BUSH ADMINISTRATION DOES NOT UNDERSTAND ROOTS OF TERRORISM - GERALD BELLER (CHARLESTON GAZETTE, NOVEMBER 3): Alberto Fernandez said it best on al-Jazeera TV before he was forced to correct himself: the United States has been guilty of "arrogance and stupidity." Our leaders have forgotten what should have been the primary lesson of Vietnam: a would-be imperial power, whatever its level of military prowess, cannot create a legitimate government for another people.
http://sundaygazettemail.com/section/Edito...oint/2006110214
SEE ALSO
http://www.thenewanatolian.com/opinion-17489.html

EGYPTIANS THINK WE'RE THE ENEMY -- WTF? - FRANKCOBRETTI (COBRETTI ONLINE, NOVEMBER 1): The Egyptian people think we're the enemy? This represents a major failure of U.S. public diplomacy. If we can't get the word out about the U.S. in a country with which we've been allied for decades, how can we sway populations in nations in which we have barely a toehold?
http://frankcobretti.blogspot.com/2006/11/...-enemy-wtf.html

THE SYRIAN-AMERICAN RIFT - AKIVA ELDAR (HAARETZ, NOVEMBER 1): The supporters of reforming policy toward Syria say using the stick merely pushes Syria into the arms of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, to say nothing of extremist anti-American elements in Iraq. The new voices in Washington have not gone unnoticed by Assad. In response, he has given conciliatory interviews to the international media and promised western emissaries that he would open a public diplomacy campaign.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/781527.html

AMERICANS AND THE WORLD: WHO IS TO BLAME FOR US FOREIGN POLICY - COURTNEY RADSCH (ISLAMONLINE.NET NOVEMBER 1): Americans' constant refrain in support of their representative, democratically elected governments has made Middle Easterners wonder if the American people should be held accountable for their leaders' foreign policy.
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satelli...fairs/MAELayout

IN NEW UNPOPULARITY POLL, BIN LADEN, BUSH AND NORTH KOREA'S KIM WIN TOP HONORS - EDWARD M. GOMEZ (WORLD VIEWS, SF GATE, NOVEMBER 3)
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/det...&entry_id=10534

AL-QAEDA VIDEO IS OUT - MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, NOVEMBER 2): Al-Qaeda's media arm al-Sahab has released a new video, featuring Abu Yehya al-Libi, who escaped from an Afghan prison last year, and has appeared in a number of tapes since then (he made a bit of a splash a few weeks ago by calling for an attack on the White House; he also released a tape of bad poetry, which is possibly even scarier).
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...da_video_i.html

BROOKINGS: IRAQI SECTARIAN VIOLENCE - MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, NOVEMBER 1): Brookings recently its "Sectarian Violence: Radical Groups Drive Internal Displacement in Iraq," a report that paints a depressing if all-too-familiar portrait of the steady progress of what political scientists studying ethnic conflict quaintly call "ethnic unmixing." http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...ings_iraqi.html

TOO SOON TO RULE OUT AMNESTY: IT MIGHT HELP IN IRAQ - DALE ANDRADE (WASHINGTON POST, NOVEMBER 3)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6110201600.html

IRAQI LEADERS TRY TO KEEP US AT ARM'S LENGTH - STEVE NEGUS (FINANCIAL TIMES, NOVEMBER 2): With friction between the US and Iraq's Shia-led government rising to new highs in the run-up to American elections next week, leaders in Baghdad are moving to extract concessions from Washington on the status of US forces in the country.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/5b43adf2-6ac4-11db...00779e2340.html

http://mailman.listserve.com/listmanager/listinfo/salon

IRAQI PRIME MINISTER ASSERTS INDEPENDENCE, GAINS STATURE: PRIME MINISTER NURI AL-MALIKI ORDERED THE DISMANTLING OF US CHECKPOINTS IN BAGDHAD, PROMPTING BOASTS FROM SHIITE MILITANTS - SCOTT PETERSON (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, NOVEMBER 2)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1102/p01s03-woiq.html

IRAQ: BUSH HAS A PLAN, AND IT'S WORKING - EDITORIAL (ASIA TIMES, NOVEMBER 3): So how is it that the Bush plan can be said to be working? Easy, if the plan is ... chaos.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HK03Ak01.html

CHAOS IN IRAQ, TURMOIL AT HOME - DIANA WEST (WASHINGTON TIMES, NOVEMBER 3): Does the United States have in Iraq a pro-American ally like South Vietnam for whom to stay the course -- or, for that matter, to pull the plug on? No. We have al-Qaeda-sympathizing Sunnis and Iran-sympathizing Shi'ites, which sounds like an eminently exploitable Sino-Soviet-style split in the making.
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20061102-090358-1793r.htm

IRAQ INTRUDES - EDITORIAL (BALTIMORE SUN, NOVEMBER 2): Iraq is rapidly disintegrating.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/b...inion-headlines

BUSH FINDS HIS PLATITUDE SOUND PLAUSIBLE - OPINION (PEOPLE'S DAILY, BEIJING, NOVEMBER 3): Bush has landed himself in an impasse, if he keeps to his original platitude of "staying the course," he will be slammed as pursuing an "Ostrich policy" and, if he gives it up, that meant to find fault with its former policy, and anyway, he found his platitude sound plausible.
http://english.people.com.cn/200611/03/eng...103_318032.html

ANGUS REID GLOBAL MONITOR: POLLS & RESEARCH -- NEW IRAQ APPROACH URGED BY 58% OF AMERICANS - (ANGUS REID GLOBAL MONITOR: POLLS & RESEARCH, NOVEMBER 1)
http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/...em/itemID/13647
(scroll down link for item)

BAGHDADDY: HOW BUSH CODDLES IRAQIS AND COWS AMERICANS - WILLIAM SALETAN (SLATE, NOVEMBER 2): Worst of all, lacking positive results, Bush has cowed critics of the occupation into silence by accusing them of undermining the "war on terror."
http://www.slate.com/id/2152774/

DON'T BLAME MALIKI FOR AMERICA'S IRAQ PROBLEMS - JUSTIN LOGAN (CATO INSTITUTE, NOVEMBER 1): Instead of trying to craft a responsible exit strategy, the Bush administration and supporters of its war policy spend their time trying to find scapegoats for the catastrophe that it has created.
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6757

IRAQ EXIT STRATEGY - ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE (WASHINGTON TIMES, NOVEMBER 2) The Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group (ISG), named after part-time diplomatic illusionists James A. Baker III and Lee H. Hamilton, doesn't have an Iraq exit rabbit to pull out of the hat.
http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/200611...91538-8517r.htm

JAMES BAKER RETURNS. BAKER'S CHOICE - RYAN LIZZA (NEW REPUBLIC, NOVEMBER 2): The person who is poised to emerge as perhaps the most important figure in the Iraq debate is graying eminence James Baker.
http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20061113&s=lizza111306

SEEKING OPTIONS ON IRAQ - DAVID IGNATIUS (WASHINGTON POST, NOVEMBER 3): The central question for Bush is the one that's likely to be at the center of the Baker-Hamilton recommendations: Is America's best hope for stabilizing Iraq a broad effort to resolve tensions in the Middle East, including the Arab-Israeli dispute?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0201599_pf.html

A TNR ONLINE DEBATE: SHOULD IRAQ BE PARTITIONED? - PETER W. GALBRAITH & REUEL MARC GERECHT (NW REPUBLIC, NOVEMBER 3)
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w061030&s=g...thgerecht110106

THESE ARE NOT IDEOLOGUES: THE TOP OFFICIALS DURING MY TIME AT THE COALITION PROVISIONAL AUTHORITY - L. PAUL BREMER (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, NOVEMBER 2): "One of the prevailing myths about my period in Iraq is that the staff of the Coalition Provisional Authority was dominated by people driven more by ideology than by knowledge. The facts do not bear out this claim." Among them: Special Assistant for Speechwriting and Polling -- Don Hamilton: Retired career diplomat.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110009179

THE US CAMPAIGN TO 'PERSUADE' IRAN - EHSAN AHRARI (ASIA TIMES, NOVEMBER 3): No one should think that just because the US has not invaded North Korea or used its air power to neutralize Kim Jong-il's nuclear facilities in the aftermath of his nuclear explosion of October 9 it would behave as passively toward Iran.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HK03Ak02.html

GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT IRAN: FOR REGIME CHANGE - AMIR TAHERI (COMMENTARY, NOVEMBER): The ayatollahs cannot change their spots; they can only be defeated and replaced -- and and they can be.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article.asp?aid=12204023_1
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/

GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT IRAN: A MILITARY OPTION - ARTHUR HERMAN (COMMENTARY, NOVEMBER): Do we intend to dither until suicide bombers blow up a supertanker off the Omani coast, or a mushroom cloud appears over Tel Aviv, before we decide it is finally time to get serious about Iran?
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article.asp?aid=12204030_1
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

DELAY: HAS THE PRESIDENT MADE A CONSCIOUS DECISION TO NOT ACT ON IRAN? - MICHAEL LEDEEN (NATIONAL REVIEW, NOVEMBER 1): The first step is to embrace the unpleasant fact that we are at war with Iran, and it is long past time to respond.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MjkxY...TY4NDA0M2MxYTA=

EYE OF THE STORM: THE 'IRANIZATION' OF SYRIA - AMIR TAHERI (JERUSALEM POST, NOVEMBER 1): The Assad regime is the typical Arab set-up that cannot survive without the backing of an outside power. For a brief moment in 2003 and 2004 it looked as if the US could provide that backing. Since then, Assad has been left with no option but putting himself under Iranian protection.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...ticle%2FPrinter

THE SAFETY OF KABUL: BAGHDAD THIS CITY ISN'T - JONATHAN FOREMAN (NATIONAL REVIEW, NOVEMBER 1): The Taliban regime had an enthusiasm for public cruelty that almost matched Saddam's taste for private savagery. They are an enemy we can be proud of fighting.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MDkxO...zNhYmE4YzY4MzA=

U.S. SPEEDS ATTACK PLANS FOR NORTH KOREA - BILL GERTZ (WASHINGTON TIMES, NOVEMBER 3)
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20061103-122702-4895r.htm

SIX-PARTY FEVER - REVIEW & OUTLOOK (WALL STREET JOURNAL, NOVEMBER 3): Barring outright regime change in Pyongyang, the goal of any American diplomatic initiative is to demonstrate to Kim, as the U.S. did to Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, that unless he disarms his regime will continue to be isolated and starved for cash and trade.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1162...1565712133.html

NOW NUCLEAR, NORTH KOREA WILL TALK: NORTH KOREA AGREES TO RETURN TO TALKS WITH SIX NATIONS TALKS WITHOUT CONDITIONS. WHAT DID KIM JONG IL GAIN? - ROBERT MARQUAND (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, NOVEMBER 1): The Bush administration has long been divided on North Korea between hard-liners who feel that any discussions with a regime that grotesquely violates human rights at a mass level is immoral -- and moderates who feel that negotiations are an imperfect but necessary tool.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1101/p01s02-woap.html

NORTH KOREA: A BOMB AT THE NEGOTIATION TABLE - DONALD KIRK (ASIA TIMES, NOVEMBER 3): One has to assume that the six-party talks will break down, sooner or later, while the US and others come up with other ways to cope with North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Korea/HK03Dg01.html

THE US-PYONGYANG PARADOX - JOHN FEFFER (ASIA TIMES, NOVEMBER 3): The Bush administration must finally accept the possibility of negotiating an agreement. Pyongyang must be willing to give up its nuclear program.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Korea/HK03Dg02.html

AMERICAN PRISON PLANET: THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION AS GLOBAL JAILOR - NICK TURSE (TOMDISPATCH, NOVEMBER 2): Even with a couple million prisoners under its control, the U.S. prison network lacks the infrastructure or manpower of the Soviet gulag or the orderly planning of the Nazi concentration-camp system. However, where it bests both, and breaks new incarceration ground, is in its planet-ranging scope, with sites scattered the world over -- from Europe to Asia, the Middle East to the Caribbean.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=135352

BUSH'S ANTI TERRORIST RECORD: DON'T LOOK TOO HARD! - SAUL LANDAU (FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS, NOVEMBER 1/COMMON DREAMS): Bush's government has yet to prosecute one serious terrorist suspect -- although some have been held for five years in Guantanamo.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1101-28.htm

STOP CALLING IT THE 'WAR ON TERROR': THE TERM WAS WRONG FROM THE START, AND NOW IT'S LINKED WITH A DISASTROUS REAL WAR IN IRAQ - TIMOTHY GARTON ASH (LOS ANGELES TIMES, NOVEMBER 3)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...-opinion-center

FOR ONE CALIFORNIA PROFITEER, IRAQ IS GOING GREAT - SARAH ANDERSON (ALTERNET.ORG, NOVEMBER 2): According to a study from the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy (PDF), CEOs at the top 34 publicly held defense contractors have doubled their averaged pay during the four years since the "War on Terror" began.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/43548/

RICE SEES SUCCESS IN PERILOUS WORLD - CAL THOMAS (BALTIMORE SUN, NOVEMBER 1)
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines

STAYING THE COURSE, WIN OR LOSE - ROBERT KAGAN (WASHINGTON POST, NOVEMBER 2): Historically, and especially in the six decades since the end of World War II, there has been much more continuity than discontinuity in foreign policy. The motives behind American foreign policy, and even the means, don't differ all that much from administration to administration.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0102972_pf.html

FOREIGN LOBBIES TOOK THE GUISE OF NONPROFITS - JAMES V. GRIMALDI AND SUSAN SCHMIDT (WASHINGTON POST, NOVEMBER 3)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0201883_pf.html

"ASK YOURSELF WHO THE MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE IN THE WHITE HOUSE ARE. THEY ARE WOMEN WHO ARE IN LOVE WITH THE PRESIDENT: LAURA [BUSH], CONDI, HARRIET MIERS, AND KAREN HUGHES."

--Michael Ledeen, American Enterprise Institute freedom scholar; cited in David Rose, "Neo Culpa" (Vanity Fair, November 3)
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/feature...currentPage=all

"OMG, THE CHICKS DID IT! FIGURES."

--Comment on the above quotation in "Update: Where's Condi Been? On the Radio! Also: the Iraq Thing? It's All Her Fault!" (Princess Sparkle Pony's Photo Blog: I Keep Track Of Condoleezza's Hairdo So You Don't Have To, November 6)
http://sparklepony.blogspot.com/2006/11/up...radio-also.html

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS WEAK ON TERROR: DESPITE THE TOUGH TALK, BUSH'S REGIME HAS MORE TO HELP THE TERRORISTS THAN HURT THEM - STEPHEN VAN EVERA (ALTERNET, NOVEMBER 3): U.S. public diplomacy is failing because the Bush team has put only scant resources into it.
http://www.alternet.org/audits/43537/ (scroll down for item)

DREAM ON MCMURAVCHIK: FIXING PUBLIC DIPLOMACY REQUIRES PRAGMATISM, PROFESSIONAL KNOW-HOW, AND MONEY -- NOT PLATO - PATRICIA H. KUSHLIS (WHIRLED VIEW, NOVEMBER 5): It is a ridiculous argument that the neocons -- because they understand the battle of ideas better than the rest of us poor peons -- are the perfect people to fix the public diplomacy mess.
http://whirledview.typepad.com/whirledview..._on_mcmura.html
SEE ALSO
http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/1494

KAREN HUGHES SURRENDERS IN TERROR WAR - CLIFF KINCAID (AMERICAN DAILY, NOVEMBER 6): Karen Hughes, who is in charge of public diplomacy at the State Department, not only needs to review the power and effectiveness of terror channels like Al-Jazeera, she needs to rethink her policy of putting U.S. officials on such an outlet.
http://americandaily.com/article/16357

EXCLUSIVE: FSM'S CONTRIBUTING EDITORS SPEAK OUT ABOUT MIDTERM ELECTIONS - FSM CONTRIBUTING EDITORS (FAMILY SECURITY MATTERS, NJ, NOVEMBER 6): A Democratic victory would be interpreted internationally as a victory for the enemy. The response should be the firing of Karen Hughes, the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. In reaction to State Department official Alberto Fernandez going on Al-Jazeera and calling U.S. policy in Iraq stupid and arrogant, Hughes has given him her "strong support," according to a November 3 Washington Post article.
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/chall...s.php?id=389012
SEE ALSO
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburgh...c/s_478128.html

DANGEROUS ARKANSAS - MAX BRANTLEY (ARKANSAS BLOG, NOVEMBER 6): For many current Iraqi students studying subjects such as public health, journalism, international affairs, and English at top American universities, a Fulbright scholarship, a cornerstone of U.S. public diplomacy, is a bit of a curse, as an association with the U.S. could mean death for them and members of their family.
http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog...s_arkansas.aspx

GERMAN MUSLIMS LAUD US DIPLOMAT'S STYLE: THE AMBASSADOR BRINGS STUDENTS TO THE US IN A BROADER PUSH TO ENGAGE MUSLIMS. SOME SAY IT'S MERELY PR - RANTY ISLAM (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, NOVEMBER 3)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1103/p07s01-woeu.html

CSM PROFILES US EXCHANGE PROGRAM FOR GERMAN MUSLIM YOUTH - (ECCENTRIC STAR, NOVEMBER 5): Whatever the intent of U.S. embassy Berlin's privately-funded "Windows on America" program that took German students of migrant backgrounds on a U.S. visit, its greatest impact might be to deepen divisions between the host country government and the aggrieved community, and/or to make the bilateral relationship more difficult.
http://eccentricstar.typepad.com/public_di...rofiles_us.html

A LESSON FROM THE CHINA-AFRICA SUMMIT - ERNEST WILSON (TPMCAFE, NY, NOVEMBER 6): Americans need to get in the habit of listening better. Not just through "public diplomacy," but via traditional diplomacy as well.
http://americaabroad.tpmcafe.com/blog/amer...a_africa_summit

SRI LANKA'S HUMAN, MINORITY RIGHTS AND NATIONAL QUESTION WILL HAVE CLOSER SCRUTINY IN DEMOCRATIC-CONTROLLED US CONGRESS - DAYA GAMAGE (ASIAN TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 6): Rabid left-wing liberal Democrats are easily susceptible to the "fairytales," "distortions," "misrepresentations," "fantasies" and "slanders" of the Tamil Tiger professionals domiciled in the United States in the absence or lethargy of those who are in public diplomacy in Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry.
http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/3035