OFFICIAL SORRY FOR 'STUPIDITY' COMMENT - ASSOCIATED PRESS (BOSTON GLOBE, OCTOBER 22): A senior U.S. diplomat apologized Sunday night for saying U.S. policy in Iraq displayed "arrogance" and "stupidity." A day after his remarks in an interview were broadcast by the pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera, Alberto Fernandez issued a written apology through the State Department press office. "Upon reading the transcript of my appearance on Al-Jazeera, I realized that I seriously misspoke by using the phrase 'there has been arrogance and stupidity' by the U.S. in Iraq," said Fernandez, director of public diplomacy in State's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeas...comment?mode=PF

STATE OFFICER REPORTEDLY CRITICIZES US IRAQ POLICY IN AL-JAZEERA INTERVIEW - ECCENTRIC STAR, OCTOBER 22)
http://eccentricstar.typepad.com/public_di..._officer_r.html

A PUBLIC DIPLOMACY OFFICIAL [FERNANDEZ] WHO MAY SOON BE DETAILED TO THE THE TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY - (KIM ANDREW ELLIOTT DISCUSSING INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING AND PUBLIC DIPLOMACY, OCTOBER 22): The Aljazeera interviewer said, "I, of course, appreciate your usual candor Mr. Fernandez." The audience, perhaps, did as well. Note: Mr. Elliott's blog contains other recent items relating to public diplomacy.
http://www.kimandrewelliott.com/

THE FERNANDEZ PROBLEM - MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, OCTOBER 22): Remarks on al-Jazeera by Alberto Fernandez that America had been "arrogant" and "stupid" in Iraq have already generated enormous controversy. The State Department, and especially Karen Hughes, must back Alberto Fernandez to the hilt in this StupidStorm. The fact is that Fernandez has been single-handedly carrying the American flag on the Arab broadcast media for years.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...ernandez_p.html

"ARROGANCE AND STUPIDITY": THE FALLOUT FROM AN HONEST STATEMENT - (MOUNTAIN RUNNER, OCTOBER 22)
http://www.mountainrunner.us/2006/10/arrogance_and_s.html

IRAQ: A RARE VOICE OF REASON IN D.C. - CHRISTOPHER DICKEY (SHADOWLAND JOURNAL, OCTOBER 22): "I hope Alberto Fernandez isn't in too much trouble. The director of public diplomacy for the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Fernandez has been for several years now the only credible voice defending what is an almost entirely discredited policy in the Arab world."
http://christopherdickey.blogspot.com/2006...ason-in-dc.html

AL JAZEERA'S PET STATE DEPARTMENT MOUTHPIECE - (MICHELLE MALKIN BLOG, OCTOBER 22)
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/006172.htm

SEND A MESSAGE -- REMOVE ALBERTO FERNANDEZ FROM PR DUTIES AT STATE DEPARTMENT - SMAGAR (REDSTATE, VA, OCTOBER 22)
http://breakingnews.redstate.com/blogs/sma...tate_department

ALBERTO FERNANDEZ, ANOTHER STATE DEPARTMENT DISASTER IN THE KAREN HUGHES MOLD - BY BEILA RABINOWITZ & WILLIAM A. MAYER (E&P PIPELINENEWS.ORG, OCTOBER 23): In his apparent zeal to develop empathy and kinship among the Islamists he must sometimes deal with, Gonzalez has repeatedly made the mistake of not considering how his associations might be interpreted by them or by others who may well feel that his mere presence might well constitute an official seal of approval.
http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page...andez102306.htm

THIS GUY [FERNANDEZ] WORKS FOR US? - (LOOSE GRAVEL, OCTOBER 22): "I think someone needs to be reassigned as ambassador to Antarctica."
http://loosegravel.townhall.com/g/a1142c1c...a0-d21fe1207eb0

A DIFFERENT TACTIC FOR RICE: SPEAKING SOFTLY WITHOUT THE STICK - THOM SHANKER (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 23): Rice was able to contend that important progress had been made toward a new "nonproliferation regime," whose core would be a vastly enhanced regional system of monitoring and inspecting cargo to and from North Korea. "We could be -- probably will be -- in this regime for a long time," Ms. Rice said. While "it's quite important what happens on Day 1," she said, her public diplomacy tried to manage expectations about what was and was not possible from her first foreign lobbying campaign for the sanctions.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/23/world/as...agewanted=print

PLANTED PROPAGANDA: IT'S A BAD IDEA, WHETHER OR NOT IT VIOLATES REGULATIONS. TOO BAD THE PENTAGON WON'T SAY THAT - EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 23): The government shouldn't be in the business of covertly peddling propaganda -- especially in a war based on the notion of seeking to export democratic values such as, say, a free press.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2200703_pf.html

WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON IN IRAQ - JOAN VENNOCHI (BOSTON GLOBE, OCTOBER 22): CNN was right to broadcast a tape showing 10 separate sniper attacks in Iraq, even if insurgents supplied it.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...in_iraq?mode=PF

CENSORING IRAQ: WHY ARE THERE SO FEW REPORTERS WITH AMERICAN TROOPS IN COMBAT? DON'T BLAME THE MEDIA - MICHAEL YON (WEEKLY STANDARD, OCTOBER 30): If our military cannot win the easy media battles with writers who are unashamed to say they want to win the war, there is no chance of winning the hearts and minds of Afghans and Iraqis, and both wars will be lost.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/844nigml.asp

POLL FINDS IRAQ YOUTH WANT U.S. TO LEAVE - KATHERINE SHRADER, ASSOCIATED PRESS (YAHOO! NEWS, OCTOBER 22): In this poll, nine out of 10 young Iraqi Arabs said they see the U.S. and allied forces in Iraq as an occupying force. The majority of Iraqi youth in Arab regions -- half in Baghdad and Kirkuk -- also believe the security situation and the violence levels would improve if the U.S. and its allies left immediately. On the contrary, 70 percent of young Iraqi Kurds see the multinational forces as a liberating force.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061022/ap_on_...zazkxBHNlYwN0bQ

NUMBER CRUNCHING: TAKING ANOTHER LOOK AT THE LANCET'S IRAQ STUDY - FRED KAPLAN (SLATE, OCTOBER 20): Here's the key question: Had it been known ahead of time that invading Iraq would result in the deaths of 100,000 Iraqis (or 50,000, or pick your own threshold number), would the president have made -- would Congress have voted to authorize, would any editorial writer or public figure have endorsed -- a decision to go to war?
http://www.slate.com/id/2151926/

THREE MILLION UPROOTED IRAQIS FACE "BLEAK FUTURE, UNHCR SAYS - REUTERS (OCTOBER 22): More than three million Iraqis who have been forced to flee their homes to other areas of Iraq and to neighboring countries are facing what the United Nations' refugee agency (UNHCR) describes as a "very bleak future" after the agency's budget for offices across the region was halved for the coming year.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/I...7a33d29b706.htm

IRAQ: CHRISTIAN MINORITY SEEKS HAVEN FROM VIOLENCE - HEATHER MAHER (RFE/RL, OCTOBER 19)
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/...5bd1346efc.html

INTO THE ABYSS OF BAGHDAD - PATRICK J. MCDONNELL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 23): Every day the corpses pile up in the capital like discarded furniture -- at curbside, in lots, in waterways and sewer lines; every day the executioners return.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/na...-home-headlines

WHAT HAS INVASION UNLEASHED IN IRAQIS? - ADIL E. SHAMOO (BALTIMORE SUN, OCTOBER 22): The invasion and its aftermath caused such a major trauma to the people of Iraq that now some have become self-destructive.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines

THE REAL 'NEW IRAQ' - COLBERT I. KING (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 21): There is a new Iraq emerging before our eyes. It is an Iraq that torments Christians, that indulges in unrelenting sectarian bloodbaths, that cheers for Hezbollah, that is no more a friend to Israel than is Iran, all despite the lies sold to the White House and Pentagon by self-serving, power-hungry Iraqi expatriates.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2001363_pf.html

THE AMERICAN WAY OF GORE: CASUALTIES OF WAR: DEAD, BURIED AND DISCARDED PIERRE TRISTAM (CANDIDE'S NOTEBOOKS, OCTOBER 21/COMMON DREAMS): Iraqis are decor to the American way of gore, fillers for the new mass graves.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1021-22.htm

US NEGOTIATING WITH IRAQI INSURGENCY - MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, OCTOBER 20)
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...gotiating_.html

A DIFFERENT WAR: PREVIOUS WARS WERE LESS AMBIGUOUS - CLIFFORD D. MAY (NATIONAL REVIEW, OCTOBER 20): In Iraq American political leaders seem not yet to fully comprehend what they are up against; much less have they begun to respond effectively.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YmMzZ...mYyNWU2YmZiOGM=

THE UGLY TRUTH - DAN FROOMKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, OCTOBER 20): While the president has been talking about adjusting tactics in Iraq lately, he can't accept that his strategy may need changing -- or even his goal. At least not yet.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2000748_pf.html

WAR TORN - PETER BEINART (NEW REPUBLIC, OCTOBER 30): For every day that goes by without an honest debate about Iraq, defeat becomes more certain. The good news is that, in a few weeks, that debate will finally begin.
http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20061030&s=trb103006

THE GENTEEL REVOLT THAT IS REMAKING US POLICY ON IRAQ: REPUBLICAN VETERANS PUSH FOR END TO INTERVENTIONIST APPROACH - JULIAN BORGER (GUARDIAN, OCTOBER 21): Eight options being considered by US/UK regarding Iraq.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1928058,00.html
SEE ALSO
http://www.juancole.com/2006/10/break-up-o...ns-mideast.html

5 WAYS TO PREVENT IRAQ FROM GETTING EVEN WORSE: STAYING THE COURSE IS NO LONGERAN OPTION. THE BEST SCENARIO FOR THE U.S. TO DO SOME GOODBEFORE IT PULLS OUT - APARISIM GHOSH (TIME, OCTOBER 22): The main question is, How long will it take for military officials in Iraq and policymakers in Washington to concede that the whole enterprise is closer to failure than success?
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout...1549305,00.html

QUESTIONS TO GUIDE AN EXIT POLICY - GEORGE F. WILL (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 22): "Stay the course" is a policy stamped with an expiration date. The president says the war in Iraq will be "just a comma" in history books, but by Nov. 26, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, with the Study Group's recommendations due, the comma will have lasted as long as U.S. involvement in World War II.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2100819_pf.html

BLOWING IN THE WIND - EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 22): The way the Bush team is stage-managing the president's supposed change of heart about "staying the course" is unfair to the Americans who have taken him at his word that real progress is being made in Iraq -- a dwindling but still significant number of people, some of whom have sons and daughters serving in the conflict.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/22/opinion/...agewanted=print

CHANGE COURSE IN IRAQ: PRESIDENT BUSH MUST REVISE THE U.S. STRATEGY FOR STABILIZING THE COUNTRY - EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 22): There remains a chance the government could gain control over the country. As long as that prospect exists, the United States has a moral obligation and a practical interest to remain in Iraq.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2100832_pf.html

GOING IT ALONE LOSES ITS APPEAL - ELIZABETH SULLIVAN (CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER, OCTOBER 22/COMMON DREAMS): U.S. officials and Iraqis must do much more to reach out and coordinate with all in the neighborhood if they want to shore up the possibility of meaningful political compromise in Iraq and counter the religious extremists, warlords, gangsters and beheaders who otherwise threaten to seize control.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1022-25.htm

HECK OF A JOB, MALIKI! - TOM ENGELHARDT (NATION, OCTOBER 20): What you have, practically speaking, is the worst of both worlds: a government that lacks legitimacy and is incapable, not to say unwilling, to meet the needs of the President and his advisors.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=131070

HECK OF A JOB, MALIKI! - SAMI MOUBAYED (ASIA TIMES, OCTOBER 21): It is not surprising that there is a lot of talk about a coup being planned to oust Iraqi PM Maliki.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HJ21Ak02.html

IS PRESIDENT FINALLY OPENING HIS MIND TO IRAQ EXIT PLAN? - CLARENCE PAGE (BALTIMORE SUN, OCTOBER 20): Whether in war or in peace, Iraq's future ultimately must be decided by Iraqis. As that happens, the best thing that Americans can do is to declare victory and get out of the way.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF OUR DEFEAT IN IRAQ - WILLIAM ARKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, OCTOBER 20): America will be humbled when we leave Iraq. Let's recognize this is the bitter pill we must swallow now.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarnin...our_defeat.html

IRAQ: AN HONEST EXIT - SUZANNE NOSSEL (HUFFINGTON POST, OCTOBER 22): In short, if we pull out it will not be because the mission is accomplished, or because we can rest easily or at all about Iraq's future. Instead, it will be because nothing we try has worked, and because after four years we're not sufficiently convinced that our presence is doing more good than harm.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/suzanne-noss...it_b_32268.html

HISTORY WARNS US TO WITHDRAW: THE TET OFFENSIVE HELPED TO TURN US OPINION AGAINST THE VIETNAM WAR - SAUL DAVID (INDEPENDENT, UK/COMMON DREAMS, OCTOBER 22): The refusal by the President and Tony Blair to admit the failure of their Iraq policy by ordering a speedy withdrawal is entirely consistent with the history of similar foreign interventions.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1022-24.htm

STARK LESSONS FROM IRAQ - JIM HOAGLAND (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 22): The extent to which U.S. forces were unprepared for insurgency and sectarian warfare in Iraq has become painfully apparent. The lessons they are learning -- which have become prohibitively costly for Americans and Iraqis -- must never again be forgotten.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2001662_pf.html

IF WE HAD KNOWN THEN... - JEFF JACOBY (BOSTON GLOBE, OCTOBER 22): All we can be sure of in Iraq is that the stakes once again are liberty and decency vs. tyranny and terror -- that we are fighting an enemy that feeds on weakness and expects us to lose heart -- and that Americans for generations to come will remember whether we flinched.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...wn_then?mode=PF

IS IRAQ ANOTHER VIETNAM? IT IS ALREADY LOST - ROBERT FREEMAN (COMMON DREAMS, OCTOBER 22): The War has stripped the U.S. of incalculable moral standing in the world, increasing its enemies, driving away allies, and in the process making the now larger war on terror all the more unwinnable.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1022-26.htm

TET? NOT YET: VICTORY BY ASSOCIATION - JAMES S. ROBBINS (NATIONAL REVIEW, OCTOBER 20): The most important difference between Tet and any similar (or dissimilar) situation today is that the insurgents in Iraq know what the North Vietnamese did not know, at least at first -- they do not have to actually win a battle to achieve a strategic victory.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MThkM...2Q1YmNiOTBhMTE=

BUSH FINALLY UTTERS THE "V" WORD AS IRAQ "MISSION" DETERIORATES, UNACCOMPLISHED - EDWARD M. GOMEZ (WORLD VIEWS, SF GATE, OCTOBER 19)
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/det...&entry_id=10022

FOREIGN POLICY BLINDNESS - IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN (TOMPAINE.COM, OCTOBER 19): One can think of times when the rude shock of the kind that a defeat in Iraq would inflict could have the salutary effect of reviving the best in the American tradition -- that of a libertarian, socially-conscious people who would once again welcome, in the words engraved on the Statue of Liberty, "the huddled masses yearning to be free."
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/1...y_blindness.php

THE NEXT WAR - DANIEL ELLSBERG (ANTIWAR.COM/HARPER'S OCTOBER 19): A hidden crisis is under way. Many government insiders are aware of serious plans for war with Iran, but Congress and the public remain largely in the dark.
http://harpers.org/TheNextWar.html

JUSTIFYING WAR WITH IRAN: A FALSE STRATEGY FOR NUCLEAR NONPROLIFERATION - PATRICK MCELWEE (COMMON DREAMS, OCTOBER 20)
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1020-30.htm

POLL: 81% OF U.S. JEWS BELIEVE ARABS WANT TO DESTROY ISRAEL - SHMUEL ROSNER (HAARETZ, OCTOBER 23)
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/777950.html

VIEW FROM AMERICA: A KISS FROM CONDOLEEZZA RICE - JONATHAN S. TOBIN (JERUSALEM POST, OCTOBER 21) - Palestinians need are not hugs and kisses from Condi Rice, but frank talk about what they stand to lose if they continue on their present path.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...ticle%2FPrinter

OLIVE BRANCH FOR HAMAS? - CLAUDE SALHANI (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 2): The dream of a viable Palestinian state is not about to materialize anytime soon, at least not until all parties concerned can come to terms with the fact you can coexist alongside your neighbor, even if you choose not to ask him over to dinner.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...20-084918-9495r

SPEAKING TO SYRIA: THE ISOLATED COUNTRY COULD HOLD THE KEY TO MIDDLE EAST PEACE, IF ONLY THE U.S. WOULD START TALKS - EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 22)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editor...ment-editorials