677436.html
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
EMBRACE FOR A STRONGMAN: LUCKILY FOR KAZAKHSTAN'S RULER, PRESIDENT BUSH DOESN'T HEED HIS OWN SPEECHES - EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 29): The history of U.S. relations with Muslim states during the Cold War -- such as Iran and Iraq -- vividly demonstrates the shortsightedness of befriending rulers such as Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazhazstan's president.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2801673_pf.html
DON'T PLAY POLITICS WITH KAZAKHSTAN - S. FREDERICK STARR (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 28): U.S. critics of Kazakhstan have every right to remind us that the country still falls short in many respects. But in the eyes of some Kazakhs, the United States may be a less than perfect partner as well. If either of these groups succeeds in damaging the basis of our partnership, further progress in Kazakh social policy and legal and electoral reform will be the first to suffer. And Kazakh oil will then flow mainly to China and other countries that pay their bills and ask no questions.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2601141_pf.html
KAZAKHSTAN'S NO JOKE: THOUGH LAMPOONED BY A BRITISH COMEDIAN, THE HUGE CENTRAL ASIAN COUNTRY IS AN IMPORTANT IF TROUBLED ALLY EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 29): The president can have more influence over Nazarbayev by keeping him close -- and offering incentives to open his society -- than by shunning him.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-...pinion-leftrail
THE ISLAMIZATION OF MOROCCO: EXTREMISM IS DISPLACING MODERATION IN THE NORTH AFRICAN KINGDOM - OLIVIER GUITTA (WEEKLY STANDARD, OCTOBER 2)
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/740boykt.asp
MUSLIMS' COMPLICITY WITH VIOLENCE: UNLESS IT CLAMPS DOWN VIGOROUSLY ON FANATICISM, THE ISLAMIC WORLD RISKS VALIDATING ITS WORST CARICATURES - MAX BOOT (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 27)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions
ISLAM AND THE POPE - THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 29): "I'm all for a respectful dialogue between Islam and the West, but first there needs to be a respectful, free dialogue between Muslims and Muslims."
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/opini...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
THE GRAND DELUSION - DAVID BROOKS (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 28): More and more people are falling for the Grand Delusion -- the notion that if we just leave the extremists alone, they will leave us alone. The blunt fact is that groups of Islamic extremists will continue to compete and grow until mainstream Islamic moderates can establish a more civilized set of criteria for prestige and greatness.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/28/opini...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
I'M NO BUSH HATER: THERE'S A HUGE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DISLIKING THE PRESIDENT AND DISLIKING HIS POLICIES - ROSA BROOKS (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 29): The United States is in trouble. The spread of militant Islamic extremism and WMD will pose dangers for decades to come, and global warming, disease and poverty are all serious threats.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail
WORDS VS. DEEDS: BUSH AND ISLAM - NICOLA NASSER (COUNTERPUNCH, SEPTEMBER 28): Bush accuses Islamists of forcing their version of things on others while he unsheathes his sword out and high to dictate a 21st century white man mission to convert Muslims to a version of Islam that serves U.S. interests.
http://www.counterpunch.org/nasser09282006.html
KEEPING TERRORISM AWAY - EDWARD ROYCE (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 29): Five years after September 11, 2001, the view from the cave of an aging and possibly dying bin Laden is not one of victory, but of disintegrating plans for a caliphate stretching across the Islamic world. (Edward Royce, California Republican, is chairman of the House International Relations Terrorism Subcommittee).
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...28-101420-8000r
POW! (NOT.) - BAGNEWSNOTES (SEPTEMBER 24): While American men and women are spilling real blood in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Global War on Terror has devolved into a clown show.
http://bagnewsnotes.typepad.com/bagnews/2006/09/pow_not.html
FINAL REPORT: FORGING A WORLD OF LIBERTY UNDER LAW, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY, G. JOHN IKENBERRY AND ANNE-MARIE SLAUGHTER PRINCETON PROJECT ON NATIONAL SECURITY (SEPTEMBER 27): The basic objective of U.S. strategy must be to protect the American people and the American way of life. To achieve this goal in the 21st century, American strategy must, inter alia, be: a) integrated, fusing hard power -- the power to coerce -- and soft power -- the power to attract; adapted to the information age, enabling us to be fast and flexible in a world where information moves instantly, actors respond to it instantly, and specialized small units come together for only a limited time for a defined purpose -- whether to make a deal, restructure a company, or plan and execute a terrorist attack.
http://www.wws.princeton.edu/ppns/report/FinalReport.pdf
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...&type=printable
RICE, THE RETURN OF THE BAD COP? - SHMUEL ROSNER (HAARETZ, SEPTEMBER 26): A few weeks ago, a pro-Israel activist complained bitterly about the damaging influence of Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes on U.S. policy. On the whole, this is a complaint that should not come as a surprise. Hughes is in charge of improving the American image around the world, including the Arab world; and during her visits to Arab capitals, she hears, and then reports at home, that the U.S. has no chance of improving its position as long as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains unresolved.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/rosnerB...listSrc=Y&art=1
RECONSIDER FUNDING FOR UNITED NATIONS - EDITORIAL (WHEELING NEWS REGISTER, WV, SEPTEMBER 28): Congress might better divert some of the billions that now go down the U.N. rat hole instead to defense and U.S. public diplomacy efforts abroad.
http://www.news-register.net/editorials/ar...articleID=11012
KEITH OLBERMANN TAKES A LOOK BACK AT BUSH'S FIRST MONTHS IN OFFICE LEADING UP TO 9/11 - (CROOKS AND LIARS, SEPTEMBER 27): Commentator Olbermann: "On January 25th, five days after Mr. Bush took office, counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke sent Rice a memo, attaching to it a document entitled 'Strategy for Eliminating the Threat... of al Qaeda. It was, Clarke wrote, 'developed by the last Administration to give to you...[incorporating] diplomatic, economic, military, public diplomacy and intelligence tools.'"
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/09/27/k...ding-up-to-911/
BLUEPRINT FOR AN AMERICAN EMPIRE - GREG GRANDIN (ALTERNET, SEPTEMBER 27): To confront an adversarial press, tame a presumptuous Congress, and make inroads on college campuses, the Reagan administration orchestrated a sophisticated and centralized "public diplomacy" campaign that deployed techniques drawn from both the PR world and the intelligence community.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/41972/
U.S. SENATE PASSES NEW DETAINEE RULES - KATE ZERNIKE (INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 28): The U.S. Senate approved a measure on Thursday on the interrogations and trials of terrorism suspects, establishing far-reaching rules to deal with what President George W. Bush has called the most dangerous combatants in a different type of war.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/09/29/ame....0929detain.php
RUSHING OFF A CLIFF EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 28): Last week, the White House and three Republican senators announced a terrible deal on this legislation that gave Mr. Bush most of what he wanted, including a blanket waiver for crimes Americans may have committed in the service of his antiterrorism policies. Americans of the future will know that in 2006, Congress passed a tyrannical law that will be ranked with the low points in American democracy, our generations version of the Alien and Sedition Acts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/28/opinion/...agewanted=print
DON'T SUSPEND HABEAS CORPUS: ANY BILL THAT DENIES THAT BASIC RIGHT TO DETAINEES SHOULD BE REJECTED - EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 28)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-...-opinion-center
HABEAS CORPUS, R.I.P. (1215 - 2006) - MOLLY IVINS (TRUTHDIG, SEPTEMBER 28/COMMON DREAMS): With a smug stroke of his pen, President Bush is set to wipe out a safeguard against illegal imprisonment that has endured as a cornerstone of legal justice since the Magna Carta.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0928-20.htm
OUTSOURCING TORTURE EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 28): If the United States would adhere to its "high standards" in dealing with Muslims, it might look to them for assistance against Islamic extremists. Instead, Congress and President Bush risk torturing detainees and embittering their communities.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...torture?mode=PF
ACCOUNTING FOR THE DETAINEES - WILLIAM H. TAFT IV (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 27): Some years ago the United States was a leading voice in deploring regimes that "disappeared" their opponents. It's time to reestablish our credentials as a critic of this practice.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2601143_pf.html
A FAIR, SAFE WAY TO CLOSE GUANTANANAMO - MAX PAUL FRIEDMAN (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 27): Conditional release for those who do not appear dangerous, trials for those who do: This approach worked during WWII and can be refined now.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0927/p09s01-coop.html
WHAT IRAQIS WANT: ONCE MORE WITH FEELING MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, SEPTEMBER 27): A large majority of Iraqis do, in fact, want American troops out as soon as possible.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...iraqis_wan.html
SEE ALSO
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/28/poll.iraq/
http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=9762
IRAQI JOURNALISTS ADD LAWS TO LIST OF DANGERS - PAUL VON ZIELBAUER (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 29): Under a broad new set of laws criminalizing speech that ridicules the government or its officials, some resurrected verbatim from Saddam HusseinVs penal code, roughly a dozen Iraqi journalists have been charged with offending public officials in the past year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/world/mi...agewanted=print
IRAQ CONTRACTOR'S WORK IS FURTHER CRITICIZED - 13 OF 14 PROJECTS FOUND WANTING BY AUDIT - GRIFF WITTE (WASHINGTON, SEPTEMBER 29): The contractor that botched construction of a $75 million police academy in Baghdad so badly that human waste dripped from the ceilings has produced shoddy work on 13 out of 14 projects reviewed by federal auditors, the top official monitoring Iraq's reconstruction told Congress yesterday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2801048_pf.html
IRAQ AT THE GATES OF HELL: GEORGE BUSH'S IRAQ IN 21 QUESTIONS - TOM ENGELHARDT (TOMDISPATCH, SEPTEMBER 28): Iraq is the tragedy of our times, an event that has brought out, and will continue to bring out, the worst in us all. It is carnage incarnate.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=125142
THE MYTHS AND REALITIES OF IRAQ - NIKOLAS GVOSDEV AND RAY TAKEYH (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 29): The problems that the American invasion was to avert have only grown worse.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...of_iraq?mode=PF
STAY THE COURSE IN IRAQ? WHAT COURSE?: IF IRAQ IS THE CENTRAL FRONT FOR THE WAR ON TERROR, IT'S ONLY BECAUSE THE WAR THERE HAS MADE IT SO - DANIEL SCHORR (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 29)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0929/p09s02-cods.html
INFIDEL DOCUMENTS - FOUAD AJAMI (WALL STREET JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 28): We needn't give credence to the assertion of President Bush -- that the jihadists would turn up in our cities if we pulled up stakes from Baghdad -- to recognize that a terrible price would be paid were we to opt for a hasty and unseemly withdrawal from Iraq.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1159...6922176290.html
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100 DEAD IN IRAQ ON THURSDAY; INCLUDING 60 BODIES FOUND IN BAGHDAD (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, SEPTEMBER 29): Bush accused the Democrats of being the party of "cut and run," on Thursday. But when you are losing a guerrilla war, you should begin considering an orderly retreat. Otherwise you will be stuck in an ever worsening quagmire.
http://www.juancole.com/
(scroll down link for item)
A WAR WE HAVE TO WIN - JEFF JACOBY (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 27): Has US military action in Iraq inflamed the global jihad? Undoubtedly. But just imagine how galvanized it would be by a US retreat.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial..._to_win?mode=PF
FIGHTING THEM OVER THERE: IRAQ IS NOT A BREEDING GROUND FOR TERRORISTS, IT'S A DUMPING GROUND - LEE SMITH (WEEKLY STANDARD, SEPTEMBER 28): We should start to see Iraq the way Arab regimes see such jihad-zones, as a far away place for Muslim fanatics to go and die.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/745vhonu.asp
IRAQ AND JIHAD -- A CONSENSUS SURFACES: THE CONTINUING SPREAD OF ISLAMIST TERRORISM AROUND THE WORLD -- CITED IN AN INTELLIGENCE REPORT -- IS UNLIKELY TO ALTER BUSH'S COURSE - PETER GRIER (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 28)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0928/p01s02-usfp.htm
OF COURSE IRAQ MADE IT WORSE - DANIEL BENJAMIN AND STEVEN SIMON (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 29): The invasion of Iraq was the wrong answer to the terrorist challenge, for which we will pay a high price for years to come.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6092801455.html
TERRORISTS' 'EXCUSE DU JOUR': IF THERE WERE NO IRAQ WAR, EXTREMISTS WOULD JUST FIND ANOTHER RALLYING CRY - JONAH GOLDBERG (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 28)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail
NEW WOODWARD BOOK SAYS BUSH IGNORED URGENT WARNING ON IRAQ - DAVID E. SANGER (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 29): As its title indicates, "State of Denial" by Bob Woodward follows the storyline of an administration that seemed to have only a foggy notion that early military success in Iraq had given way to resentment of the occupiers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/washingt...agewanted=print
TWO WARS, ONE MISSION: FAVORING THE 'GOOD WAR' IN AFGHANISTAN OVER IRAQ IGNORES THAT THE TWO COUNTRIES' FATES ARE INTERTWINED - RICH LOWRY AND DAVID B. RIVKIN JR. (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 28)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions
MISSING FROM THE NIE: AFGHANISTAN - PAUL SPERRY (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 29): The media missed the real story regarding the National Intelligence Estimate of the global terror threat. It's not what's in the declassified executive summary of the report -- Iraq, which was unavoidable -- it's what's absent from it -- Afghanistan, where the Taliban are making a frightening and bloody comeback.
http://www.antiwar.com/sperry/?articleid=9766
WHEN HAMID MET PERVEZ - EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 29): Mr. Bush needs to focus on the real problems of Afghan security and reconstruction.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/opinion/...agewanted=print
AFGHANISTAN'S GOOD NEWS: SEEDS OF ECONOMIC PROGRESS - BY KARL F. INDERFURTH (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 29)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0929/p09s01-coop.html
USE BRINKMANSHIP ON IRAN: ANY DIPLOMATIC EFFORT BY THE U.S. WON'T WORK UNLESS BACKED UP BY A CREDIBLE THREAT OF FORCE - ROBERT D. KAPLAN (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 29)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail
IRAN'S URANIUM GLITCH: TECHNICAL TROUBLES OFFER TIME FOR DIPLOMACY - DAVID IGNATIUS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 29): Intelligence analysts believe that Iran is encountering technical difficulties in mastering the complex process of uranium enrichment. That means the West may have a bit more time than previously expected to pursue a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear standoff.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2801453_pf.html
UNEASY PARTNERS: PAKISTAN AND THE UNITED STATES - EHSAN AHRARI (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 29)
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/ahrari.php?articleid=9764
THE MUSHARRAF EXCEPTION - ROBERT L. POLLOCK (WALL STREET JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 29): Over the longer term, the credibility of our efforts to address the root causes of terror will require nudging Pakistan, too, back toward the democratic path.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1159...8500677436.html
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EMBRACE FOR A STRONGMAN: LUCKILY FOR KAZAKHSTAN'S RULER, PRESIDENT BUSH DOESN'T HEED HIS OWN SPEECHES - EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 29): The history of U.S. relations with Muslim states during the Cold War -- such as Iran and Iraq -- vividly demonstrates the shortsightedness of befriending rulers such as Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazhazstan's president.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2801673_pf.html
DON'T PLAY POLITICS WITH KAZAKHSTAN - S. FREDERICK STARR (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 28): U.S. critics of Kazakhstan have every right to remind us that the country still falls short in many respects. But in the eyes of some Kazakhs, the United States may be a less than perfect partner as well. If either of these groups succeeds in damaging the basis of our partnership, further progress in Kazakh social policy and legal and electoral reform will be the first to suffer. And Kazakh oil will then flow mainly to China and other countries that pay their bills and ask no questions.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2601141_pf.html
KAZAKHSTAN'S NO JOKE: THOUGH LAMPOONED BY A BRITISH COMEDIAN, THE HUGE CENTRAL ASIAN COUNTRY IS AN IMPORTANT IF TROUBLED ALLY EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 29): The president can have more influence over Nazarbayev by keeping him close -- and offering incentives to open his society -- than by shunning him.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-...pinion-leftrail
THE ISLAMIZATION OF MOROCCO: EXTREMISM IS DISPLACING MODERATION IN THE NORTH AFRICAN KINGDOM - OLIVIER GUITTA (WEEKLY STANDARD, OCTOBER 2)
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/740boykt.asp
MUSLIMS' COMPLICITY WITH VIOLENCE: UNLESS IT CLAMPS DOWN VIGOROUSLY ON FANATICISM, THE ISLAMIC WORLD RISKS VALIDATING ITS WORST CARICATURES - MAX BOOT (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 27)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions
ISLAM AND THE POPE - THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 29): "I'm all for a respectful dialogue between Islam and the West, but first there needs to be a respectful, free dialogue between Muslims and Muslims."
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/opini...agewanted=print
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THE GRAND DELUSION - DAVID BROOKS (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 28): More and more people are falling for the Grand Delusion -- the notion that if we just leave the extremists alone, they will leave us alone. The blunt fact is that groups of Islamic extremists will continue to compete and grow until mainstream Islamic moderates can establish a more civilized set of criteria for prestige and greatness.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/28/opini...agewanted=print
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I'M NO BUSH HATER: THERE'S A HUGE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DISLIKING THE PRESIDENT AND DISLIKING HIS POLICIES - ROSA BROOKS (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 29): The United States is in trouble. The spread of militant Islamic extremism and WMD will pose dangers for decades to come, and global warming, disease and poverty are all serious threats.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail
WORDS VS. DEEDS: BUSH AND ISLAM - NICOLA NASSER (COUNTERPUNCH, SEPTEMBER 28): Bush accuses Islamists of forcing their version of things on others while he unsheathes his sword out and high to dictate a 21st century white man mission to convert Muslims to a version of Islam that serves U.S. interests.
http://www.counterpunch.org/nasser09282006.html
KEEPING TERRORISM AWAY - EDWARD ROYCE (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 29): Five years after September 11, 2001, the view from the cave of an aging and possibly dying bin Laden is not one of victory, but of disintegrating plans for a caliphate stretching across the Islamic world. (Edward Royce, California Republican, is chairman of the House International Relations Terrorism Subcommittee).
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...28-101420-8000r
POW! (NOT.) - BAGNEWSNOTES (SEPTEMBER 24): While American men and women are spilling real blood in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Global War on Terror has devolved into a clown show.
http://bagnewsnotes.typepad.com/bagnews/2006/09/pow_not.html
FINAL REPORT: FORGING A WORLD OF LIBERTY UNDER LAW, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY, G. JOHN IKENBERRY AND ANNE-MARIE SLAUGHTER PRINCETON PROJECT ON NATIONAL SECURITY (SEPTEMBER 27): The basic objective of U.S. strategy must be to protect the American people and the American way of life. To achieve this goal in the 21st century, American strategy must, inter alia, be: a) integrated, fusing hard power -- the power to coerce -- and soft power -- the power to attract;
adapted to the information age, enabling us to be fast and flexible in a world where information moves instantly, actors respond to it instantly, and specialized small units come together for only a limited time for a defined purpose -- whether to make a deal, restructure a company, or plan and execute a terrorist attack.http://www.wws.princeton.edu/ppns/report/FinalReport.pdf
SECRETARY OF TURBULENCE: CONDOLEEZZA RICE TAKES THE LONG VIEW -- MAYBE TOO LONG - BRET STEPHENS (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, SEPTEMBER 30): The State Department itself has increased its budget for supporting Voice of America radio and TV broadcasts in Farsi. What's telling is that Ms. Rice, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, mentions none of this: Her primary method for dealing with the Iranian regime, it seems, is to deal with the regime, not to seek to change it.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/fe...ml?id=110009020
REVOLT OF THE GENERALS - RICHARD J. WHALEN (NATION, 28 SEPTEMBER): Gen. Barry McCaffrey, a hero in the 1991 Gulf War who visited Iraq and Kuwait this past spring: "U.S. public diplomacy and rhetoric about confronting Iranian nuclear weapons development [are] scaring neighbors in the Gulf."
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061016/whalen
STATE DEPT: FORGET OUR INVASIONS, LOOK AT OUR CULTURE! - SPIN OF THE DAY (CENTER FOR MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY, SEPTEMBER 29): The U.S. State Department, which has been widely criticized for ineffectual public diplomacy, recently announced its new "Global Cultural Initiative." It's a joint effort "to educate Americans and participating nations about other cultures," reports PR Week. U.S. PR czar Karen Hughes explained, "Public diplomacy isn't just the work of government. ... Every American who travels abroad or welcomes a foreign visitor can be an ambassador for America."
http://www.prwatch.org/node/5243
LINK TO PR WEEK ARTICLE (subscription required)
http://www.prweek.com/us/login/required/595577
WHO SAYS AMERICA HAS LOST ITS MANUFACTURING EDGE? WE'RE GREAT AT PRODUCING TERRORISTS - ADAM HANFT (HUFFINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 30): So long as we're unwilling to conceive of foreign policy in anything less than Manicheistic terms, we'd be better off taking Karen Hughes' budget and using it fund more airport gel detectors.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-hanft/w...st_b_30544.html
FIXING THE US IMAGE TAKES LONG TO UNDO - (WOMBAT'S BLOG, OCTOBER 10): Karen Hughes is the friendly face that's supposed to improve our image in the Arab world. Interesting that they're sending a woman to choose Americas image in the Arab world. Would that help.
http://www.wombatburrow.org/blog/?p=88
IT'S THE POLICY, STUPID! - MUSTAPHA ZEIN (AL-HAYAT, OCTOBER 1): The US State Department wanted to propagate the extraordinary success achieved by Arabic-speaking Alberto Fernandez (Director of the Office of Press and Public Diplomacy in the Department of State Bureau of Near East Affairs and a frequent guest on Arab satellite channels), so White House "spice dealer" Karen Hughes decided to increase the American presence on Arab and European screens by 100% and create media superstars that the Arab viewer will be accustomed to.
http://english.daralhayat.com/opinion/OPED...72d6/story.html
VOICE OF AMERICA TV TO DEBUT IN AFGHANISTAN (NEWSMAX.COM, SEPTEMBER 29): The Saturday-through-Thursday newscasts, which will air in the Dari and Pashto languages in a one-hour block titled TV Ashna (Friend), will offer a new source of regional and world news to Afghanistan's emergent television market.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/9/...537.shtml?s=icp
MIND WARS: AMERICANS, GLOBAL COMMUNITY ARE TARGETS OF DECEPTION ON IRAQ, THREATS TO PEACE - STEVE HAMMONS (AMERICAN CHRONICLE, CA, SEPTEMBER 28): In late August, news accounts described a new $20 million program to monitor media reports in not only the Middle East, but also within the U.S. Appropriate efforts of this kind can be very helpful in accomplishing legitimate goals as well as creating goodwill and effective public diplomacy for the U.S. and Americans.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/...articleID=14097
THE DEMISE OF AMERIKA HAUS BERLIN: WHO NEEDS CULTURAL CENTERS AND LIBRARIES ANYWAY? - PATRICIA H. KUSHLIS (WHIRLED VIEW, SEPTEMBER 29): What far too many Americans don't understand is the degree to which the administration has been able to insulate us from the rest of the world. Conversely, they also don't realize the degree to which the American media machine plays little -- if any role in shaping international opinion.
http://whirledview.typepad.com/whirledview...emise_of_a.html
CLASH: MUSHARRAF IS (NOT) THE MAN - MASOODR (UNCLASH: UNWINDING THE CONFRONTATION BETWEEN ISLAM AND THE WEST THROUGH REASONABLE DISCOURSE AND DEBATE, OCTOBER 1): Pakistanis are outraged that their President Musharraf has used a taxpayer-funded state visit to the United States to promote his book, which is a means of personal promotion and enrichment as much as it is public diplomacy.
http://unclash.blogspot.com/2006/10/clash-...is-not-man.html
AL QAEDA INCREASINGLY RELIANT ON MEDIA - HASSAN M. FATTAH (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 30): Chris Heffelfinger, a specialist in jihadi ideology at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point: "Al Qaeda has been turning itself from an active organization into a propaganda organization. They now appear to be focused on putting out disinformation and projecting the strength of the mujahedeen.Ö?
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/world/30...agewanted=print
WHERE'S THE TRUST? - MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, SEPTEMBER 29): "So this afternoon I went to download the latest Ayman al-Zawahiri [Al Quaeda leader] video from the usual forum where I find al-Sahab productions. And I found it right away, and downloaded it, and then... it opened as a password protected file. Password protected! What has this online world come to when even al-Qaeda jihadist terrorists feel like they can't trust people?
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...s.html#comments
SEE ALSO
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...hiri_video.html
BUSH ADMITS TO SETBACKS IN AFGHANISTAN - TOM RAUM, ASSOCIATED PRESS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 29): President Bush asserted Friday that critics who claim the Iraq war has made America less safe embrace "the enemy's propaganda."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2900802_pf.html
ALL THE NEWS FROM IRAQ IS BAD ... AND GETTING WORSE: THE BREAKING POINT - MIKE WHITNEY (COUNTERPUNCH, SEPTEMBER 30/OCTOBER 1): The administration continues to (cynically) believe that their well-paid propagandists can prevail in the "hearts and minds" campaign by creating patriotic sound bytes and poignant anecdotes about devoted soldiers performing their duties. What's needed, however, is a dramatic change of policy.
http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney09302006.html
WHY I'M BANNED IN THE USA - TARIQ RAMADAN (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 1): "For more than two years now, the U.S. government has barred me from entering the United States to pursue an academic career. ... I am increasingly convinced that the Bush administration has barred me [because it] doesn't care for my political views. (Tariq Ramadan, a fellow at Oxford University, is author of "Western Muslims and the Future of Islam.")
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2901334_pf.html
TRIBUNAL BILL SETS UP AN IRONIC LEGAL LIMBO: DETAINEES DEEMED LESS OF A THREAT MIGHT GO UNTRIED YET BE UNABLE TO CHALLENGE DETENTION - JULIAN E. BARNES AND RICHARD B. SCHMITT (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 30): The government plans to try about 100 of the detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- those suspected of the most serious crimes against the United States. These prisoners, and any others charged, would be able to appeal convictions to the U.S. courts. The other 355 detainees, who are considered less of a threat, may never be tried and may therefore be denied the right to challenge their imprisonment.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/a...142,print.story
NO 'HOLIDAY' IN GUANTAMO: I NEVER SAW RUMSFELD'S VOLLEYBALL COURTS DURING MY TWO YEARS IN AMERICA'S GULAG - MOAZZAM BEGG (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 1): It's little wonder that there are powerful voices -- including European allies, former U.S. presidents, Hollywood stars and even veterans of conflicts such as the Vietnam War -- joining Amnesty International and former detainees in calling for the closure of Guantanamo.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-...inion-rightrail
WHAT MY FATHER SAW AT NUREMBERG: SIXTY YEARS AGO TODAY, MY FATHER WATCHED THE U.S. WIN THE BATTLE OF IDEAS. HAVE WE LOST OUR WAY? - CHRISTOPHER DODD (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 1): Just as the word "Nuremberg" once defined the United States' moral authority and commitment to justice, what we risk today is that, one day, the loss of that moral authority and a commitment to injustice may also be defined by a single word: "Guantanamo." (Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) is a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail
SOFT CELL: THE REALITY OF GUANTANAMO - RICH LOWRY (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 28): Dealing with unappeasable murderous fanatics, while at the same time honoring our civilized norms, is never going to be easy. Gitmo is an attempt to find that balance, in the midst of what everyone here -- the detainees and their minders -- recognizes as an ongoing war.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ODE2Y...DZjZTc1NjliZDI=
RIP, BILL OF RIGHTS, RIP - RICHARD KIM (NATION, OCTOBER 1): The US now holds 14,000 detainees in prisons in Iraq, Guantanamo, Afghanistan and other undisclosed locations. 14,000 people who can be held indefinitely, without a fair trial, by secret evidence they have no access or that may be obtained by what most consider torture.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?bid=15
LOOK PAST THE TORTURED DISTORTIONS - JOHN W. WARNER, JOHN MCCAIN AND LINDSEY O. GRAHAM (WALL STREET JOURNAL, OCTOBER 2): The Military Commissions Act of 2006 achieves a fair system for the prosecution and conviction of suspected terrorists and also reaffirms and underscores our nation's commitment to the Geneva Conventions, which we must uphold as a matter of principle and to protect our service members in this and future wars.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1159...1846979627.html
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WHEN PUSH COMES TO TORTURE - JONAH GOLDBERG (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 28): According to the torture prohibitionists, there must be a complete ban on anything that even looks like torture, regardless of context, even though we'd never dream of a blanket ban on killing.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...ncommentary-hed
WHY TORTURE IS STILL AN OPTION: THE COMPROMISE TERRORISM DETAINEE BILL LIMITS INTERROGATION ABUSES -- AND LETS BUSH SET THE LIMITS - MICHAEL DUFFY (TIME MAGAZINE, OCTOBER 1)
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...1541238,00.html
EVEN TIMOTHY MCVEIGH WAS AFFORDED CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS: THE FLAWS IN THE MILITARY COMMISSIONS ACT - SEN. RUSSELL FEINGOLD (COUNTERPUNCH, SEPTEMBER 28): If we cloak cruel or degrading interrogations done in the name of American safety with euphemisms like "alternative techniques," if we create arbitrary dates for when differing degrees of morality will apply, we will have betrayed our principles and ourselves.
http://www.counterpunch.org/feingold09282006.html
A CONSTITUTIONAL SHREDDING: ROUNDING UP U.S. CITIZENS - MARJORIE COHN (COUNTERPUNCH, SEPTEMBER 30/OCTOBER 1): Because the Military Commissions Act of 2006 governing the treatment of detainees was adopted with lightning speed, barely anyone noticed that it empowers Bush to declare not just aliens, but also U.S. citizens, "unlawful enemy combatants."
http://www.counterpunch.org/cohn09302006.html
TERROR 2016 - AZIZ HUQ (TOMPAINE.COM, SEPTEMBER 29): The Military Commissions Act of 2006 is a blank check cashed in the liberties of the country's citizens and in the wasted lives of the unfortunate innocent people swept up in America's global detention system.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/29/terror_2016.php
WHY CHURCHILL OPPOSED TORTURE: THE BRITISH LEADER UNDERSTOOD WHAT PRESIDENT BUSH DOES NOT: WHEN IT COMES TO PRISONERS OF WAR, WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND - NIALL FERGUSON (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 2): Last week, both houses of Congress approved a bill -- the Military Commissions Act -- that would permit the indefinite, extrajudicial incarceration of terrorist suspects and their interrogation using torture in all but name.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail
WHEN DEMOCRACY FAILS US - JERRY LANSON (COMMON DREAMS, SEPTEMBER 29): Even those who have fought proudly in Iraq and Afghanistan and fully support all aspects of what President Bush calls Americas War on Terror say that tinkering with the Geneva Conventions could open the floodgates of torture everywhere, endangering any American soldier unlucky enough to be captured by an enemy.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0929-34.htm
CRAIG MURRAY ON MANUFACTURING TERROR: OIL, LILY PAD BASES AND TORTURE - JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, OCTOBER 1): How do you prove to yourself and others a big terror threat that requires a National Security State and turn toward a praetorian society? You torture people into alleging it. Global terrorism is being exaggerated and hyped by torture just as the witchcraft scare in Puritan American manufactured witches.
http://www.juancole.com/
(scroll down link for item)
ON TORTURE - ED KINANE (COMMON DREAMS, SEPTEMBER 30): It's frightening that, at this time and in this nation, torture must be discussed as if it were a legitimate issue. What's next -- the pros and cons of child molestation?
http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print....s06/0930-20.htm
UNCOMFORTABLY NUMB TO TORTURE: AS AMERICA'S POLITICIANS, MEDIA AND CITIZENS GET USED TO WARTIME ABUSES, BUSH'S HORRIFIC POLICIES GET A PASS - JOANN WYPIJEWSKI (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 30)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions
HOW GEORGE BUSH ADMITTED HIS WAR CRIMES - RICHARD W. BEHAN (COMMON DREAMS, SEPTEMBER 30): Buried in the 94 pages of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 -- the "detainee act" or the "torture bill" -- the Bush Administration tacitly admits it has committed war crimes.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0930-22.htm
THE STATE OF IRAQ: AN UPDATE - NINA KAMP, MICHAEL O'HANLON AND AMY UNIKEWICZ (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 1): The data suggest that while Iraq is not lost, the United States and its allies there are hardly winning either.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/opinion/01ohanlon.html
PLOT TO BOMB IRAQI GOV'T IN GREEN ZONE [...] - JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, OCTOBER 1): These periodic Brookings charts on Iraq statistics in the NYT [see above] have been completely useless and largely misleading. The fact is that many of the statistics are phony.
http://www.juancole.com/
(scroll down link for item)
WHAT IRAQIS WANT: WINNING SUNNIS, LOSING SHIITES - RICHARD NADLER (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 29): Americans are not popular in Iraq. But we are achieving our mission.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=N2YyY...TY2MGUxYWEzNTg=
TERRORISTS EXCUSE DU JOUR: IF THERE WERE NO IRAQ WAR, EXTREMISTS WOULD JUST FIND ANOTHER RALLYING CRY - JONAH GOLDBERG (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 29)
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjYwM...TdkNTU0YWY5ZDU=
IRAQ: REPUBLIC OF FEAR - SAMI MOUBAYED (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 30): Iraq today does not need a Saddam Hussein, but it does need a very strong and able leader with talent, character and power, backed by a united and focused central government.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HI30Ak02.html
SO YOU CALL THIS BREAKING NEWS? - FRANK RICH (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 1): Its now every man and woman in the White House for himself and herself in defending the fictions, even four-year-old fictions, that took us into the Iraq war and botched its execution.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/opini...agewanted=print
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IN THE WAR ON TRUTH, TRUTH WINS A BATTLE - LEONARD PITTS JR. (BALTIMORE SUN, OCTOBER 1): We have sustained 23,000 American casualties -- dead and wounded -- in a war that, according to the government's own experts, is only making things worse. It's a failure whose fallout we'll be dealing with for years.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
THE BIG QUESTION ON IRAQ - JACKSON DIEHL (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 2): Senator Joseph Biden's basic idea -- of an external political intervention backed by an international alliance -- is the one big option for Iraq the Bush administration hasn't tried. It wouldn't be surprising if Baker -- master orchestrator of the Plaza agreement and the Madrid conference -- finds it compelling.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0100908_pf.html
BY THE NUMBERS: WHY WE NEED A TIMETABLE FOR LEAVING IRAQ - JOSH HARKINSON (MOTHER JONES, SEPTEMBER 29): Bush needs to set a timetable for withdrawal. An independent poll found that a whopping 91 percent of Iraqis, including majorities of all ethnic groups, supported a pullout of U.S. troops within two years.
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/index.html#2433
(scroll down link for item)
CHENEYS STATEMENTS ON JUSTIFICATION OF WAR MUST BE CHALLENGED - INTERNATIONAL SCHOLARS/LEADERS (COMMON DREAMS, SEPTEMBER 29): Vice President Cheneys statement that we would have invaded Iraq even if we knew they had no weapons of mass destruction is a repudiation of what we have repeatedly avowed for more than fifty years: that we shall not attack another nation in the absence of an attack or truly imminent attack on us or our allies, unless it is done under the authority of international law and/or the direction of the United Nations, e.g. in response to a humanitarian crisis.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0929-30.htm
A PORTRAIT OF BUSH AS A VICTIM OF HIS OWN CERTITUDE [REVIEW OF "STATE OF DENIAL" BY BOB WOODWARD] - MICHIKO KAKUTANI (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 30): Were the war in Iraq not a real war that has resulted in more than 2,700 American military casualties and more than 56,000 Iraqi civilian deaths, the picture of the Bush administration that emerges from this book might resemble a farce.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/books/30...agewanted=print
HOW AN ATTACK WOULD UNFOLD: A MILITARY ASSAULT ON NUCLEAR PLANTS IN IRAN REMAINS AN OPTION FOR U.S. - MATTHEW B. STANNARD (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, OCTOBER 1)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...&type=printable
HOW EXPERTS VIEW A STRIKE AGAINST IRAN - (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, OCTOBER 1)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...&type=printable
AN OFFER TEHRAN CANT REFUSE - TED KOPPEL (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 2): If Iran is bound and determined to have nuclear weapons, let it. The elimination of American opposition on this issue would open the way to genuine normalization between our two nations.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/02/opini...agewanted=print
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OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF AIDES - EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 30): It has taken five and a half years, but at least some of President Bushs aides have begun to acknowledge the patently obvious: There needs to be a serious effort to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/opinion/...agewanted=print
MIDEAST CHAOS, GRIEF RESOUND IN THE AIR - ALICE ROTHCHILD (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 30): Ultimately, the war in Lebanon was our war, waged for US interests; a proxy war fought by Israel, testing US weaponry and strategy in the Bush buildup to a confrontation with Syria and Iran, supported not only by the usual neoconservatives but the entire Congress.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...the_air?mode=PF
GEORGE BUSHS GRAND TOUR - STANLEY FISH (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 1): President Bush should announce that hes going to the Middle East for a 7-to-10-day trip and taking along Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a few congressional leaders from both parties.
http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/
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AFGHANISTAN: WHY NATO CANNOT WIN - M. K. BHADRAKUMAR (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 30)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HI30Df01.html
SAVING AFGHANISTAN: THE WILD EAST -- SHEER DESPERATION IS DRIVING MANY AFGHANS BACK INTO THE ARMS OF THE FANATICAL TALIBAN MOVEMENT. ONCE AGAIN, THE HOLY WARRIORS HAVE TAKEN CONTROL OF ENTIRE REGIONS AND ARE SEEKING TO ENSNARE THE WESTERN ALLIES IN A BLOODY GUERILLA WAR - SUSANNE KOELBL (SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL, SEPTEMBER 29)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiege...,440017,00.html
STATECRAFT OVER SEA BASS - EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 30): Bush will not have an easy time enforcing cooperation between the two US allies, Afghanistan and Pakistan. But this is what the job of a statesman requires. And he has done too little of it in the past.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...ea_bass?mode=PF
KAZAKHSTAN'S NO JOKE: THOUGH LAMPOONED BY A BRITISH COMEDIAN, THE HUGE CENTRAL ASIAN COUNTRY IS AN IMPORTANT IF TROUBLED ALLY - EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 29): If Bush confines himself to meeting only with leaders who have perfect democratic records, he'll have to rule out the heads of most countries in the developing world.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-...pinion-leftrail
WE SAVED EUROPEANS. WHY NOT AFRICANS? - SUSAN E. RICE, ANTHONY LAKE AND DONALD M. PAYNE (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 2): The real question is this: Will we use force to save Africans in Darfur as we did to save Europeans in Kosovo?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0100871_pf.html
LAST CHANCE FOR DARFURIANS? - NAT HENTOFF (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 2): Will the president, with all the problems he is dealing with elsewhere, lead further, hopefully with other democratic nations -- as we did in Kosovo -- with targeted air strikes on Sudanese airfields to ground the killing Sudanese airplanes, and show Sudanese president al-Bashir he faces consequences for threatening to attack UN peacekeepers?
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...01-111551-8669r
ISLAMOFASCISM - WILLIAM SAFIRE (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 1): Islamofascism may have legs: the compound defines those terrorists who profess a religious mission while embracing totalitarian methods and helps separate them from devout Muslims who want no part of terrorist means.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/magazine...agewanted=print
IN SEARCH OF ISLAMIC FASCISTS: PART 1: ENTERING SYRIA - ALEXANDER GAINEM (ISLAMONLINE, OCTOBER 1): In this four-part series, Alexander Gainem embarks on a special mission to Syria -- one of George W. Bush's primary Axis of Evil states -- where he begins his search of the American president's proclaimed "Islamic fascists."
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satelli...irs%2FMAELayout
DE-GLOBALIZE THE JIHAD - NATHAN GARDELS (HUFFINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 29): Terrorism is the wrong term. War is the wrong metaphor. Iraq is the wrong war. That pretty much sums up how the fight against the Islamist jihadists who targeted America has gone awry in the five years since September 11, 2001 -- a similar period of time in which the United States had mobilized from virtual scratch and defeated Germany and Japan in World War II.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-garde...html?view=print
DEMOCRACY THE BIG LOSER ON HABEAS CORPUS - RALPH NADER (COMMON DREAMS, SEPTEMBER 30): The messianic, authoritarian George W. Bush and the minds of his cohorts have further collapsed the rule of law with his bulldozing through a divided Congress more dictatorial powers in his increasingly self-defined, self-serving and failing "war on terror."
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0930-21.htm
THE 'WAR ON TERROR' THAT RUINED ROME - ROBERT HARRIS (INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 1)
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/01/opinion/edharris.php
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/fe...ml?id=110009020
REVOLT OF THE GENERALS - RICHARD J. WHALEN (NATION, 28 SEPTEMBER): Gen. Barry McCaffrey, a hero in the 1991 Gulf War who visited Iraq and Kuwait this past spring: "U.S. public diplomacy and rhetoric about confronting Iranian nuclear weapons development [are] scaring neighbors in the Gulf."
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061016/whalen
STATE DEPT: FORGET OUR INVASIONS, LOOK AT OUR CULTURE! - SPIN OF THE DAY (CENTER FOR MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY, SEPTEMBER 29): The U.S. State Department, which has been widely criticized for ineffectual public diplomacy, recently announced its new "Global Cultural Initiative." It's a joint effort "to educate Americans and participating nations about other cultures," reports PR Week. U.S. PR czar Karen Hughes explained, "Public diplomacy isn't just the work of government. ... Every American who travels abroad or welcomes a foreign visitor can be an ambassador for America."
http://www.prwatch.org/node/5243
LINK TO PR WEEK ARTICLE (subscription required)
http://www.prweek.com/us/login/required/595577
WHO SAYS AMERICA HAS LOST ITS MANUFACTURING EDGE? WE'RE GREAT AT PRODUCING TERRORISTS - ADAM HANFT (HUFFINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 30): So long as we're unwilling to conceive of foreign policy in anything less than Manicheistic terms, we'd be better off taking Karen Hughes' budget and using it fund more airport gel detectors.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-hanft/w...st_b_30544.html
FIXING THE US IMAGE TAKES LONG TO UNDO - (WOMBAT'S BLOG, OCTOBER 10): Karen Hughes is the friendly face that's supposed to improve our image in the Arab world. Interesting that they're sending a woman to choose Americas image in the Arab world. Would that help.
http://www.wombatburrow.org/blog/?p=88
IT'S THE POLICY, STUPID! - MUSTAPHA ZEIN (AL-HAYAT, OCTOBER 1): The US State Department wanted to propagate the extraordinary success achieved by Arabic-speaking Alberto Fernandez (Director of the Office of Press and Public Diplomacy in the Department of State Bureau of Near East Affairs and a frequent guest on Arab satellite channels), so White House "spice dealer" Karen Hughes decided to increase the American presence on Arab and European screens by 100% and create media superstars that the Arab viewer will be accustomed to.
http://english.daralhayat.com/opinion/OPED...72d6/story.html
VOICE OF AMERICA TV TO DEBUT IN AFGHANISTAN (NEWSMAX.COM, SEPTEMBER 29): The Saturday-through-Thursday newscasts, which will air in the Dari and Pashto languages in a one-hour block titled TV Ashna (Friend), will offer a new source of regional and world news to Afghanistan's emergent television market.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/9/...537.shtml?s=icp
MIND WARS: AMERICANS, GLOBAL COMMUNITY ARE TARGETS OF DECEPTION ON IRAQ, THREATS TO PEACE - STEVE HAMMONS (AMERICAN CHRONICLE, CA, SEPTEMBER 28): In late August, news accounts described a new $20 million program to monitor media reports in not only the Middle East, but also within the U.S. Appropriate efforts of this kind can be very helpful in accomplishing legitimate goals as well as creating goodwill and effective public diplomacy for the U.S. and Americans.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/...articleID=14097
THE DEMISE OF AMERIKA HAUS BERLIN: WHO NEEDS CULTURAL CENTERS AND LIBRARIES ANYWAY? - PATRICIA H. KUSHLIS (WHIRLED VIEW, SEPTEMBER 29): What far too many Americans don't understand is the degree to which the administration has been able to insulate us from the rest of the world. Conversely, they also don't realize the degree to which the American media machine plays little -- if any role in shaping international opinion.
http://whirledview.typepad.com/whirledview...emise_of_a.html
CLASH: MUSHARRAF IS (NOT) THE MAN - MASOODR (UNCLASH: UNWINDING THE CONFRONTATION BETWEEN ISLAM AND THE WEST THROUGH REASONABLE DISCOURSE AND DEBATE, OCTOBER 1): Pakistanis are outraged that their President Musharraf has used a taxpayer-funded state visit to the United States to promote his book, which is a means of personal promotion and enrichment as much as it is public diplomacy.
http://unclash.blogspot.com/2006/10/clash-...is-not-man.html
AL QAEDA INCREASINGLY RELIANT ON MEDIA - HASSAN M. FATTAH (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 30): Chris Heffelfinger, a specialist in jihadi ideology at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point: "Al Qaeda has been turning itself from an active organization into a propaganda organization. They now appear to be focused on putting out disinformation and projecting the strength of the mujahedeen.Ö?
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/world/30...agewanted=print
WHERE'S THE TRUST? - MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, SEPTEMBER 29): "So this afternoon I went to download the latest Ayman al-Zawahiri [Al Quaeda leader] video from the usual forum where I find al-Sahab productions. And I found it right away, and downloaded it, and then... it opened as a password protected file. Password protected! What has this online world come to when even al-Qaeda jihadist terrorists feel like they can't trust people?
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...s.html#comments
SEE ALSO
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...hiri_video.html
BUSH ADMITS TO SETBACKS IN AFGHANISTAN - TOM RAUM, ASSOCIATED PRESS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 29): President Bush asserted Friday that critics who claim the Iraq war has made America less safe embrace "the enemy's propaganda."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2900802_pf.html
ALL THE NEWS FROM IRAQ IS BAD ... AND GETTING WORSE: THE BREAKING POINT - MIKE WHITNEY (COUNTERPUNCH, SEPTEMBER 30/OCTOBER 1): The administration continues to (cynically) believe that their well-paid propagandists can prevail in the "hearts and minds" campaign by creating patriotic sound bytes and poignant anecdotes about devoted soldiers performing their duties. What's needed, however, is a dramatic change of policy.
http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney09302006.html
WHY I'M BANNED IN THE USA - TARIQ RAMADAN (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 1): "For more than two years now, the U.S. government has barred me from entering the United States to pursue an academic career. ... I am increasingly convinced that the Bush administration has barred me [because it] doesn't care for my political views. (Tariq Ramadan, a fellow at Oxford University, is author of "Western Muslims and the Future of Islam.")
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2901334_pf.html
TRIBUNAL BILL SETS UP AN IRONIC LEGAL LIMBO: DETAINEES DEEMED LESS OF A THREAT MIGHT GO UNTRIED YET BE UNABLE TO CHALLENGE DETENTION - JULIAN E. BARNES AND RICHARD B. SCHMITT (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 30): The government plans to try about 100 of the detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- those suspected of the most serious crimes against the United States. These prisoners, and any others charged, would be able to appeal convictions to the U.S. courts. The other 355 detainees, who are considered less of a threat, may never be tried and may therefore be denied the right to challenge their imprisonment.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/a...142,print.story
NO 'HOLIDAY' IN GUANTAMO: I NEVER SAW RUMSFELD'S VOLLEYBALL COURTS DURING MY TWO YEARS IN AMERICA'S GULAG - MOAZZAM BEGG (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 1): It's little wonder that there are powerful voices -- including European allies, former U.S. presidents, Hollywood stars and even veterans of conflicts such as the Vietnam War -- joining Amnesty International and former detainees in calling for the closure of Guantanamo.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-...inion-rightrail
WHAT MY FATHER SAW AT NUREMBERG: SIXTY YEARS AGO TODAY, MY FATHER WATCHED THE U.S. WIN THE BATTLE OF IDEAS. HAVE WE LOST OUR WAY? - CHRISTOPHER DODD (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 1): Just as the word "Nuremberg" once defined the United States' moral authority and commitment to justice, what we risk today is that, one day, the loss of that moral authority and a commitment to injustice may also be defined by a single word: "Guantanamo." (Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) is a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail
SOFT CELL: THE REALITY OF GUANTANAMO - RICH LOWRY (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 28): Dealing with unappeasable murderous fanatics, while at the same time honoring our civilized norms, is never going to be easy. Gitmo is an attempt to find that balance, in the midst of what everyone here -- the detainees and their minders -- recognizes as an ongoing war.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ODE2Y...DZjZTc1NjliZDI=
RIP, BILL OF RIGHTS, RIP - RICHARD KIM (NATION, OCTOBER 1): The US now holds 14,000 detainees in prisons in Iraq, Guantanamo, Afghanistan and other undisclosed locations. 14,000 people who can be held indefinitely, without a fair trial, by secret evidence they have no access or that may be obtained by what most consider torture.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?bid=15
LOOK PAST THE TORTURED DISTORTIONS - JOHN W. WARNER, JOHN MCCAIN AND LINDSEY O. GRAHAM (WALL STREET JOURNAL, OCTOBER 2): The Military Commissions Act of 2006 achieves a fair system for the prosecution and conviction of suspected terrorists and also reaffirms and underscores our nation's commitment to the Geneva Conventions, which we must uphold as a matter of principle and to protect our service members in this and future wars.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1159...1846979627.html
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WHEN PUSH COMES TO TORTURE - JONAH GOLDBERG (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 28): According to the torture prohibitionists, there must be a complete ban on anything that even looks like torture, regardless of context, even though we'd never dream of a blanket ban on killing.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...ncommentary-hed
WHY TORTURE IS STILL AN OPTION: THE COMPROMISE TERRORISM DETAINEE BILL LIMITS INTERROGATION ABUSES -- AND LETS BUSH SET THE LIMITS - MICHAEL DUFFY (TIME MAGAZINE, OCTOBER 1)
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...1541238,00.html
EVEN TIMOTHY MCVEIGH WAS AFFORDED CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS: THE FLAWS IN THE MILITARY COMMISSIONS ACT - SEN. RUSSELL FEINGOLD (COUNTERPUNCH, SEPTEMBER 28): If we cloak cruel or degrading interrogations done in the name of American safety with euphemisms like "alternative techniques," if we create arbitrary dates for when differing degrees of morality will apply, we will have betrayed our principles and ourselves.
http://www.counterpunch.org/feingold09282006.html
A CONSTITUTIONAL SHREDDING: ROUNDING UP U.S. CITIZENS - MARJORIE COHN (COUNTERPUNCH, SEPTEMBER 30/OCTOBER 1): Because the Military Commissions Act of 2006 governing the treatment of detainees was adopted with lightning speed, barely anyone noticed that it empowers Bush to declare not just aliens, but also U.S. citizens, "unlawful enemy combatants."
http://www.counterpunch.org/cohn09302006.html
TERROR 2016 - AZIZ HUQ (TOMPAINE.COM, SEPTEMBER 29): The Military Commissions Act of 2006 is a blank check cashed in the liberties of the country's citizens and in the wasted lives of the unfortunate innocent people swept up in America's global detention system.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/29/terror_2016.php
WHY CHURCHILL OPPOSED TORTURE: THE BRITISH LEADER UNDERSTOOD WHAT PRESIDENT BUSH DOES NOT: WHEN IT COMES TO PRISONERS OF WAR, WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND - NIALL FERGUSON (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 2): Last week, both houses of Congress approved a bill -- the Military Commissions Act -- that would permit the indefinite, extrajudicial incarceration of terrorist suspects and their interrogation using torture in all but name.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail
WHEN DEMOCRACY FAILS US - JERRY LANSON (COMMON DREAMS, SEPTEMBER 29): Even those who have fought proudly in Iraq and Afghanistan and fully support all aspects of what President Bush calls Americas War on Terror say that tinkering with the Geneva Conventions could open the floodgates of torture everywhere, endangering any American soldier unlucky enough to be captured by an enemy.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0929-34.htm
CRAIG MURRAY ON MANUFACTURING TERROR: OIL, LILY PAD BASES AND TORTURE - JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, OCTOBER 1): How do you prove to yourself and others a big terror threat that requires a National Security State and turn toward a praetorian society? You torture people into alleging it. Global terrorism is being exaggerated and hyped by torture just as the witchcraft scare in Puritan American manufactured witches.
http://www.juancole.com/
(scroll down link for item)
ON TORTURE - ED KINANE (COMMON DREAMS, SEPTEMBER 30): It's frightening that, at this time and in this nation, torture must be discussed as if it were a legitimate issue. What's next -- the pros and cons of child molestation?
http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print....s06/0930-20.htm
UNCOMFORTABLY NUMB TO TORTURE: AS AMERICA'S POLITICIANS, MEDIA AND CITIZENS GET USED TO WARTIME ABUSES, BUSH'S HORRIFIC POLICIES GET A PASS - JOANN WYPIJEWSKI (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 30)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions
HOW GEORGE BUSH ADMITTED HIS WAR CRIMES - RICHARD W. BEHAN (COMMON DREAMS, SEPTEMBER 30): Buried in the 94 pages of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 -- the "detainee act" or the "torture bill" -- the Bush Administration tacitly admits it has committed war crimes.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0930-22.htm
THE STATE OF IRAQ: AN UPDATE - NINA KAMP, MICHAEL O'HANLON AND AMY UNIKEWICZ (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 1): The data suggest that while Iraq is not lost, the United States and its allies there are hardly winning either.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/opinion/01ohanlon.html
PLOT TO BOMB IRAQI GOV'T IN GREEN ZONE [...] - JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, OCTOBER 1): These periodic Brookings charts on Iraq statistics in the NYT [see above] have been completely useless and largely misleading. The fact is that many of the statistics are phony.
http://www.juancole.com/
(scroll down link for item)
WHAT IRAQIS WANT: WINNING SUNNIS, LOSING SHIITES - RICHARD NADLER (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 29): Americans are not popular in Iraq. But we are achieving our mission.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=N2YyY...TY2MGUxYWEzNTg=
TERRORISTS EXCUSE DU JOUR: IF THERE WERE NO IRAQ WAR, EXTREMISTS WOULD JUST FIND ANOTHER RALLYING CRY - JONAH GOLDBERG (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 29)
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjYwM...TdkNTU0YWY5ZDU=
IRAQ: REPUBLIC OF FEAR - SAMI MOUBAYED (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 30): Iraq today does not need a Saddam Hussein, but it does need a very strong and able leader with talent, character and power, backed by a united and focused central government.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HI30Ak02.html
SO YOU CALL THIS BREAKING NEWS? - FRANK RICH (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 1): Its now every man and woman in the White House for himself and herself in defending the fictions, even four-year-old fictions, that took us into the Iraq war and botched its execution.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/opini...agewanted=print
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IN THE WAR ON TRUTH, TRUTH WINS A BATTLE - LEONARD PITTS JR. (BALTIMORE SUN, OCTOBER 1): We have sustained 23,000 American casualties -- dead and wounded -- in a war that, according to the government's own experts, is only making things worse. It's a failure whose fallout we'll be dealing with for years.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
THE BIG QUESTION ON IRAQ - JACKSON DIEHL (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 2): Senator Joseph Biden's basic idea -- of an external political intervention backed by an international alliance -- is the one big option for Iraq the Bush administration hasn't tried. It wouldn't be surprising if Baker -- master orchestrator of the Plaza agreement and the Madrid conference -- finds it compelling.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0100908_pf.html
BY THE NUMBERS: WHY WE NEED A TIMETABLE FOR LEAVING IRAQ - JOSH HARKINSON (MOTHER JONES, SEPTEMBER 29): Bush needs to set a timetable for withdrawal. An independent poll found that a whopping 91 percent of Iraqis, including majorities of all ethnic groups, supported a pullout of U.S. troops within two years.
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/index.html#2433
(scroll down link for item)
CHENEYS STATEMENTS ON JUSTIFICATION OF WAR MUST BE CHALLENGED - INTERNATIONAL SCHOLARS/LEADERS (COMMON DREAMS, SEPTEMBER 29): Vice President Cheneys statement that we would have invaded Iraq even if we knew they had no weapons of mass destruction is a repudiation of what we have repeatedly avowed for more than fifty years: that we shall not attack another nation in the absence of an attack or truly imminent attack on us or our allies, unless it is done under the authority of international law and/or the direction of the United Nations, e.g. in response to a humanitarian crisis.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0929-30.htm
A PORTRAIT OF BUSH AS A VICTIM OF HIS OWN CERTITUDE [REVIEW OF "STATE OF DENIAL" BY BOB WOODWARD] - MICHIKO KAKUTANI (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 30): Were the war in Iraq not a real war that has resulted in more than 2,700 American military casualties and more than 56,000 Iraqi civilian deaths, the picture of the Bush administration that emerges from this book might resemble a farce.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/books/30...agewanted=print
HOW AN ATTACK WOULD UNFOLD: A MILITARY ASSAULT ON NUCLEAR PLANTS IN IRAN REMAINS AN OPTION FOR U.S. - MATTHEW B. STANNARD (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, OCTOBER 1)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...&type=printable
HOW EXPERTS VIEW A STRIKE AGAINST IRAN - (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, OCTOBER 1)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...&type=printable
AN OFFER TEHRAN CANT REFUSE - TED KOPPEL (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 2): If Iran is bound and determined to have nuclear weapons, let it. The elimination of American opposition on this issue would open the way to genuine normalization between our two nations.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/02/opini...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF AIDES - EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 30): It has taken five and a half years, but at least some of President Bushs aides have begun to acknowledge the patently obvious: There needs to be a serious effort to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/opinion/...agewanted=print
MIDEAST CHAOS, GRIEF RESOUND IN THE AIR - ALICE ROTHCHILD (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 30): Ultimately, the war in Lebanon was our war, waged for US interests; a proxy war fought by Israel, testing US weaponry and strategy in the Bush buildup to a confrontation with Syria and Iran, supported not only by the usual neoconservatives but the entire Congress.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...the_air?mode=PF
GEORGE BUSHS GRAND TOUR - STANLEY FISH (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 1): President Bush should announce that hes going to the Middle East for a 7-to-10-day trip and taking along Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a few congressional leaders from both parties.
http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
AFGHANISTAN: WHY NATO CANNOT WIN - M. K. BHADRAKUMAR (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 30)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HI30Df01.html
SAVING AFGHANISTAN: THE WILD EAST -- SHEER DESPERATION IS DRIVING MANY AFGHANS BACK INTO THE ARMS OF THE FANATICAL TALIBAN MOVEMENT. ONCE AGAIN, THE HOLY WARRIORS HAVE TAKEN CONTROL OF ENTIRE REGIONS AND ARE SEEKING TO ENSNARE THE WESTERN ALLIES IN A BLOODY GUERILLA WAR - SUSANNE KOELBL (SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL, SEPTEMBER 29)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiege...,440017,00.html
STATECRAFT OVER SEA BASS - EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 30): Bush will not have an easy time enforcing cooperation between the two US allies, Afghanistan and Pakistan. But this is what the job of a statesman requires. And he has done too little of it in the past.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...ea_bass?mode=PF
KAZAKHSTAN'S NO JOKE: THOUGH LAMPOONED BY A BRITISH COMEDIAN, THE HUGE CENTRAL ASIAN COUNTRY IS AN IMPORTANT IF TROUBLED ALLY - EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 29): If Bush confines himself to meeting only with leaders who have perfect democratic records, he'll have to rule out the heads of most countries in the developing world.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-...pinion-leftrail
WE SAVED EUROPEANS. WHY NOT AFRICANS? - SUSAN E. RICE, ANTHONY LAKE AND DONALD M. PAYNE (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 2): The real question is this: Will we use force to save Africans in Darfur as we did to save Europeans in Kosovo?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0100871_pf.html
LAST CHANCE FOR DARFURIANS? - NAT HENTOFF (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 2): Will the president, with all the problems he is dealing with elsewhere, lead further, hopefully with other democratic nations -- as we did in Kosovo -- with targeted air strikes on Sudanese airfields to ground the killing Sudanese airplanes, and show Sudanese president al-Bashir he faces consequences for threatening to attack UN peacekeepers?
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...01-111551-8669r
ISLAMOFASCISM - WILLIAM SAFIRE (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 1): Islamofascism may have legs: the compound defines those terrorists who profess a religious mission while embracing totalitarian methods and helps separate them from devout Muslims who want no part of terrorist means.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/magazine...agewanted=print
IN SEARCH OF ISLAMIC FASCISTS: PART 1: ENTERING SYRIA - ALEXANDER GAINEM (ISLAMONLINE, OCTOBER 1): In this four-part series, Alexander Gainem embarks on a special mission to Syria -- one of George W. Bush's primary Axis of Evil states -- where he begins his search of the American president's proclaimed "Islamic fascists."
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satelli...irs%2FMAELayout
DE-GLOBALIZE THE JIHAD - NATHAN GARDELS (HUFFINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 29): Terrorism is the wrong term. War is the wrong metaphor. Iraq is the wrong war. That pretty much sums up how the fight against the Islamist jihadists who targeted America has gone awry in the five years since September 11, 2001 -- a similar period of time in which the United States had mobilized from virtual scratch and defeated Germany and Japan in World War II.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-garde...html?view=print
DEMOCRACY THE BIG LOSER ON HABEAS CORPUS - RALPH NADER (COMMON DREAMS, SEPTEMBER 30): The messianic, authoritarian George W. Bush and the minds of his cohorts have further collapsed the rule of law with his bulldozing through a divided Congress more dictatorial powers in his increasingly self-defined, self-serving and failing "war on terror."
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0930-21.htm
THE 'WAR ON TERROR' THAT RUINED ROME - ROBERT HARRIS (INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 1)
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/01/opinion/edharris.php
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/0...ome_ms_rice.php
Stay Home, Ms. Rice
Patrick Seale
October 03, 2006
Patrick Seale is a leading British writer on the Middle East, and the author of The Struggle for Syria; also, Asad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East; and Abu Nidal: A Gun for Hire.
The U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, is this week once again in the Middle East, but it is far from clear why she is there and what she hopes to achieve.
Has she got a plan of action for resolving some of the festering conflicts of the region? Has she got the firm personal backing of President George W. Bush? Is she carrying a big stick as befits the chief foreign affairs officer of a superpower? Will she use some real American muscle to force the various adversaries to sit down and negotiate?
Or is this just a public relations exercise aimed at improving America's deplorable image in the Arab and Muslim world? Has she merely come on a mission to "explore" the situation and spread around a little of her dubious charm?
These questions are legitimate because, as even the most casual observer will have noted, the Middle East has rarely been in such a dangerously volatile state.
There are persistent reports out of Washington—picked up and amplified in the American press—that the United States is preparing to attack Iran to destroy its nuclear facilities. In normal circumstances, such naked aggression would be hardly credible. It would be an act of insanity which would set the whole region on fire. But we are not living in normal times. There is such paranoia in the United States and Israel about Iran's nuclear program that anything is possible, even the unthinkable. In any event, the U.S. is being permanently blackmailed by the threat that if it does not attack Iran, Israel will do so.
Iraq is in the throes of a vicious sectarian civil war, which is getting worse by the day and which is complicated by large-scale ethnic cleansing. In danger of indiscriminate slaughter, people are fleeing from areas of mixed population to the relative safety of their co-religionaries. Having smashed the Iraqi state, the United States does not know whether to leave or to stay, and does not seem able to do either with any degree of clarity or resolve.
Thanks to Israel's cruel repression, and also to the irreconcilable rivalry between Fatah and Hamas, the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, and especially in Gaza, is on the very edge of a catastrophic explosion. The dreadful misery of the population—besieged, starved and murdered on a daily basis by Israeli air and artillery strikes—is a terrible stain on the conscience of the world, and particularly of the United States, Israel's chief backer.
Lebanon is still struggling to recover from Israel's 34-day assault. The tragedy is that the war has not united the nation. The various factions and sectarian groupings are once again at each other's throats, with the ever present threat of a return to civil war. The crisis demonstrates yet again the weakness of the Lebanese state, plagued by the confessional system on which it rests. Lebanon needs radical political reform and a renewal of its political leadership; but who can do the job? Not, it would seem, the men currently in power.
The three tracks of the Arab-Israeli peace process—Israel-Palestine, Israel-Syria and Israel-Lebanon—are all frozen, with no prospect of movement in sight.
These are just some of the urgent problems confronting Condoleezza Rice on her visit to the region. The United States itself and its Israeli ally are directly involved in most of these problems, indeed are largely responsible for creating them. So what is she going to do?
Will she insist that Israel stop murdering innocent Palestinian civilians; stop expanding its settlements; and commit itself to the creation of an independent and viable Palestinian state? Nothing could be further from her mind.
Will she reassure the Gulf rulers that America has no intention of attacking Iran and endangering the flow of oil which is their lifeblood? Certainly not. Bush himself has said that the military option is on the table.
Does she understand that Syria needs to be assured that it will recover the Golan before it commits itself to a stabilizing role? Has she grasped that Iran has certain legitimate concerns and ambitions? Does she recognize that Hezbollah is a resistance movement representing about a quarter of Lebanon's population? Without Hezbollah, Israel would still be occupying southern Lebanon, as it did for 22 years.
None of these seem to be Condoleezza Rice's concerns or priorities. Before she left Washington, a State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, spelled out her view of things. Contrary to popular belief, he explained, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not at the heart of the Middle East crisis. The defining issue today is the struggle between "moderates" and "extremists." Dr Rice sees her main task as urging the moderates to unite against the extremists.
In other words, the U.S. Secretary of State's mission is to attempt to mobilize Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States against Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas. This may be what Israel and its friends are demanding, but it is not what the United States should do. It will not resolve the region's old conflicts. It will only create new ones.
Perhaps Condoleezza Rice would have done better to stay at home.
Copyright © 2006 Patrick Seale
Stay Home, Ms. Rice
Patrick Seale
October 03, 2006
Patrick Seale is a leading British writer on the Middle East, and the author of The Struggle for Syria; also, Asad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East; and Abu Nidal: A Gun for Hire.
The U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, is this week once again in the Middle East, but it is far from clear why she is there and what she hopes to achieve.
Has she got a plan of action for resolving some of the festering conflicts of the region? Has she got the firm personal backing of President George W. Bush? Is she carrying a big stick as befits the chief foreign affairs officer of a superpower? Will she use some real American muscle to force the various adversaries to sit down and negotiate?
Or is this just a public relations exercise aimed at improving America's deplorable image in the Arab and Muslim world? Has she merely come on a mission to "explore" the situation and spread around a little of her dubious charm?
These questions are legitimate because, as even the most casual observer will have noted, the Middle East has rarely been in such a dangerously volatile state.
There are persistent reports out of Washington—picked up and amplified in the American press—that the United States is preparing to attack Iran to destroy its nuclear facilities. In normal circumstances, such naked aggression would be hardly credible. It would be an act of insanity which would set the whole region on fire. But we are not living in normal times. There is such paranoia in the United States and Israel about Iran's nuclear program that anything is possible, even the unthinkable. In any event, the U.S. is being permanently blackmailed by the threat that if it does not attack Iran, Israel will do so.
Iraq is in the throes of a vicious sectarian civil war, which is getting worse by the day and which is complicated by large-scale ethnic cleansing. In danger of indiscriminate slaughter, people are fleeing from areas of mixed population to the relative safety of their co-religionaries. Having smashed the Iraqi state, the United States does not know whether to leave or to stay, and does not seem able to do either with any degree of clarity or resolve.
Thanks to Israel's cruel repression, and also to the irreconcilable rivalry between Fatah and Hamas, the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, and especially in Gaza, is on the very edge of a catastrophic explosion. The dreadful misery of the population—besieged, starved and murdered on a daily basis by Israeli air and artillery strikes—is a terrible stain on the conscience of the world, and particularly of the United States, Israel's chief backer.
Lebanon is still struggling to recover from Israel's 34-day assault. The tragedy is that the war has not united the nation. The various factions and sectarian groupings are once again at each other's throats, with the ever present threat of a return to civil war. The crisis demonstrates yet again the weakness of the Lebanese state, plagued by the confessional system on which it rests. Lebanon needs radical political reform and a renewal of its political leadership; but who can do the job? Not, it would seem, the men currently in power.
The three tracks of the Arab-Israeli peace process—Israel-Palestine, Israel-Syria and Israel-Lebanon—are all frozen, with no prospect of movement in sight.
These are just some of the urgent problems confronting Condoleezza Rice on her visit to the region. The United States itself and its Israeli ally are directly involved in most of these problems, indeed are largely responsible for creating them. So what is she going to do?
Will she insist that Israel stop murdering innocent Palestinian civilians; stop expanding its settlements; and commit itself to the creation of an independent and viable Palestinian state? Nothing could be further from her mind.
Will she reassure the Gulf rulers that America has no intention of attacking Iran and endangering the flow of oil which is their lifeblood? Certainly not. Bush himself has said that the military option is on the table.
Does she understand that Syria needs to be assured that it will recover the Golan before it commits itself to a stabilizing role? Has she grasped that Iran has certain legitimate concerns and ambitions? Does she recognize that Hezbollah is a resistance movement representing about a quarter of Lebanon's population? Without Hezbollah, Israel would still be occupying southern Lebanon, as it did for 22 years.
None of these seem to be Condoleezza Rice's concerns or priorities. Before she left Washington, a State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, spelled out her view of things. Contrary to popular belief, he explained, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not at the heart of the Middle East crisis. The defining issue today is the struggle between "moderates" and "extremists." Dr Rice sees her main task as urging the moderates to unite against the extremists.
In other words, the U.S. Secretary of State's mission is to attempt to mobilize Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States against Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas. This may be what Israel and its friends are demanding, but it is not what the United States should do. It will not resolve the region's old conflicts. It will only create new ones.
Perhaps Condoleezza Rice would have done better to stay at home.
Copyright © 2006 Patrick Seale
Two killed in Gaza violence :
Gunbattles between Fatah and Hamas fighters erupted on Monday night in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, killing two and wounding 14.
http://tinyurl.com/odprm
===
Al-Aqsa issues threat to kill Hamas chief Meshal:
Fatah gunmen threatened on Tuesday to kill leaders of the governing Hamas group, escalating a power struggle marked by the worst internal Palestinian violence since the Palestinian Authority was created in 1994.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages...l?itemNo=769537
===
Report: Hamas weighing large-scale conflict with Israel :
Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party says Hamas smuggled hundreds of tons of weapons from Egypt into Gaza Strip
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3310425,00.html
===
The threat of civil war in Palestine :
This is the most dangerous stage in the history of the Palestinian nation’s struggle because the United States, Israel, and the European Union are making serious efforts to spark a civil war in Palestine.
http://www.mehrnews.ir/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=388755
===
Building of illegal outposts stepped-up during war :
According to Israel Radio, the Peace Now organization reports that building in illegal outposts in the occupied West Bank was accelerated during the war in Lebanon.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/769617.html
===
The Mideast, the Jewish voters and Israel :
Support for Israel is one of the few issues that remains truly bipartisan. This gives Israel confidence that no matter which party occupies the White House or controls the House and Senate, the United States will always be committed to Israel's security
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/rosnerB...l?itemNo=747403
Gunbattles between Fatah and Hamas fighters erupted on Monday night in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, killing two and wounding 14.
http://tinyurl.com/odprm
===
Al-Aqsa issues threat to kill Hamas chief Meshal:
Fatah gunmen threatened on Tuesday to kill leaders of the governing Hamas group, escalating a power struggle marked by the worst internal Palestinian violence since the Palestinian Authority was created in 1994.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages...l?itemNo=769537
===
Report: Hamas weighing large-scale conflict with Israel :
Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party says Hamas smuggled hundreds of tons of weapons from Egypt into Gaza Strip
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3310425,00.html
===
The threat of civil war in Palestine :
This is the most dangerous stage in the history of the Palestinian nation’s struggle because the United States, Israel, and the European Union are making serious efforts to spark a civil war in Palestine.
http://www.mehrnews.ir/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=388755
===
Building of illegal outposts stepped-up during war :
According to Israel Radio, the Peace Now organization reports that building in illegal outposts in the occupied West Bank was accelerated during the war in Lebanon.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/769617.html
===
The Mideast, the Jewish voters and Israel :
Support for Israel is one of the few issues that remains truly bipartisan. This gives Israel confidence that no matter which party occupies the White House or controls the House and Senate, the United States will always be committed to Israel's security
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/rosnerB...l?itemNo=747403
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?artic...t_and_analysis/
Consequences of the war on Lebanon
Heribert Adam: COMMENT
02 October 2006 11:59
Policymakers can never fully control the outcome of their conscious choices because they inevitably act on incomplete information, personal bias and wishful thinking. A political intervention itself creates new conditions, the fallout of which is seldom anticipated. These unintended consequences comprise the irony of history, and recent Middle Eastern events serve as a good example, affecting each country in unforeseen ways.
Lebanon. The Lebanese devastation will further strengthen the 40% Shi’ites demographically and politically, as more Christian Lebanese and wealthier Sunnis will seek to emigrate. If US President George W Bush was interested in Lebanon as a showcase of a friendly Arab democracy, the Israeli attack has brought the show to an end. It has enraged even previously anti-Shi’ite factions and temporarily united the fragile melting pot of divided religious communities. Israel had hoped that the damage to the Lebanese infrastructure would turn Christians and Sunnis against the Shi’ites. Strategic bombing of civilians, besides being a war crime, has always made the population blame the aggressor, never the alleged cause of the destruction. The promising revival of Lebanon after a devastating civil war and after the expulsion of Syrian forces has been set back for a long time.
Iran. What the Bush administration envisaged as a prelude to an attack against Iran -- weakening its proxy’s ability to shoot rockets at Israel and practising destroying underground bunkers with air power -- has actually aided Tehran. If the sophisticated Israeli army could not succeed against a small guerrilla force, how could an attack against a state ten times stronger achieve its goals? For those planning US-Israeli military action against Iran, the Lebanon interlude has served as a timely warning.
Syria. If Israel were to make peace with Syria by returning the occupied Golan Heights, (as Ehud Barak almost did before bowing to unfavourable opinion polls), the weak, but secular (Alawite) Syrian regime would have no reason to support Hizbullah and allow Iranian arms transfers to Lebanon through its territory. According to some press reports, Bush even urged Olmert to attack Syria as part of the US policy to bring about the “rebirth of a new Middle East”. The advice was not heeded and described by some Israeli officials as “nuts”.
Iraq. Now bogged down in continued resistance against foreign occupation and an escalating sectarian civil war, the likely eventual break-up of Iraq will spill over into the entire region. Huge numbers of refugees from the fighting will unsettle other states, such as Bahrain with its unrecognised Shi’ite majority. Ironically, the Iraqi Shi’ite regime installed by the US has already declared its active solidarity with the Palestinians, and Iran has emerged as the main winner of the US military adventure in the region.
Israel. The Hizbullah experience has destroyed the already flimsy credibility of barriers and walls as guarantees of greater security. No buffer zone can prevent ever more sophisticated rockets crossing it. With this simple military logic the Kadima policy of unilateralism has died.
Unilaterally dictating borders never provided legitimacy or security in the first place. Only a mutually agreed upon political solution can bring about peace. The second Lebanon war has also shattered the image of Israeli invincibility. Despite the overwhelming support for the war among the Israeli public, including the left peace camp, its fallout at home has deepened the cleavages within Israeli society.
Sadly, the Israeli debate is about how efficiently the war was executed, not whether it should have been started in the first place. Now it is not a question of whether, but when, the weakened Ehud Olmert government will be replaced by an even more hard-line alternative.
Internationally, the Lebanese civilian casualties caused proved a global public relations disaster for Israel. The reckless crimes of Hizbullah rockets against Israeli civilians fade in comparison with the criminal unexploded cluster bombs with which Israel’s “most moral army” mined Lebanese areas for years to come.
Palestine. Hizbullah’s successful holdout against Israeli bombardments has strengthened the Palestinian advocates of armed resistance to the detriment of the partisans of negotiations. The continued boycott of Hamas by the West and the refusal by Israel to transfer taxes due to the Palestinian Authority (PA) also drives Palestinians to seek other sponsors. The intentional dismemberment of the PA through arrests of half of the elected Hamas officials and administrative destruction facilitates anarchy, in which nobody controls ever more radical militias. The collapse of the PA reinforces the Israeli myth of “no partner to negotiate with” precisely at the moment when the mainstream sections of Hamas and Fatah forged a strategic unity to negotiate a viable Palestinian state.
For ideological reasons and on the basis of settler resistance, the current Israeli government has shown no interest in allowing a viable Palestinian state to emerge. The senior adviser to Ariel Sharon, Dov Weissglas, in the context of the Gaza withdrawal has explicitly stated that “the significance of the disengagement plan is the freezing of the peace process. And when you freeze that process, you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.” (Interview in Ha’aretz magazine, October 8 2004.)
Continuing with this approach results either in permanent warfare -- with ever escalating regional and global confrontations -- or potentially in a multicultural, binational state and the end of Zionism. An increasing number of voices, including Palestinian intellectuals and post-Zionists in the Jewish diaspora, already consider the two-state model a dead end.
The unresolved Palestinian issue remains the root of the crisis which the US and Israeli governments ignore at their peril.
Heribert Adam is Professor of Sociology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and an annual visitor at the University of Cape Town. His most recent book, co-authored with Kogila Moodley, is Seeking Mandela: Peacemaking between Israelis and Palestinians (Temple University and Wits University Press, 2005)
Consequences of the war on Lebanon
Heribert Adam: COMMENT
02 October 2006 11:59
Policymakers can never fully control the outcome of their conscious choices because they inevitably act on incomplete information, personal bias and wishful thinking. A political intervention itself creates new conditions, the fallout of which is seldom anticipated. These unintended consequences comprise the irony of history, and recent Middle Eastern events serve as a good example, affecting each country in unforeseen ways.
Lebanon. The Lebanese devastation will further strengthen the 40% Shi’ites demographically and politically, as more Christian Lebanese and wealthier Sunnis will seek to emigrate. If US President George W Bush was interested in Lebanon as a showcase of a friendly Arab democracy, the Israeli attack has brought the show to an end. It has enraged even previously anti-Shi’ite factions and temporarily united the fragile melting pot of divided religious communities. Israel had hoped that the damage to the Lebanese infrastructure would turn Christians and Sunnis against the Shi’ites. Strategic bombing of civilians, besides being a war crime, has always made the population blame the aggressor, never the alleged cause of the destruction. The promising revival of Lebanon after a devastating civil war and after the expulsion of Syrian forces has been set back for a long time.
Iran. What the Bush administration envisaged as a prelude to an attack against Iran -- weakening its proxy’s ability to shoot rockets at Israel and practising destroying underground bunkers with air power -- has actually aided Tehran. If the sophisticated Israeli army could not succeed against a small guerrilla force, how could an attack against a state ten times stronger achieve its goals? For those planning US-Israeli military action against Iran, the Lebanon interlude has served as a timely warning.
Syria. If Israel were to make peace with Syria by returning the occupied Golan Heights, (as Ehud Barak almost did before bowing to unfavourable opinion polls), the weak, but secular (Alawite) Syrian regime would have no reason to support Hizbullah and allow Iranian arms transfers to Lebanon through its territory. According to some press reports, Bush even urged Olmert to attack Syria as part of the US policy to bring about the “rebirth of a new Middle East”. The advice was not heeded and described by some Israeli officials as “nuts”.
Iraq. Now bogged down in continued resistance against foreign occupation and an escalating sectarian civil war, the likely eventual break-up of Iraq will spill over into the entire region. Huge numbers of refugees from the fighting will unsettle other states, such as Bahrain with its unrecognised Shi’ite majority. Ironically, the Iraqi Shi’ite regime installed by the US has already declared its active solidarity with the Palestinians, and Iran has emerged as the main winner of the US military adventure in the region.
Israel. The Hizbullah experience has destroyed the already flimsy credibility of barriers and walls as guarantees of greater security. No buffer zone can prevent ever more sophisticated rockets crossing it. With this simple military logic the Kadima policy of unilateralism has died.
Unilaterally dictating borders never provided legitimacy or security in the first place. Only a mutually agreed upon political solution can bring about peace. The second Lebanon war has also shattered the image of Israeli invincibility. Despite the overwhelming support for the war among the Israeli public, including the left peace camp, its fallout at home has deepened the cleavages within Israeli society.
Sadly, the Israeli debate is about how efficiently the war was executed, not whether it should have been started in the first place. Now it is not a question of whether, but when, the weakened Ehud Olmert government will be replaced by an even more hard-line alternative.
Internationally, the Lebanese civilian casualties caused proved a global public relations disaster for Israel. The reckless crimes of Hizbullah rockets against Israeli civilians fade in comparison with the criminal unexploded cluster bombs with which Israel’s “most moral army” mined Lebanese areas for years to come.
Palestine. Hizbullah’s successful holdout against Israeli bombardments has strengthened the Palestinian advocates of armed resistance to the detriment of the partisans of negotiations. The continued boycott of Hamas by the West and the refusal by Israel to transfer taxes due to the Palestinian Authority (PA) also drives Palestinians to seek other sponsors. The intentional dismemberment of the PA through arrests of half of the elected Hamas officials and administrative destruction facilitates anarchy, in which nobody controls ever more radical militias. The collapse of the PA reinforces the Israeli myth of “no partner to negotiate with” precisely at the moment when the mainstream sections of Hamas and Fatah forged a strategic unity to negotiate a viable Palestinian state.
For ideological reasons and on the basis of settler resistance, the current Israeli government has shown no interest in allowing a viable Palestinian state to emerge. The senior adviser to Ariel Sharon, Dov Weissglas, in the context of the Gaza withdrawal has explicitly stated that “the significance of the disengagement plan is the freezing of the peace process. And when you freeze that process, you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.” (Interview in Ha’aretz magazine, October 8 2004.)
Continuing with this approach results either in permanent warfare -- with ever escalating regional and global confrontations -- or potentially in a multicultural, binational state and the end of Zionism. An increasing number of voices, including Palestinian intellectuals and post-Zionists in the Jewish diaspora, already consider the two-state model a dead end.
The unresolved Palestinian issue remains the root of the crisis which the US and Israeli governments ignore at their peril.
Heribert Adam is Professor of Sociology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and an annual visitor at the University of Cape Town. His most recent book, co-authored with Kogila Moodley, is Seeking Mandela: Peacemaking between Israelis and Palestinians (Temple University and Wits University Press, 2005)
TORTURE AND THE FIRST LADY: READING THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV BY A HOUSTON SWIMMING POOL - JOHN BROWN (COMMON DREAMS, OCTOBER 4): Mrs. Bush might wish to cite the passage on torture from the book she has proclaimed among her favorites -- the Russian literary classic "The Brothers Karamazov" -- at the next White House event emphasizing the importance of reading.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1003-35.htm
LIBERATING OURSELVES: FAILURE TO ACHIEVE THE EASY VICTORY THE HAWKS PROMISED IN IRAQ DOESNT MEAN THAT WE MUST CONTINUE TO LOSE - PAUL W. SCHROEDER (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, OCTOBER 9): Promoting Western values in the Arab-Muslim worlds by public diplomacy, in particular attempts to sell the American way of life and convince others that Americans are truly friends and protectors of Islam and can serve as honest brokers, only serves to make the U.S. look ridiculous and discredit the moderates in Islam who would like to adapt to modernity, thus aiding the radicals.
http://amconmag.com/2006/2006_10_09/cover.html
INTERVIEW WITH BURHAN GHALIOUN - HICHEM KAROUI (MIDDLE EAST ONLINE, OCTOBER 4): Q -- "What do you think of the democratisation program initiated by the Bush administration as a public diplomacy in the Middle East?" B. Ghalioun, French-Syrian professor of political sociology at Sorbonne University -- "Without doubting anybody's intentions, I think that the democracy project proposed by the American administration was meant to win some legitimacy for an undertaking related to political and military domination in the region."
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=17710
CHINA'S CHARM OFFENSIVE - JOSHUA KURLANTZICK (COMMENTARY): Countering the new China is a task requiring a kind of intellectual and ideological agility at which Americans are not much practiced.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/Archive/...&aid=12203037_1
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
SIFTING THE INTELLIGENCE FROM THE POLITICS - (ASIA TIMES, OCTOBER 3): Michael Scheuer, the former head of the Osama bin Laden desk at the US Central Intelligence Agency: "The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) leaves the impression that we're hated in the Muslim world because we're Americans. That, thank goodness, is just not the case yet. We're hated for our policies and their impact."
http://atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HJ03Aa05.html
U.S. TO GAUGE IRAQI SUPPORT FOR OPERATIONS: MILITARY PLANS TO HIRE A CONTRACTOR TO CONDUCT POLLS AND SET UP FOCUS GROUPS - WALTER PINCUS (WASHINGTON, SEPTEMBER 28): The Baghdad command confirmed that it has awarded a two-year, $12.4 million contact to handle strategic communications management to the Lincoln Group, the Washington-based public relations company found late last year to have been paying money to place favorable articles in the Iraqi news media.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2701912_pf.html
SEE ALSO
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1002-20.htm
SUPPRESSING THE IRAQ STORY - PAUL MCLEARY (TOMPAINE.COM, OCTOBER 3): Iraq and the U.S. are stifling the very thing they say they are building in Iraq -- free speech and a free press.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/0..._iraq_story.php
Text of entry from
http://tompaine.com/
IRAQ WAR DRAWS FOREIGN JIHADISTS, BUT NOT IN DROVES: AT MOST, 1 IN 10 FIGHTERS IS FROM ABROAD, ONE STUDY ESTIMATES. BUT WILL THEY LATER 'EXPORT' JIHAD? - PETER GRIER (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, OCTOBER 3)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1003/p03s03-woiq.html
DEBATING WITHDRAWAL IV: WHAT AL-QAEDA WANTS - MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, OCOTBER 3): Al-Qaeda wants American troops in Iraq, not an American withdrawal.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...tiyah_lett.html
BUSH AND BARNEY'S PATH TO WATERLOO - EHSAN AHRARI (ASIA TIMES, OCTOBER 3): If the United States does not find an honorable way out of Iraq, it seems that it is steadily edging toward another humiliating exit, a la Vietnam, notwithstanding the Bush administration's endless denial that Iraq is not Vietnam.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HJ03Aa01.html
HOW TO LOSE A WAR: THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S MISMANAGEMENT OF IRAQ HAS BEEN CHRONICLED IN SHOCKING DETAIL - EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 4): We continue to agree with Mr. Bush that it would be wrong and dangerous for U.S. troops simply to withdraw. But it is also dangerous when leaders such as Mr. Bush, Vice President Cheney and Mr. Rumsfeld continue to resist reality.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6100301316.html
MORE TROOPS, PLEASE - PETE HEGSETH (WALL STREET JOURNAL, OCTOBER 3): "I believe, as the president noted, that 'the safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad.' Why then do we have just enough troops in Iraq not to lose?"
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1159840190...days_us_opinion
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
'QUAGMIRE' ISN'T THE RIGHT WORD - NORMAN SOLOMON (ANTIWAR.COM, OCTOBER 3): If the Iraq war is primarily framed as a problem because of what it's doing to Americans, the "solutions" could make the war seem like less of a quagmire even while more Iraqi people pay with their lives.
http://www.antiwar.com/solomon/?articleid=9783
BUSH ADMINISTRATION MAY BE MISREADING IRANIAN THREAT - STEVE CHAPMAN (BALTIMORE SUN, OCTOBER 2): President Bush ought to be using every means short of war to dissuade Iran from building a bomb. But if he can't, there are worse things than having to coexist with a nuclear-armed enemy.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...0,2331971.story
THE DREAM-KILLER; LIBERALS, TAKE NOTE: WAR WITH IRAN IS A GENUINE POSSIBILITY, AND IT WOULD DESTROY THE PROSPECTS OF PROGRESSIVE FOREIGN POLICY REFORM FOR YEARS TO COME - MATTHEW YGLESIAS (AMERICAN PROSPECT, OCTOBER 3)
http://www.prospect.org/web/printfriendly-view.ww?id=12073
REACH OUT TO THE RED ZONE - DAVID IGNATIUS (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 4): To escape a traveling Green Zone mentality in the Middle East, Rice needs to create a process for engaging America's friends and adversaries.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0301197_pf.html
STAY HOME, MS. RICE - PATRICK SEALE (TOMPAINE.COM, OCTOBER 3): The U.S. Secretary of State's mission is to attempt to mobilize Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States against Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas. This may be what Israel and its friends are demanding, but it is not what the United States should do.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/0...ome_ms_rice.php
RICE'S GAZA CHALLENGE - EDITORIAL (HAARETZ, OCTOBER 2): The immediate challenge facing Rice in her current trip to the Middle East is to bring about the kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit's release, to stop the terror from Gaza and seal off the Philadelphi route, lest her visit turn into a prologue for war rather than peace.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/769527.html
IN AFGHANISTAN, US TROOPS TACKLE AID PROJECTS -- AND SKEPTICISM - SCOTT PETERSON (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, OCTOBER 2)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1002/p01s03-wosc.htm
GET SERIOUS ABOUT AFGHANISTAN - MAX BOOT (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 4): Without more financial aid and efforts to curb the Taliban, the country will slip into the same chaos as Iraq.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail
PAKISTAN SAID TO PLAY BOTH SIDES ON TERROR WAR: ACCUSATIONS FROM MUMBAI TO KABUL TO LONDON FINGER PAKISTAN'S SPY AGENCY FOR BACKING TERROR AND THE TALIBAN - MARK SAPPENFIELD (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, OCTOBER 2)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1002/p01s04-wosc.html
TERROR SANCTUARY: THE TALIBAN AND AL QAEDA ARE MOUNTING ATTACKS FROM THE SAFETY OF PAKISTAN - CHRISTIAN LOWE (WEEKLY STANDARD, OCTOBER 3)
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/771znhto.asp
DON'T PASS THE SALTED PEANUTS, HENRY - MAUREEN DOWD (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 4): Half a century of foreign affairs experience, and Kissinger still doesn't understand that humiliating young Arab men -- and occupying Muslim land -- just radicalizes them? Were expanding terror at a cost of about $6 billion a month.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/04/opini...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
BUSH TEAM'S ERRORS MAKE THE WAR ON TERROR TOUGHER - TRUDY RUBIN (BALTIMORE SUN, OCTOBER 3): The issue is whether the astounding errors made by this administration in Iraq have opened a new front in the fight against radical Islamists that will make the overall struggle much harder. The answer is a resounding yes.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
AN ENEMY AND WAR BORN FROM IGNORANCE - JAMES CARROLL (BOSTON GLOBE, OCTOBER 2): Bush created a cohesive enemy where it did not really exist before. So-called jihadists have been rallied, strengthened, and made lethal by Iraq. They will haunt the world for years, in a global war unlike anything ever seen before.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...norance?mode=PF
THE NEW BOYS OF TERROR - FOUAD AJAMI (U.S. NEW & WORLD REPORT, OCTOBER 1): Assassins derives from the Arabic hashshashin (hashish takers), after a terrorist cult that was established in Iran in the 11th century. The followers of this cult are the forerunners of today's terrorists.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/061001/9fouad.htm
WHY AMERICA IS LOSING ABROAD - HARLAN ULLMAN (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 4): The United States has the most capable military in the world. So what do jihadist extremists do? They neutralize that predominant force by taking the fight to the cities where American military superiority is diluted or defeated by the inherent difficulties of operating in urban environments in which the enemy blends in with non-combatants.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...03-084819-8945r
A DISASTER BY ANY MEASURE - WILLIAM PFAFF (NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, OCTOBER 19): A realistic assessment of the terrorism threat, which had nothing to do with Iraq (as Bush and Cheney in the last few days have both assured us, five years late), would have presented it as of modest and potentially containable scale, as has proven to be the case. President Bush and Karl Rove, his propaganda packager, preferred the global cold war model -- the "long war" -- capable of being presented to the American public as a communism-like "struggle for the world," so as to mobilize Americans around George Bush, wearing his flight jacket.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19432
TV REVIEW: 'RETURN OF THE TALIBAN' -- FAILURE TO ROOT OUT A SECRET FRONT IN THE WAR ON TERROR: ALESSANDRA STANLEY (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 3)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/03/arts/tel...agewanted=print
VICE AND VIRTUE IN DETAINEE BILL - EDITORIAL (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 2): Senator McCain says that in addition to banning torture, the detainee bill will outlaw simulated drowning, extreme use of sleep deprivation and stress positions, and anything causing serious mental harm. But the White House declines to say that.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...newsopinion-hed
"WITHDRAWAL OF U.S. TROOPS WILL BECOME LIKE SALTED PEANUTS TO THE AMERICAN PUBLIC; THE MORE U.S. TROOPS COME HOME, THE MORE WILL BE DEMANDED."
--Henry Kissinger (1969); cited in Maureen Dowd, "Don't Pass the Salted Peanuts, Henry" (New York Times, October 4)
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/04/opini...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
"HAD WE GONE INTO BAGHDAD -- WE COULD HAVE DONE IT. YOU GUYS COULD HAVE DONE IT. YOU COULD HAVE BEEN THERE IN 48 HOURS. AND THEN WHAT?"
--George H. W. Bush, Feb. 28, 1999, Fort Myer Army base; Quoted p. 11, "State of Denial," by Bob Woodward; cited in Joel Achenbach "It Would Have Been Disastrous" (Washington Post, October 2)
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/achenblog/2...sastrous_1.html
"THE CONSTITUTIONAL POWERS OF THE PRESIDENT AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF TO INTRODUCE UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES INTO HOSTILITIES, OR INTO SITUATIONS WHERE IMMINENT INVOLVEMENT IN HOSTILITIES IS CLEARLY INDICATED BY THE CIRCUMSTANCES ARE EXERCISED ONLY PURSUANT TO (1) A DECLARATION OF WAR, (2) SPECIFIC STATUTORY AUTHORIZATION, OR (3) A NATIONAL EMERGENCY CREATED BY A ATTACK UPON THE UNITED STATES, ITS TERRITORIES OR POSSESSIONS, OR ITS ARMED FORCES."
--The Wars Power Act; cited in Matthew Yglesias, "The Dream-Killer" (American Prospect, October 3)
http://www.prospect.org/web/printfriendly-view.ww?id=12073
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1003-35.htm
LIBERATING OURSELVES: FAILURE TO ACHIEVE THE EASY VICTORY THE HAWKS PROMISED IN IRAQ DOESNT MEAN THAT WE MUST CONTINUE TO LOSE - PAUL W. SCHROEDER (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, OCTOBER 9): Promoting Western values in the Arab-Muslim worlds by public diplomacy, in particular attempts to sell the American way of life and convince others that Americans are truly friends and protectors of Islam and can serve as honest brokers, only serves to make the U.S. look ridiculous and discredit the moderates in Islam who would like to adapt to modernity, thus aiding the radicals.
http://amconmag.com/2006/2006_10_09/cover.html
INTERVIEW WITH BURHAN GHALIOUN - HICHEM KAROUI (MIDDLE EAST ONLINE, OCTOBER 4): Q -- "What do you think of the democratisation program initiated by the Bush administration as a public diplomacy in the Middle East?" B. Ghalioun, French-Syrian professor of political sociology at Sorbonne University -- "Without doubting anybody's intentions, I think that the democracy project proposed by the American administration was meant to win some legitimacy for an undertaking related to political and military domination in the region."
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=17710
CHINA'S CHARM OFFENSIVE - JOSHUA KURLANTZICK (COMMENTARY): Countering the new China is a task requiring a kind of intellectual and ideological agility at which Americans are not much practiced.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/Archive/...&aid=12203037_1
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
SIFTING THE INTELLIGENCE FROM THE POLITICS - (ASIA TIMES, OCTOBER 3): Michael Scheuer, the former head of the Osama bin Laden desk at the US Central Intelligence Agency: "The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) leaves the impression that we're hated in the Muslim world because we're Americans. That, thank goodness, is just not the case yet. We're hated for our policies and their impact."
http://atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HJ03Aa05.html
U.S. TO GAUGE IRAQI SUPPORT FOR OPERATIONS: MILITARY PLANS TO HIRE A CONTRACTOR TO CONDUCT POLLS AND SET UP FOCUS GROUPS - WALTER PINCUS (WASHINGTON, SEPTEMBER 28): The Baghdad command confirmed that it has awarded a two-year, $12.4 million contact to handle strategic communications management to the Lincoln Group, the Washington-based public relations company found late last year to have been paying money to place favorable articles in the Iraqi news media.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2701912_pf.html
SEE ALSO
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1002-20.htm
SUPPRESSING THE IRAQ STORY - PAUL MCLEARY (TOMPAINE.COM, OCTOBER 3): Iraq and the U.S. are stifling the very thing they say they are building in Iraq -- free speech and a free press.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/0..._iraq_story.php
Text of entry from
http://tompaine.com/
IRAQ WAR DRAWS FOREIGN JIHADISTS, BUT NOT IN DROVES: AT MOST, 1 IN 10 FIGHTERS IS FROM ABROAD, ONE STUDY ESTIMATES. BUT WILL THEY LATER 'EXPORT' JIHAD? - PETER GRIER (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, OCTOBER 3)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1003/p03s03-woiq.html
DEBATING WITHDRAWAL IV: WHAT AL-QAEDA WANTS - MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, OCOTBER 3): Al-Qaeda wants American troops in Iraq, not an American withdrawal.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...tiyah_lett.html
BUSH AND BARNEY'S PATH TO WATERLOO - EHSAN AHRARI (ASIA TIMES, OCTOBER 3): If the United States does not find an honorable way out of Iraq, it seems that it is steadily edging toward another humiliating exit, a la Vietnam, notwithstanding the Bush administration's endless denial that Iraq is not Vietnam.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HJ03Aa01.html
HOW TO LOSE A WAR: THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S MISMANAGEMENT OF IRAQ HAS BEEN CHRONICLED IN SHOCKING DETAIL - EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 4): We continue to agree with Mr. Bush that it would be wrong and dangerous for U.S. troops simply to withdraw. But it is also dangerous when leaders such as Mr. Bush, Vice President Cheney and Mr. Rumsfeld continue to resist reality.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6100301316.html
MORE TROOPS, PLEASE - PETE HEGSETH (WALL STREET JOURNAL, OCTOBER 3): "I believe, as the president noted, that 'the safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad.' Why then do we have just enough troops in Iraq not to lose?"
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1159840190...days_us_opinion
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
'QUAGMIRE' ISN'T THE RIGHT WORD - NORMAN SOLOMON (ANTIWAR.COM, OCTOBER 3): If the Iraq war is primarily framed as a problem because of what it's doing to Americans, the "solutions" could make the war seem like less of a quagmire even while more Iraqi people pay with their lives.
http://www.antiwar.com/solomon/?articleid=9783
BUSH ADMINISTRATION MAY BE MISREADING IRANIAN THREAT - STEVE CHAPMAN (BALTIMORE SUN, OCTOBER 2): President Bush ought to be using every means short of war to dissuade Iran from building a bomb. But if he can't, there are worse things than having to coexist with a nuclear-armed enemy.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...0,2331971.story
THE DREAM-KILLER; LIBERALS, TAKE NOTE: WAR WITH IRAN IS A GENUINE POSSIBILITY, AND IT WOULD DESTROY THE PROSPECTS OF PROGRESSIVE FOREIGN POLICY REFORM FOR YEARS TO COME - MATTHEW YGLESIAS (AMERICAN PROSPECT, OCTOBER 3)
http://www.prospect.org/web/printfriendly-view.ww?id=12073
REACH OUT TO THE RED ZONE - DAVID IGNATIUS (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 4): To escape a traveling Green Zone mentality in the Middle East, Rice needs to create a process for engaging America's friends and adversaries.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0301197_pf.html
STAY HOME, MS. RICE - PATRICK SEALE (TOMPAINE.COM, OCTOBER 3): The U.S. Secretary of State's mission is to attempt to mobilize Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States against Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas. This may be what Israel and its friends are demanding, but it is not what the United States should do.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/0...ome_ms_rice.php
RICE'S GAZA CHALLENGE - EDITORIAL (HAARETZ, OCTOBER 2): The immediate challenge facing Rice in her current trip to the Middle East is to bring about the kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit's release, to stop the terror from Gaza and seal off the Philadelphi route, lest her visit turn into a prologue for war rather than peace.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/769527.html
IN AFGHANISTAN, US TROOPS TACKLE AID PROJECTS -- AND SKEPTICISM - SCOTT PETERSON (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, OCTOBER 2)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1002/p01s03-wosc.htm
GET SERIOUS ABOUT AFGHANISTAN - MAX BOOT (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 4): Without more financial aid and efforts to curb the Taliban, the country will slip into the same chaos as Iraq.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail
PAKISTAN SAID TO PLAY BOTH SIDES ON TERROR WAR: ACCUSATIONS FROM MUMBAI TO KABUL TO LONDON FINGER PAKISTAN'S SPY AGENCY FOR BACKING TERROR AND THE TALIBAN - MARK SAPPENFIELD (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, OCTOBER 2)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1002/p01s04-wosc.html
TERROR SANCTUARY: THE TALIBAN AND AL QAEDA ARE MOUNTING ATTACKS FROM THE SAFETY OF PAKISTAN - CHRISTIAN LOWE (WEEKLY STANDARD, OCTOBER 3)
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/771znhto.asp
DON'T PASS THE SALTED PEANUTS, HENRY - MAUREEN DOWD (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 4): Half a century of foreign affairs experience, and Kissinger still doesn't understand that humiliating young Arab men -- and occupying Muslim land -- just radicalizes them? Were expanding terror at a cost of about $6 billion a month.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/04/opini...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
BUSH TEAM'S ERRORS MAKE THE WAR ON TERROR TOUGHER - TRUDY RUBIN (BALTIMORE SUN, OCTOBER 3): The issue is whether the astounding errors made by this administration in Iraq have opened a new front in the fight against radical Islamists that will make the overall struggle much harder. The answer is a resounding yes.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
AN ENEMY AND WAR BORN FROM IGNORANCE - JAMES CARROLL (BOSTON GLOBE, OCTOBER 2): Bush created a cohesive enemy where it did not really exist before. So-called jihadists have been rallied, strengthened, and made lethal by Iraq. They will haunt the world for years, in a global war unlike anything ever seen before.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...norance?mode=PF
THE NEW BOYS OF TERROR - FOUAD AJAMI (U.S. NEW & WORLD REPORT, OCTOBER 1): Assassins derives from the Arabic hashshashin (hashish takers), after a terrorist cult that was established in Iran in the 11th century. The followers of this cult are the forerunners of today's terrorists.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/061001/9fouad.htm
WHY AMERICA IS LOSING ABROAD - HARLAN ULLMAN (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 4): The United States has the most capable military in the world. So what do jihadist extremists do? They neutralize that predominant force by taking the fight to the cities where American military superiority is diluted or defeated by the inherent difficulties of operating in urban environments in which the enemy blends in with non-combatants.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...03-084819-8945r
A DISASTER BY ANY MEASURE - WILLIAM PFAFF (NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, OCTOBER 19): A realistic assessment of the terrorism threat, which had nothing to do with Iraq (as Bush and Cheney in the last few days have both assured us, five years late), would have presented it as of modest and potentially containable scale, as has proven to be the case. President Bush and Karl Rove, his propaganda packager, preferred the global cold war model -- the "long war" -- capable of being presented to the American public as a communism-like "struggle for the world," so as to mobilize Americans around George Bush, wearing his flight jacket.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19432
TV REVIEW: 'RETURN OF THE TALIBAN' -- FAILURE TO ROOT OUT A SECRET FRONT IN THE WAR ON TERROR: ALESSANDRA STANLEY (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 3)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/03/arts/tel...agewanted=print
VICE AND VIRTUE IN DETAINEE BILL - EDITORIAL (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 2): Senator McCain says that in addition to banning torture, the detainee bill will outlaw simulated drowning, extreme use of sleep deprivation and stress positions, and anything causing serious mental harm. But the White House declines to say that.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...newsopinion-hed
"WITHDRAWAL OF U.S. TROOPS WILL BECOME LIKE SALTED PEANUTS TO THE AMERICAN PUBLIC; THE MORE U.S. TROOPS COME HOME, THE MORE WILL BE DEMANDED."
--Henry Kissinger (1969); cited in Maureen Dowd, "Don't Pass the Salted Peanuts, Henry" (New York Times, October 4)
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/04/opini...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
"HAD WE GONE INTO BAGHDAD -- WE COULD HAVE DONE IT. YOU GUYS COULD HAVE DONE IT. YOU COULD HAVE BEEN THERE IN 48 HOURS. AND THEN WHAT?"
--George H. W. Bush, Feb. 28, 1999, Fort Myer Army base; Quoted p. 11, "State of Denial," by Bob Woodward; cited in Joel Achenbach "It Would Have Been Disastrous" (Washington Post, October 2)
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/achenblog/2...sastrous_1.html
"THE CONSTITUTIONAL POWERS OF THE PRESIDENT AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF TO INTRODUCE UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES INTO HOSTILITIES, OR INTO SITUATIONS WHERE IMMINENT INVOLVEMENT IN HOSTILITIES IS CLEARLY INDICATED BY THE CIRCUMSTANCES ARE EXERCISED ONLY PURSUANT TO (1) A DECLARATION OF WAR, (2) SPECIFIC STATUTORY AUTHORIZATION, OR (3) A NATIONAL EMERGENCY CREATED BY A ATTACK UPON THE UNITED STATES, ITS TERRITORIES OR POSSESSIONS, OR ITS ARMED FORCES."
--The Wars Power Act; cited in Matthew Yglesias, "The Dream-Killer" (American Prospect, October 3)
http://www.prospect.org/web/printfriendly-view.ww?id=12073
WHY NOT LET THEM HATE US, AS LONG AS THEY FEAR US? - CHAS W. FREEMAN, JR. (REMARKS TO THE UNITED STATES INFORMATION AGENCY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION, OCTOBER 4, 2006, MIDDLE EAST POLICY COUNCIL): To rediscover public diplomacy and to practice it successfully we must repudiate Caligula's maxim -- ("let them hate us, as long as they fear us") -- and replace it with our traditional respect for the opinion of mankind. USIA (United States Information Agency, 1953-1999) or a reasonable facsimile of it will rise again!
http://www.mepc.org/whats/whynot.asp
EARS WIDE SHUT: FOR MORE THAN A YEAR, KAREN HUGHES HAS BEEN TRYING TO SELL GEORGE BUSH'S AMERICA TO THE MIDDLE EAST. HERES WHY IT ISN'T WORKING - ILANA OZERNOY (ATLANTIC MONTHLY, NOVEMBER): Part of Hughes's past political strength has been her ability to connect with average Americans and communicate the president's policies in terms they understand. But foreign audiences don't necessarily think the same way, and they haven't responded as favorably to her bootstrap bluntness, folksy charm, and anecdotes about being a mother.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200611/karen-hughes
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
WASHINGTON SAYS ITS EFFORTS IN PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES GO UNRECOGNISED - AFP (MIDEAST OBSERVER: ISRAEL, LEBANON, IRAN. WORLD TERRORISM, OCTOBER 4): US Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes said she regretted Washington's efforts in the Palestinian territories went largely unrecognized in the media. Hughes began a three-day visit to France on Tuesday during which she will address the international women's forum in Deauville, an annual meeting of the worlds women leaders.
http://middeast.com/archives/1576
SPINNING POP TUNES TO BEAT THE TALIBAN: A US-SPONSORED RADIO STATION ENDEARS ITSELF TO AFGHANS BY BROADCASTING THE TRUTH - ALONG WITH A FEW GOOD HITS - SCOTT PETERSON (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, OCTOBER 4): The aim of the radio station is to help win support by publicizing the U.S. Army's local development projects. The programming is diverse: Daily progress reports on US-funded projects; the death tolls of insurgents and US soldiers alike; and a mix of popular music that brings in 40 tune request letters a day from local villages.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1004/p06s02-wosc.html
CENSORSHIP, SCEPTICISM AND CONSPIRACY THEORIES: INFORMATION IN IRAN IS LARGELY CONTROLLED BY THE STATE, LEADING MANY IRANIANS TO DISCOUNT ALL MEDIA, NO MATTER WHERE IT COMES FROM. WACKY CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND A HEALTHY SKEPTICISM ARE THE RESULT - CAMERON ABADI IN TEHRAN (SPEIGEL INTERNATIONAL, SEPTEMBER 28): Most Iranians that tune-in to American-funded Voice of America and lower-budget LA talk shows are well aware that those broadcasts are aiming for regime change.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,438601,00.html
SEE ALSO
http://softpowerbeacon.blogspot.com/
(October 5 item)
NOTES FROM THE MARGINS OF MANCHESTER... - PETER J. QUARANTO (FOOTNOTES FROM THE BRITISH UNDERGROUND, OCTOBER 5): "Even though, I expected it, I've been surprised by the level and intensity of anti-Americanism here among folks from the UK and elsewhere. ... If the US is to regain its standing and reputation in the world as a principled power, we've got quite a task ahead of us in public diplomacy, humility and ultimately (my take): humanitarianism."
http://peterquaranto.blogspot.com/2006/10/...manchester.html
IRAQ VETERANS WORKING FOR CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGNS - JONATHAN SPRINGSTON (ATLANTA PROGRESSIVE NEWS, OCTOBER 5): Air Force Veteran Tim Goodrich, who co-founded Iraq Veterans Against the War, took part in and witnessed the bombing of Iraq while President Bush was still telling the public diplomacy was the top priority. These inconsistent and apparently misleading actions did not sit well with Goodrich.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0610/S00060.htm
THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT: TO REACH A LASTING PEACE - (INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP, OCTOBER 5): The Arab League should propose direct talks with the Israeli government to describe and discuss the 2002 Beirut Initiative and launch a public diplomacy campaign aimed in particular at the U.S. and Israel to explain that initiative.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900S...N7?OpenDocument
(link may not be accessible)
SOFTWARE BEING DEVELOPED TO MONITOR OPINIONS OF U.S. - ERIC LIPTON (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 4): A consortium of major universities, using Homeland Security Department money, is developing software that would let the government monitor negative opinions of the United States or its leaders in newspapers and other publications overseas. Such a "sentiment analysis" is intended to identify potential threats to the nation, security officials said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/04/us/04mon...agewanted=print
MISREADING THE TEA LEAVES: US MISSTEPS ON FOREIGN POLICY - STEPHEN M. WALT (BOSTON GLOBE, OCTOBER 5): Independent surveys of global opinion and separate studies by the Defense Science Board and the State Department showed that anti-Americanism is primarily a reaction to specific US policies. Yet Bush and his advisers never considered whether a different set of policies might reduce global opposition and enhance US security.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial..._policy?mode=PF
ANTI-U.S. ATTACK VIDEOS SPREAD ON THE INTERNET - EDWARD WYATT (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 5): Videos showing insurgent attacks against American troops in Iraq, long available in Baghdad shops and on Jihadist Web sites, have steadily migrated in recent months to popular Internet video-sharing sites, including YouTube and Google Video.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/06/technolo...agewanted=print
FOR SALE: IRAQI KURDISTAN -- A STRANGE PR CHOICE FOR THE "OTHER IRAQ" - DIANE FARSETTA (COUNTERPUNCH, OCTOBER 4): The strange pairing of the Republican-associated Sacramento public relations firm Russo Marsh & Rogers (RM&R) and the Kurdish Development Corporation -- which aims "to promote, facilitate and establish business and investment opportunities in the Kurdistan Region in Iraq" -- can be explained in one of three ways: either the Iraqi Kurds don't realize RM&R's area of experience, or RM&R is branching out into new areas, or the Kurds believe that ties with U.S. conservative politicians will best facilitate foreign investment in their homeland.
http://www.counterpunch.org/farsetta10042006.html
MILITARY HONES A NEW STRATEGY ON INSURGENCY - MICHAEL R. GORDON (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 5): The United States Army and Marines are finishing work on a new counterinsurgency doctrine that draws on the hard-learned lessons from Iraq and makes the welfare and protection of civilians a bedrock element of military strategy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/05/washingt...agewanted=print
HOW AL QAEDA VIEWS A LONG IRAQ WAR: A LETTER FROM AL QAEDA LEADERS FOUND IN IRAQ SHOWS THAT THE GROUP SEES THE WAR AS A BOON FOR ITS CAUSE - DAN MURPHY (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, OCTOBER 6)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1006/p01s04-woiq.html
ON EVERY LEVEL, THE IRAQ WAR IS HURTING AMERICA: BUSH'S FOLLY IN IRAQ IS TAXING US ARMED FORCES, THE ECONOMY, AND DEMOCRACY - PAT M. HOLT (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, OCTOBER 5)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1005/p09s02-coop.html
RUMSFELD OUT? - HARLAN ULLMAN (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 6): Mr. Rumsfeld's departure will not produce better outcomes in Iraq and Afghanistan unless presidential policy changes first.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...05-095252-4231r
WAR OR RUMORS OF WAR? - FRIDA BERRIGAN (FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS, OCTOBER 5/COMMON DREAMS): As retired Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner observes, the Bush administration didn't apply the "making sense" filter over the past four years in Iraq. It is therefore unlikely to use common sense in evaluating whether to attack Iran.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1005-23.htm
JORDAN IS MAKING REALLY GREAT STRIDES - MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVACK, OCTOBER 4): Whether or not it is justified by Jordan's political situation, the overall trend towards a more repressive, less liberal political system is pretty clear.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...n_is_makin.html
LEBANON'S COMBUSTIBLE MIX EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 6): The jihadist forces with a vested interest in preventing Lebanon from governing itself and living in peace with its neighbors remain a clear and present danger.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...05-095251-4229r
THE WAR AGAINST ISLAMIC EXTREMISM - EVELYN GORDON (JERUSALEM POST, OCTOBER 4): A survey conducted last month by the Washington-based Israel Project, which polled both the elites and the general public in Germany, Britain and France, found that a growing proportion, particularly in Germany, now views Islamic extremism, rather than Israel's policies, as the cause of the Middle East's problems.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...ticle%2FPrinter
CHARTING A PATH IN THE MIDEAST - SAMUEL LEWIS AND EDWARD S. WALKER (BOSTON GLOBE, OCTOBER 5): Five steps the United States should take that would have significant, positive impact in the region and on US foreign policy: mediate a comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire; focus on what the Palestinian government does and not what it says; work with the Saudi initiative; engage Syria; strengthen Lebanon's government.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...mideast?mode=PF
RICE FOCUSES ON SMALL STEPS TO MIDEAST PEACE: THE TOP U.S. DIPLOMAT SEEKS TO SECURE DEALS ON OPENING TRANSIT POINTS, FORTIFYING PALESTINIAN SECURITY AGENCIES AND BOOSTING ESSENTIAL AID - PAUL RICHTER AND KEN ELLINGWOOD (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 5)
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...1,6841375.story
CONDI RICE TRIES TO LOOK BUSY: SHE'S IN THE MIDEAST TO TRY TO BOLSTER ARAB MODERATES AND REVIVE THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN PEACE PROCESS. IS THIS TRIP WORTH IT? - TONY KARON (TIME, OCTOBER 4): The current Israeli government has nothing to offer Arab moderates. Nor, for that matter, does Condi Rice.
http://www.time.com/time/world/printout/0,...1542699,00.html
FRIED, RICE RETURNS TO MIDDLE EAST - EDWARD M. GOMEZ (WORLD VIEW, SF GATE, OCTOBER 5): As one of the most highly visible representatives -- and memorable symbols -- of George W. Bush's foreign policy failures around the world, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice now carries a lot of unfortunate baggage with her wherever she goes. This week, her boss has sent Rice back to the Middle East, ostensibly to help restart the now-dead peace process, which Team Bush consistently has ignored.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/det...5&entry_id=9524
MIDDLE EASTERN 'STRATEGIC CONSENSUS' REDUX? JIM LOBE (ANTIWAR.COM, OCTOBER 5): President George W. Bush and his peripatetic secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, may believe that they have broken with 60 years of U.S. policy in order to "transform" the Middle East, but to longtime regional observers, their latest initiatives look painfully familiar.
http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=9797
KIM'S MESSAGE: WAR IS COMING TO US SOIL - KIM MYONG CHOL (ASIA TIMES, OCTOBER 6): Unlike all the previous wars Korea fought, a next war will be better called the American War or the DPRK-US War because the main theater will be the continental US, with major cities transformed into towering infernos. (Kim Myong Chol is "Unofficial" spokesman of Kim Jong-il and North Korea.)
http://atimes.com/atimes/Korea/HJ06Dg01.html
IN KIM'S NEIGHBORHOOD - REVIEW & OUTLOOK (WALL STREET JOURNAL, OCTOBER 6): Kim Jong Il's nuclear saber rattling may have an unintended consequence: uniting his neighbors. That's bad news for Pyongyang, but good news for North Asia.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1160085018...ain_europe_asia
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
BEHIND NORTH KOREA'S LATEST NUCLEAR GAMBLE - WILLIAM M. ARKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, OCTOBER 5): At a time when North Korea has announced its intention to conduct a nuclear test, U.S. intelligence believes the country is its weakest ever militarily, and quietly draws up contingency plans to deal with a "post Kim Jong Il" state.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarnin...latest_nuc.html
PYONGYANG PHOOEY - NICHOLAS EBERSTADT (WALL STREET JOURNAL, OCTOBER 5): With his latest nuclear gambit, Kim Jong Il has just reset the clock on the U.S.-South Korean military alliance, moving the hands palpably closer to midnight. If we listen closely, we can hear the ticking.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1160...8634783308.html
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
IF KIM JONG IL GETS NUKES: HOW THE WORLD WOULD CHANGE FOR THE WORSE IF THE HERMIT KINGDOM EXPLODES A BOMB - AARON L. FRIEDBERG (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 5)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail
NORTH KOREA AND THE DOMINOES - EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 6): What's needed now is real pressure and real diplomacy to get the North out of the nuclear weapons business -- preferably before a nuclear test shows potential buyers just how well its weapons work.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/06/opinion/...agewanted=print
TWO KINDS OF TRUCULENCE - EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, OCTOBER 4): Administration hard-liners have spent six futile years trying to get what they want from the North by thwarting a negotiated deal. President Bush ought to try making that deal.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...culence?mode=PF
GETTING TESTY: IS NORTH KOREA BLUFFING? - JAMES S. ROBBINS (NATIONAL REVIEW, OCTOBER 5): We can assume that the United States is still prepared to take vigorous action against Kim's regime, should the international community feel it is warranted.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTc1N...Tg3ZjAwNTU0MmE=
THE NORTH KOREA NUCLEAR PUZZLE: KNOWING WHAT THE HERMIT KINGDOM IS UP TO IS ALMOST AS HARD AS FIGURING OUT WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT - EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 5): Even if they don't really mean it, nuclear nations have to say they will do everything they can to prevent another nation from gaining nuclear weapons -- because once another nation has them, there is very little they can do about it. The challenge now for the U.S., China, South Korea, Japan and Russia is as simple as it is difficult: to convince North Korea that they really mean what they say.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-...pinion-leftrail
ANSWERING NORTH KOREA: IT'S UP TO SOUTH KOREA AND CHINA TO MAKE CLEAR THAT A NUCLEAR BOMB TEST BY PYONGYANG WOULD BE INTOLERABLE - EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 5)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6100401650.html
TORTURE, BY ANY OTHER NAME - DAN FROOMKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, OCTOBER 5): President Bush repeatedly says he's against torture. The detainee legislation recently approved by Congress ostensibly bans torture. But that's meaningless if the Bush administration won't say how it defines the word.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0500754_pf.html
THE CONSTITUTION, WRIT OR WRONG: THE HABEAS CORPUS DEBATE ILLUSTRATES A DANGEROUS TREND IN LEGAL IGNORANCE - ADAM J. WHITE (WEEKLY STANDARD, OCTOBER 5): Throughout this 200-year history the Supreme Court never held that habeas relief was available to alien military prisoners such as those at Guantanamo Bay.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/776mmclc.asp
POWER STRIP: OF THE MANY OUTRAGES IN THE DETAINEE BILL, THE WORST MAY BE ITS ASSAULT ON THE COURTS - JONATHAN HAFETZ (AMERICAN PROSPECT, OCTOBER 5) http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?sectio...articleId=12083
BUSH'S TORTURE POLICY HURTS OUR SOLDIERS - CARLA SEAQUIST (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, OCTOBER 4)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1004/p09s02-coop.htm
FIVE SQUANDERED YEARS: HOW BADLY HAS THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION BOTCHED THE FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM? TWO EXPERTS COUNT THE WAYS - AZIZ HUQ (AMERICAN PROSPECT, OCTOBER 4): The United States has two main resources to combat terrorism: The hard power of military might, and the soft power of diplomacy that comes from convincingly claiming the moral high ground. Five years after the 9/11 attacks, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the Bush Administration has gutted both.
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?sectio...articleId=12079
TERROR-REPORT FIGHT MISSES BIG PICTURE: NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE ESTIMATE ALSO HINTS AT WAYS TO BEAT JIHADISTS, PROMOTE DEMOCRACY - DENNIS BYRNE (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 2)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...ncommentary-hed
A PROGRESSIVE RESPONSE TO TERROR - KEN MILLER (NATION, OCTOBER 4): If we can abandon the idea of a "war" in favor of a clear, collective response to the real threat of terror, we will have a shot at stopping the right from destroying the nation in order to save it.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061016/miller
FOREIGN POLICY BEGINS IN OUR GARAGE - GAL LUFT (BALTIMORE SUN, OCTOBER 4): America's ability to accomplish its main foreign policy goals -- winning the global war on terrorism, spreading freedom and democracy around the globe and preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons -- will be compromised as long as we are dependent on oil to the degree that we are today.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
BEWARE A NEW BUSH DOCTRINE - SEYOM BROWN (BOSTON GLOBE, OCTOBER 4): The record of this administration does not inspire confidence that it can avoid a simplistic implementation of the moderation vs. extremism formula in which those who go along with its demands and preferences are, by definition, moderates, and those who oppose it are either extremists or appeasers of the extremists.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...octrine?mode=PF
CONFIRMATION HOPES DIM FOR BOLTON AT UN: THE CONTROVERSIAL AMBASSADOR IS IN POLITICAL LIMBO WITH A SENATE COMMITTEE VOTE DEADLOCKED - HOWARD LAFRANCHI (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, OCTOBER 4)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1004/p03s01-usfp.html
RICE'S LOST CREDIBILITY - JOHN PRADOS (TOMPAINE.COM, OCTOBER 5): Rice's failure to appreciate the impending danger of 9/11 demonstrates a failure of vision and imagination. Meanwhile, Rice's refusals to come clean after the fact suggest a readiness to play politics with foreign policy that is hardly desirable in a secretary of state.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/0...credibility.php
CONDI CAUGHT LYING ABOUT 9/11 AGAIN - WONKETTE (OCTOBER 4)
http://www.wonkette.com/politics/condoleez...gain-205252.php
http://www.mepc.org/whats/whynot.asp
EARS WIDE SHUT: FOR MORE THAN A YEAR, KAREN HUGHES HAS BEEN TRYING TO SELL GEORGE BUSH'S AMERICA TO THE MIDDLE EAST. HERES WHY IT ISN'T WORKING - ILANA OZERNOY (ATLANTIC MONTHLY, NOVEMBER): Part of Hughes's past political strength has been her ability to connect with average Americans and communicate the president's policies in terms they understand. But foreign audiences don't necessarily think the same way, and they haven't responded as favorably to her bootstrap bluntness, folksy charm, and anecdotes about being a mother.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200611/karen-hughes
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
WASHINGTON SAYS ITS EFFORTS IN PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES GO UNRECOGNISED - AFP (MIDEAST OBSERVER: ISRAEL, LEBANON, IRAN. WORLD TERRORISM, OCTOBER 4): US Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes said she regretted Washington's efforts in the Palestinian territories went largely unrecognized in the media. Hughes began a three-day visit to France on Tuesday during which she will address the international women's forum in Deauville, an annual meeting of the worlds women leaders.
http://middeast.com/archives/1576
SPINNING POP TUNES TO BEAT THE TALIBAN: A US-SPONSORED RADIO STATION ENDEARS ITSELF TO AFGHANS BY BROADCASTING THE TRUTH - ALONG WITH A FEW GOOD HITS - SCOTT PETERSON (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, OCTOBER 4): The aim of the radio station is to help win support by publicizing the U.S. Army's local development projects. The programming is diverse: Daily progress reports on US-funded projects; the death tolls of insurgents and US soldiers alike; and a mix of popular music that brings in 40 tune request letters a day from local villages.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1004/p06s02-wosc.html
CENSORSHIP, SCEPTICISM AND CONSPIRACY THEORIES: INFORMATION IN IRAN IS LARGELY CONTROLLED BY THE STATE, LEADING MANY IRANIANS TO DISCOUNT ALL MEDIA, NO MATTER WHERE IT COMES FROM. WACKY CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND A HEALTHY SKEPTICISM ARE THE RESULT - CAMERON ABADI IN TEHRAN (SPEIGEL INTERNATIONAL, SEPTEMBER 28): Most Iranians that tune-in to American-funded Voice of America and lower-budget LA talk shows are well aware that those broadcasts are aiming for regime change.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,438601,00.html
SEE ALSO
http://softpowerbeacon.blogspot.com/
(October 5 item)
NOTES FROM THE MARGINS OF MANCHESTER... - PETER J. QUARANTO (FOOTNOTES FROM THE BRITISH UNDERGROUND, OCTOBER 5): "Even though, I expected it, I've been surprised by the level and intensity of anti-Americanism here among folks from the UK and elsewhere. ... If the US is to regain its standing and reputation in the world as a principled power, we've got quite a task ahead of us in public diplomacy, humility and ultimately (my take): humanitarianism."
http://peterquaranto.blogspot.com/2006/10/...manchester.html
IRAQ VETERANS WORKING FOR CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGNS - JONATHAN SPRINGSTON (ATLANTA PROGRESSIVE NEWS, OCTOBER 5): Air Force Veteran Tim Goodrich, who co-founded Iraq Veterans Against the War, took part in and witnessed the bombing of Iraq while President Bush was still telling the public diplomacy was the top priority. These inconsistent and apparently misleading actions did not sit well with Goodrich.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0610/S00060.htm
THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT: TO REACH A LASTING PEACE - (INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP, OCTOBER 5): The Arab League should propose direct talks with the Israeli government to describe and discuss the 2002 Beirut Initiative and launch a public diplomacy campaign aimed in particular at the U.S. and Israel to explain that initiative.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900S...N7?OpenDocument
(link may not be accessible)
SOFTWARE BEING DEVELOPED TO MONITOR OPINIONS OF U.S. - ERIC LIPTON (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 4): A consortium of major universities, using Homeland Security Department money, is developing software that would let the government monitor negative opinions of the United States or its leaders in newspapers and other publications overseas. Such a "sentiment analysis" is intended to identify potential threats to the nation, security officials said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/04/us/04mon...agewanted=print
MISREADING THE TEA LEAVES: US MISSTEPS ON FOREIGN POLICY - STEPHEN M. WALT (BOSTON GLOBE, OCTOBER 5): Independent surveys of global opinion and separate studies by the Defense Science Board and the State Department showed that anti-Americanism is primarily a reaction to specific US policies. Yet Bush and his advisers never considered whether a different set of policies might reduce global opposition and enhance US security.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial..._policy?mode=PF
ANTI-U.S. ATTACK VIDEOS SPREAD ON THE INTERNET - EDWARD WYATT (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 5): Videos showing insurgent attacks against American troops in Iraq, long available in Baghdad shops and on Jihadist Web sites, have steadily migrated in recent months to popular Internet video-sharing sites, including YouTube and Google Video.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/06/technolo...agewanted=print
FOR SALE: IRAQI KURDISTAN -- A STRANGE PR CHOICE FOR THE "OTHER IRAQ" - DIANE FARSETTA (COUNTERPUNCH, OCTOBER 4): The strange pairing of the Republican-associated Sacramento public relations firm Russo Marsh & Rogers (RM&R) and the Kurdish Development Corporation -- which aims "to promote, facilitate and establish business and investment opportunities in the Kurdistan Region in Iraq" -- can be explained in one of three ways: either the Iraqi Kurds don't realize RM&R's area of experience, or RM&R is branching out into new areas, or the Kurds believe that ties with U.S. conservative politicians will best facilitate foreign investment in their homeland.
http://www.counterpunch.org/farsetta10042006.html
MILITARY HONES A NEW STRATEGY ON INSURGENCY - MICHAEL R. GORDON (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 5): The United States Army and Marines are finishing work on a new counterinsurgency doctrine that draws on the hard-learned lessons from Iraq and makes the welfare and protection of civilians a bedrock element of military strategy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/05/washingt...agewanted=print
HOW AL QAEDA VIEWS A LONG IRAQ WAR: A LETTER FROM AL QAEDA LEADERS FOUND IN IRAQ SHOWS THAT THE GROUP SEES THE WAR AS A BOON FOR ITS CAUSE - DAN MURPHY (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, OCTOBER 6)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1006/p01s04-woiq.html
ON EVERY LEVEL, THE IRAQ WAR IS HURTING AMERICA: BUSH'S FOLLY IN IRAQ IS TAXING US ARMED FORCES, THE ECONOMY, AND DEMOCRACY - PAT M. HOLT (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, OCTOBER 5)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1005/p09s02-coop.html
RUMSFELD OUT? - HARLAN ULLMAN (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 6): Mr. Rumsfeld's departure will not produce better outcomes in Iraq and Afghanistan unless presidential policy changes first.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...05-095252-4231r
WAR OR RUMORS OF WAR? - FRIDA BERRIGAN (FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS, OCTOBER 5/COMMON DREAMS): As retired Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner observes, the Bush administration didn't apply the "making sense" filter over the past four years in Iraq. It is therefore unlikely to use common sense in evaluating whether to attack Iran.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1005-23.htm
JORDAN IS MAKING REALLY GREAT STRIDES - MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVACK, OCTOBER 4): Whether or not it is justified by Jordan's political situation, the overall trend towards a more repressive, less liberal political system is pretty clear.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...n_is_makin.html
LEBANON'S COMBUSTIBLE MIX EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 6): The jihadist forces with a vested interest in preventing Lebanon from governing itself and living in peace with its neighbors remain a clear and present danger.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...05-095251-4229r
THE WAR AGAINST ISLAMIC EXTREMISM - EVELYN GORDON (JERUSALEM POST, OCTOBER 4): A survey conducted last month by the Washington-based Israel Project, which polled both the elites and the general public in Germany, Britain and France, found that a growing proportion, particularly in Germany, now views Islamic extremism, rather than Israel's policies, as the cause of the Middle East's problems.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...ticle%2FPrinter
CHARTING A PATH IN THE MIDEAST - SAMUEL LEWIS AND EDWARD S. WALKER (BOSTON GLOBE, OCTOBER 5): Five steps the United States should take that would have significant, positive impact in the region and on US foreign policy: mediate a comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire; focus on what the Palestinian government does and not what it says; work with the Saudi initiative; engage Syria; strengthen Lebanon's government.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...mideast?mode=PF
RICE FOCUSES ON SMALL STEPS TO MIDEAST PEACE: THE TOP U.S. DIPLOMAT SEEKS TO SECURE DEALS ON OPENING TRANSIT POINTS, FORTIFYING PALESTINIAN SECURITY AGENCIES AND BOOSTING ESSENTIAL AID - PAUL RICHTER AND KEN ELLINGWOOD (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 5)
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...1,6841375.story
CONDI RICE TRIES TO LOOK BUSY: SHE'S IN THE MIDEAST TO TRY TO BOLSTER ARAB MODERATES AND REVIVE THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN PEACE PROCESS. IS THIS TRIP WORTH IT? - TONY KARON (TIME, OCTOBER 4): The current Israeli government has nothing to offer Arab moderates. Nor, for that matter, does Condi Rice.
http://www.time.com/time/world/printout/0,...1542699,00.html
FRIED, RICE RETURNS TO MIDDLE EAST - EDWARD M. GOMEZ (WORLD VIEW, SF GATE, OCTOBER 5): As one of the most highly visible representatives -- and memorable symbols -- of George W. Bush's foreign policy failures around the world, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice now carries a lot of unfortunate baggage with her wherever she goes. This week, her boss has sent Rice back to the Middle East, ostensibly to help restart the now-dead peace process, which Team Bush consistently has ignored.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/det...5&entry_id=9524
MIDDLE EASTERN 'STRATEGIC CONSENSUS' REDUX? JIM LOBE (ANTIWAR.COM, OCTOBER 5): President George W. Bush and his peripatetic secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, may believe that they have broken with 60 years of U.S. policy in order to "transform" the Middle East, but to longtime regional observers, their latest initiatives look painfully familiar.
http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=9797
KIM'S MESSAGE: WAR IS COMING TO US SOIL - KIM MYONG CHOL (ASIA TIMES, OCTOBER 6): Unlike all the previous wars Korea fought, a next war will be better called the American War or the DPRK-US War because the main theater will be the continental US, with major cities transformed into towering infernos. (Kim Myong Chol is "Unofficial" spokesman of Kim Jong-il and North Korea.)
http://atimes.com/atimes/Korea/HJ06Dg01.html
IN KIM'S NEIGHBORHOOD - REVIEW & OUTLOOK (WALL STREET JOURNAL, OCTOBER 6): Kim Jong Il's nuclear saber rattling may have an unintended consequence: uniting his neighbors. That's bad news for Pyongyang, but good news for North Asia.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1160085018...ain_europe_asia
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
BEHIND NORTH KOREA'S LATEST NUCLEAR GAMBLE - WILLIAM M. ARKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, OCTOBER 5): At a time when North Korea has announced its intention to conduct a nuclear test, U.S. intelligence believes the country is its weakest ever militarily, and quietly draws up contingency plans to deal with a "post Kim Jong Il" state.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarnin...latest_nuc.html
PYONGYANG PHOOEY - NICHOLAS EBERSTADT (WALL STREET JOURNAL, OCTOBER 5): With his latest nuclear gambit, Kim Jong Il has just reset the clock on the U.S.-South Korean military alliance, moving the hands palpably closer to midnight. If we listen closely, we can hear the ticking.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1160...8634783308.html
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
IF KIM JONG IL GETS NUKES: HOW THE WORLD WOULD CHANGE FOR THE WORSE IF THE HERMIT KINGDOM EXPLODES A BOMB - AARON L. FRIEDBERG (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 5)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail
NORTH KOREA AND THE DOMINOES - EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 6): What's needed now is real pressure and real diplomacy to get the North out of the nuclear weapons business -- preferably before a nuclear test shows potential buyers just how well its weapons work.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/06/opinion/...agewanted=print
TWO KINDS OF TRUCULENCE - EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, OCTOBER 4): Administration hard-liners have spent six futile years trying to get what they want from the North by thwarting a negotiated deal. President Bush ought to try making that deal.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...culence?mode=PF
GETTING TESTY: IS NORTH KOREA BLUFFING? - JAMES S. ROBBINS (NATIONAL REVIEW, OCTOBER 5): We can assume that the United States is still prepared to take vigorous action against Kim's regime, should the international community feel it is warranted.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTc1N...Tg3ZjAwNTU0MmE=
THE NORTH KOREA NUCLEAR PUZZLE: KNOWING WHAT THE HERMIT KINGDOM IS UP TO IS ALMOST AS HARD AS FIGURING OUT WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT - EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 5): Even if they don't really mean it, nuclear nations have to say they will do everything they can to prevent another nation from gaining nuclear weapons -- because once another nation has them, there is very little they can do about it. The challenge now for the U.S., China, South Korea, Japan and Russia is as simple as it is difficult: to convince North Korea that they really mean what they say.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-...pinion-leftrail
ANSWERING NORTH KOREA: IT'S UP TO SOUTH KOREA AND CHINA TO MAKE CLEAR THAT A NUCLEAR BOMB TEST BY PYONGYANG WOULD BE INTOLERABLE - EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 5)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6100401650.html
TORTURE, BY ANY OTHER NAME - DAN FROOMKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, OCTOBER 5): President Bush repeatedly says he's against torture. The detainee legislation recently approved by Congress ostensibly bans torture. But that's meaningless if the Bush administration won't say how it defines the word.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0500754_pf.html
THE CONSTITUTION, WRIT OR WRONG: THE HABEAS CORPUS DEBATE ILLUSTRATES A DANGEROUS TREND IN LEGAL IGNORANCE - ADAM J. WHITE (WEEKLY STANDARD, OCTOBER 5): Throughout this 200-year history the Supreme Court never held that habeas relief was available to alien military prisoners such as those at Guantanamo Bay.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/776mmclc.asp
POWER STRIP: OF THE MANY OUTRAGES IN THE DETAINEE BILL, THE WORST MAY BE ITS ASSAULT ON THE COURTS - JONATHAN HAFETZ (AMERICAN PROSPECT, OCTOBER 5) http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?sectio...articleId=12083
BUSH'S TORTURE POLICY HURTS OUR SOLDIERS - CARLA SEAQUIST (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, OCTOBER 4)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1004/p09s02-coop.htm
FIVE SQUANDERED YEARS: HOW BADLY HAS THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION BOTCHED THE FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM? TWO EXPERTS COUNT THE WAYS - AZIZ HUQ (AMERICAN PROSPECT, OCTOBER 4): The United States has two main resources to combat terrorism: The hard power of military might, and the soft power of diplomacy that comes from convincingly claiming the moral high ground. Five years after the 9/11 attacks, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the Bush Administration has gutted both.
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?sectio...articleId=12079
TERROR-REPORT FIGHT MISSES BIG PICTURE: NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE ESTIMATE ALSO HINTS AT WAYS TO BEAT JIHADISTS, PROMOTE DEMOCRACY - DENNIS BYRNE (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 2)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...ncommentary-hed
A PROGRESSIVE RESPONSE TO TERROR - KEN MILLER (NATION, OCTOBER 4): If we can abandon the idea of a "war" in favor of a clear, collective response to the real threat of terror, we will have a shot at stopping the right from destroying the nation in order to save it.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061016/miller
FOREIGN POLICY BEGINS IN OUR GARAGE - GAL LUFT (BALTIMORE SUN, OCTOBER 4): America's ability to accomplish its main foreign policy goals -- winning the global war on terrorism, spreading freedom and democracy around the globe and preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons -- will be compromised as long as we are dependent on oil to the degree that we are today.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
BEWARE A NEW BUSH DOCTRINE - SEYOM BROWN (BOSTON GLOBE, OCTOBER 4): The record of this administration does not inspire confidence that it can avoid a simplistic implementation of the moderation vs. extremism formula in which those who go along with its demands and preferences are, by definition, moderates, and those who oppose it are either extremists or appeasers of the extremists.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...octrine?mode=PF
CONFIRMATION HOPES DIM FOR BOLTON AT UN: THE CONTROVERSIAL AMBASSADOR IS IN POLITICAL LIMBO WITH A SENATE COMMITTEE VOTE DEADLOCKED - HOWARD LAFRANCHI (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, OCTOBER 4)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1004/p03s01-usfp.html
RICE'S LOST CREDIBILITY - JOHN PRADOS (TOMPAINE.COM, OCTOBER 5): Rice's failure to appreciate the impending danger of 9/11 demonstrates a failure of vision and imagination. Meanwhile, Rice's refusals to come clean after the fact suggest a readiness to play politics with foreign policy that is hardly desirable in a secretary of state.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/0...credibility.php
CONDI CAUGHT LYING ABOUT 9/11 AGAIN - WONKETTE (OCTOBER 4)
http://www.wonkette.com/politics/condoleez...gain-205252.php
Where are the voices?
The shame of silence in the face of Israeli and US crimes
By Paul J. Balles
Where are the voices of moral righteousness that the world has always depended upon to rein in the evil forces of conquering warlords? The teachers and professors - why are they silent? The virtuous - the clergy and elders of church and mosque and synagogue - who covered their mouths with duct tape and broke their pens and keyboards?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15244.htm
The shame of silence in the face of Israeli and US crimes
By Paul J. Balles
Where are the voices of moral righteousness that the world has always depended upon to rein in the evil forces of conquering warlords? The teachers and professors - why are they silent? The virtuous - the clergy and elders of church and mosque and synagogue - who covered their mouths with duct tape and broke their pens and keyboards?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15244.htm
"WHEN THE FINAL HISTORY IS WRITTEN ON IRAQ, IT WILL LOOK LIKE JUST A COMMA."
--President George W. Bush; cited in Cenk Uygur, "The Worst Talking Point Ever: The Comma" (Huffington Post, October 4)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/t...-e_b_30964.html
SEE ALSO
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/10/05/t...bout-the-comma/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEJY6g-Z3nE&eurl=
NORTH KOREA - ROGUE STATE OR NEXT TIGER? - JOHN GARNAUT (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, AUSTRALIA, OCTOBER 8): It is national policy in Washington, Tokyo and Canberra to view North Korea exclusively through the lens of its apocalyptic public diplomacy.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/north-...0246011402.html
THE AGE OF TERROR -- A LANDMARK REPORT - ROBERT FISK (INDEPENDENT, OCTOBER 8/ ZNET, MA): Remarkably the US still believes that it is increasingly loathed in the Arab world not because of its policies but because its policies are not being presented fairly. It's not a political problem, it's a public-relations problem. Hence, the appointment of Karen Hughes as US "Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy."
http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article....53§ionID=22
IRAQ: TWO VERSIONS OF THE SAME REPORT - GUY W. FARMER (NEVADA APPEAL, OCTOBER 8): If we are to effectively communicate our foreign policy goals and objectives to the "Muslim mainstream," we must find a way to reinvent the specialized U.S. Information Agency (USIA), which was abolished by the Clinton administration seven years ago and merged into the sprawling State Department. Unfortunately, President Bush's personal choice as his public-diplomacy czarina, alleged message maven Karen Hughes, has been unable to craft a coherent message that most Muslims can accept and/or understand.
http://www.nevadaappeal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...mplate=printart
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO RUMMY - FROM A SECRET MEMO TITLED "ILLUSTRATIVE NEW 21ST CENTURY INSTITUTIONS AND APPROACHES" OBTAINED BY JOURNALIST BOB WOODWARD (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 8): "Strategic communications ... A new U.S. agency for global communication could serve as a channel to inform, educate and compete in the battle for ideas. ... Today the centers of gravity of the conflict in Iraq and the global war on terror are not on battlefields overseas. Rather, the center of gravity of this war are on the centers of public opinion in the U.S. and in the capitals of free nations."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0601384_pf.html
EXPORTING DEATH AS DEMOCRACY: AN ESSAY ON U.S. FOREIGN POLICY IN LEBANON - IRENE L. GENDZIER (ZNET, OCTOBER 5, 2006): In 1983, a Memorandum entitled, "Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy Strategies for Lebanon and the Middle East," prepared for the Chair of the International Political Committee and signed by Robert C. McFarlane, as Chairman of the Special Planning Group of the National Security Council, argued for "an effective short-term strategy which coherently argues why Lebanon is of strategic importance to the United States..." -- information that would "penetrate the twelve media centers in the U.S." in addition to reaching out to business, labor, special interest groups, as well as educational and religious institutions with the assistance of reliable "heavy hitters." The above memo was as applicable in 2006 as it when issued in 1983.
http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article....23§ionID=22
A PANEL (AND MEDIA SIGHTINGS) - ANKUSH (PENGUINS ON THE EQUATOR, OCTOBER 7): Ali Soufan -- the FBI agent who, according to Lawrence Wright in "The Agent," came heart-breakingly close to connecting enough dots to prevent 9/11 -- wants the US to engage with people in the Middle East in a meaningful public diplomacy effort.
http://penguinsontheequator.blogspot.com/2...-sightings.html
AL-JAZEERA AND ISRAEL - MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, OCTOBER 6): From an American public diplomacy perspective, it's hard to believe that even Israel gets more high ranking politicians on to al-Jazeera talk shows than does the United States, whose senior officials are regularly invited but have gone back to a surly de facto boycott of al-Jazeera since Lebanon. This hurts America more than it hurts al-Jazeera, and it's a shame.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...eera_and_i.html
AL-JAZEERA'S WORTH - NABIL A. RAHMAN, RALEIGH (LETTER TO THE EDITOR, NEWS & OBSERVER, NC, OCTOBER 8): Al-Jazeera is a highly reputable news source in the Middle East. Alberto Fernandez, the U.S. State Department's director of public diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, is a frequent guest in its live dialogues.
http://www.newsobserver.com/580/story/495491.html
PSY-OPS JOURNALISM: WASHINGTON'S BUDDING NEW INDUSTRY - ALVIN SNYDER (PUBLIC DIPLOMACY LOG, USC CENTER ON PUBLIC DIPLOMACY, OCTOBER 7): Some $400 million in media consulting contracts has been awarded during the past few years by the Pentagon, for the purpose of helping "to effectively communicate Iraqi government and Coalition goals with strategic audiences." Thus far both the Pentagon and its contract psy-op journalists have experienced a painful learning curve, but the most recent contract award will show how much each has learned. The outlook is not promising.
http://uscpublicdiplomacy.com/index.php/ne...g_new_industry/
U.S. CASUALTIES IN IRAQ RISE SHARPLY: GROWING AMERICAN ROLE IN STAVING OFF CIVIL WAR LEADS TO MOST WOUNDED SINCE 2004 - ANN SCOTT TYSON (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 8)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6100700907.html
THE TWO FACES OF IRAQ - SAMI MOUBAYED (ASIA TIMES, OCTOBER 7): The last thing Iraqis need are the confronting words of the US secretary of state, who seems to care little for the number of Iraqis dying per day, and the ineffective US military in the country, which is unable to end the raging insurgency.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HJ07Ak02.html
LISTEN TO THE IRAQIS - NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 8): Iraqis are crystal clear about what the U.S. should do: announce a timetable for withdrawal of our troops within one year. They're right.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/opini...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
MALIKI'S MOMENT - REVIEW & OUTLOOK (WALL STREET JOURNAL, OCTOBER 9): Iraqis have to make their own political compromises to limit the incentive for violence, and sooner rather than later. The time has long since passed where the U.S. can play anything other than a supporting role in Iraq.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1160...7294386227.html
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
AMERICA PONDERS CUTTING IRAQ IN THREE - SARAH BAXTER (SUNDAY TIMES, OCTOBER 8): The Iraq Study Group, co-chaired by James Baker, the former US secretary of state, may recommend carving up Iraq into three highly autonomous regions, according to well informed sources.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2393750,00.html
BLUNKETT BLAMES CHENEY, RUMSFELD; BAKER COMMISSION TO ACCEPT 3-REGION SOLUTION? - JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, OCTOBER 8): "A loose federal Iraq with 3 semi-autonomous regions is a very bad idea for so many reasons it would take me forever to list them all ... the Arab and Muslim worlds would ever forgive the US for breaking up Iraq, and there are likely to be reprisals if it happens."
http://www.juancole.com/
(scroll down link for item)
ONE IRAQ OR THREE? - EDITORIAL (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 8): A decision by Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis to separate would effectively portend the end of that country.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...newsopinion-hed
TIME FOR ACTION -- NOT RHETORIC -- IN IRAQ - REP. JOHN MURTHA (HUFFINGTON POST, OCTOBER 6)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-john-mur...rh_b_31107.html
THE MOST OUTRAGEOUS SCANDAL? BUSH'S IRAQ POLICY - SEN. RUSS FEINGOLD (HUFFINGTON POST, OCTOBER 5)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-russ-fei...html?view=print
LOSING THE WILL TO FIGHT - PATRICK J. BUCHANAN (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, OCTOBER 9): Despite all the propaganda about Islamofascism and the coming caliphate, Americans do not see the war in Iraq as an existential crisis. They do not want to lose the war but are unwilling to pay a much higher price in blood and treasure to win it.
http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_10_09/buchanan.html
HISTORICAL ROOTS AND PATTERNS OF CONFLICT: THE US, ISRAEL AND LEBANON - DAVID GREEN (COUNTERPUNCH, OCTOBER 7/8): The destructive and lethal forces unleashed this past summer by the United States and Israel upon Lebanon are not surprising in light of their historical roots. As American and Israeli efforts to control events in the Middle East become increasingly problematic, there are increased efforts to re-cast the conflict in terms of a "clash of civilizations" between "Judeo-Christians" and "Islamo-fascists."
http://www.counterpunch.org/green10072006.html
THE STRUGGLE FOR PALESTINE'S SOUL - JONATHAN COOK (ANTIWAR.COM, OCTOBER 7): If the goal of establishing a Palestinian state cannot be realized, then the danger is that many Palestinians will look elsewhere for their liberation, not necessarily in national but in wider, regional and religious terms. Do Israel and the United States not understand this?
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/cook.php?articleid=9812
THE ISRAELI LOBBY: DOES IT HAVE TOO MUCH INFLUENCE ON US FOREIGN POLICY? - POSTED BY MICHAEL CERVIERI (SCRIBEMEDIA, OCTOBER 3): A debate took place at Cooper Union in New York City and was captured by ScribeMedia on behalf of the London Review of Books. Panelists: John Mearsheimer; Shlomo Ben-Ami; Martin Indyk; Tony Judt; Rashid Khalidi; Dennis Ross.
http://blog.scribestudio.com/articles/2006...-foreign-policy
VIA
http://www.juancole.com/
THE MYSTERY OF AMERICA - GIDEON LEVY (HAARETZ, OCTOBER 8): In the Middle East, the U.S. has an opportunity to fundamentally change its image, from a warmonger to a peacemaker. And how does the U.S. respond to the challenge? It sends Rice to tell the excited Israeli Prime minister Ehud Olmert how she falls asleep easily on her unnecessary and ridiculous flights to and from the Middle East.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/771541.html
RICE'S TOUR OF MIDEAST YIELDS LITTLE PROGRESS ON KEY ISSUES - ROBIN WRIGHT (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 8): A wide range of senior Arab officials, who all spoke on background because of sensitive diplomacy with Washington, asserted that the administration's brick-by-brick approach to transforming the Middle East is so minimalist that it is unlikely to make significant progress during President Bush's remaining time in office.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6100700699.html
RICE'S BAFFLING MIDEAST TRIP: DODGING BULLETS WHILE HYPING PROGRESS IS NOT A CONVINCING PERFORMANCE BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE - EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 8)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-...pinion-leftrail
CONDI ON THE RUN - (WONKETTE, OCTOBER 6): Why the Secretary of State's sudden Middle East jaunt? Two reasons: She was either handing out ultimatums and bribes to the regional lackeys because the Iran War starts October 21, or she was shuffled out of Washington to wait out the latest Woodward-9/11 revelations -- that she received and deliberately ignored and then perjured herself over the 9/11 warnings she got two months before the attacks.
http://www.wonkette.com/politics/iraq/cond...-run-205903.php
PAID SUSBCRIPTION
COALITION BUILDING BETTER: CHALLENGING THE ASSUMPTIONS OF THE EUROPEANS - SAUL SINGER (NATIONAL REVIEW, OCTOBER 6): If Bush made "radical but undeniably sensible demands of Arab states, he would be paving the right path to peace."
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZDQ2M...jlmZWU4YTRjMGY=
FROM BUDAPEST TO BAGHDAD: IN A LONG-AGO REVOLUTION, ECHOES FOR TODAY - ROGER COHEN (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 8): At this 50th anniversary of the Hungarian revolution, once again, in Middle Eastern guise, the United States confronts issues of containment or rollback, of moral principle or pragmatic caution, of liberty or stability.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/weekinre...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
5 YEARS LATER, AFGHANISTAN PAYS FOR SINS OF OMISSION - ALI AHMAD JALALI (BALTIMORE SUN, OCTOBER 8): (Ali Ahmad Jalali was interior minister of Afghanistan from January 2003 to October 2005.)
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
AFGHANISTAN: FIVE YEARS LATER - DONALD H. RUMSFELD (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 7): What matters is the overall trajectory: Where do things stand today when compared to what they were five years ago? In Afghanistan, the trajectory is a hopeful and promising one.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0601373_pf.html
HE HUFFS AND HE PUFFS: NORTH KOREA'S DEAR LEADER THREATENS TO EXPLODE A NUKE - DAN BLUMENTHAL (WEEKLY STANDARD, OCTOBER 16): The lesson we should be teaching Pyongyang is that breaking your commitment to non-nuclearization leads not to concession after concession, but to isolation, pressure, and the uncomfortable position of having a nuclear arsenal pointed at you.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/801vbeke.asp
MILITARY THAIS - JOHN HASEMAN AND EDUARDO LACHICA (WALL STREET JOURNAL, OCTOBER 8): Cutting America's contacts with the Thai military is hardly the best way to promote an early return to democracy.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1160345672...ain_europe_asia
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
JOURNALIST CRITICAL OF CHECHEN WAR IS SHOT DEAD - C. J. CHIVERS (INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 8): Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has been one of the world's more difficult and dangerous countries for journalists. The climate has continued in recent years; at least 12 journalists have been killed in Russia in contract-style murders since 2000, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file....1008journo.php
OUR FAILURE IN EUROPE'S EAST - BRUCE P. JACKSON (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 8): Instead of combining our efforts with those of the European Union to end the isolation of Europe's East, we have allowed the fecklessness of the European Union and the impatience of U.S. policy to re-create what the Soviet Union used to call its "near abroad."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0601388_pf.html
GEORGIA: THE THREAT OF OVERHEATING - (RFE/RL, OCTOBER 6): Some commentators see the latest confrontation between Georgia and Russia as another test of wills between Russia and the United States for influence in what Moscow considers its backyard.
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/...b01950fc05.html
BUSH'S BORDER SECURITY: MEXICAN OPINION NOT ON THE FENCE - EDWARD M. GOMEZ (SF GATE OCTOBER 6): The 700-mile wall that George W. Bush's Republican-led Congress wants to build along the U.S.-Mexico border isn't what the United States' southern neighbors want.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/det...5&entry_id=9568
SANCTIONING LAWLESSNESS - DAVID COLE (NATION, OCTOBER 5): The world at large is the community before which we will need to defend ourselves if we send Guantanamo detainees, even those who are admittedly "the worst of the worst," to their death through trials that fail to meet basic guarantees of fairness, preclude meaningful judicial review and allow the use of coercive interrogation. We are losing on the battlefield of world opinion.
http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20061023&s=cole
HUMAN RIGHTS: HOW GUANTANAMO'S PRISONERS WERE SOLD - CLIVE STAFFORD SMITH (NEW STATESMAN, OCTOBER 9): "Many of my clients in Cuba insist that, far from being captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan, they were grabbed in Pakistan and flogged to the Americans, like slaves at auction." (Clive Stafford Smith, the legal director of Reprieve, a UK charity fighting for the lives of people facing the death penalty and other human-rights abuses, represents 36 prisoners in Guantanamo.)
http://www.newstatesman.com/200610090029
AT GUANTANAMO: HARD TIME AND A VIEW OF WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN: DETAINEES AT A NEW CAMP WILL SEE ONLY A SLIVER OF A COMMON AREA; ISOLATION HAS BECOME THE NORM - CAROL J. WILLIAMS (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 7)
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/a...1,1844572.story
THE BEST FOR THE WORST - JACOB SULLUM (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 8): Since Congress has chosen to confirm the president's power grab with the Military Commissions Act regarding detainees instead of checking it, the Supreme Court will decide whether this is a country where people can be snatched off the street as enemies of the state and never heard from again.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...07-104918-1699r
HABEAS CORPUS SELLOUT - NAT HENTOFF (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 9): The Military Commissions Act of 2006 makes it impossible for our detainees anywhere in the world to protest in our courts that their conditions of confinement violate the humane standards of the Geneva Conventions.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...08-101402-8020r
BE AFRAID, AMERICA. BE VERY AFRAID - BRADLEY BURSTON (HAARETZ, OCTOBER 8): What if the terrorist you're looking for is not an Arab, not a Muslim, not swarthy and foreign-born and, yes, alien? What if he looks and acts the way Americans used to believe that real Americans were supposed to look: cool, quiet, Christian and, yes, white?
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/770409.html
REPORT: THOUSANDS WRONGLY ON TERROR LIST - ASSOCIATED PRESS (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 8): Thousands of people have been mistakenly linked to names on terror watch lists when they crossed the border, boarded commercial airliners or were stopped for traffic violations, a government report said Friday.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Terr...agewanted=print
BUSH'S TERRORISM HYPOCRISY - JIM LOBE (ANTIWAR.COM, OCTOBER 7): The administration's efforts to find a foreign refuge for Luis Posada Carriles -- implicated in the bombing of Cubana Flight 455 shortly after it left Barbados en route to Havana, killing all 73 people aboard -- and its refusal to charge him under the Patriot Act have naturally spurred charges of double standards in light of the priority that it has placed on its "global war on terrorism."
http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=9815
DEFEATING INTERNET TERRORISTS - JOSHUA SINAI (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 8): Required are new counterterrorism "armies" possessing new strategies, capabilities, tactics and cyber weapons to counteract the Jihadi Web sites.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...07-104915-3656r
TERRORIST COUNTDOWN DISTRACTION - JAMES JAY CARAFANO (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 8): Declaring that the war on terror is "creating more terrorists" than it's getting rid of is more of a bumper-sticker slogan than a serious attempt to gauge our progress in this long war. Americans deserve better than empty rhetoric.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...07-104917-5724r
THE 'WAR' SHOULD BE NOT ONLY A WAR - ROBERT HUTCHINGS (INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 6): Surely, when all 16 of America's intelligence agencies declare that the terrorist threat is spreading and intensifying, this should be reason enough for the country to seriously rethink the "war on terror." An effective strategy must equally address the grievances, many of them legitimate, on which the jihadist movement depends.
http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file...ion/edhutch.php
WHY WE ARE STILL GETTING IT SO WRONG IN THE 'WAR ON TERROR': THE ILL-CONCEIVED AND BADLY EXECUTED CAMPAIGN IN IRAQ IS DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR SPAWNING A NEW GENERATION OF TERRORISTS - HENRY PORTER (GUARDIAN, UK/COMMON DREAMS, OCTOBER 7)
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1007-22.htm
CONTRACTS AWARDED - JUDITH MBUYA (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 9): CACI International Inc. of Arlington won a $12.4 million, two-year contract from the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security to continue supporting the bureau in operations, maintenance and development of worldwide security, and law enforcement information technology systems.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6100800522.html
AN AD-MANS SNAPSHOT OF THE US - JACKIE WULLSCHLAGER (FINANCIAL TIMES, OCTOBER 6): 21st-century American art, created in the shadow of 9/11 and the Iraq war, has a distinctiveness and seriousness that now matters internationally, as witnessed by an invasion of contemporary and historical shows in Europe this autumn -- the Serpentine's Uncertain States of America, Frankfurt's I Like America, the Pompidou's Rauschenberg retrospective hot on the heels of its Los Angeles show.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/74c26f78-5563-11db...00779e2340.html
BRANDS THAT STOP AT THE BORDER - GERRIT WIESMANN (FINANCIAL TIMES, OCTOBER 5): What makes the Big Mac global burger great, says the chief executive of consumer products group Henkel, is that consumers want to buy the same thing with the same name all over the world.
https://registration.ft.com/registration/ba...00779e2340.html
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
--President George W. Bush; cited in Cenk Uygur, "The Worst Talking Point Ever: The Comma" (Huffington Post, October 4)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/t...-e_b_30964.html
SEE ALSO
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/10/05/t...bout-the-comma/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEJY6g-Z3nE&eurl=
NORTH KOREA - ROGUE STATE OR NEXT TIGER? - JOHN GARNAUT (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, AUSTRALIA, OCTOBER 8): It is national policy in Washington, Tokyo and Canberra to view North Korea exclusively through the lens of its apocalyptic public diplomacy.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/north-...0246011402.html
THE AGE OF TERROR -- A LANDMARK REPORT - ROBERT FISK (INDEPENDENT, OCTOBER 8/ ZNET, MA): Remarkably the US still believes that it is increasingly loathed in the Arab world not because of its policies but because its policies are not being presented fairly. It's not a political problem, it's a public-relations problem. Hence, the appointment of Karen Hughes as US "Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy."
http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article....53§ionID=22
IRAQ: TWO VERSIONS OF THE SAME REPORT - GUY W. FARMER (NEVADA APPEAL, OCTOBER 8): If we are to effectively communicate our foreign policy goals and objectives to the "Muslim mainstream," we must find a way to reinvent the specialized U.S. Information Agency (USIA), which was abolished by the Clinton administration seven years ago and merged into the sprawling State Department. Unfortunately, President Bush's personal choice as his public-diplomacy czarina, alleged message maven Karen Hughes, has been unable to craft a coherent message that most Muslims can accept and/or understand.
http://www.nevadaappeal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...mplate=printart
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO RUMMY - FROM A SECRET MEMO TITLED "ILLUSTRATIVE NEW 21ST CENTURY INSTITUTIONS AND APPROACHES" OBTAINED BY JOURNALIST BOB WOODWARD (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 8): "Strategic communications ... A new U.S. agency for global communication could serve as a channel to inform, educate and compete in the battle for ideas. ... Today the centers of gravity of the conflict in Iraq and the global war on terror are not on battlefields overseas. Rather, the center of gravity of this war are on the centers of public opinion in the U.S. and in the capitals of free nations."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0601384_pf.html
EXPORTING DEATH AS DEMOCRACY: AN ESSAY ON U.S. FOREIGN POLICY IN LEBANON - IRENE L. GENDZIER (ZNET, OCTOBER 5, 2006): In 1983, a Memorandum entitled, "Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy Strategies for Lebanon and the Middle East," prepared for the Chair of the International Political Committee and signed by Robert C. McFarlane, as Chairman of the Special Planning Group of the National Security Council, argued for "an effective short-term strategy which coherently argues why Lebanon is of strategic importance to the United States..." -- information that would "penetrate the twelve media centers in the U.S." in addition to reaching out to business, labor, special interest groups, as well as educational and religious institutions with the assistance of reliable "heavy hitters." The above memo was as applicable in 2006 as it when issued in 1983.
http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article....23§ionID=22
A PANEL (AND MEDIA SIGHTINGS) - ANKUSH (PENGUINS ON THE EQUATOR, OCTOBER 7): Ali Soufan -- the FBI agent who, according to Lawrence Wright in "The Agent," came heart-breakingly close to connecting enough dots to prevent 9/11 -- wants the US to engage with people in the Middle East in a meaningful public diplomacy effort.
http://penguinsontheequator.blogspot.com/2...-sightings.html
AL-JAZEERA AND ISRAEL - MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, OCTOBER 6): From an American public diplomacy perspective, it's hard to believe that even Israel gets more high ranking politicians on to al-Jazeera talk shows than does the United States, whose senior officials are regularly invited but have gone back to a surly de facto boycott of al-Jazeera since Lebanon. This hurts America more than it hurts al-Jazeera, and it's a shame.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...eera_and_i.html
AL-JAZEERA'S WORTH - NABIL A. RAHMAN, RALEIGH (LETTER TO THE EDITOR, NEWS & OBSERVER, NC, OCTOBER 8): Al-Jazeera is a highly reputable news source in the Middle East. Alberto Fernandez, the U.S. State Department's director of public diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, is a frequent guest in its live dialogues.
http://www.newsobserver.com/580/story/495491.html
PSY-OPS JOURNALISM: WASHINGTON'S BUDDING NEW INDUSTRY - ALVIN SNYDER (PUBLIC DIPLOMACY LOG, USC CENTER ON PUBLIC DIPLOMACY, OCTOBER 7): Some $400 million in media consulting contracts has been awarded during the past few years by the Pentagon, for the purpose of helping "to effectively communicate Iraqi government and Coalition goals with strategic audiences." Thus far both the Pentagon and its contract psy-op journalists have experienced a painful learning curve, but the most recent contract award will show how much each has learned. The outlook is not promising.
http://uscpublicdiplomacy.com/index.php/ne...g_new_industry/
U.S. CASUALTIES IN IRAQ RISE SHARPLY: GROWING AMERICAN ROLE IN STAVING OFF CIVIL WAR LEADS TO MOST WOUNDED SINCE 2004 - ANN SCOTT TYSON (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 8)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6100700907.html
THE TWO FACES OF IRAQ - SAMI MOUBAYED (ASIA TIMES, OCTOBER 7): The last thing Iraqis need are the confronting words of the US secretary of state, who seems to care little for the number of Iraqis dying per day, and the ineffective US military in the country, which is unable to end the raging insurgency.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HJ07Ak02.html
LISTEN TO THE IRAQIS - NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 8): Iraqis are crystal clear about what the U.S. should do: announce a timetable for withdrawal of our troops within one year. They're right.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/opini...agewanted=print
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MALIKI'S MOMENT - REVIEW & OUTLOOK (WALL STREET JOURNAL, OCTOBER 9): Iraqis have to make their own political compromises to limit the incentive for violence, and sooner rather than later. The time has long since passed where the U.S. can play anything other than a supporting role in Iraq.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1160...7294386227.html
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AMERICA PONDERS CUTTING IRAQ IN THREE - SARAH BAXTER (SUNDAY TIMES, OCTOBER 8): The Iraq Study Group, co-chaired by James Baker, the former US secretary of state, may recommend carving up Iraq into three highly autonomous regions, according to well informed sources.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2393750,00.html
BLUNKETT BLAMES CHENEY, RUMSFELD; BAKER COMMISSION TO ACCEPT 3-REGION SOLUTION? - JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, OCTOBER 8): "A loose federal Iraq with 3 semi-autonomous regions is a very bad idea for so many reasons it would take me forever to list them all ... the Arab and Muslim worlds would ever forgive the US for breaking up Iraq, and there are likely to be reprisals if it happens."
http://www.juancole.com/
(scroll down link for item)
ONE IRAQ OR THREE? - EDITORIAL (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 8): A decision by Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis to separate would effectively portend the end of that country.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...newsopinion-hed
TIME FOR ACTION -- NOT RHETORIC -- IN IRAQ - REP. JOHN MURTHA (HUFFINGTON POST, OCTOBER 6)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-john-mur...rh_b_31107.html
THE MOST OUTRAGEOUS SCANDAL? BUSH'S IRAQ POLICY - SEN. RUSS FEINGOLD (HUFFINGTON POST, OCTOBER 5)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-russ-fei...html?view=print
LOSING THE WILL TO FIGHT - PATRICK J. BUCHANAN (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, OCTOBER 9): Despite all the propaganda about Islamofascism and the coming caliphate, Americans do not see the war in Iraq as an existential crisis. They do not want to lose the war but are unwilling to pay a much higher price in blood and treasure to win it.
http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_10_09/buchanan.html
HISTORICAL ROOTS AND PATTERNS OF CONFLICT: THE US, ISRAEL AND LEBANON - DAVID GREEN (COUNTERPUNCH, OCTOBER 7/8): The destructive and lethal forces unleashed this past summer by the United States and Israel upon Lebanon are not surprising in light of their historical roots. As American and Israeli efforts to control events in the Middle East become increasingly problematic, there are increased efforts to re-cast the conflict in terms of a "clash of civilizations" between "Judeo-Christians" and "Islamo-fascists."
http://www.counterpunch.org/green10072006.html
THE STRUGGLE FOR PALESTINE'S SOUL - JONATHAN COOK (ANTIWAR.COM, OCTOBER 7): If the goal of establishing a Palestinian state cannot be realized, then the danger is that many Palestinians will look elsewhere for their liberation, not necessarily in national but in wider, regional and religious terms. Do Israel and the United States not understand this?
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/cook.php?articleid=9812
THE ISRAELI LOBBY: DOES IT HAVE TOO MUCH INFLUENCE ON US FOREIGN POLICY? - POSTED BY MICHAEL CERVIERI (SCRIBEMEDIA, OCTOBER 3): A debate took place at Cooper Union in New York City and was captured by ScribeMedia on behalf of the London Review of Books. Panelists: John Mearsheimer; Shlomo Ben-Ami; Martin Indyk; Tony Judt; Rashid Khalidi; Dennis Ross.
http://blog.scribestudio.com/articles/2006...-foreign-policy
VIA
http://www.juancole.com/
THE MYSTERY OF AMERICA - GIDEON LEVY (HAARETZ, OCTOBER 8): In the Middle East, the U.S. has an opportunity to fundamentally change its image, from a warmonger to a peacemaker. And how does the U.S. respond to the challenge? It sends Rice to tell the excited Israeli Prime minister Ehud Olmert how she falls asleep easily on her unnecessary and ridiculous flights to and from the Middle East.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/771541.html
RICE'S TOUR OF MIDEAST YIELDS LITTLE PROGRESS ON KEY ISSUES - ROBIN WRIGHT (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 8): A wide range of senior Arab officials, who all spoke on background because of sensitive diplomacy with Washington, asserted that the administration's brick-by-brick approach to transforming the Middle East is so minimalist that it is unlikely to make significant progress during President Bush's remaining time in office.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6100700699.html
RICE'S BAFFLING MIDEAST TRIP: DODGING BULLETS WHILE HYPING PROGRESS IS NOT A CONVINCING PERFORMANCE BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE - EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 8)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-...pinion-leftrail
CONDI ON THE RUN - (WONKETTE, OCTOBER 6): Why the Secretary of State's sudden Middle East jaunt? Two reasons: She was either handing out ultimatums and bribes to the regional lackeys because the Iran War starts October 21, or she was shuffled out of Washington to wait out the latest Woodward-9/11 revelations -- that she received and deliberately ignored and then perjured herself over the 9/11 warnings she got two months before the attacks.
http://www.wonkette.com/politics/iraq/cond...-run-205903.php
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COALITION BUILDING BETTER: CHALLENGING THE ASSUMPTIONS OF THE EUROPEANS - SAUL SINGER (NATIONAL REVIEW, OCTOBER 6): If Bush made "radical but undeniably sensible demands of Arab states, he would be paving the right path to peace."
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZDQ2M...jlmZWU4YTRjMGY=
FROM BUDAPEST TO BAGHDAD: IN A LONG-AGO REVOLUTION, ECHOES FOR TODAY - ROGER COHEN (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 8): At this 50th anniversary of the Hungarian revolution, once again, in Middle Eastern guise, the United States confronts issues of containment or rollback, of moral principle or pragmatic caution, of liberty or stability.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/weekinre...agewanted=print
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5 YEARS LATER, AFGHANISTAN PAYS FOR SINS OF OMISSION - ALI AHMAD JALALI (BALTIMORE SUN, OCTOBER 8): (Ali Ahmad Jalali was interior minister of Afghanistan from January 2003 to October 2005.)
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
AFGHANISTAN: FIVE YEARS LATER - DONALD H. RUMSFELD (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 7): What matters is the overall trajectory: Where do things stand today when compared to what they were five years ago? In Afghanistan, the trajectory is a hopeful and promising one.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0601373_pf.html
HE HUFFS AND HE PUFFS: NORTH KOREA'S DEAR LEADER THREATENS TO EXPLODE A NUKE - DAN BLUMENTHAL (WEEKLY STANDARD, OCTOBER 16): The lesson we should be teaching Pyongyang is that breaking your commitment to non-nuclearization leads not to concession after concession, but to isolation, pressure, and the uncomfortable position of having a nuclear arsenal pointed at you.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/801vbeke.asp
MILITARY THAIS - JOHN HASEMAN AND EDUARDO LACHICA (WALL STREET JOURNAL, OCTOBER 8): Cutting America's contacts with the Thai military is hardly the best way to promote an early return to democracy.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1160345672...ain_europe_asia
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JOURNALIST CRITICAL OF CHECHEN WAR IS SHOT DEAD - C. J. CHIVERS (INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 8): Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has been one of the world's more difficult and dangerous countries for journalists. The climate has continued in recent years; at least 12 journalists have been killed in Russia in contract-style murders since 2000, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file....1008journo.php
OUR FAILURE IN EUROPE'S EAST - BRUCE P. JACKSON (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 8): Instead of combining our efforts with those of the European Union to end the isolation of Europe's East, we have allowed the fecklessness of the European Union and the impatience of U.S. policy to re-create what the Soviet Union used to call its "near abroad."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0601388_pf.html
GEORGIA: THE THREAT OF OVERHEATING - (RFE/RL, OCTOBER 6): Some commentators see the latest confrontation between Georgia and Russia as another test of wills between Russia and the United States for influence in what Moscow considers its backyard.
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/...b01950fc05.html
BUSH'S BORDER SECURITY: MEXICAN OPINION NOT ON THE FENCE - EDWARD M. GOMEZ (SF GATE OCTOBER 6): The 700-mile wall that George W. Bush's Republican-led Congress wants to build along the U.S.-Mexico border isn't what the United States' southern neighbors want.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/det...5&entry_id=9568
SANCTIONING LAWLESSNESS - DAVID COLE (NATION, OCTOBER 5): The world at large is the community before which we will need to defend ourselves if we send Guantanamo detainees, even those who are admittedly "the worst of the worst," to their death through trials that fail to meet basic guarantees of fairness, preclude meaningful judicial review and allow the use of coercive interrogation. We are losing on the battlefield of world opinion.
http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20061023&s=cole
HUMAN RIGHTS: HOW GUANTANAMO'S PRISONERS WERE SOLD - CLIVE STAFFORD SMITH (NEW STATESMAN, OCTOBER 9): "Many of my clients in Cuba insist that, far from being captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan, they were grabbed in Pakistan and flogged to the Americans, like slaves at auction." (Clive Stafford Smith, the legal director of Reprieve, a UK charity fighting for the lives of people facing the death penalty and other human-rights abuses, represents 36 prisoners in Guantanamo.)
http://www.newstatesman.com/200610090029
AT GUANTANAMO: HARD TIME AND A VIEW OF WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN: DETAINEES AT A NEW CAMP WILL SEE ONLY A SLIVER OF A COMMON AREA; ISOLATION HAS BECOME THE NORM - CAROL J. WILLIAMS (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 7)
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/a...1,1844572.story
THE BEST FOR THE WORST - JACOB SULLUM (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 8): Since Congress has chosen to confirm the president's power grab with the Military Commissions Act regarding detainees instead of checking it, the Supreme Court will decide whether this is a country where people can be snatched off the street as enemies of the state and never heard from again.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...07-104918-1699r
HABEAS CORPUS SELLOUT - NAT HENTOFF (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 9): The Military Commissions Act of 2006 makes it impossible for our detainees anywhere in the world to protest in our courts that their conditions of confinement violate the humane standards of the Geneva Conventions.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...08-101402-8020r
BE AFRAID, AMERICA. BE VERY AFRAID - BRADLEY BURSTON (HAARETZ, OCTOBER 8): What if the terrorist you're looking for is not an Arab, not a Muslim, not swarthy and foreign-born and, yes, alien? What if he looks and acts the way Americans used to believe that real Americans were supposed to look: cool, quiet, Christian and, yes, white?
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/770409.html
REPORT: THOUSANDS WRONGLY ON TERROR LIST - ASSOCIATED PRESS (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 8): Thousands of people have been mistakenly linked to names on terror watch lists when they crossed the border, boarded commercial airliners or were stopped for traffic violations, a government report said Friday.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Terr...agewanted=print
BUSH'S TERRORISM HYPOCRISY - JIM LOBE (ANTIWAR.COM, OCTOBER 7): The administration's efforts to find a foreign refuge for Luis Posada Carriles -- implicated in the bombing of Cubana Flight 455 shortly after it left Barbados en route to Havana, killing all 73 people aboard -- and its refusal to charge him under the Patriot Act have naturally spurred charges of double standards in light of the priority that it has placed on its "global war on terrorism."
http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=9815
DEFEATING INTERNET TERRORISTS - JOSHUA SINAI (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 8): Required are new counterterrorism "armies" possessing new strategies, capabilities, tactics and cyber weapons to counteract the Jihadi Web sites.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...07-104915-3656r
TERRORIST COUNTDOWN DISTRACTION - JAMES JAY CARAFANO (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 8): Declaring that the war on terror is "creating more terrorists" than it's getting rid of is more of a bumper-sticker slogan than a serious attempt to gauge our progress in this long war. Americans deserve better than empty rhetoric.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...07-104917-5724r
THE 'WAR' SHOULD BE NOT ONLY A WAR - ROBERT HUTCHINGS (INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 6): Surely, when all 16 of America's intelligence agencies declare that the terrorist threat is spreading and intensifying, this should be reason enough for the country to seriously rethink the "war on terror." An effective strategy must equally address the grievances, many of them legitimate, on which the jihadist movement depends.
http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file...ion/edhutch.php
WHY WE ARE STILL GETTING IT SO WRONG IN THE 'WAR ON TERROR': THE ILL-CONCEIVED AND BADLY EXECUTED CAMPAIGN IN IRAQ IS DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR SPAWNING A NEW GENERATION OF TERRORISTS - HENRY PORTER (GUARDIAN, UK/COMMON DREAMS, OCTOBER 7)
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1007-22.htm
CONTRACTS AWARDED - JUDITH MBUYA (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 9): CACI International Inc. of Arlington won a $12.4 million, two-year contract from the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security to continue supporting the bureau in operations, maintenance and development of worldwide security, and law enforcement information technology systems.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6100800522.html
AN AD-MANS SNAPSHOT OF THE US - JACKIE WULLSCHLAGER (FINANCIAL TIMES, OCTOBER 6): 21st-century American art, created in the shadow of 9/11 and the Iraq war, has a distinctiveness and seriousness that now matters internationally, as witnessed by an invasion of contemporary and historical shows in Europe this autumn -- the Serpentine's Uncertain States of America, Frankfurt's I Like America, the Pompidou's Rauschenberg retrospective hot on the heels of its Los Angeles show.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/74c26f78-5563-11db...00779e2340.html
BRANDS THAT STOP AT THE BORDER - GERRIT WIESMANN (FINANCIAL TIMES, OCTOBER 5): What makes the Big Mac global burger great, says the chief executive of consumer products group Henkel, is that consumers want to buy the same thing with the same name all over the world.
https://registration.ft.com/registration/ba...00779e2340.html
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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HJ12Ak01.html
HOW HEZBOLLAH DEFEATED ISRAEL
PART 1: Winning the intelligence war
By Alastair Crooke and Mark Perry
Introduction
Writing five years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, US military expert Anthony Cordesman published an account of the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict. "Preliminary Lessons of the Israeli-Hezbollah War" created enormous interest in the Pentagon, where it was studied by planners for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and passed hand-to-hand among military experts in Washington. Cordesman made no secret of his modest conclusions, rightly recognizing that his study was not only "preliminary", but that it took no account of how Hezbollah fought the conflict or judged its results.
"This analysis is ... limited," Cordesman noted, "by the fact that no matching visit was made to Lebanon and to the Hezbollah." Incomplete though it might have been, Cordesman's study accomplished two goals: it provided a foundation for understanding the war from the Israeli point of view and it raised questions on how and how well Hezbollah fought. Nearly two months after the end of the Israeli-Hezbollah war, it is now possible to fill in some of the lines left blank by Cordesman.
The portrait that we give here is also limited. Hezbollah officials will neither speak publicly nor for the record on how they fought the conflict, will not detail their deployments, and will not discuss their future strategy. Even so, the lessons of the war from Hezbollah's perspective are now beginning to emerge and some small lessons are being derived from it by US and Israeli strategic planners. Our conclusions are based on on-the-ground assessments conducted during the course of the war, on interviews with Israeli, American and European military experts, on emerging understandings of the conflict in discussions with military strategists, and on a network of senior officials in the Middle East who were intensively interested in the war's outcome and with whom we have spoken.
Our overall conclusion contradicts the current point of view being retailed by some White House and Israeli officials: that Israel's offensive in Lebanon significantly damaged Hezbollah's ability to wage war, that Israel successfully degraded Hezbollah's military ability to prevail in a future conflict, and that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), once deployed in large numbers in southern Lebanon, were able to prevail over their foes and dictate a settlement favorable to the Israeli political establishment.
Just the opposite is true. From the onset of the conflict to its last operations, Hezbollah commanders successfully penetrated Israel's strategic and tactical decision-making cycle across a spectrum of intelligence, military and political operations, with the result that Hezbollah scored a decisive and complete victory in its war with Israel.
The intelligence war
In the wake of the conflict, Hezbollah general secretary Hassan Nasrallah admitted that Israel's military response to the abduction of two of its soldiers and the killing of eight others at 9:04 on the morning of July 12 came as a surprise to the Hezbollah leadership.
Nasrallah's comment ended press reports that Hezbollah set out purposely to provoke a war with Israel and that the abductions had been part of a plan approved by Hezbollah and Iran. While Hezbollah had made it clear over a period of years that it intended to abduct Israeli soldiers, there was good reason to suppose that it would not do so in the middle of the summer months - when large numbers of affluent Shi'ite families from the diaspora would be visiting Lebanon (and spending their money in the Shi'ite community), and when Gulf Arabs were expected to arrive in large numbers in the country.
Nor is it the case, as was initially reported, that Hezbollah coordinated its activities with Hamas. Hamas was taken by surprise by the abductions and, while the Hamas leadership defended Hezbollah actions, in hindsight it is easy to see why they might not have been pleased by them: over the course of the conflict Israel launched multiple military operations against Hamas in Gaza, killing dozens of fighters and scores of civilians. The offensive went largely unnoticed in the West, thereby resuscitating the adage that "when the Middle East burns, the Palestinians are forgotten".
In truth, the abduction of the two Israeli soldiers and the killing of eight others took the Hezbollah leadership by surprise and was effected only because Hezbollah units on the Israeli border had standing orders to exploit Israeli military weaknesses. Nasrallah had himself long signaled Hezbollah's intent to kidnap Israeli soldiers, after former prime minister Ariel Sharon reneged on fulfilling his agreement to release all Hezbollah prisoners - three in all - during the last Hezbollah-Israeli prisoner exchange.
The abductions were, in fact, all too easy: Israeli soldiers near the border apparently violated standing operational procedures, left their vehicles in sight of Hezbollah emplacements, and did so while out of contact with higher-echelon commanders and while out of sight of covering fire.
We note that while the Western media consistently misreported the events on the Israeli-Lebanon border, Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper substantially confirmed this account: "A force of tanks and armored personnel carriers was immediately sent into Lebanon in hot pursuit. It was during this pursuit, at about 11am ... [a] Merkava tank drove over a powerful bomb, containing an estimated 200 to 300 kilograms of explosives, about 70 meters north of the border fence. The tank was almost completely destroyed, and all four crew members were killed instantly. Over the next several hours, IDF soldiers waged a fierce fight against Hezbollah gunmen ... During the course of this battle, at about 3pm, another soldier was killed and two were lightly wounded."
The abductions marked the beginning of a series of IDF blunders that were compounded by commanders who acted outside of their normal border procedures. Members of the patrol were on the last days of their deployment in the north and their guard was down. Nor is it the case that Hezbollah fighters killed the eight Israelis during their abduction of the two. The eight died when an IDF border commander, apparently embarrassed by his abrogation of standing procedures, ordered armored vehicles to pursue the kidnappers. The two armored vehicles ran into a network of Hezbollah anti-tank mines and were destroyed. The eight IDF soldiers died during this operation or as a result of combat actions that immediately followed it.
That an IDF unit could wander so close to the border without being covered by fire and could leave itself open to a Hezbollah attack has led Israeli officers to question whether the unit was acting outside the chain of command. An internal commission of inquiry was apparently convened by senior IDF commanders in the immediate aftermath of the incident to determine the facts in the matter and to review IDF procedures governing units acting along Israel's northern border. The results of that commission's findings have not yet been reported.
Despite being surprised by the Israeli response, Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon were placed on full alert within minutes of the kidnappings and arsenal commanders were alerted by their superiors. Hezbollah's robust and hardened defenses were the result of six years of diligent work, beginning with the Israeli withdrawal from the region in 2000. Many of the command bunkers designed and built by Hezbollah engineers were fortified, and a few were even air-conditioned.
The digging of the arsenals over the previous years had been accompanied by a program of deception, with some bunkers being constructed in the open and often under the eyes of Israeli drone vehicles or under the observation of Lebanese citizens with close ties to the Israelis. With few exceptions, these bunkers were decoys. The building of other bunkers went forward in areas kept hidden from the Lebanese population. The most important command bunkers and weapons-arsenal bunkers were dug deeply into Lebanon's rocky hills - to a depth of 40 meters. Nearly 600 separate ammunition and weapons bunkers were strategically placed in the region south of the Litani.
For security reasons, no single commander knew the location of each bunker and each distinct Hezbollah militia unit was assigned access to three bunkers only - a primary munitions bunker and two reserve bunkers, in case the primary bunker was destroyed. Separate primary and backup marshaling points were also designated for distinct combat units, which were tasked to arm and fight within specific combat areas. The security protocols for the marshaling of troops was diligently maintained. No single Hezbollah member had knowledge of the militia's entire bunker structure.
Hezbollah's primary arsenals and marshaling points were targeted by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) in the first 72 hours of the war. Israel's commanders had identified these bunkers through a mix of intelligence reports - signals intercepts from Hezbollah communications, satellite-reconnaissance photos gleaned from cooperative arrangements with the US military, photos analyzed as a result of IAF overflights of the region, photos from drone aircraft deployed over southern Lebanon and, most important, a network of trusted human-intelligence sources recruited by Israeli intelligence officers living in southern Lebanon, including a large number of foreign (non-Lebanese) nationals registered as guest workers in the country.
The initial attack on Hezbollah's marshaling points and major bunker complexes, which took place in the first 72 hours of the war, failed. On July 15, the IAF targeted Hezbollah's leadership in Beirut. This attack also failed. At no point during the war was any major Hezbollah political figure killed, despite Israel's constant insistence that the organization's senior leadership had suffered losses.
According to one US official who observed the war closely, the IAF's air offensive degraded "perhaps only 7%" of the total military resource assets available to Hezbollah's fighters in the first three days of fighting and added that, in his opinion, Israeli air attacks on the Hezbollah leadership were "absolutely futile".
Reports that the Hezbollah senior leadership had taken refuge in the Iranian Embassy in Beirut (untouched during Israel's aerial offensive) are not true, though it is not known precisely where the Hezbollah leadership did take shelter. "Not even I knew where I was," Hezbollah leader Nasrallah told one of his associates. Even with all of this, it is not the case that the Israeli military's plans to destroy Lebanon's infrastructure resulted from the IAF's inability to degrade Hezbollah's military capacity in the war's first days.
The Israeli military's plans called for an early and sustained bombardment of Lebanon's major highways and ports in addition to its plans to destroy Hezbollah military and political assets. The Israeli government made no secret of its intent - to undercut Hezbollah's support in the Christian, Sunni and Druze communities. That idea, to punish Lebanon for harboring Hezbollah and so turn the people against the militia, had been a part of Israel's plan since the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000.
While IDF officials confidently and publicly announced success in their offensive, their commanders recommended that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert approve increased air sorties against potential Hezbollah caches in marginal target areas at the end of the first week of the bombing. Olmert approved these attacks, while knowing that in making such a request his senior officers had all but admitted that their initial assessment of the damage inflicted on Hezbollah was exaggerated.
Qana was the result of Olmert's agreement to "stretch the target envelope". One US military expert who monitored the conflict closely had this to say of the Qana bombing: "This isn't really that complicated. After the failure of the initial campaign, IAF planning officers went back through their target folders to see if they had missed anything. When they decided they hadn't, someone probably stood up and went into the other room and returned with a set of new envelopes of targets in densely populated areas and said, 'Hey, what about these target envelopes?' And so they did it." That is, the bombing of targets "close in" to southern Lebanon population areas was the result of Israel's failure in the war - not its success.
The "target stretching" escalated throughout the conflict; frustrated by their inability to identify and destroy major Hezbollah military assets, the IAF began targeting schools, community centers and mosques - under the belief that their inability to identify and interdict Hezbollah bunkers signaled Hezbollah's willingness to hide their major assets inside civilian centers.
IAF officers also argued that Hezbollah's ability to continue its rocket attacks on Israel meant that its militia was being continually resupplied. Qana is a crossroads, the junction of five separate highways, and in the heart of Hezbollah territory. Interdicting the Qana supply chain provided the IAF the opportunity to prove that Hezbollah was only capable of sustaining its operations because of its supply-dependence on the crossroads town. In truth, however, IDF senior commanders knew that expanding the number of targets in Lebanon would probably do little to degrade Hezbollah capabilities because Hezbollah was maintaining its attacks without any hope of resupply and because of its dependence on weapons and rocket caches that had been hardened against Israeli interdiction. In the wake of Qana, in which 28 civilians were killed, Israel agreed to a 48-hour ceasefire.
The ceasefire provided the first evidence that Hezbollah had successfully withstood Israeli air attacks and was planning a sustained and prolonged defense of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah commanders honored the ceasefire at the orders of their political superiors. With one or two lone exceptions, no rockets were fired into Israel during this ceasefire period. While Hezbollah's capacity actually to "cease fire" was otherwise ignored by Israeli and Western intelligence experts, Hezbollah's ability to enforce discipline on its field commanders came as a distinctly unwanted shock to IDF senior commanders, who concluded that Hezbollah's communication's capabilities had survived Israel's air onslaught, that the Hezbollah leadership was in touch with its commanders on the ground, and that those commanders were able to maintain a robust communications network despite Israeli interdiction.
More simply, Hezbollah's ability to cease fire meant that Israel's goal of separating Hezbollah fighters from their command structure (considered a necessity by modern armies in waging a war on a sophisticated technological battlefield) had failed. The IDF's senior commanders could only come to one conclusion - its prewar information on Hezbollah military assets was, at best, woefully incomplete or, at worst, fatally wrong.
In fact, over a period of two years, Hezbollah intelligence officials had built a significant signals-counterintelligence capability. Throughout the war, Hezbollah commanders were able to predict when and where Israeli fighters and bombers would strike. Moreover, Hezbollah had identified key Israeli human-intelligence assets in Lebanon. One month prior to the abduction of the IDF border patrol and the subsequent Israeli attack, Lebanese intelligence officials had broken up an Israeli spy ring operating inside the country.
Lebanese (and Hezbollah) intelligence officials arrested at least 16 Israeli spies in Lebanon, though they failed to find or arrest the leader of the ring. Moreover, during two years from 2004 until the eve of the war, Hezbollah had successfully "turned" a number of Lebanese civilian assets reporting on the location of major Hezbollah military caches in southern Lebanon to Israeli intelligence officers. In some small number of crucially important cases, Hezbollah senior intelligence officials were able to "feed back" false information on their militia's most important emplacements to Israel - with the result that Israel target folders identified key emplacements that did not, in fact, exist.
Finally, Hezbollah's ability to intercept and "read" Israeli actions had a decisive impact on the coming ground war. Hezbollah intelligence officials had perfected their signals-intelligence capability to such an extent that they could intercept Israeli ground communications between Israeli military commanders. Israel, which depended on a highly sophisticated set of "frequency hopping" techniques that would allow their commanders to communicate with one another, underestimated Hezbollah's ability to master counter-signals technology. The result would have a crucial impact on Israel's calculation that surprise alone would provide the margin of victory for its soldiers.
It now is clear that the Israeli political establishment was shocked by the failure of its forces to accomplish its first military goals in the war - including the degradation of a significant number of Hezbollah arsenals and the destruction of Hezbollah's command capabilities.
But the Israeli political establishment had done almost nothing to prepare for the worst: the first meeting of the Israeli security cabinet in the wake of the July 12 abduction lasted only three hours. And while Olmert and his security cabinet demanded minute details of the IDF's plan for the first three days of the war, they failed to articulate clear political goals in the aftermath of the conflict or sketch out a political exit strategy should the offensive fail.
Olmert and the security cabinet violated the first principle of war - they showed contempt for their enemy. In many respects, Olmert and his cabinet were captives of an unquestioned belief in the efficacy of Israeli deterrence. Like the Israeli public, they viewed any questioning of IDF capabilities as sacrilege.
The Israeli intelligence failure during the conflict was catastrophic. It meant that, after the failure of Israel's air campaign to degrade Hezbollah assets significantly in the first 72 hours of the war, Israel's chance of winning a decisive victory against Hezbollah was increasingly, and highly, unlikely.
"Israel lost the war in the first three days," one US military expert said. "If you have that kind of surprise and you have that kind of firepower, you had better win. Otherwise, you're in for the long haul."
IDF senior officers concluded that, given the failure of the air campaign, they had only one choice - to invade Lebanon with ground troops in the hopes of destroying Hezbollah's will to prevail.
Next: Winning the ground war
Alastair Crooke and Mark Perry are the co-directors of Conflicts Forum, a London-based group dedicated to providing an opening to political Islam. Crooke is the former Middle East adviser to European Union High Representative Javier Solana and served as a staff member of the Mitchell Commission investigating the causes of the second intifada. Perry is a Washington, DC-based political consultant, author of six books on US history, and a former personal adviser to the late Yasser Arafat.
(Research for this article was provided by Madeleine Perry.)
(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing .)
HOW HEZBOLLAH DEFEATED ISRAEL
PART 1: Winning the intelligence war
By Alastair Crooke and Mark Perry
Introduction
Writing five years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, US military expert Anthony Cordesman published an account of the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict. "Preliminary Lessons of the Israeli-Hezbollah War" created enormous interest in the Pentagon, where it was studied by planners for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and passed hand-to-hand among military experts in Washington. Cordesman made no secret of his modest conclusions, rightly recognizing that his study was not only "preliminary", but that it took no account of how Hezbollah fought the conflict or judged its results.
"This analysis is ... limited," Cordesman noted, "by the fact that no matching visit was made to Lebanon and to the Hezbollah." Incomplete though it might have been, Cordesman's study accomplished two goals: it provided a foundation for understanding the war from the Israeli point of view and it raised questions on how and how well Hezbollah fought. Nearly two months after the end of the Israeli-Hezbollah war, it is now possible to fill in some of the lines left blank by Cordesman.
The portrait that we give here is also limited. Hezbollah officials will neither speak publicly nor for the record on how they fought the conflict, will not detail their deployments, and will not discuss their future strategy. Even so, the lessons of the war from Hezbollah's perspective are now beginning to emerge and some small lessons are being derived from it by US and Israeli strategic planners. Our conclusions are based on on-the-ground assessments conducted during the course of the war, on interviews with Israeli, American and European military experts, on emerging understandings of the conflict in discussions with military strategists, and on a network of senior officials in the Middle East who were intensively interested in the war's outcome and with whom we have spoken.
Our overall conclusion contradicts the current point of view being retailed by some White House and Israeli officials: that Israel's offensive in Lebanon significantly damaged Hezbollah's ability to wage war, that Israel successfully degraded Hezbollah's military ability to prevail in a future conflict, and that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), once deployed in large numbers in southern Lebanon, were able to prevail over their foes and dictate a settlement favorable to the Israeli political establishment.
Just the opposite is true. From the onset of the conflict to its last operations, Hezbollah commanders successfully penetrated Israel's strategic and tactical decision-making cycle across a spectrum of intelligence, military and political operations, with the result that Hezbollah scored a decisive and complete victory in its war with Israel.
The intelligence war
In the wake of the conflict, Hezbollah general secretary Hassan Nasrallah admitted that Israel's military response to the abduction of two of its soldiers and the killing of eight others at 9:04 on the morning of July 12 came as a surprise to the Hezbollah leadership.
Nasrallah's comment ended press reports that Hezbollah set out purposely to provoke a war with Israel and that the abductions had been part of a plan approved by Hezbollah and Iran. While Hezbollah had made it clear over a period of years that it intended to abduct Israeli soldiers, there was good reason to suppose that it would not do so in the middle of the summer months - when large numbers of affluent Shi'ite families from the diaspora would be visiting Lebanon (and spending their money in the Shi'ite community), and when Gulf Arabs were expected to arrive in large numbers in the country.
Nor is it the case, as was initially reported, that Hezbollah coordinated its activities with Hamas. Hamas was taken by surprise by the abductions and, while the Hamas leadership defended Hezbollah actions, in hindsight it is easy to see why they might not have been pleased by them: over the course of the conflict Israel launched multiple military operations against Hamas in Gaza, killing dozens of fighters and scores of civilians. The offensive went largely unnoticed in the West, thereby resuscitating the adage that "when the Middle East burns, the Palestinians are forgotten".
In truth, the abduction of the two Israeli soldiers and the killing of eight others took the Hezbollah leadership by surprise and was effected only because Hezbollah units on the Israeli border had standing orders to exploit Israeli military weaknesses. Nasrallah had himself long signaled Hezbollah's intent to kidnap Israeli soldiers, after former prime minister Ariel Sharon reneged on fulfilling his agreement to release all Hezbollah prisoners - three in all - during the last Hezbollah-Israeli prisoner exchange.
The abductions were, in fact, all too easy: Israeli soldiers near the border apparently violated standing operational procedures, left their vehicles in sight of Hezbollah emplacements, and did so while out of contact with higher-echelon commanders and while out of sight of covering fire.
We note that while the Western media consistently misreported the events on the Israeli-Lebanon border, Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper substantially confirmed this account: "A force of tanks and armored personnel carriers was immediately sent into Lebanon in hot pursuit. It was during this pursuit, at about 11am ... [a] Merkava tank drove over a powerful bomb, containing an estimated 200 to 300 kilograms of explosives, about 70 meters north of the border fence. The tank was almost completely destroyed, and all four crew members were killed instantly. Over the next several hours, IDF soldiers waged a fierce fight against Hezbollah gunmen ... During the course of this battle, at about 3pm, another soldier was killed and two were lightly wounded."
The abductions marked the beginning of a series of IDF blunders that were compounded by commanders who acted outside of their normal border procedures. Members of the patrol were on the last days of their deployment in the north and their guard was down. Nor is it the case that Hezbollah fighters killed the eight Israelis during their abduction of the two. The eight died when an IDF border commander, apparently embarrassed by his abrogation of standing procedures, ordered armored vehicles to pursue the kidnappers. The two armored vehicles ran into a network of Hezbollah anti-tank mines and were destroyed. The eight IDF soldiers died during this operation or as a result of combat actions that immediately followed it.
That an IDF unit could wander so close to the border without being covered by fire and could leave itself open to a Hezbollah attack has led Israeli officers to question whether the unit was acting outside the chain of command. An internal commission of inquiry was apparently convened by senior IDF commanders in the immediate aftermath of the incident to determine the facts in the matter and to review IDF procedures governing units acting along Israel's northern border. The results of that commission's findings have not yet been reported.
Despite being surprised by the Israeli response, Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon were placed on full alert within minutes of the kidnappings and arsenal commanders were alerted by their superiors. Hezbollah's robust and hardened defenses were the result of six years of diligent work, beginning with the Israeli withdrawal from the region in 2000. Many of the command bunkers designed and built by Hezbollah engineers were fortified, and a few were even air-conditioned.
The digging of the arsenals over the previous years had been accompanied by a program of deception, with some bunkers being constructed in the open and often under the eyes of Israeli drone vehicles or under the observation of Lebanese citizens with close ties to the Israelis. With few exceptions, these bunkers were decoys. The building of other bunkers went forward in areas kept hidden from the Lebanese population. The most important command bunkers and weapons-arsenal bunkers were dug deeply into Lebanon's rocky hills - to a depth of 40 meters. Nearly 600 separate ammunition and weapons bunkers were strategically placed in the region south of the Litani.
For security reasons, no single commander knew the location of each bunker and each distinct Hezbollah militia unit was assigned access to three bunkers only - a primary munitions bunker and two reserve bunkers, in case the primary bunker was destroyed. Separate primary and backup marshaling points were also designated for distinct combat units, which were tasked to arm and fight within specific combat areas. The security protocols for the marshaling of troops was diligently maintained. No single Hezbollah member had knowledge of the militia's entire bunker structure.
Hezbollah's primary arsenals and marshaling points were targeted by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) in the first 72 hours of the war. Israel's commanders had identified these bunkers through a mix of intelligence reports - signals intercepts from Hezbollah communications, satellite-reconnaissance photos gleaned from cooperative arrangements with the US military, photos analyzed as a result of IAF overflights of the region, photos from drone aircraft deployed over southern Lebanon and, most important, a network of trusted human-intelligence sources recruited by Israeli intelligence officers living in southern Lebanon, including a large number of foreign (non-Lebanese) nationals registered as guest workers in the country.
The initial attack on Hezbollah's marshaling points and major bunker complexes, which took place in the first 72 hours of the war, failed. On July 15, the IAF targeted Hezbollah's leadership in Beirut. This attack also failed. At no point during the war was any major Hezbollah political figure killed, despite Israel's constant insistence that the organization's senior leadership had suffered losses.
According to one US official who observed the war closely, the IAF's air offensive degraded "perhaps only 7%" of the total military resource assets available to Hezbollah's fighters in the first three days of fighting and added that, in his opinion, Israeli air attacks on the Hezbollah leadership were "absolutely futile".
Reports that the Hezbollah senior leadership had taken refuge in the Iranian Embassy in Beirut (untouched during Israel's aerial offensive) are not true, though it is not known precisely where the Hezbollah leadership did take shelter. "Not even I knew where I was," Hezbollah leader Nasrallah told one of his associates. Even with all of this, it is not the case that the Israeli military's plans to destroy Lebanon's infrastructure resulted from the IAF's inability to degrade Hezbollah's military capacity in the war's first days.
The Israeli military's plans called for an early and sustained bombardment of Lebanon's major highways and ports in addition to its plans to destroy Hezbollah military and political assets. The Israeli government made no secret of its intent - to undercut Hezbollah's support in the Christian, Sunni and Druze communities. That idea, to punish Lebanon for harboring Hezbollah and so turn the people against the militia, had been a part of Israel's plan since the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000.
While IDF officials confidently and publicly announced success in their offensive, their commanders recommended that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert approve increased air sorties against potential Hezbollah caches in marginal target areas at the end of the first week of the bombing. Olmert approved these attacks, while knowing that in making such a request his senior officers had all but admitted that their initial assessment of the damage inflicted on Hezbollah was exaggerated.
Qana was the result of Olmert's agreement to "stretch the target envelope". One US military expert who monitored the conflict closely had this to say of the Qana bombing: "This isn't really that complicated. After the failure of the initial campaign, IAF planning officers went back through their target folders to see if they had missed anything. When they decided they hadn't, someone probably stood up and went into the other room and returned with a set of new envelopes of targets in densely populated areas and said, 'Hey, what about these target envelopes?' And so they did it." That is, the bombing of targets "close in" to southern Lebanon population areas was the result of Israel's failure in the war - not its success.
The "target stretching" escalated throughout the conflict; frustrated by their inability to identify and destroy major Hezbollah military assets, the IAF began targeting schools, community centers and mosques - under the belief that their inability to identify and interdict Hezbollah bunkers signaled Hezbollah's willingness to hide their major assets inside civilian centers.
IAF officers also argued that Hezbollah's ability to continue its rocket attacks on Israel meant that its militia was being continually resupplied. Qana is a crossroads, the junction of five separate highways, and in the heart of Hezbollah territory. Interdicting the Qana supply chain provided the IAF the opportunity to prove that Hezbollah was only capable of sustaining its operations because of its supply-dependence on the crossroads town. In truth, however, IDF senior commanders knew that expanding the number of targets in Lebanon would probably do little to degrade Hezbollah capabilities because Hezbollah was maintaining its attacks without any hope of resupply and because of its dependence on weapons and rocket caches that had been hardened against Israeli interdiction. In the wake of Qana, in which 28 civilians were killed, Israel agreed to a 48-hour ceasefire.
The ceasefire provided the first evidence that Hezbollah had successfully withstood Israeli air attacks and was planning a sustained and prolonged defense of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah commanders honored the ceasefire at the orders of their political superiors. With one or two lone exceptions, no rockets were fired into Israel during this ceasefire period. While Hezbollah's capacity actually to "cease fire" was otherwise ignored by Israeli and Western intelligence experts, Hezbollah's ability to enforce discipline on its field commanders came as a distinctly unwanted shock to IDF senior commanders, who concluded that Hezbollah's communication's capabilities had survived Israel's air onslaught, that the Hezbollah leadership was in touch with its commanders on the ground, and that those commanders were able to maintain a robust communications network despite Israeli interdiction.
More simply, Hezbollah's ability to cease fire meant that Israel's goal of separating Hezbollah fighters from their command structure (considered a necessity by modern armies in waging a war on a sophisticated technological battlefield) had failed. The IDF's senior commanders could only come to one conclusion - its prewar information on Hezbollah military assets was, at best, woefully incomplete or, at worst, fatally wrong.
In fact, over a period of two years, Hezbollah intelligence officials had built a significant signals-counterintelligence capability. Throughout the war, Hezbollah commanders were able to predict when and where Israeli fighters and bombers would strike. Moreover, Hezbollah had identified key Israeli human-intelligence assets in Lebanon. One month prior to the abduction of the IDF border patrol and the subsequent Israeli attack, Lebanese intelligence officials had broken up an Israeli spy ring operating inside the country.
Lebanese (and Hezbollah) intelligence officials arrested at least 16 Israeli spies in Lebanon, though they failed to find or arrest the leader of the ring. Moreover, during two years from 2004 until the eve of the war, Hezbollah had successfully "turned" a number of Lebanese civilian assets reporting on the location of major Hezbollah military caches in southern Lebanon to Israeli intelligence officers. In some small number of crucially important cases, Hezbollah senior intelligence officials were able to "feed back" false information on their militia's most important emplacements to Israel - with the result that Israel target folders identified key emplacements that did not, in fact, exist.
Finally, Hezbollah's ability to intercept and "read" Israeli actions had a decisive impact on the coming ground war. Hezbollah intelligence officials had perfected their signals-intelligence capability to such an extent that they could intercept Israeli ground communications between Israeli military commanders. Israel, which depended on a highly sophisticated set of "frequency hopping" techniques that would allow their commanders to communicate with one another, underestimated Hezbollah's ability to master counter-signals technology. The result would have a crucial impact on Israel's calculation that surprise alone would provide the margin of victory for its soldiers.
It now is clear that the Israeli political establishment was shocked by the failure of its forces to accomplish its first military goals in the war - including the degradation of a significant number of Hezbollah arsenals and the destruction of Hezbollah's command capabilities.
But the Israeli political establishment had done almost nothing to prepare for the worst: the first meeting of the Israeli security cabinet in the wake of the July 12 abduction lasted only three hours. And while Olmert and his security cabinet demanded minute details of the IDF's plan for the first three days of the war, they failed to articulate clear political goals in the aftermath of the conflict or sketch out a political exit strategy should the offensive fail.
Olmert and the security cabinet violated the first principle of war - they showed contempt for their enemy. In many respects, Olmert and his cabinet were captives of an unquestioned belief in the efficacy of Israeli deterrence. Like the Israeli public, they viewed any questioning of IDF capabilities as sacrilege.
The Israeli intelligence failure during the conflict was catastrophic. It meant that, after the failure of Israel's air campaign to degrade Hezbollah assets significantly in the first 72 hours of the war, Israel's chance of winning a decisive victory against Hezbollah was increasingly, and highly, unlikely.
"Israel lost the war in the first three days," one US military expert said. "If you have that kind of surprise and you have that kind of firepower, you had better win. Otherwise, you're in for the long haul."
IDF senior officers concluded that, given the failure of the air campaign, they had only one choice - to invade Lebanon with ground troops in the hopes of destroying Hezbollah's will to prevail.
Next: Winning the ground war
Alastair Crooke and Mark Perry are the co-directors of Conflicts Forum, a London-based group dedicated to providing an opening to political Islam. Crooke is the former Middle East adviser to European Union High Representative Javier Solana and served as a staff member of the Mitchell Commission investigating the causes of the second intifada. Perry is a Washington, DC-based political consultant, author of six books on US history, and a former personal adviser to the late Yasser Arafat.
(Research for this article was provided by Madeleine Perry.)
(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing .)
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/1...middle_east.php
Deadly Silence On The Middle East
James Zogby
October 16, 2006
Dr. James J. Zogby is founder and president of the Arab American Institute.
In not a single House or Senate race being contested this year will the candidates engage in a serious debate about the failed U.S. policy in the Middle East. There are a number of races where the Iraq war is an issue, but in these instances the debate has more to do with how we got into the war, the mistakes we’ve made and how we should leave. There are, to be sure, supporters of the president’s vision (or fantasy) of the Iraq War, i.e. that we are producing a democracy that will transform the region. But in no case is there a serious discussion about Iraq itself or the consequences of our broader Middle East policy.
How can this be, especially given the reality of the horrible impact our polices have yielded for the people of the region in just the past few years?
We have created a mess. Iraq is a cauldron of explosive violence, with most of that country’s neighbors living in fear of its implosion. Iran, now emboldened by our failure in Iraq, has coupled inflammatory extremist rhetoric with a defiant nuclear challenge. Lebanon, still reeling after this summer’s devastating assault, is deeply divided with civil conflict looming on the horizon. The Palestinians have suffered from U.S. neglect of the peace process and the continued brutality of the occupation, both of which have contributed to a growth of extremism and the internal dissolution of their society. Meanwhile, Israel, the supposed ally, has fared no better, with war and occupation resulting in renewed isolation and insecurity. All of this points to a remarkable story of failure, and yet not a single campaign has challenged the polices that have brought us to this point.
Instead of debate, there is silence—as if the horrors of this past summer in Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq didn’t happen, and our policies in no way contributed to the mess both we and the peoples of the Middle East are in. There is, it appears, a bipartisan consensus in support of failure, with a resulting deadly silence.
There are two areas where the Middle East is being discussed. Some in both parties continue to demonstrate resolve to “end our dependency on Middle East oil.” This slogan has been crafted to falsely conflate several problems—terrorism, environmental concerns and anti-Arab sentiment. This campaign is profoundly misleading on so may levels (e.g.: we are dependent on oil, but not Middle East oil per se; environmental concerns are real and should be addressed, but Arab-baiting isn’t helpful in this regard; and generalizing Arab wealth and conflating it with “terror” is as racist as the old “Jewish banker” canard).
The other instance where the Middle East emerges as an issue in some campaigns is with the crowd that just can’t seem to let go of the DPW ports issue. Some Democratic campaigns are still seeking to “exploit” their “victory” on this issue—some in campaign materials and others in boasting phone calls to voters. Shameful. The Middle East poses too many critical challenges and it holds too many vital interests for this region to be treated so shabbily.
As I have noted before: in the past three decades, since the end of Vietnam, the U.S. has spent more foreign aid, shipped more weapons, sent more troops, fought more wars and lost more lives (even before Iraq) in the Middle East, than anywhere else in the world. We’ve also expended more political capital in one-sided diplomacy that refused to understand regional realities or recognize our broader interests, and we’ve created enormous animosity because of these failures. And yet, no debate.
I am often told that the reason is fear of offending powerful special interests (the “religious right” and hard-line pro-Israel Jewish groups). But polling shows that while many Americans do indeed support Israel, they want the administration to pursue policies that are balanced and support a just peace settlement (this is also true of polling within the Jewish community). Most Americans know that they do not understand the Middle East, see our polices as one-sided and failed, and want change. But, it appears they won’t get any change this year.
It’s too late to expect any meaningful debate to occur in 2006—but not too late to demand that is on the agenda for 2008. We simply cannot continue to alienate ourselves from the peoples of this critically important part of the world. We simply cannot persist in operating so blindly in a region whose peoples, culture and history we do not understand. We simply cannot allow those who seek to lead us to continue to refuse to confront our failures and to be silent. We should have debated our Middle East policies years ago. We did not. It is vitally important that the debate begin now.
Deadly Silence On The Middle East
James Zogby
October 16, 2006
Dr. James J. Zogby is founder and president of the Arab American Institute.
In not a single House or Senate race being contested this year will the candidates engage in a serious debate about the failed U.S. policy in the Middle East. There are a number of races where the Iraq war is an issue, but in these instances the debate has more to do with how we got into the war, the mistakes we’ve made and how we should leave. There are, to be sure, supporters of the president’s vision (or fantasy) of the Iraq War, i.e. that we are producing a democracy that will transform the region. But in no case is there a serious discussion about Iraq itself or the consequences of our broader Middle East policy.
How can this be, especially given the reality of the horrible impact our polices have yielded for the people of the region in just the past few years?
We have created a mess. Iraq is a cauldron of explosive violence, with most of that country’s neighbors living in fear of its implosion. Iran, now emboldened by our failure in Iraq, has coupled inflammatory extremist rhetoric with a defiant nuclear challenge. Lebanon, still reeling after this summer’s devastating assault, is deeply divided with civil conflict looming on the horizon. The Palestinians have suffered from U.S. neglect of the peace process and the continued brutality of the occupation, both of which have contributed to a growth of extremism and the internal dissolution of their society. Meanwhile, Israel, the supposed ally, has fared no better, with war and occupation resulting in renewed isolation and insecurity. All of this points to a remarkable story of failure, and yet not a single campaign has challenged the polices that have brought us to this point.
Instead of debate, there is silence—as if the horrors of this past summer in Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq didn’t happen, and our policies in no way contributed to the mess both we and the peoples of the Middle East are in. There is, it appears, a bipartisan consensus in support of failure, with a resulting deadly silence.
There are two areas where the Middle East is being discussed. Some in both parties continue to demonstrate resolve to “end our dependency on Middle East oil.” This slogan has been crafted to falsely conflate several problems—terrorism, environmental concerns and anti-Arab sentiment. This campaign is profoundly misleading on so may levels (e.g.: we are dependent on oil, but not Middle East oil per se; environmental concerns are real and should be addressed, but Arab-baiting isn’t helpful in this regard; and generalizing Arab wealth and conflating it with “terror” is as racist as the old “Jewish banker” canard).
The other instance where the Middle East emerges as an issue in some campaigns is with the crowd that just can’t seem to let go of the DPW ports issue. Some Democratic campaigns are still seeking to “exploit” their “victory” on this issue—some in campaign materials and others in boasting phone calls to voters. Shameful. The Middle East poses too many critical challenges and it holds too many vital interests for this region to be treated so shabbily.
As I have noted before: in the past three decades, since the end of Vietnam, the U.S. has spent more foreign aid, shipped more weapons, sent more troops, fought more wars and lost more lives (even before Iraq) in the Middle East, than anywhere else in the world. We’ve also expended more political capital in one-sided diplomacy that refused to understand regional realities or recognize our broader interests, and we’ve created enormous animosity because of these failures. And yet, no debate.
I am often told that the reason is fear of offending powerful special interests (the “religious right” and hard-line pro-Israel Jewish groups). But polling shows that while many Americans do indeed support Israel, they want the administration to pursue policies that are balanced and support a just peace settlement (this is also true of polling within the Jewish community). Most Americans know that they do not understand the Middle East, see our polices as one-sided and failed, and want change. But, it appears they won’t get any change this year.
It’s too late to expect any meaningful debate to occur in 2006—but not too late to demand that is on the agenda for 2008. We simply cannot continue to alienate ourselves from the peoples of this critically important part of the world. We simply cannot persist in operating so blindly in a region whose peoples, culture and history we do not understand. We simply cannot allow those who seek to lead us to continue to refuse to confront our failures and to be silent. We should have debated our Middle East policies years ago. We did not. It is vitally important that the debate begin now.
BUSH KEEPS REVISING WAR JUSTIFICATION - TOM RAUM, ASSOCIATED PRESS (SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN, NM, OCTOBER 16): For a while last summer, Bush depicted the war as one against "Islamic fascism," borrowing a phrase from conservative commentators. The "fascism" phrase abruptly disappeared from Bush's speeches, reportedly after he was talked out of it by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Karen Hughes, a longtime Bush confidante now with the State Department.
http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/50715.html
REMEMBER WHEN "W" STOOD FOR WOMEN? CALLING MAVIS LENO... - DEANNE STILLMAN (HUFFINGTON POLST, OCTOBER 9): The Taliban-like crews in Iraq are sending women back to the Stone Age. What must Laura Bush think? And Karen Hughes, who campaigned for Bush in 04, using the "W stands for women" line to appeal to soccer moms?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deanne-still...-f_b_31347.html
A CONVERSATION WITH JOHN KERRY - INTERVIEW BY BOB WOODWARD (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 15): Kerry: "What are we up against? What is this all about? Did these guys just attack us because this is part of Osama bin Laden's strategy for a greater caliphate in the Middle East, or are they attacking us for other reasons? ... And it seems to me that the transformational aspects of it require a much more massive kind of public diplomacy, global cooperation on religious issues as well as on economic issues and human rights and other issues, as it did the barrel of a gun."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1301393_pf.html
AXIS OF OIL: WITH OIL AS THEIR WEAPON, AN EMERGING CABAL OF NATIONS THREATENS AMERICA - JOSHUA KURLANTZICK (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, OCTOBER 15): The United States needs to use public diplomacy to undermine the legitimacy of autocratic regimes.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...n1.3e87e61.html
BUSH'S LINCOLN GROUP: PIG BACK AT THE TROUGH - CHRISTOPHER BRAUCHLI (COMMON DREAMS, OCTOBER 14): On September 27 the Associated Press reported that the Lincoln Group had been awarded a two-year contract. to build support around the world for the militarys goals in Iraq. The Homeland Security Department has provided $2.4 million to a consortium of major universities to develop software that would let the government monitor negative opinions of the United States or its leaders in newspapers and other publications overseas.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1014-28.htm
CHINA BUYS THE SOFT SELL - JOSHUA KURLANTZICK (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 15): China has amassed impressive soft power -- now it has to prove that it's willing to use it wisely.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1301401_pf.html
600,000 IRAQIS KILLED BY WAR, CREDIBLE? - WILLIAM M. ARKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, OCTOBER 16): Now editorial writers will "accept" that the number is more than 50,000, as much as 200,000 plus, somewhere lower than 600,000. What number is acceptable in the public discourse -- 50,000, 200,000, 600,000 -- doesn't necessarily make it correct though.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarnin..._by_war_cr.html
IRAQI DEATH COUNT: 650,000? HOW TO READ THE LATEST STUDY ON MORTALITY IN IRAQ - DANIEL ENGBER (SLATE, OCTOBER 13)
http://www.slate.com/id/2151418
EXCESS DEATH IN IRAQ - DAHR JAMAIL ANTIWAR.COM, OCTOBER 14): For over a year now many Iraqis have been referring to what is happening in their country as genocide. With over 500 Iraqis being killed every single day as a direct result of the occupation, it is difficult to argue with them.
http://www.antiwar.com/jamail/?articleid=9859
WE ARE ALL CASUALTIES OF A TRIGGER-HAPPY COWBOY: WHAT BUSH MEANS BY TOLERABLE VIOLENCE IN IRAQ - MISSY COMLEY BEATTIE (COUNTERPUNCH, OCTOBER 14-15): Not only have we lost the hearts and minds of the Iraqis, we are losing the hearts and minds of other "coalition" members as well.
http://www.counterpunch.org/beattie10142006.html
MUCH OF IRAQ STILL IN RUIN AS U.S. BUILDERS LEAVE: LOCAL OFFICIALS WILL BE FACED WITH RUNNING PLANTS AND FINISHING JOBS LEFT BY BIG COMPANIES - CHARLES J. HANLEY, ASSOCIATED PRESS (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, OCTOBER 15)
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/4258694.html
US CONTRACTORS IN IRAQ FACE PERIL, NEGLECT: DRAW FIRE OVERSEAS, LACK SUPPORT AT HOME - FARAH STOCKMAN (BOSTON GLOBE, OCTOBER 16)
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/...neglect?mode=PF
A PLAN FOR IRAQ - DENNIS ROSS (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 15): No one in Iraq seems to want us there, but everyone is afraid to have us leave. In the meantime, everyone seems willing to sit back, to avoid tackling the tough problems and to let us carry the brunt of the fighting. That has to stop.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1301419_pf.html
BREAKING UP AIN'T HARD TO DO: JAMES BAKER PREPARES THE EXITS IN IRAQ - MICHAEL YOUNG (REASON, OCTOBER 12): In reality, the Baker-Hamilton group is less there to engineer a stable future for Iraq than to create conditions for American forces to leave the country.
http://reason.com/hod/my101206.shtml
WOULD DEFEAT IN IRAQ BE SO BAD?: AFTER VIETNAM, THE DOMINOES DID NOT FALL. WHAT THAT TELLS US ABOUT THIS WAR - LESLIE GELB (TIME, OCTOBER 15): We need him to unstrap America's still muscular diplomacy to seed the antiterrorist soil within Iraq, to structure a regional peace among states that cringe from regional war, to blunt the disasters of chaos and defeat -- and perhaps even to snatch successes beforehand.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout...1546366,00.html
RUNNING FROM IRAQ: DON'T IMAGINE IT WILL REDUCE THE JIHADIST THREAT - REUEL MARC GERECHT (WEEKLY STANDARD, OCTOBER 23)
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/827qrepu.asp
A SAD LITANY OF FAILURES - MORTIMER B. ZUCKERMAN (U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, OCTOBER 15): There is a real risk that, if we leave, Iraq will disintegrate even further into all-out civil war or spark a regional war and become home to an anti-American regime that will inflame jihadists and undermine Arab moderates all over the Muslim world.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/artic...1015/23edit.htm
THE MORE FORCE YOU USE, THE LESS EFFECTIVE YOU ARE - MICHAEL SCHWARTZ (TOMDISPATCH, OCTOBER 15): The occupation delivered economic stagnation or degradation, a powerless government, and the promise of endless violence. Given this reality, no new military strategy -- however humane, canny, or well designed -- could reverse the occupation's terminal unpopularity. Only a U.S. departure might do that.
http://tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=130105
NUCLEAR STRIKE ON IRAN IS STILL ON THE AGENDA: WHAT WILL CONGRESS DO? - JORGE HIRSCH (ANTIWAR.COM, OCTOBER 16): Congress could block the authority of the president to order the use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon countries by passing legislation under Article I, Sect. 8, Clause 14 of the Constitution to "make rules for the government and regulation" of the armed forces.
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/hirsch.php?articleid=9868
DEFIANT IRAN - CHRISTOPHER DE BELLAIGUE (NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, NOVEMBER 2): By engaging itself militarily, politically, and morally across the Middle East, George Bush's America has become vulnerable. In the face of an overstretched competitor, Iran is less likely than ever to relinquish its nuclear program unless it gets something it wants in return.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19512
DEADLY SILENCE ON THE MIDDLE EAST - JAMES ZOGBY (TOMPAINE.COM, OCTOBER 16): We simply cannot continue to alienate ourselves from the peoples of this critically important part of the world. We simply cannot persist in operating so blindly in a region whose peoples, culture and history we do not understand.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/1...middle_east.php
AFGHANISTAN: ISAF WARNING OFFERS CHANCE TO BREAK DESTRUCTIVE CYCLE - BY AMIN TARZI (RFE/RL, OCTOBER 13): The commander of the NATO-led force in Afghanistan, the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF), warned on October 8 that without visible improvements in the daily lives of ordinary Afghans in the next six months, up to 70 percent of Afghans could shift their allegiance to the Taliban-led insurgency.
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/...28bfd04ab9.html
AFGHANISTAN: FIVE YEARS LATER - STEPHEN ZUNES (FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS, OCTOBER 14/COMMON DREAMS): On the fifth anniversary of the launch of the U.S.-led war against Afghanistan, the Taliban is growing, much of the countryside is in the hands of warlords and opium magnates, U.S. casualties are mounting, and many, if not most, Afghans are actually worse off now than they were before the U.S. invasion.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1014-22.htm
WHERE THE RHETORIC DOESN'T MATCH THE REALITY: RETURN TO AFGHANISTAN - ANNE E. BRODSKY (COUNTERPUNCH, OCTOBER 13): Afghanistan is the first and prime example of how winning the war is not the same as winning the peace.
http://www.counterpunch.org/brodsky10132006.html
FROM SWORDS TO BOMBSHELLS - SUZANNE FIELDS (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 16): The interpretation of the Islamist mentality as rooted in Muhammad's appeal to violence, and the Islamist determination for religious domination of the world, may not tell the whole story today, but it explains why, for millions of Muslims, the image of the warrior trumps the image of a prophet of peace -- if, indeed, there ever was one.
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20061015-101426-7404r.htm
AN OFFER KIM CAN'T REFUSE - AARON L. FRIEDBERG (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 16): It should be made clear to all, including Kim, that the objective of ratcheting up financial pressure is not to topple him but to squeeze him until he chooses to abandon his nuclear ambitions.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1500997_pf.html
THE ARMS-CONTROL ILLUSION: A SHORT HISTORY OF NONPROLIFERATION FAILURE - (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, OCTOBER 14): The world will need more such cooperation and creative thinking to contain a proliferation threat that is only going to grow. But the beginning of wisdom is to realize that the threat hasn't ended merely because a rogue regime signs an arms-control treaty.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/weekend/hottopic/?id=110009090
THE LOGIC OF PROLIFERATION: HOW BUSH'S BELLIGERENCE PROMPTED NORTH KOREA TO PURSUE NUCLEAR WEAPONS - FLOYD RUDMIN (COUNTERPUNCH, OCTOBER 14-15)
http://www.counterpunch.org/rudmin10142006.html
THE MAKINGS OF A NUCLEAR STANDOFF - JAMES CARROLL (BOSTON GLOBE, OCTOBER 16): America is not the cause of North Korea's bomb. The tyrant Kim Jong Il is. But neither is America innocent of this terrible turn in the world's story. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...tandoff?mode=pf
STILL 1,126 NUCLEAR TESTS BEHIND THE UNITED STATES: NORTH KOREA'S BOMB - JOHN CHUCKMAN (COUNTERPUNCH, OCTOBER 14-15): Harsh sanctions against North Korea, already advocated by the emotionally-numb Bush, are a foolish response.
http://www.counterpunch.org/chuckman10142006.html
MORE NORTH KOREAS? GET USED TO IT: BAD AS A NUCLEAR HERMIT KINGDOM IS, THE U.S. JUST CAN'T CONTROL PROLIFERATION - WILLIAM LANGEWIESCHE (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 16): It is important to recognize that the spread of nuclear weapons is a condition over which we do not have control and for which there is no solution.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-...-opinion-center
NUCLEAR SCAPEGOATING AND NORTH KOREA - EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 16): Given the historical record, it is unseemly and dishonest for Democratic partisans like Mr. Carter and Sen. John Kerry to pretend that President Bush is the central reason for the failure to stop North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20061015-101425-1267r.htm
NUKE REBUKE - STEVE COLL (NEW YORKER, OCTOBER 16): On Bush's watch, atomic weapons have been revalued -- not quite to the point of legitimacy, perhaps, but certainly upward, as sources of influence, national pride, and anti-American defiance. The North Korean test matters most as a symbol of accumulating trouble.
http://www.newyorker.com/printables/talk/061023ta_talk_coll
BUSH UNLEASHES THE NUCLEAR BEAST: IF THE ADMINISTRATION WON'T ABIDE BY TIME-TESTED NUCLEAR TREATIES, WHY SHOULD ANYONE ELSE? - JOSEPH CIRINCIONE (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 15): Bush administration officials have proved expert at smashing the agreements their predecessors so painstakingly built, but in doing so they broke the bars that had caged the nuclear beast.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions
THE NEW NORTH KOREA: ABSURDISTAN WITH THE BOMB -- WHAT DOES NORTH KOREA'S LEADER KIM JONG IL WANT? BY TESTING A NUCLEAR WEAPON, THE ENIGMATIC DICTATOR HAS ANGERED HIS CLOSEST ALLY CHINA AND SHIFTED THE ASIAN BALANCE OF POWER. BUT THE COUNTRY MAY JUST BE LASHING OUT IN PARANOIA - (SPIEGEL, OCTOBER 16)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiege...,442823,00.html
KRAUTHAMMER, KENNEDY & KOREA: IS COMMON SENSE STILL A VIABLE OPTION IN THE MODERN "INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY?" - ANDREW C. MCCARTHY (NATIONAL REVIEW, OCTOBER 16): It may be far more practical and beneficial to warn China to rein in North Korea than to appeal to the Chinese as if they were a dependable ally -- which, manifestly, they are not.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NmVlO...zZkYTRhZDMzNTc=
NUCLEAR TAG TEAM: THE LONE SUPERPOWER THAT COULDN'T - DAVID E. SANGER (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 15): As America barrels toward a nuclear showdown on opposite sides of Asia, perhaps the best measure of Americas power in these matters is its need for Russia and China to cooperate.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/weekinre...agewanted=print
WITHOUT SANCTION: HOW TO DEAL WITH A MADMAN WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS IF ECONOMIC SANCTIONS HAVE LITTLE IMPACT ON HIM - ROBERT B. REICH (AMERICAN PROSPECT, OCTOBER 13): Kim Jung Il may not be rational, but the Chinese leadership is. And they're our best hope now for a rational outcome to this mess regarding North Korea.
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?sectio...articleId=12102
THE THINK-TWICE SANCTIONS ON NORTH KOREA - MONITOR'S VIEW (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, OCTOBER 16): The sanctions imposed by the Security Council, even though watered down by China and Russia, at least keep a global consensus together for a more critical goal of the United States: threatening the economies of Iran and other bomb-leaning states if they get close to going nuclear.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1016/p08s02-comv.html
UN SANCTIONS: BUSH'S ELECTION-EVE CONVERSION - GRAIG CRAWFORD (HUFFINGTON POST, OCTOBER 14): You almost have to laugh at President Bush touting United Nations sanctions against North Korea as "swift and tough," considering how he once derided similar sanctions against Iraq as ineffective (when arguing for an invasion). Now that his own team is behind a nearly identical UN move against North Korea, suddenly he is on board with this approach?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-crawfo...ec_b_31707.html
SECURITY COUNCIL IN NAME ONLY: FAILING TO STOP NORTH KOREA FROM GOING NUCLEAR MAY HAVE BEEN THE LAST STRAW FOR THE ONETIME GUARDIAN OF WORLD ORDER - NIALL FERGUSON (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 16)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...nion-columnists
NO U.N. PANACEA - ED ROYCE (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 15): It will be business as usual at the U.N., to North Korea's advantage.
http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/200610...02320-4782r.htm
PUTIN GETS AWAY WITH MURDER: IT'S TIME TO CONFRONT THE RUSSIAN LEADER - ANDERS ASLUND (WEEKLY STANDARD, OCTOBER 23)
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/824dulje.asp
VOICE OF RUSSIA ENGLISH WEB SITE IGNORES THE MURDER OF RUSSIAN JOURNALIST ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA WHILE OFFERING EXTENSIVE COVERAGE OF POLITICAL SCANDALS IN THE U.S. AND GREAT BRITAIN - TED LIPIEN (FREE MEDIA ON LINE, OCTOBER 16)
http://www.freemediaonline.org/voice_of_ru...itain221140.htm
RUSSIA'S SLOW DEATH OF FREEDOM - CATHY YOUNG (BOSTON GLOBE, OCTOBER 16): INCREASINGLY, it seems that freedom in Russia will be only a short window between communist totalitarianism and a new nationalist authoritarian state.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...freedom?mode=PF
A MURDER IN MOSCOW AS THINGS ONLY GET WORSE - ERIKA NIEDOWSKI (BALTIMORE SUN, OCTOBER 15): Being brave in Russia doesn't mean what it means in other, more civilized countries, where the democratic constitution is more than a piece of paper.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/i...ideas-headlines
HUFFING AND PUFFING: WE CAN NO LONGER AFFORD TO ACCEPT THE UNACCEPTABLE AND TOLERATE THE INTOLERABLE - WILLIAM KRISTOL (WEEKLY STANDARD, OCTOBER 23): With the exception of Bush's commendable steadfastness in Iraq -- combined, how ever, with debilitating stubbornness on troop levels and strategy -- and his support for Israel, Bush's foreign policy is now Clintonian in its combination of weakness and wishful thinking.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/816qijhd.asp
WHY AMERICA KEEPS LOSING 'SMALL WARS' - JEFFREY RECORD (BALTIMORE SUN, OCTOBER 15): Why should the United States continue to enter wars it is not very good at winning (and for which sustaining domestic political support is inherently problematic)? A more realistic policy would be to abstain from small wars of choice, and place the protection of concrete interests ahead of moral crusades to export American political values to lands that are alien to them.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
AGAINST THE MYTH OF AMERICAN INNOCENCE: COWBOY NATION - ROBERT KAGAN (NEW REPUBLIC, OCTOBER 16): Far from the modest republic that history books often portray, the early United States was an expansionist power from the moment the first pilgrim set foot on the continent; and it did not stop expanding -- territorially, commercially, culturally, and geopolitically -- over the next four centuries. The impulse to involve ourselves in the affairs of others is neither a modern phenomenon nor a deviation from the American spirit. It is embedded in the American DNA.
http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20061023&s=kagan102306
THE ALTERNATIVE TO EMPIRE: THE AUTHOR OF THE AMERICAN WAY OF STRATEGY RESPONDS TO JAMES LINDSAY - MICHAEL LIND (AMERICAN PROSPECT, OCTOBER 12): In the October print issue of the Prospect, James Lindsay reviewed two new books offering alternative progressive foreign policy visions -- Michael Lind's The American Way of Strategy and Anatol Lievens and John Hulsman's Ethical Realism. Today, those books' authors reply to Lindsay.
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?sectio...articleId=12098
AMERICA'S WORLD ROLE HAS TO BE REALISTIC AND MORAL - ANATOL LIEVEN AND JOHN HULSMAN (FINANCIAL TIMES, OCTOBER 15): A particularly American way of looking at the world has failed in Iraq, alongside the strategy of the Bush administration. This is a widely-shared belief in expanding American power whilst spreading "freedom."
https://registration.ft.com/registration/ba...00779e2340.html
http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/50715.html
REMEMBER WHEN "W" STOOD FOR WOMEN? CALLING MAVIS LENO... - DEANNE STILLMAN (HUFFINGTON POLST, OCTOBER 9): The Taliban-like crews in Iraq are sending women back to the Stone Age. What must Laura Bush think? And Karen Hughes, who campaigned for Bush in 04, using the "W stands for women" line to appeal to soccer moms?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deanne-still...-f_b_31347.html
A CONVERSATION WITH JOHN KERRY - INTERVIEW BY BOB WOODWARD (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 15): Kerry: "What are we up against? What is this all about? Did these guys just attack us because this is part of Osama bin Laden's strategy for a greater caliphate in the Middle East, or are they attacking us for other reasons? ... And it seems to me that the transformational aspects of it require a much more massive kind of public diplomacy, global cooperation on religious issues as well as on economic issues and human rights and other issues, as it did the barrel of a gun."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1301393_pf.html
AXIS OF OIL: WITH OIL AS THEIR WEAPON, AN EMERGING CABAL OF NATIONS THREATENS AMERICA - JOSHUA KURLANTZICK (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, OCTOBER 15): The United States needs to use public diplomacy to undermine the legitimacy of autocratic regimes.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...n1.3e87e61.html
BUSH'S LINCOLN GROUP: PIG BACK AT THE TROUGH - CHRISTOPHER BRAUCHLI (COMMON DREAMS, OCTOBER 14): On September 27 the Associated Press reported that the Lincoln Group had been awarded a two-year contract. to build support around the world for the militarys goals in Iraq. The Homeland Security Department has provided $2.4 million to a consortium of major universities to develop software that would let the government monitor negative opinions of the United States or its leaders in newspapers and other publications overseas.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1014-28.htm
CHINA BUYS THE SOFT SELL - JOSHUA KURLANTZICK (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 15): China has amassed impressive soft power -- now it has to prove that it's willing to use it wisely.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1301401_pf.html
600,000 IRAQIS KILLED BY WAR, CREDIBLE? - WILLIAM M. ARKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, OCTOBER 16): Now editorial writers will "accept" that the number is more than 50,000, as much as 200,000 plus, somewhere lower than 600,000. What number is acceptable in the public discourse -- 50,000, 200,000, 600,000 -- doesn't necessarily make it correct though.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarnin..._by_war_cr.html
IRAQI DEATH COUNT: 650,000? HOW TO READ THE LATEST STUDY ON MORTALITY IN IRAQ - DANIEL ENGBER (SLATE, OCTOBER 13)
http://www.slate.com/id/2151418
EXCESS DEATH IN IRAQ - DAHR JAMAIL ANTIWAR.COM, OCTOBER 14): For over a year now many Iraqis have been referring to what is happening in their country as genocide. With over 500 Iraqis being killed every single day as a direct result of the occupation, it is difficult to argue with them.
http://www.antiwar.com/jamail/?articleid=9859
WE ARE ALL CASUALTIES OF A TRIGGER-HAPPY COWBOY: WHAT BUSH MEANS BY TOLERABLE VIOLENCE IN IRAQ - MISSY COMLEY BEATTIE (COUNTERPUNCH, OCTOBER 14-15): Not only have we lost the hearts and minds of the Iraqis, we are losing the hearts and minds of other "coalition" members as well.
http://www.counterpunch.org/beattie10142006.html
MUCH OF IRAQ STILL IN RUIN AS U.S. BUILDERS LEAVE: LOCAL OFFICIALS WILL BE FACED WITH RUNNING PLANTS AND FINISHING JOBS LEFT BY BIG COMPANIES - CHARLES J. HANLEY, ASSOCIATED PRESS (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, OCTOBER 15)
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/4258694.html
US CONTRACTORS IN IRAQ FACE PERIL, NEGLECT: DRAW FIRE OVERSEAS, LACK SUPPORT AT HOME - FARAH STOCKMAN (BOSTON GLOBE, OCTOBER 16)
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/...neglect?mode=PF
A PLAN FOR IRAQ - DENNIS ROSS (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 15): No one in Iraq seems to want us there, but everyone is afraid to have us leave. In the meantime, everyone seems willing to sit back, to avoid tackling the tough problems and to let us carry the brunt of the fighting. That has to stop.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1301419_pf.html
BREAKING UP AIN'T HARD TO DO: JAMES BAKER PREPARES THE EXITS IN IRAQ - MICHAEL YOUNG (REASON, OCTOBER 12): In reality, the Baker-Hamilton group is less there to engineer a stable future for Iraq than to create conditions for American forces to leave the country.
http://reason.com/hod/my101206.shtml
WOULD DEFEAT IN IRAQ BE SO BAD?: AFTER VIETNAM, THE DOMINOES DID NOT FALL. WHAT THAT TELLS US ABOUT THIS WAR - LESLIE GELB (TIME, OCTOBER 15): We need him to unstrap America's still muscular diplomacy to seed the antiterrorist soil within Iraq, to structure a regional peace among states that cringe from regional war, to blunt the disasters of chaos and defeat -- and perhaps even to snatch successes beforehand.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout...1546366,00.html
RUNNING FROM IRAQ: DON'T IMAGINE IT WILL REDUCE THE JIHADIST THREAT - REUEL MARC GERECHT (WEEKLY STANDARD, OCTOBER 23)
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/827qrepu.asp
A SAD LITANY OF FAILURES - MORTIMER B. ZUCKERMAN (U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, OCTOBER 15): There is a real risk that, if we leave, Iraq will disintegrate even further into all-out civil war or spark a regional war and become home to an anti-American regime that will inflame jihadists and undermine Arab moderates all over the Muslim world.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/artic...1015/23edit.htm
THE MORE FORCE YOU USE, THE LESS EFFECTIVE YOU ARE - MICHAEL SCHWARTZ (TOMDISPATCH, OCTOBER 15): The occupation delivered economic stagnation or degradation, a powerless government, and the promise of endless violence. Given this reality, no new military strategy -- however humane, canny, or well designed -- could reverse the occupation's terminal unpopularity. Only a U.S. departure might do that.
http://tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=130105
NUCLEAR STRIKE ON IRAN IS STILL ON THE AGENDA: WHAT WILL CONGRESS DO? - JORGE HIRSCH (ANTIWAR.COM, OCTOBER 16): Congress could block the authority of the president to order the use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon countries by passing legislation under Article I, Sect. 8, Clause 14 of the Constitution to "make rules for the government and regulation" of the armed forces.
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/hirsch.php?articleid=9868
DEFIANT IRAN - CHRISTOPHER DE BELLAIGUE (NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, NOVEMBER 2): By engaging itself militarily, politically, and morally across the Middle East, George Bush's America has become vulnerable. In the face of an overstretched competitor, Iran is less likely than ever to relinquish its nuclear program unless it gets something it wants in return.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19512
DEADLY SILENCE ON THE MIDDLE EAST - JAMES ZOGBY (TOMPAINE.COM, OCTOBER 16): We simply cannot continue to alienate ourselves from the peoples of this critically important part of the world. We simply cannot persist in operating so blindly in a region whose peoples, culture and history we do not understand.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/1...middle_east.php
AFGHANISTAN: ISAF WARNING OFFERS CHANCE TO BREAK DESTRUCTIVE CYCLE - BY AMIN TARZI (RFE/RL, OCTOBER 13): The commander of the NATO-led force in Afghanistan, the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF), warned on October 8 that without visible improvements in the daily lives of ordinary Afghans in the next six months, up to 70 percent of Afghans could shift their allegiance to the Taliban-led insurgency.
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/...28bfd04ab9.html
AFGHANISTAN: FIVE YEARS LATER - STEPHEN ZUNES (FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS, OCTOBER 14/COMMON DREAMS): On the fifth anniversary of the launch of the U.S.-led war against Afghanistan, the Taliban is growing, much of the countryside is in the hands of warlords and opium magnates, U.S. casualties are mounting, and many, if not most, Afghans are actually worse off now than they were before the U.S. invasion.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1014-22.htm
WHERE THE RHETORIC DOESN'T MATCH THE REALITY: RETURN TO AFGHANISTAN - ANNE E. BRODSKY (COUNTERPUNCH, OCTOBER 13): Afghanistan is the first and prime example of how winning the war is not the same as winning the peace.
http://www.counterpunch.org/brodsky10132006.html
FROM SWORDS TO BOMBSHELLS - SUZANNE FIELDS (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 16): The interpretation of the Islamist mentality as rooted in Muhammad's appeal to violence, and the Islamist determination for religious domination of the world, may not tell the whole story today, but it explains why, for millions of Muslims, the image of the warrior trumps the image of a prophet of peace -- if, indeed, there ever was one.
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20061015-101426-7404r.htm
AN OFFER KIM CAN'T REFUSE - AARON L. FRIEDBERG (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 16): It should be made clear to all, including Kim, that the objective of ratcheting up financial pressure is not to topple him but to squeeze him until he chooses to abandon his nuclear ambitions.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1500997_pf.html
THE ARMS-CONTROL ILLUSION: A SHORT HISTORY OF NONPROLIFERATION FAILURE - (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, OCTOBER 14): The world will need more such cooperation and creative thinking to contain a proliferation threat that is only going to grow. But the beginning of wisdom is to realize that the threat hasn't ended merely because a rogue regime signs an arms-control treaty.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/weekend/hottopic/?id=110009090
THE LOGIC OF PROLIFERATION: HOW BUSH'S BELLIGERENCE PROMPTED NORTH KOREA TO PURSUE NUCLEAR WEAPONS - FLOYD RUDMIN (COUNTERPUNCH, OCTOBER 14-15)
http://www.counterpunch.org/rudmin10142006.html
THE MAKINGS OF A NUCLEAR STANDOFF - JAMES CARROLL (BOSTON GLOBE, OCTOBER 16): America is not the cause of North Korea's bomb. The tyrant Kim Jong Il is. But neither is America innocent of this terrible turn in the world's story. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...tandoff?mode=pf
STILL 1,126 NUCLEAR TESTS BEHIND THE UNITED STATES: NORTH KOREA'S BOMB - JOHN CHUCKMAN (COUNTERPUNCH, OCTOBER 14-15): Harsh sanctions against North Korea, already advocated by the emotionally-numb Bush, are a foolish response.
http://www.counterpunch.org/chuckman10142006.html
MORE NORTH KOREAS? GET USED TO IT: BAD AS A NUCLEAR HERMIT KINGDOM IS, THE U.S. JUST CAN'T CONTROL PROLIFERATION - WILLIAM LANGEWIESCHE (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 16): It is important to recognize that the spread of nuclear weapons is a condition over which we do not have control and for which there is no solution.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-...-opinion-center
NUCLEAR SCAPEGOATING AND NORTH KOREA - EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 16): Given the historical record, it is unseemly and dishonest for Democratic partisans like Mr. Carter and Sen. John Kerry to pretend that President Bush is the central reason for the failure to stop North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20061015-101425-1267r.htm
NUKE REBUKE - STEVE COLL (NEW YORKER, OCTOBER 16): On Bush's watch, atomic weapons have been revalued -- not quite to the point of legitimacy, perhaps, but certainly upward, as sources of influence, national pride, and anti-American defiance. The North Korean test matters most as a symbol of accumulating trouble.
http://www.newyorker.com/printables/talk/061023ta_talk_coll
BUSH UNLEASHES THE NUCLEAR BEAST: IF THE ADMINISTRATION WON'T ABIDE BY TIME-TESTED NUCLEAR TREATIES, WHY SHOULD ANYONE ELSE? - JOSEPH CIRINCIONE (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 15): Bush administration officials have proved expert at smashing the agreements their predecessors so painstakingly built, but in doing so they broke the bars that had caged the nuclear beast.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions
THE NEW NORTH KOREA: ABSURDISTAN WITH THE BOMB -- WHAT DOES NORTH KOREA'S LEADER KIM JONG IL WANT? BY TESTING A NUCLEAR WEAPON, THE ENIGMATIC DICTATOR HAS ANGERED HIS CLOSEST ALLY CHINA AND SHIFTED THE ASIAN BALANCE OF POWER. BUT THE COUNTRY MAY JUST BE LASHING OUT IN PARANOIA - (SPIEGEL, OCTOBER 16)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiege...,442823,00.html
KRAUTHAMMER, KENNEDY & KOREA: IS COMMON SENSE STILL A VIABLE OPTION IN THE MODERN "INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY?" - ANDREW C. MCCARTHY (NATIONAL REVIEW, OCTOBER 16): It may be far more practical and beneficial to warn China to rein in North Korea than to appeal to the Chinese as if they were a dependable ally -- which, manifestly, they are not.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NmVlO...zZkYTRhZDMzNTc=
NUCLEAR TAG TEAM: THE LONE SUPERPOWER THAT COULDN'T - DAVID E. SANGER (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 15): As America barrels toward a nuclear showdown on opposite sides of Asia, perhaps the best measure of Americas power in these matters is its need for Russia and China to cooperate.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/weekinre...agewanted=print
WITHOUT SANCTION: HOW TO DEAL WITH A MADMAN WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS IF ECONOMIC SANCTIONS HAVE LITTLE IMPACT ON HIM - ROBERT B. REICH (AMERICAN PROSPECT, OCTOBER 13): Kim Jung Il may not be rational, but the Chinese leadership is. And they're our best hope now for a rational outcome to this mess regarding North Korea.
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?sectio...articleId=12102
THE THINK-TWICE SANCTIONS ON NORTH KOREA - MONITOR'S VIEW (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, OCTOBER 16): The sanctions imposed by the Security Council, even though watered down by China and Russia, at least keep a global consensus together for a more critical goal of the United States: threatening the economies of Iran and other bomb-leaning states if they get close to going nuclear.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1016/p08s02-comv.html
UN SANCTIONS: BUSH'S ELECTION-EVE CONVERSION - GRAIG CRAWFORD (HUFFINGTON POST, OCTOBER 14): You almost have to laugh at President Bush touting United Nations sanctions against North Korea as "swift and tough," considering how he once derided similar sanctions against Iraq as ineffective (when arguing for an invasion). Now that his own team is behind a nearly identical UN move against North Korea, suddenly he is on board with this approach?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-crawfo...ec_b_31707.html
SECURITY COUNCIL IN NAME ONLY: FAILING TO STOP NORTH KOREA FROM GOING NUCLEAR MAY HAVE BEEN THE LAST STRAW FOR THE ONETIME GUARDIAN OF WORLD ORDER - NIALL FERGUSON (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 16)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...nion-columnists
NO U.N. PANACEA - ED ROYCE (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 15): It will be business as usual at the U.N., to North Korea's advantage.
http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/200610...02320-4782r.htm
PUTIN GETS AWAY WITH MURDER: IT'S TIME TO CONFRONT THE RUSSIAN LEADER - ANDERS ASLUND (WEEKLY STANDARD, OCTOBER 23)
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/824dulje.asp
VOICE OF RUSSIA ENGLISH WEB SITE IGNORES THE MURDER OF RUSSIAN JOURNALIST ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA WHILE OFFERING EXTENSIVE COVERAGE OF POLITICAL SCANDALS IN THE U.S. AND GREAT BRITAIN - TED LIPIEN (FREE MEDIA ON LINE, OCTOBER 16)
http://www.freemediaonline.org/voice_of_ru...itain221140.htm
RUSSIA'S SLOW DEATH OF FREEDOM - CATHY YOUNG (BOSTON GLOBE, OCTOBER 16): INCREASINGLY, it seems that freedom in Russia will be only a short window between communist totalitarianism and a new nationalist authoritarian state.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...freedom?mode=PF
A MURDER IN MOSCOW AS THINGS ONLY GET WORSE - ERIKA NIEDOWSKI (BALTIMORE SUN, OCTOBER 15): Being brave in Russia doesn't mean what it means in other, more civilized countries, where the democratic constitution is more than a piece of paper.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/i...ideas-headlines
HUFFING AND PUFFING: WE CAN NO LONGER AFFORD TO ACCEPT THE UNACCEPTABLE AND TOLERATE THE INTOLERABLE - WILLIAM KRISTOL (WEEKLY STANDARD, OCTOBER 23): With the exception of Bush's commendable steadfastness in Iraq -- combined, how ever, with debilitating stubbornness on troop levels and strategy -- and his support for Israel, Bush's foreign policy is now Clintonian in its combination of weakness and wishful thinking.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/816qijhd.asp
WHY AMERICA KEEPS LOSING 'SMALL WARS' - JEFFREY RECORD (BALTIMORE SUN, OCTOBER 15): Why should the United States continue to enter wars it is not very good at winning (and for which sustaining domestic political support is inherently problematic)? A more realistic policy would be to abstain from small wars of choice, and place the protection of concrete interests ahead of moral crusades to export American political values to lands that are alien to them.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
AGAINST THE MYTH OF AMERICAN INNOCENCE: COWBOY NATION - ROBERT KAGAN (NEW REPUBLIC, OCTOBER 16): Far from the modest republic that history books often portray, the early United States was an expansionist power from the moment the first pilgrim set foot on the continent; and it did not stop expanding -- territorially, commercially, culturally, and geopolitically -- over the next four centuries. The impulse to involve ourselves in the affairs of others is neither a modern phenomenon nor a deviation from the American spirit. It is embedded in the American DNA.
http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20061023&s=kagan102306
THE ALTERNATIVE TO EMPIRE: THE AUTHOR OF THE AMERICAN WAY OF STRATEGY RESPONDS TO JAMES LINDSAY - MICHAEL LIND (AMERICAN PROSPECT, OCTOBER 12): In the October print issue of the Prospect, James Lindsay reviewed two new books offering alternative progressive foreign policy visions -- Michael Lind's The American Way of Strategy and Anatol Lievens and John Hulsman's Ethical Realism. Today, those books' authors reply to Lindsay.
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?sectio...articleId=12098
AMERICA'S WORLD ROLE HAS TO BE REALISTIC AND MORAL - ANATOL LIEVEN AND JOHN HULSMAN (FINANCIAL TIMES, OCTOBER 15): A particularly American way of looking at the world has failed in Iraq, alongside the strategy of the Bush administration. This is a widely-shared belief in expanding American power whilst spreading "freedom."
https://registration.ft.com/registration/ba...00779e2340.html
BUSH SIGNS TORTURE BILL; AMERICANS LOSE ESSENTIAL FREEDOM - EDWARD M. GOMEZ (WORLD VIEWS, SF GATE, OCTOBER 17): In an Orwellian pronouncement dutifully reported by Voice of America, the taxpayer-funded "news" service that acts as a mouthpiece for the administration, Bush said: "The United States does not torture ... It is against our laws and it is against our values. By allowing the C.I.A. program to go forward, this bill is preserving a tool that has saved American lives." Bush's claim flies in the face of numerous reports of torture conducted by American officials at U.S. military prisons or secret locations overseas.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/cat...ogid=15&cat=388
BILL & HILLARY CLINTON, MITT ROMNEY, KAREN HUGHES, JON BON JOVI, RANDY JACKSON & MARK BATTERSON JOIN HOTSOUP.COM COMMUNITY - PRESS RELEASE (BUSINESS WIRE, OCTOBER 17): Karen Hughes --"The challenges America faces in the world today are complex, and we need the help of grassroots citizens to share our nation's story with audiences across the world. I hope members of this Internet community post their ideas and videos at HOTSOUP.com to help me better explain our countrys values." HOTSOUP.com is an interactive community that seeks to level the playing field of public discourse by bridging the divide between the nations insiders and outsiders.
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/g...655&newsLang=en
ON HOTSOUP SEE
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=HOTSOUP.com
RUNNING FROM IRAQ: DON'T IMAGINE IT WILL REDUCE THE JIHADIST THREAT - REUEL MARC GERECHT (AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE, OCTOBER 17): Yet should we back down from advocating equality between men and women in Islamic countries because such advocacy makes some Muslims more inclined to convert civilian jetliners into fuel bombs? Was Madeleine Albright wrong to talk about such things incessantly? How about Karen Hughes today?
http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all.../pub_detail.asp
THE TRUTH AND MYTH OF US STANDING ABROAD - WELSHMAN (EPLURIBUS MEDIA, OCTOBER 17): Resentment and suspicion permeates every aspect of the response to initiatives that the United States takes in foreign relations. It is for this reason that Karen Hughes was tasked in 2005 by President Bush to lead efforts to change this situation.
http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2006/10/17/55929/169
OPERATION COMEBACK - JOSHUA MURAVCHIK (FOREIGN POLICY, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006): To stay relevant, neocons must admit mistakes, embrace public diplomacy, and start making the case for bombing Iran (text from Google entry).
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/users/login.p...p?story_id=3602
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THE WEST MUST LEARN THE PUBLIC RELATIONS OF WAR - DANIEL PIPES (NEW YORK SUN, OCTOBER 17)
http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=41715
SEE ALSO
http://www.strumpette.com/archives/207-Los...h-Based-PR.html
THE HAMAS NETWORK: THE CASE FOR BOYCOTTING TERRORIST MEDIA - MARK DUBOWITZ AND JONATHAN SNOW (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, OCTOBER 18): The U.S. government should designate Hamas's Al Aqsa TV as a terrorist organization.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110009110
A 'CLEAR MESSAGE' - DAN FROOMKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, OCTOBER 17): Here's the clear message the new law vaguely banning torture signed by President Bush sends to the world: America makes its own rules.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6101700619.html
SUSPECTS CAUGHT IN AMERICAN QUAGMIRE: NO CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST IRANIAN MAN - CAMILLE T. TAIARA (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, OCTOBER 15): Despite international criticism, Congress has given the Bush administration unprecedented rights to hold terror suspects overseas without charge or the right to a fair trial. But little attention has been given to the unknown number of suspects in limbo here in the United States, labeled as terrorists but held by immigration authorities -- without the right to a lawyer or to be presumed innocent.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...&type=printable
SAMI'S SHAME, AND OURS - NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 17): The U.S. has been holding Sami al-Hajj, a cameraman for Al Jazeera, for nearly five years without trial, mostly at Guantnamo Bay.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/opini...agewanted=print
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U.S. FACES OBSTACLES TO FREEING DETAINEES: ALLIES BLOCK RETURNS FROM GUANTANAMO - CRAIG WHITLOCK (WASHINGTON 17)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6101601339.html
SEE ALSO
http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110009107
THE LANCET'S SLANT - EPIDEMIOLOGY MEETS MORAL IDIOCY - CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS (SLATE, OCTOBER. 16): In its latest edition, the Lancet publishes the estimate of some researchers at Johns Hopkins University that there have been "654,965 excess Iraqi deaths as a consequence of the war." The figure is both oddly exact and strangely imprecise: It does not clearly state, for example, that all these people have actually been killed, but it does suggest a steep climb in the Iraqi death rate.
http://www.slate.com/id/2151607/?nav=tap3
655,000 WAR DEAD?: A BOGUS STUDY ON IRAQ CASUALTIES - STEVEN E. MOORE (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, OCTOBER 18): Without demographic information to assure a representative sample, there is no way anyone can prove -- or disprove -- that the Johns Hopkins estimate of Iraqi civilian deaths is accurate.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/fe...ml?id=110009108
655,000 IRAQ WAR DEATHS - CURREN WARF (TRUTHDIG, OCTOBER 17): A doctor with Physicians for Social Responsibility reports on the attempts of ideological critics to slander the good science behind a shocking new report on death tally of the Iraq war.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601...raq_war_deaths/
THE KILLING FIELDS OF IRAQ - ROBERT SCHEER (TRUTHDIG, OCTOBER 16): The Lancet report authors, being serious scientists, concede that counting the dead in a country turned into a war zone is a difficult enterprise, but even the lowest figure in their estimate, more than 300,000 dead, is shocking enough.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601...ng_fields_iraq/
BUSH PLAYS POLITICS WITH IRAQI DEAD - JOHN NICHOLS (MADISON CAPITAL TIMES, WISCONSIN, OCTOBER 17/COMMON DREAMS): From the start of his miserable misadventure, Bush has talked up the wrong threats, imagined the wrong successes and embraced the wrong strategies. Now he tells us that others are wrong about the damage done by his miscalculations.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1017-23.htm
CHRISTIANS IN THE CROSSFIRE: PRO-WAR EVANGELICALS HAVE MADE EXILES -- AND MARTYRS -- OF IRAQI BELIEVERS - DOUG BANDOW (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, OCTOBER 23)
http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_10_23/article.html
WHERE HAVE ALL THE DOCTORS GONE?: THE COLLAPSE OF IRAQ'S HEALTH CARE SERVICES - DAVID WILSON (COUNTERPUNCH, OCTOBER 14-15)
http://www.counterpunch.org/wilson10162006.html
THE END OF PRESS FREEDOM IN IRAQ? - JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, OCTOBER 17): al-Sharqiya Television employs 400 reporters, administrators and technicians. Al-Zaman newspaper employs 150 reporters, 160 technicians and administrators in all of its Iraq-based operations. The parliament warned these two media organs against repeating their "unacceptable coverage."
http://www.juancole.com/2006/10/end-of-pre...q-al-zaman.html
IRAQ: UNEMPLOYMENT AND VIOLENCE INCREASE POVERTY - REUTERS (OCTOBER 17)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/I...f922a039cad.htm
U.S. MAY HAVE WEEKS, NOT MONTHS, TO AVERT CIVIL WAR, ADVISER WARNS - JAMES STERNGOLD (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, OCTOBER 18): "There's a sense among many people now that things in Iraq are slipping fast and there isn't a lot of time to reverse them," said Larry Diamond, one of a panel of experts advising the Iraq Study Group, which is preparing a range of policy alternatives for President Bush.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...&type=printable
BARNEY AND BAGHDAD - THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 18): What were seeing in Iraq seems like the jihadist equivalent of the Tet offensive.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/18/opini...agewanted=print
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ETHNIC STRIFE: DIVISIONS DEEPEN IN IRAQ - JSG (SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL, OCTOBER 16): Iraq's parliament passed a new federalism law last week, paving the way for Shiites to form a powerful, self-ruling province in the south of the country. If the law holds, critics worry the war-torn country could see a spike in intra-ethnic violence.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiege...,442867,00.html
CORDESMAN: IRAQI CIVIL WAR - MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, OCTOBER 17): In a report released yesterday titled "Is there a civil war in Iraq?", CSIS analyst Anthony Cordesman gives a good sense of the scope of this violence and its political meaning.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...sman_iraqi.html
FUN, FUN, FUN TILL DADDY TOOK THE IRAQ WAR AWAY: BUSH'S IRAQ DISASTER IS TAKING THE GOP DOWN, AND HIS FATHER'S OLD PAL JAMES BAKER IS ABOUT TO TELL HIM WHAT TO DO - GARY KAMIYA (SALON, OCTOBER 17): Left unspoken in Baker's report is the obvious larger point: The U.S. mission has failed, and once we do everything we can to prevent Iraq from descending into a hellish civil war, we should get out.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/kamiya/2006/1...aker/print.html
STOP TRAINING IRAQIS FOR CIVIL WAR - IVAN ELAND (ANTIWAR.COM, OCTOBER 17): A rapid U.S. withdrawal and decentralization of Iraqi governance is the last hope to avoid a full-fledged civil war, because the three groups don't want to live together and are frightened that a strong central government could be used to oppress the group or groups that don't control it.
http://www.antiwar.com/eland/?articleid=9874
TRAINING REGIMEN: PROBLEMS AFFLICT U.S. ARMY PROGRAM TO ADVISE IRAQIS; UNTESTED AMERICANS SHIP OUT TO MENTOR FOREIGN FORCES; MILITARY PLANS CHANGES; A FEW HOURS OF ARABIC LESSONS - GREG JAFFE (WALL STREET JOURNAL, OCTOBER 18)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1161136052...ays_us_page_one
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BRING IRAQI FORCES UP TO SPEED: IF THE U.S. WON'T SEND MORE TROOPS TO STABILIZE THE COUNTRY, IT SHOULD ASSIGN MORE OF ITS BEST OFFICERS TO TRAIN IRAQIS - MAX BOOT (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 18)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail
IRAQ: LEAVE OR BE FORCED OUT - GARETH PORTER (TOMPAINE.COM, OCTOBER 17): Our troops are doing no good to anyone as sitting targets for both sides.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/1..._forced_out.php
BUSH - NOBLE, BUT MISTAKEN - BARY RUBIN (JERUSALEM POST, OCTOBER 17): What Bush should have done regarding Iraq -- and it isn't too late, though he seems determined to compound his errors -- is to set a timetable for withdrawal, without a detailed public commitment but with a clear message to Iraq's government that it must take responsibility for its own defense.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...ticle%2FPrinter
CHENEY: "GENERAL OVERALL SITUATION" IN IRAQ IS GOING "REMARKABLY WELL" - (HUFFINGTON POST, OCTOBER 17)
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/10/17/cheney-rush/
IRAQ A HELLUVA MESS: BAKER - (DAILY TELEGRAPH, OCTOBER 18): Former US secretary of state James Baker was visibly shocked when he last visited Iraq, and said the country was in a "helluva mess", the BBC reported today.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/stor...5006506,00.html
IRAQ FOLLOWS VIETNAM MODEL - MOLLY IVINS (TRUTHDIG, OCTOBER 17)
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601...amization_iraq/
SIZE MATTERS: THE PUSH FOR MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST IRAN RESTS ON INFLATED ASSESSMENTS OF A MINOR THREAT - GREGORY COCHRAN (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, OCTOBER 23)
http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_10_23/cover.html
DISARMING THE MULLAHS: THERE ARE THINGS WE CAN DO THAT WOULD LIMIT THEIR OPTIONS - HENRY SOKOLSKI (WEEKLY STANDARD, OCTOBER 23): A decision to bomb should turn less on when we think Iran will "go nuclear" (something we are sure to get wrong) or how effective our first strike might be (also a matter of uncertainty) than on what we and Iran are likely to do with the time such a strike might conceivably buy.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/822ekmzd.asp
THE NORTH KOREA EFFECT - ELIZABETH SPIRO CLARK (TOMPAINE, OCTOBER 17): If the realities of the U.S. constraints in Iraq and the epiphany that multilateralism may have its advantages in situations like North Korea, perhaps the Bush administration can be coaxed off the ledge with Iran.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/1...orea_effect.php
THE MIDDLE EAST: LOTS OF VIOLENCE, NOT MUCH ECONOMIC REFORM - ZACHARY KARABELL (HUFFINGTON POST, OCTOBER 17): Those with power in the Arab world have three choices: political reform, economic reform, or watching their citizens kill and dies in the name of God. We have expended far too much energy pushing ineffectively for the first; the middle option may not be a panacea, but it beats the last one any day of the week.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zach-karabel...f-_b_31878.html
THE TALIBAN AREN'T GONE, WOMEN HAVEN'T BEEN LIBERATED: AFGHANISTAN RECONSIDERED - SHARON SMITH (COUNTERPUNCH, OCTOBER 17)
http://www.counterpunch.org/sharon10172006.html
PYONGYANG AND THE 'P' WORD - EHSAN AHRARI (ASIA TIMES, OCTOBER 17): As long as it is not persuaded to unravel its nuclear weapons program, which could be achieved by offering it legitimate security guarantees, North Korea as a pariah state remains a dangerous actor which could be looking for openings to "strike back" at the lone superpower when suitable opportunities arise.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Korea/HJ17Dg01.html
IS THE BUSH DOCTRINE DEAD? - PATRICK J. BUCHANAN (ANTIWAR.COM, OCTOBER 17): Because of the bluster-and-bluff of President Bush, the United States is today eyeball-to-eyeball with Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programs, and neither of these regimes appears ready to blink. We should engage in direct negotiations with the North.
http://www.antiwar.com/pat/?articleid=9875
WHY U.S. MUST RESUME TALKS WITH NORTH KOREA - TRUDY RUBIN (BALTIMORE SUN, OCTOBER 17): At some point, the White House will have to decide whether it wants to pursue the small chance of freezing Pyongyang's program, or at least limiting the number of weapons.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
QUESTIONS - AND ANSWERS - ABOUT THE THREAT FROM NORTH KOREA: KIM JONG IL IS ECCENTRIC, WILY, AND HARD TO READ, BUT HE IS NOT SUICIDAL - JOHN HUGHES (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, OCTOBER 18): The UN Security Council's censure of North Korea is a significant moral milestone from an organization sometimes ponderously slow to discipline the UN's miscreant members.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1018/p09s01-cojh.html
NORTH KOREA ON NOTICE: THE UNANIMOUS U.N. RESOLUTION ISN'T PERFECT, BUT IT'S A VICTORY FOR U.S. DIPLOMACY - EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 17): The United Nations Security Council resolution condemning North Korea's nuclear test was a limited victory for the United States and Japan, but a victory nonetheless.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-...pinion-leftrail
A CLEAR MESSAGE TO PYONGYANG - EDITORIAL (JAPAN TIMES, OCTOBER 18): The sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council against North Korea represent a unified message from the U.N. member countries reprimanding the North for its underground nuclear test on Oct. 9.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ed20061017a1.html
NUCLEAR FALLOUT - EDITORIAL (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 17): Ideally, the new sanctions would be painful enough to drive Pyongyang back to the negotiating table, with more incentive to bargain in good faith, or help topple this monstrously repressive regime. Either outcome is better than the status quo, in which North Korea builds more nukes.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...newsopinion-hed
PAGING DR. STRANGELOVE - BRET STEPHENS (WALL STREET JOURNAL, OCTOBER 17): The challenge for American diplomacy today is to think afresh about what deterrence requires, militarily as well as psychologically, in the new and asymmetrical nuclear age. During the Cold War, this was called "thinking the unthinkable," and dismissed as Strangelovian. In the face of North Korea's sinister menace, we could use another Dr. Strangelove.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1161051017...days_us_opinion
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AN IRRESISTIBLE INVITATION - WILLIAM PFAFF (INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 17/COMMON DREAMS): The North Korean test is a demonstration to Washington that it can't keep -- and improve -- its own nuclear forces and expect the nonproliferation treaty to survive. The threats offered by the major powers to "rogue states" -- or to any state lacking conventional defenses -- is an irresistible invitation to proliferation.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1017-26.htm
HAVE THE LIGHTS GONE ON AGAIN? - JAMES G. ZUMWALT (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 18): Hopefully, in the wake of Pyongyang's nuclear test, the light has finally come on in Seoul and it will adopt a more cooperative spirit with the U.S., abandoning its role as an enabler for North Korea.
http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/200610...00247-3575r.htm
BLAME CHINA -- BEIJING COULD BRING NORTH KOREA INTO LINE TOMORROW -- IF IT REALLY WANTED TO - ANNE APPLEBAUM (SLATE, OCTOBER 17)
http://www.slate.com/id/2151635/
RUSSIA: FOREIGN NGOS RUSH TO BEAT REGISTRATION DEADLINE - BY CLAIRE BIGG (RFE/RL, OCTOBER 16)
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/...150bad455c.html
ARABS TO THE RESCUE?: A CHANCE TO BROADEN THE RESPONSE IN DARFUR- EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 16): It's hard to see how Sudan's government could resist an Arab and Muslim peacekeeping force by calling it a threat to Islam.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1500721_pf.html
CAN YOU TELL A SUNNI FROM A SHIITE? - JEFF STEIN (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 17): Too many officials in charge of the war on terrorism just don't care to learn much, if anything, about the enemy were fighting. And that's enough to keep anybody up at night.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/opinion/...agewanted=print
A FOREIGN POLICY MELTDOWN - H.D.S. GREENWAY (BOSTON GLOBE, OCTOBER 17): What to do? Maybe, as James Baker and Kofi Annan have suggested, start talking to evil. Ronald Reagan wasn't adverse to direct talks with the Evil Empire Soviets, and Richard Nixon sat down with Mao. Both were greater dangers to the United States than Iran and North Korea.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...eltdown?mode=PF
ON THE OFFENSE: NO MATTER WHAT THE FACTS SAY, PRESIDENT BUSH INSISTS THAT WE STAY THE COURSE - ANDREW J. BACEVICH (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, OCTOBER 23): Alas, the Bush doctrine of taking the offensive ran aground almost immediately, lost its momentum, and has never recovered. The Bush administration and its supporters have spent the past three and half years trying to deny this fact or searching for ways to work around it.
http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_10_23/article2.html
GEORGE WINSTON BUSH?: INVOCATIONS OF MUNICH AND A PARADE OF NEW HITLERS WONT BE ENOUGH TO CONVINCE AMERICANS THAT THIS IS A GOOD WAR - LEON HADAR (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, OCTOBER 23): As Churchill expert Lukacs pointed out, the kind of empty rhetoric that disguises a disastrous policy, that involves speaking "grandiloquently" and talking "in general terms," is certainly not a Churchillian trait.
http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_10_23/article3.html
GUNS AND BUTTER: HOW THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S FISCAL POLICY HAS NARROWED ITS OPTIONS IN THE REALM OF FOREIGN POLICY - IRWIN M. STELZER (WEEKLY STANDARD, OCTOBER 17): Unlike Thomas Jefferson, who pledged millions for defense but not a cent for tribute when our commerce was threatened by pirates, Bush has pledged billions for prescription drugs for unpoor elderly Americans, and allowed more billions to be poured into congressmen's wasteful pet projects (aka set-asides), but only a relatively few pennies for the military he asks to back his diplomatic drive to spread democratic values.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/829wydga.asp
OUTWARD BOUND: THE U.S. HAS ALWAYS BEEN A "DANGEROUS NATION" ON THE WORLD STAGE - BRENDAN SIMMS (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, OCTOBER 17): As Robert Kagan shows in his "Dangerous Nation," the U.S. has always been an empire and a "menace," not only to its ill-governed neighbors but also to tyrants and hegemons across the world.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110009104
RECONNECTING WITH THE REALITY-BASED COMMUNITY [REVIEW OF ETHICAL REALISM: A VISION FOR AMERICA'S ROLE IN THE WORLD, ANATOL LIEVEN AND JOHN HULSMAN] - SCOTT MCCONNELL (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, OCTOBER 23): There is now a good deal of ideological cross-pollination among scholars and analysts alarmed by the Bush foreign policy, most of it going on at a levels that don't influence policy.
http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_10_23/review.html
BUSH MARKS HIS TERRITORY IN SPACE - (TRUTHDIG, OCTOBER 18): Bush's new space policy, the first major overhaul in 10 years, reserves the right to prevent access to space to anyone "hostile to U.S. interests." Though the administration denies it, the move is seen by some as a prelude to the weaponization of space.
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/ite...itory_in_space/
LOVIN' IT OR SHOVING IT AT MCDONALD'S - ORI RAPHAEL (JERUSALEM POST, OCTOBER 16): In more than 60 cities across the globe, protesters gathered Monday in front of McDonald's restaurants to show the world their harsh feelings towards the fast food giant.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...ticle%2FPrinter
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/cat...ogid=15&cat=388
BILL & HILLARY CLINTON, MITT ROMNEY, KAREN HUGHES, JON BON JOVI, RANDY JACKSON & MARK BATTERSON JOIN HOTSOUP.COM COMMUNITY - PRESS RELEASE (BUSINESS WIRE, OCTOBER 17): Karen Hughes --"The challenges America faces in the world today are complex, and we need the help of grassroots citizens to share our nation's story with audiences across the world. I hope members of this Internet community post their ideas and videos at HOTSOUP.com to help me better explain our countrys values." HOTSOUP.com is an interactive community that seeks to level the playing field of public discourse by bridging the divide between the nations insiders and outsiders.
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/g...655&newsLang=en
ON HOTSOUP SEE
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=HOTSOUP.com
RUNNING FROM IRAQ: DON'T IMAGINE IT WILL REDUCE THE JIHADIST THREAT - REUEL MARC GERECHT (AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE, OCTOBER 17): Yet should we back down from advocating equality between men and women in Islamic countries because such advocacy makes some Muslims more inclined to convert civilian jetliners into fuel bombs? Was Madeleine Albright wrong to talk about such things incessantly? How about Karen Hughes today?
http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all.../pub_detail.asp
THE TRUTH AND MYTH OF US STANDING ABROAD - WELSHMAN (EPLURIBUS MEDIA, OCTOBER 17): Resentment and suspicion permeates every aspect of the response to initiatives that the United States takes in foreign relations. It is for this reason that Karen Hughes was tasked in 2005 by President Bush to lead efforts to change this situation.
http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2006/10/17/55929/169
OPERATION COMEBACK - JOSHUA MURAVCHIK (FOREIGN POLICY, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006): To stay relevant, neocons must admit mistakes, embrace public diplomacy, and start making the case for bombing Iran (text from Google entry).
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/users/login.p...p?story_id=3602
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
THE WEST MUST LEARN THE PUBLIC RELATIONS OF WAR - DANIEL PIPES (NEW YORK SUN, OCTOBER 17)
http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=41715
SEE ALSO
http://www.strumpette.com/archives/207-Los...h-Based-PR.html
THE HAMAS NETWORK: THE CASE FOR BOYCOTTING TERRORIST MEDIA - MARK DUBOWITZ AND JONATHAN SNOW (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, OCTOBER 18): The U.S. government should designate Hamas's Al Aqsa TV as a terrorist organization.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110009110
A 'CLEAR MESSAGE' - DAN FROOMKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, OCTOBER 17): Here's the clear message the new law vaguely banning torture signed by President Bush sends to the world: America makes its own rules.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6101700619.html
SUSPECTS CAUGHT IN AMERICAN QUAGMIRE: NO CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST IRANIAN MAN - CAMILLE T. TAIARA (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, OCTOBER 15): Despite international criticism, Congress has given the Bush administration unprecedented rights to hold terror suspects overseas without charge or the right to a fair trial. But little attention has been given to the unknown number of suspects in limbo here in the United States, labeled as terrorists but held by immigration authorities -- without the right to a lawyer or to be presumed innocent.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...&type=printable
SAMI'S SHAME, AND OURS - NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 17): The U.S. has been holding Sami al-Hajj, a cameraman for Al Jazeera, for nearly five years without trial, mostly at Guantnamo Bay.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/opini...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
U.S. FACES OBSTACLES TO FREEING DETAINEES: ALLIES BLOCK RETURNS FROM GUANTANAMO - CRAIG WHITLOCK (WASHINGTON 17)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6101601339.html
SEE ALSO
http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110009107
THE LANCET'S SLANT - EPIDEMIOLOGY MEETS MORAL IDIOCY - CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS (SLATE, OCTOBER. 16): In its latest edition, the Lancet publishes the estimate of some researchers at Johns Hopkins University that there have been "654,965 excess Iraqi deaths as a consequence of the war." The figure is both oddly exact and strangely imprecise: It does not clearly state, for example, that all these people have actually been killed, but it does suggest a steep climb in the Iraqi death rate.
http://www.slate.com/id/2151607/?nav=tap3
655,000 WAR DEAD?: A BOGUS STUDY ON IRAQ CASUALTIES - STEVEN E. MOORE (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, OCTOBER 18): Without demographic information to assure a representative sample, there is no way anyone can prove -- or disprove -- that the Johns Hopkins estimate of Iraqi civilian deaths is accurate.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/fe...ml?id=110009108
655,000 IRAQ WAR DEATHS - CURREN WARF (TRUTHDIG, OCTOBER 17): A doctor with Physicians for Social Responsibility reports on the attempts of ideological critics to slander the good science behind a shocking new report on death tally of the Iraq war.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601...raq_war_deaths/
THE KILLING FIELDS OF IRAQ - ROBERT SCHEER (TRUTHDIG, OCTOBER 16): The Lancet report authors, being serious scientists, concede that counting the dead in a country turned into a war zone is a difficult enterprise, but even the lowest figure in their estimate, more than 300,000 dead, is shocking enough.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601...ng_fields_iraq/
BUSH PLAYS POLITICS WITH IRAQI DEAD - JOHN NICHOLS (MADISON CAPITAL TIMES, WISCONSIN, OCTOBER 17/COMMON DREAMS): From the start of his miserable misadventure, Bush has talked up the wrong threats, imagined the wrong successes and embraced the wrong strategies. Now he tells us that others are wrong about the damage done by his miscalculations.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1017-23.htm
CHRISTIANS IN THE CROSSFIRE: PRO-WAR EVANGELICALS HAVE MADE EXILES -- AND MARTYRS -- OF IRAQI BELIEVERS - DOUG BANDOW (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, OCTOBER 23)
http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_10_23/article.html
WHERE HAVE ALL THE DOCTORS GONE?: THE COLLAPSE OF IRAQ'S HEALTH CARE SERVICES - DAVID WILSON (COUNTERPUNCH, OCTOBER 14-15)
http://www.counterpunch.org/wilson10162006.html
THE END OF PRESS FREEDOM IN IRAQ? - JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, OCTOBER 17): al-Sharqiya Television employs 400 reporters, administrators and technicians. Al-Zaman newspaper employs 150 reporters, 160 technicians and administrators in all of its Iraq-based operations. The parliament warned these two media organs against repeating their "unacceptable coverage."
http://www.juancole.com/2006/10/end-of-pre...q-al-zaman.html
IRAQ: UNEMPLOYMENT AND VIOLENCE INCREASE POVERTY - REUTERS (OCTOBER 17)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/I...f922a039cad.htm
U.S. MAY HAVE WEEKS, NOT MONTHS, TO AVERT CIVIL WAR, ADVISER WARNS - JAMES STERNGOLD (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, OCTOBER 18): "There's a sense among many people now that things in Iraq are slipping fast and there isn't a lot of time to reverse them," said Larry Diamond, one of a panel of experts advising the Iraq Study Group, which is preparing a range of policy alternatives for President Bush.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...&type=printable
BARNEY AND BAGHDAD - THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 18): What were seeing in Iraq seems like the jihadist equivalent of the Tet offensive.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/18/opini...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
ETHNIC STRIFE: DIVISIONS DEEPEN IN IRAQ - JSG (SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL, OCTOBER 16): Iraq's parliament passed a new federalism law last week, paving the way for Shiites to form a powerful, self-ruling province in the south of the country. If the law holds, critics worry the war-torn country could see a spike in intra-ethnic violence.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiege...,442867,00.html
CORDESMAN: IRAQI CIVIL WAR - MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, OCTOBER 17): In a report released yesterday titled "Is there a civil war in Iraq?", CSIS analyst Anthony Cordesman gives a good sense of the scope of this violence and its political meaning.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...sman_iraqi.html
FUN, FUN, FUN TILL DADDY TOOK THE IRAQ WAR AWAY: BUSH'S IRAQ DISASTER IS TAKING THE GOP DOWN, AND HIS FATHER'S OLD PAL JAMES BAKER IS ABOUT TO TELL HIM WHAT TO DO - GARY KAMIYA (SALON, OCTOBER 17): Left unspoken in Baker's report is the obvious larger point: The U.S. mission has failed, and once we do everything we can to prevent Iraq from descending into a hellish civil war, we should get out.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/kamiya/2006/1...aker/print.html
STOP TRAINING IRAQIS FOR CIVIL WAR - IVAN ELAND (ANTIWAR.COM, OCTOBER 17): A rapid U.S. withdrawal and decentralization of Iraqi governance is the last hope to avoid a full-fledged civil war, because the three groups don't want to live together and are frightened that a strong central government could be used to oppress the group or groups that don't control it.
http://www.antiwar.com/eland/?articleid=9874
TRAINING REGIMEN: PROBLEMS AFFLICT U.S. ARMY PROGRAM TO ADVISE IRAQIS; UNTESTED AMERICANS SHIP OUT TO MENTOR FOREIGN FORCES; MILITARY PLANS CHANGES; A FEW HOURS OF ARABIC LESSONS - GREG JAFFE (WALL STREET JOURNAL, OCTOBER 18)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1161136052...ays_us_page_one
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
BRING IRAQI FORCES UP TO SPEED: IF THE U.S. WON'T SEND MORE TROOPS TO STABILIZE THE COUNTRY, IT SHOULD ASSIGN MORE OF ITS BEST OFFICERS TO TRAIN IRAQIS - MAX BOOT (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 18)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail
IRAQ: LEAVE OR BE FORCED OUT - GARETH PORTER (TOMPAINE.COM, OCTOBER 17): Our troops are doing no good to anyone as sitting targets for both sides.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/1..._forced_out.php
BUSH - NOBLE, BUT MISTAKEN - BARY RUBIN (JERUSALEM POST, OCTOBER 17): What Bush should have done regarding Iraq -- and it isn't too late, though he seems determined to compound his errors -- is to set a timetable for withdrawal, without a detailed public commitment but with a clear message to Iraq's government that it must take responsibility for its own defense.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...ticle%2FPrinter
CHENEY: "GENERAL OVERALL SITUATION" IN IRAQ IS GOING "REMARKABLY WELL" - (HUFFINGTON POST, OCTOBER 17)
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/10/17/cheney-rush/
IRAQ A HELLUVA MESS: BAKER - (DAILY TELEGRAPH, OCTOBER 18): Former US secretary of state James Baker was visibly shocked when he last visited Iraq, and said the country was in a "helluva mess", the BBC reported today.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/stor...5006506,00.html
IRAQ FOLLOWS VIETNAM MODEL - MOLLY IVINS (TRUTHDIG, OCTOBER 17)
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601...amization_iraq/
SIZE MATTERS: THE PUSH FOR MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST IRAN RESTS ON INFLATED ASSESSMENTS OF A MINOR THREAT - GREGORY COCHRAN (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, OCTOBER 23)
http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_10_23/cover.html
DISARMING THE MULLAHS: THERE ARE THINGS WE CAN DO THAT WOULD LIMIT THEIR OPTIONS - HENRY SOKOLSKI (WEEKLY STANDARD, OCTOBER 23): A decision to bomb should turn less on when we think Iran will "go nuclear" (something we are sure to get wrong) or how effective our first strike might be (also a matter of uncertainty) than on what we and Iran are likely to do with the time such a strike might conceivably buy.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/822ekmzd.asp
THE NORTH KOREA EFFECT - ELIZABETH SPIRO CLARK (TOMPAINE, OCTOBER 17): If the realities of the U.S. constraints in Iraq and the epiphany that multilateralism may have its advantages in situations like North Korea, perhaps the Bush administration can be coaxed off the ledge with Iran.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/1...orea_effect.php
THE MIDDLE EAST: LOTS OF VIOLENCE, NOT MUCH ECONOMIC REFORM - ZACHARY KARABELL (HUFFINGTON POST, OCTOBER 17): Those with power in the Arab world have three choices: political reform, economic reform, or watching their citizens kill and dies in the name of God. We have expended far too much energy pushing ineffectively for the first; the middle option may not be a panacea, but it beats the last one any day of the week.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zach-karabel...f-_b_31878.html
THE TALIBAN AREN'T GONE, WOMEN HAVEN'T BEEN LIBERATED: AFGHANISTAN RECONSIDERED - SHARON SMITH (COUNTERPUNCH, OCTOBER 17)
http://www.counterpunch.org/sharon10172006.html
PYONGYANG AND THE 'P' WORD - EHSAN AHRARI (ASIA TIMES, OCTOBER 17): As long as it is not persuaded to unravel its nuclear weapons program, which could be achieved by offering it legitimate security guarantees, North Korea as a pariah state remains a dangerous actor which could be looking for openings to "strike back" at the lone superpower when suitable opportunities arise.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Korea/HJ17Dg01.html
IS THE BUSH DOCTRINE DEAD? - PATRICK J. BUCHANAN (ANTIWAR.COM, OCTOBER 17): Because of the bluster-and-bluff of President Bush, the United States is today eyeball-to-eyeball with Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programs, and neither of these regimes appears ready to blink. We should engage in direct negotiations with the North.
http://www.antiwar.com/pat/?articleid=9875
WHY U.S. MUST RESUME TALKS WITH NORTH KOREA - TRUDY RUBIN (BALTIMORE SUN, OCTOBER 17): At some point, the White House will have to decide whether it wants to pursue the small chance of freezing Pyongyang's program, or at least limiting the number of weapons.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
QUESTIONS - AND ANSWERS - ABOUT THE THREAT FROM NORTH KOREA: KIM JONG IL IS ECCENTRIC, WILY, AND HARD TO READ, BUT HE IS NOT SUICIDAL - JOHN HUGHES (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, OCTOBER 18): The UN Security Council's censure of North Korea is a significant moral milestone from an organization sometimes ponderously slow to discipline the UN's miscreant members.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1018/p09s01-cojh.html
NORTH KOREA ON NOTICE: THE UNANIMOUS U.N. RESOLUTION ISN'T PERFECT, BUT IT'S A VICTORY FOR U.S. DIPLOMACY - EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 17): The United Nations Security Council resolution condemning North Korea's nuclear test was a limited victory for the United States and Japan, but a victory nonetheless.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-...pinion-leftrail
A CLEAR MESSAGE TO PYONGYANG - EDITORIAL (JAPAN TIMES, OCTOBER 18): The sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council against North Korea represent a unified message from the U.N. member countries reprimanding the North for its underground nuclear test on Oct. 9.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ed20061017a1.html
NUCLEAR FALLOUT - EDITORIAL (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 17): Ideally, the new sanctions would be painful enough to drive Pyongyang back to the negotiating table, with more incentive to bargain in good faith, or help topple this monstrously repressive regime. Either outcome is better than the status quo, in which North Korea builds more nukes.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...newsopinion-hed
PAGING DR. STRANGELOVE - BRET STEPHENS (WALL STREET JOURNAL, OCTOBER 17): The challenge for American diplomacy today is to think afresh about what deterrence requires, militarily as well as psychologically, in the new and asymmetrical nuclear age. During the Cold War, this was called "thinking the unthinkable," and dismissed as Strangelovian. In the face of North Korea's sinister menace, we could use another Dr. Strangelove.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1161051017...days_us_opinion
PAID SUSBCRIPTION
AN IRRESISTIBLE INVITATION - WILLIAM PFAFF (INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 17/COMMON DREAMS): The North Korean test is a demonstration to Washington that it can't keep -- and improve -- its own nuclear forces and expect the nonproliferation treaty to survive. The threats offered by the major powers to "rogue states" -- or to any state lacking conventional defenses -- is an irresistible invitation to proliferation.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1017-26.htm
HAVE THE LIGHTS GONE ON AGAIN? - JAMES G. ZUMWALT (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 18): Hopefully, in the wake of Pyongyang's nuclear test, the light has finally come on in Seoul and it will adopt a more cooperative spirit with the U.S., abandoning its role as an enabler for North Korea.
http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/200610...00247-3575r.htm
BLAME CHINA -- BEIJING COULD BRING NORTH KOREA INTO LINE TOMORROW -- IF IT REALLY WANTED TO - ANNE APPLEBAUM (SLATE, OCTOBER 17)
http://www.slate.com/id/2151635/
RUSSIA: FOREIGN NGOS RUSH TO BEAT REGISTRATION DEADLINE - BY CLAIRE BIGG (RFE/RL, OCTOBER 16)
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/...150bad455c.html
ARABS TO THE RESCUE?: A CHANCE TO BROADEN THE RESPONSE IN DARFUR- EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 16): It's hard to see how Sudan's government could resist an Arab and Muslim peacekeeping force by calling it a threat to Islam.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1500721_pf.html
CAN YOU TELL A SUNNI FROM A SHIITE? - JEFF STEIN (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 17): Too many officials in charge of the war on terrorism just don't care to learn much, if anything, about the enemy were fighting. And that's enough to keep anybody up at night.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/opinion/...agewanted=print
A FOREIGN POLICY MELTDOWN - H.D.S. GREENWAY (BOSTON GLOBE, OCTOBER 17): What to do? Maybe, as James Baker and Kofi Annan have suggested, start talking to evil. Ronald Reagan wasn't adverse to direct talks with the Evil Empire Soviets, and Richard Nixon sat down with Mao. Both were greater dangers to the United States than Iran and North Korea.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...eltdown?mode=PF
ON THE OFFENSE: NO MATTER WHAT THE FACTS SAY, PRESIDENT BUSH INSISTS THAT WE STAY THE COURSE - ANDREW J. BACEVICH (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, OCTOBER 23): Alas, the Bush doctrine of taking the offensive ran aground almost immediately, lost its momentum, and has never recovered. The Bush administration and its supporters have spent the past three and half years trying to deny this fact or searching for ways to work around it.
http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_10_23/article2.html
GEORGE WINSTON BUSH?: INVOCATIONS OF MUNICH AND A PARADE OF NEW HITLERS WONT BE ENOUGH TO CONVINCE AMERICANS THAT THIS IS A GOOD WAR - LEON HADAR (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, OCTOBER 23): As Churchill expert Lukacs pointed out, the kind of empty rhetoric that disguises a disastrous policy, that involves speaking "grandiloquently" and talking "in general terms," is certainly not a Churchillian trait.
http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_10_23/article3.html
GUNS AND BUTTER: HOW THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S FISCAL POLICY HAS NARROWED ITS OPTIONS IN THE REALM OF FOREIGN POLICY - IRWIN M. STELZER (WEEKLY STANDARD, OCTOBER 17): Unlike Thomas Jefferson, who pledged millions for defense but not a cent for tribute when our commerce was threatened by pirates, Bush has pledged billions for prescription drugs for unpoor elderly Americans, and allowed more billions to be poured into congressmen's wasteful pet projects (aka set-asides), but only a relatively few pennies for the military he asks to back his diplomatic drive to spread democratic values.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/829wydga.asp
OUTWARD BOUND: THE U.S. HAS ALWAYS BEEN A "DANGEROUS NATION" ON THE WORLD STAGE - BRENDAN SIMMS (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, OCTOBER 17): As Robert Kagan shows in his "Dangerous Nation," the U.S. has always been an empire and a "menace," not only to its ill-governed neighbors but also to tyrants and hegemons across the world.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110009104
RECONNECTING WITH THE REALITY-BASED COMMUNITY [REVIEW OF ETHICAL REALISM: A VISION FOR AMERICA'S ROLE IN THE WORLD, ANATOL LIEVEN AND JOHN HULSMAN] - SCOTT MCCONNELL (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, OCTOBER 23): There is now a good deal of ideological cross-pollination among scholars and analysts alarmed by the Bush foreign policy, most of it going on at a levels that don't influence policy.
http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_10_23/review.html
BUSH MARKS HIS TERRITORY IN SPACE - (TRUTHDIG, OCTOBER 18): Bush's new space policy, the first major overhaul in 10 years, reserves the right to prevent access to space to anyone "hostile to U.S. interests." Though the administration denies it, the move is seen by some as a prelude to the weaponization of space.
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/ite...itory_in_space/
LOVIN' IT OR SHOVING IT AT MCDONALD'S - ORI RAPHAEL (JERUSALEM POST, OCTOBER 16): In more than 60 cities across the globe, protesters gathered Monday in front of McDonald's restaurants to show the world their harsh feelings towards the fast food giant.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...ticle%2FPrinter
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines
America impedes peace in Mideast
By Ori Nir
Originally published October 19, 2006
It used to be that American administrations, seeking Middle East stability, encouraged Israel to negotiate peace with its Arab neighbors, particularly with Syria. Now, astonishingly, the Bush administration seems to be doing the opposite.
Syrian President Bashar Assad keeps saying that he wants to negotiate peace. In an interview last week with the BBC, Mr. Assad again challenged Israel to the negotiating table, saying, "It takes two to tango." He added, however, "as some say, the decision for peace now is not in Israel, it is in Washington."
Following Israel's war against Hezbollah in Lebanon this summer, Israeli politicians - including Defense Minister Amir Peretz and Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter - also have been urging peace talks with Syria. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni even appointed a senior official as a special "project manager" for possible future contacts with Syria.
Washington, however, is reportedly saying no. Israeli news media have consistently reported over the past several weeks that the Bush administration has made it clear to Israel that any Damascus diplomacy would hinder America's efforts to isolate the Assad government and punish it.
Israel's largest circulation newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, recently reported that Israelis "understood from President Bush that the United States would not take kindly to reopening a dialogue between Israel and Syria." Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert received "tough messages" from the Bush administration against diplomacy with Damascus, the newspaper reported.
Obviously, there are good reasons for Mr. Bush to be angry at Syria. The Assad regime has been thumbing its nose at Washington for years. It has been less than cooperative in blocking the flow of militants into Iraq to join the insurgency; it offers a haven for terrorists; it is cooperating with Iran and has been playing a destructive role in Lebanon. Israel, too, has good reasons to be unhappy with Mr. Assad, who hosts Palestinian terrorist leaders and who helped supply Hezbollah with rockets.
But most Israelis are pragmatic. Public opinion polls show that most Israelis support peace negotiations with Damascus. They know that a peace agreement with Syria is in Israel's vital interest. Such a treaty would dramatically reduce the threat of Syria's missile arsenal, as well as the threat of its chemical and biological weapons. It would push Palestinians to be more forthcoming toward an agreement with Israel over the future of the West Bank. It could open the road for Israel to further normalize relations with other Arab states. It could also encourage Syria to seal its porous border with Lebanon, stopping the shipments of weapons to Hezbollah.
Most of all, Israeli-Syrian talks could contribute to the international effort, which the Bush administration is leading and Israel staunchly supports, to isolate Iran and diminish its regional influence. They could sway Syria - Iran's strategic partner - from the regional militant camp to the more moderate one, placing it in the company of Arab states such as Jordan and Egypt, which signed peace agreements with the Jewish state.
Of course, it is certainly possible that Mr. Assad is bluffing. He may not be seeking peace but merely trying to avoid America's wrath by going through the moti
America impedes peace in Mideast
By Ori Nir
Originally published October 19, 2006
It used to be that American administrations, seeking Middle East stability, encouraged Israel to negotiate peace with its Arab neighbors, particularly with Syria. Now, astonishingly, the Bush administration seems to be doing the opposite.
Syrian President Bashar Assad keeps saying that he wants to negotiate peace. In an interview last week with the BBC, Mr. Assad again challenged Israel to the negotiating table, saying, "It takes two to tango." He added, however, "as some say, the decision for peace now is not in Israel, it is in Washington."
Following Israel's war against Hezbollah in Lebanon this summer, Israeli politicians - including Defense Minister Amir Peretz and Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter - also have been urging peace talks with Syria. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni even appointed a senior official as a special "project manager" for possible future contacts with Syria.
Washington, however, is reportedly saying no. Israeli news media have consistently reported over the past several weeks that the Bush administration has made it clear to Israel that any Damascus diplomacy would hinder America's efforts to isolate the Assad government and punish it.
Israel's largest circulation newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, recently reported that Israelis "understood from President Bush that the United States would not take kindly to reopening a dialogue between Israel and Syria." Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert received "tough messages" from the Bush administration against diplomacy with Damascus, the newspaper reported.
Obviously, there are good reasons for Mr. Bush to be angry at Syria. The Assad regime has been thumbing its nose at Washington for years. It has been less than cooperative in blocking the flow of militants into Iraq to join the insurgency; it offers a haven for terrorists; it is cooperating with Iran and has been playing a destructive role in Lebanon. Israel, too, has good reasons to be unhappy with Mr. Assad, who hosts Palestinian terrorist leaders and who helped supply Hezbollah with rockets.
But most Israelis are pragmatic. Public opinion polls show that most Israelis support peace negotiations with Damascus. They know that a peace agreement with Syria is in Israel's vital interest. Such a treaty would dramatically reduce the threat of Syria's missile arsenal, as well as the threat of its chemical and biological weapons. It would push Palestinians to be more forthcoming toward an agreement with Israel over the future of the West Bank. It could open the road for Israel to further normalize relations with other Arab states. It could also encourage Syria to seal its porous border with Lebanon, stopping the shipments of weapons to Hezbollah.
Most of all, Israeli-Syrian talks could contribute to the international effort, which the Bush administration is leading and Israel staunchly supports, to isolate Iran and diminish its regional influence. They could sway Syria - Iran's strategic partner - from the regional militant camp to the more moderate one, placing it in the company of Arab states such as Jordan and Egypt, which signed peace agreements with the Jewish state.
Of course, it is certainly possible that Mr. Assad is bluffing. He may not be seeking peace but merely trying to avoid America's wrath by going through the moti