"WHO THE HELL IS SHOOTING AT US?"



--Sgt. First Class Marc Biletski, among the American soldiers that raced onto

Haifa Street before dawn to dislodge Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias; cited

in Damien Cave and James Glanz, ?In a New Joint U.S.-Iraqi Patrol, Americans Go

First? (New York Times, January 25)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/world/mi...agewanted=print



"BOTTOM LINE IS THAT WE'VE HAD ENORMOUS SUCCESSES AND WE WILL CONTINUE TO HAVE

ENORMOUS SUCCESSES."



--Vice President Dick Cheney, regarding Iraq; cited in Peter Baker, ?Defending

Iraq War, Defiant Cheney Cites 'Enormous Successes,'? (Washington Post, January

25)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2402066_pf.html



BUSH CONTINUES TO UNITE THE WORLD... AGAINST HIM JIM LOBE (ANTIWAR.COM,

JANUARY 23): Despite two years of a concentrated effort by Secretary of State

Condoleezza Rice and her public diplomacy major-domo Karen Hughes to boost

Washington's global image, more people around the world have an unfavorable

opinion of U.S. policies than at any time in recent memory, according to a new

BBC poll released Monday. SEE BELOW ITEMS 2, 28-35.

http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=10375



USA TANKS IN WORLD POLL... THE BEGINNING OF THE BEGINNING - (DAVID SEATON'S

NEWS LINKS, JANUARY 24): The result of this world wide poll is not so much a

failure of US policy or even its "packaging" (public diplomacy) but rather the

triumph of the new technologies of communications and the social networks they

are forming.

http://seaton-newslinks.blogspot.com/2007/...ginning-of.html



HELEN OF TRUTH NANCY SNOW (HUFFINGTON POST, JANUARY 21): The Freedom House

report, Freedom in the World 2007 identified a "growing 'pushback' against

organizations, movements, and media that monitor human rights or advocate for

the expansion of democratic freedoms." The Middle East/North Africa region,

where U.S. public diplomacy efforts to "win hearts and minds" are especially

focused, saw miniscule change in democracy and freedom over the past year.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-snow/h...th_b_39203.html



AMR KHALED AND WARS OF IDEAS MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, JANUARY 23): One of

the biggest dangers lurking within a lot of recent talk in the 'wars of ideas'

community about "using" moderate Islamists. Given such mutual public hostility

and mistrust, the temptation is great to avoid public dialogues and instead

focus on covert methods such as paying influentials to spread 'our message.' But

the U.S. shouldn't get sucked into payola schemes.' COMMENT BY BLOG READER

MARTIN: "How much of the American outreach to 'moderate Islam' is originating

out of the office of Karen Hughes?"

http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...haled_and_.html



CHINA CONFIRMS MISSILE TEST - MURE DICKIE, MICHIYO NAKAMOTO, AND KATHRIN

HILLE (FINANCIAL TIMES, JANUARY 23): China's lack of effective public diplomacy

on the test of an anti-satellite weapon is not difficult to understand. Beijing

analysts have long argued that it is understandable for a still relatively weak

military power such as China to be reluctant to give too much information about

its defense.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/e657a164-aaa7-11db...00779e2340.html

SEE ALSO

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2401646_pf.html



IS OSAMA BIN LADEN THE MARTIN LUTHER OF ISLAM? - REZA ASLAN (SLATE, JANUARY

24): Charlotte Beers, the hapless Madison Avenue exec who was the first

undersecretary of state for public diplomacy in the Bush administration, put

together a series of video spots showing how great life was for Muslims in the

United States. In many countries, the response was: "We're thrilled these people

like living in Dearborn. Now please get the Israelis out of the West Bank and

Gaza." Muslims abroad tend to be less interested in how their co-religionists

live in the United States -- what matters is American foreign policy.

http://www.slate.com/id/2158114/entry/2158213/?nav=tap3



WAR ON TERROR'S OTHER FRONT: CLEANING UP US POP CULTURE: THE DISTORTED VIEW

OF AMERICA THAT HOLLYWOOD PROJECTS BREEDS HATEFUL FEELINGS ABROAD - DINESH

D'SOUZA (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, JANUARY 25): By proclaiming our allegiance

to the traditional values of Judeo-Christian society, we can reduce the currents

of anti-Americanism among the Muslims, and thus undercut the appeal of radical

Islam to traditional Muslims around the world.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0125/p09s01-coop.html



VIEWS ON U.S. DROP SHARPLY IN WORLDWIDE [BBC] OPINION POLL - KEVIN SULLIVAN

(WASHINGTON POST, JANUARY 23): Globally, the most common view in 23 of the 25

countries polled is that the United States is causing more Middle East conflict

than it is preventing.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2201300_pf.html



THE WORLD AGREES: STOP HIM - ROBERT SCHEER (TRUTHDIG/COMMON DREAMS, JANUARY

24): The almost universal support the United States enjoyed after the 9/11

terrorist attacks has been completely squandered, as a majority of the world?s

people now believe that our role in the entire world is negative.

http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print....s07/0124-28.htm



LOW EBB OF AMERICAN SOFT POWER - JOSEPH NYE (HUFFINGTON POST, JANUARY 24):

'M]y strongest take-away of the day [at the Davos meeting in Switzerland] was a

seasoned Asian diplomat telling me that in all his travels, he has never seen

American soft power at such a low ebb. In his words, only the Israelis, Indians,

and Vietnamese have a positive view of the U.S. Then he added, and Iran, if you

look only at the people, not the government."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-nye/d...e-_b_39536.html



THE VIEW OF BUSH AND AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY FROM DAVOS 07 - JIM WALLIS

(HUFFINGTON POST, JANUARY 24): 'Despite the broad hostility to U. S. policies

around the world, I am often amazed at how much good will there is toward

Americans.'

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-wallis/t...er_b_39493.html



EUROPOST: AS AMERICA'S DISCONTENT WITH BUSH GROWS, EUROPEANS SIGH WITH

RELIEF - MARTIN VARSAVSKY (HUFFINGTON POST, JANUARY 23): As Americans reject

Bush´s policies in Iraq, Europeans? sympathies for America increased.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martin-varsa...er_b_39380.html



RESPONSE TO BUSH'S SPEECH FROM BRITAIN TO BEIJING: LEADERS AND ANALYSTS SAW

LITTLE NEW IN FOREIGN POLICY, BUT WELCOMED HIS SHIFT ON ENERGY (CHRISTIAN

SCIENCE MONITOR, JANUARY 25)

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0125/p10s01-usfp.html



IRAQI POLITICIANS SEE LITTLE NEW IN STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS - SAMEER N.

YACOUB, ASSOCIATED PRESS (WASHINGTON POST, JANUARY 24)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2400168_pf.html



IRAQ'S REFUGEES: THEY ARE FLEEING THEIR HOMES AT THE RATE OF 50,000 A MONTH,

AND THEY NEED HELP EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, JANUARY 22): The best way to

help Iraqi refugees, of course, is to secure their country so that they can

return home safely. Since that won't be possible anytime soon, the United States

is bound by both practical and moral considerations to address a crisis that it

helped to create.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2100934_pf.html



U.S. SOLDIER SPEAKS OUT FROM BAGHDAD - AARON GLANTZ (ELECTRONIC IRAQ,

JANUARY 23): More than 1,000 active duty U.S. soldiers have signed a petition to

Congress -- known as an Appeal for Redress -- calling for the withdrawal of all

U.S. troops from Iraq.

http://electroniciraq.net/news/printer2849.shtml



OUR MERCENARIES IN IRAQ: THE PRESIDENT RELIES ON THOUSANDS OF PRIVATE

SOLDIERS WITH LITTLE OVERSIGHT, A DISTURBING EXAMPLE OF THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL

COMPLEX - JEREMY SCAHILL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, JANUARY 25)

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions



SECTS MANIAC - PETER BEINART NEW REPUBLIC, JANUARY 22): "Do we and Prime

Minister Maliki share the same vision for Iraq?" wondered National Security

Advisor Stephen Hadley in a November memo. Virtually everything Maliki has done

in recent weeks screams no. How much more evidence do we need, and how many more

Americans must die, before we take that no for an answer?

http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20070129&s=trb012907



ANALYSTS SEE A CHANCE FOR MALIKI SUCCESS - WALTER PINCUS (WASHINGTON POST,

JANUARY 24): The draft of a new National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq says it

will be "very difficult" but "not impossible" for the government of Prime

Minister Nouri al-Maliki to succeed in providing better governance in that

war-ravaged country, a top intelligence official told a Senate committee

yesterday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2301275_pf.html



THE STATE OF THE UNION - EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, JANUARY 24): Mr. Bush?s

comments on Iraq in his State of the Union speech added nothing to his failed

policies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/24/opinion/...agewanted=print



SPEAKING ON DEMAND: THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS, A CONSTITUTIONAL

REQUIREMENT, SEEMED MORE FORCED THAN EVER THIS YEAR ? EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES

TIMES, JANUARY 24): Much of the president's speech concerned Iraq, although he

said little that was particularly original or helpful.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-...-opinion-center



A STATE OF DISTRACTION EDITORIAL (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, JANUARY 24): A

nearly four-year war that has consumed more than $400 billion and claimed the

lives of more than 3,000 Americans has seriously eroded the standing of the

president who initiated it -- and it showed in both the substance and the

reception of Bush?s state of the union speech.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...;type=printable



STATE OF TROUBLES: A WEAKENED PRESIDENT BUSH ADDRESSES THE NATION ?

EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, JANUARY 24): Mr. Bush's goal in his state of the

union speech was not so much to argue anew for the troop increase but to drive

home the point that the "consequences of failure would be grievous and far

reaching." On this, Mr. Bush is assuredly correct.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2301727_pf.html



TATE OF DISUNION EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, JANUARY 24): Bush is still

going it alone in Iraq, losing even many in his own party.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...isunion?mode=PF



THE RIGHT STRATEGY ISN'T ENOUGH - STEPHEN SESTANOVICH (WASHINGTON POST,

JANUARY 24): If Bush focuses entirely on what's needed to improve things in Iraq

in the short term without making his policy more sustainable in America in the

long term, we'll have to call it a failure.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2301565_pf.html



CONGRESS PLAYS BAD COP ON IRAQ: A VOTE AGAINST BUSH'S STRATEGY COULD

ACTUALLY GIVE HIM MORE LEVERAGE WITH BAGHDAD OFFICIALS ? EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES

TIMES, JANUARY 22): If he is smart, Bush will use Congress?s impatience

regarding Iraq to his advantage in pursuing both aspects of his "new way

forward" -- a surge in U.S. troops and a message to the Iraqis that the surge is

their last, best and temporary hope of U.S. assistance in keeping their country

together.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editor...ment-editorials



CONGRESS'S CHALLENGE ON IRAQ EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, JANUARY 22): Both

houses will need to find ways to use their power -- including the power of the

purse -- to do what Mr. Bush refuses to do: set and enforce deadlines for the

Iraqi government to disarm militias, share oil revenues and reintegrate the

Sunni middle class into Iraqi life.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/22/opinion/...agewanted=print



THE DEMOCRATS FUMBLE AND STUMBLE - WILLIAM M. ARKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM,

JANUARY 24): Removing American soldiers from the streets would indeed be a

different approach. But it is also stupid, that is, unless it is accompanied by

withdrawal and reconciliation with the reality that we will let Iraq go.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarnin...l?nav=rss_blogr



NEW FACE ON A TOUGH WAR - DAVID IGNATIUS (WASHINGTON POST, JANUARY 24): For

a nation bitterly divided over Iraq, the one point of agreement seems to be that

Lt. Gen. David Petraeus is the right commander for U.S. forces in Baghdad.

Petraeus offers something new: He is the last frail hope for a bipartisan

consensus on Iraq.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2301570_pf.html



SURGIN' GENERAL: DAVID PETRAEUS REALLY IS AS GREAT AS ADVERTISED. BUT GIVEN

THE MISSION HE'S TASKED WITH IN IRAQ, THAT WON'T MAKE A DIFFERENCE - SPENCER

ACKERMAN (AMERICAN PROSPECT, JANUARY 24): The surge plan entrusted to Lieutenant

General David Petraeus, chosen to command American forces in Iraq, assumes that

Iraq's sectarian and political deadlocks are attributable to the absence of

security. But this gets it exactly backward: the chaos is the result of

political deadlock.

http://www.prospect.org/web/printfriendly-view.ww?id=12398



SIGH FOR AMERICA - JAMES CARROLL (BOSTON GLOBE, JANUARY 22/COMMON DREAMS):

The "surge" in Iraq that matters is the movement from disaster to catastrophe. A

question: How can otherwise rational policy makers and military leaders continue

to cooperate in this madness?

http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print....s07/0122-29.htm



BUSH'S IRAQ "SURGE": THE FRAUD EXPOSED - ROBERT FREEMAN (COMMON DREAMS,

JANUARY 23)

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0123-26.htm



CAN THE GENERAL SAVE THE DAY? - H.D.S. GREENWAY (BOSTON GLOBE, JANUARY 23):

In all the debate about the surge, the negative effect of foreign troops on the

Iraqi population has been underestimated.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...the_day?mode=PF



THERE IS NO SOLUTION: A FOOL'S ERRAND IN BAGHDAD - MIKE WHITNEY

(COUNTERPUNCH, JANUARY 22): The real purpose of the surge is to pacify Baghdad

in order to rebuild confidence among the supporters of the war.

http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney01222007.html



ANDREA HEEDED AMERICA'S CALL, AND PAID WITH HER LIFE: IN IRAQ, ALL

FOREIGNERS ARE TARGETS - PATRICK COCKBURN (COUNTERPUNCH, JANUARY 23): The extent

of insurgent dominance in Baghdad is such that it will be extremely difficult

for Mr. Bush's "surge" in troops to work.

http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick01232007.html



BREAKING THE CLINCH - DAVID BROOKS (NEW YORK TIMES, JANUARY 25): The

weakness of the Bush surge plan is that it relies on the Maliki government.

There is one option that does approach Iraqi reality from the bottom up. It

calls for a ?soft partition? of Iraq in order to bring political institutions

into accord with the social facts.

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/opini...agewanted=print

PAID SUBSCRIPTION



A BAD IDEA THAT DESERVES A TRY: THE SURGE ISN'T GOING TO WORK. LET'S TRY IT

ANYWAY - JONATHAN RAUCH (REASON, JANUARY 22): Once the surge takes place,

Americans are likely to know in a matter of months whether the Maliki government

is serious about pacifying Shiite militants, coming to terms with Sunnis, and

cleaning up the ministries and security forces. If not, Washington can begin

withdrawing forces and shift into damage-control mode -- not without guilt, but

at least with certainty.

http://reason.com/news/printer/118092.html



COORDINATION COULD BREED CONTROL IN IRAQ - AUSTIN LONG (WASHINGTONPOST.COM'S,

JANUARY 24): Better coordination alone won't solve America's problems in Iraq

and guarantee victory. But without it, achieving victory will be a lot harder

regardless of the number of troops the U.S. maintains, because successes

achieved by one arm of the U.S. effort is too often undone by another.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2301218_pf.html



WHY THE 'BIG PUSH' SOUNDS HORRIBLY FAMILIAR - ADAM HOCHSCHILD (ASIA TIMES,

JANUARY 24): Like the Big Push of the Somme in WWI, the Big Push in Iraq is a

reapplication of tactics that have already proved a calamitous failure. As the

outspoken retired US Army Lieutenant-General William Odom, former director of

the National Security Agency, puts it, it's like finding yourself in a hole and

then digging deeper.

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IA24Ak01.html



SPEAKING OUT NOW AGAINST THE IRAQ DISASTER IS TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE - CYNTHIA

TUCKER (BALTIMORE SUN, JANUARY 22): There is no chance for "victory" or

"success" in Iraq at this late date, and little chance for even averting

disaster. What is done cannot be undone. There is no "way forward."

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines



REBELLION OVER IRAQ: SON AGAINST FATHER IVAN ELAND (ANTIWAR.COM, JANUARY

22): Full-blown civil war will likely occur in Iraq, with or without U.S.

forces being in the middle of it. Thus, the correct policy prescription is

immediate withdrawal.

http://www.antiwar.com/eland/?articleid=10376



FIGHT TODAY OR OCCUPY FOREVER: IF WE LEAVE IRAQ NOW, WE COULD GET A MIDEAST

VERSION OF NORTH KOREA: A DANGEROUS REGIME DOWN THE ROAD WITH U.S. FORCES

STATIONED NEAR ITS BORDERS FOR DECADES TO COME - JONAH GOLDBERG (LOS ANGELES

TIMES, JANUARY 25)

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions



TALKING OURSELVES INTO DEFEAT: PROFLIGATE SELF-DOUBT CAN EXACT A PRICE -

DANIEL HENNINGER (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE,

JANUARY 25): We are not only on the way to talking ourselves into defeat in Iraq

but into a diminished international status that may be harder to recover than

the doom mob imagines.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/d...r/?id=110009573



RETREAT ISN'T AN OPTION - LIZ CHENEY (WASHINGTON POST, JANUARY 23): If we

quit in Iraq now, we must get ready for a harder, longer, more deadly struggle

later. (The writer is former principal deputy assistant secretary of state for

Near Eastern affairs.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2201103_pf.html



TRUTH TO POWER - FRANK J. GAFFNEY JR. (WASHINGTON TIMES, JANUARY 23): In

truth, our defeat in Iraq will make it impossible to keep Afghanistan free, let

alone protect ourselves from what will subsequently emerge out of the

terrorists' new Iraqi base.

http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...22-093342-3577r



AN OPPORTUNITY FOR DIPLOMACY IN MIDDLE EAST - TRUDY RUBIN (BALTIMORE SUN,

JANUARY 23): America has leverage for the kind of diplomacy that is essential if

we want to quit Iraq without disaster. The goal of such diplomacy: to convince

Iraq's neighbors that Iraq's collapse would so endanger them that they have to

work to stabilize the country.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines



MARTIN LUTHER AL-KING? - THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN (NEW YORK TIMES, JANUARY 24): If

Iraq is ultimately unraveled by Muslim suicide-nihilism, it certainly will be a

blot on our history 'We opened this Pandora's box. But it will be a plague on

the future of the whole Arab world."

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/01/24/opini...agewanted=print

PAID SUBSCRIPTION



VIDEO OUR OWN WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION (TRUTHDIG, JANUARY 23): This

disturbing documentary by former '60 Minutes' producer Barry Lando chronicles

the horror that 13 years of U.S.-backed sanctions wrought on Iraq, including the

deaths of hundreds of thousands -- many of them children.

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/20070...ss_destruction/



OUR DELUSIONAL HEDGEHOG - HAROLD MEYERSON (WASHINGTON POST, JANUARY 24): We

are stuck backing an Iran-friendly Shiite sectarian regime in Iraq, even as we

plan to spend hundreds of millions in aid to the Lebanese army to fend off the

Shiite sectarian forces of Hezbollah, and even as Secretary of State Condoleezza

Rice scuttles from one Sunni state to the next in an attempt to build a firewall

around Iran. This is foreign policy as nonsense.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2301563_pf.html



LOOKING FOR A GULF OF TONKIN-LIKE INCIDENT - RODRIGUE TREMBLAY (NEW AMERICAN

EMPIRE, JANUARY 22): President George W. Bush is busily looking for a Gulf of

Tonkin-like incident in order to further escalate the war in Iraq and to start a

fresh one with Iran.

http://www.thenewamericanempire.com/tremblay=1054



WEST'S IRAN PLAN SHOWS GAINS. WILL US STICK TO IT? EVIDENCE MOUNTS THAT

INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE IS HAVING AN EFFECT, BUT IRAN'S PRESIDENT REMAINS DEFIANT

- HOWARD LAFRANCHI(CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, JANUARY 23)

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0123/p02s01-usfp.html



STOP THE IRAN WAR BEFORE IT STARTS - SCOTT RITTER (NATION, JANUARY 24): If

the case for war with Iran is revealed to be as illusory as was the case for war

with Iraq, then Congress must take action to stop this conflict from occurring.

http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=...05&s=ritter



HE X FACTOR IN 2008 -- IRAN PATRICK J. BUCHANAN (ANTIWAR.COM, JANUARY

23): Is there anything that might alter the course of events and affect the war

picture by 2008? Indeed: a preemptive strike on Iran.

http://www.antiwar.com/pat/?articleid=10378



WISDOM IN EXILE - ANNE APPLEBAUM (WASHINGTON POST, JANUARY 23): There is

another Iran: an Iran that admires neither Ahmadinejad nor the Islamic

"establishment" that now opposes him, an Iran that believes in open engagement

with the West and an open discussion of history.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2201090_pf.html



IRAN'S PLANS: STICKS & CARROTS - AMIR TAHERI (NEW YORK POST, JANUARY 23):

Confrontation or accommodation? Three decades after the mullahs seized power,

the question remains at the heart of the Islamic Republic's strife-ridden

political life.

http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly/print....amir_taheri.htm



IRAN PREPARES PUBLIC FOR POSSIBLE CLASH - ALI AKBAR DAREINI, ASSOCIATED

PRESS (WASHINGTON POST, JANUARY 22): Iran conducted missile tests Monday as its

leadership stepped up warnings of a possible military confrontation with the

United States.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2200983_pf.html



SURVEYING THE SUNNI-SHIA QUESTION - MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, JANUARY 22):

The popular idea out there, true or not, is that the U.S. and its Arab allies

hope to prepare the ground for a confrontation with Iran by turning Arab public

opinion against the Shia.

http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark..._egyptian_.html



US, IRANIAN PUBLICS NOT SO DIFFERENT JIM LOBE (ANTIWAR.CON, JANUARY 24):

The people of Iran and the United States share many of the same hopes and fears

about global problems but remain deeply distrustful of each other's government,

according to a major survey of public opinion in both countries released

Wednesday.

http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=10389



DEBUNKING IRAN'S NUCLEAR MYTH MAKERS - KAVEH L AFRASIABI (ASIA TIMES,

JANUARY 25): Increasingly, the voices of dissent in Iran on the nation's nuclear

policy are getting louder and louder, reflecting a growing disenchantment with

the confrontational policies of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, which according to

many Iranian pundits have put vital national-security interests at risk.

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IA25Ak03.html



TAKING THE OFFENSIVE ON IRAN - DAVID L. GRANGE AND ILAN BERMAN (CHICAGO

TRIBUNE, JANUARY 24): The consequences of inaction far outweigh the risks of

resolutely confronting Iran now.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...ncommentary-hed



THE PRICE OF HYPOCRISY - MARK LEVINE (ASIA TIMES, JANUARY 25): Rice's craven

coddling of one of the world's oldest and most authoritarian regimes -- Egypt --

is morally unconscionable and it confirms al-Qaeda's argument that the U.S.

continues to care not a wit about the human and political rights of ordinary

Muslims.

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IA25Ak06.html



OSTER POLITICS - ANDREW LEE BUTTERS (TIME, JANUARY 17): Lebanon seems

pretty evenly split between pro-Western and pro-Eastern camps.

http://time-blog.com/middle_east/2007/01/p...r_politics.html



THE STATE OF THE (DIS)UNION - PEPE ESCOBAR (ASIA TIMES, JANUARY 25): US

President George W. Bush's State of the Union address -- apart from the amalgam

of al-Qaeda and Iran in the same sentence -- was a non-event in terms of a new

strategy for the Middle East.

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IA25Ak01.html



DUBIOUS 'SUCCESSES' IN IRAN EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, JANUARY 25): We

remain skeptical of the notion put forward by the Bush administration and the

Israeli government that we are on the verge of some kind of New Mideast Order in

which "moderates" like the Wahhabi rulers of Saudi Arabia join hands with Israel

to combat Iran and the Shi'ite radicals.

http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...24-094726-1371r



RICE'S RHETORIC, IN FULL RETREAT - JACKSON DIEHL (WASHINGTON POST, JANUARY

22): In Egypt Rice neglected to mention something: "democracy and reform."

During the course of her visit to Egypt, and her latest tour through the Middle

East, the words never publicly crossed her lips.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2100526_pf.html



SOMALIA'S LESSON -- DON'T ALWAYS TRUST THE LOCALS: SEND IN FOREIGN

PEACEKEEPERS TO THE HORN OF AFRICA, WHICH HAS SLIPPED INTO CHAOS EACH TIME

FORCES HAVE LEFT - MAX BOOT (LOS ANGELES TIMES, JANUARY 23): Although most of

the foreign policy debate in the U.S. has been riveted on Iraq, some within the

Pentagon have been touting recent events in Somalia as an alternative model of

how to fight Islamo-fascists.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions



MOMENT OF OPPORTUNITY IN SOMALIA EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, JANUARY 25):

Washington needs to move quickly, along with Arab and African leaders, to try to

broker a political compromise between responsible leaders of the Islamic Courts

Union, which was evicted from power last month by the Ethiopians, and the

internationally endorsed transitional government installed in its place.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/opinion/...agewanted=print



BLACKHAWK UP: AMERICA RETURNS TO SOMALIA - DAVEED GARTENSTEIN-ROSS (WEEKLY

STANDARD, JANUARY 29): It is now widely recognized that the United States should

not have disengaged from Somalia in 1994. The Bush administration should not

make the same mistake.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...13/200wnmzz.asp



REMOTE CONTROL - MARCEL GRANIER (WALL STREET JOURNAL, JANUARY 24): The

president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, has verbally

announced his decision to shut down Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) -- our TV

station, the oldest in Venezuela as well as the one with the largest audience.

So continues a long series of attacks against journalists, employees, management

and shareholders of many independent media companies.

http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1169...8902885814.html

PAID SUBSCRIPTION



ANOTHER VIETNAM: PART II - THOMAS SOWELL (WASHINGTON TIMES, JANUARY 23):

The most fundamental difference between President Bush and his critics has not

been in who has made mistakes, because both have. The biggest difference has

been that the president has taken a long-run view of the worldwide war on

terror, while his critics are seeking a quick fix.

http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...22-093344-7820r



PRESIDENT'S PORTRAYAL OF 'THE ENEMY' OFTEN FLAWED - GLENN KESSLER

(WASHINGTON POST JANUARY 24): In his State of the Union address last night,

President Bush presented an arguably misleading and often flawed description of

"the enemy" that the United States faces overseas, lumping together disparate

groups with opposing ideologies to suggest that they have a single-minded focus

in attacking the United States.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2400006_pf.html



BUSH'S SOTU: ANNOTATED - STEPHEN ZUNES (FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS, JANUARY

24/COMMON DREAMS): By only speaking out in support of freedom in countries with

autocratic governments the administration does not like but remaining silent in

regard to autocratic governments the Bush administration supports, it

politicizes the human rights struggle, replaces principle with political

expediency, and compromises the struggle for freedom worldwide.

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0124-32.htm



STATE OF THE APOCALYPSE - GLEN FORD (TOMPAINE.COM, JANUARY 23): Although

the Bushite ranks are now demoralized and their public support at low ebb, they

have never abandoned their crusade for a new world order based on raw,

unilateral U.S. military force, a planetary ?market? to be constantly

restructured according to the whims of unfettered, hyperactive capital.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/01/2..._apocalypse.php



AMERICA NO LONGER OWNS GLOBALIZATION - NATHAN GARDELS (INTERNATIONAL HERALD

TRIBUNE, JANUARY 24)

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/24/opinion/edgardels.php

First Arab joins Israeli cabinet BBC News
The Israel government has voted to appoint an Arab Muslim to the cabinet - for the first time in the history of the Jewish state.Raleb Majadele from the Labour Party will be minister without portfolio. Mr Majadele, aged 53, said his appointment would give Israeli Arabs a sense of belonging. Labour Party leader Amir Peretz said it was an historic step towards equality for Israeli Arabs, who make up about 20% of Israel's population. All Israeli cabinet ministers - except for the ultra-nationalist Minister of Strategic Affairs, Avigdor Lieberman - voted in favour of Mr Majadele's appointment. "The first step has been taken and this has given Israeli Arabs a feeling of belonging," Mr Majadele told Israel's Army Radio. Israeli Arabs have long complained of discrimination, but the Israeli government points out that they have more rights than Arabs elsewhere in the Middle East, the BBC's Jon Leyne in Jerusalem says. In 2001, Salah Tarif, a member of Israel's Druze minority, was made minister without portfolio but he resigned shortly afterwards after being indicted on corruption charges. He was convicted in 2003.

Blair sees hope of climate deal BBC News
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has told the World Economic Forum a major breakthrough on long-term climate change goals could be close.He told the forum in Davos, Switzerland it was possible because of a "quantum shift" in the attitude of the US. He said the German G8 presidency offered an opportunity for a new international agreement for when the Kyoto Protocol expired in 2012. "I believe we are potentially on the verge of a breakthrough," he said. Mr Blair praised Chancellor Angela Merkel's focus on climate change during her EU presidency and India and China's engagement with the G8. He also pledged to work with other world leaders towards a more "radical" and "comprehensive" successor to the Kyoto protocol. "The German G8 Presidency gives us the opportunity to agree at least the principles of a new, binding international agreement to come into effect when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012," Mr Blair said. "But one which is more radical than Kyoto and more comprehensive, one which this time includes all the major countries of the world."

'Mood shift'
However, he said any agreement would not be able to deliver without binding commitments from the US, China and India.He told the World Economic Forum: "If Britain shut down our emissions entirely, i.e. we closed down the country - not the legacy I want - the growth in China's emissions would make up the difference in just two years. "Without the biggest economies being part of the framework to reduce carbon dependence, we have no earthly chance of success," he said. But Mr Blair added: "The mood in the US is in the process of a quantum shift. "The president's State of the Union address built on his 'addicted to oil' speech last year and set the first US targets for a reduction in petrol consumption." In a wide-ranging speech on world issues, Mr Blair also said he believed nuclear power had to be part of the future. "But I look ahead in my country and I see a situation where we're going to move, incidentally, from self-sufficiency in gas to importing 90% of it, and I say for reasons both of energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions, how are we going to do that without nuclear energy being part of the mix? "And I think we've got to get over this false view that it offers nothing by way of the future. I think there is a whole new generation of technology growing up around it," he said.

Standing ovation
According to the BBC's Tim Weber, the conference hall was completely full for Mr Blair's speech. Both his speech and following question and answer session received much applause and a standing ovation, our reporter in Davos said. Some observers are seeing Mr Blair's speech as an attempt to be viewed as an elder statesman once he steps down as prime minister. Trade ministers from around 30 countries have previously agreed during the conference that full-scale global trade talks should resume quickly. Politicians have said it would be "catastrophic" if the talks failed.

Foreign Policy Commentary Update January 29, 2007


US OFFICIAL PRAISES PHILIPPINES FOR SUCCESS IN WAR ON TERROR DOUGLAS

BAKSHIAN (VOICE OF AMERICA, JANUARY 27)

http://voanews.com/english/2007-01-26-voa13.cfm



CAN THE U.S. REBUILD ITS IMAGE? - LYRIC WALLWORK WINIK (PARADE, JANUARY 30):

After the usual niceties -- such as saying that we are reaching out to other

nations based on common values, friendship and respect -- Karen Hughes is

upfront in declaring that it will take at least a generation before hard-core

attitudes about the United States even begin to change. Hughes places some of

the responsibility for America's image on us. She talks about how -- before 9/11

-- people abroad perceived the U.S. as being uninterested in the rest of the

world.

http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/20...lligence_Report



PLAYING BY ISLAMOFASCIST RULES - ALEX ALEXIEV (WASHINGTON TIMES, JANUARY 27):

Top government representatives regularly engage in meaningless "Muslim outreach"

programs with the most radical of Islamist organizations, thereby legitimating

them again and again in the eyes of mainstream Muslims as the powers that be in

their community. Karen Hughes, the public diplomacy guru of the land, told a

convention of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA): "You are the

frontline in public diplomacy because you are more credible than I am."

http://washingtontimes.com/functions/print...26-090037-8629r



OPTIMISM IN THE FACE OF A "COSMIC WAR" - REZA ASLAN (SLATE, JANUARY 24):

Diplomacy will never work if it is run by partisan gunslingers like Karen Hughes

or by Madison Ave. executives like Charlotte Beers, not least because their

primary goal seems to be making American foreign policy more palatable to the

Muslim world. That's a waste of time. We need to focus instead on communicating

American values and ideals to the Arab and Muslim world. Who better to express

to the world's Muslims what it means to be American than American Muslims?

http://www.slate.com/id/2158114?nav=tap3



REGIONAL CRISES IN THE CONTEXT OF SAUDI-US RELATIONS: A CONVERSATION WITH

FLYNT LEVERETT - (SAUDI ARABIA UNITED STATES RELATIONS, DC, JANUARY 24): Dr.

Flynt Leverett, Senior Fellow and Director of the Geopolitics of Energy

Initiative in the New America Foundation?s American Strategy Program: "[T]hat is

also very problematic for the Saudi regime, that US policy is not just

empowering Iran, but it is also enabling Iran to conduct, if you will, public

diplomacy against the United States, which further complicates the strategic

challenge facing Saudi leaders right now."

http://www.saudi-us-relations.org/articles...-interview.html



11. PRINCE TURKI AL-FAISAL: WE ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS ? CATHOLICGAUZE (GEOGRAPHIC

TRAVELS WITH CATHOLICGAUZE! A BLOG ON GEOGRAPHY, GEOGRAPHIC THOUGHT, AND COOL

GEOGRAPHY LINKS!, JANUARY 27): "The main point of the [outgoing Saudi Ambassador

to the U.S. al-Faisal's] speech was public diplomacy. Al-Faisal said the era of

the diplomat was over. He went on to state that we all conducted diplomacy and

that the exchange program was a perfect opportunity for Saudis to learn about

America. ... I asked if there was a program which would enable Americans to

visit Saudi Arabia. I was hoping there the 'exchange' would be somewhere near

equal. The prince replied that the Kingdom is 'working on it' and took pride in

the fact there are 'slightly less than forty Americans' studying in the

kingdom."

http://catholicgauze.blogspot.com/2007/01/...e-not-your.html



THE GOOD OLD DAYS OF SELLING DEMOCRACY: MARSHALL PLAN FILMS OFFER HISTORY

LESSON IN PUBLIC RELATIONS - PHILIP KENNICOTT (WASHINGTON POST, JANUARY 27):

Washington is awash in people muttering about the urgent need for better public

diplomacy, but the current administration's attempts to reinvent it have met,

mostly, with distress and sometimes mockery -- especially the first travels of

Karen Hughes, who encountered chilly audiences in her first forays to the Middle

East. The films of the post-WWII Marshall Plan reveal the fruits of a propaganda

machine that was working on an entirely different level of sophistication than

anything happening today.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2601742_pf.html



GEORGE W. BUSH, A PRESIDENT IN THREE ACTS - GEORGIE ANNE GEYER (YAHOO! NEWS,

JANUARY 25): "Compassionate conservatism? When did you last hear that term? Some

of my sources whispered that the whole agenda came from Laura Bush and Karen

Hughes, not from him [Bush]. At any rate, and particularly once 9/11 came,

George W. Bush left all those favorite ideas behind."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucgg/20070126/cm_u...dentinthreeacts



LAWMAKERS EXCHANGE VIEWS ON CHINA-U.S. RELATIONS XINHUA (PEOPLE'S DAILY,

BEIJING, JANUARY 28): A group of Chinese and U.S. lawmakers had in-depth

exchanges of views on China-U.S. relations, parliamentary exchanges and other

issues of mutual concern, and reached wide-ranging consensus, at a meeting in

Hawaii over the past two days.

http://english.people.com.cn/200701/28/eng...128_345495.html



SLAUGHTER IN BAGHDAD'S BIRD MARKET: BOMBERS TARGET SHIA CIVILIANS - PATRICK

COCKBURN (COUNTERPUNCH, JANUARY 27/28): One by one the landmarks of Baghdad are

disappearing, engulfed by the torrent of violence.

http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick01272007.html



IT HAS UNRAVELED SO QUICKLY - SABRINA TAVERNISE (NEW YORK TIMES, JANUARY

28): Baghdad fell in 2003 and we are still trying to pick it back up. But Iraq

is a different country now. Deeply damaged from years of abuse under Saddam

Hussein, the Shiites who run the government have themselves turned into abusers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/weekinre...agewanted=print



TOMGRAM: WHERE DO THE AMERICAN DEAD COME FROM? TOM ENGELHARDT

(TOMDISPATCH, JAUNUARY 25): The American dead of the Iraq and Afghan Wars come

disproportionately from rural America.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=160190



ATROCITY IN KARBALA - EDITORIAL (NEW YORK POST, JANUARY 28): Those who have

led the outcry over what they hysterically decry as U.S. "war crimes" in Iraq

have a particular obligation to speak out against genuine atrocities of the kind

committed by terrorist insurgents.

http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly/print....editorials_.htm



GRUNTS, CONTRACTORS AND LABORERS: THE THREE US ARMIES IN IRAQ - ZIA MIAN

(COUNTERPUNCH, JANUARY 26): It is hard to see how adding a few tens of thousands

of soldiers will make much difference to an American force of at least a quarter

of million already in Iraq. It is likely only to make things worse, and many

people see that.

http://www.counterpunch.org/mian01262007.html



IN LIMBO ON IRAQ - DIANA WEST (WASHINGTON TIMES, JANUARY 26): It's very

possible that renewed American fighting in Baghdad, if successful -- which, as

Americans, we must hope it to be -- will not only stabilize the chaotic capital

of Iraq, but will also entrench its Shi'ite-led, pro-Hezbollah, anti-Western

government.

http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...25-091731-6290r



THE IRAQ WAR: CONGRESS IS DRAWING LINE IN SAND - MARK SILVA (CHICAGO

TRIBUNE, JANUARY 28): After years of asserting presidential wartime powers,

President Bush now faces a certain confrontation with a new,

Democratic-controlled Congress that will methodically make a case for reining in

the president's authority over the Iraq war.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...perspective-hed





CONGRESS RESPONDS TO BUSH'S IRAQ PLEA HELEN THOMAS (SEATTLE

POST-INTELLIGENCER, JNUARY 26/COMMON DREAMS): Bush is on the ropes as support

for the unpopular war further erodes, both among American voters and in

Congress.

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0126-23.htm



THE WAR AND THE SENATE OPINION (BALTIMORE SUN, JANUARY 26): The nation

can't simply bide its time for the next two years before doing anything about

this disastrous war. Congress must act.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/b...inion-headlines





THE FIGHT WE'RE IN: WHAT'S THE BEST WAY FOR DEMOCRATS TO FORCE BUSH TO END

THE WAR TERENCE SAMUEL (AMERICAN PROSPECT, JANUARY 26): For Congress, the only

pertinent consideration should be how we get out.

http://www.prospect.org/web/printfriendly-view.ww?id=12405



THE BIPARTISAN WAR ON BUSH: REPUBLICAN SENATORS JOINED THEIR COUNTERPARTS IN

TAKING AIM AT BUSH'S IRAQ PLAN -- EVEN IF THEY WERE ONLY SHOOTING BLANKS - MARK

BENJAMIN (SALON, JANUARY 25)

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/01/...tion/print.html



DEMORALIZED: THE REAL STATE OF THE UNION - MONA CHAREN (NATIONAL REVIEW,

JANUARY 26): The defeatism on the part of the Democrats and some Republicans is

one of the reasons our task in Iraq is so difficult.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YzEzZ...2Q5ZjA0N2U5Yzg=



THE BODY DEMOCRATIC: FIGHT TODAY OR OCCUPY FOREVER - JONAH GOLDBERG

(NATIONAL REVIEW, JANUARY 26): There seems to be only one hope for persuading

the Democrats to support staying in Iraq. Let's just beat the rush and call Iraq

a humanitarian crisis now.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ODIxN...TY1OTZiZDJmMjY=



CONGRESS'S IRAQ QUAGMIRE: THE SENATE WOULD SEND GEN. PETRAEUS OFF WITH A PAT

ON THE BACK AND A VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE IN HIS MISSION EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON

POST, JANUARY 25): Even if the objective of pacifying Baghdad with American

troops were a good one, it's not clear that enough troops are being sent for

long enough to succeed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2401778_pf.html



THE INCOHERENT SENATE EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, JANUARY 28): Passage of

a resolution denouncing the war in Iraq (which appears to have overwhelming

support) is utterly nonsensical if senators are serious about defeating the

enemy.

http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...27-092607-6610r



PARTING WAYS IN IRAQ - DAVID BROOKS (NEW YORK TIMES, JANUARY 28): Logic,

circumstances and politics are leading inexorably toward soft partition.

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/opini...agewanted=print

PAID SUBSCRIPTION



THE COSTS TO THOSE WHO SOLDIER ON - ANTHONY LAKE (BOSTON GLOBE, JANUARY

26): The nation must meet its responsibility to begin a phased redeployment of

our troops from Iraq -- strengthening our armed forces for future missions while

pursuing more vigorously a war in Afghanistan that is not yet lost, but hangs in

the balance.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...dier_on?mode=PF



MURPHY'S LAW & WEASEL-HOLES: IF WE DON'T GET OUT OF THE WEASEL-HOLE OF IRAQ,

WE WON'T HAVE MUCH OF A FUTURE - CAROLINE ARNOLD (COMMON DREAMS, JANUARY 26)

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0126-26.htm



GRAND DELUSION: POLITICIANS IN BOTH PARTIES ACT AS IF THEY CAN MAKE THE WAR

GO AWAY SOON. IT WON'T - ROBERT KAGAN (WASHINGTON POST, JANUARY 28): The United

States cannot escape the Iraq crisis, or the Middle East crisis of which it is a

part, and will not be able to escape it for years. And if Iraq does collapse, it

will not be the end of our problems but the beginning of a new and much bigger

set of problems.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7012601541.html



NOT THIS TIME - FRED BARNES (WEEKLY STANDARD, FEBRUARY 5): The painful

lesson of Vietnam applies in Iraq: Don't give up when victory is at hand.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...13/206ifjmh.asp



TEHRAN'S INFLUENCE GROWS AS IRAQIS SEE ADVANTAGES - JOSHUA PARTLOW

(WASHINGTON POST, JANUARY 26): Iran has driven a wedge between Iraq and the

United States.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2502087_pf.html



IRAN'S NUCLEAR BOMB: ACQUIESCE OR ATTACK? GRAHAM ALLISON (HUFFINGTON POST,

JANUARY 27): However the war in Iraq ends, it is clear who the biggest winner

will be: Iran. If Iran is to be prevented from building nuclear bombs without

war, the US must now explore negotiating options that are unpalatable but

nonetheless better than the options a President will face at the end of the road

he is now on.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/graham-allis...qu_b_39800.html



WHAT IF IRAN SUSPENDS? A WESTERN DILEMMA - TRITA PARSI (ANTIWAR.COM, JANUARY

27): As the Feb. 21 deadline for Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program

fast approaches, both Iran and the West are scrambling to prepare themselves for

all possible moves by the other side.

http://www.antiwar.com/ips/parsi.php?articleid=10408



ANTI-SHIA OR ANTI-IRAN? BALANCE OF POWER POLITICS, NOT A NEW SECTARIANISM -

GREG GAUSE (ABU AARDVARK, JANUARY 25): The new effort at an anti-Iranian front

is a return to old American tactics. The fact that the democracy rhetoric has

been shelved and the minimal pressure on America's allies for political reform

set aside (evident most clearly in relations with Egypt) is the best indication

of the return to classic balance of power logic in American regional policy.

http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark..._balance_o.html



CRACKS IN IRAN: U.S. PRESSURE MAY BE HAVING AN IMPACT ON THE MULLAHS. IF SO,

THE OPPORTUNITY SHOULD BE EXPLOITED ? EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, JANUARY 28):

The most promising way of refining the current policy would be to return to a

strategy that worked when the Bush administration tried it in 2001, which is

engaging Iran in a regional forum.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7012701096.html



TO ATTACK IRAN EDITORIAL (BALTIMORE SUN, JANUARY 28): A unilateral

American military attack on Iran would cause incalculable harm to the United

States. It would leave the U.S. isolated among the world's nations, it would

expose American troops to far greater violence, and it would lay the groundwork

for a severe constitutional crisis between the executive branch and an aroused

Congress.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/b...inion-headlines



BUSH IS ABOUT TO ATTACK IRAN: WHY CAN'T AMERICANS SEE IT? - PAUL CRAIG

ROBERTS (ANTIWAR.COM, JANUARY 27): Everything is in place for an attack on Iran.

Why hasn't Congress told Bush and Cheney that they will both be instantly

impeached if they initiate a wider war?

http://www.antiwar.com/roberts/?articleid=10411



WHOSE IRAN? - LAURA SECOR (NEW YORK TIMES, JANUARY 28): For a Western

traveler in Iran these days, it is hard to avoid a feeling of cognitive

dissonance. From a distance, the Islamic republic appears to be at its zenith.

But from the street level, Iran?s grand revolutionary experiment is beset with

fragility.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine...agewanted=print



ISRAEL'S WORST NIGHTMARE: CONTRA IRAN - YOSSI KLEIN HALEVI & MICHAEL B. OREN

(NEW REPUBLIC, JANUARY 26): The French philosopher André Glucksmann has noted

that, by threatening to destroy Israel and by attaining the means to do so, Iran

violates the twin taboos on which the post-World War II order was built: never

again Auschwitz; never again Hiroshima. The international community now has an

opportunity to uphold that order. If it fails, then Israel will have no choice

but to uphold its role as refuge of the Jewish people.

http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=200702...alevioren020507



THE HIDDEN COST OF FREE CONGRESSIONAL TRIPS TO ISRAEL: BRANDED AS

'EDUCATIONAL,' THESE TRIPS OFFER ISRAELI PROPAGANDISTS AN OPPORTUNITY TO EXPOSE

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS TO ONLY THEIR SIDE OF THE STORY - JIM ABOUREZK (CHRISTIAN

SCIENCE MONITOR, JANUARY 26): What drives much of congressional support for

Israel is fear -- fear that the pro-Israel lobby will either withhold campaign

contributions or give money to one's opponent. (Jim Abourezk is a former

Democratic senator from South Dakota.)

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0126/p09s01-coop.html



LEBANON: SHADOW OF CIVIL WAR LOOMS AGAIN - SAMI MOUBAYED (ASIA TIMES,

JANUARY 27): The more the White House supports pro-Western Prime Minister Fouad

al-Siniora, the more it is easy for Hezbollah to discredit him.

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IA27Ak02.html



WORLD IGNORES SIGNS OF CIVIL WAR IN LEBANON ROBERT FISK (INDEPENDENT,

JANUARY 27/COMMON DREAMS)

http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print....s07/0127-22.htm



SAVING LEBANON - EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, JANUARY 28): The Bush

administration needs to drop its stubborn resistance to diplomacy with Syria --

and try to coax Damascus away from both Iran and Hezbollah. Washington must make

clear that Lebanon?s sovereignty is not negotiable.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/opinion/...agewanted=print



FLAMES LICKING AT LEBANON - EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, JANUARY 27): Iran,

Israel, and the United States have all had a hand in weakening the foundation of

the Lebanese state; they should all be enlisted to remove Syria's heavy hand

from Lebanon and to settle Lebanese political differences peacefully, within the

rules of the democratic game.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...lebanon?mode=PF



RICE'S STRATEGIC RESET - DAVID IGNATIUS (WASHINGTON POST, JANUARY 26):

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week sketched a new framework for

America's strategy in the Middle East based on what she calls the "realignment"

of states that want to contain Iran and its radical Muslim proxies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2501555_pf.html



FROM BAD TO WORSE - MORTIMER B. ZUCKERMAN (U.S. WORLD & NEWS REPORT,

JANUARY 21): With her recently completed journey to the Middle East, Condoleezza

Rice wasted both time and energy -- and badly dented America's diplomatic

credibility.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/artic...0121/29edit.htm



WHAT ARE THE SUNNIS THINKING? SHARP RED LINES IN THE MIDDLE EAST - MICHAEL

YOUNG (REASON, JANUARY 25): Only democracy could prepare Arab states to

withstand Iran without recourse to sectarianism. But the Bush administration

seems to have abandoned that inventive undertaking for the region.

http://reason.com/news/printer/118301.html



REVIVING THE SEARCH FOR MIDDLE EAST PEACE - JOHN SHATTUCK (BOSTON GLOBE,

JANUARY 27): Middle East peacemaking will be a hard sell this year. But the

popular demand for peace remains high.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...t_peace?mode=PF



US ELEVATES PAKISTAN TO REGIONAL KINGPIN - M K BHADRAKUMAR (ASIA TIMES,

JANUARY 27)

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IA27Df02.html



CAUTIONARY TALE ON AFGHANISTAN - DAN RESTREPO (BOSTON GLOBE, JANUARY 27):

Although Colombia's decades-long struggles against narco-trafficking and

insurgencies certainly offer lessons for Afghanistan, they are not the road map

to success suggested by the Bush administration. Instead, Colombia's experiences

offer cautionary tales for Afghanistan as it wrestles with the resurgent Taliban

and a booming heroin trade.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...anistan?mode=PF



CHAVEZ WARNS U.S. ENVOY; MAY ASK HIM TO 'LEAVE'- SOM PATIDAR (ALL HEADLINE

NEWS STAFF WRITER, JANUARY 26): Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened the

United States ambassador to Venezuela saying that he may be asked to leave

country if he continues 'meddling' in the country's affairs.

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7006259427



WHAT NORTH KOREA REALLY WANTS - ROBERT CARLIN AND JOHN W. LEWIS (WASHINGTON

POST, JANUARY 27): The North Koreans believe they could be useful to the United

States in a longer, larger balance-of-power game against China and Japan.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2601363_pf.html



THE RIGHT MUDDLE FOR KOSOVO: A U.N. PLAN FOR 'SUPERVISED AUTONOMY' WILL

DISAPPOINT SERBIA, KOSOVO AND NATO. BUT THE APPROACH IS RIGHT EDITORIAL (LOS

ANGELES TIMES, JANUARY 26)

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editor...ment-editorials



EUROPE'S WOUNDED FLANK - EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, JANUARY 28): Russia, which

opposed the NATO war in 1999 to halt Slobodan Milosevic's ethnic cleansing of

Albanian Kosovars, has made no secret of its objections to granting Kosovo

independence and UN membership. In the hard bargaining ahead, the Bush

administration and its European allies will need to strike a difficult balance

between firmness and diplomatic suppleness, keeping Russia on board while

peacefully completing the inevitable disintegration of the former Yugoslavia.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...d_flank?mode=PF



SOMALIA IS IMPORTANT TO AMERICA: AFRICAN COUNTRY REFLECTS IRAQ AND

AFGHANISTAN - JONATHAN CURIEL (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, JANUARY 28): Because

most Somalis rejected the government's use of radical Islam to maintain power,

they welcomed the intervention of the United States and Ethiopia -- two powers

that sometimes have been enemies of Mogadishu.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...;type=printable



STABILIZING SOMALIA EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, JANUARY 28): "The United

States believes that the key to long-term stability in Somalia now lies in a

process of inclusive dialogue and reconciliation -- a Somali to Somali

dialogue," said Jendayi Frazer, assistant secretary of state for African

affairs.

http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...27-092609-5870r



DAVOS DAY 4: AN IMPRESSIVE RUSSIAN DELEGATION - JOSEPH NYE (HUFFINGTON POST,

JANUARY 27): Russia's current bullying attitudes in the energy area are

destroying trust and undercutting its soft power in other countries.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-nye/d...iv_b_39798.html



IS HOLLYWOOD TOO TIMID FOR THE WAR ON TERROR?: THANKS TO POLITICAL

CORRECTNESS, YOU DON'T SEE MUCH ABOUT THE GREATEST CONFLICT OF OUR TIME ON THE

BIG SCREEN - ANDREW KLAVAN (LOS ANGELES TIMES, JANUARY 26)

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions



WAS 9/11 REALLY THAT BAD?: THE ATTACKS WERE A HORRIBLE ACT OF MASS MURDER,

BUT HISTORY SAYS WE'RE OVERREACTING - DAVID A. BELL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, JANUARY

28): The war against terrorism has not yet been much of a war at all, let alone

a war to end all wars. It is a messy, difficult, long-term struggle against

exceptionally dangerous criminals who actually like nothing better than being

put on the same level of historical importance as Hitler -- can you imagine a

better recruiting tool?

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-...-opinion-center



A USEFUL REBUKE ON RIGHTS - JIM HOAGLAND (WASHINGTON POST, JANUARY 28): For

better and for worse, President Bush has pursued a values-based foreign policy

that is being widely criticized for ignoring U.S. national interests. He has

failed to underpin his narrowly American approach to values with a persuasive

appeal to international moral standards and conscience.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2601542_pf.html



BUSH'S BLESSED OMISSION - DERRICK Z. JACKSON (BOSTON GLOBE JANUARY 27): Six

years of Bush asking God to bless America while cursing global cooperation has

created more hell than heaven.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...mission?mode=PF

IRAQ AT RISK OF FURTHER STRIFE, INTELLIGENCE REPORT WARNS - KAREN DEYOUNG AND WALTER PINCUS (WASHINGTON POST, FEBRUARY 2): A long-awaited National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, presented to President Bush by the intelligence community yesterday, outlines an increasingly perilous situation in which the United States has little control and there is a strong possibility of further deterioration, according to sources familiar with the document.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0101152_pf.html

IRAQ’S REFUGEES – EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, JANUARY 31): However President Bush tries to manage the endgame of his dismal war, America has an obligation to the Iraqis whose lives it has upended.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/opinion/...agewanted=print

A HAVEN FOR IRAQ'S REFUGEES – EDITORIAL (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, JANUARY 30): The United States has spent a lot of blood and treasure on behalf of the people of Iraq. What it has not done is assure a safe haven for many of those who find they can no longer remain in their home country, including those who have done the most to help us.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...,1,855216.story

"IMAGINE ALL THEY HAVE SURVIVED ... ": ENGAGEMENT WITH WAR - KATHY KELLY (COUNTERPUNCH, JANUARY 30): There should be massive convoys traveling into Iraq on a regular basis to meet the rising humanitarian needs. There should be, but there aren't.
http://www.counterpunch.org/kelly01302007.html

WHO'S TO BLAME FOR THE KILLING - CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER (WASHINGTON POST, FEBRUARY 2): Iraq is their country. We midwifed their freedom. They chose civil war.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0101497_pf.html

GAY + IRAQI = DEAD - DOUG IRELAND (TOMPAINE.COM, JANUARY 31): For the very first time, an official United Nations human rights report released last week has confirmed the “violent campaigns” against Iraqi gays and the “assassinations of homosexuals in Iraq.”
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/01/3..._iraqi_dead.php

U.S. WASTED MILLIONS IN IRAQ AID, INQUIRY SAYS - ASSOCIATED PRESS (NEW YORK TIMES, JANUARY 31)
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/washington...agewanted=print
SEE ALSO
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...;type=printable

A NOTE TO MY READERS ON SUPPORTING THE TROOPS - WILLIAM M. ARKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, FEBRUARY 2): The military as an institution needs to ask itself what role it plays in where we are today in Iraq.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarnin...ml?nav=rss_blog

U.S. RECONFIGURES THE WAY CASUALTY TOTALS ARE GIVEN - DENISE GRADY (NEW YORK TIMES, FEBRUARY 2): Statistics on a Pentagon Web site have been reorganized in a way that lowers the published totals of American nonfatal casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, deputy director of force health protection and readiness at the Defense Department, said the previous method of tallying casualties was misleading and might have made injuries and combat wounds seem worse and more numerous than they really were.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/us/02wou...agewanted=print

HAWKS KNOCK SURGE PLAN'S COMMAND STRUCTURE: BURIED IN THE BUSH ESCALATION PLAN IS A WHO'S-IN-CHARGE NIGHTMARE THAT VIOLATES U.S. MILITARY DOCTRINE. NOW EVEN JOHN MCCAIN AND FREDERICK KAGAN ARE BALKING - MARK BENJAMIN (SALON, JANUARY 29): While the U.S. troops would report to American officers, their Iraqi counterparts, in an apparent sop to national sovereignty, would report to Iraqi officers. The potentially disastrous result: two separate and independent command structures within the same military operation.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/01/...mmand/print.htm

THE AMERICAN IRAQ - FOUAD AJAMI (WALL STREET JOURNAL, JANUARY 30): Where Iraq in the age of the Pax Britannica rested on an "Anglo-Sunni" regime, this new Iraq, in the time of the Americans, is by the logic of things an American-Shia regime. The messages put out by American officials now and then, that Mr. Maliki is living on borrowed time, and the administered leaks of warnings he has been given by President Bush, serve only to undermine whatever goals we seek in Baghdad.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1170...0271492074.html
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STILL GRAVE AND DETERIORATING: WHILE JAMES BAKER PREACHES TO GIVE ESCALATION A CHANCE, CONGRESS SEARCHES FOR THE MEANS TO STOP BUSH'S WAR IN IRAQ - WALTER SHAPIRO (SALON, JANUARY 31): There is no easy mechanism for Congress to change the U.S. mission in Iraq
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/01/...ings/print.html

SUPPORT THE TROOPS BY ENDING THE WAR – REP. RON PAUL (ANTIWAR.COM, FEBRUARY 1): Perpetuating and escalating the war only serve those whose egos are attached to some claimed victory in Iraq, and those with a determination to engineer regime change in Iran. Those in Congress who claim they want the war ended, yet feel compelled to keep funding it, are badly misguided.
http://www.antiwar.com/paul/?articleid=10444

PROGRESS IN BAGHDAD – REVIEW & OUTLOOK (WALL STREET JOURNAL, JANUARY 31): The last thing Prime Minister Maliki needs is to have his efforts undermined by votes of no-confidence in Washington -- or meddling by Congressmen with "benchmarks" who pretend to know better than he does how to deal with the most difficult issues, such as how best to marginalize Moqtada al-Sadr.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1170...8407693348.html
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IRAQ IS NO 'NAM - HELLE DALE (WASHINGTON TIMES, JANUARY 31): Only Sens. John McCain and Joe Lieberman have produced something helpful for the effort in Iraq in the form of a resolution that proposes to give Gen. Petraeus what he needs to do the job, including support for the troops already there and all the additional troops he believes he needs.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...30-085827-4194r

OUR OPTIONS IN IRAQ – BRET STEPHENS (WALL STREET JOURNAL, JANUARY 30): The President's Way is to surge troops into the toughest neighborhoods of Baghdad, Ramadi and Najaf and keep them there indefinitely. It is the only strategy on the table that aims at victory and has a chance of succeeding.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1170...6920092002.html
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SURGE DEBATE SIGNALS - DONALD LAMBRO (WASHINGTON TIMES, JANUARY 29): The time for evaluating the success or failure of the wider war against an insurgency Gen. Petraeus and 21,500 additional troops are being sent in to quell will come soon enough, but now is not the time to send a message to friend and foe alike that we no longer believe in this mission.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...28-104107-6990r

NO THIRD WAY IN IRAQ - TONY BLANKLEY (WASHINGTON TIMES, JANUARY 31): If the "surge" doesn't work then more troops and different strategies should be employed. If we are going to throw in the towel, then we should bring the troops home promptly, lick our wounds and prepare for the inevitable Third Gulf War, which we will have to fight under far worse conditions than currently.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...30-085828-6900r

WHITHER THE SURGE? - CHARLES V. PEÑA (ANTIWAR.COM, JANUARY 31): If the odds are against the surge working, the relevant question is: What happens next? The obvious answer is: More troops.
http://www.antiwar.com/pena/?articleid=10428

WAR OF THE WATER COOLER - RICHARD COHEN (WASHINGTON POST, JANUARY 30): Bush has authorized the so-called surge, which is meant to rectify the slide, the mess, the coming defeat. But to Cheney, there is no slide, no mess.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2901447_pf.html

GOING FOR BROKE: ENDORSING THE BAKER REPORT WOULD HAVE MEANT DENOUNCING HIS ENTIRE FOREIGN POLICY, SO BUSH IS BETTING EVERYTHING ON THE NEOCONS’ SURGE - ANDREW J. BACEVICH (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, JANUARY 29): To imagine that 170,000 troops will accomplish what 140,000 troops failed to do in nearly four years or that marching a handful of additional combat brigades into the maw of Baghdad will snatch victory from the jaws of defeat qualifies as pure fantasy.
http://amconmag.com/2007/2007_01_29/cover.html

HUMVEES AND TACTICAL MADNESS IN IRAQ: EMBEDDING WITHOUT BLENDING - FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY (COUNTERPUNCH, JANUARY 30): The so-called "surge" could degenerate into a real bloodbath -- both for our guys on ground and for Iraqis of all stripes when we bring in the not-so-precise "precision" firepower, especially airpower, to extricate our troops from ambushes.
http://www.counterpunch.org/spinney01302007.html

THE RETURN OF SHOCK AND AWE? - JACOB BOAS (ANTIWAR.COM, JANUARY 29): The "augmentation," as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dubbed the "surge," is mere window-dressing, designed to enhance the president's image as a strong leader prepared to go it alone.
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/boas.php?articleid=10420

FUNERAL SURGE – EDITORS (NEW REPUBLIC, FEBRUARY 1): So who in Washington actually believes this surge will work? Apparently, the one man who still believes in Mission Accomplished. We speak, of course, of Dick Cheney.
http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=200702...editorial021207

PUT IRAQI INSURGENTS OUT OF BUSINESS: A 5-POINT PLAN TO STARVE MILITIA FIGHTERS AND INSURGENT GROUPS OF THE CASH THEY NEED TO FIGHT - KEITH CRANE (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MOITOR, JANUARY 29): Bombs and bullets have failed to stop Iraq's insurgents and militia fighters. Starving them of cash is a better way to put them out of business.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0129/p09s01-coop.html

INSURGENCY MAY BE BACK ON ITS HEELS, BUT IT'S NO SETBACK – WILLIAM S. LIND (ANTIWAR.COM, JANUARY 30): The real game, and a successful one to date, is to let the Americans take the brunt of the fight with armed Sunni organizations, whether nationalist or Ba'athist or al-Qaeda or whomever, while the Shi'ite militias get the softer job of terrorizing Sunni civilians and forcing them out.
http://www.antiwar.com/lind/?articleid=10424

AMBUSHING THE SURGE: KARBALA ATTACK SIGNALS A MORE COMPLICATED, DEADLY IRAQ – JEFF TAYLOR (REASON, JANUARY 30): Four years into the conflict, the United States has basically set up a giant Prisoner's Dilemma problem in Iraq for the Sunni and Shiite populations. Unless the United States can demonstrate that it can guarantee the peace, neither side has much incentive to move away from violence.
http://reason.com/news/printer/118412.html

THERE'S NOTHING PRECIPITOUS ABOUT IT: THE LOGIC OF WITHDRAWAL - ANTHONY ARNOVE (COUNTERPUNCH, JANUARY 30): To those who say we cannot withdraw "precipitously," there is nothing precipitous about pulling out after four years of occupying another country against its will. And to those who say we are abandoning the troops, the best way to support the troops is to bring them home now.
http://www.counterpunch.org/arnove01302007.html

DEATHTRAP - JAMES CARROLL (BOSTON GLOBE, JANUARY 29): To leave our soldiers in the deathtrap of Iraq is the true abandonment.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...athtrap?mode=PF

CONSEQUENCES OF US COMMITMENT TO IRAQ: AMERICA'S FOCUS ON IRAQ IS ALLOWING RUSSIA AND CHINA TO ASSERT THEMSELVES - JOHN HUGHES (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, JANUARY 31):
Says one US diplomat: "While the cat [the US] is away [in Iraq], the mice [China, Russia, Iran] feel free to play."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0131/p09s01-cojh.html

BUSH'S 'LEGACY' – HERBERET MITGAND (NATION, FEBRUARY 1): Surely, George W. ("I'm the decider") Bush will be remembered for one thing: the folly of his pre-emptive war in Iraq.
http://www.thenation.com/docprem.mhtml?i=2...9&s=mitgang

BEYOND BAGHDAD - RICHARD G. LUGAR (WASHINGTON POST, JANUARY 30): The administration must avoid becoming so quixotic in its attempt to achieve the optimal outcome in Iraq that it fails to adjust to shifts in the region or political realities within Iraq. (The writer, a Republican from Indiana, is the ranking minority member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2901445_pf.html

THE MYTH OF AN AL QAEDA TAKEOVER OF IRAQ - TED GALEN CARPENTER (ANTIWAR.COM, FEBRUARY 1): The notion of al Qaeda using Iraq as a sanctuary is a specter -- a canard that the perpetrators of the current catastrophe use to frighten people into supporting a fatally flawed, and seemingly endless, nation-building debacle.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines

THE 'AXIS OF FEAR' IS BORN - PEPE ESCOBAR (ASIA TIMES, FEBRUARY 2): The administration of US President George W. Bush was forced to acknowledge that the monumental disaster of occupied Iraq had to be blamed on a new scapegoat. Thus the umpteenth twist in the "war on terror": exit al-Qaeda, enter Iran.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IB02Ak01.html

BUSH’S DISTURBING IRAQ-IRAN PARALLELS – VIDEO (TRUTHDIG, FEBRUARY 1): A video package that compares Bush’s 2002 rhetoric about Iraq with his 2007 rhetoric about Iran. It’s not pretty.
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/20070...iran_parallels/

BUSH'S RATTLED IRAN POLICY – EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, FEBRUARY 1): As suggested by the Baker-Hamilton panel, the best chance to prevent Iraq's sectarian war from igniting a regional conflagration is to forge understandings with Iraq's neighbors, including Iran.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial..._policy?mode=PF

LEADERS WANT U.S. TO STAY ON WHILE IRAQIS STAND UP - TRUDY RUBIN (BALTIMORE SUN, JANUARY 29): Iraqi leaders know they must live alongside Iran, with which they share a long border. They don't want U.S.-Iranian grievances fought out on their soil. This is a moment when determined diplomacy on a regional and international level is vital to contain and mitigate the violence in Iraq.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines

OFF THE AXIS – OPINION (BALTIMORE SUN, FEBRUARY 1): Because of geography and the tie of Shiism, Iran is destined to play a role in Iraq. The U.S. might as well work toward making that role a positive one rather than a destructive one.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/b...inion-headlines

THE NEOCONS HAVE LEARNED NOTHING FROM FIVE YEARS OF CATASTROPHE - FRANCIS FUKUYAMA (GUARDIAN, JANUARY 31/COMMON DREAMS): The failure to absorb Iraq's lessons has been evident in the neoconservative discussion of how to deal with Iran's growing regional power, and its nuclear program.
http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print....s07/0131-26.htm

BULLYING IRAN – EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, FEBRUARY 1): Given America’s bitter experience in Iraq, one would think that President Bush could finally figure out that threats and brute force aren’t a substitute for a reasoned strategy. But Mr. Bush is at it again, this time trying to bully Iran into stopping its meddling inside Iraq.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/opinion/...agewanted=print

AVOIDING ANOTHER US WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST: BUSH, IN GOING EYEBALL TO EYEBALL WITH IRAN'S MULLAHS, NEEDS TO BE OPEN ABOUT THE REAL DANGERS - MONITOR'S VIEW (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, JANUARY 31)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0131/p08s02-comv.html

HOW US IS PUTTING MORE HEAT ON IRAN: TO ADDRESS ITS NUCLEAR PROGRAM AND IRAQ AID, BUSH TARGETS IRANIAN AGENTS AND ADDS POLITICAL PRESSURE - PETER GRIER (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, JANUARY 29)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0129/p03s03-usfp.html

IRAN: 'EDGE OF THE ABYSS' - SEAN-PAUL KELLEY (HUFFINGTON POST, FEBRUARY 1): The drumbeat for an attack on Iran is getting louder and louder.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/seanpaul-kel...html?view=print

BUSH'S TRASH TALK ABOUT IRAN - ROBERT DREYFUSS (TOMPAINE.COM, FEBRUARY 1): The hardliners and neoconservatives in the administration -- led, as always, by Dick Cheney -- have been pushing for five years for a confrontation with Iran. The neocons can only be crossing their fingers in the hope that Iran will respond provocatively, making what is now a low-grade cold war inexorably heat up.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/02/0..._about_iran.php

OUR BLITHERING WORLD: WHERE’S THE VISION AND LEADERSHIP? - MICHAEL LEDEEN (NATIONAL REVIEW, FEBRUARY 1): Never has a country strained so hard to avoid a conflict as the United States concerning Iran. They have waged war against us for 28 years, and we are only now beginning to contemplate the possibility of a response.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZjQxN...WEyZWZkZjQ2NWE=

YES, IRAN CAN BE STOPPED: THE IRANIAN REGIME CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT ITS OIL MONEY - DANIEL DORON (WEEKLY STANDARD, FEBRUARY 1): Iran's nuclear project can probably be stopped by significantly cutting its oil income.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...13/233fmswq.asp

THE WRITING'S ON THE WALL FOR IRAN - LEON HADAR (ASIA TIMES, JANUARY 31): Any retaliation from an Israeli attack on Iran would probably necessitate a US response, which Congress would have no choice but to support.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IA31Ak02.html

THE DANGER OF BUSH'S ANTI-IRAN FATWA: THE PRESIDENT'S DECISION TO USE FORCE AGAINST IRANIAN "AGENTS" INSIDE IRAQ COULD SNARE INNOCENT PILGRIMS, AND RAISES THE RISK OF OPEN WARFARE - JUAN COLE (SALON, JANUARY 30)
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/...hura/print.html

HYSTERIA AT HERZLIYA - PATRICK J. BUCHANAN (ANTIWAR.COM, JANUARY 31): America is on a collision course with an Iran of 70 million, and the folks who stampeded us into Iraq are firing pistols in the air again. There is no need for war. Yet, Israelis, neocons, and their agents of influence are trying to whip us into one.
http://www.antiwar.com/pat/?articleid=10429

IRAN: BUSH’S NEXT DISASTER? - JOE CONASON (TRUTHDIG, JANUARY 31)
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200701..._next_disaster/

BUSH 'SPOILING FOR A FIGHT' WITH IRAN - SIMON TISDALL (GUARDIAN, JANUARY 31/COMMON DREAMS)
http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print....s07/0131-31.htm

BELLIGERENCE IS NOT THE ANSWER ON IRAN - JACOB WEISBERG (FINANCIAL TIMES, FEBRUARY 1): Were the US goal to persuade the Iranian regime to hasten its nuclear race while binding it more closely to a weary and discontented populace, it is hard to see how we could be more effective.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/fadb12b8-b166-11db...00779e2340.html

APOCALYPSE HOW? THOSE HYPING THE THREAT OF A NUCLEAR IRAN (AND ENDORSING ISRAELI OR U.S. MILITARY ACTION) COULD STAND TO ENGAGE WITH THE ACTUAL HISTORY OF NUCLEAR DIPLOMACY - ROBERT FARLEY (AMERICAN PROSPECT): Loose Iranian nukes, rather than purposefully delivered ones, represent the real threat to Israel and to Iran's other neighbors.
http://www.prospect.org/web/printfriendly-view.ww?id=12424

OPPORTUNITY LOST OVER IRAN NUCLEAR CRISIS - KAVEH L AFRASIABI (ASIA TIMES, FEBRUARY 2): In Iran there is a growing sentiment in favor of nuclear compromise and away from the hitherto hardline position of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, yet this positive mood could quickly evaporate in the face of the United States' perceived lack of flexibility and outright hostility.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IB02Ak03.html

'THE IRANIANS DO NOT EXPECT TO BE ATTACKED' [INTERVIEW WITH BERENARD LEWIS] - TOVAH LAZAROFF AND DAVID HOROVITZ (JERUSALEM POST, JANUARY 31): Q: "How will the Iranians be stopped? Do you think they are going to be stopped?" Bernard Lewis: "I do not know what Washington intends to do, or what Israel intends to do. My own preference would be to deal with the Iranian regime by means of the Iranian people. All the evidence is that the regime is extremely unpopular with their own people.”
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...Article/Printer

STRANGE BEDFELLOW - THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN (NEW YORK TIMES, JANUARY 31): The most important thing American could do to stabilize the Middle East would be to resolve the Iran-U.S. conflict.
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/opini...agewanted=print
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LIBYA MODEL FOR DISASTER: FOR THE RIGHT PRICE, QADHAFI WILL REFRAIN FROM CERTAIN HUMAN-RIGHTS VIOLATIONS - MOHAMED ELJAHMI (NATIONAL REVIEW, FEBRUARY 1): The current state of U.S.-Libyan relations belies Washington’s rhetoric. State Department diplomats may claim victory, but engagement with Qadhafi has failed.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=N2I1Y...WZiNjkzMTViMmI=

SYRIAN MEDDLERS: IRAN AND SAUDI ARABIA DON'T WANT CIVIL WAR IN LEBANON. DOES SYRIA? - MICHAEL YOUNG (SLATE, JANUARY 31): Lebanon is one of several new front lines in a regional contest between the United States and the Sunni regimes of the Arab world on the one side, and Iran and its allies or proxies—most significantly Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas—on the other. However, what is interesting is that all sides are resisting sectarian conflict.
http://www.slate.com/id/2158498/nav/tap1/

A WAY TO SOOTHE THE MIDDLE EAST - H. D. S. GREENWAY (BOSTON GLOBE, JANUARY 30): If the open sore of a Palestinian state could be finally healed, the empowerment of Arab moderation could extend to a settlement in Lebanon -- perhaps even to a settlement between Israelis and Arabs on their remaining territorial disputes, including the Golan Heights, because by then Syria would not want to be left out. That would be to everybody's advantage, and may even rescue the shattered legacy of the Bush administration.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...le_east?mode=PF

IS NOW THE TIME TO TALK PEACE IN THE MIDEAST? CONDOLEEZZA RICE AND OTHERS CITE A NEW CLIMATE, BUT SOME SAY FRIDAY'S MEETING HAS MORE TO DO WITH POLITICAL MOTIVATIONS - HOWARD LAFRANCHI (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, FEBRUARY 1)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0201/p02s02-wome.html

THE NEW, NEW MIDDLE EAST: HOW THE IRANIAN AXIS HAS DIVIDED THE REGION - DUNCAN CURRIE (WEEKLY STANDARD, JANUARY 29): Already frightened at the prospect of a U.S. pullout from Iraq, which would leave Iraqi Sunnis prey for murderous Shiite militias and possibly pave the way for Iranian intervention, status quo states such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia now have more reason than ever to work with Jerusalem and Washington.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...13/228grnxk.asp

UGLY CHOICES - RALPH PETERS (NEW YORK POST, JANUARY 29): Thanks to abysmal policy errors (many pre-dating the current administration), we've caught ourselves between two irreconcilable sides -- Sunni and Shia Muslims -- whose enmity dates back 13 centuries. And we're now taking fire from every direction.
http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly/print....alph_peters.htm

THE SUNNI-SHIITE FOLLY: THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S COCKEYED STRATEGY TO PROMOTE SECTARIAN CONFLICT IN THE MIDDLE EAST - FRED KAPLAN (SLATE, JANUARY 31)
http://www.slate.com/id/2158734/

REALISM, INDIGNATION, AND AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY: A RADICAL AND A NEOCONSERVATIVE CHANGE THEIR POLITICAL STRIPES [REVIEW OF AMERICA AT THE CROSSROADS: DEMOCRACY, POWER, AND THE NEOCONSERVATIVE LEGACY, BY FRANCIS FUKUYAMA; POWER AND THE IDEALISTS: OR, THE PASSION OF JOSCHKA FISCHER AND ITS AFTERMATH, BY PAUL BERMAN] - MICHAEL YOUNG (REASON, FEBRUARY) Washington's Arab allies, authoritarian regimes all, are in terminal decline, utterly illegitimate to their peoples. Force alone won't change them for the better, but unless the U.S. pushes them to open up in fundamental ways, all its chips will be placed on failing states that bigoted Islamists are most likely to inherit. That said, those of us who have argued this also realize that America is in no mood to listen. The botched war in Iraq has poisoned the waters.
http://reason.com/news/printer/118322.html

THE AFGHANISTAN SURGE: IRAQ IS NOT THE ONLY THEATER WHERE THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS BELATEDLY COMMITTING MORE TROOPS AND AID – EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, FEBRUARY 1): In Afghanistan U.S. troop levels started at rock bottom and have steadily risen over the past five years, even as security has worsened. By most measures, there are still far fewer Afghan and foreign troops than are needed to secure the country.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...3101905_pf.html

LIFE OF THE PARTIES - ANN MARLOWE (WALL STREET JOURNAL, JANUARY 29): We need to foster civil society and robust institutions in order to assure a decent life for Afghanistan's citizens. An essential part of this is nurturing political parties.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1170...0043190656.html
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THE PAKISTAN PROBLEM – NEW YORK POST (JANUARY 29): Recent news from Pakistan is troubling: After five years, President Pervez Musharraf seems to be rethinking his role as a U.S. ally in the War on Terror.
http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly/print....editorials_.htm

WHAT NORTH KOREA REALLY WANTS: THE 'HERMIT KINGDOM' DESIRES A BETTER RELATIONSHIP WITH THE WEST - THE US IN PARTICULAR - TONY HALL (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, JANUARY 30)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0130/p09s01-coop.html

FROM RUSSIA WITH LIKE: WASHINGTON AND MOSCOW MUST GET PAST BEING NOT QUITE ENEMIES, NOT QUITE FRIENDS - YURI USHAKOV (LOS ANGELES TIMES, FEBRUARY 1): What offends us is the view shared by some in Washington that Russia can be used when it is needed and discarded or even abused when it is not relevant to American objectives. Russians do not need any special favors or assistance from the United States, but we do require respect in order to build a two-way relationship. (Yuri Ushakov is Russia's ambassador to the United States.)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions

BEAR GROWLS AT U.S. MISSILE PLAN - PETER BROOKES (NEW YORK POST, JANUARY 29): The United States and Russia can both benefit from a cooperative relationship. Neither capital wants a deeper freeze in already chilly ties. But Moscow must understand its actions aren't without perceived -- or real -- consequences for Russian security, too.
http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly/print....ter_brookes.htm

RUSSIA BEARS FRUIT: THE WEST MAY FAULT PUTIN, BUT A GROWING MIDDLE CLASS SAVORS HIS VISION OF DEMOCRACY - MICHAEL MAINVILLE (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, FEBRUARY 1): Not only do few Russians see Putin as anti-democratic, but most appear to support his attempts to consolidate power. In a Pew Research Center poll last year, 81 percent of Russians said a strong economy -- which Putin has also tightened his grip on -- is more important than a good democracy.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...;type=printable

SOLUTION FOR KOSOVO: THE BALKAN PROVINCE SHOULD BE ON ITS WAY TO INDEPENDENCE – EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, FEBRUARY 2): If Mr. Putin decides to make trouble over Kosovo, the United States will either have to push back or abandon allies it has supported against aggression: the Kosovo Albanians, or Georgia's liberal democratic government. The administration ought to make clear now that it will not go wobbly.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0101743_pf.html

LINGERING NATIONALISM DARKENS SERBIA'S FUTURE - PAUL MILLER (BALTIMORE SUN, JANUARY 30): Compared to Slovenia, which has joined the EU, and Croatia, which is on its way thanks to its cooperation with the tribunal, the sense of apathy among ordinary Bosnians and Serbs is profound: They don't trust their political leaders; their professional prospects seem nil without the right connections; and they are trapped by the restrictive visa regime.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines

HOPING FOR A 'PERFECT STORM' TO WASH AWAY CASTRO REGIME - JOHN C. BERSIA (BALTIMORE SUN, JANUARY 31): Considering America's commitments around the world, I cannot imagine any serious U.S. intervention impulses toward Cuba, no matter how vulnerable it appeared.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines

WHERE'S THE CONTRITION FOR RENDITION? MAHER ARAR, WRONGFULLY DEPORTED AND TORTURED IN SYRIA, GOT AN APOLOGY FROM CANADA BUT NOT THE UNITED STATES – EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, JANUARY 31)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editor...ment-editorials

NO MORE RENDITIONS: IF THE U.S. WANTS EUROPEAN ALLIES TO HELP IN THE WAR ON TERROR, IT HAS TO RESPECT THEIR LAWS – EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, FEBRUARY 2)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editor...ment-editorials

NO EXIT - JOSEPH LELYVELD (NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, FEBRUARY 15): The question of whether we're prepared to hold terrorist suspects without charge for the rest of their natural lives has yet to be squarely addressed by either Congress or the courts. Decisions on detention issues have been handed down and laws have been passed.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19853

A CRISIS OF COURAGE: DO WE IN THE WEST HAVE THE WISDOM AND CONFIDENCE TO PREVAIL AGAINST ISLAMIST TERROR? - JON KYL (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, JANUARY 31): At stake in the war on terror is nothing less than preserving Western civilization. (Jon Kyl is a Republican senator from Arizona.)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0131/p09s02-coop.html

THE PRESIDENT IS RIGHT - ILAN BERMAN (WASHINGTON TIMES, FEBRUARY 1): In the eyes of the White House, a successful counterterrorism strategy increasingly revolves around confronting both Sunni and Shi'ite extremism.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...31-093853-6050r

DRIVING WHILE DEFEATIST - FRANK J. GAFFNEY JR. (WASHINGTON TIMES, JANUARY 30): One would hope that many -- if not all -- members of Congress would behave better if confronted with the reality of the determined and implacable enemy we face in this War for the Free World.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...29-091801-6101r

'24': TELEVISION FOR A POST-9/11 WORLD - CINNAMON STILLWELL (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, JANUARY 31): Centered on a fictional CIA Counter Terrorism Unit based in Los Angeles, the show “24” has become a favorite of those seeking "good guy vs. bad guy" moral clarity in America's battle against Islamic terrorism.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...;type=printable

REALISTS TO THE RESCUE? - BRET STEPHENS (COMMENTARY, FEBRUARY 2007): Today’s realists begin from theory and proceed to wishes: the wish that war against Islamist terror can be waged at the same relatively leisurely pace as the cold war, and perhaps need not be waged at all
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/cm/main/....Article::10828

THE IRAQ SYNDROME, R.I.P. - DAVID BROOKS (NEW YORK TIMES, FEBRUARY 1): Americans are having a debate about how to proceed in Iraq, but we are not having a strategic debate about retracting American power and influence. The United States has always exercised as much power as it could. It has always coupled that power with efforts to spread freedom.
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/opini...agewanted=print
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SEE ALSO
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/opinion/l02iraq.html

1, 2, 3, MANY VIETNAMS AND IRAQS – IRA CHERNUS (COMMON DREAMS, JANUARY 29): Our imperialist interventions will never end until the American people rise up and say “NO,” not merely to this war, but to the whole idea that the U.S. can do anyone any good by invading foreign lands.
http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print....s07/0129-28.htm

MANIFEST DESTINY: A NEW DIRECTION FOR AMERICA - WILLIAM PFAFF (NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, FEBRUARY 15): We have gone beyond the belief in national exception to make an ideology of progress and universal leadership into our moral justification for a policy of simple power expansion. In that case we have entered into a logic of history that in the past has invariably ended in tragedy.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19879

EMPIRE V. DEMOCRACY: WHY NEMESIS IS AT OUR DOOR - CHALMERS JOHNSON (TOMDISPATCH, JANUARY 31): We are on the brink of losing our democracy for the sake of keeping our empire.
http://tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=160594

KEEPING UP WITH THE CHÁVEZES - FRANCIS FUKUYAMA (WALL STREET JOURNAL, FEBRUARY 1): If the U.S. wants to support liberal democracy around the world, it needs to start thinking seriously about a well-designed social agenda that will appeal to the poor.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1170...1530694662.html
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INDEPENDENCE ISN'T ALWAYS BEAUTIFUL: WITH OLD EMPIRES CRUMBLED AND A MORE GLOBALIZED WORLD, AUTONOMY MAY BE TEMPTING BUT ISN'T ALWAYS THE BEST CHOICE FOR A NATION - NIALL FERGUSON (LOS ANGELES TIMES, JANUARY 29): Most of humanity's greatest achievements, from Ming China to 20th century America, have come where large numbers of people have been able to exchange ideas in a common language.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions

VISA DIFFICULTIES SLOW U.S. TOURISM - ASSOCIATED PRESS (NEW YORK TIMES, JANUARY 30)
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Fore...agewanted=print
SEE ALSO
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/us/31travel.html
Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more.

“I WISH THEY WOULD ATTACK US WITH A NUCLEAR BOMB AND KILL US ALL.”

--Haydar Abdul Jabbar, 28, a car mechanic who was standing near a barber shop when the recent Baghdad bombing took place; cited in Damien Cave and Richard A. Oppel Jr., “Iraqis Say U.S. Plan Allowed Deadly Attack” (New York Times, February 4)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/04/world/mi...agewanted=print

“DEADLIEST BLAST KILLS 135 IN IRAQ”

--Page-one headline in online edition of Washington Times (February 4)
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20070203-115718-8786r.htm

VIDEO

Video of American soldiers negotiating Iraqi traffic by bumping cars out of the way and driving on the wrong side of the road. (Truthdig, February 4)
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/20070...et_around_town/

DECISION TIME ON IRAN: TRADE AND INVESTMENT MATTER GREATLY TO TEHRAN; IT NEEDS FOREIGN INVESTMENT TO MAINTAIN A STEADY FLOW OF OIL REVENUES – KIM R. HOLMES (SPERO, FEBRUARY 5): We should launch public diplomacy initiatives to drive wedges further between Ahmadinejad's regime and the restive Iranian people. It's easy to find topics for such initiatives -- from the regime's human-rights abuses to its ties to terrorism. Our current public-diplomacy efforts have been disjointed and too much below the radar. We need to coordinate them better at the highest levels of government.
http://www.speroforum.com/site/print.asp?idarticle=7745

THE SUNNI SOLUTION - DANIEL GALLINGTON (FRONTPAGE MAGAZINE.COM, CA, FEBRUARY 5): Sen. Barack Obama, following President Bush's State of the Union address, said that we should not expect a "Jeffersonian democracy" to emerge in Iraq. This is an essential public diplomacy theme the White House is simply not getting across.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=26772

BUT HOW WAS THE REST OF THE PLAY, MRS. LINCOLN? - DAN LAVOIE (POLITICS, RHETORIC AND HOW DUMB IDEAS GET SOLD TO SMART PEOPLE, FEBRUARY 2): Tony Snow and Karen Hughes better get their golashes on -- they got some 'splaining to do. Looks like the newly released National Intelligence Estimate leaves no doubt whether Iraq is in the midst of a Civil War.
http://www.yourenojackkennedy.com/2007/02/...rs-lincoln.html

FATAH-HAMAS TALKS: THE MAGIC SOLUTION - ZVI BAR'EL (HAARETZ, FEBRUARY 5): This is the root of Saudi Arabia's new tactic: no more blind support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' superiority over Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, but rather, treating them as equals. This signals to Washington that the boycott of Hamas is crumbling. This is also why Saudi Arabia, rather than Egypt or Jordan, has, unusually, launched this public diplomacy: Unlike the others, Saudi Arabia has the ability to flex its muscles even beyond the Arab world.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/821794.html

IRAQIS FAULT PACE OF U.S. PLAN IN ATTACK - DAMIEN CAVE AND RICHARD A. OPPEL JR (NEW YORK TIMES, FEBRUARY 5): A growing number of Iraqis blamed the United States on Sunday for creating conditions that led to the worst single suicide bombing in the war, which devastated a Shiite market in Baghdad the day before. They argued that the Americans had been slow in completing the vaunted new American security plan, making Shiite neighborhoods much more vulnerable to such horrific attacks.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/05/world/mi...agewanted=print

SHAMS'S PARODY OF BUSH: VIDEO CLIP AS RESISTANCE - JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, FEBRUARY 5): “When I hear Bush and Cheney keep talking about ‘getting the job done’ in Iraq, the thing that most amazes me is that they don't know they are laughingstocks in the region. It isn't just that they are widely hated, or distrusted, or viewed as failures. It is that people are laughing at them. No surge can fix that.”
http://www.juancole.com/2007/02/shamss-par...eo-clip-as.html

JIHADI VIRAL VIDEOS – MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, FEBRUARY 2): These viral clips circulate under the radar of the mass media, and of increasing importance in shaping popular attitudes.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...i_viral_vi.html

ABASHED BY BUSH – SHMUEL ROSNER (HAARETZ, FEBRUARY 5): The Jews of Israel comprise perhaps the most sympathetic group toward Bush in the entire world. On the other hand, American Jews constitute one of the least sympathetic groups.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/821367.html

US MEDIA REJECT CAMPAIGN AGAINST AHMADINEJAD - MATHEW WAGNER AND LAURA RHEINHEIMER (JERUSALEM POST, FEBRUARY 4): Leading American news media have refused to sell Internet site ad space to the Jewish Agency for a campaign against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to Jewish Agency (JA) Spokesman Yarden Vatikay.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...Article/Printer

SEPARATING AHMADINEJAD FROM IRAN - SUZANNE NOSSEL (HUFFINGTON POST, FEBRUARY 4): As the White House heats up the rhetoric on Iran's role in fomenting violence in Iraq, little effort is made to differentiate between the present regime and the country as a whole, including its population. If our goal is to pry Ahmadinejad away from his support base, that distinction should be drawn (as was done with the Taliban vis-a-vis the people of Afghanistan and for Saddam in relation to Iraq).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/suzanne-noss...fr_b_40421.html

WHY DICK CHENEY CRACKED UP - FRANK RICH (NEW YORK TIMES, FEBRUARY 4): The administration propaganda flimflams that sold us the war are now being retrofitted to expand and extend it.
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/02/04/opini...agewanted=print
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RICE'S TOUGHEST MISSION - ROMESH RATNESAR, ELAINE SHANNON (TIME, FEBRUARY 1): After six years of tussling with others on Bush's national-security team, Secretary of State Rice has seen off her rivals and emerged as the principal spokesperson for Bush's foreign policy. Rice has been slow to recognize the extent to which the U.S.'s prestige has declined. Few believe she will ever usurp Vice President Dick Cheney's policymaking supremacy.
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1584810,00.html

WASHINGTON MEMO: WITH RUMSFELD GONE, CRITICS OF WAR LOOK TO RICE - HELENE COOPER (NEW YORK TIMES, FEBRUARY 4)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/04/washingt...agewanted=print
SEE ALSO
http://sparklepony.blogspot.com/2007/02/me...iced-by-ny.html

SHAPING A VISA POLICY IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST - JAMES JAY CARAFANO AND MARLENE M. JOHNSON (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, FEBRUARY 5): It's high time to stop turning away millions of friends a year, and forcing millions more to travel hundreds of miles only to be left waiting on our doorstep, because we fear the entry of some of our worst enemies. Otherwise, those friends will choose to go someplace more hospitable.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0401512_pf.html

IN EUROPE, PUSHBACK AGAINST US 'WAR ON TERROR': GERMAN SOLIDARITY WITH THE INDICTMENT OF 13 CIA OPERATIVES UNDERSCORES A SHIFTING TONE ACROSS EUROPE - ROBERT MARQUAND (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, FEBRUARY 5): As changes of leadership loom in Britain and France, and capitals contemplate relations with a post-Bush US, Uncle Sam may expect stronger "pushbacks" from Europe, experts here say. Public disapproval of the US-led "war on terror" is also growing, spurring the change.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0205/p01s04-woeu.html

RENDITION AT RISK: THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S EXCESSES HAVE ENDANGERED A VALUABLE TOOL - DANIEL BENJAMIN (SLATE, FEBRUARY 2): What has made renditions so unpalatable is that after 9/11, when "the gloves came off," as some officials put it, so did the moral and legal standards that made rendition acceptable. In short, rendition has become a dirty word because it is now a shorthand for what some have called "the outsourcing of torture."
http://www.slate.com/id/2159017?nav=tap3

FIRST DANISH MOVIE ON CARTOONS CRISIS - NIDAL ABU ARIF (ISLAMONLINE, FEBRUARY 4): Famed Danish Director Erik Clausen has unveiled plans to produce the first movie on the cartoons crisis that triggered fears of a clash of civilizations between the West and Islam.
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satelli...-News/NWELayout

"WITH YOU? NO. NOT WITH YOU. DO I WANT TO DIE?"

-- An Iraqi army major's wife with a master's degree in English translation, when asked "Do you want to work for the Americans?" by U.S. Army Lt. Anthony Slamar in Baghdad; cited in Joshua Partlow, “U.S. Unit Walks 'A Fine Line' in Iraqi Capital” (Washington Post, February 6)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0501492_pf.html

“VISITING PROFESSOR AND DISTINGUISHED PRACTITIONER IN NATIONAL SECURITY POLICY”

--Current title at Georgetown University of Douglas Feith, Jr., the former undersecretary of defense for policy, who headed a group that, among other things, was charged with developing prewar intelligence about Saddam Hussein's regime; Steve Goldstein, “Life in Academia for a Planner of Iraq War” (Mercury News, February 6)
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews...cs/16633706.htm
DETAILS ON FEITH APPOINTMENT AT
http://explore.georgetown.edu/news/?ID=15320

WHERE’S BEN FRANKLIN? - PETERR (FIREDOGLAKE BLOG, FEBRUARY 6): Exactly 229 years ago, on February 6, 1778, the US signed its very first treaty with a foreign nation. France agreed to recognize the United States as a free and independent nation, and the history of US public diplomacy was formally under way, thanks to a delegation led by Benjamin Franklin. My, how things have changed . . . There is a toll charged for the atrocities at Abu Ghraib, official policies of extraordinary rendition and torture, and re-defining ourselves out of the Geneva Convention, and we pay that toll with our reputation. We've become the little boy who cried "wolf!" Where's Ben Franklin when we need him today? [Note: 103 reader responses to the item]
http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/02/06/wheres-ben-franklin/

US BUDGET PLAN WOULD CUT MOST VOA ENGLISH RADIO PROGRAMS – VOA NEWS (FEBRUARY 5)
http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-02-05-voa45.cfm

FRANCE SOMEWHAT SCEPTICAL ON IRANIAN DIPLOMACY - (KUNA, FEBRUARY 6): Asked about Iranian invitations to foreign diplomats and journalists to visit its nuclear facilities, a senior French official pointed to Iran’s "good public diplomacy on the nuclear file" but also to contradictory statements.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/home/story.aspx?Lan...amp;DSNO=949728

PIVOTAL VISIT, CRITICAL TIME - CHRISTIAN KOCH (KHALEEJ TIMES, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - FEB 5): What can Germany and the EU concretely provide the Middle East region? First, improve its public diplomacy in the region where people remain far too uninformed about what the EU’s policies and intentions.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle...pinion&col=

US MEDIA CAN'T COVER THE NEWS IF THEY DON'T COVER THE WORLD: US PAPERS ARE CLOSING FOREIGN BUREAUS TO SAVE MONEY. THAT'S THE WRONG MOVE - JOHN HUGHES (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, FEBRUARY 7)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0207/p09s01-cojh.html

U.S. UNIT WALKS 'A FINE LINE' IN IRAQI CAPITAL - JOSHUA PARTLOW (WASHINGTON POST, FEBRUARY 6): Even when Americans and Iraqis can understand each other, U.S. soldiers said, many Iraqis do not speak openly because they are afraid of being perceived in their neighborhood as collaborating with the Americans.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0501492_pf.html

KEYS TO A SUCCESSFUL SURGE: SENDING MORE TROOPS TO IRAQ WILL WORK ONLY IF THE U.S. CHANGES ITS WAYS - MAX BOOT (LOS ANGELES TIMES, FEBRUARY 7): The U.S. has spent countless billions of dollars to build an elaborate network of forward operating bases in Iraq where troops are totally isolated from the population.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions

YES, WE CAN FIND THE EXIT - THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN (NEW YORK TIMES, FEBRUARY 7): “I don’t think at this stage that the promise of 20,000 more troops will change any minds in Iraq,” said Michael Mandelbaum, author of “The Case for Goliath.” “But the threat of a lot fewer U.S. troops might conceivably get everyone focused.”
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/opini...agewanted=print
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MISSION DEFLATED: OUR OCCUPATION OF IRAQ HAS BEEN A LOSING GAME FOR A LOT OF REASONS. CONSIDER ONE ARMY UNIT'S EFFORT TO HAND OUT HUNDREDS OF SOCCER BALLS TO IRAQI KIDS - MARK BENJAMIN (SALON, FEBRUARY 7): The military is not clear about who came up with the idea to win over Iraqis with soccer balls. At Forward Operating Base Warhorse, soldiers encountered a five-ton truck stacked with large cardboard boxes. There were maybe 50 soccer balls in each box. But the balls had not been inflated. They were all flat. Nobody had bothered to pack the needles to inflate the balls.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/02/...alls/print.html

BAGHDAD DAY TO DAY: LIBRARIAN’S JOURNAL - PATRICIA COHEN (NEW YORK TIMES, FEBRUARY 7): For a month now, the intermittent diary entries of Saad Eskander, the director of Iraq’s National Library and Archive in Baghdad, have been appearing on the Web site of the British Library and they detail the daily hurdles of keeping Iraq’s central library open, preserving the surviving archives and books and, oh yes, staying alive.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/books/07...agewanted=print

PASSPORT RULE CHANGE IN US KEEPS IRAQIS OUT - FARAH STOCKMAN (BOSTON GLOBE STAFF, FEBRUARY 7): The US government last month stopped accepting all but the latest version of Iraqi passports, effectively barring hundreds -- potentially thousands -- of Iraqis with valid US visas from entering the United States, including some students at Boston-area universities.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles...qis_out?mode=PF

DON'T ABANDON THEM – OPINION (BALTIMORE SUN, FEBRUARY 7): Iraqis who have worked for the United States have put their lives on the line -- the least the U.S. can do for them now is grant them visas to come live here.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/b...inion-headlines
MILITARY WANTS MORE CIVILIANS TO HELP IN IRAQ - THOM SHANKER AND DAVID S. CLOUD (NEW YORK TIMES, FEBRUARY 7): There are fresh tensions between the Pentagon and the State Department over personnel demands that have fallen most heavily on the military. Among particular complaints, the officers cited a request from the office of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that military personnel temporarily fill more than one-third of 350 new State Department jobs in Iraq that are to be created. The entire United States Foreign Service numbers only 6,000 people, about the size of a military brigade.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/washingt...agewanted=print

CHRIS HEDGES: THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT’S WAR ON AMERICA – INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT SCHEER (TRUTHDIG, FEBRUARY 6): Hedges: “The best Arabists in the government are in the State Department and in the intelligence services. Because they speak the language and they spend time there. They get it. And I have friend who are Arabists in the State Department. They’re pretty lonely figures, because nobody in the Bush administration gives them the time of day.”
http://www.truthdig.com/interview/item/200...war_on_america/

BRANDING ENEMIES; CREATING BATTLEFIELDS - SORAYA SEPAHPOUR-ULRICH (PAYVAND, IRAN, FEBRUARY 5): During the Cold War, the two super powers realized that there was no logic in engaging militarily given that each had the benefit of resorting to nuclear weapons, thus, with the exception of a few proxy wars, their 'war' became a war of propaganda to win over minds and hearts. Today, the Bush White House is following the same pattern of warfare replacing communism with Islam. However, much like everything else this administration embarks on, the disastrous consequences of this war have not been deliberated.
http://www.payvand.com/news/07/feb/1045.html

HITLER, PROPAGANDA AND RECYCLING IRAQ AS IRAN - MAC MCKINNEY (OPEDNEWS.COM, JANUARY 31): Whether or not Karl Rove and the apparatiks in the White House have actually read Mein Kampf I do not know. Have they incorporated those same propaganda principles espoused by Hitler? The answer is a resounding YES!
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_ma...fpc_propaga.htm

BLAMING WEST WON'T SOLVE MUSLIMS' WOES - HUSAIN HAQQANI (GULF NEWS, FEBRUARY 7): National pride in the Muslim world is derived not from economic productivity, technological innovation or intellectual output but from the rhetoric of "destroying the enemy" and "making the nation invulnerable." Such rhetoric sets the stage for the clash of civilisations as much as specific Western policies.
http://www.gulfnews.com/opinion/columns/world/10102363.html

U.S. DECLINES TO JOIN ACCORD ON SECRET DETENTIONS: 58 NATIONS SIGN SEPARATE PACT ON CHILD SOLDIERS - MOLLY MOORE (WASHINGTON POST, FEBRUARY 7): Representatives from 57 countries on Tuesday signed a long-negotiated treaty prohibiting governments from holding people in secret detention. The United States declined to endorse the document, saying its text did not meet U.S. expectations. Some U.S. allies in Europe also declined to join, among them Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7020601619.html

AUSTRALIA TO PRESSURE U.S. ON GITMO INMATE - ROD MCGUIRK, ASSOCIATED PRESS (WASHINGTON POST, FEBRUARY 6): Australian Prime Minister John Howard vowed Monday to pressure the United States to ensure that the lone Australian terror suspect held at Guantanamo Bay be tried quickly.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0600030_pf.html

WORLD CINEMA: SOVIET PROPAGANDA CARTOONS COME TO VIDEO -- THE FOUR-DVD SET 'ANIMATED SOVIET PROPAGANDA' OPENS THE VAULTS ON DECADES OF COLD WAR HUMOR - ROBERT W. WELKOS (LOS ANGELES TIMES, FEBRUARY 4): The anthology is divided into categories titled "American Imperialists," "Fascist Barbarians," "Capitalist Sharks" and "Onward to the Shining Future: Communism."
http://www.latimes.com/business/careers/wo...usiness-careers

MORE QUOTATIONS FOR THE DAY

“ALL WARS ARE TOTAL TO THE PEOPLE THEY KILL.”

-- Adam Gopnik, “Slaughterhouse: The Idealistic Origins of Total War” (New Yorker, February 5)
http://www.newyorker.com/printables/critic...bo_books_gopnik

“I WAS GIVEN A FORMAL REPRIMAND BY THE PAPER, AND TOLD TO STOP SPEAKING OUT AGAINST THE WAR. AND AT THAT POINT I KNEW MY RELATIONSHIP WITH THE NEW YORK TIMES WAS OVER, BECAUSE I DIDN’T WANT TO BE MUZZLED FOR [THE REST OF] MY CAREER.”

--Journalist Chris Hedges; cited in “Chris Hedges: The Christian Right’s War on America -- Interview with Robert Scheer (Truthdig, February 6):
http://www.truthdig.com/interview/item/200...war_on_america/

“IN THE RUN UP TO THE 2003 WAR, I'M TOLD, DOUGLAS FEITH WAS CHALLENGED BY A STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL WHO KNOWS THE MIDDLE EAST ABOUT WHAT IN THE WORLD THE US WOULD DO IN IRAQ ONCE IT WON THE WAR.

STATE DEPT. OFFICIAL: ‘DOUG, AFTER THE SMOKE CLEARS, WHAT IS THE PLAN?’

FEITH: ‘THINK OF IRAQ AS BEING LIKE A COMPUTER. AND THINK OF SADDAM AS LIKE A PROCESSOR. WE JUST TAKE OUT THE OLD PROCESSOR, AND PUT IN A NEW ONE -- CHALABI.’

STATE DEPT. OFFICIAL: ‘PUT IN A NEW PROCESSOR?’

FEITH: ‘YES! IT WILL ALL BE OVER IN 6 WEEKS.’

STATE DEPT. OFFICIAL: ‘YOU MEAN SIX MONTHS.’

FEITH: ‘NO, SIX WEEKS. YOU'LL SEE.’

STATE DEPT. OFFICIAL: ‘DOUG.’

FEITH: ‘YES?’

STATE DEPT. OFFICIAL: ‘YOU'RE SMOKING CRACK, DOUG.’

FEITH: ‘OH, SO YOU'RE DISLOYAL TO THE PRESIDENT, ARE YOU?’”

--Juan Cole, “Informed Comment: Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion” (February 7)
http://www.juancole.com/2007/02/3-month-re...ops-killed.html (scroll down link for item)
--
©2007 USC Center on Public Diplomacy. All rights reserved.

GOING NOWHERE FAST - DAVID IGNATIUS (WASHINGTON POST, FEBRUARY 21): We are
in the ditch in the Middle East. People aren't just angry at America; what's
worse is that they're giving up on us -- on our ability to make good decisions,
to solve problems, to play the role of honest broker.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2001268_pf.html

MECHANISM URGED TO COUNTER PROPAGANDA - MARIAM AL HAKEEM (GULF NEWS,
FEBRUARY 20): A number of Muslim scholars have called for the creation of a
mechanism to advocate Islam and its tenets and respond to the allegations
labelling Islam as the religion of violence and hatred.
http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/02/20/10105520.html

THE IRAQ EFFECT - PETER BERGEN AND PAUL CRUICKSHANK (MOTHER JONES, FEBRUARY
20): The United States? plummeting popularity in Muslim countries does not
suggest active popular support for jihadist terrorists but it does imply some
sympathy with their anti-American posture, which means a significant swath of
the Muslim population cannot be relied on as an effective party in
counter-terrorism/insurgency measures.
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/index.html#3617

RAPE ACCUSATION REINFORCES FEARS IN A DIVIDED IRAQ - MARC SANTORA (NEW YORK
TIMES, FEBRUARY 20): Almost immediately, Shiite leaders lined up to condemn the
20-year-old Sunni woman from Baghdad, calling her rape charges propaganda aimed
at undermining the new security campaign.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/world/mi...agewanted=print
SEE ALSO
http://justworldnews.org/archives/002401.html

ECC PROFESSOR'S OBSERVATIONS OF IRAQ JABRIA JASSIM, AN ELGIN COMMUNITY
COLLEGE (DAILY HERALD, FEBRUARY 21): The country is bleeding to death and is
facing total destruction. It is losing its best educators and administrators.
Now, the medical doctors are targeted.
http://www.dailyherald.com/story.asp?id=283269

WHAT IRAQ TELLS US ABOUT OURSELVES: THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION, THE IRAQI
PEOPLE, AND IRANIAN MEDDLING HAVE ALL BEEN BLAMED FOR THE MESS IN MESOPOTAMIA.
BUT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THEMSELVES ARE THE TRUE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM - COL. W.
PATRICK LANG, JR. (FOREIGN POLICY, FEBRUARY): Through our refusal to deal with
alien peoples on their own terms, and within their own traditions, we have
killed any real hope of a positive outcome in Iraq.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3734

FOUR YEARS LATER, BUSH FINALLY ASSEMBLES RIGHT TEAM FOR IRAQ TRUDY RUBIN
(BALTIMORE SUN, FEBRUARY 20): Ryan Crocker, the new U.S. ambassador-designate to
Baghdad, Timothy Carney, the new coordinator of America's Iraq reconstruction
effort, Gen. David Petraeus, the new commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, have been
asked by the administration to rescue a near-impossible situation that might
have been avoided had it heeded their warnings years earlier. The theme that
runs through these warnings: If you don't grasp the nature of the society and
people you are supposed to be helping, you will fail.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines


PENTAGON TO FILL IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION JOBS TEMPORARILY - THOM SHANKER (NEW
YORK TIMES, FEBRUARY 20): The Pentagon and State Department have worked out a
deal to send a small number of military personnel and Defense Department
civilians to Iraq for several months until Foreign Service officers and State
Department contract workers with specialized skills can fill those jobs, senior
officials said Monday. The president?s new strategy calls for the State
Department to step up its efforts in Iraq, by doubling to 20 the number of
provincial reconstruction teams.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/20/world/mi...20military.html

THE VIEW FROM TEHRAN: IRANIANS ARE FED UP WITH THE HIGH PRICE OF TOMATOES
AND THEIR PROVOCATIVE PRESIDENT. BUT IT WOULD BE DANGEROUS FOR BUSH AND THE WEST
TO OVERLOOK THEIR NATIONAL PRIDE - HOOMAN MAJD (SALON, FEBRUARY 21): Iranians by
and large do not believe that the United States will attack Iran, mostly because
they cannot envision that the White House could be so very stupid.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/...iran/print.html

THE US PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN AGAINST IRAN - JEREMY R. HAMMOND (DISSIDENT
VOICE, FEBRUARY 18)
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Feb07/Hammond18.htm

BRITAIN MUST NOT FOLLOW AMERICA INTO WAR WITH IRAN - RODRIC BRAITHWAITE
(FINANCIAL TIMES, FEBRUARY 21)
https://registration.ft.com/registration/ba...0b5df10621.html
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

WHY ISRAEL LOST THE PROPAGANDA WAR - JAMES LEWIS (AMERICAN THINKER, FEBRUARY
21): One of the oddities of Israeli politicians since the early days, when the
country enjoyed extraordinary approval internationally, is that the political
class seems to have a stubborn unwillingness to understand the importance of
propaganda. That partly reflects the Israeli character, contemptuous of phony
puffery and proud of its focus on reality, and perhaps the defeatist conviction
that Israel can never win in the international media.
http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?...propaganda.html

RUSSIA STRADDLES SUNNI-SHI'ITE DIVIDE - M K BHADRAKUMAR (ASIA TIMES,
FEBRUARY 17): Without being confrontational with Washington, Moscow has all but
succeeded in creating the impression in the Arab world that Russia and the US
are rivals in the Middle East and the rest of the Islamic world.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/IB17Ag01.html

OPPOSITION TO US BASE IN EASTERN EUROPE RISES - ZOLTÁN DUJISIN (ANTIWAR.COM,
FEBRUARY 20): The arguments put forward by the United States to justify its
project for a missile defense base in Eastern Europe are becoming less and less
convincing to the publics and experts of the countries involved.
http://www.antiwar.com/ips/dujisin.php?articleid=10553

LISTEN, MR. CHENEY: INSTEAD OF SNUBBING CRITICS WHILE IN JAPAN, HE SHOULD
SEEK OUT THEIR VIEWS ON IRAQ - PHILIP J. CUNNINGHAM (LOS ANGELES TIMES, FEBRUARY
20): Cheney is scheduled to have a photo-op aboard the U.S. aircraft carrier
Kitty Hawk during his visit to Japan -- an insensitive move that might well come
to be regretted as a "mission accomplished" moment for the vice president.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/a...-news-a_section

CHENEY VISITS AN AUSTRALIA ROILED BY GUANTÁNAMO, IRAQ: PRIME MINISTER HOWARD
HAS BEEN A STEADFAST US BACKER, BUT HIS OPINION POLL RATING TOOK A HIT AHEAD OF
CHENEY'S ARRIVAL - NICK SQUIRES (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, FEBRUARY 22):
Despite Australia's status as a steadfast US ally and broad public support for
the country's troop deployment in Afghanistan, Cheney will encounter public
anger over Australia's participation in the Iraq war and growing disquiet over
the fate of the country's lone Guantánamo Bay detainee, David Hicks.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0222/p04s02-woap.html

GUANTANAMO'S LEGAL BLACK HOLE EDITORIAL (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, FEBRUARY
21): Guantanamo is a gulag that is a recruiting tool for extremists who mock
this country that talks up civil liberties while denying them to its prisoners.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...EDGRJN77L61.DTL

A WAR UNDER LAW: CONGRESS MUST ADDRESS U.S. DETAINEE POLICIES - JEFFREY H.
SMITH (WASHINGTON POST, FEBRUARY 22): The administration should listen, really
listen, to the American people and to those in Congress and the military who
understand that adhering to international law and our core values will help us
win the war on terrorism.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2101583_pf.html

AFFIRMING MILITARY TRIBUNALS REVIEW & OUTLOOK (WALL STREET JOURNAL,
FEBRUARY 22): The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision on Tuesday upholding
the Military Commissions Act passed by Congress last year is a welcome victory
for common sense in the war on terror.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1172114677...ew_and_outlooks
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

REMEMBER AL QAEDA? THEY'RE BAAACK: DEFEATING OSAMA BIN LADEN'S RESURGENT
TERRORIST NETWORK REQUIRES FAR MORE THAN MILITARY MIGHT - BRUCE HOFFMAN (LOS
ANGELES TIMES, FEBRUARY 20): Al Qaeda cannot be defeated by military means alone
because it relies on propaganda and radicalization.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail

EUROPE'S RISING UNEASE OVER 'TERROR WAR': CHARGES IN ITALY AGAINST SUSPECTED
CIA AGENTS HIGHLIGHT GROWING DISSENT ON AMERICA'S ANTITERROR TACTICS ( ROBERT
MARQUAND, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, FEBRUARY 21)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0221/p06s01-woeu.html

THE FALL OF MODERNITY: HAS THE AMERICAN NARRATIVE AUTHORED ITS OWN UNDOING?
- MICHAEL VLAHOS (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, FEBRUARY 26): We created our
inescapable struggle with Islam -- and the world's awareness is unraveling
American modernity, whose existence always depended on its confident future.
America?s war narrative has helped to birth a changed world and to cast off its
claim to the universal.
http://www.amconmag.com/2007/2007_02_12/feature.html

WHY US IS NOW TURNING TO DIPLOMACY: AFTER SUCCESS WITH LIBYA AND NORTH
KOREA, THE US IS BRINGING ITS MULTILATERAL APPROACH TO IRAN - HOWARD LAFRANCHI
(CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, FEBRUARY 22): The administration's growing reliance
on diplomatic efforts is also evident on the international stage, with America's
partners in particular taking note of the shift.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0222/p01s04-usfp.html


IS THERE LIFE AFTER BUSH? WE'VE BEEN HATING HIM FOREVER, BUT HE'S LEAVING.
NOW WE HAVE TO DECIDE WHAT TO DO WITH THE REST OF OUR LIVES - GARY KAMIYA
(SALON, FEBRUARY 20): The hate-Bush mind-set can spin out of control, leading to
propagandistic thinking and a cynical ends-justify-the-means ethos.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/kamiya/2007/0...bush/print.html


"THE GOOD NEWS IS, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS SHUT DOWN TODAY -- SO EVERYBODY'S
SAFE."

--Quip by Vice President Dick Cheney, referring to a snowstorm in Washington;
cited in Michael Abramowitz, 'Cheney's Influence Lessens in Second Term:
Administration More Pragmatic in Foreign Policy, Dealing With Congress
(Washington Post, February 20)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1900863_pf.html

'BUT ACROSS THE CIVILIAN AGENCIES, WHICH HAVE ONLY A FRACTION OF THE PENTAGON?S
PERSONNEL AND BUDGET, GOVERNMENT WORKERS SAY THE QUESTION IS WHETHER A FEW
HUNDRED UNARMED CIVILIANS SPREAD ACROSS IRAQ CAN MAKE A SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE
IN PROMOTING DEMOCRACY AND RECONSTRUCTION IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR ZONE, WHEN MORE
THAN 130,000 TROOPS ARE NOT SUCCEEDING IN THAT TASK.'

--Thom Shanker, ?Pentagon to Fill Iraq Reconstruction Jobs Temporarily? (New
York Times, February 20)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/20/world/mi...agewanted=print

THE REDIRECTION: IS THE ADMINISTRATION'S NEW POLICY BENEFITTING OUR ENEMIES IN THE WAR ON TERRORISM? - SEYMOUR M. HERSH (NEW YORKER): In the past few months, as the situation in Iraq has deteriorated, the Bush Administration, in both its public diplomacy and its covert operations, has significantly shifted its Middle East strategy. The "redirection," as some inside the White House have called the new strategy, has brought the United States closer to an open confrontation with Iran and, in parts of the region, propelled it into a widening sectarian conflict between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/arti...05fa_fact_hersh

LAWFARE - DAVID B. RIVKIN, JR. AND LEE A. CASEY (WALL STREET JOURNAL, FEBRUARY 23): The term "lawfare" describes the growing use of international law claims, usually factually or legally meritless, as a tool of war. The U.S. must go on both the legal and public diplomacy offensive, utilizing such aggressive litigation tactics as seeking sanctions against lawyers who make frivolous arguments or violate security regulations. Most important, the administration should strive to explain, tirelessly and at the highest levels, that its policies are both legal and legitimate and that it is the lawfare's practitioners who are the true radicals.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1172...7149816987.html
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

OUR GOVERNMENT'S DANGEROUS PARTNERING WITH THE WRONG MUSLIMS - M. ZUHDI JASSER (FAMILY SECURITY FOUNDATION, INC., FEBRUARY 23): When our governmental agencies, including the office of Karen Hughes, report to be "partnering" with the Muslim community, there is a deep implication that this represents all of the Muslim taxpayers. That could not be further from the truth.
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/chall...s.php?id=759085

VOA SAYS GOODBYE TO UZBEK, OTHER TONGUES: AGENCY TO SHIFT RESOURCES TO AUDIENCES IN MIDEAST, NORTH KOREA, SOMALIA, CUBA - DELPHINE SCHRANK (WASHINGTON POST, FEBRUARY 23)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2201654_pf.html

GOVERNMENT'S GLOBAL NEWS PULLED FROM USA.GOV SITE - ALIYA STERNSTEIN (GOVEXEC.COM, FEBRUARY 23): The Internet home for government information has been stripped of Voice of America content and other international news after federal lawyers determined that the material should not be on a domestic news site. A 1948 law known as the Smith-Mundt Act bars domestic dissemination of official American information aimed at foreign audiences, according to VOA's Web site.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0207/022207tdpm2.htm

HOW EMINEM CAN SAVE THE MIDDLE EAST - MARC LYNCH (GUARDIAN, FEBRUARY 22): Nobody seriously thinks that pop culture is going to solve the world's problems, or even America's political problems in the Middle East. But what hip hop can do, perhaps, is build political awareness and engagement across the Western-Islamic divide.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/marc_l...rinter.friendly
SEE ALSO
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...nt_is_free.html

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN THE NEXT U.S. ADMINISTRATION - ALVIN SNYDER (WORLDCASTING, PUBLIC DIPLOMACY BLOG, USC CENTER ON PUBLIC DIPLOMACY, FEBRUARY 22): The next U.S. president must be personally enthusiastic about the effectiveness of public diplomacy.
http://uscpublicdiplomacy.com/index.php/ne...administration/

UNCLE SAM WANTS YOU - KD FRIEDMAN (HUFFINGTON POST, FEBRUARY 23): "President Bush ... is calling for 21,000 more troops to be sent to the Hot Zone of Iraq. Better duck for cover all you gays, lesbians, transsexuals, bisexuals, intersexed, outer-sexed, over-sexed, whichever-sexed people. ... I can see it now, the Administration will create a new 'Department for the Recruitment of Gays' which will be led by propaganda czar Karen Hughes who will be redeployed from her current job working to change the image of Americans in the Middle East (we've seen how effective she's been)."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kd-friedman/...html?view=print

HOW TO KEEP AMERICA COMPETITIVE - BILL GATES (WASHINGTON POST, FEBRUARY 25): We should encourage foreign students to stay here after they graduate. It's not in our national interest to educate them here but send them home when they've completed their studies.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7022301697.html

AMERICA TORTURES (YAWN): IN JUST A FEW YEARS WE'VE GROWN DISTURBINGLY COMFORTABLE WITH THE FACT THAT THE U.S. PRACTICES TORTURE - ROSA BROOKS (LOS ANGELES TIMES, FEBRUARY 23): Thanks to Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, "extraordinary renditions" and "black sites," many people now take for granted the image of the American as torturer.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...-opinion-center

POLLS SHOW ANTI-AMERICAN FEELINGS AT ALL TIME HIGH IN MUSLIM COUNTRIES: RESPONDENTS INDICATE A DEEP SUSPICION OF US MOTIVES, AND RELIGION HAS LITTLE TO DO WITH RADICALIZATION OF MUSLIM VIEWS - TOM REGAN (CSMONITOR.COM, FEBRUARY 22)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0222/p99s01-duts.html

THE MYTH OF MUSLIM SUPPORT FOR TERROR: THE COMMON ENEMY IS VIOLENCE AND TERRORISM, NOT MUSLIMS ANY MORE THAN CHRISTIANS OR JEWS - KENNETH BALLEN (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, FEBRUARY 23): Those who think that Muslim countries and pro-terrorist attitudes go hand-in-hand might be shocked by new polling research: Americans are more approving of terrorist attacks against civilians than any major Muslim country except for Nigeria.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0223/p09s01-coop.html

WASHINGTON'S $8 BILLION SHADOW: MEGA-CONTRACTORS SUCH AS HALLIBURTON AND BECHTEL SUPPLY THE GOVERNMENT WITH BRAWN. BUT THE BIGGEST, MOST POWERFUL OF THE "BODY SHOPS" -- SAIC, WHICH EMPLOYS 44,000 PEOPLE AND TOOK IN $8 BILLION LAST YEAR -- SELLS BRAINPOWER, INCLUDING A LOT OF THE "EXPERTISE" BEHIND THE IRAQ WAR - DONALD L. BARLETT AND JAMES B. STEELE (VANITY FAIR, MARCH): One week before the Iraq invasion, SAIC was awarded yet another no-bid contract that gave it the responsibility for establishing a "free and independent indigenous media network" in Iraq, and for training a cadre of independent Iraqi journalists to go with it.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/feature...spyagency200703

OUTRAGEOUS" ARMED RAID ON IRAQI JOURNALISTS' UNION STATEMENT (INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF JOURNALISTS, FEBRUARY 22): The International Federation of Journalists today condemned as "outrageous and inexcusable" the action of American soldiers who carried out an armed raid on the Baghdad offices of the Iraq Syndicate of Journalists.
http://electroniciraq.net/news/printer2918.shtml

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2007 - JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION ): "Late Saturday, the US Air Force launched a series of bombing raids on southeast Baghdad. ... It is also the worst possible counter-insurgency tactic anyone could ever have imagined. You bomb people, they hate you."
http://www.juancole.com/2007/02/al-hakim-t...h-car-bomb.html

FALLUJANS DEFIANT AMIDST CHAOS - DAHR JAMAIL AND ALI AL-FADHILY (ELECTRONIC IRAQ, FEBRUARY 23): Resistance attacks against U.S. forces have been continuing in Fallujah despite military onslaughts and strong security measures.
http://electroniciraq.net/news/printer2920.shtml

BAGHDAD CRACKDOWN CURBING VIOLENCE? - STEVE NEGUS (FINANCIAL TIMES, FEBRUARY 23): A week after the beginning of the security crackdown in Baghdad, many Iraqis say that fighting has continued unabated, while a high-profile rape case linked to the crackdown has heightened tensions between the Sunni and Shia communities.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/1a3488ec-c373-11db...0b5df10621.html

APOCALYPSE NOT: MUCH OF WASHINGTON ASSUMES THAT LEAVING IRAQ WILL LEAD TO A BIGGER BLOODBATH. IT'S TIME TO QUESTION THAT ASSUMPTION - ROBERT DREYFUSS (WASHINGTON MONTHLY, MARCH): What most Iraqis do seem to want, according to numerous polls, is for American forces to leave.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/...3.dreyfuss.html

A DIFFERENT COUNTRY - PETER BEINART (NEW REPUBLIC, FEBRUARY 23): Some Iraqis might have been desperate enough to trust the United States with unconstrained power. But we shouldn't have trusted ourselves.
http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20070305&s=trb030507

DOUBTS SELLING OUT IRAQ EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, FEBRUARY 23): Just as the degree of Americans' skepticism on the war is exaggerated by war critics, so too is the extent of Iraqis' opposition to the U.S. military presence in their country.
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20070222-084944-5393r.htm

HE WROTE THE BOOK. CAN HE FOLLOW IT? - SARAH SEWALL (WASHINGTON POST, FEBRUARY 25): The State Department can't even fill the civilian slots on the planned additional provincial reconstruction teams it is sending to Iraq.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2301741_pf.html

THE IRAQIS DOWN THE STREET: WELCOMING REFUGEES FROM THE WAR IS NOT JUST HUMANE, IT'S SMART FOREIGN POLICY - GREGORY RODRIGUEZ (LOS ANGELES TIMES, FEBRUARY 25)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-...inion-rightrail

FRANKLY, A SHAMEFUL RECORD ? EDITORIAL (FORWARD, FEBRUARY 22): The best way to honor Anne Frank's memory -- and to demonstrate that America has learned a lesson from its past mistakes -- would be for the Bush administration to take comprehensive steps to address the needs of the mounting numbers of Iraqi refugees.
http://www.forward.com/articles/frankly-a-shameful-record/

A LUDICROUS ATTEMPT AT SPIN - DAN FROOMKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, FEBRUARY 22): The White House took a big PR hit yesterday as its attempt to spin the British troop-withdrawal from Iraq announcement as a sign of success was widely greeted with howls of derision.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2200800_pf.html

TEHRAN FALLING INTO A US PSY-OPS TRAP - MAHAN ABEDIN (ASIA TIMES, FEBRUARY 23): As the Iranians counter intense US psychological warfare, they run the risk of misinterpreting wider regional developments.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IB23Ak01.html

IS WASHINGTON BEING SIDELINED ON THE MIDDLE EAST? LEON HADAR (ANTIWAR.COM, FEBRUARY 22): There is a direct correlation between the rising U.S. push for hegemony in the Middle East and mounting anti-American sentiments there -- a situation that emphasizes U.S. ties with Israel.
http://www.antiwar.com/hadar/?articleid=10559

'PUBLIC FEAR AND FRUSTRATION' RISING IN AFGHANISTAN, CSIS REPORT SAYS (ECCENTRIC STAR, FEBRUARY 24)
http://eccentricstar.typepad.com/public_di...c_fear_and.html

CHENEY GETS FROSTY RECEPTION IN AUSTRALIA: A TOP ALLY HAS MISGIVINGS OVER U.S. POLICY TIM JOHNSTON (FEBRUARY 25): Although a recent survey indicated that 70 percent of Australians think the alliance with the United States is important to their country's security, the Bush administration and the war in Iraq are far less popular.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/25/news/cheney.php

EUROPEANS' CHILL DEEPENS ON US POLICY: EUROPEAN CAPITALS ARE WAVERING OVER HOW TO APPROACH THE FINAL TWO YEARS OF A US ADMINISTRATION SADDLED WITH INCONCLUSIVE WARS - ROBERT MARQUAND (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, FEBRUARY 24)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0223/p01s02-woeu.html

PRISONERS OF THE RULE OF LAW - ERWIN CHEMERINSKY (BOSTON GLOBE, FEBRUARY 22): US conduct at Guantanamo is drawing the ire of the world. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial..._of_law?mode=PF

A CONGRESSIONAL DUTY: LEGISLATORS SHOULD NOT EXPECT COURTS TO UNDO THE LAWMAKERS' ERROR OF DEPRIVING FOREIGN DETAINEES OF A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, FEBRUARY 23): Improvements in Guantanamo prisoners' treatment have come about largely because of their court appeals. Congress has both a practical and a moral interest in ensuring that this basic human right is restored.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7022201752.html

SOUND JUDGMENT: THE COURTS CAN'T FIX GUANTÁNAMO - BENJAMIN WITTES (NEW REPUBLIC, FEBRUARY 22): Instead of going to Congress and establishing new rules, the administration just adapted rules of warfare that were clearly outmoded by Al Qaeda and imposed them itself. None of this was illegal. But it was uncommonly stupid.
http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=w07021...;s=wittes022207

A TRIAL FOR THOUSANDS DENIED TRIAL NAOMI KLEIN (NATION, FEBRUARY 22/COMMON DREAMS): The cruel methods US interrogators have used since September 11 to "break" prisoners are finally being put on trial, as the case of José Padilla in a Miami courtroom indicates.
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0223-23.htm

A FOREIGN POLICY BUILT ON DO-OVERS - THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN (NEW YORK TIMES, FEBRUARY 23): Bill Clinton was criticized for taking more golf mulligans -- do-overs -- than any other president. Mr. Bush will be remembered for taking more foreign policy mulligans than any other president.
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/opini...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

CONTAINMENT MAKES A COMEBACK; THE COLD WAR-ERA POLICY THAT WORKED ON THE SOVIETS MAY BE THE BEST WAY TO DEAL WITH IRAN - IAN SHAPIRO (LOS ANGELES TIMES, FEBRUARY 25): Containment is not obsolete. The Bush doctrine is.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-...inion-rightrail


VIDEOS

DICK CHENEY'S VERY OWN CLASSIC DEFINITION OF A QUAGMIRE (YOUTUBE)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGIe1gPaTXY

MEET THE PRESS FOR IDIOTS (TRUTHDIG)
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/20070...ess_for_idiots/

"SENATOR, I JUST THINK THAT IT'S BAD POLICY, FRANKLY, TO SPECULATE ON WHAT

YOU'LL DO IF A PLAN FAILS THAT YOU'RE TRYING TO MAKE WORK."



--Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking to Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.)

at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Jan. 11; cited in Dan

Froomkin, "The Questions Bush Won't Answer" (washingtonpost.com, March 5)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0500585_pf.html



UNITED STATES POLICY TOWARDS IRAN - R. NICHOLAS BURNS, UNDER SECRETARY FOR

POLITICAL AFFAIRS (TESTIMONY BEFORE THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS

WASHINGTON, DC, MARCH 6, UNDER SECRETARY FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS, STATE

DEPARTMENT): "[F]unds have allowed us to initiate a wide range of democracy,

educational, and cultural programs, as well as significantly expanded efforts to

improve the free flow of information to the Iranian people. We also allocated

over $11 million of the FY 2006 base budget to support Iranian democracy

programs, with other funds allocated to BBG [Broadcasting Board of Governors],

public diplomacy, and exchange programs.?

http://www.state.gov/p/us/rm/2007/81470.htm



FIRST MUSLIM ELECTED TO CONGRESS WILL SHARE HIS STORY WITH THE WORLD - KEVIN

DIAZ (MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS, MARCH 8): Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim

elected to Congress, is scheduled in a teleconference with Karen Hughes, the

State Department's undersecretary for public diplomacy. The teleconference has

been tasked by the White House to promote American values and confront

ideological support for terrorism around the world.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington.../printstory.jsp



ELLISON TALKS UP U.S. IN MUSLIM CIRCLES - FREDERIC J. FROMMER, ASSOCIATED

PRESS (WASHINGTON POST, MARCH 7): The State Department is turning to Rep. Keith

Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, to help burnish the country's

image in the Muslim world -- despite Ellison's outspoken criticism of the Bush

administration's foreign policy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0701849_pf.html

SEE ALSO

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/06/the-wo...an-congressman/



KEITH ELLISON BECOMES POSTER BOY FOR US PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN MUSLIM WORLD -

E.C. NISBET (FRAMING CONFLICT: THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF INTERNATIONAL

POLITICS, MARCH 6): "I was wondering how long it might take for the U.S. State

Dept. to see the public diplomacy benefits of having the 1st ever Muslim (Keith

Ellison from Minnesota [...]. Now [...] Keith Ellison will be helping Karen

Hughes and gang promote a positive image of the U.S. within the Muslim world. To

his credit he says that he will not tone down his criticism of Bush and the Iraq

War, to their credit they say that is okay."

http://framingconflict.blogspot.com/2007/0...boy-for-us.html



ISLAM'S OTHER RADICALS - BRET STEPHENS (WALL STREET JOURNAL, MARCH 6):

Undersecretary Hughes is not at the landmark Summit on Secular Islam, in St.

Petersburg, FLA, nor is anyone else from the State Department, nor is the

U.S.-funded al-Hurra Arabic TV station -- facts archly noted by the conferees.

In the quasi-official U.S. view, the speakers at this conference amount to an

exotic, publicity-seeking fringe group, with whom close association is

politically unwise.

http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1173...9125027850.html

ON THE SUMMIT SEE

http://www.kuna.net.kw/Home/Story.aspx?Lan...amp;DSNO=956319

SEE ALSO

http://lepanto-victory.blogspot.com/2007/0...-as-i-have.html

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_s...on_warpath.html



SUCH A BAD PUBLIC DIPLOMAT: THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE - JOSHUA KURLANTZICK

(NEW REPUBLIC, MARCH 8): Hughes threatens all her efforts by doing the one thing

no diplomat should ever do: Making herself the story. Though she speaks no

foreign languages, has a limited understanding of the world, and offers a folksy

Texan persona that translates poorly into Arabic or Indonesian, Hughes is

convinced that she must travel the world as an ambassador of American public

diplomacy. The results, to put it mildly, have been poor. The master messager

still does not realize that she's her own worst message.

http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w070305&...rlantzick030807



CLUELESS IN GAZA: KAREN HUGHES AND THE COLLAPSE OF AMERICAN PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

PHILIP GIRALDI (ANTIWAR.COM, MARCH 7): Recently, a mugged-by-reality Hughes

has been somewhat more subdued and much less in the news, carefully selecting

her audiences and apparently avoiding countries where she is likely to be

confronted, though she continues to drop the occasional maladroit bomb.

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/giraldi.php?articleid=10632



LOSING LATIN AMERICA - KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON (WASHINGTON TIMES, MARCH 7): We

should build new bridges to our friends in Latin America -- pressing forward on

free trade, development aid, military cooperation and exchange programs. (Sen.

Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas is chairman of the Senate Republican Policy

Committee.)

http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...06-090345-8553r



BUSH AIMS TO COUNTER CHAVEZ'S INFLUENCE ON LATIN AMERICAN TRIP - CATHERINE

DODGE AND ROGER RUNNINGEN (BLOOMBERG, MARCH 8): "Chavez, obviously, will do

everything in his power to turn this trip into a Bush-Chavez standoff," said

Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, director of the Mexico project at the Center for

Strategic and International Studies.``If that were to happen, it defeats the

purpose of this trip,'' which is about U.S. public diplomacy.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...r=latin_america



CAN CHINA'S SOFT POWER OFFENSIVE SUCCEED? - JAMES F. PARADISE (ASIAMEDIA,

MARCH 5): China's political leaders are spearheading the drive toward a more

friendly China, one the world need not worry about. Wen Jiabao, China's premier,

pointed to the importance of an "independent foreign policy of peace" and of

using public diplomacy in "a more effective way" to publicize China's

achievement in reforming and opening up its economy and society.

http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/columns.asp?parentid=65078



US GROUP SIGNS $7.5M DEAL WITH ABU DHABI - TED MCKENNA (PR WEEK MARCH 6): A

group called the US-Emirates Alliance LLC, headed by new Harbour Group senior

counselor Richard Mintz, recently signed a three-year, multimillion contract to

manage a public diplomacy and communications program on behalf of Abu Dhabi, the

largest of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

http://www.prweek.com/us/news/article/6375...deal-Abu-Dhabi/



ISRAEL, IRAN TOP 'NEGATIVE LIST' NICK CHILDS (BBC, MARCH 6): A latest

GlobeScan survey confirms the BBC World polling results that suggested most

people think the US has a mainly negative influence in the world -- and that the

numbers had increased significantly in the last couple of years. But it also

suggests that two countries are viewed even more negatively -- first Israel, and

then Iran. North Korea is just behind the US.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6421597.stm



THE BBC POLL - ISRAEL AS SATAN'S BASTARD CHILD - BRADLEY BURSTON (AHHARETZ,

MARCH 6): A BBC World Service-commissioned poll released this week proves, if

nothing else, that the nature of the question pollsters ask will determine the

answers they receive. It also suggested, without having to say so explicitly,

that Israel is the bastard child of Satan, the troublemaking twin of its

arch-nemesis Iran.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/833804.html



POLL: MORE AMERICANS PRO-ISRAELI (JPOST.COM STAFF, JERUSALEM POST, MARCH

6): Americans are more pro-Israeli in their views today than they were 10 and 20

years ago, but they are also more polarized, according to a recent Gallup poll.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...ticle%2FPrinter



IS THE WAR ON TERROR A GLOBAL COUNTERINSURGENCY? - WILLIAM M. ARKIN

(WASHINGTONPOST.COM, MARCH 5): Speaking at the 18th Annual Special Operations

and Low Intensity Conflict Symposium in Arlington, Va., last week, Lt. Gen.

William G. ("Jerry") Boykin said the Pentagon has a vision of improving

information operations in each of its combatant commands, creating "unity of

effort" in "strategic communications." He calls for a national information

warfare czar.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarnin...ml?nav=rss_blog



NO TIME TO IGNORE THE WORLD - H.D.S. GREENWAY (BOSTON GLOBE, MARCH 6):

Foreign bureaus are closing down all over the world, often with the excuse that

readers are more interested in potholes in the streets and local City Council

elections. But last week showed that a crash on the Shanghai stock exchange can

bite Americans in the pocket, and, surely, the lesson of 9/11 is that foreign

news can come flying in the window and kill 3,000 people here at home.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...e_world?mode=PF



"THE DAY OF THE TRADITIONAL FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT IS DRAWING TO A CLOSE:

WAR REPORTING IN IRAQ -- ONLY LOCALS NEED APPLY - PATRICK COCKBURN

(COUNTERPUNCH, MARCH 3/4): Iraq has become almost impossible to cover adequately

by the old system of foreign correspondents, cameraman or woman, and crew. It is

simply too dangerous for a foreigner to move freely around Baghdad and the rest

of the country.

http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick03032007.html



THE MEDIA: TWO JOURNALISTS MURDERED IN BAGHDAD, A THIRD KIDNAPPED IN KIRKUK

- STATEMENT, REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS (ELECTRONICIRAQ.NET, MARCH 6)

http://electroniciraq.net/news/printer2935.shtml



FIGHTING FOR IRAQ'S CULTURE - MATTHEW BOGDANOS (NEW YORK TIMES, MARCH 6): In

advance of any future military action, we should assign units the task of

protecting cultural property. And all troops scheduled to deploy overseas should

receive cultural awareness training.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/opinion/...amp;oref=slogin



AID & DEVELOPMENT - UN: 4.5 MILLION IRAQI CHILDREN MALNOURISHED - IRIN

(ELECTRONICIRAQ.NET, MARCH 5)

http://electroniciraq.net/news/printer2934.shtml



NOTES FROM BAGHDAD - MOHAMMED FADHIL AND OMAR FADHIL (WALL STREET JOURNAL,

MARCH 5): Many Baghdadis feel hopeful again about the future, and the fear of

civil war is slowly being replaced by optimism that peace might one day return

to this city. This change in mood is something huge by itself.

http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1173...3971726652.html

PAID SUBSCRIPTION



BUILDUP IN IRAQ NEEDED INTO '08, U.S. GENERAL SAYS - DAVID S. CLOUD AND

MICHAEL R. GORDON (NEW YORK TIMES, MARCH 7): The day-to-day commander of

American forces in Iraq has recommended that the heightened American troop

levels there be maintained through February 2008, military officials said

Wednesday. The confidential assessment by the commander, Lt. Gen. Raymond T.

Odierno, reflects the military's new counterinsurgency doctrine, which puts a

premium on sustained efforts to try to win over a wary population.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/08/washingt...agewanted=print



HOW TO STOP GENOCIDE IN IRAQ: OFFERING THE CARROT OF U.S. WITHDRAWAL MAY BE

THE BEST WAY TO END ETHNIC CLEANSING IN IRAQ - SAMANTHA POWER (LOS ANGELES

TIMES, MARCH 5): After years of using the alleged needs of the Iraqi people to

justify U.S. political postures, it is long past time to use the leverage we

still have to actually advance Iraqi welfare. The U.S. should announce its

willingness to assist in the voluntary transport and relocation of Iraqi

civilians in peril.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail



S THE BUSH SURGE ALREADY FAILING?: THE PRESIDENT JUST GAVE A ROSY

ASSESSMENT OF HIS PLAN, BUT INSURGENTS HAVE ADAPTED AND IRAQIS CONTINUE TO BE

SLAUGHTERED - JUAN COLE (SALON, MARCH 8): The string of major bombings has

shaken to the core the confidence of the Iraqi people in the new security plan.

There is so far no reason to believe that the plan has made a big difference in

the lives of Iraqis.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/...urge/print.html



HOSTAGES TO POLICY: WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT WASTE AND WAR IN IRAQ - TOM

ENGELHARDT (TOMDISPATCH, MARCH 6): American troops in Iraq, or heading for Iraq,

and the American dead from the Iraq War are now hostage to, and the only

effective excuse for, Bush administration policy; and American politicians and

the public are being held hostage by the idea that the troops must be supported

(and funded) above all else, no matter how wasteful or repugnant or

counterproductive or destructive or dangerous you may consider the war in Iraq.

http://tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=171859



A GLIMMER OF HOPE FOR IRAQ TRUDY RUBIN (BALTIMORE SUN, MARCH 6): Only

intense regional diplomacy with strong U.S. backing can persuade Iran and Arab

states to help Iraq rather than fuel the fighting. But diplomacy won't work

unless two of the key players have direct contacts -- the United States and

Iran.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines



USING DIPLOMACY RATHER THAN THREATS: WASHINGTON TAKES A CHANCE ON TEHRAN -

GEORG MASCOLO AND BERNHARD ZAND (SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL, MARCH 5): Good news from

the war zone: Syria and Iran -- both countries that have shown little interest

so far in relieving tensions in Iraq -- will take part in a conference in

Baghdad this weekend in a development that has taken many by surprise. The mood

in Washington is astonishingly upbeat after this radical shift in strategy.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiege...-469853,00.html



DEALING WITH IRAN - MALCOLM RIFKIND (INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, MARCH 6):

If the United States was to offer normalization in exchange for an end to

support for terrorism, there would be many in Iran who would respond.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/06/opinion/edrifkind.php



ALARM OVER IRAN HELPS BUSH: THE U.S. HAS PLENTY OF REASONS TO STRIKE, BUT

THE ADMINISTRATION PUSHES DIPLOMACY - MAX BOOT (LOS ANGELES TIMES, MARCH 7):

President Bush is trying to ratchet up the pressure on Iran precisely in order

to reach a diplomatic settlement and avoid a military confrontation.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions



WHITE HOUSE FOREIGN POLICY HAS SHIFTED: THE ADMINISTRATION OPENS UP TO

STRATEGIES MORE ACCEPTABLE TO ALLIES AND A CONGRESS RUN BY DEMOCRATS - PAUL

RICHTER (LOS ANGELES TIMES, MARCH 8)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...1,4014140.story



AFGHAN MEDIA: US TROOPS DELETED IMAGES - AMIR SHAH, ASSOCIATED PRESS (COMMON

DREAMS, MARCH 5): Afghan journalists covering the aftermath of a suicide bomb

attack and shooting in eastern Afghanistan Sunday said U.S. troops deleted their

photos and video and warned them not to publish or air any images of U.S. troops

or a car where three Afghans were shot to death.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0305-07.htm

The images were, however available on Al Jazeera English.Net TV.



PRESSING FOR FREEDOM - SAAD MOHSENI (WALL STREET JOURNAL, MARCH 8):

Afghanistan's rapid transformation from a political and economic basket case

into a viable democratic state has been nothing short of miraculous. However,

attempts to "control" the media -- even if motivated by good intentions -- will

only hinder Afghanistan's development as a democracy.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1173305621...ain_europe_asia

PAID SUBSCRIPTION



TRANS-ATLANTIC TENSIONS: EUROPE DIVIDED OVER US MISSILE DEFENSE PLAN SPIEGEL

STAFF (SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL, MARCH 5): Washington's plans to build a missile

defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic have cast a shadow over US

relations with Europe. Will German Chancellor Angela Merkel feel compelled to

distance herself from US President George Bush?

http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiege...-469828,00.html



CHÁVEZ'S OIL LARGESSE WINNING FANS ABROAD: LONDON IS THE LATEST CITY TO GET

A FUEL DEAL AS PART OF THE VENEZUELAN LEADER'S '21ST CENTURY SOCIALISM' - SARA

MILLER LLANA AND MARK RICE-OXLEY (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, MARCH 5): In the

US, Venezuela is sending oil subsidized at a 40 percent discount from the

delivery price to 16 states -- double from the year before -- as well as 163

native American tribes. The program brochure describes it this way: "This is a

people-to-people program that comes from the heart of Venezuela to the homes of

American families who just can't pay their energy bills."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0305/p01s04-woeu.html



THANKS TO MR. CHÁVEZ EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, MARCH 7): When Mr. Bush

first ran for president seven years ago, he said that as governor of Texas, he

had a special understanding of, and empathy for, Latin America. With

Washington's reputation in the hemisphere nearing its modern nadir, there could

hardly be a better time to put that understanding and empathy to work.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/07/opinion/...agewanted=print



BUSH TO LATIN AMERICA EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, MARCH 7): The American

president's aid package for Latin America, itself less substantial than the oil

largesse that Mr. Chavez has lavished on his allies, won't overcome the rampant

anti-Americanism in the region. The best countervail to Mr. Chavez's growing

influence is the success of Latin America's other left: democratically elected

leaders who adhere to liberal, free-market economic policies.

http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...06-090341-4233r



BUSH'S ANTI-CHAVEZ TOUR - DAN FROOMKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, MARCH 6): Bush's

attempt to persuade Latin Americans that he is the champion of the poor -- given

his pro-business bent and six years of an almost exclusive focus on free trade

and terrorism -- is utterly doomed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0600623_pf.html



AN ANSWER FOR HUGO CHÁVEZ - JORGE G. CASTAÑEDA (WASHINGTON POST, MARCH 7):

George W. Bush is immensely unpopular in Latin America. If he finally brings

with him to Mexico a firm commitment to comprehensive immigration reform, and

the bipartisan backing of House and Senate leaders to approve it promptly,

Mexican president Calderón would enjoy the necessary leeway to wage the battle

of ideas with the region's populist tide.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7030601595.html



LATIN AMERICA'S TURN: PRESIDENT BUSH STILL HAS A CHANCE TO DELIVER ON HIS

PROMISE TO STRENGTHEN U.S. ALLIANCES EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, MARCH 7):

Polls show that Mr. Chávez's popularity rating in Latin America is just as low

as Mr. Bush's. Mr. Bush's duty is to demonstrate that those who choose alliance

with the United States and the democratic world benefit more than Venezuela's

motley collection of allies, headed by Cuba and Iran.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0602023_pf.html



STEERING CLEAR OF CHAVEZ - NANCY SODERBERG (WASHINGTON TIMES, MARCH 8):

President Bush is right to steer the continent away from Mr. Chavez. But in

order to do so, Washington must better demonstrate the benefits of responsible

participation in the global economy before Mr. Chavez's ambitions become a

reality.

http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...07-091632-9380r



BUSH'S UNPROMISING BRAZIL VISIT: THANKS TO AN UNWISE POLICY ON ETHANOL, THE

PRESIDENT ISN'T LIKELY TO GET VERY FAR ON HIS TRIP TO LATIN AMERICA EDITORIAL

(LOS ANGELES TIMES, MARCH 8): Bush is deeply unpopular in most of Latin America

-- a region he has largely ignored -- in part because many feel the U.S. focus

on free-trade pacts and drug interdiction may have exacerbated poverty instead

of relieving it.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editor...ment-editorials



WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT HABEAS CORPUS? - SCOT LEHIGH, (BOSTON GLOBE, MARCH

6): 'My recent column on the need to restore habeas corpus for prisoners at

Guantanamo, most of whom are being held without the prospect of a trial, brought

a vehement response from conservatives.'

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial..._corpus?mode=PF



GITMO'S GUERRILLA LAWYERS - DEBRA BURLINGAME (WALL STREET JOURNAL, MARCH 8):

How we deal with alien enemy combatants goes to the essence of the debate

between those who see terrorism as a series of criminal acts that should be

litigated in the justice system, one attack at a time, and those who see it as a

global war where the "criminal paradigm" is no more effective against militant

Islamists whose chief tactic is mass murder than indictments would have been in

stopping Hitler's march across Europe.

http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1173...0116130430.html

PAID SUBSCRIPTION



THE TEAM OF RICE AND GATES BRINGS A FRESH, ENGAGING STYLE: THE SECRETARIES

OF STATE AND DEFENSE ARE TOUGH BUT NOT TOO HARDLINE - JOHN HUGHES (CHRISTIAN

SCIENCE MONITOR, MARCH 7): Washington loves nothing better than the "who's up,

who's down?" power game. Currently the buzz is that the team of Rice and Gates

is up. And having supplanted the team of Cheney and Rumsfeld, it looks like Rice

and Gates will dominate President Bush's foreign policy team for the last two

years of his presidency.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0307/p09s02-cojh.html



"AS EXTREMIST A NEOCON AND WARMONGER AS IT GETS": MEET ELIOT COHEN, CONDI'S

NEW DEPUTY - GARY LEUPP (COUNTERPUNCH, MARCH 6): The neocons determined to

reconfigure the "Greater Middle East" through the use of "shock and awe"

military force may be down as a result of public revulsion at the results of

their initial criminal ventures. But they aren't out, as Cohen's appointment

dramatically shows.

http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp03062007.html

OUR HUMAN RIGHTS HYPOCRISY: A FEDERAL REPORT HAS HARSH WORDS FOR FOREIGN

GOVERNMENTS WHILE BARELY MENTIONING U.S. VIOLATIONS - ROSA BROOKS (LOS ANGELES

TIMES, MARCH 9): Over the years, the State department human rights reports have

become a high-visibility part of U.S. public diplomacy. As a result, they're

inevitably scrutinized with care, both for what they say and what they don't

say.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions



CHINA'S DEMOCRATIC IMMUNITY - YING MA (WALL STREET JOURNAL, MARCH 9): The

U.S. should engage in much more proactive public diplomacy to promote democracy

in China. In addition to criticizing China's atrocious human rights record, the

U.S. should also explain with facts, figures and examples that democracy

complements economic growth and strengthens human dignity.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117339551488931524.html

PAID SUBSCRIPTION



TELEVISION TAKEOVER - JOEL MOWBRAY (WALL STREET JOURNAL, MARCH 12): Launched

in February 2004, Al-Hurra is supposed to be a key component of our public

diplomacy to the Arab world. Within weeks of becoming news director in November,

Larry Register, a longtime CNN producer, put his own stamp on the network.

Investigations into Arab government wrongdoing or oppression were no longer in

vogue, and the ban on turning the airwaves over to terrorists was lifted.

http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1173...2048433772.html

PAID SUBSCRIPTION



ARE FARSI-LANGUAGE BROADCASTS HELPING? EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, MARCH

9): The Iranian government would appear to be quite vulnerable to the kinds of

pressures that U.S. radio broadcasts, properly done, could help generate. The

Broadcasting Board of Governors would do well to conduct its own comprehensive

study of its Farsi-language broadcasts.

http://washingtontimes.com/functions/print...08-101558-6075r



PAWNS IN GUANTANAMO'S GAME EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, MAY 12): Secretary of

Defense Robert Gates can begin the process of restoring the United States'

reputation as a respecter of human rights by releasing 17 Guantanamo detainees

from China.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...os_game?mode=PF



GUANTANAMO IS NOT A PRISON: 11 WAYS TO REPORT ON GITMO WITHOUT UPSETTING THE

PENTAGON - KAREN J. GREENBERG (TOMDISPATCH, MARCH 8)

http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=172761



HIGHER-ED SUPERPOWER - DAVID IGNATIUS (WASHINGTON POST, MARCH 9): Higher

education is arguably the last area in which the United States dominates the

world. What worries university presidents is that at a time when the world's

best and brightest are still hungry for an American education, U.S. immigration

regulations are making it too hard for students to come here.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0801502_pf.html



A SELF-INFLICTED WOUND: THE U.S. IS BLOCKING THE BEST AND BRIGHTEST

IMMIGRANTS EDITORIALS (WASHINGTON POST, MARCH 12): One of the more

self-defeating aspects of this nation's immigration policy is its insistence on

denying work visas to thousands of the world's most sought-after doctors,

scientists, engineers and technical specialists, including those finishing their

degrees at American universities.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1100986_pf.html



PLANS FOR 'DESERT LOUVRE' PROVOKE OUTRAGE IN FRANCE: CHIRAC DESCRIBES $1.3

BILLION DEAL WITH ABU DHABI AS CULTURAL BRIDGE; ART EXPERTS SEE IT AS SELLING

OUT - MOLLY MOORE (WASHINGTON POST, MARCH 11): In the largest foreign museum

deal in French history, the petro-rich but museum-poor Persian Gulf emirate

agreed last week to pay France $1.3 billion to borrow the Louvre's name and

hundreds of its artworks, as well as treasures from the Picasso Museum, Pompidou

Center, Chateau de Versailles and other French museums. The deal is part of a

revolutionary initiative by France to expand its global influence through its

vast cultural heritage and holdings -- the one realm where it remains a dominant

world power -- in the face of its shrinking diplomatic and economic clout.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1001261_pf.html

SEE ALSO

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/conte...2Bamp%3B+design



RUSSIAN BID TO COUNTER WESTERN CRITICISM NEW PUBLICATIONS TOUT PUTIN'S

ACHIEVEMENTS AND AIM TO CLEAR UP 'MISUNDERSTANDINGS.' FRED WEIR (CHRISTIAN

SCIENCE MONITOR, MARCH 8): President Putin's aides are reviving elements of the

Soviet Union's once-massive propaganda machine as well as considering fresh

approaches. Novosti, the USSR's "information agency," has been renamed

RIA-Novosti and is being bolstered by a flood of Putin-era petrocash. It has

started an English-language satellite news network called Russia Today and a

monthly feature magazine named Russia Profile, both of which carry offerings on

the good job Putin is doing in the world and next to nothing on things like the

conflict in Chechnya or the murder of government critics.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0308/p07s02-woeu.html



WHO'S TO BLAME FOR RUSSIA? - FRED HIATT (WASHINGTON POST, MARCH 12): Tom

Lantos (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs,

complained that for the fourth year in a row the administration has proposed

"devastating cutbacks" in programs to assist democratic and civil society groups

in Russia. That's something for which the United States should be blamed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1101047_pf.html



WHY 'SOFT PARTITION' OF IRAQ WON'T WORK: MOST IRAQIS WISH THEIR COUNTRY TO

REMAIN UNIFIED - JOOST HILTERMANN (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, MARCH 12)

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0312/p09s02-coop.html



THE 'SURGE' IS SUCCEEDING - ROBERT KAGAN (WASHINGTON POST, MARCH 11): Both

friends and foes in Iraq had been convinced, in no small part by the American

media, that the United States was preparing to pull out. When the opposite

occurred, this alone shifted the dynamic.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0901839_pf.html



INSIDE THE "SURGE": TROOPS SCORE SMALL VICTORIES -- A BATTALION HITS THE

STREETS, BEFRIENDS IRAQIS WHO HELP NAB SUSPECTS - DAVID ZUCCHINO (LOS ANGELES

TIMES, MARCH 11)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...-home-headlines



U.S. RAID IN IRAQ MAY HAVE HIT WRONG TOWN: DISAPPOINTING SEARCH FOR

INSURGENTS ILLUSTRATES PITFALLS OF RELYING ON LOCAL INFORMANTS - YOCHI J.

DREAZEN (WALL STREET JOURMNAL, MARCH 12)

http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1173...7015533660.html

PAID SUBSCRIPTION



SURGE AND DESTROY: THE BRUTALITY ESCALATES IN IRAQ - MICHAEL SCHWARTZ

(TOMDISPATCH, MARCH 11)

http://tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=173730



FALLBACK STRATEGY FOR IRAQ: TRAIN LOCALS, DRAW DOWN FORCES: IF THE CURRENT

'SURGE' FAILS, PLANNERS SUGGEST RELYING ON ADVISORS AS THE U.S. DID IN EL

SALVADOR IN THE 1980S - JULIAN E. BARNES AND PETER SPIEGEL (LOS ANGELES TIMES,

MARCH 12)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...-home-headlines



JITTERY IN BAGHDAD, AND NOT FEELING ANY SAFER ?KAMEN (IN THE LOOP,

WASHINGTON POST, MARCH 12): The State Department and other government agencies

are having trouble filling great, career-enhancing jobs in Baghdad as part of

the new Iraq reconstruction push. Many agency employees are hesitant to sign up

for these new "provincial reconstruction teams" because they think they might be

killed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1101517_pf.html



AGENCIES TANGLE ON EFFORTS TO HELP IRAQ: STAFFERS SAY SPATS DISPLACE

PRIORITIES - RAJIV CHANDRASEKARAN (WASHINGTON POST, MARCH 11): Instead of

collaborating, agencies have often found themselves split by the gulf between

idealistic officials in Washington, some of whom have never been to Iraq, and

embassy staffers whose ambition to promote change has been attenuated by the

violence and dysfunction they witness every day.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1001442_pf.html



LETTER FROM AMERICA: THE LIMITS OF FRIVOLITY IN A NATION AT WAR - RICHARD

BERNSTEIN (INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, MARCH 11): The problem with the Bush

administration is not that it has failed to adequately conceal the Iraq war's

cost but that it has failed to make the case that this war was necessary and

justified, and that it has been waged competently and wisely.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/11/news/letter.php



A CATALOGUE OF ERRORS IN AFGHANISTAN - MICHAEL SCHEUER (ASIA TIMES, MARCH

9): Today, the Afghans perceive themselves to be doubly ruled, and doubly badly

ruled, by foreigners: the US-led coalition and the pro-Western, nominally

Islamic, detribalized and corruption-ridden government of President Hamid

Karzai.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IC09Df01.html



A FALSE CHOICE FOR PAKISTAN - BENAZIR BHUTTO (WASHINGTON POST, MARCH 12):

Restoring democracy through free, fair, transparent and internationally

supervised elections is the only way to return Pakistan to civilization and

marginalize the extremists.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7031101046.html



¡AY, CARAMBA! BUSH HEADS TO LATIN AMERICA... ? EDWARD M. GOMEZ (WORLD VIEW,

SF GATE, MARCH 9): Preliminary reaction in the vast region that Team Bush has

ignored for so long: a loud, collective yawn, or as Bette Midler once said à

propos of just about everything, including emptying an ashtray, a big,

dismissive, "Why bother?".

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/det...;entry_id=14220



ON THE ROAD WITH BUSH AND CHÁVEZ - FERNANDO BÁEZ (NEW YORK TIMES, MARCH 11):

Anti-American sentiment, always strong in Latin America, has only grown more

acute in recent times, largely because Washington has treated it with

indifference and disrespect since 9/11.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/opinion/...agewanted=print



BUSH DOWN SOUTH - PEPE ESCOBAR (ASIA TIMES, MARCH 7): The propaganda value

of Bush's Latin American trip cannot be underestimated -- as the meetings will

be mercilessly spun by the White House as evidence of "support" in South America

for the Bush-engineered Iraq tragedy and the possibly imminent attack on Iran.

http://atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/IC08Aa01.html



BUSH VISITING THE NEIGHBORHOOD EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, MARCH 9): After

six years of not-so-benign neglect, Bush is visiting five countries outside the

Chavez orbit with the presumption that a trickle of US aid and expressions of

support may suffice as an answer to the financial aid Chavez has been lavishing

on select neighbors and to his impassioning anti-imperialist rhetoric.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...borhood?mode=PF



U.S.: FROM ROMANCE TO REALISM -- FELIPE CALDERON RECOGNIZES THAT GOOD

RELATIONS WITH WASHINGTON HINGE ON REFORMS AT HOME - DENISE DRESSER (LOS ANGELES

TIMES, MARCH 11): Many Mexicans are wondering whether there truly is a reward to

be gained in closer ties with the U.S., and why Bush is bothering to show up in

their country at all.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions



HOW RICE'S POSSE STRUCK BACK - ELAINE SHANNON (TIME, MARCH 8): Rice has

consolidated her authority over the Administration's foreign policy. Carrying

out her agenda is a handpicked team of weathered foreign service officers who

have spent their careers troubleshooting and cutting deals in some of the most

remote capitals of the world -- the State Department's Hellhole Gang.

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1597531,00.html



POLICY SUCCESSES -- OR U-TURNS: VIEWS DIFFER ON BUSH MOVES ON IRAN, N.

KOREA, MIDEAST - KAREN DEYOUNG AND GLENN KESSLER (WASHINGTON POST, MARCH 11):

Administration officials insist that what appears to be a sudden turn toward

diplomacy is rather the fruit of six years of careful and deliberate

policymaking. But outside experts, and even some insiders, say that the

initiatives have less to do with reaping rewards than with reversing course

after years of policy stagnation and failure.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1001377_pf.html



THE FADING FREEDOM MISSION - DAVID S. BRODER (WASHINGTON POST, MARCH 11):

The Bush prescription for American foreign policy -- an aggressive effort to

expand freedom and democracy around the globe -- has lost its credibility. But

neither Republicans nor Democrats are widely trusted to construct a new policy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0901844_pf.html



WILL AMERICA TURN INWARD AFTER IRAQ? - JOSEPH NYE (HUFFINGTON POST, MARCH

5): When rhetoric greatly outstrips reality, it is seen as hypocrisy in the eyes

of others. Americans will need to find ways to assert their narrative of

democracy, freedom and rights in a manner that respects diversity and the views

of others. What Iraq has taught is the importance of developing civil society

and rule of law before trying to have broad based elections. It is highly

unlikely that the U.S. will react after Iraq as it did after Vietnam.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-nye/w...html?view=print



WHEN A LEADER MISSTEPS, A WORLD CAN GO ASTRAY [REVIEW OF 'SECOND CHANCE:

THREE PRESIDENTS AND THE CRISIS OF AMERICAN SUPERPOWER' BY ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI]

- MICHIKO KAKUTANI (NEW YORK TIMES, MARCH 6): Brzezinski: ?Though in some

dimensions, such as the military, American power may be greater in 2006 than in

1991, the country?s capacity to mobilize, inspire, point in a shared direction

and thus shape global realities has significantly declined. Fifteen years after

its coronation as global leader, America is becoming a fearful and lonely

democracy in a politically antagonistic world.?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/books/06...agewanted=print



RICHEST COUNTRY, SADDEST PEOPLE -- ANY COINCIDENCE? - BRET STEPHENS (WALL

STREET JOURNAL, MARCH 9): A study, recently reported in Forbes, purported to

show that the U.S. has the highest rate of depression among a survey group of 14

countries. Is there a country on earth where Prozac is more widely prescribed,

or therapy more readily available, than the U.S.? It should hardly be

surprising, therefore, that Americans now find themselves so depressed.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1173415427...aste_primary_hs

PAID SUBSCRIPTION



PHOTO ESSAY: AMERICAN HAPPINESS AND THE NEED TO CONSUME - PHOTO ESSAY BY

BRIAN ULRICH (MOTHER JONES, MARCH 11): The photos on these pages are selected

from photographer Brian Ulrich's Copia project, which began after 9/11. "In

2001, citizens were encouraged to take to the malls to boost the U.S. economy

through shopping," he says, "thereby equating consumerism with patriotism. The

Copia project, a direct response to that advice, is a long-term photographic

examination of the peculiarities and complexities of the consumer-dominated

culture in which we live."

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/20...ppiness-22.html



CAPTAIN AMERICA, RIP: WHAT THE COMIC BOOK HERO'S CAREER, AND DEMISE, SAY

ABOUT OUR COUNTRY - JACOB HEILBRUNN (LOS ANGELES TIMES, MARCH 9): Forget the

endless congressional debates about Iraq. The most telling measure of America's

current distemper can be found in a more mundane place -- in the gory

assassination of Captain America in issue No. 25, which hit the stands

Wednesday.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions



PRIESTS TO PURIFY SITE AFTER BUSH VISIT - JUAN CARLOS LLORCA, ASSOCIATED

PRESS (WASHINGTON POST, MARCH 9): Mayan priests will purify a sacred

archaeological site to eliminate "bad spirits" after President Bush visits next

week, an official with close ties to the group said Thursday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0900076_pf.html

LAST YEAR, ONLY 202 IRAQIS WERE GRANTED ASYLUM IN AMERICA. BUT TINY SWEDEN TOOK IN MORE THAN 9,000 IRAQI ASYLUM-SEEKERS LAST YEAR.?

--David Wright, "Iraq War Refugees Turn to Sweden, Not U.S." (ABC News, March 15)
http://www.abcnews.go.com/WNT/IraqCoverage...4702&page=1

At the same time, the US took in 11,000 students from Saudi.

VIDEO

Why People Think Americans Are Stupid (youtube)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ji-OJW_MW0

THE COSTS OF WINNING HEARTS AND MINDS: A PROPOSED US BUDGET INCREASE FOR 'MEDIA DIPLOMACY' TO THE MIDEAST WILL COST OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD - MONITOR'S VIEW (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, MARCH 15): Because Uncle Sam's radio and television programs are broadcast to other countries, many Americans might not know about them. In diplomatic speak, the shows fall under the heading of "public diplomacy" -- US promotion of its interests abroad by informing foreign audiences. Ex-Voice of America (VOA) Directors' request that lawmakers preserve $26 million in proposed cuts is not a lot to keep an estimated 18 million listeners in the VOA fold; to retain its main service in English (spoken by a quarter of the world's population, after all); to continue native language services in still shaky democracies such as Georgia and Ukraine; and to keep VOA radio going in Russia, which could easily pull the plug on VOA TV. Meanwhile, about 300 million people, many in Asia, still listen to shortwave radio.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0315/p08s01-comv.htm


WOW, IS AL-HURRA DOING SOMETHING RIGHT? MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, MARCH 14): "The real problem [with USG-funded TV channel Al-Hurra], as I've been saying for years, is that the lack of access to the station's programming shields it from scrutiny and makes it difficult for anyone to either criticize or defend it with any credibility. ... I doubt that [Al-Hurra?s new news director Larry] Register will be able to turn al-Hurra into a player in the Arab media market, simply because of how competitive that market is and because of the stigma attached to a US-government station. But it sounds like he's on the right track, trying to do the best he can with the hand he's been dealt."
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...s_alhurra_.html


JOEL MOWBRAY REPORTS: AL-HURRA BRASS PLAY OSTRICH (POWER LINE, MARCH 14): If al-Hurra doesn't talk about human rights abuses across the Arab world, who will? Unfortunately, no one with the same potential reach.
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/017027.php
VIA
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...s_alhurra_.html


IS AL HURRA NOW A TERRORIST TV STATION? WSJ BLASTS THE NEWS DIRECTOR OF AMERICA'S FLAGSHIP TV CHANNEL E.C. NISBET (FRAMING CONFLICT: THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS, MARCH 13): The basic quandary of a station like Al Hurra is that it must walk a fine line between promoting such goals as democracy, free speech, civil liberties, and pro-U.S. policies -- but can only do that if it appears credible, relatively balanced (in the Arab mind), open to a wide-range of discourse and viewpoints, and engages Arab audiences on their own terms, not ours.
http://framingconflict.blogspot.com/2007/0...tv-station.html


IRAN PORT BUSTLES IN SHADOW OF WAR ANONYMOUS (WASHINGTON TIMES, MARCH 14): "My mother is very nervous," explained Parinaz, her 18-year-old daughter, who attends a state-run school for gifted children. "Every time she listens to Radio Farda, she thinks American Special Forces are about to land in central Bandar Abbas and attack us." Radio Farda is a Washington-sponsored radio station that transmits Persian-language news that tends to highlight developments regarding Iran's nuclear program and its poor human rights record.
http://washingtontimes.com/functions/print...13-102014-2406r

NEW REALITY TV SHOW TARGETS ARAB HEARTS AND MINDS - MOHAMED ELSHINNAWI (VOICE OF AMERICA, MARCH 15): The U.S. government is spending millions of dollars annually trying to win the hearts and minds of the people of the Middle East. Critics of this public diplomacy campaign say the government is not getting its money's worth. Now, a non-profit U.S. media production company is getting into the game with a new reality TV show and other programs geared to Arab audiences: Privately financed Layalina Productions? 12-episode television series called On the Road in America.
http://www.voanews.com/english/AmericanLif...03-15-voa31.cfm


TV AIMS TO BRIDGE REALITY GAP BETWEEN US AND ARAB WORLD - ROULA KHALAF (FINANCIAL TIMES DEUTSCHLAND, MARCH 15): On the Road to America, now being aired on the popular Saudi-backed pan-Arab MBC channel, tracks Arab students traveling across the US on a 10-week journey. "This is people-to-people diplomacy between the American and the Arab public," says Leon Shahabian, a spokesman for Layalina. Yet analysts say it is unlikely to change Arab attitudes towards the US.
http://www.ftd.de/karriere_management/busi...ish/173217.html


'300' REASONS TO HATE AMERICA - MARTY KAPLAN (USC ANNENBERG: NORMAN LEAR CENTERTAINMENT, MARCH 15): The Iranian goverment isn't happy about the depiction of their ancient Persian ancestors in the blood-drenched American film "300." Neither is a group of Iranian filmmakers, who have protested to UNESCO. Public diplomacy consists of one country attempting to convince another country to advance its own interests through efforts like traveling music productions, visas for visiting scholars and future politicians, and foreign-language radio broadcasts of news and entertainment. But the cultural exports of the United States are mainly not created under the banner of the State Department.
http://blog.learcenter.org/2007/03/300_rea...te_america.html
SEE ALSO
SPARTAN PRIDE: BUSH, 300, AND THE FOLLY OF EMPIRE - MATTHEW YGLESIAS (AMERICAN PROSPECT, MARCH 13)
http://www.prospect.org/web/printfriendly-view.ww?id=12551
'AXIS OF EVIL' SEEPS INTO HOLLYWOOD - KAVEH L AFRASIABI (ASIA TIMES, MARCH 14)
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IC14Ak03.html
'300' SMASHES MARCH OPENING RECORD; SPARTANS STAMPEDE TO $70 MIL WEEKEND; 3RD BIGGEST R-RATED MOVIE DEBUT EVER ? (NIKKI FINE?S DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD DAILY, MARCH 10)
http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/r-ra...ted-60-mil-wkd/

THE POISONOUS LEGACY OF THE IRAQ WAR -- PART I - FAWAZ A. GERGES (YALEGLOBAL, MARCH 15): The Bush administration, while paying lip service to public diplomacy, has relied excessively on militarism to wage all-out war against an unconventional and fractured foe.
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=8916

SCRUTINY INCREASES FOR A GROUP ADVOCATING FOR MUSLIMS IN U.S. - NEIL MACFARQUHAR (NEW YORK TIMES, MARCH 13): When Karen P. Hughes, the close adviser to Mr. Bush and under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, started interacting with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), she was criticized as dealing with "Wahhabis," shorthand for Saudi-inspired religious extremists, a State Department spokesman said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/14/washingt...agewanted=print

AMERICAN MUSLIMS CONFUSED BY MIXED SIGNALS - WILLIAM FISHER (TRUTHOUT, MARCH 13): A bipartisan State Department advisory panel on public diplomacy, headed by Edward Djerejian, a former ambassador to Israel and Syria, found that only 54 of 279 Arabic speakers employed by State were fluent. Of those, only six were fluent enough to appear on Arabic television programs. Numerous intelligence and foreign policy scholars, as well as representatives of the American Muslim community, are expressing serious doubts that the nation's intelligence-gathering agencies can make serious progress in recruiting substantial numbers of recruits.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031307B.shtml

6 LEADERS OF AMERICAN COLLEGES WILL JOIN STATE DEPT. DELEGATION ON TRIP TO INDIA ? NEWSBLOG (CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, MARCH 14): The State Department announced today that Karen P. Hughes, the under secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, will lead a delegation of American university leaders on a weeklong trip to India this month
http://chronicle.com/news/index.php?id=1804

AIRMEN HOLD DISCUSSION GROUP WITH KYRGYZ STUDENTS (AFNEWS, MARCH 12): Manas Air Base, Kyrgyzstan -- Airmen from the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing and U.S. Embassy staff visited School 13-Lyceum in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, March 7 to conduct the first English Discussion Group (EDG) with about 30 students. The EDG is a joint program of Manas Air Base and the U.S. Embassy, under the Public Diplomacy Outreach Program.
http://media-newswire.com/release_1045458.html

NEOCON KAGAN: THE 'SURGE' IS SUCCEEDING JAY TELL (TELL IT LIKE IT IS, MARCH 13): ?Although I don't believe in ad hominem attacks, let's understand who Robert Kagan is ... . In 1985, neocon Elliott Abrams picked Kagan to head Ronald Reagan's Office of Public Diplomacy, whose mission was to drum up support for the Contras in Nicaragua, where Kagan worked until 1988.?
http://what-is-is.blogspot.com/2007/03/neo...succeeding.html
SEE ALSO
http://www.nndb.com/people/379/000048235/

A DEBT OF GRATITUDE: WHY IS BUSH SO OBSESSED WITH UNGRATEFUL FOREIGNERS? FRED KAPLAN (SLATE, MARCH 13): In many of his pronouncements, President Bush seems to believe that because America is a good and generous nation, everything done in its name is, ipso facto, good and generous -- and that the peoples of the world, if they're honest about it, will view our actions as good and generous, too.
http://www.slate.com/id/2161644/

SHUN THE SPOTLIGHT ON U.S. AID - KARIN VON HIPPEL AND VINCA LAFLEUR (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, MARCH 13): Paradoxically, the more attention the president draws to U.S. aid to Latin America, the less grateful its recipients may feel, and the less effective our dollars may be in helping Latin Americans climb the development ladder themselves.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1201124_pf.html

A LOUVRE FOR ABU DHABI? IT'S A DONE DEAL ? EDWARD M. GOMEZ (WORLD VIEWS, SF GATE, MARCH 13)
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/det...;entry_id=14365

CLOSING TIME IN THE WEST - TONY BLANKLEY (WASHINGTON TIMES, MARCH 13): Re The Louvre Museum selling the use of its name for a museum in Abu Dhabi for $520 million: "I can't help wondering how many Muslims will want to visit the Abu Dhabi Louvre. After all, most Muslims are deeply offended by representational art, which is why Islamic art is magnificent in its patterns and colors and calligraphy, but is a void when it comes to portraiture. And, in case the Abu Dhabi Louvre renters haven't noticed, Christian-European representational oils are the strongest part of the Louvre's magnificent collection."
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...13-090315-9530r

A 'NEW DEAL' FOR LATIN AMERICA - MARK L. SCHNEIDER (BOSTON GLOBE, MARCH 14): A clear sign to the rural poor in Latin America that government cares about them would not be a bad message for President Bush to carry on his trip to the region.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...america?mode=PF

GOOD WILL LOST: BUSH'S LATIN AMERICAN TOUR - KATHERINE HANCY WHEELER (COUNTERPUNCH, MARCH 15): The overwhelming expressions of local discontent and cool responses by several of the leaders plagued Bush's trip at every turn.
http://www.counterpunch.org/wheeler03152007.html

LATIN LESSON ? EDITORIAL (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, MARCH 15): Attention, even of the most fleeting kind, can work wonders. That's the consoling hope President Bush took home with him after a low-expectation trip to Latin America.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...EDGC7N7B8L1.DTL

U.S.-LATIN AMERICA DANCE - HELLE DALE (WASHINGTON TIMES, MARCH 14): Relations between north and south are indeed often strained, sometimes more than others. But negative spin often takes on a life of its own, especially with a second-term president whose ratings are languishing. A reality check is certainly in order, and Mr. Bush deserves credit for not being afraid to reach out to Latin America.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...13-090316-9314r

A STUNNING CONTRAST: THE DESCENT OF THE US; THE RISE OF LATIN AMERICA - PHILIP AGEE (COUNTERPUNCH, MARCH 14): While Latin America is fast moving in progressive directions, almost unimaginable less than ten years ago, in contrast the United States, at least since the Reagan era, has been moving step by step toward a Fascism for the 21st Century.
http://www.counterpunch.org/agee03142007.html

DEFENSE DEPT: IRAQ A CIVIL WAR - FRANK JAMES (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, MARCH 15)
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_t...se_dept_ir.html

ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN FOCUS - AUSTIN BAY (WASHINGTON TIMES, MARCH 15): The Iraqi people are earning their victory and their liberty. The price for both is inevitably paid in blood, sweat and toil. At this point, they need American patience.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...14-095357-2374r

CAN GENERAL PETRAEUS TURN THE WAR AROUND?: A SINGLE COMMANDER CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE - VICTOR DAVIS HANSON (NATIONAL REVIEW, MARCH 15): Today, Iraq poses no more a dire predicament for Petraeus, commander of US force there, than the past obstacles that faced gifted generals of prior wars -- even given the fact that American manpower reserves and patience are mostly spent.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YWZhZ...jVhZjAzNWU5MjI=

THE CONSERVATIVE CASE AGAINST BUSH: HIS HEART IS IN THE RIGHT PLACE, BUT HE CAN'T SEEM TO DO ANYTHING RIGHT - JOSEPH BOTTUM (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, MARCH 13): To abandon Iraq now would be the height of irresponsibility. It would lock in place the perception of defeat, with all the predictable consequences, and it would abandon the Iraqis to whom we promised freedom and democracy.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/federation/f...e/?id=110009778

BEYOND QUAGMIRE: A PANEL OF EXPERTS CONVENED BY ROLLING STONE AGREE THAT THE WAR IN IRAQ IS LOST. THE ONLY QUESTION NOW IS: HOW BAD WILL THE COMING EXPLOSION BE? - TIM DICKINSON (ROLLING STONE, MARCH 7)
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story...rim_truth/print

THE CHANGING COMPLEXION OF TROOP 'SURGE' IN IRAQ: SINCE BUSH'S MOVE TO SEND 21,500 TROOPS, HE AND THE MILITARY WANT MORE. IS IT TOO MUCH STRAIN ON US FORCES? - GORDON LUBOLD (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR , MARCH 14)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0314/p02s01-usmi.html

SPINNED SURGE: DON'T BUY THE CLAIMS THAT THE MILITARY ESCALATION IN IRAQ IS WORKING - JUSTIN LOGAN (AMERICAN PROSPECT, MARCH 13)
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?sectio...articleId=12552

'SURGE' DOOMED TO FINAL FAILURE - H.D.S. GREENWAY (BOSTON GLOBE, MARCH 13): What the president and proponents of the "surge" in Iraq have underestimated is the loathing Iraqis have of foreign troops bursting into their houses, shoot-to-kill checkpoints, and the humiliation occupation brings. Foreign troops legitimize insurgency.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...failure?mode=PF

SURGE CREEP - TOM ENGELHARDT (NATION, MARCH 13): If surge success isn't exactly looming on the horizon, it's clear enough what is: Call it "surge creep." In a way, surge creep has been the story of the Iraq War since the beginning. The forces for the surge plan alone, announced at 21,500 by the President in January, are already creeping toward 30,000.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=174703

A DOZEN DIFFERENT CITIES AT WAR WITH EACH OTHER: BAGHDAD UNDER SURGE - PATRICK COCKBURN (COUNTERPUNCH, MARCH 15)
http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick03152007.html

SURGE AND DESTROY IN IRAQ - MICHAEL SCHWARTZ (ASIA TIMES, MARCH 16): The architects of US policy in the Middle East tend to keep escalating the level of brutality in search of a way to convince the Iraqis (and now the Iranians) that the only path that avoids indiscriminate slaughter is submission to a Pax Americana. Put another way, US policy in the Middle East has devolved into unadorned state terrorism.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IC16Ak02.html


A PUSH FOR FREEDOM - MARC LYNCH (GUARDIAN, MARCH 14): The United States has over the last year abandoned even the pretence of caring about democracy in the Arab world.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/marc_l...rinter.friendly

HIS OWN WORST ENEMY - ROBERT SCHEER (TRUTHDIG, MARCH 13): Cheney played right into al-Qaida?s plans, heightening tension between the U.S. and the Arab and Muslim worlds by evoking an image of U.S. imperial conquest of Mideast oil resources.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200703...er_cheney_enemy

HEARTS, MINDS AND BODY BAGS: NATO BATTLES RISING HOSTILITY IN AFGHANISTAN - SUSANNE KOELBL (SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL, MARCH 13): The fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan continues this spring. But as the number of civilian casualties rises, support for Western troops is dropping.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiege...,471416,00.html

CHINA RETURNS FIRE ON US HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IVAN ELAND (ANTIWAR.COM, MARCH 13)
http://www.antiwar.com/eland/?articleid=10663

GANDHI'S WAY ISN'T THE AMERICAN WAY: COLLECTIVE SUICIDE IS NO FOREIGN POLICY - FRED THOMPSON (NATIONAL REVIEW, MARCH 15): The so-called peace movement certainly has the right to make Gandhi?s way their way, but their efforts to make collective suicide American foreign policy just won?t cut it in this country. When American?s think of heroism, we think of the young American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, risking their lives to prevent another Adolph Hitler or Saddam Hussein.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTM1N...zdkMjE2YmEyNTY=

60 YEARS OF FAULTY LOGIC - JAMES CARROLL (BOSTON GLOBE, MARCH 12): Truman's "every nation must choose " became Bush's "You are with us or against us." America's political paranoia still projects its worst fears onto the enemy, paradoxically strengthening its most paranoid elements. The monstrous dynamic feeds itself.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...y_logic?mode=PF


US PASSPORT DELAYS DRAG ON AT STATE PATRICIA KUSHLIS (WHIRLED VIEW, MARCH 14)
http://whirledview.typepad.com/whirledview...ssport_del.html

AS A CHILD, OBAMA CROSSED A CULTURAL DIVIDE IN INDONESIA - PAUL WATSON (LOS ANGELES TIMES, MARCH 15): Obama's four years as a child in Indonesia underscore how dramatically his background differs from that of past presidential hopefuls, most of whom spent little, if any, time in other countries. No one knows how voters will react to a candidate with an early exposure to Islam, a religion that remains foreign to many Americans.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na...-home-headlines
SEE ALSO
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/..._campaign_.html

ARAB MEDIA & SOCIETY LAUNCHED: ONLINE JOURNAL WILL COVER CHANGING MEDIA, POLITICAL AND CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

The Center for Electronic Journalism at the American University in Cairo and the Centre for Middle East Studies, St. Antony's College, Oxford, are pleased to announce the launch of their new electronic journal Arab Media & Society at www.arabmediasociety.org

The online publication is the successor to the highly-regarded Transnational Broadcasting Studies (www.tbsjournal.com), which has been covering satellite broadcasting in the Middle East and broader Muslim world for the past decade.

The move is recognition of the changing nature of the Arab media and social landscape. "When TBS Journal was founded two years after the launch of Al Jazeera, satellite TV was the story. Newspapers were moribund. Internet penetration was negligible. Media deregulation was an alien concept,? publisher and co-editor Lawrence Pintak writes in the first issue. "The impact of the pan-Arab satellite revolution is today felt at every level of Arab society " and in every form of media.

The journal will publish quarterly with frequent updates of timely articles from scholars, researchers and journalists.

"The Arab media scene and Arab society as a whole are changing rapidly. The shift from a combination of print and online to a pure online approach means we are able to offer thoughtful insights into developments as they occur, produce more frequent thematic issues, and include a mix of interactive features," Pintak said.

For example, the first issue includes:

--A package of six stories on blogging in the Arab world, led by an article from Marc Lynch of Williams College, accompanied by an interview with two Egyptian bloggers in a streamable audio format.

--A set of articles on last summer?s Lebanon war, including a piece on women war correspondents by Magda Abu-Fadil and an article by Paul Cochrane on how Hizbullah?s al-Manar managed to stay on the air

--Print interviews with the head of the BBC?s new Arabic news channel and a Tunisian online magazine editor, along with an audio interview with Daoud Khuttab, who is pioneering community radio in the Arab world

--A piece on the fate of US government broadcasting by former official of VOA Alan Heil

--Interactive book reviews that invite reader comment and debate

--And much more

The site also contains real-time summaries of the Arab media, resources such as major reports on the development of Arab media, and links to a variety of other interesting content.

For further information, contact Managing Editor George Weyman at ams@aucegypt.edu.

FROM AN E-MAIL FROM LAWRENCE PINKTAK.

GUILT AND GUANTÁNAMO - DAILY TELEGRAPH (MARCH 16): Five-and-a-half years

after 9/11, America is in urgent need of inspired public diplomacy to restore

its image. Yet the arrogance that led to Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib hangs like an

albatross around the neck of anyone who would make a move in this direction.

That was clear from the reception given to George Bush during his recent tour of

Latin America.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jh...3/16/dl1603.xml



STATE'S HUGHES LOOKS FORWARD TO WORKING WITH NEW ISLAMIC GROUP: ORGANIZATION

OF ISLAMIC CONFERENCE LAUNCHES GROUP IN WASHINGTON JANE MORESE (USINFO, MARCH

18): U.S. Under Secretary of State Karen Hughes has welcomed the formation of

the new Ambassadorial Washington Group of the Organization of Islamic Conference

(OIC).

http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display....jesrom0.2583582

HUGHES REMARKS BEFORE GROUP

http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display..../wf-latest.html



FOUR YEARS AND COUNTING: THE FATE OF IRAQ REMAINS IN THE HANDS OF IRAQIS, NO

MATTER A SURGE IN U.S. TROOPS ALAN BOCK (OCREGISTER, CA, MARCH 18): In recent

weeks Saudi Arabia has engaged in a flurry of very public diplomacy, inviting

competing Palestinian factions to meet in Riyadh, offering to broker Lebanese

disagreements, and most notably bringing Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

to Saudi Arabia for some very frank and reportedly pointed discussions.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opini...cle_1622036.php (scroll

down link for item)



TERRORIST LEADER CONFESSION RAISES QUESTIONS - GARY THOMAS (VOICE OF

AMERICA, MARCH 15): Former CIA officer Michael Scheuer, regarding terrorist

Khalid Sheikh Mohammad: ?He is an informed observer of the propaganda and public

diplomacy aspects of the war between the United States, and al-Qaida and its

allies [a]nd he has exploited that with a combination of truthfulness in terms

of many of the attacks we know that he was involved with that he claimed, and in

terms of a really acute eye for exacerbating problems of the American government

in handling people that they capture.?

http://voanews.com/english/2007-03-15-voa72.cfm



HEARTS AND MINDS (TIME, MARCH 15): A recent poll asked people in 27

countries to rate the influence of other nations on the world. The U.S. has

fallen sharply in world esteem over the past three years.

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1599808,00.html



GLOBAL NAG - RICHARD W. RAHN (WASHINGTON TIMES, MARCH 19): This month, the

State Department has set a new record by managing to insult the citizens of 123

different lands at one time in the "International Narcotics Control Strategy

Report: Volume II, Money Laundering and Financial Crimes."

http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...18-094754-7388r



POLL SHOWS IRAQIS FEEL QUALITY OF LIFE HAS PLUNGED - CAMERON W. BARR AND JON

COHEN (WASHINGTON, MARCH 19): More than six in 10 Iraqis now say that their

lives are going badly -- double the percentage who said so in late 2005 -- and

about half say that increasing U.S. forces in the country will make the security

situation worse, according to a poll of more than 2,200 Iraqis conducted by ABC

News and other media organizations.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7031900421.html



OPERATION DEEPENING NIGHTMARE: ALMOST EVERY ASPECT OF IRAQI LIFE HAS GOTTEN

WORSE IN THE LAST FOUR YEARS - PATRICK COCKBURN (COUNTERPUNCH, MARCH 19)

http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick03192007.html



CASUALTY OF THE WAR - AYUB NURI (WASHINGTON POST, MARCH 19): The war has

united Iraqis in their disappointment.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1801057_pf.html



IN THE NAME OF IMPROVING PEOPLE'S LIVES: MOUNTING CIVILIAN DEATHS IN

AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ - BRIAN CLOUGHLEY (COUNTERPUNCH, MARCH 17/18): Week by week

there are more revelations of hideous incidents in which blameless citizens of

Iraq or Afghanistan have been killed during military operations, drive-by

shootings, or in acts of willful murder.

http://www.counterpunch.org/cloughley03172007.html



FOR MANY IRAQIS, HUNT FOR MISSING IS NEVER-ENDING - DAMIEN CAVE (NEW YORK

TIMES, MARCH 19)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/19/world/mi...agewanted=print



U.S. EXPECTS IRAQ PRISON GROWTH: CRACKDOWN LIKELY TO MEAN MORE INMATES AT 2

DETENTION CENTERS - WALTER PINCUS (WASHINGTON, MARCH 14)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7031301732.html



VIDEO: PRESENTING "HOMETOWN BAGHDAD" (SALON, MARCH 19): On the fourth

anniversary of our invasion of Iraq, when many of us have become hopelessly

inured to reports of yet another bombing, the simple struggles of regular people

take on a greater, more chilling power; we watch a way of life deteriorate

before our eyes, and come to recognize the horrors of war in a way that the bold

headlines or CNN news alerts no longer convey.

http://www.salon.com/ent/video_dog/hometow...ntro/index.html



DENOUEMENT ON IRAQ: FIRST STOP THE BLEEDING. MEMORANDUM FOR: SPEAKER OF THE

HOUSE SENATE MAJORITY LEADER - VETERAN INTELLIGENCE PROFESSIONALS FOR SANITY

(COMMON DREAMS, MARCH 15): From the report: ?U.S. strategy in Iraq is based on

the false assumptions that the ?people? and the ?insurgents? in Iraq are two

distinct and opposing groups, and that US and Iraqi forces will be able to

?clear? the insurgents and ?hold? the people.?

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0315-28.htm



FOUR YEARS LATER... AND COUNTING: BILLBOARDING THE IRAQI DISASTER- ANTHONY

ARNOVE (TOMDISPATCH, MARC 18): The disaster the United States has wrought in

Iraq is worsening by the day, and its effects will be long-lasting. How long

they last, and how far they spread beyond Iraq, will depend on how quickly the

US government can be forced to end its occupation.

http://tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=176493



CONGRESS EYES LOST BILLIONS SENT TO IRAQ: AUDITS DISCOVERED $10 BILLION IN

LOST OR WASTED FUNDING SINCE 2003, PROMPTING TALK OF REFORMS TO PREVENT WAR

PROFITEERING - PETER GRIER (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, MARCH 19)

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0319/p01s02-usmi.html



TAKE ACTION: DEMAND BETTER IRAQ WAR COVERAGE (MEDIACHANNEL, MARCH 15):

Aren?t you upset when you see the same media/propaganda techniques that led to

the catastrophe in Iraq being deployed again to encourage violence against

Tehran?

http://www.mediachannel.org/wordpress/2007...war-coverage-2/



POLL FINDS 44% THINK LIFE WORSE IN EU - GEORGE PARKER (FINANCIAL TIMES,

MARCH 18)

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/3ecee064-d578-11db...0b5df10621.html



WE ARE AMERICANS - NAT HENTOFF (WASHINGTON TIMES, MARCH 19): As is evident

in the European press, citizens of countries visited by CIA "ghost planes" (for

"extraordinary renditions") increasingly are concerned and angry.

http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...18-094754-6364r



WHEN TERRORISTS BECOME 'WARRIORS' - TOM MALINOWSKI (WASHINGTON POST, MARCH

18): Once America accepted his rhetorical call to war, after all, bin Laden

would not be just a mass murderer hiding in a cave. He could claim to be the

leader of a mighty army going head to head with a superpower on a global

battlefield, equivalent in America's eyes to the greatest adversaries it had

fought in the past.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1601993_pf.html



WHAT IMPECCABLE TIMING, KSM!: KHALID SHAIKH MOHAMMED MAY HAVE DIVERTED

ATTENTION FROM ALBERTO GONZALES, BUT THE 9/11 PLOTTER'S TESTIMONY EXPOSES THE

FLAWS IN BUSH'S 'WAR ON TERROR' - ROSA BROOKS (LOS ANGELES TIMES, MARCH 19):

Most ironically, the "war on terror" framework has lent legitimacy to terrorist

leaders such as Khalid Shaikh Mohammed enabling them to present themselves as

warriors standing up against a powerful -- and hypocritical -- U.S. military

machine.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions



THE ENEMY AND US ARE STARTING TO LOOK ALIKE: KHALID SHAIKH MOHAMMED CLAIMS

WASHINGTON AS A HERO, AND THE U.S. TORTURES -- SUCH IS THE 'OSMOSIS OF WAR' -

NIALL FERGUSON (LOS ANGELES TIMES, MARCH 18): Only in retrospect, as the

historian leafs through the documents that survive redaction and classification,

will it become apparent how the war on terror turned a part of us into our enemy

-- and a part of our enemy into ourselves.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions



FOREIGN POLICY ADRIFT? EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, MARCH 19): Beyond Iran

and Syria, administration policies in other areas seem adrift or headed in the

wrong direction, particularly at State.

http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...18-094754-3807r



U.S. SPENDS MUCH LESS MONEY ON DIPLOMACY THAN MILITARY XINHUA (PEOPLE?S

DAILY, BEIJING, MARCH 19)

http://english.people.com.cn/200703/19/eng...319_358896.html



RULE CHANGE FOR PASSPORTS CREATES CRUSH OF APPLICANTS - ASSOCIATED PRESS

(NEW YORK TIMES, MARCH 17)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/us/17pas...agewanted=print



PROPAGANDA AND THE POLITICS OF PERCEPTION - MICHAEL CARMICHAEL (GLOBAL

RESEARCH, MARCH 12): Bush?s propaganda engines of perpetual war are driven by:

xenophobia; the demonisation of immigrants; fears of foreign cultures --

especially Muslims -- and the persistent application of fear and terror to the

body politic.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?con...;articleId=5058

THE CHANGING SCOPE OF U.S. INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTS -ROBERT MCMAHON (BACKGROUNDER, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, MARCH 23): Covers following questions: What is the purpose of U.S. international broadcasting? What is the Board of Broadcasting Governors? How extensive is U.S.-funded broadcasting? What impact do the broadcasts have? Are they likely to continue to get congressional support?
http://www.cfr.org/publication/12930/

LITTLE FUNDING FOR SOFT POWER - ELIZABETH GILL LUI LOS ANGELES (LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, LOST ANGELES TOMES, MARCH 23): This administration has been a disaster for all things diplomatic, and the real casualty is the entire Department of State and all the good people who are highly educated in political science, foreign relations and public diplomacy and have dedicated themselves to making nonviolence the basis for American foreign policy. (The writer is the author of "Building Diplomacy: The Architecture of American Embassies.")
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/a...-news-a_section (scroll down link for item)

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ON THE WEB... BY ISRAEL - (MOUNTAIN RUNNER BLOG, MARCH 23): The state of Israel has its own MySpace page, it's own blog, and even a bunch of YouTube videos. Apparently the Foreign Ministry will start publishing their own blog, with the personal thoughts of FM officials, soon.
http://mountainrunner.us/2007/03/public_di...the_web_by.html
SEE ALSO
http://www.mererhetoric.com/archives/11273447.html

AL-JAZEERA: THE MATCHBOX THAT ROARED: AL-JAZEERA'S ACHIEVEMENT IS TO HAVE BECOME AT ONCE GLOBAL BRAND, ARAB WINDOW ON THE WORLD, AND CHALLENGE TO WESTERN PERSPECTIVES ON THE "WAR ON TERROR - FRED HALLIDAY (OPENDEMOCRACY, MARCH 3): Al-Jazeera has occasioned a myth to which both it and its opponents seem to subscribe: that alongside the real wars in the region there is another (in some ways equally important) "media" or "information" war. This leads western governments, pressed after Iraq or over their support for Israel, to upgrade their own media and journalistic output in the service of "public diplomacy.” http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization..._qatar_4466.jsp

ISRAEL GOES ON THE VIRTUAL OFFENSIVE: THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT IS DEPLOYING NEW TACTICS TO DEEPEN TIES WITH AMERICAN YOUTH AND EVANGELICALS - GREGORY LEVEY (SALON, MARCH 24): Under Israeli diplomat David Saranga, Israel hopes to reach out to young Americans by adding some hip and stylish gloss to Israel's image and building a greater sense of connection in the process. Citing research on Israel's image in the United States, Saranga said recently: "We saw that we had a problem with the age group of 18 to 35, and the reason is that this group doesn't see Israel as relevant. So we have to talk to them in their language, in platforms that they are using, and the new media is one of the ways to do so."
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/03/...tegy/print.html

DON'T LOOK NOW, BUT JIHAD PROPAGANDA IS GETTING ON THE INTERNET - STEVE HUNTLEY (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, MARCH 23)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationw...ll=chi-news-hed

MORAL EQUIVALENCE REVIVED - SUZANNE FIELDS (WASHINGTON TIMES, MARCH 26): Establishing "dialogue" between the West and moderate Islam is a good thing to do, but talk cannot succeed with extremists who start the conversation with murder.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...25-100601-5400r

AMERICA'S HIDDEN WAR DEAD: MORE THAN 770 CIVILIANS WORKING FOR U.S. FIRMS HAVE LOST THEIR LIVES SUPPORTING THE MILITARY IN IRAQ, AND SOME FAMILIES ARE NOW SPEAKING OUT - HOWARD WITT (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, MARCH 30)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationw...623,print.story

ENVIRONMENTAL NIGHTMARE DRAGS ON - STEPHEN LEAHY (TIERRAMERICA, MARCH 22): Four years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and despite 22 billion dollars spent on recovery and reconstruction, Iraq's environment remains in disastrous shape.
http://electroniciraq.net/news/printer2961.shtml

IRAQ: BAGHDAD PLAN SHOWS PROGRESS, BUT CHALLENGES PERSIST - SUMEDHA SENANAYAKE (RFE/RL, MARCH 26): The first assessment by U.S. and Iraqi officials of the month-old Baghdad security operation, which was launched on February 14, has been positive. Initial signs indicate that the operation has significantly curbed violence in the Iraqi capital.
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/...248b336631.html

SEVEN DAYS ON IRAQ'S CRUEL ROADS - PATRICK COCKBURN (COUNTERPUNCH, MARCH 26): The difficulty in reporting Iraq is that it is impossibly dangerous to know what is happening in most of the country outside central Baghdad.
http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick03262007.html

MESOPOTAMIA SPLIT? CONSIDERING PETER GALBRAITH'S PROPOSAL FOR IRAQ - CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS (SLATE, MARCH 26): If we reconfigure our military presence to the north, in the three Kurdish provinces, we can reduce the size of ourselves as a target, remain just "over the horizon" in the case of an al-Qaida challenge, be available "case by case" in the event of any appeal from the Iraqi government for help, and protect the most outstanding of our achievements in the country, which is the emergence of a relatively peaceful, democratic, and prosperous region under coalition auspices.
http://www.slate.com/id/2162656/

NEIGHBORLY ADVICE ON IRAQ: THE NATIONS ON IRAQ'S BORDERS ARE BECOMING MORE INVOLVED IN ITS FATE -- WHICH CAN BE GOOD FOR THE U.S. – EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, MARCH 26)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editor...ment-editorials

DEMOBILIZING AMERICA: OUTSOURCING ACTION IN AN IMPERIAL WORLD - TOM ENGELHARDT (TOMDISPATCH, MARCH 25): If a single conclusion can be drawn about the U.S. presence in Iraq, it's this: The longer we have been there, the worse it's gotten.
http://tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=179009

THE SATURDAY PROFILE: CRITIC OF HUSSEIN GRAPPLES WITH HORRORS OF POST-INVASION IRAQ - EDWARD WONG (NEW YORK TIMES, MARCH 24): Until the American invasion in March 2003, Mr. Kanan Makiya, an Iraqi-American born in Baghdad in 1949 and a professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies at Brandeis University, was the leading intellectual voice crying out for Western and Arab nations to topple Mr. Hussein. He was a close friend of the Pentagon darling Ahmad Chalabi, and had the attention of neoconservatives.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/24/world/mi...agewanted=print

HEAR OUT MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD - JOSHUA STACHER AND SAMER SHEHATA (BOSTON GLOBE, MARCH 25): If American policy is to be effective or credible in Egypt and the wider region, the United States should engage with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, the most popular and organized political movement in Egypt.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...herhood?mode=PF

THE GENERAL AND THE HOUSEWIFE - NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF (NEW YORK TIMES, MARCH 25): The Bush administration has stuck more solidly with Pakistan’s president Musharraf (“a solid friend” is the current State Department formulation) than with its principles. President Bush needs to make clear that the U.S. sides with Pakistan’s democratic future, not its autocratic past.
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/opini...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

EUROPE, OLD AND NEW – REVIEW & OUTLOOK (WALL STREET JOURNAL, MARCH 24): The European Union would not exist without the U.S., which gave its strong backing from day one. The Marshall Plan assisted the Continent's postwar economic recovery, and an American military umbrella has since kept it safe. Whatever the trade or foreign policy disagreements, Washington hasn't wavered in its support for a stable, rich Europe.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1174...9275947663.html
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

WHAT'S BEHIND KHALID'S 'CONFESSIONS' - MICHAEL SCHEUER (ASIA TIMES, MARCH 23): Apparently sharing the belief of bin Laden and Zawahiri that few Muslims are or can be motivated by hatred for US liberty and society, Khalid Shaikh Mohammad (KSM) concentrated with the laser-like focus of his superiors on US foreign policy.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IC23Ak02.html

THE PRESIDENT’S PRISON – EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, MARCH 25): Mr. Bush and his inner circle are clearly afraid that if Guantánamo detainees are tried under the actual rule of law, many of the cases will collapse because they are based on illegal detention, torture and abuse -- or that American officials could someday be held criminally liable for their mistreatment of detainees.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/opinion/...agewanted=print

DEFEATING RADICAL ISLAM - JEFF JACOBY (BOSTON GLOBE, MARCH 25): We call it the "war on terrorism," but terrorism is only a means to an end -- namely, bringing the entire world under Islamic law. Not all Islamists are jihadi terrorists, but all Islamists do want sharia to reign supreme.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...l_islam?mode=PF

DANGEROUS MESSAGES - JIM SAXTON (WASHINGTON TIMES, MARCH 24): The message that should be sent to the American people is that the threat posed by radical jihadists will not go away anytime soon, and that we must prepare, as a people, to deal with the very serious dangers associated with it over the long term. (Jim Saxton, New Jersey Republican, is a ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee and founder and senior member of the House Terrorism and Unconventional Threats Subcommittee.)
http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/2007...85420-6516r.htm

TERRORIZED BY 'WAR ON TERROR': HOW A THREE-WORD MANTRA HAS UNDERMINED AMERICA - ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI (WASHINGTON POST, MARCH 25): The "war on terror" has created a culture of fear in America. The Bush administration's elevation of these three words into a national mantra since the horrific events of 9/11 has had a pernicious impact on American democracy, on America's psyche and on U.S. standing in the world.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2301613_pf.html

IGNORING HAWKS, CHANGING TACK – EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, MARCH 24): Recently there have been hopeful hints that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates may be steering the country -- and President Bush -- away from hard-line doctrines of unilateralism, disdain for international treaties, and scorn for negotiating with "evil" regimes.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...ng_tack?mode=PF

SENSING SHIFT IN BUSH POLICY, ANOTHER HAWK LEAVES - DAVID E. SANGER (NEW YORK TIMES, MARCH 21): As the architect of much of the administration’s strategy for countering nuclear proliferation, Robert Joseph helped engineer the decision to exit the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, worked secretly to squeeze Libya to give up its nuclear weapons program, and created a loose consortium of nations, now numbering more than 80, committed to intercepting illicit weapons at sea, in the air or on land. But last month Mr. Joseph quietly left the State Department, where he was under secretary for arms control and international security, telling colleagues that, as a matter of principle, he simply could not abide the new agreement with North Korea that the Bush administration struck in February.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/washingt...agewanted=print

A FLAWED STRATEGY IN IRAQ - DIANA WEST (WASHINGTON TIMES, MARCH 25): The craziest thing about America's role in the world is its reliance on logic. As in: "See how reasonable we are? That'll fix you." Such certitude animates the more naive notions masquerading as grand strategy, from a belief in winning Iraqi "hearts and minds," as expressed by Gen. David Petraeus four years after Saddam Hussein was toppled, to a faith in "the appeal of freedom" for Muslims in Europe, as expressed by historian Bernard Lewis now that the continent's Islamization is well advanced.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...22-084333-9793r

THE MOST UN-ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF PERSIA – SPENGLER (ASIA TIMES, MARCH 26): Iran's uninterrupted tantrum over the portrayal of the 5th-century BC Persian Empire in a US film is very Persian, but not at all Islamic. It has gone unnoticed in the shouting over “300” that the Koran explicitly welcomed the destruction of the pagan (Zoroastrian) empire at the hands of the Byzantine Christians a millennium after the Spartans and their allies defended the pass at Thermopylae.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IC27Ak03.html

'300': FACT OR FICTION? - VICTOR DAVIS HANSON (WASHINGTON TIMES, MARCH 24): Crowds flock to see the film "300" about the ancient Spartans' last stand at the pass at Thermopylae against an invading Persian army. The film has actually been banned in Iran as hurtful American propaganda, as the theocracy suddenly is reclaiming its "infidel" ancient past. But that good/bad contrast comes not from the director or Frank Miller, but is based on accounts from the Greeks themselves, who saw their own society as antithetical to the monarchy of imperial Persia.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...23-085421-8261r

"300" IS MINDLESS WAR PROPAGANDA - ALI MOOSSAVI (ARAB AMERICAN NEWS, MARCH 24)
http://www.arabamericannews.com/newsarticl...?articleid=8033

'300' IS WAR PROPAGANDA OF THE CRUDEST KIND - GWYNNE DYER (TOLEDO BLACE, MARCH 20)
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic...mplate=printart

TERROR DATABASE HAS QUADRUPLED IN FOUR YEARS: U.S. WATCH LISTS ARE DRAWN FROM MASSIVE CLEARINGHOUSE - KAREN DEYOUNG (WASHINGTON POST MARCH 25): Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) said last year that his wife had been delayed repeatedly while airlines queried whether Catherine Stevens was the watch-listed Cat Stevens.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2400944_pf.html

REFLECTIONS ON THE 4TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE IRAQ WAR AND AL QAEDA AS AN

IDEOLOGY - COURTNEY C. RADSCH (ARABIST.COM, MARCH 26): The war in Iraq seems to

provide fertile breeding ground for Al Qaeda's jihadist ideology while the

government's failure to adopt useful or informed public diplomacy approaches

continues to allow Al Qaeda the upper hand in capturing hearts and minds.

http://www.arabisto.com/p_blogEntry.cfm?bl...blogEntryID=421



AL JAZEERA AND ALHURRA CONTEND WITH TV RATINGS PROBLEMS - ALVIN SNYDER

(PUBLIC DIPLOMACY BLOG, USC CENTER ON PUBLIC DIPLOMACY, MARCH 27): While the

perception of Al Jazeera vis-à-vis terrorists would appear to be stalling its

effort to introduce its service in America, Alhurra appears to be banking on

improving its ratings reach in the Middle East by putting terrorists on the air.

In television, it's all about numbers. http://uscpublicdiplomacy.com/index.php/ne...tings_problems/



IN THE MIDEAST WAR OF IDEAS, THE VIEW FROM THE ARAB SIDE - PAUL FARHI

(WASHINGTON, MARCH 27): In PBS's "News War" series we don't see much of

al-Hurra's programming, but we do grasp what it's trying to accomplish: to get

the American side of the story out in a region that's mostly hostile to it. The

report shies away from showing some of the uglier things that pass for "news" in

the Arab media (that ugliness explains why the United States spends tens of

millions of dollars annually on al-Hurra in the first place). "Because Arabs are

upset about the presence of foreign forces in an Arab country, there are no good

images of an American soldier," Duncan MacInnis, a member of the State

Department's "Rapid Response" information team, says.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...tml?reload=true



BRITAIN GIVES NEW EVIDENCE (7DAYS, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, MARCH 29):

Britain yesterday produced evidence which it said proved that 15 of its sailors

and marines held by Iran were 'ambushed' in Iraqi waters, as Tehran insisted

they had infringed on its territory. The announcement marked a decisive switch

from private to public diplomacy, after Prime Minister Tony Blair warned Tuesday

that negotiations would enter a 'different phase' if negotiations reached a dead

end.

http://www.7days.ae/en/2007/03/29/britain-...w-evidence.html



U.S. BUSINESS, UAE ON MEND IN WAKE OF DPW-PORTS FIASCO - KEVIN BOGARDUS AND

IAN SWANSON (HILL, MARCH 29): The United Arab Emirates and US business groups

are taking significant steps to repair their respective images a little more

than a year after controversy erupted over a Dubai company?s attempted purchase

of several U.S. ports. 'fter Dubai Ports World, it was important that some of

the misunderstandings be corrected,' former Clinton administration official

Richard Mintz, a principal at the Harbour Group public-relations firm, said in

an interview with The Hill. 'Up until last year, the Emirates did not feel that

they needed to make an investment in public diplomacy because they felt their

relationship with America was understood.'

http://thehill.com/the-executive/u.s.-busi...2007-03-28.html



PENTAGON PREPARES FOR WEB WARS (NEWSMAX.COM, MARCH 28): The U.S. military

has been quietly developing its ability to attack terrorist computer networks

and Web sites designed to raise money and recruit fighters for Iraq. Terrorist

groups in Iraq videotape their attacks on U.S. forces and air the tapes on Web

sites. "Everything they do in Iraq and Afghanistan is geared toward propaganda,?

said Rep. Jim Saxton, R-N.J., a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

Lt. Col. Matthew McLaughlin, a spokesman for Central Command, told USA Today:

"The propaganda is very effective. It reaches an impressionable audience.?

http://www.newsmax.com/scripts/printer_fri...28/102340.shtml



THE MULTIPOLAR PRESIDENCY - EUGENE ROBINSON (WASHINGTON POST, MARCH 27):

?Coherence has never been the strong suit of George W. Bush's rhetoric. His line

about how sometimes you have to ?catapult the propaganda,? my favorite Bushism

of all time, may be one of the most off-the-wall presidential utterances ever.?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2601579_pf.html



UK'S IRAN/IRAQ CLAIM: ANOTHER LIE, NEW PROPAGANDA - PHILIPPE KHAN (AL

JAZEERA, MARCH 29)

http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=12997



THE RESULTS OF DIPLOMACY: IN IRAN'S CASE, THEY'VE BEEN PRETTY THIN

EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, MARCH 29): Iran is parading captured British sailors

before cameras and using their purported confessions of trespassing in Iranian

waters as propaganda in a way that suggests an eagerness to escalate rather than

defuse confrontation with the West.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2802051_pf.html



IRAN VS. THE WORLD ? EDITORIAL (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, MARCH 27): Capturing

British forces, holding them incommunicado and interrogating them as spies

probably plays well in a country that seeks to portray itself as a victim of

Western aggression. But this is needlessly -- and reprehensibly -- provocative.

And there's evidence that Iran's belligerence is wearing thin in other parts of

the world.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...newsopinion-hed





IRAN AND AMERICA - JAMES A. LYONS JR. (WASHINGTON TIMES, MARCH 29): The

Joint Chiefs of Staff need to develop or refine a series of military options

that can be immediately carried out when directed by the commander in chief,

President Bush after coordination with Prime Minister Tony Blair. One such

option should be the capture of Kharg Island. It is not an attack against the

Iranian people.

http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...28-084542-2468r



U.S. SABER-RATTLING AT IRAN GROWS QUIET ?TRUDY RUBIN (BALTIMORE SUN, MARCH

27): Even political hawks grasp that bombing Iran is a bad idea.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines



HOW ANALYSTS IN THE ARAB WORLD SEE THE IRAQ WAR: THE DISCUSSION COMMONLY

TURNS TO HOW THE FALLOUT FROM IRAQ CAN BE MANAGED, MINIMIZING NEGATIVE REGIONAL

IMPACT - HELENA COBBAN (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, MARCH 29)

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0329/p09s02-coop.html



THE AMERICAN GHOSTS OF ABU GHRAIB - SAM PROVANCE (CONSORTIUM NEWS MARCH

27/COMMON DREAMS): ?For those of you who have not heard of me, I am Sam

Provance. My career as an Army sergeant came to a premature end at age 32 after

eight years of decorated service, because I refused to remain silent about Abu

Ghraib, where I served for five months in 2004 at the height of the abuses.?

Http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/03/27/125/



LEAVING PAKISTAN, A SEASONED AMBASSADOR PREPARES FOR YET ANOTHER TURBULENT

JOB: IRAQ - THOM SHANKER (NEW YORK TIMES, MARCH 28): Ryan C. Crocker said

farewell to the American Embassy in Pakistan on Wednesday and flew to Baghdad

for his swearing-in Thursday as the new ambassador to Iraq. He faces a political

and diplomatic battlefield in which sectarian and terrorist killing dominates

daily concerns of an Iraqi government that has only tenuous control.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/world/mi...agewanted=print

SEE ALSO

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7032602026.html



PAKISTAN'S SILENT MAJORITY IS NOT TO BE FEARED - MOHSIN HAMID (NEW YORK

TIMES, MARCH 27): An exaggerated fear of Pakistan's people must not prevent

America from realizing that Pakistanis are turning away from General Musharraf.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/27/opinion/...agewanted=print



PAKISTAN: US ALLY, US DILEMMA: PRESIDENT MUSHARRAF'S POWER PLAYS, ONCE

TOLERATED, ARE NOW RAISING CONCERNS IN WASHINGTON - HOWARD LAFRANCHI (CHRISTIAN

SCIENCE MONITOR, MARCH 29): Some see unrest in Pakistan's middle classes as a

big long-term worry, and they say the US is going to have to take a firmer stand

on democratization.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0329/p01s01-usfp.html



EUROPE'S BIRTHDAY BLAHS - ANNE APPLEBAUM (WASHINGTON POST, MARCH 27): A

cross-continental 50th-anniversary poll found that 56 percent of Europeans

believe that "the European Union does not represent ordinary people." More

disturbing was another poll, which revealed that some 44 percent of Europeans in

the most populous member states believe that life has become worse since their

countries joined the E.U., and only 25 percent think life has improved.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2601577_pf.html



EUROCRAT EMPIRE BUILDING - PAUL BELIE (WASHINGTON POST, MARCH 28):

Washington foolishly supported the European unification project. It failed to

see that democratization and decentralization are far more likely to preserve

peace than unification and centralization.

http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...27-094845-9270r



EUROPE OR AMERICA? IS BRITAIN JUST TOO COZY WITH THE U.S.? EDWARD M. GOMEZ

(WORLD VIEWS, SF GATE, MARCH 28)

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/aut...=15&auth=48



THE GITMO BLUES - DAVID B. RIVKIN JR. AND LEE A. CASEY (WALL STREET JOURNAL,

MARCH 27): It is naïve to imagine that closing the Guantanamo detention

facilities, and even agreeing to treat captured jihadists as ordinary criminal

defendants, would end international criticism of U.S. efforts to defend itself.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1174964519...days_us_opinion

PAID SUBSCRIPTION



4TIME JOINS NEWSWEEK IN MOCKING AMERICA'S IDIOCY (WONKETTE, MARCH 27):

'Newsweek pioneered the 'Americans get the special-ed stories' practice last

year, when it repeatedly gave soft-serv feature crap to the domestic readership

while the international readers got complicated or depressing stories about how

we are losing every single war everywhere and the Earth is melting and

everything will soon die. It's the same deal with the TIME covers. Americans get

some more tired pop-theology bullshit about Jesus, while those Americans lucky

enough to live abroad get to catch up on the other war we lost: the one in

Afghanistan and our 'ally' Pakistan.'

http://wonkette.com/politics/time/time-joi...iocy-247575.php





QUOTATION FOR THE DAY



'RUMSFELD'S DISEASE. THIS MALADY CONSISTS OF A COMBINATION OF BAD TEMPER, MISUSE

OF LANGUAGE TO OBFUSCATE REALITY, AND A PANGLOSSIAN OPTIMISM IN THE FACE OF

STUBBORN, SANGUINARY FACTS ON THE GROUND.'



--Juan Cole, 'McCain Checks into Cloud Cuckooland: (Informed Comment: Thoughts

on the Middle East, History, and Religion, March 28)

http://www.juancole.com/2007/03/mccain-che...ooland-116.html

DIPLOMATS TO THE SIDELINES TOM ENGELHARDT (NATION, MARCH 30): In the framework -- essentially a fundamentalist religion -- of global force and "preventive" war adopted by the Bush administration, the only place for diplomats was assumedly on the sidelines, holding the pens, as the enemy surrendered to the military. Not surprisingly, then, the two central figures in George W. Bush's second-term diplomatic non-endeavors became his two key female enablers, Condoleezza Rice, now secretary of state, and Karen Hughes, now undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs. Rice has managed to do nothing of significance on our planet and Hughes, as diplomacy's spinmeister, has managed to put less than no polish on our globally disastrous image.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=180651

POISONOUS LEGACY OF IRAQ - FAWAZ A GERGES (KHALEEJ TIMES, MARCH 31): Sadly, the dominant narrative in Washington neglects the role of politics and foreign policy in driving violence and constantly downplays political means in combating it. In fact, the Bush administration, while paying lip service to public diplomacy, has relied excessively on militarism to wage all-out war against an unconventional and fractured foe.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle...pinion&col=

BUSH AND THE ROVEWELLIANS: STILL GOING - JEFF HUBER (EPLURIBUS MEDIA, MARCH 30): Mr. Bush recently quoted two Iraqi bloggers as saying that things are returning to normal in that country's capital. Said bloggers are a pair of brothers who write an English language blog in Baghdad. They both got to meet Mr. Bush in the Oval Office in 2004. U.S. Blogger JuliaAnn notes that the Iraqi bloggers' prose sounds like something Under Secretary of State Karen Hughes might have written. It sounds that way to me too. It sounds to me like they're on the payroll.
http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2007/3/30/144814/503

ELLISON TRAVELING TO ISRAEL AS PART OF CONGRESSIONAL TRIP - FREDERIC J. FROMMER, ASSOCIATED PRESS (EXAMINER.COM, MARCH 30): Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim member of Congress, arrived in Israel Friday as part of what his office called a "goodwill mission" to the Middle East. Ellison's trip to the Middle East comes as the U.S. government has turned to him to help improve America's image in the Muslim world. The State Department's Bureau of International Information Programs has profiled him in articles distributed in foreign countries, including translations into Arabic and other languages. Ellison has said he hopes to help win friends for the U.S. in the Muslim world. As part of that effort, he recently met with Karen Hughes.
http://www.examiner.com/printa-648239~Elli...ional_trip.html

THE FAILURE OF THE RIYADH SUMMIT - DORE GOLD (JERUSALEM CENTER FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS, ISRAEL, APRIL 1): With Hamas in power among the Palestinians and building its military strength daily in Gaza, Israel does not need to experiment with new withdrawals. Under such circumstances, quiet contacts between Israel and its neighbors make far more sense than grandiose public diplomacy.
http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPag...e_Riyadh_Summit

TIME RIGHT TO REVIVE PEACE PROCESS, SAY ENVOYS - ROULA KHALAF AND MARK TURNER (FINANCIAL TIMES, MARCH 29): ?Israel wants normalisation and nothing else, it?s all they are interested in and some international parties are pushing for this,? said Amr Moussa, head of the Arab League. He was referring to the US, which has been calling on the Saudis and others to engage in ?public diplomacy.?
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/4e3ed27e-ddfd-11db...0b5df10621.html

CONVERSATIONS: AN AMERICAN IN BEIRUT - SCOTT MACLEOD (MIDDLE EAST BLOG, TIME, APRIL 2): American University Beirut began spreading American ideas and values well over a century before the Bush administration discovered the merits of doing so through Karen Hughes's public diplomacy or Liz Cheney's Middle East Partnership Initiative. Since it opened its doors in 1866, initially as a project of Presbyterian missionaries, AUB has educated tens of thousands of Arabs.
http://time-blog.com/middle_east/2007/04/c...xid=rss-mideast

FRIST SAYS THOMPSON 'VERY AGGRESSIVELY' CONSIDERING '08 RUN ' JARED ALLEN (NASHVILLE CITY PAPER, MARCH 30): ?There?s not a military solution? in Iraq, former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said. 'People wish there was, but we can?t overpower from a straight military standpoint. ?Where we can overpower ... is using things like medicine and health and well-being to establish a degree of understanding and oneness among peoples. And that means making things like medicine part of our public diplomacy,' he said.
http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index.cf...p;news_id=55421

A MUSLIM'S RESPONSE TO WESTERN STRATEGY DANIEL (MUSLIM WATCH, MARCH 30): In international relations, public diplomacy is merely clever verbiage for propaganda.
http://muslim-watch.blogspot.com/2007/03/m...n-strategy.html

KID-GLOVE DIPLOMACY: MEXICO TAKES NEW TACK ON IMMIGRATION AFTER LOFTY PROMISES FOUNDER - MARCELA SANCHEZ (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, MARCH 30): The US invasion of Iraq and the US clampdown on immigration made it even more difficult for Fox and other Mexican politicians to build bridges to the United States. To Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico's new ambassador to the United States, both countries must undermine these divisive forces through public diplomacy. "We have failed to explain to our people the importance of our relationship," he said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7032901677.html

THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD'S PROPAGANDA OFFENSIVE - RACHEL EHRENFELD AND ALYSSA A. LAPPEN (AMERICAN THINKER, APRIL 2): The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is heightening its U.S. propaganda offensive in advance of the 2008 presidential elections, taking advantage of the political uncertainty and opposition to the current Administration's defense policies against radical Muslim terrorist organizations and states.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/04/the...ods_propag.html

BOMBERS KILL OVER 130, WOUNDING OVER TWO HUNDRED; US EMBASSY ORDERS PERSONAL ARMOR IN GREEN ZONE - JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, MARCH 30): The US embassy in Baghdad circulated a memo to all Americans working for the US government in the Green Zone. It ordered them to wear protective gear whenever they were outside in the Green Zone, including just moving from one building to another.
http://www.juancole.com/2007/03/bombers-ki...g-over-two.html

15 PERCENT INCREASE IN IRAQ DEATHS DESPITE SURGE - JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, APRIL 2): For all those journalists and politicians who keep insisting that there are new "glimmers" of "hope" in Iraq because of the new security plan started 6 weeks ago, here is a sobering statistic from the Iraqi government. Iraqis killed in February: 1806 (64.5/day); Iraqis killed in March: 2078 (67/day). That is a 15% increase!
http://www.juancole.com/2007/04/15-percent...raq-deaths.html

CONGRESS ISN'T COMMANDER IN CHIEF: THE SENATE AND HOUSE WANT A TIMETABLE FOR THE WITHDRAWAL OF U.S. TROOPS IN IRAQ. THAT'S FINE, AS LONG AS THEY DON'T TRY TO RUN THE WAR ? EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, MARCH 29): Unfortunately, the Maliki government appears incapable of winning credibility and support among Iraqis.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editor...ment-editorials

CONGRESS TAKES A STAND ON IRAQ EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, MARCH 29): Each passing week strengthens the argument that Iraqis have little incentive to do the hard work and make the hard bargains necessary to govern themselves as long as the United States is willing to provide security indefinitely.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial..._stand_on_iraq/

IRAQI OIL BELONGS TO THE IRAQI PEOPLE - NANCY WOHLFORTH AND FRED MASON (COMMON DREAMS, APRIL 1): Iraqi sovereignty over their oil and every day life is in the best interests of U.S. working people, starting with our troops. Bring all the troops home now.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/01/236/print/

CALLING OUT IDIOT AMERICA - SCOTT RITTER (TRUTHDIG, MARCH 23): If you concur that the reality of Iraq is far too complicated to be understood by the average American, yet alone cured by the dispatch of additional troops, then we have a collective responsibility to ask what the hell we are doing in that country to begin with.
http://www.truthdig.com/dig/item/20070323_..._idiot_america/

LESSON UNLEARNED ON DANGER OF SPIN - ANTHONY H. CORDESMAN (BALTIMORE SUN, APRIL 1): The administration increasingly seems to want a cosmetic victory in Baghdad, to declare victory and to leave. We may have to leave.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines

THE 'WITHDRAWAL' THAT ISN'T - KEVIN RYAN (BOSTON GLOBE, MARCH 29): How is it possible that after a "withdrawal" the United States might need as many troops in Iraq as it had there before? The reason is that we never had enough troops to begin with.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...at_isnt?mode=PF

VOTERS MUST KNOW MESSY TRUTH ABOUT EXITING IRAQ CYNTHIA TUCKER (BALTIMORE SUN, APRIL 2): A significant reduction of U.S. forces would leave a vacuum likely to be filled by civil war. More frightened and displaced Iraqis would try to leave the country, perhaps creating a refugee crisis. And unless thousands of U.S. troops would be left behind to keep out meddlers, the entire Middle East could erupt in conflict.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-iraq-headlines

THE SMELL OF IRRESOLUTION - JEFF JACOBY, (BOSTON GLOBE, MARCH 31): Of course a US withdrawal from Iraq is precisely what Al Qaeda wants.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...olution?mode=PF

MOROCCO UNDER FIRE: THE COMING "TERRORISM TSUNAMI" - OLIVIER GUITTA (WEEKLY STANDARD, MARCH 30): More than ever the Maghreb is turning into a major front in the war against radical Islam. And in a way, compared to Algeria and Tunisia, Morocco is the soft underbelly of the region. But at least some in Washington are realizing the stakes. It is urgent that the U.S. military establish a permanent base in the region.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...13/470ucfqo.asp

CONDI'S FREE RIDE: THE FANTASY OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY IN THE MIDDLE EAST - TONY KARON (TOMDISPATCH, MARCH 29)
http://tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=180357

POTENTIAL FOR PALESTINE - MICHAEL F. BROWN (TOMPAINE.COM, APRIL 2): Washington's weak Middle East hand actually provides a better-than-usual opportunity for positive peacemaking headway?though the chances of success remain exceedingly slim.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/04/0...r_palestine.php

MANY PLANS, NO NEWS - THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN (NEW YORK TIMES, MARCH 30): Only the bad guys make history in the Middle East today. Arab, Palestinian and Israeli 'moderates' are just watching. Their leaders have never been weaker, and America has never been more feckless in framing clear choices to spur them to action.
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/opini...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

THE HAND BEHIND THE TALIBAN - NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF (NEW YORK TIMES, APRIL 1): Unless we hear the fire bell in the night from the Afghan south, we could end up losing not only the war in Iraq but also the war in Afghanistan we should have won five years ago.
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/opini...agewanted=print

FOOLISH EMBRACE: IT'S TIME THAT THE UNITED STATES ENDED ITS UNCONDITIONAL SUPPORT FOR PERVEZ MUSHARRAF - BLAKE HOUNSHELL (AMERICAN PROSPECT, MARCH 27): In Pervez Musharraf, the Bush administration has bet on a leader whose incompetence mirrors its own.
http://www.prospect.org/web/printfriendly-view.ww?id=12600

PAKISTAN'S SHAKY DICTATORSHIP - GRAHAM USHER (NATION, APRIL 16): Have elections, and you will get the Taliban, sneers the Pakistani army. "In Pakistan you can only get elected on an anti-American ticket," says a senator.
http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=...416&s=usher

MISSILE SALVE: HOW MISSILE DEFENSE COULD HEAL TRANSATLANTIC RELATIONS - RONALD D. ASMUS (NEW REPUBLIC ON LINE, APRIL 2): Instead of the divisive issue it became in the 1980s, missile defense could -- if handled correctly -- actually prove to be part of the salvation of the transatlantic alliance.
http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=w07040...p;s=asmus040207

TO RUSSIA WITH REALISM - ANATOL LIEVEN (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, MARCH 26): When it comes to the main lines of its foreign and domestic policy, the Putin administration has the support of the vast majority of ordinary Russians, while the Russian pro-Western liberals we choose to call ?democrats? are supported by a tiny minority -- mostly because of their association with the disastrous ?reforms? of the 1990s.
http://www.amconmag.com/2007/2007_03_26/cover.html

SEND JIHADISTS TO FEDERAL COURT - NAT HENTOFF (WASHINGTON TIMES, APRIL 2): The Supreme Court was right in 1866: "The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances" including prisoners of Guantanamo Bay.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...01-101452-2913r

THIS WAS A TRIAL? - JENNIFER DASKAL (INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, APRIL 1): President Bush should charge the detainees in federal court, where established rules and procedures will give the trials the legitimacy needed to restore the reputation of the United States as a leading proponent of the rule of law. Doing so would focus the world's attention on the alleged crimes of the detainees, rather than the flaws of the system.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/01/opinion/eddaskal.php

RIGHTS FOR GITMO DETAINEES EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, APRIL 2): Denying Guantanamo Bay inmates their day in court is a continuing, unnecessary outrage.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editor...ment-editorials

THE FACES OF TARIQ RAMADAN [REVIEW OF IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE PROPHET: LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF MUHAMMAD BY TARIQ RAMADAN] - STÉPHANIE GIRY (NEW YORK TIMES, APRIL 1): The Swiss philosopher and Muslim intellectual Tariq Ramadan has been saying he wants to reconcile Islamic tradition with Western democracy, conservative religious values with liberal political ones. The US government twice denied him a visa to teach in the United States, ostensibly for giving about $800 to a charity later blacklisted by the government because of suspected ties with Hamas.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/books/re...agewanted=print

THE WAR OF THE WORDS - PETER BEINART (WASHINGTON POST, APRIL 1): The "war on terror" -- as a phrase -- could be nearing its final days. When the Bush administration goes, it may, too.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...3001923_pf.html

WHICH IS 'THE REAL WAR'? - CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER (WASHINGTON POST, MARCH 30): You cannot reasonably argue that in 2007 Iraq is not the most critical strategic front in the war on terrorism.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2901987_pf.html

BEYOND IRAQ: IF WAR ENDS, THREAT OF RADICAL ISLAM WILL GO ON VICTOR DAVIS HANSON (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, MARCH 30): Iraq is only one recent theater, albeit a controversial one, in an ongoing global struggle. This larger conflict arose not from the Iraqi invasion of 2003, but from earlier radical Muslim rage at the modern globalized world, the profits and dislocations from Middle East oil, and Islamic terrorism that ranges worldwide from Afghanistan to Thailand.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...ncommentary-hed

ON FOREIGN POLICY, SHADES OF AGREEMENT: WILL THE END OF THE BUSH ERA BRING THE PARTIES TOGETHER ON WAR AND PEACE? - JONATHAN RAUCH (REASON, MARCH 27): Judging by public opinion, once Bush and the Iraq war -- the two great foreign-policy polarizers -- cease to dominate the agenda, a bipartisan swing toward a less confrontational, more multilateralist foreign policy appears likely.
http://reason.com/news/printer/119346.html

THE SUM OF OUR FEARS - CHRISTOPHER HAYES (NATION, MARCH 30): If you were to draw a single conclusion from the past six years, it might very well be this: Fear does not bring out the best in the United States of America. A paranoid empire is not a pretty sight.
http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=...416&s=hayes

JINSA: STOP FUNDING AT [SIC] HURRAH ? (BALTIMORE JEWISH TIMES, MD, APRIL 2):

The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs called on the U.S. Congress

to stop funding an Arabic-language broadcaster. The Al-Hurrah network, formed in

February 2004, receives $70 million in U.S. tax money. JINSA National Chairman

Mark Broxmeyer criticized al-Hurrah's news director, Larry Register, for

allowing members of Hamas to join a panel interviewing top Hamas and Hezbollah

officials and covering rallies that are anti-Israeli or anti-American in nature.

http://www.jewishtimes.com/News/6452.stm



ENGAGING THE FUTURE: THE BBC GLOBAL VOICE TO THE WORLD - MICHAEL HEDGES

(FOLLOWTHEMEDIA.COM, APRIL 4): FTM:

The fact that Al Hurra is widely seen as simply a voice of the US administration

illustrates the importance of clear independence. That can be frustrating for

governments who want to harness the power of broadcasting to support their

policies and interests. Fortunately in the UK, we have had successive

governments who have clearly recognized and supported that approach, and the

success of the BBC World Service on which to build.

http://followthemedia.com/pubserve/sambrook04042007.htm



BEYOND THE BRITISH CAPTIVES - LIONEL BEEHNER (DAILY ANALYSIS, COUNCIL ON

FOREIGN RELATIONS, APRIL 3): Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for

International Peace says the Iranian regime already 'has awful public diplomacy'

(PBS).

http://www.cfr.org/publication/12977/beyon...?breadcrumb=%2F



IRAN FREES 15 BRITISH SAILORS AND MARINES: HARD-LINERS IN THE ISLAMIC

REPUBLIC MAY BE THE WINNERS OF THE TWO-WEEK STANDOFF - BORZOU DARAGAHI AND KIM

MURPHY (LOS ANGELES TIMES, APRIL 5): Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on

Wednesday pardoned and released 15 British sailors and marines detained two

weeks ago in the Persian Gulf, winning what analysts described as a major

propaganda coup that could bolster hard-liners in his regime. "As on the nuclear

file, Ahmadinejad did not play the central role, but he still shapes the public

diplomacy and reaps symbolic but also tangible benefits," said Emile El-Hokayem,

an Iran expert at the Henry L. Stimson Center, a Washington think tank.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...-home-headlines



THE DANGERS OF ANTI-AMERICANISM: THE U.S.'S DETERIORATED REPUTATION ABROAD

HAS REAL ECONOMIC AND SECURITY COSTS, AND BUSINESSES NEED TO BECOME ACTIVE IN

IMPROVING IT - DICK MARTIN (BUSINESS WEEK, APRIL 3)

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflas..._top+news+index



BRITAIN'S GRACE UNDER PRESSURE EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, APRIL 4):

Propaganda can be a subtle craft. Deftly done, it has been known to sell

toothpaste at a premium and Maoism to Western intellectuals. But Iran's efforts

to justify holding 15 British sailors and Marines captured March 23 in waters

between Iran and Iraq are so clumsy that they seem designed to discredit the

clerical regime in Iran. Exasperating as Iran's propaganda may be, there is a

lesson in Britain's refusal to be provoked into a foolish over reaction that

might play into the hands of hard-liners.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...ressure?mode=PF



PRATFALL IN DAMASCUS: NANCY PELOSI'S FOOLISH SHUTTLE DIPLOMACY EDITORIAL

(WASHINGTON POST, APRIL 5): After a meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad

in Damascus, Ms. Pelosi announced that she had delivered a message from Israeli

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that "Israel was ready to engage in peace talks" with

Syria. The Israeli prime minister entrusted Ms. Pelosi with no such message. Ms.

Pelosi not only misrepresented Israel's position but was virtually alone in

failing to discern that Mr. Assad's words were mere propaganda.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0402306_pf.html



BUSH ON SIDELINES IN SOME DISPUTES - TOM RAUM, ASSOCIATED PRESS (WASHINGTON

POST, APRIL 5): As to Pelosi's visit to Damascus, it helps "fill the vacuum of

what is understood to be pretty mainstream diplomacy where government leaders

talk to each other," said Steven Livingston, director of George Washington

University's Public Diplomacy Institute. "But she's only able to do that because

of the vacuum this particular administration creates by refusing to talk with

its adversaries."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0500119_pf.html



ON IRAQ, REPORTERS MAY BE MISSING THEIR MARK(ET) - AL KAMEN (WASHINGTON

POST, APRIL 4): We're now in the fifth year of the media's failure to report the

good news from Iraq.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0301832_pf.html



IS THE POTEMKIN WAR FINALLY ENDING? - RJ ESKOW (HUFFINGTON POST, APRIL 4):

It's beginning to look like the curtain is finally coming down on Potemkin War,

which was scripted by the GOP and produced by the media for five years. How long

will it be until the real one -- the one with all the killing and dying --

finally ends, too?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/is-...al_b_44976.html



COVERING THE WAR - JOEL MOWBRAY (WASHINGTON TIMES, APRIL 5): Ask most

Americans if they were aware that Iraqis, by almost a 2-to-1 margin, believe

that life today is better than it was under Saddam Hussein, and you'd most

likely elicit incredulousness, blank stares or outright laughter. Not because it

isn't true, though. It is. The mainstream media just forgot to mention it.

http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...04-091441-4190r



TRUCK BOMB KILLS IRAQI SCHOOLCHILDREN - JAMES HIDER (TIMES/AUSTRALIAN, APRIL

3): The latest massacre of Iraqi children came as 21 Shia market workers were

ambushed, bound and shot dead north of the capital. The victims came from the

Baghdad market visited the previous day by John McCain, the US presidential

candidate, who said that an American security plan in the capital was starting

to show signs of progress.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story...72-2703,00.html



GREAT DIVIDE: IN IRAQ, AN OFFICER'S ANSWER TO VIOLENCE: BUILD A WALL; COL.

PETERSON CREATES A GATED COMMUNITY; BODY COUNT DECLINES - GREG JAFFE (WALL

STREET JOURNAL, APRIL 5)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1175708455...=hps_us_pageone

PAID SUBSCRIPTION



IRAQ'S REAL 'CIVIL WAR' - BING WEST AND OWEN WEST (WALL STREET JOURNAL,

APRIL 5): Civil war between the Sunni tribes and the extremists has broken out

in Anbar Province, the stronghold of the insurgency, and the U.S. and Iraqi

government should support it.

http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1175...5559660518.html

PAID SUBSCRIPTION



STOP THE DIRTY WAR: WHY SHOULD AMERICAN BLOOD AND TAXES BE SPENT ON PROPPING

UP A SECTARIAN SHI?A STATE ENGAGED IN ETHNIC CLEANSING AND DAILY HUMAN RIGHTS

ABUSES? A TIME FOR CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS - TOM HAYDEN (HUFFINGTON POST, APRIL

4/COMMON DREAMS): The US global reputation, already ruined by Guantanamo and Abu

Ghraib, cannot withstand an association with sectarian death squads in a dirty

war.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/04/301/



AS CONGRESS DEBATES, THE SURGE GROWS - WILLIAM M. ARKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM,

APRIL 3): The President's January surge is and was a politically acceptable P.R.

strategy to describe a limited plan with a limited numbers of troops and a time

frame when in fact what it really is is an open-ended scheme.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarnin...ml?nav=rss_blog



BAGHDAD CURFEW EASED AS SURGE SCORES SUCCESSES - SHARON BEHN (WASHINGTON

TIMES, APRIL 4): While most Iraqis are withholding judgment on the security

surge, a cross-section of women and men said the U.S. military was the only

thing preventing complete chaos.

http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...04-121156-4055r



THE DEMOCRATS' SURGE DANIEL HENNINGER (WALL STREET JOURNAL, APRIL 5): The

US military's "surge" could go right. The surge, led by Gen. David Petraeus and

formally known as the Baghdad Security Plan, is a real strategy being executed

by real people on the ground in Iraq.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1175736931...ured_stories_hs

PAID SUBSCRIPTION



A PATH TO COMMON GROUND: THE IRAQ STUDY GROUP PLAN COULD BREAK THE LOGJAM -

JAMES A. BAKER III (WASHINGTON POST, APRIL 5): The Iraq Study Group said it

could support a short-term surge to stabilize Baghdad or to speed up training

and equipping of Iraqi soldiers if the US commander in Iraq determines such

steps would be effective. Gen. David Petraeus has so determined.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0402252_pf.html



BACK TO BAKER-HAMILTON - DAVID IGNATIUS (WASHINGTON POST, APRIL 4): A

train-wreck debate on Iraq will be destructive for both parties, not to mention

the people in the Middle East. The Baker-Hamilton report is the best framework

for building a policy that is sustainable, in Washington and in Baghdad.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0301436_pf.html



NO CHOICE: STAY THE COURSE IN IRAQ: U.S. LEADERSHIP DESERVES SUPPORT FOR ONE

LAST EFFORT TO SUCCEED, SAYS A RETIRED ARMY GENERAL - BARRY R. MCCAFFREY (LOS

ANGELES TIMES, APRIL 4)

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions



WE MUST WIN IN IRAQ - DAVID R. HANKE (WASHINGTON TIMES, APRIL 2): If we

leave Iraq in a state of instability and disarray, the situation will likely

devolve into utter chaos.

http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...01-101450-1390r



LAST CHANCE FOR MIDEAST PEACE: WHILE BUSH AND OLMERT CLING TO THEIR HARD

LINE, HOPE FOR AN END TO THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT IS SLIPPING AWAY

FOREVER - GARY KAMIYA (SALON, APRIL 3): Trapped by their self-righteous

assumptions, unwilling to abandon their hard-line positions, under no political

pressure in their own countries to do anything, Olmert and Bush are failing to

realize that a catastrophe is coming. If that happens, the United States will

suffer irreparable harm. But the worst will fall on Israel.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/kamiya/2007/0...eace/print.html



MISSED OPPORTUNITY FOR PEACE - ROBERT D. NOVAK (WASHINGTON POST, APRIL 5):

An overriding melancholy here this Holy Week follows Secretary of State

Condoleezza Rice's mission to Jerusalem last week. To Arabs and Jews seeking

meaningful peace negotiations, it confirmed that no progress toward a two-state

solution is likely for the remainder of George W. Bush's presidency.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0402317_pf.html



US EMBASSY CALLS IN ARMORGROUP - DAVID ROBERTSON (TIMES, UK, APRIL 3):

ArmorGroup, the British private security company, has won a $189 million (£96

million) contract to protect the United States Embassy in Kabul. The contract is

one of the largest awarded to a private security company and confirms Armor as a

leader in diplomat protection.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/busi...icle1605075.ece

VIA

http://mountainrunner.us/2007/04/mondays_mashup_1.html



LOSING THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN - ROBERT I. ROTBERG (BOSTON GLOBE, APRIL 2):

Winning in Afghanistan is a tall order. It will rely on major Afghan government

and donor support, a concerted battle over drugs, and a clear demonstration to

Afghan villagers that NATO will win. Otherwise, the Taliban will play upon

people's fears and gain strength in a clash of wills with a weakened NATO.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...anistan?mode=PF



PAKISTAN'S JIHADI PRESS PROBLEM: CRITICS CLAIM PRESIDENT MUSHARRAF IS

CRACKING DOWN HARDER ON THE COUNTRY'S SECULAR MEDIA THAN HE IS ON ITS RADICAL

ISLAMIST PRESS - DAVID MONTERO(CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, APRIL 4)

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0404/p06s01-wosc.html



THE TROUBLE WITH ISLAM - TAWFIK HAMID (WALL STREET JOURNAL, APRIL 3): The

inhumane teaching in Islamist ideology can transform a young, benevolent mind

into that of a terrorist.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1175568699...days_us_opinion

PAID SUBSCRIPTION



BUSH DEFENSE FOLLIES (CONTINUED)- KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL (NATION, APRIL 3):

Here's another nominee for the Best Bush Folly -- the Administration's latest

plan to expand its "missile defense shield" in the Czech Republic and Poland,

respectively.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?pid=181839



CZECH VILLAGE FEARS OVER US MISSILE SHIELD PLAN - JAN CIENSKI (FINANCIAL

TIMES,: MARCH 30): A recent survey found 70 per cent of Czechs are against the

shield. In neighbouring Poland, opinion polls show the country evenly split on

proposals to build a separate base with 10 interceptor missiles -- a surprising

number in a country that sees itself as the most pro-American in Europe.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0ea453ba-de5b-11db...000e2511c8.html



PUTIN TAKES TO THE INTERNET: RUSSIA'S CENSORS TAKE AIM AT CRITICAL WEBSITES

? CATHY YOUNG (REASON, APRIL 2): Some 10 years ago, when liberty seemed on the

march around the world, many optimists claimed that, contrary to George Orwell's

gloomy 1984 vision of a technologically empowered omnipotent superstate, new

technologies were actually empowering the individual and subverting central

authority. Sadly, in the years to come, Russians may discover that the Internet

can in fact coexist with an authoritarian regime -- and even become a tool in

its hands.

http://reason.com/news/printer/119434.html



ORWELL AT GUANTANAMO - EUGENE ROBINSON (WASHINGTON POST, APRIL 3): Here's

what the Bush administration has done to the values, traditions and honor of the

United States of America: An accused terrorist claims he confessed to heinous

crimes so that agents of the U.S. government would stop torturing him, and no

one is shocked or even surprised.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0201260_pf.html



GITMO JUSTICE - AZIZ HUQ (NATION, APRIL 4): One thing is beyond doubt: The

Guantanamo detainees will have to wait years more before they have their day in

court.

http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20070416&s=huq



THE REAL CRIME IN THE DAVID HICKS CASE: ANY LEGAL SYSTEM IN WHICH A SUPPOSED

DEADLY TERRORIST GOES FREE BY ADMITTING HIS CRIME IS A DISGRACE - BEN WIZNER

(LOS ANGELES TIMES, APRIL 5): In an ordinary justice system, the accused must be

acquitted to be released. In Guantanamo, the accused must plead guilty to be

released -- because even if he is acquitted, he remains an "enemy combatant"

subject to indefinite detention. Only by striking a deal does a detainee stand a

chance of getting out.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions



GUANTANAMO DETAINEES DEALT A LEGAL BLOW WILLIAM FISHER (ANTIWAR.COM, APRIL

4): The human rights community has responded angrily to the Supreme Court's

decision not to hear the cases of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, until they

have exhausted all other legal avenues.

http://www.antiwar.com/ips/fisher.php?articleid=10765



TORTURED JUSTICE - ROBERT SCHEER (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, APRIL 4): Aside

from the sadistic example being set by the United States for the world, torture

does not produce credible intelligence results or legally recognized convictions

of the guilty, even employing the sorry military tribunal standard accepted by

the US Supreme Court.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...;type=printable



A SUPREME FAILURE: COMING UP SHORT ON HABEAS CORPUS FOR GITMO DETAINEES -

MARJORIE COHN (COUNTERPUNCH, APRIL 3): The Bush administration has stopped the

Supreme Court from giving the Guantanamo detainees their day in court -- at

least for now.

http://www.counterpunch.org/cohn04032007.html



SPECTACLE AT GUANTANAMO: THE NEW LEGAL SYSTEM FOR HOLDING AND TRYING

DETAINEES PRODUCES A PREDICTABLE MESS ? EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, APRIL 4)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0301634_pf.html



GUANTANAMO VINDICATION EDITORIAL (WALL STREET JOURNAL, APRIL 3): For all

practical purposes the current Bush architecture of Guantanamo and the 2006

Military Commissions Act will face no more frontal constitutional challenges.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1175566140...days_us_opinion



AN END TO THE "GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR"? - TIM GRIEVE (SALON, APRIL 4): The

Military Times reports that Democratic staffers for the House Armed Services

Committee want to banish the words "global war on terror" from the 2008 defense

budget.

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/200...erms/index.html

SEE ALSO

http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...04-091437-3218r



. . . . AND ABROAD EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, APRIL 5i): Internal European

Union directives now advise government spokesmen to avoid the term "Islamic

terrorism" because it is "offensive."

http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...04-091436-1968r



DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA: THE 'X' DREAMS OF WASHINGTON'S WONKS - LEON HADAR

(ASIA TIMES, APRIL 4): Whether he is a realist or an idealist, all

foreign-policy wonks share the same fantasy: that he would give birth to the

Next Big Thing in US foreign policy, the Great Strategy for the post-post-Cold

War and, by extension, post-Iraq era.

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ID04Ak04.html



U.S. REACHES LIMIT FOR HIGH-TECH VISAS IN 2008 - ASSOCIATED PRESS

(INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, APRIL 4): The US immigration authorities on

Wednesday were to start rejecting applications from skilled foreign workers

seeking visas to work in America during the 2008 fiscal year. The US Citizenship

and Immigration Services Agency said that the country had reached its limit for

2008 H-1B visa petitions in a single day and would not accept any more, to the

dismay of technology companies that rely on the visas for hiring skilled foreign

workers.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/04/news/visa.php

TESTIMONY BEFORE THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, SUBCOMMITTEE ON

STATE, FOREIGN OPERATIONS, AND RELATED PROGRAMS -- KAREN P. HUGHES, UNDER

SECRETARY, PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS - PRESS RELEASE (U.S. DEPARTMENT

OF STATE, APRIL 19): Hughes: '[P]ublic diplomacy now has a place at the most

senior policy tables of our government; our public diplomacy programs are

reaching more people around the world more strategically than ever before, and

public diplomacy is now viewed as the national security priority that it is.'

http://www.state.gov/r/us/2007/83269.htm



VIRGINIA TECH VICTIMS INCLUDE INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS, SCHOLARS: STATE'S

HUGHES ASSURES STUDENTS, FAMILIES U.S. IS COMMITTED TO THEIR SAFETY - STEPHEN

KAUFMAN (USINFO, APRIL 19)

http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display....amfuak0.1600458

SEE ALSO

http://www.app.com.pk/en/index.php?option=...57&Itemid=2



CARTER'S MIDEAST MESSAGE PLAYS IN IOWA JAMES ZOGBY (HUFFINGTON POST, APRIL

20): "Over and again [in Iowa] I heard the questions 'What should we do?' and

'How can we change course in the Middle East?' What I told them [Iowa voters] is

that the answers are there in the form of the Iraq Study Group, the Geneva

Accords, and half dozen rather substantive think tank reports on issues ranging

from getting it right in Afghanistan to making sense out of our efforts at

public diplomacy. The new policy blueprints are available. What is needed is for

leadership, and those who seek leadership, to embrace these proposals."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-zogby/...e-_b_46429.html



KRAUTHAMMER AND CHO BAL(T)IMORON (LEFT FLANK BLOG, APRIL 21): Concerning

the public diplomacy angle of the Cho killings, South Korean and Korean-American

papers in the US are starting to get really nervous about a racial backlash.

http://www.radicalcontrapositions.com/left...hammer-and-cho/



LIKUD EXPANDS ANTI-OLMERT CAMPAIGN - GIL HOFFMAN (JERUSALEM POST, APRIL 19):

Opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu will formally launch the Likud's new Anglo

division in a kickoff event at the party's Tel Aviv headquarters on Thursday.

The new division is intended to appeal to immigrants from English-speaking

countries who want to help the Likud return to power and to advance issues of

particular appeal to so-called Anglo voters. The division's founder, Ari Harow,

said those issues included clean government, electoral reform, education, public

diplomacy (hasbara) and aliya.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...ticle%2FPrinter



WHAT THE COLD WAR TAUGHT US - ERIC POSNER (WALL STREET JOURNAL, APRIL 21):

As technology and trade have advanced and spread, so has wealth and education,

and with wealth and education has come political reform, and the expansion of

civil and political rights. There is no guarantee that it will continue, but one

central fact needs to be recognized: The role of legalized international human

rights in this process has been minimal or nil. Much more important in the 20th

century were the determined efforts of liberal democracies to oppose powerful,

dangerous, expansionist states that rejected markets and democracy, and imposed

their views on small countries. For the conflict with radical Islam, this

history holds important lessons.

http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1177...7664277734.html

PAID SUBSCRIPTION



AL JAZEERA REVISITED; BUSH CHALLENGED ON IRAQ - DAN FROOMKIN,

(WASHINGTONPOST.COM, APRIL 19): The White House has never provided a straight

answer to this question: Did President Bush raise the idea of bombing the

headquarters of the al-Jazeera television network with Blair that day -- and if

so, was he serious or was he joking?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1901053_pf.html



THE REAL BODY COUNT: MANY AUTHORITATIVE ESTIMATES SAY THAT THE U.S. MILITARY

IS GROSSLY UNDERESTIMATING THE NUMBER OF CIVILIANS KILLED IN IRAQ - AYSE ARF

(LOS ANGELES CITY BEAT, APRIL 19)

http://lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=5376&IssueNum=202



WE NEED TO FOCUS ON THIS WEEK'S DEATHS IN IRAQ - THEY BELONG TO US: ANY

SENSE OF PROPORTION ABOUT FEAR AND DEATH HAS BEEN LOST AS THIS AGE OF

INDIVIDUALISM DEMANDS ME-ME MOURNING - POLLY TOYNBEE (GUARDIAN, APRIL 20/COMMON

DREAMS)

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/20/651/



INTERNATIONAL LAW: IRAQ -- TELEVISED 'CONFESSIONS', TORTURE AND UNFAIR

TRIALS UNDERPIN WORLD'S FOURTH HIGHEST EXECUTIONER - REPORT, AMNESTY

INTERNATIONAL (ELECTRONIC IRAQ, APRIL 20): Iraq has now become the country with

the fourth highest number of executions after China, Iran and Pakistan, with the

execution of at least 65 people last year.

http://electroniciraq.net/news/printer3022.shtml



IRAQ'S DESPERATE EXODUS - EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, APRIL 22): An

incredible total of four million people -- one out of every seven Iraqis -- have

been forced to flee their homes. If Iraq continues this descent, the refugee

tide could turn into a regional tsunami, with potentially convulsive political

consequences.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/opinion/...agewanted=print



TRAINING IRAQI TROOPS NO LONGER DRIVING FORCE IN U.S. POLICY - NANCY A.

YOUSSEF (MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS, APRIL 19)

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/17104704.htm



IRAQ FALLING BEHIND ON 'BENCHMARKS': THE US BUILDUP HAS NOT BEEN MATCHED BY

AN EQUAL UPTICK IN IRAQI POLITICAL ACTION - HOWARD LAFRANCHI (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

MONITOR, APRIL 20)

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0420/p01s04-usfp.html



THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ: MORE BARRIERS IN BAGHDAD: IN BAGHDAD, U.S. TROOPS

BUILD WALL TO CURB VIOLENCE: BUT RESIDENTS AREN'T HAPPY WITH THE BARRIER CUTTING

OF A SUNNI DISTRICT FROM SURROUNDING SHIITE AREAS - EDMUND SANDERS (LOS ANGELES

TIMES, APRIL 20)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...-home-headlines



TOP U.S. OFFICERS SEE MIXED RESULTS FROM IRAQ 'SURGE': SECTARIAN KILLINGS

DECREASE IN CAPITAL; SUICIDE BOMBINGS ACROSS COUNTRY RISE - ANN SCOTT TYSON

(WASHINGTON POST, APRIL 22)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...ml?hpid=topnews



HOW'S THE SO-CALLED SURGE IN IRAQ GOING SO FAR? YOUR WAR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

- ANDISHEH NOURAEE (CREATIVELOAFING.COM, ATLANTA, APRIL 18)

http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobas...gory=oid%3A6976



THE HOBBESIAN HELL OF IRAQ: HOW MANY DEAD EQUAL A FAILED GOVERNMENT? - LARRY

C. JOHNSON (COUNTERPUNCH, APRIL 19): Despite the surge of U.S. troops into

Baghdad the violence continues, especially against the Shia majority.

http://www.counterpunch.org/johnson04192007.html



U.S. SURGE STRATEGY SUCCESSFUL -- IN SHIFTING THE VIOLENCE - JIM LOBE,

(ELECTRONIC IRAQ, APRIL 20)

http://electroniciraq.net/news/printer3019.shtml



IRAQ IS THE ULTIMATE APHRODISIAC - FRANK RICH (NEW YORK TIMES, APRIL 22):

Had Iraqi reconstruction, like the training of Iraqi police, not been betrayed

by politics and cronyism, the Iraq story might have a different ending. But

maybe not all that different.

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/opini...agewanted=print

PAID SUSBCRIPTION



HITCHENS' KURDISH SOJOURN: KURDISTAN IS 'PERFECTLY SWELL' -- IF YOU AREN'T A

DISSIDENT JOURNALIST JUSTIN RAIMONDO (ANTIWAR.COM, APRIL 20): Kurdish

independence would be among the most unfortunate results of U.S. intervention

and the subsequent break-up of Iraq for the simple reason that the Kurds would

use their newly won nationhood to give sanctuary and support to Kurdish

insurgencies from Turkey, to Syria, to Iran, and beyond -- a strategy bound to

provoke a military response from those governments. This is already starting to

happen.

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=10843



IN IRAQ, ALL TERRIBLY FAMILIAR - CHUCK HAGEL (WASHINGTON POST, APRIL 22): We

are still risking the lives of our troops without giving them a realistic policy

worthy of their sacrifices. (Chuck Hagel, a Republican, is a U.S. senator from

Nebraska.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7042002007.html



GETTING OUT WITH SOME DIGNITY ALAN BOCK (ANTIWAR.COM, APRIL 21): It is

time for Iraqis to assume responsibility for the future of their country.We have

done what we could -- perhaps not everything we might have liked, but a great

deal -- and it is time to leave.

http://www.antiwar.com/bock/?articleid=10849



WHAT'S TO LOSE? - SHELDON RICHMAN (COMMENTARIES, FUTURE OF FREEDOM

FOUNDATION, APRIL 20): What would an American defeat in Iraq mean? Would evil

Iraqis conquer the United States, force us all to speak Arabic, and convert us

to Islam? Hardly.

http://www.fff.org/comment/com0704j.asp



THE VICTORY WON'T BE AMERICAN - ZE'EV SCHIFF (HAARETZ, APRIL 21): The

assumption that there will be no American victory in Iraq is growing stronger.

On the other hand, a Shi'ite victory over the Sunnis seems likely. If there is

such a victory, it will have a profound effect on the region, Israel included.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/850713.html



WINNING THE PEACE: MUCH LIKE CONFLICTS IN THE REST OF THE MIDDLE EAST, THE

IRAQ WAR WON'T END IN A CONCLUSIVE MILITARY VICTORY OR DEFEAT. OUR EXIT WILL BE

A NEGOTIATED AFFAIR - TERENCE SAMUEL (AMERICAN PROSPECT, APRIL 20)

http://www.prospect.org/web/printfriendly-view.ww?id=12670



WAITING FOR GODOT - BUT ONLY GATES ARRIVES - KAVEH L AFRASIABI (ASIA TIMES,

APRIL 21): The Godot of Iran-US rapprochement will never arrive as long as there

is no paradigmatic shift in the US's power approach toward Iran.

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ID21Ak03.html



IRAN ALL BLUFF AND BLUSTER, BUT NO BOMB -- YET - RICHARD M BENNETT (ASIA

TIMES, APRIL 20)

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ID21Ak02.html



THE COMING THAW IN THE MIDEAST EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, APRIL 21): It

would be hard to miss recent signs that some of the glaciers in Mideast

diplomacy are starting to melt. The signs suggest that regional actors as well

as the Bush administration grasp the need, and perhaps the urgency, of getting

negotiations started on a two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian

conflict.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...mideast?mode=PF



MAKE NO MISTAKE: THIS IS WAR - MICHAEL CHERTOFF (WASHINGTON POST, APRIL 22):

We are at war with a global movement and ideology whose members seek to advance

totalitarian aims through terrorism. Zbigniew Brzezinski is deeply mistaken to

mock the notion that we are at war and to suggest that we should adopt "more

muted reactions" to acts of terrorism. (The writer is secretary of homeland

security.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2001940_pf.html



RICE ON THE RIGHT TRACKS - DAVID IGNATIUS (WASHINGTON POST, APRIL 20):

Rice's past diplomatic efforts have been limited by the Bush administration's

tendency to moralize foreign policy issues and to refuse the very process of

dialogue with adversaries that might resolve problems. Isolation hasn't worked,

and Rice is now charting the pathways out.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1902561_pf.html



COLD WAR REALIST [REVIEW OF GEORGE KENNAN: A STUDY OF CHARACTER BY JOHN

LUKACS] - WALTER ISAACSON (WASHINGTON POST, APRIL 22): From his early days as a

foreign service officer to his later ones as a sage in Princeton, Kennan was

unabashedly dubious about democracy. He approved of authoritarian regimes and

was contemptuous of America's middle class. He also disdained the role of

morality, as opposed to calculated national interests, in foreign policy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1902397_pf.html

"I would put him to work."



--Hillary Rodman Clinton, on what her husband would do if she were elected

president; cited in Review & Outlook, "A Third Clinton Term" (Wall Street

Journal, April 23)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1177282036...ew_and_outlooks

PAID SUBSCRIPTION



KAREN HUGHES'PROGRESS REPORT ON PUBLIC DIPLOMACY - E.C. NISBET

(FRAMING CONFLICT: THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS, APRIL 22):

Lists what Hughes thinks are her key achievement during the past 20 months, per

her Congressional testimony on April 19.

http://framingconflict.blogspot.com/2007/0...-on-public.html



WHO'S SORRY NOW? THE UNAPOLOGETIC PRESIDENT AND HIS APOLOGETIC APPOINTEES -

LYNNE GLASNER (OPEDNEWS.COM, APRIL 22): In the Bush World, everyone must march

to the same drum beat. Even lower level appointments have the same mandate. Back

in October, apologies were offered from the director of public diplomacy in the

state department office of the bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. What did Alberto

Fernandez have to apologize for? He actually said that US Middle East policy

displayed 'arrogance' and 'stupidity.' Wow, what was he thinking? Yes, he

subsequently said he 'misspoke.'

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_ly..._now_3f_the.htm



LAUGHING IT UP AT THE WHITE HOUSE - CARLA MARINUCCI (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE,

APRIL 22): 'We at the Chronicle table got lucky, sitting [at the annual White

House Correspondents Association Dinner] with Bush guru adviser (now state

department guru) Karen Hughes.'

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate...=14&auth=42



CLINTON HAS A ROLE FOR HUSBAND: THE FORMER PRESIDENT WOULD GET THE JOB OF

MENDING U.S. IMAGE - MICHAEL FINNEGAN (LOS ANGELES TIMES, APRIL 22)

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na...dlines-politics

SEE ALSO



WORLD WONDERS: WHEN WILL THE U.S. LEARN THAT GUNS KILL MORE, BETTER, FASTER?

- CAMERON SCOTT (MOTHER JONES, APRIL 20): In the international press, the

response was universal: When will the United States stop giving its citizens the

tools to kill each other?

http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archiv..._wonders_w.html



VIRGINIA TECH MASSACRE, SEEN FROM ABROAD EDWARD M. GOMEZ (WORLD VIEWS, SF

GATE, APRIL 19)

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/det...;entry_id=15570



WORLD OFFERS SYMPATHY, CRITIQUE OF U.S. CULTURE - MOLLY MOORE

(DENVERPOST.COM, APRIL 18): Officials, newspaper columnists and citizens around

the world described the Virginia Tech massacre as the tragic reflection of an

America that fosters violence at home and abroad, even as it attempts to dictate

behavior to the rest of the world.

http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_5690113



33 DEAD. WHO'S TO BLAME? WHILE WE MOURN THOSE WHO ARE LOST, WE SEEM ALL TOO

EAGER TO FIND REASONS FOR THE VIRGINIA TECH TRAGEDY. BUT IN THE END, THERE ARE

NO EASY ANSWERS - MICHAEL HILL (BALTIMORE SUN, APRIL 22): Reports are that in

Europe the reaction to the Virginia Tech tragedy is that such things are to be

expected in the gun-toting, violence-ridden United States. There might be some

truth to that, but it is interesting hearing it coming from a continent that

spent much of the first half of the 20th century slaughtering tens of millions

of its citizens in bloody wars, with America bailing it out both times.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/i...ideas-headlines



WHEN STEREOTYPES STALK TRAGEDY - SUZANNE FIELDS (WASHINGTON TIMES, APRIL

23): The Europeans, addicted to anti-American venom, served up most of the early

stereotypes regarding the Blacksburg tragedy, citing Western and gangster movies

as if Cho was a runaway "ride 'em, shoot 'em" cowboy, or a remorseless Clyde

without Bonnie. Virginia Tech is a gun-free campus, mandated by law. Since they

brought it up, the Germans should be reminded that Hitler first deprived Germans

of their arms and then of personal and civil liberties.

http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...22-110538-2531r



AMERICA'S IMAGE ABROAD AFTER W ' PATRICIA H. KUSHLIS (WHIRLED VIEW, APRIL

23): Dr. Dewi Fortuna Anwar, Indonesian scholar and former government official:

'The debates and policy differences in Washington are followed closely around

the world, including Indonesia, clearly demonstrating that Indonesians'

unhappiness with President Bush's policy in Iraq is shared by a wide spectrum of

Americans. Regime change in Washington in the not too distant future may offer a

way out, especially if the US again becomes a strong supporter of a more

rule-based multilateral international system, and counts success by the many

opponents it can win over, not by the number of enemies it has killed.'

http://whirledview.typepad.com/whirledview...cas_image_.html



VIVA PUTIN: ONLY A VOCAL MINORITY WANTS PUTIN OUT OF RUSSIA - NIKOLAS K.

GVOSDEV (NATIONAL REVIEW, APRIL 20): 'I recently received a copy of a survey

taken by the Center for Citizen Initiatives of a group of one hundred Russian

entrepreneurs (from 28 regions of Russia) who visited the United States earlier

this year. This is the group we would associate as being the bedrock of support

for democratic liberalism. 82 percent indicated they approved of the general

direction of the Russian economy today; 90 percent said that the standard of

living was improving for average citizens in their regions.'

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NzRlZ...DA4MDg1Y2MxZTU=



THE BUSH-CHENEY STUPID IRAQ WAR - RODRIGUE TREMBLAY (PEOPLE'S VOICE, TN,

APRIL 22): Now that hundreds of people die daily in occupied Iraq, that

Bush/Cheney have triggered a religious and sectarian civil war, and that a

majority of Americans have seen through their lies and machinations, the

architects of this disaster are trying to shift blame and find new excuses. But

to no avail. The truth is now too powerful to be extinguished by crude

propaganda tricks and by lies.

http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blo...07/04/22/p16210



VICTIMS OF TERROR AREN'T TERRORISTS - ANNA HUSARSKA (LOS ANGELES TIMES,

APRIL 23): 'During a recent trip to the Middle East, I talked with many refugees

who seemed to deserve resettlement in the U.S. but may never get it. Even though

they have been brutalized by the factional fighting in Iraq, the U.S. government

might label them supporters of terrorism.'

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions



"I AM NOW A REFUGEE": THE IRAQI CRISIS THAT HAS NO NAME - DAHR JAMAIL

(TOMDISPATCH, APRIL 20): With -- according to United Nations estimates --

approximately 50,000 Iraqis fleeing their country each month (and untold numbers

of others being displaced internally), Iraq is producing one of the -- if not

the -- most severe refugee crisis on the planet, a crisis without a name and

without significant attention.

http://tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=188872



MORE US SEGREGATION BARRIERS IN BAGHDAD (ISLAMONLINE, APRIL 22): Despite

an outcry from infuriated Iraqis and opposition from lawmakers, the US

occupation army insisted Sunday, April 22, on going full speed with erecting

more concrete and cement segregation barriers across the capital Baghdad.

http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satelli...-News/NWELayout



IRAQI PREMIER ORDERS WORK STOPPED ON WALL - ALISSA J. RUBIN (NEW YORK TIMES,

APRIL 22): Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki said Sunday that he was ordering

a halt to construction of a controversial wall that would block a Sunni

neighborhood in Baghdad from other areas, saying it reminded people of ?other

walls.?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/23/world/mi...agewanted=print



HAMAS IRAQ DENIES NEGOTIATIONS MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, APRIL 21): The

prime time show Behind the News, which usually signals al-Jazeera's editorial

judgement of the most important news of the day, today focuses on the US

building a 'security wall' around the Sunni community in Baghdad al-Adhamiya.

It's being described as "Balkanizing Baghdad," and is clearly being viewed

negatively -- not as protection for the Sunni neighborhood but as an imposition

against them.

http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark..._iraq_deni.html



KURDS CULTIVATING THEIR OWN BONDS WITH U.S. - RAJIV CHANDRASEKARAN

(WASHINGTON POST, APRIL 23): In the past year, the Kurds have spent more than $3

million to retain lobbyists and set up a diplomatic office in Washington. They

are cultivating grass-roots advocates among supporters of President Bush's war

policy and evangelicals who believe that many key figures in the Bible lived in

Kurdistan.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2201568_pf.html



GENERALS DODGE A BULLET ON IRAQ WAR - STEFAN HALPER (WASHINGTON TIMES, APRIL

23): The cultural institutions that precondition democracy are not present in

Iraq -- and, as that nation was untouched by the Enlightenment, never have been.

http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...22-110538-9555r



ON DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ: IT'S STARTING TO TAKE ROOT - BY REUEL MARC GERECHT

(WEEKLY STANDARD, APRIL 30)

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...13/552qsjit.asp



FRIENDS, ENEMIES AND SPOILERS: TWO MONTHS IN, THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE SURGE

- FREDERICK W. KAGAN (WEEKLY STANDARD, APRIL 30): It is no hyperbole to

recognize that a precipitous American withdrawal from Iraq would undermine the

current positive trends and increase the likelihood of mass killing and state

collapse. Painful and uncertain as it is, the wisest course now is to support

our commander and our soldiers and civilians, as they struggle to foster

security in Iraq and to defeat the enemies who have sworn to destroy us.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...13/550bllyz.asp



CAN PETRAEUS PULL IT OFF? A REPORT ON THE PROGRESS OF OUR ARMS IN BAGHDAD,

BAQUBAH, RAMADI, AND FALLUJA - MAX BOOT (WEEKLY STANDARD, APRIL 30): The news

from Iraq is, as usual, grim. Bombings, more bombings, and yet more bombings --

that's all the world notices. It's easy to conclude that all is chaos. That's

not true. Some parts of Iraq are in bad shape, but others are improving.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...13/551cokdv.asp



A HOSTAGE SITUATION - PAUL KRUGMAN (NEW YORK TIMES, APRIL 23): The fact is

that Mr. Bush's refusal to face up to the failure of his Iraq adventure, his

apparent determination to spend the rest of his term in denial, has become a

clear and present danger to national security. Thanks to the demands of the Iraq

war, we're already a superpower without a strategic reserve, unable to respond

to crises that might erupt elsewhere in the world.

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/04/23/opini...agewanted=print

PAID SUBSCRIPTION



WHEN BREMER RULED BAGHDAD: HOW IRAQ WAS LOOTED - EVELYN PRINGLE

(COUNTERPUNCH, APRIL 21/22): The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) was

granted the authority to award reconstruction contracts in Iraq and it used that

authority to implement what will go down in the history books as the most

blatant war profiteering scheme of all time.

http://www.counterpunch.org/pringle04212007.html



RIGHT-WING BLOGS DISCOVER MASSIVE CONSPIRACY TO HIDE WMDS IN IRAQ - GLENN

GREENWALD (SALON, APRIL 21)

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/200...racy/index.html



COULD AFGHANISTAN BE NEXT IRAQ? - DEBRA J. SAUNDERS (SF GATE, APRIL 22): 'My

fear has been that a pull out from Iraq will further imperil Afghanistan. Having

succeeded, jihadists who have gone to Iraq to martyr themselves, instead would

go to Afghanistan.'

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...;type=printable



IRAN: A NATION OF NOSE JOBS, NOT NUCLEAR WAR - PETER HITCHENS (MAIL, UK,

APRIL 21): 'The people of Iran are probably the most pro-Western in the world,

though that will not stop them fighting like hell if we are foolish enough to

attack them. ... I am under no illusions about how barbaric the government can

be to those who challenge it openly in the Press or other public forums. But I

think its power is waning, and can be kept alive only if we are fool enough to

fall for the propaganda of the people who brought us the Iraq War.'

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/a...mp;in_a_source=



WHY I AM NOT A MODERATE MUSLIM: I'D RATHER BE CONSIDERED 'ORTHODOX' THAN

'MODERATE.' TRUE ORTHODOXY IS SIMPLY THE ATTEMPT TO PIOUSLY ADHERE TO A

RELIGION'S TENETS - ASMA KHALID (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, APRIL 23): The

public relations drive for "moderate Islam" is injurious to the entire

international community. It may provisionally ease the pain when so-called

Islamic extremists strike. But it really creates deeper wounds that will require

thicker bandages because it indirectly labels the entire religion of Islam as

violent.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0423/p09s01-coop.html



EUROPE'S PERSECUTED MUSLIMS - EFRAIM KARSH AND RORY MILLER (COMMENTARY,

APRIL): Until European leaders are ready to declare that the concrete threat to

European society stems not from 'Islamophobia' but from the refusal of

substantial numbers of Muslims to integrate and to accept the legitimacy of

non-Islamic values, the Muslim grievance industry in Europe will go from

strength to strength.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/cm/main/....Article::10858

PAID SUBSCRIPTION



A NEGLECTED REPORT FROM EUROPOL: THE ISLAMIC THREAT TO EUROPE: BY THE

NUMBERS - KRISTOFFER LARSSON (COUNTERPUNCH, APRIL 21/22): In plain English:

Muslims are a group causing very little terrorism in Europe, while at the same

time much more likely to be arrested on suspicion of it.

http://www.counterpunch.org/larsson04212007.html



WELCOME, BIENVENUE OPINION (BALTIMORE SUN, APRIL 23): Thanks to the

falling dollar, this may not be the year to wander through Paris or finally see

Rome. But there is a consolation -- the guy sitting next to you on the beach

this summer may come from one of those places. That's right -- brace yourselves

for a European invasion.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/b...inion-headlines





TIME TO DROP THE TERM "WAR ON TERROR"? EDWARD M. GOMEZ (SF GATE, APRIL 20)

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/det...;entry_id=15607



IN RUSSIA, RED ART TURNING TO GREEN: THE NATION'S NEW CAPITALISTS ARE PAYING

TOP RUBLE FOR PAINTINGS OF SOCIALIST REALISM -- GLORIFIED RENDERINGS OF HAPPY,

TOILING SOVIET PEASANTS - DAVID HOLLEY (LOS ANGELES TIMES, APRIL 23): Yuri

Tyukhtin, 39, a banker who also runs a gallery specializing in Soviet art, said

such paintings were now trendy because "people feel nostalgia for the USSR. ...

The characters are healthy and enlightened. The art was propaganda of happiness,

and the people who were doing it were doing it sincerely."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...-home-headlines



SHOOTINGS - ADAM GOPNIK (NEW YORKER, APRIL 30): There is no American

particularity about loners, disenfranchised immigrants, narcissism, alienated

youth, complex moral agency, or Evil. There is an American particularity about

guns.

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2007...aco_talk_gopnik

"In light of this tragedy at Virginia Tech, I decided not to be funny."



--President George W. Bush, at the White House Correspondents' Association

Dinner; cited in Arianna Huffington, "Frayed Nerves, Excruciating Punchlines,

and Sanjaya: My Night at the White House Correspondents' Dinner" (Huffington

Post, April 23)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huff...ti_b_46623.html



"There might be a little Bush fatigue now."



--Ex-president George H.W. Bush; cited in Dan Froomkin, "Bush Fatigue: Bush's

Inexplicable Confidence" (washingtonpost.com, April 24)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2400929_pf.html



VIDEO



Letterman 'Top Ten George W. Bush Moments' Correspondents' D - YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8px_KyIFyo



STATE DEPARTMENT, U.S. GOVERNMENT BROADCASTERS RESPOND TO VIRGINIA TECH

MASSACRE - ALVIN SNYDER (PUBLIC DIPLOMACY BLOG, USC CENTER ON PUBLIC DIPLOMACY,

APRIL 24): From their offices in Washington and its suburbs, U.S. government

officials charged with explaining the American way to publics abroad were put to

the test last week by the Virginia Tech shootings. The State Department did its

best to allay the fears of prospective students from abroad, and, for reporters

who cover the State Department, the Virginia Tech shootings seemed to be a

two-day story.

http://uscpublicdiplomacy.com/index.php/ne.../#read_comments



THE CHO IN THE WHITE HOUSE: AN EX-DIPLOMAT CONSIDERS THE WORLD AND VIRGINIA

TECH - JOHN BROWN (TOMDISPATCH.COM, APRIL 24): Bluntly put, overseas the U.S.

government (and, by association, the country as well) -- thanks in large part to

Bush and his foreign policy -- is now widely considered the Cho of our world,

despite the often risible efforts of Karen Hughes, the administration's Image

Czarina, to improve America's international standing through what she calls the

diplomacy of deeds. SEE ALSO BELOW ITEM 35.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid=189301



'THOSE BIASED AGAINST JEWS ARE MOST IN NEED OF HOLOCAUST EDUCATION' - HILARY

LEILA KRIEGER, (JERUSALEM POST, APRIL 25): Rep. Steve Rothman (D-New Jersey)

called for greater government oversight of Al-Hurra, an American-produced news

network aimed at the Arab world. Following reports that the channel has run

live, uncut interviews with leading terrorists, including Hizbullah leader

Hassan Nasrallah, Rothman proposed greater regulation of the channel.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...ticle%2FPrinter



LOSING MUSLIM HEARTS AND MINDS: WHY THE WHITE HOUSE SHOULD WORRY ABOUT A NEW

POLL SUGGESTING THAT EVEN ALLIED MUSLIM COUNTRIES BELIEVE THE U.S. WANTS TO

WEAKEN AND DIVIDE THE ISLAMIC WORLD ? EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, APRIL 25):

Persuading Muslims of the merits of democratic over theocratic rule remains

Washington's only viable long-term strategy to win the generational war against

Islamic extremists.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editor...ment-editorials



POLL: MUSLIMS SHOW ONLY PARTIAL SUPPORT FOR AL QAEDA'S AGENDA: MUSLIMS IN

FOUR COUNTRIES SAY THEY SUPPORT BOTH ISLAMIC INFLUENCE AND DEMOCRACY. THEY ALSO

SAY UNDERMINING ISLAM WAS A GOAL OF US FOREIGN POLICY - DAN MURPHY (CHRISTIAN

SCIENCE MONITOR, APRIL 25)

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0425/p01s04-wome.html



FRUSTRATION OVER WALL UNITES SUNNI AND SHIITE - ALISSA J. RUBIN (NEW YORK

TIMES, APRIL 23): The unexpected outcry about the proposed construction of a

wall around a Sunni Arab neighborhood has revealed the depths of Iraqi

frustration with the petty humiliations created by the new security plan

intended to protect them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/world/mi...agewanted=print



WALLED CITY - EUGENE ROBINSON (WASHINGTON POST, APRIL 24): The construction

of barriers and checkpoints that turn Baghdad neighborhoods into what U.S.

officers sardonically call "gated communities" is another sign -- as if more

evidence were needed -- that Bush's "surge" is nothing more than a maneuver to

buy time.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2301453_pf.html



BAGHDAD SECURITY PLAN PUTS US FORCES, CIVILIANS PERILOUSLY CLOSE: THE US

KILLED THREE IRAQI CIVILIANS EARLIER THIS MONTH, HIGHLIGHTING THE RISKS OF

AMERICAN TROOPS TAKING THE FIGHT INTO NEIGHBORHOODS - SAM DAGHER (CHRISTIAN

SCIENCE MONITOR, APRIL 24)

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0424/p01s01-woiq.htm



IN DEFENSE OF BAGHDAD'S 'WALLS': THE BARRIERS ARE ONE PIECE OF A LARGER PLAN

TO SECURE THE CAPITAL, SAYS A HIGH-LEVEL U.S. OFFICER IN IRAQ - RAY ODIERNO (LOS

ANGELES TIMES, APRIL 25)

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions



WALLS WILL INCREASE VIOLENCE, SAY SPECIALISTS - (IRIN, APRIL 24)

http://electroniciraq.net/news/3025.shtml



IRAQIS BLAME US OCCUPATION FOR BLOODY WEEK - ALI AL-FADHILY (ANTIWAR.COM,

APRIL 24)

http://www.antiwar.com/ips/fadhily.php?articleid=10860



UNCERTAIN CONSEQUENCES FOR THOSE WHO TRUSTED US - H.D.S. GREENWAY (BOSTON

GLOBE, APRIL 24): Iraqis who threw their lot in with us, many of them

interpreters, are being treated as if the United States had no responsibility

for them.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...sted_us?mode=PF



THE REVENGE OF THE BA'ATHISTS - SAMI MOUBAYED (ASIA TIMES, APRIL 24): The

Americans forgot that all of their traditional allies in the Arab world, ranging

from Egypt to Saudi Arabia, the Arab Gulf and Jordan, were Sunni countries that

would not stand by and watch the Iraqi Sunni community being crushed by Shi'ites

and Kurds.

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ID24Ak03.html



IRAQ INSURGENCY DEVELOPMENTS MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, APRIL 23): In Iraq

local opinion likely is turning against al-Qaeda, but the beneficiary is more

likely to be the insurgency factions than the United States, no matter what the

Weekly Standard tells you.

http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark..._iraq_poli.html



HYPOCRISY WATCH - DAN FROOMKIN (BUSH'S INEXPLICABLE CONFIDENCE,

WASHINGTONPOST.COM, APRIL 24): Bush's "surge" plan was neither what the voters

said they wanted -- nor what his commanders wanted.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2400929_pf.html



BUSH BLAMES THE TROOPS - ROBERT SCHEER (TRUTHDIG, APRIL 24): It is only now,

when all of those policies for the economic and political reconstruction of Iraq

have come a cropper, that a military surge has been ordered to provide a social

order for Iraq that this president?s policies have destroyed.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/bush_blames_the_troops/



AN IRAQ SUCCESS STORY: ONCE-VIOLENT RAMADI, WHICH NOW ENJOYS RELATIVE CALM,

SHOWS THAT IRAQIS CAN ACHIEVE PEACE -- WITH OUR HELP - MAX BOOT (LOS ANGELES

TIMES, APRIL 24)

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail



10 COALITION TROOPS KILLED; DEMS SET WITHDRAWAL DEADLINE; IRAQI CROWDS

REJECT SECURITY WALL - JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT : THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE

EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, APRIL 24): Iraq is innocent. It isn't a threat to

the US. It may now be a threat to itself or its region, because of the civil

war. But it and its region will just have to deal with that. And they will deal

with it better if we don't keep getting in their way.

http://www.juancole.com/2007/04/10-coaliti...d-dems-set.html



A TALE OF TWO HORRORS: THE VIRGINIA TECH MASSACRE MADE AMERICA SHUDDER. BUT

WILL IT AWAKEN US TO THE NIGHTMARE OF SUFFERING IN IRAQ? - GARY KAMIYA (SALON,

APRIL 24): Bush's war has created a Virginia Tech nightmare that never stops. To

the Iraqis who have seen their houses destroyed, their children blown apart, and

their country destroyed, the day America came was the day a whole army of

Seung-Hui Chos walked through the door.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/kamiya/2007/0...tech/print.html



THE TWO TYPES OF VIOLENCE JAMES CARROLL (BOSTON GLOBE, APRIL 23/COMMON

DREAMS): In Iraq regime change was the purpose, and whether one opposed or

supported it, the war?s violence could be defended as aimed at something beyond

itself. But where is the purpose now?

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/23/701/



BAD NEWS FROM IRAQ - WILLIAM M. ARKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, APRIL 23): One

has to wonder whether the war wouldn't have gone differently, and whether we

wouldn't be having a different debate today, if the U.S. military and the

administration themselves had a more clear understanding of who they were

fighting and what they were fighting for.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarnin...ml?nav=rss_blog



'LOSS' IN IRAQ AND THE ARKIN PLAN - WILLIAM M. ARKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM,

APRIL 24): The United States should begin a process of withdrawal from Iraq, and

it should have a timetable to do so to communicate clearly that our intention is

indeed to leave.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarnin...ml?nav=rss_blog



AXIS OF COWARDS: BUSH, CONGRESS AND THE MEDIA: THE COURAGE TO WITHDRAW -

SAUL LANDAU (COUNTERPUNCH, APRIL 23): Bush claimed the "courage" to take the

country to war. Congress and the media rubber stamped his decision. They

collectively lack the courage, integrity and responsibility to admit the error

and stage a rapid US withdrawal.

http://www.counterpunch.org/landau04232007.html



DIPLOMATIC DANCES OVER IRAN - KAVEH L AFRASIABI (ASIA TIMES, APRIL 25):

Iran's nuclear diplomacy runs the risk of alienating not only the EU but also

Russia and China, and thus failing to reverse the negative impact of sanctions

on Iran's economy.

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ID25Ak03.html



SQUEEZE PLAY: APPROACH TEHRAN WITH STICKS, NOT CARROTS - DENNIS ROSS (NEW

REPUBLIC): Most world leaders, including our allies, are desperate to prevent

the United States from attacking Iran. President Bush should make it clear to

them that they have the power to forestall military action -- by exerting

economic pressure that further opens fissures in Iran's elite, which will in

turn raise the likelihood of Ahmadinejad being forced to back down.

http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=200704...mp;s=ross042307



'SHIITE CRESCENT' MIGHT NOT BE WHAT IT SEEMS - BRENDA SHAFFER (BALTIMORE

SUN, APRIL 25): Culture has its limits: It is only one of the many forces that

shape foreign policy outcomes and is not the defining element. The Islamic

Republic of Iran and the rest of the Shiite Crescent states can be deterred and

enticed just like other states. We are not in the era of a "clash of

civilizations" but only of a clash of rhetoric.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines





IS THE U.S.-TURKEY ALLIANCE AT AN END? - RAJAN MENON AND S. ENDERS WIMBUSH

(WASHINGTONPOST.COM, APRIL 24): Anti-Americanism in Turkey, fueled by the

continuing chaos in Iraq and the decisions that led to that imbroglio, is

running at unprecedented levels, as opinion polls have graphically documented in

recent months. Nearly 80 percent of Turks view the United States as a problem,

including being a direct threat to Turkey's national security.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2301459_pf.html



TURKEY'S WESTERN DESTINY - MORTON ABRAMOWITZ AND HENRI J. BARKEY (WALL

STREET JOURNAL, APRIL 24): Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan Erdogan's Turkey

has become a more confident and active international player, and its foreign

policy is no longer American-centric, a result of changing geostrategic

realities, the blossoming of its economy and a floundering U.S. policy in the

region.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1177377912...in_commentaries

PAID SUBSCRIPTION



NAME CALLING: TURKEY IS WASHINGTON'S PUREST TEST OF REALISM V. IDEALISM -

CHRISTOPHER BEAM (NEW REPUBLIC, APRIL 25): Since the invasion of Iraq, the

United States has lost much of the respect it commanded in international

opinion. An administration that has marshaled the word "genocide" so readily to

justify its own actions should, at the very least, be consistent in applying it.

Asking that Turkey face its past, especially when such a request hinders U.S.

interests, would set a principled example for other governments.

http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=w070423&s=beam042507



WHY BOYCOTT ISRAEL? - RICHARD COHEN (WASHINGTON POST, APRIL 24): What

explains this fury at Israel -- and only at Israel? What explains this need to

denounce, to boycott? Some of it surely comes from the uncritical support that

Israel gets from the United States, which to lefties all over the world is a

vile state. But some of it, surely, is anti-Semitism itself, a rage at the

impudent, pushy Jew and this state created in the midst of the Arab world.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2301451_pf.html



NAME THAT 'WAR' - MAX BOOT (WALL STREET JOURNAL, APRIL 25): If we're serious

about prevailing against Islamist extremists, of both Sunni and Shia cast, we'll

be in for a long, difficult fight -- and it's better to speak frankly of that

unpleasant reality, if only to prepare our own populace for the setbacks and

sacrifices that lie ahead. Yet it's hard to find the right words if you don't

even know what to call the post-9/11 period.

http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1177...5263781593.html

PAID SUSBCRIPTION



ABSURD ANALOGIES WON'T STOP TERRORISM IVAN ELAND (ANTIWAR.COM, APRIL 24):

Instead of perpetuating the myth that the United States is at war with

"fanatics" who have a reflexive hatred of America, the nation's homeland

security chief could better spend his time examining the real motivator for such

terrorism -- U.S. foreign policy ? and recommending a policy of military

restraint in the Middle East to reduce the chances of terrorist attacks at home.

http://www.antiwar.com/eland/?articleid=10864



MCJIHAD AT VIRGINIA TECH: FROM THE CALIPHATE TO COLUMBINE - R. P. EDDY

(NATIONAL REVIEW, APRIL 24): On the global stage, governments and media should

join forces to present a counter-narrative to al Qaeda?s seductive marketing.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MzRiN...TdlODhjYzMzNDM=



FASCIST AMERICA, IN 10 EASY STEPS: FROM HITLER TO PINOCHET AND BEYOND,

HISTORY SHOWS THERE ARE CERTAIN STEPS THAT ANY WOULD-BE DICTATOR MUST TAKE TO

DESTROY CONSTITUTIONAL FREEDOMS. AND GEORGE BUSH AND HIS ADMINISTRATION SEEM TO

BE TAKING THEM ALL ? NAOMI WOLF (GUARDIAN APRIL 24/COMMON DREAMS): Step 1):

Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy. We were told we were now on a

?war footing?; we were in a ?global war? against a ?global caliphate? intending

to ?wipe out civilization.? All our other wars had an endpoint, so the pendulum

was able to swing back toward freedom; this war is defined as open-ended in time

and without national boundaries in space -- the globe itself is the battlefield.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/24/708/



ALGERIA, THE MODEL: FIFTY YEARS AGO, ANOTHER WESTERN POWER FOUGHT

'ISLAMOFASCISM' THEN WALKED AWAY - SCOTT MCCONNELL (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, APRIL

23): The rhetoric that justifies the Iraq War as part of colossal battle against

?Islamofascism? could be lifted almost directly from the French colonial

intellectual slogans of the 1950s -- and is no less self-deluding.

http://www.amconmag.com/2007/2007_04_23/article.html



THE NEOCON PARADOX - ROBERT WRIGHT (NEW YORK TIMES, APRIL 24): Alas, the

neocon paradox -- empower people and enrage them -- is global.

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/opini...agewanted=print



BUSH FLUNKS DIPLOMACY 101: HOW TO INFURIATE RUSSIA AND THE EUROPEAN UNION

AND WASTE $10 BILLION FRED KAPLAN (SLATE, APRIL 23): It's one thing to waste

$10 billion a year quixotically developing a missile-defense system; President

Bush clearly announced from the get-go that he was determined to do that, and

Congress has been complicit in his quest. But to spark a diplomatic crisis with

Russia and the European Union while doing so -- that takes bungling of an

unusually intense quality.

http://www.slate.com/id/2164831/



NEW US MISSILE PROPOSALS CAUSE OLD ADVERSARIES TO STIR: RUSSIA AND CHINA

APPEAR TO BE WORRIED THAT POSSIBLE NEW US WEAPONS REALLY ARE AIMED AT THEM -

PETER GRIER (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, APRIL 25)

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0425/p01s02-usmi.html



57 PERCENT OF POLES AGAINST MISSILE DEFENSE SHIELD IN POLAND: POLL ?

(PEOPLE?S DAILY, APRIL 24)

http://english.people.com.cn/200704/24/eng...424_369061.html



SHOULD MORE US TROOPS BE KEPT IN EUROPE? SOME AMERICAN DEFENSE OFFICIALS ARE

RECONSIDERING A PLAN TO CUT THE TROOP FORCE THERE IN HALF - GORDON LUBOLD

(CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, APRIL 24): US defense officials in Europe are

reconsidering a plan to dramatically cut the number of US forces there -- a

potential change that illustrates how the war in Iraq and other threats are

forcing the military to revisit a broader transformation that was to redefine

its strategy overseas.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0424/p03s03-usmi.htm



WHEN YOUTUBE IS A THREAT - ERIC PFANNER (INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, APRIL

22): As YouTube, the Internet video-sharing service, generates millions of new

fans in far-flung countries, it is making enemies of some of their governments.

Many are putting pressure on the company to tailor, or self-censor, its site to

take account of local sensibilities, analysts say.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/22/news/youtube.php



'Maybe it's wise to keep Cheney off the battlefield -- he might end up shooting

his comrades rather than the enemy.'



--George McGovern, Cheney is wrong about me, wrong about war: The 1972

presidential nominee strikes back at the vice president for comparing today's

Democrats to the McGovern platform? (Los Angeles Times April 24)

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...-opinion-center

In retrospect, we got it wrong partly because the truth was so implausible.?



--Former CIA Director George Tenet, regarding Saddam Hussein possessing

unconventional weapons; cited in Scott Shane And Mark Mazzetti. 'Ex-C.I.A.

Chief, in Book, Assails Cheney on Iraq' (New York Times, April 27)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/washingt...agewanted=print



VIDEO



Laura Bush wants you to know that when it comes to Iraq, no one is suffering

more than the First Couple. No one - AMERICA.com

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2007/04/la...-that-when.html



COMMITTEE MEETING: REPORT ON HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS HEARING ON AMERICA'S IMAGE

ABROAD (PROJECT ON MIDDLE EAST DEMOCRACY BLOG, APRIL 26): Mr. Jess T. Ford,

Director of the Office of International Affairs and Trade in the U.S. Government

Accountability Office, stated his concern that rising anti-Americanism may hurt

American business interests around the world, hinder the ability of the U.S. to

achieve foreign policy goals, and pose security risks to Americans abroad. Ms.

Lisa Curtis, Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, focused on ways

of improving U.S. public diplomacy, including improving coordination between

existing government agencies that undertake public diplomacy and the creation of

a new semi-governmental agency to fill in important gaps.

http://blog.pomed.org/2007/04/committee-me...t-on-house.html



ANTI-AMERICANISM ON THE MARCH BLUE GIRL (BLUE GIRL, RED STATE, APRIL 26):

'About five pages into the GAO's latest report on the image of America and

Americans abroad, especially in the Muslim world, I was muttering aloud that it

sure would be nice to have a functioning State Department about now!!! The

report is an indictment of a State Department in disarray; not merely

understaffed, but with an existing staff that is largely unqualified for the

positions they hold. In May 2006, the GAO reported that approximately 15 % of

the worldwide public diplomacy positions in the State Department were vacant.

Updated information shows that this problem has worsened, with approximately 22

% of such positions currently vacant. Embassy officials indicated that

insufficient numbers of staff (and the lack of staff time for public diplomacy

activities) hinder outreach efforts. Keep in mind that key objectives of U.S.

public diplomacy are to engage, inform, and influence overseas audiences. The

department is in such disarray that recipients of American aid are often wholly

unaware of the source of that beneficence.?

http://bluegirlredmissouri.blogspot.com/20...m-on-march.html



THROUGH THE VEIL: THE ROLE OF BROADCASTING IN U.S. PUBLIC DIPLOMACY TOWARD

IRANIANS - MEHDI KHALAJI (POLICY FOCUS #68, WASHINGTON INSTITUTE FOR MIDEAST

POLICY): Mehdi Khalaji -- a former Persian-language producer for Radio Farda and

the BBC -- takes a comprehensive look at the various U.S.-based broadcasting

initiatives aimed at Iranians young and old.

http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC04.php?CID=271





NEW MUSLIM PUBLIC OPINION SURVEY MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, APRIL 25):

?PIPA has just released the results of another major public opinion survey in

four Muslim countries (Egypt, Indonesia, Morocco, and Pakistan). ... Overall,

the survey strongly supports the notion that al-Qaeda's "frame" has made great

inroads even if the organization itself has not: strikingly high percentages of

Arabs (especially) have come to share key elements of the al-Qaeda worldview,

which represents considerable success for what I've called ?al-Qaeda's

constructivist strategy.?"

http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark...uslim_publ.html

SURVEY AT

http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/art...46&lb=hmpg1



RIVERBEND JOIN RANKS OF REFUGEES FROM IRAQ JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT :

THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, APRIL 26): Only a few

fleeing Iraqis have been admitted to the United States, which is a travesty. In

the past 14 months, 750,000 Iraqis have been forced to flee their homes. And the

US media lets politicians get away with saying that things are "improving"!

http://www.juancole.com/2007/04/riverbend-...ugees-from.html



IRAQ CASUALTY NUMBERS DOCTORED; ATTACKS NEAR MOSUL, KHALIS; SADR CONDEMNS

WALL - JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND

RELIGION, APRIL 26): Bush administration spokesmen and officials are just saying

that fewer bodies are found in the streets, victims of death squads. But the

number of victims of car bombing has actually increased in this period.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi government is withholding statistics on Iraqi casualties

from the United Nations. It is official: The real parts of the Iraq War are

being treated as imaginary, and the imaginary parts are being treated as though

they are real.

http://www.juancole.com/2007/04/iraq-casua...ed-attacks.html



THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ: RESIDENTS' VIEW OF SECURITY PLAN: BAGHDAD RESIDENTS

FIND LITTLE SECURITY; SOME CALL THE U.S.-IRAQI INITIATIVE THE TRAFFIC-JAM PLAN,

SAYING THAT IS ALL THEY'VE GAINED FROM THE INCREASED TROOP PRESENCE - TINA

SUSMAN (LOS ANGELES TIMES, APRIL 26)

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-fg...,1,654325.story



INSTEAD OF A POLICY, A WALL EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, APRIL 25): The wall

around a Baghdad neighborhood being built by US forces is a symbol of the

incoherence of the Bush administration's current policy toward ethnic violence

in Iraq.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial..._policy_a_wall/



WAR STORIES: THE GREAT WALL OF INDIFFERENCE; ON PATROL INSIDE BAGHDAD'S

TENSEST NEIGHBORHOOD - BING WEST (SLATE, APRIL 25): A barrier the Azamiyah

section of Baghdad would restrict both al-Qaida and the JAM, [the Shiite Jesh

al Mahdi militia from Sadr City], easing pressure on the people.

http://www.slate.com/id/2165036?nav=tap3



BLAST WALLS OF BAGHDAD BECOMING OASES OF ART - ZAID SABAH USA TODAY, APRIL

26)

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/20...ghdad-art_N.htm



LAST CALL IN IRAQ - BRIAN BENNETT (TIME, APRIL 26): From the start, the

occupation has been informed by illusions -- about the strength of the

insurgency, about the level of antagonism among Iraq's sects, about the very

nature of Arab society and culture. Those illusions could be sustained as long

as you stayed within the protected confines of the Green Zone. As much as any

other indicator, the deterioration of security inside this ostensible fortress

underscores the extent to which the war has spiraled out of the U.S.'s control.

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1615188,00.html



THE MISSING PLAYER: A 'CZAR' TO MANAGE THE IRAQ WAR: THE WHITE HOUSE HAS

ENVISIONED A COORDINATOR ROLE FOR THE MULTIBILLION-DOLLAR, MULTIAGENCY EFFORT,

BUT IS HAVING TROUBLE FINDING A WILLING CANDIDATE - HOWARD LAFRANCHI (CHRISTIAN

SCIENCE MONITOR, APRIL 26)

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0426/p01s02-usfp.html



PETRAEUS EX MACHINA - ARIANNA HUFFINGTON (HUFFINGTON POST, APRIL 25): In

this present insoluble crisis, defenders of the war like to imagine Gen.

Petraeus flying in on a giant Blackhawk suddenly transforming chaos into order.

A Petraeus ex machina.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huff...na_b_46866.html



BLIND TO THE VISCERA OF VIOLENCE IN HYPOCRISY?S AIRBRUSH OF WAR - PIERRE

TRISTAM (DAYTONA BEACH NEWS-JOURNAL, APRIL 25; COMMON DREAMS): The Iraq war

continues unabated, and American involvement in Iraq is surging, because most

Americans have no idea to what extent they?re contributing to the atrocity.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/25/760/



THE TEMPERATURE RISES IN KIRKUK - JASON MOTLAGH (ASIA TIMES, APRIL 27): The

latest wave of deadly attacks to hit the oil-rich, ethnically combustible city

of Kirkuk appears to be a prelude of worse to come, with a referendum looming to

decide its status by the end of the year. Concern that the north is poised to

become a new front in the Iraq conflict is saddled by the possibility that

neighboring Turkey will also join the fight.

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ID27Ak05.html



RANTING AT REALITY ON IRAQ - EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, APRIL 26): The

sooner Mr. Bush and his allies drop the pretense that military victory is still

possible in Iraq and their charges of ?defeatism? against those who know better,

the closer the nation will be to rescuing what can still be rescued from the

debacle.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/26/opinion/...agewanted=print



A US RECIPE FOR ENDLESS WAR IN IRAQ - GARETH PORTER (ASIA TIMES, APRIL 27):

The language on a timetable for US withdrawal from Iraq voted out of the House

and Senate conference committee this week contains large loopholes that would

apparently allow US troops to continue carrying out military operations in

Iraq's Sunni heartland indefinitely.

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ID27Ak02.html



ONE CHOICE IN IRAQ - JOE LIEBERMAN (WASHINGTON POST, APRIL 26): The

challenge before us, then, is whether we respond to al-Qaeda's barbarism by

running away, as it hopes we do -- abandoning the future of Iraq, the Middle

East and ultimately our own security to the very people responsible for last

week's atrocities -- or whether we stand and fight.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2502410_pf.html



HARRY'S WAR: DEMOCRATS ARE TAKING OWNERSHIP OF A DEFEAT IN IRAQ ? REVIEW &

OUTLOOK (WALL STREET JOURNAL, APRIL 25): A withdrawal from Iraq now will only

make it harder to stabilize the region and defeat Islamist radicals.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1177469970...ON=wsjie/6month

PAID SUBSCRIPTION



IRAQ OPINION: YANKEE, DON'T GO HOME! - YASSIN MUSHARBASH (SPIEGEL

INTERNATIONAL, APRIL 26): The Democrats want to bring the US military home from

Iraq. But a hurried withdrawal would surely make the situation in the country

even more volatile than it already is. The Yankees should stay.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/...,479607,00.html



THE PUPPET WHO CLEARED THE WAY FOR IRAQ'S DESTRUCTION: PAUL WOLFOWITZ MUST

BEAR A LARGE PART OF THE RESPONSIBILITY THAT IS USUALLY LAID AT THE DOOR OF HIS

SUPERIOR ALONE - ANDREW COCKBURN (GUARDIAN, APRIL 25/COMMON DREAMS): Blame for

torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo, bungling over troop levels, chaos in

Iraq?s reconstruction, and the general meltdown in Pentagon management has all

too often been laid at Rumsfeld?s door alone. However, Wolfowitz was an

energetic enabler of these outrages and many other notorious initiatives.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/26/781/



BUSH'S NON-ARGUMENT - E. J. DIONNE JR. (WASHINGTON POST, APRIL 27):

President Bush and Vice President Cheney cannot make the case that their Iraq

policies have succeeded, so they are doing one thing they do very well: taking a

serious argument over the future of American foreign policy and turning it into

a petty partisan squabble.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2601887_pf.html



THE LOOK OF A KILLER: CHO AND CHENEY - BRENDAN COONEY (COUNTERPUNCH, APRIL

25): Two things must be explained: why Cho caused shock domestically but the

invasion did not, and why the invasion caused shock around the world but not

here. The answer lies in a growing intellectual and moral vacuity that leaves

our journalists and citizenry not only vulnerable to blatant propaganda but

devoid of the moral imagination that gives people around the world a gut feeling

that something, such as a massive unprovoked invasion, is wrong.

http://www.counterpunch.org/cooney04252007.html



AMERICA'S DANGEROUS TRIGGER FINGER: WHY THE KILLING OF CIVILIANS BY U.S.

MARINES IN AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ COULD HAVE PROFOUND STRATEGIC CONSEQUENCES -

DAVID J. MORRIS (SALON, APRIL 26)

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/...rhar/print.html



THE COUNTERINSURGENCY FIGHT: THINK GLOBALLY, LOSE LOCALLY - JAMES T.

QUINLIVAN AND BRUCE R. NARDULLI (WASHINGTONPOST., APRIL 25): As we are seeing

today in Iraq and Afghanistan, America has been unable to defeat insurgencies

with the sheer power of the U.S. military. While the presence of al Qaeda and

its jihadist affiliates is a common feature in both countries, ultimately it

will be the local conditions, population, unique features and personalities of

each nation that will determine the outcome of the insurgencies against the

U.S.-backed governments.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2601960_pf.html



CULTURE WAR: AMERICA'S BEST WEAPON IS THE IRANIAN PEOPLE - AZAR NAFISI (NEW

REPUBLIC, APRIL 26): The most important weapon in the U.S. arsenal is not its

military might but its culture. Vigorously defending and promoting those values

the United States was long thought to represent -- freedom of expression,

freedom of movement, freedom of conscience -- will do a great deal more than any

missile to neutralize Iranian radicals.

http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=200704...;s=nafisi042307



SIGNS OF A SPRING THAW: INTEREST ON BOTH SIDES IN U.S.-IRAN TALKS - DAVID

IGNATIUS (WASHINGTON POST. APRIL 27)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2601888_pf.html



PATCHING UP THE U.S.-JAPAN BOND: CHINA'S GROWTH AND DISAGREEMENT OVER NORTH

KOREA THREATEN TO SET BACK THE MOST IMPORTANT PAN-PACIFIC ALLIANCE - AARON

FRIEDBERG AND DAN BLUMENTHAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, APRIL 26): Washington and Tokyo

have made considerable progress in recent years on deepening security

cooperation, developing effective missile defenses and realigning U.S. bases in

Japan. What the alliance needs now is a much broader and more ambitious shared

strategic vision.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail



RUSSIA NEEDS THE NEO-CONS, BUT WHERE ARE THEY? - CHRYSTIA FREELAND

(FINANCIAL TIMES, APRIL 25): While people in the Beltway, and even in Baghdad,

may have decided they do not have much use for the neo-cons at the moment, there

is one part of the world that needs them desperately: Russia. In one of those

cruel twists of fate that seem to be a Slavic speciality, America?s

international democracy-building agenda has been battered just at the moment

when it might do Moscow some real good.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/98d268cc-f357-11db...0b5df10621.html

PAID SUBSCRIPTION



ANTI-MISSILE MISSILES IN EUROPE: A WEAPON THAT DOESN?T WORK FOR A THREAT

THAT DOESN?T EXIST ? WILLIAM D. HARTUNG (COMMON DREAMS, APRIL 25)

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/25/742/



MISSILE DEFENSE MISCHIEF REVIEW & OUTLOOK (WALL STREET JOURNAL, APRIL 27):

One of the Bush Administration's quiet successes has been missile defense --

from the negotiated demise of the Cold War ABM Treaty to initial ground-based

deployments. But that progress is suddenly in jeopardy from opposition in Russia

and Congress, and just when we might really begin to need it against the likes

of Iran.

http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB1177...9409383898.html



AFTER THE LAWYERS EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, APRIL 27): It can be hard to

tell whom the Bush administration considers more of an enemy at the Guantánamo

Bay detention camp: the prisoners or the lawyers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/opinion/...agewanted=print



CAN GUANTANAMO BE CLOSED? WHAT A NEW PRESIDENT COULD DO - KAREN J. GREENBERG

(TOMDISPATCH.COM, APRIL 26)

http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid=190141



THE DEMOCRACY OF EVIL: THE PSYCHOLOGIST WHO CREATED THE STANFORD PRISON

EXPERIMENT SAYS THAT IT'S NOT A FEW BAD APPLES THAT SPOIL THE BARREL, IT'S A BAD

BARREL THAT SPOILS GOOD APPLES - SASHA ABRAMSKY (AMERICAN PROSPECT, APRIL 24):

In 1971, When Philip Zimbardo was a young psychology professor at Stanford

University, he presided over a psychology experiment exploring what happened

when normal students were immersed in two distinct roles: One group of students

were to be prison guards -- in a makeshift prison set up in the basement of the

psychology lab -- and the other group were to be prisoners. Zimbardo has finally

been prompted to write his first-person account of the SPE, as he calls it, by

the specter of Abu Ghraib, and the shattering images of American military

personnel engaging in torture there and in Guantanamo; and by his belief, and

accompanying rage, that high-level U.S. political, intelligence, and military

leaders have created a climate in which torture is legitimated.

http://www.prospect.org/web/printfriendly-view.ww?id=12717



PUT BUSH'S 'PUPPY DOG' TERROR THEORY TO SLEEP - RICHARD CLARKE (DAILY NEWS,

APRIL 25): If not for this administration's reckless steps to push America into

war -- and strategic blunder after strategic blunder that has satisfied the

blood lust of the enemy -- fewer evildoers would follow us home like the dogs

that they are.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2007/0..._sle_print.html



IS THERE STILL A WAR ON TERROR?: A CHANGE IN RHETORIC MAY SIGNAL A CHANGE IN

ATTITUDE - VICTOR DAVIS HANSON (NATIONAL REVIEW, APRIL 26): Despite the current

efforts at denial, the war against Islamic terrorism remains real and deadly. We

can?t wish it away until Middle Eastern dictatorships reform -- or we end their

oil stranglehold over the world economy.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YjU5N...jQyOTE1NmQzZGY=



MR. BUSH, TEAR DOWN THESE WALLS! SCOTT RITTER (TRUTHDIG, APRIL 26/COMMON

DREAMS): Walls, ideological or physical, on the ground or in space, do not, as

Reagan noted, facilitate the cause of liberty and freedom. They restrict it. By

walling in the Iraqi citizens of Baghdad, by walling out the immigrants who seek

solace within our borders and by partitioning off Europe from Iran and Russia,

the Bush administration has become that which America once renounced.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/26/765/



WHEN IN DOUBT, BUILD A WALL SALLY KOHN (COMMON DREAMS, APRIL 25): Good

fences have never made good policy, just as they?ve never made good neighbors.

Bush?s embrace of wall building and secrecy reminds me of totalitarian feudal

lords. But feudalism failed too, didn?t it?

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/25/737/



THE UNITED STATES AS CHO SEUNG-HUI: HOW THE STATE SANCTIFIES MURDER - ARTHUR

SILBER (ONCE UPON A TIME..., APRIL 25): "Bush's foreign policy is that of the

U.S. governing elites. You may consider the Iraq war and occupation particularly

insane, and I will not dispute the issue. But the critical and larger point is

this one: Bush would not have been able to launch this war with strong

bipartisan support, and there would not have been as little opposition as there

was, unless the overall foreign policy objectives were shared by virtually the

entire governing class. As in the case of Cho, the ground had been prepared for

a long time.?

http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2007/...ng-hui-how.html



THE PERSIAN ABYSS: THE VALUE OF LIFE - REZA ZARABI (JERUSALEM POST, APRIL

26): Internationally, the Blacksburg tragedy has shown the true fabric of what

makes America the anomaly of the world. For all her many flaws, this young and

sometimes haughty nation understands and appreciates the value of human life on

a level that is incomparable to the rest of the world.

http://blogcentral.jpost.com/index.php?cat...og_post_id=1059



AMERICA THE NOT SO BEAUTIFUL - DAVID HOWELL (JAPAN TIMES, APRIL 27): Round

the world, America's closest friends, such as Britain, Japan, Canada, Australia

and some of the Central European nations, are all struggling to rebalance their

relations with the U.S. It is as though a favorite uncle has suddenly, through

some kind of mental breakdown, had a character change and turned unpleasant.

(David Howell is a former British Cabinet minister and former chairman of the

Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. He is now a member of the House of Lords).

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20070427dh.html



THE BUSH LEGACY: HEADED FOR HISSES? ? LEON HADAR (ANTIWAR.COM, APRIL 26):

Central to the Bush administration's policy is the need to maintain at home and

abroad a perception of "strength" and "resolve" as opposed to "weakness" and

"appeasement."

http://www.antiwar.com/hadar/?articleid=10870



PUTTING OUR WORST FOOT FORWARD - JOE CONASON (TRUTHDIG, APRI 26): Our

heritage of world leadership in the last century was built not upon military

power alone, but arose from economic, diplomatic and moral foundations that

somehow survived despite many earlier mistakes and even crimes. With the advent

of the Bush administration, however, our luck has obviously run out. Neither

allies nor adversaries pretend to believe that the ludicrous characters sent

forth by the president to represent us are statesmen.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/puttin...t_foot_forward/



MISSILE SHIELD ROW HEATS UP: PUTIN PLAYS HARD BALL AS RICE REASSURES

'SOVIETS' ? (SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL, APRIL 26): Rice dismissed Russian concerns

that the missile shield could pose a threat to Russia, calling the idea

"ludicrous." She also accused the Russians of being stuck in a Cold War

mentality -- even as she herself mistakenly referred to Russia as "Soviet." "The

idea that somehow 10 interceptors and a few radars in Eastern Europe are going

to threaten the Soviet strategic deterrent is purely ludicrous and everybody

knows it," she told reporters ahead of the Oslo meeting."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/...,479621,00.html



DID CONDOLEEZZA RICE TRY TO MAKE A SECRET DEAL WITH THE MULLAHS? A TENSE

CONFRONTATION WITHIN THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION OVER THE RELEASE OF THE IRBIL 5 -

MICHAEL LEDEEN (NATIONAL REVIEW, APRIL 25)

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YzA0M...TFmYmZjMmMyMDk=



CONDI FLIES TO NORWAY TO HIDE FROM HENRY WAXMAN - (PRINCESS SPARKLE PONY'S

PHOTO BLOG: I KEEP TRACK OF CONDOLEEZZA'S HAIRDO SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO, APRIL

25): PHOTO: The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice alights from the plane as

she arrives at Gardermoen Airport outside Oslo Wednesday April 25, 2007, to

participate in the Informal meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers in Oslo on April

26 and 27. COMMENT: Poor Condi: she trying the best she can (really), and all

these mean people want her to respond to their silly letters and to totally

appear in Congress and -- Really! Who do they think they are? Get on a plane,

girl, and fly, fly away from those awful people.

http://sparklepony.blogspot.com/2007/04/co...-hide-from.html





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