Signs of Progress Around the World - Michael Barone, Real Clear Politics
Stop Getting Mad. Get Smart – Armitage and Nye, Washington Post
Khalilzad’s Cautious Optimism - Los Angeles Times interview
All Power, No Influence - James Carroll, Boston Globe
Britain and Basra – London Times editorial
The New Iraq – Oliver North – Washington Times
Tenuous Sense of Security in Baghdad – Trudy Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer
Iraq: Can We Guard What We Gained – Stephen Biddle, Washington Post
Afghanistan: Success in Musa Qala Matters – Bronwen Maddox, London Times
WMD Ghost Hunter in Iraq – Arthur Keller, Washington Post
Whitewashing Iranian Nukes - Washington Times editorial
NIE and Bush – Philadelphia Inquirer editorial
Renew Diplomacy on Iran Nukes – Toronto Star editorial
The Gulf States and Iran - Max Boot, Wall Street Journal
Is This Really World War IV - Peter Beinart, Los Angeles Times
The Spies Strike Back – Jim Hoagland, Washington Post
NIE Making History - Ariel Cohen, Washington Times
No Reason to Relax on Iran – Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe
Nine Little Words in the NIE – Thomas Powers, Los Angeles Times
Taming Iran – Jack Kelly, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Keep Pressure on Iran - Michael Jacobson, Baltimore Sun
Meet ‘The Decider’ of Iran – Vali Nasr, Washington Post
Opportunity for Diplomacy on Iran – Joseph Galloway, Miami Herald
Our Blind Eye to Saudi Arabia – Linda Chavez, New York Post
Political Manipulation of the Arab Street? - Joel Brinley, San Francisco Chronicle
Piecemeal Peace Talks – Mike Pence, Washington Times
Why World Needs Democracy in Pakistan – Benazir Bhutto, Christian Science Monitor
Bush, Musharraf and the Rule of Law - Nat Hentoff, Washington Times
Delay, Obstruction and Darfur - New York Times editorial
Slapping Our Latin Allies - New York Post editorial
Chavez Down, Not Out – John Thomson, Washington Times
Opposition's Window of Opportunity - Marifeli Perez-Stable, Miami Herald
Time for Independent Kosovo – Menzies and Harris, Baltimore Sun
The More Russia Changes – Paul Greenberg, Washington Times
Putin Delivers – Boris Jordan, Washington Post
The Anti-Freedom Agenda - Fred Hiatt, Washington Post
The Missile Gap – Baltimore Sun editorial
Engaging North Korea – Boston Globe editorial
Burma: Fresh Start Needed – Genser and Barron, Sydney Morning Herald
Concentrating on Canadian Foreign Aid – Paul Heinbecker, Toronto Star
Was That Really Donald Rumsfeld? – Hart Seely, Washington Post
Why Should Gitmo Detainees Return? – Philip Johnston, London Daily Telegraph
AWOL Military Justice - Morris Davis, Los Angeles Times
Torture ' A Defining Issue' - Washington Post editorial
FISA Rights that Travel - Ron Wyden, Washington Post
Help Me Spy on Al Qaeda - Mike McConnell, New York Times
Full Version: Foreign Policy Commentary
Common Ground Common Sense > National & International News > Op-Ed Articles from the Mainstream Media
Iran's Vast Military Inferiority and the Prospect of Nukes
James Lewis
One madman with a gun can hold off a hundred cops. The difference is who is more willing to lose his life. More
How Green Was My Bali
Marc Sheppard
Planet saving green superheroes flew off to the climate carnival in Bali Monday last week, boldly sensing a new sweltering wind at their backs More
Play President, Real Threats
Michael J. O'Shea
So you're sitting in the Oval Office, presidential as can be, and up pops this little flash.... More
James Lewis
One madman with a gun can hold off a hundred cops. The difference is who is more willing to lose his life. More
How Green Was My Bali
Marc Sheppard
Planet saving green superheroes flew off to the climate carnival in Bali Monday last week, boldly sensing a new sweltering wind at their backs More
Play President, Real Threats
Michael J. O'Shea
So you're sitting in the Oval Office, presidential as can be, and up pops this little flash.... More
Nukes Needed to Deter America
Mustafa Domanic | As long as the U.S. bullies Iran, Iranians should build nukes, says a Turkish panelist. Discuss.
- PostGlobal: Iran: What if Nuke's a Fluke?
- Yossi Melman: Iran: Don't Trust a Liar
- Amar C. Bakshi: What the Philippines Can Teach the U.S. Army
Chavez: How to be a Mad Dictator – David Aaronovitch, London Times
Russia’s Next President – Washington Post editorial
Vladimir Putin’s Puppet – London Daily Telegraph editorial
Putin’s Chosen One – London Times editorial
Anointed by the Kremlin Boss – Boston Globe editorial
The Democratic Roots of Putin’s Choice - Andreas Umland, Washington Post
Kosovo: Canada in Odd Company – Richard Gwyn, Toronto Star
Positive Signs in North Korea – Los Angeles Times editorial
Disinformation on Sri Lanka - Bernard Goonetilleke, Washington Times
Russia’s Next President – Washington Post editorial
Vladimir Putin’s Puppet – London Daily Telegraph editorial
Putin’s Chosen One – London Times editorial
Anointed by the Kremlin Boss – Boston Globe editorial
The Democratic Roots of Putin’s Choice - Andreas Umland, Washington Post
Kosovo: Canada in Odd Company – Richard Gwyn, Toronto Star
Positive Signs in North Korea – Los Angeles Times editorial
Disinformation on Sri Lanka - Bernard Goonetilleke, Washington Times
The Post-War Election? – David Brooks, New York Times
Will New-Found Security Last in Baghdad? – Trudy Rubin, Baltimore Sun
American Troops are Winning – Pete Hegseth, Washington Times
Tehran and Washington Must Swallow Rhetoric – Max Hastings, Guardian
How to Defuse Iran? – Leverett and Leverett, New York Times
Facts Get in Way at White House – H.D.S. Greenway, Boston Globe
Iran NIE: Fantasies and Realities - Tulin Daloglu, Washington Times
Questions of Intelligence – Ephraim Sneh, Boston Globe
The NIE Fantasy – Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal
Tanks vs. Talks – Debra Saunders, San Francisco Chronicle
Forget Trying to Talk to Khartoum – Nick Donovan, London Times
Africa Must Drop Guilt Card – Bronwen Maddox, London Times
U.N.: Righting Rights Wrongs – Gerald Steinberg, National Review
Help the Peace Corps – Obermayer and Quigley, Christian Science Monitor
Victory via Fuel Choice – Frank Gaffney Jr., Washington Times
Vapid Vassals – Bruce Fein, Washington Times
Due Process for Jihadists? – Andrew McCarthy, Weekly Standard
CIA Tapes Investigation – Philadelphia Inquirer editorial
CIA’s Dark Cave – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial
Wrong Way to Fight Terrorism – San Francisco Chronicle editorial
Will New-Found Security Last in Baghdad? – Trudy Rubin, Baltimore Sun
American Troops are Winning – Pete Hegseth, Washington Times
Tehran and Washington Must Swallow Rhetoric – Max Hastings, Guardian
How to Defuse Iran? – Leverett and Leverett, New York Times
Facts Get in Way at White House – H.D.S. Greenway, Boston Globe
Iran NIE: Fantasies and Realities - Tulin Daloglu, Washington Times
Questions of Intelligence – Ephraim Sneh, Boston Globe
The NIE Fantasy – Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal
Tanks vs. Talks – Debra Saunders, San Francisco Chronicle
Forget Trying to Talk to Khartoum – Nick Donovan, London Times
Africa Must Drop Guilt Card – Bronwen Maddox, London Times
U.N.: Righting Rights Wrongs – Gerald Steinberg, National Review
Help the Peace Corps – Obermayer and Quigley, Christian Science Monitor
Victory via Fuel Choice – Frank Gaffney Jr., Washington Times
Vapid Vassals – Bruce Fein, Washington Times
Due Process for Jihadists? – Andrew McCarthy, Weekly Standard
CIA Tapes Investigation – Philadelphia Inquirer editorial
CIA’s Dark Cave – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial
Wrong Way to Fight Terrorism – San Francisco Chronicle editorial
Iran Report Makes Case for Keeping Pressure On
By Michael Jacobson
A piece I had in today's Baltimore Sun on last week's NIE on Iran's nuclear intentions and capabilities.
Some analysts are arguing that because last week's National Intelligence Estimate concluded that Iran halted its covert nuclear program in 2003, sanctions against Iran are no longer necessary. In fact, the opposite conclusion could be drawn from the report, which suggests that Iran is vulnerable to outside pressure on the nuclear issue - and much more still needs to be done on this front.
In 2005, the U.S. embarked on a new strategy designed to ratchet up the financial pressure against Tehran for its nuclear-related activities and its support for terrorism. The U.S. made clear that as long as Iran persisted in defying the international community, the costs of its behavior would increase. Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey warned that Iranian leaders risked "turning the country into a financial pariah" and that Iran had to choose whether to continue down this "path of isolation."
To read the rest of the piece, click here
December 10, 2007 09:58 AM Link
Iran prepares to further its US 'interests'
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IL12Ak02.html
Heated debate in Iran on the government's foreign policy moves have followed the US's release of its National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran's nuclear program, coinciding with President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's attendance at the 28th annual summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). This has put the government on the defensive at home precisely when both developments have had beneficial results for Iran's foreign policy.
The GCC summit ended with a ritual statement on the part of the six sheikdoms - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - regarding Iran's possession of three islands claimed by the UAE - Abu Mousa, Little Tunb and Big Tunb. But several Tehran editorials have attacked Ahmadinejad's decision to take part, particularly since post-summit GCC newspapers have nuanced it by claming that Iran had "invited itself".
Thus, for instance, while the daily Hambastegi has raised a "complaint against unwise foreign policies", another paper, Aftabe Yazd, asked Ahmadinejad why he allowed the Gulf states to belittle Iran. Another (moderate) paper, Etemad, questioned Ahmadinejad's trip not only to Qatar but also to Iraq, as well as his reaction to the NIE.
Simultaneously, another spark for public debate of Ahmadinejad's foreign policy moves has been provided by Ahmad Tavakoli, a member of Parliament (Majlis), who wrote an open letter to Ahmadinejad questioning the wisdom of "expressing boundless joy" with regard to the NIE, which accuses Iran of illicit nuclear weapon activities until 2003. Tavakoli also questioned the wisdom of a pro-International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stance on Iran's part which could backfire, given the record of the United Nations' watchdog in allowing the Iran issue to be politicized.
"This could come to haunt us in the future," Tavakoli warned, and his letter has been widely disseminated by the more moderate and liberal press in Iran. A mini clash between the pro-Ahmadinejad and anti-Ahmadinejad papers has thus appeared, with the latter accusing the former of distorting the president's initial reaction to the NIE as a "victory" for Iran.
Since last week, the Iranian government has been fine-tuning its response to the NIE and Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammad Khazaee, has told a US news program, Charlie Rose, that the report contains a dual "positive" and "negative" nature, putting the accent on the US's new admission of lack of nuclear weapons work by Iran.
Relatedly, Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki stated that "70%" of the NIE report is "correct", again emphasizing the positive side of it as far as Iran is concerned and urging Western governments to "correct their policies toward Iran".
So far, with the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization agreeing to keep up the pressure on Iran, instead of introducing any sea-change in Europe's Iran policy, Iran has vested its hope on a more gradual, or better said incremental, impact of the NIE report, reflected in the Tehran visit of the head of the EU's board of parliamentary relations with the Islamic Republic, Angelica Ber, who, on meeting with Mottaki last week, stated that Iran's dossier should be returned from the UN to the IAEA.
Clearly, Ber is now articulating a growing sentiment in Europe that is somewhat traumatized by the White House's late disclosure of its new information on Iran, much to the chagrin of the French, in particular whose President Nicolas Sarkozy quickly jumped the gun by declaring Iran, in his first post-election interview, to be the number one issue of world peace because of its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Unable to make the necessary u-turn potentiated by the new NIE report, France and other EU governments have followed an unreconstructed approach with regard to Iran that is self-defeating and bound to have deleterious effects on the future of the EU's self-generated foreign-policy initiatives in the global arena. It is up to Ber and other EU politicians to openly "think the unthinkable", namely, publicly calling for the end of UN sanctions on Iran and the normalization of Iran's nuclear file in light of the absence of any evidence of wrongdoing on Iran's part.
Even in the absence of such a brave initiative on Europe's part, Iran's European policy has now been much strengthened as a result of the NIE report. This has been seized on by the government to put Europe on the defensive and cause a split from the US, which has been hard-pressed to justify the absence of any policy change toward Iran by recycling the old accusations of Iran's "threat to region", to paraphrase Defense Secretary Robert Gates at a security conference in the Persian Gulf last week. Clearly, the US's Iran policy has been delivered a stunning self-blow and the lame-duck White House is now operating in a vacuum on Iran policy.
Indeed, the NIE's impact, in raising the possibilities for a new US-Iran breakthrough, has for now at least had a disorienting consequence both in Tehran and Washington. On the one hand, the report has been immune from any visible US policy change toward Iran, as reflected in Gates' blistering attacks on Iran above-mentioned. On the other hand, Iran has responded forcefully to Gates' accusations by maintaining, in the words of a Tehran Times editorial, that the US has been simply reacting negatively to Iran's regional gains as reflected in Ahmadinejad's participation at the GCC summit.
The same sentiment in reflected in the pro-Ahmadinejad website, www.rajanews.com, in a commentary that claims Ahmadinejad has upstaged the Americans by his shrewd GCC initiative (which included a 12-point program for Iran-GCC cooperation in various economic, security, tourist, environmental and other areas).
Irrespective of minor, negative Arab feedback on Ahmadinejad's GCC initiative, such as by a Kuwaiti daily, the fact is that the GCC on the whole, and Saudi Arabia in particular, have welcomed Iran's new cooperative spirit. That means the domestic critics of Ahmadinejad are missing their mark when focusing on the secondary issues and neglecting the primary importance of Ahmadinejad's initiative, in seeking a new level of cooperation with the hitherto anti-Iran GCC. Fortunately, Iraq's leaders have not made the same error and have echoed Ahmadinejad's initiative by calling for a "regional system with Iran's participation".
That is certainly a good and timely idea, except that Iran refuses to take part in any US-sponsored security infrastructure, contrary to the claim of two Iran "experts" [1] . They naively think that Iran can be somehow persuaded to shelve its hallmark of identity, which is regional patriotism [2] and antipathy to dependence on extra-regional forces for underwriting security in the Persian Gulf, and thus become part of one happy family.
Such naive analyses of complex geopolitical realities in today's Persian Gulf region, where the US-Iran games of strategy denote a dynamic new cold war featuring containment strategies mirror-imaging each other, simply add to policy confusions instead of clarifying them.
However, the good news is that the US and Iran are moving in the right direction, that is by holding their fourth round of direct dialogue on Iraq's security later this month, and the NIE report, as well as the relatively good news about declining violence in Iraq, have improved the climate for a genuine, bilateral dialogue that, conceivably, can have broader purview touching on regional security issues.
As in the previous Cold War, conflict, competition and selective cooperation go hand-in-hand in the new milieu in the Persian Gulf, and Iran's priority now is to minimize its national-security risks and take advantage of the NIE's biggest implication in removing the risk of military confrontation in what would undoubtedly be "asymmetrical warfare".
Henceforth, small steps toward US-Iran confidence-building are called for, to build on the momentum generated by the NIE, which is under attack by Washington's war-mongers, such as former ambassador to the UN John Bolton, who has called it a "coup against Bush".
Israel, equally unhappy with the NIE, has begun its own campaign against the report, and it remains to be seen if Israel can reverse its "reversal of fortunes" on Iran in Washington. One thing is clear: the unreconstructed Republican presidential contenders, such as former New York mayor Rudolph Guiliani, who is running a stern anti-Iran media advertisement, are fundamentally incapable of reckoning with the NIE's findings, which deprives them of the lion's share of their Iran-bashing "tough president" image. No matter how hard Gates and company try to fix Iran's evil image, the NIE's major tremor in altering that image is still rumbling.
Inapt criticisms of Ahmadinejad
On the whole, contrary to the Iranian press' criticisms of Ahmadinejad, both the president's reaction to the NIE and his new GCC initiative make perfect sense and are undeserving of blistering attacks. These include those from certain members of the Majlis, who have criticized the government's "emotional and adventurist foreign policies, dominated by non-expert behavior and officials who only seek propaganda gestures".
In response, the president's deputy for parliamentary affairs, Seyed Ahmad Mousavi, has defended the government's foreign policy, stating that its priority is "having the upper hand and an active and powerful presence in the international arena".
There is today a considerable, though explainable, gap between the rhetoric and reality of Iran's foreign policy, the image and the content, which is not altogether dysfunctional, thus pointing at the very complexity of Iran's foreign priorities in the post-September 11, 2001, context.
The US, for sure, has deferred more weight to Ahmadinejad than to his more moderate predecessor, Mohammad Khatami, and the stage is now set for exploring what Ali Larijani, the former chief nuclear negotiator and current representative of the Supreme Leader in the Supreme National Security Council, has termed as "shared interests" between the US and Iran. The mere introduction of this term in the foreign policy lexicon of Iran is a sign of the evolution of Iranian thinking toward detente with the US, and the US would be remiss to ignore it.
Notes
1. Vali Nasr and Ray Takeyh, The Costs of containing Iran, Council on Foreign Affairs, January/February 2008. Similarly, the authors make the error of denying any real foreign policy input by President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, attributing it solely to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei , yet another caricature of reality that overlooks the complex, and dynamic, nature of foreign policy making in today's Iran, where the leader, although the final arbiter of policies, does not necessarily act as a fount of policies, stemming from a complex set of variables including the executive branch led by the president.
2. See the author's Pan-regionalism: the next stage in Iran's foreign policy, Payvand's Iran News, March 22, 2002.
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IL12Ak02.html
Heated debate in Iran on the government's foreign policy moves have followed the US's release of its National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran's nuclear program, coinciding with President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's attendance at the 28th annual summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). This has put the government on the defensive at home precisely when both developments have had beneficial results for Iran's foreign policy.
The GCC summit ended with a ritual statement on the part of the six sheikdoms - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - regarding Iran's possession of three islands claimed by the UAE - Abu Mousa, Little Tunb and Big Tunb. But several Tehran editorials have attacked Ahmadinejad's decision to take part, particularly since post-summit GCC newspapers have nuanced it by claming that Iran had "invited itself".
Thus, for instance, while the daily Hambastegi has raised a "complaint against unwise foreign policies", another paper, Aftabe Yazd, asked Ahmadinejad why he allowed the Gulf states to belittle Iran. Another (moderate) paper, Etemad, questioned Ahmadinejad's trip not only to Qatar but also to Iraq, as well as his reaction to the NIE.
Simultaneously, another spark for public debate of Ahmadinejad's foreign policy moves has been provided by Ahmad Tavakoli, a member of Parliament (Majlis), who wrote an open letter to Ahmadinejad questioning the wisdom of "expressing boundless joy" with regard to the NIE, which accuses Iran of illicit nuclear weapon activities until 2003. Tavakoli also questioned the wisdom of a pro-International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stance on Iran's part which could backfire, given the record of the United Nations' watchdog in allowing the Iran issue to be politicized.
"This could come to haunt us in the future," Tavakoli warned, and his letter has been widely disseminated by the more moderate and liberal press in Iran. A mini clash between the pro-Ahmadinejad and anti-Ahmadinejad papers has thus appeared, with the latter accusing the former of distorting the president's initial reaction to the NIE as a "victory" for Iran.
Since last week, the Iranian government has been fine-tuning its response to the NIE and Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammad Khazaee, has told a US news program, Charlie Rose, that the report contains a dual "positive" and "negative" nature, putting the accent on the US's new admission of lack of nuclear weapons work by Iran.
Relatedly, Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki stated that "70%" of the NIE report is "correct", again emphasizing the positive side of it as far as Iran is concerned and urging Western governments to "correct their policies toward Iran".
So far, with the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization agreeing to keep up the pressure on Iran, instead of introducing any sea-change in Europe's Iran policy, Iran has vested its hope on a more gradual, or better said incremental, impact of the NIE report, reflected in the Tehran visit of the head of the EU's board of parliamentary relations with the Islamic Republic, Angelica Ber, who, on meeting with Mottaki last week, stated that Iran's dossier should be returned from the UN to the IAEA.
Clearly, Ber is now articulating a growing sentiment in Europe that is somewhat traumatized by the White House's late disclosure of its new information on Iran, much to the chagrin of the French, in particular whose President Nicolas Sarkozy quickly jumped the gun by declaring Iran, in his first post-election interview, to be the number one issue of world peace because of its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Unable to make the necessary u-turn potentiated by the new NIE report, France and other EU governments have followed an unreconstructed approach with regard to Iran that is self-defeating and bound to have deleterious effects on the future of the EU's self-generated foreign-policy initiatives in the global arena. It is up to Ber and other EU politicians to openly "think the unthinkable", namely, publicly calling for the end of UN sanctions on Iran and the normalization of Iran's nuclear file in light of the absence of any evidence of wrongdoing on Iran's part.
Even in the absence of such a brave initiative on Europe's part, Iran's European policy has now been much strengthened as a result of the NIE report. This has been seized on by the government to put Europe on the defensive and cause a split from the US, which has been hard-pressed to justify the absence of any policy change toward Iran by recycling the old accusations of Iran's "threat to region", to paraphrase Defense Secretary Robert Gates at a security conference in the Persian Gulf last week. Clearly, the US's Iran policy has been delivered a stunning self-blow and the lame-duck White House is now operating in a vacuum on Iran policy.
Indeed, the NIE's impact, in raising the possibilities for a new US-Iran breakthrough, has for now at least had a disorienting consequence both in Tehran and Washington. On the one hand, the report has been immune from any visible US policy change toward Iran, as reflected in Gates' blistering attacks on Iran above-mentioned. On the other hand, Iran has responded forcefully to Gates' accusations by maintaining, in the words of a Tehran Times editorial, that the US has been simply reacting negatively to Iran's regional gains as reflected in Ahmadinejad's participation at the GCC summit.
The same sentiment in reflected in the pro-Ahmadinejad website, www.rajanews.com, in a commentary that claims Ahmadinejad has upstaged the Americans by his shrewd GCC initiative (which included a 12-point program for Iran-GCC cooperation in various economic, security, tourist, environmental and other areas).
Irrespective of minor, negative Arab feedback on Ahmadinejad's GCC initiative, such as by a Kuwaiti daily, the fact is that the GCC on the whole, and Saudi Arabia in particular, have welcomed Iran's new cooperative spirit. That means the domestic critics of Ahmadinejad are missing their mark when focusing on the secondary issues and neglecting the primary importance of Ahmadinejad's initiative, in seeking a new level of cooperation with the hitherto anti-Iran GCC. Fortunately, Iraq's leaders have not made the same error and have echoed Ahmadinejad's initiative by calling for a "regional system with Iran's participation".
That is certainly a good and timely idea, except that Iran refuses to take part in any US-sponsored security infrastructure, contrary to the claim of two Iran "experts" [1] . They naively think that Iran can be somehow persuaded to shelve its hallmark of identity, which is regional patriotism [2] and antipathy to dependence on extra-regional forces for underwriting security in the Persian Gulf, and thus become part of one happy family.
Such naive analyses of complex geopolitical realities in today's Persian Gulf region, where the US-Iran games of strategy denote a dynamic new cold war featuring containment strategies mirror-imaging each other, simply add to policy confusions instead of clarifying them.
However, the good news is that the US and Iran are moving in the right direction, that is by holding their fourth round of direct dialogue on Iraq's security later this month, and the NIE report, as well as the relatively good news about declining violence in Iraq, have improved the climate for a genuine, bilateral dialogue that, conceivably, can have broader purview touching on regional security issues.
As in the previous Cold War, conflict, competition and selective cooperation go hand-in-hand in the new milieu in the Persian Gulf, and Iran's priority now is to minimize its national-security risks and take advantage of the NIE's biggest implication in removing the risk of military confrontation in what would undoubtedly be "asymmetrical warfare".
Henceforth, small steps toward US-Iran confidence-building are called for, to build on the momentum generated by the NIE, which is under attack by Washington's war-mongers, such as former ambassador to the UN John Bolton, who has called it a "coup against Bush".
Israel, equally unhappy with the NIE, has begun its own campaign against the report, and it remains to be seen if Israel can reverse its "reversal of fortunes" on Iran in Washington. One thing is clear: the unreconstructed Republican presidential contenders, such as former New York mayor Rudolph Guiliani, who is running a stern anti-Iran media advertisement, are fundamentally incapable of reckoning with the NIE's findings, which deprives them of the lion's share of their Iran-bashing "tough president" image. No matter how hard Gates and company try to fix Iran's evil image, the NIE's major tremor in altering that image is still rumbling.
Inapt criticisms of Ahmadinejad
On the whole, contrary to the Iranian press' criticisms of Ahmadinejad, both the president's reaction to the NIE and his new GCC initiative make perfect sense and are undeserving of blistering attacks. These include those from certain members of the Majlis, who have criticized the government's "emotional and adventurist foreign policies, dominated by non-expert behavior and officials who only seek propaganda gestures".
In response, the president's deputy for parliamentary affairs, Seyed Ahmad Mousavi, has defended the government's foreign policy, stating that its priority is "having the upper hand and an active and powerful presence in the international arena".
There is today a considerable, though explainable, gap between the rhetoric and reality of Iran's foreign policy, the image and the content, which is not altogether dysfunctional, thus pointing at the very complexity of Iran's foreign priorities in the post-September 11, 2001, context.
The US, for sure, has deferred more weight to Ahmadinejad than to his more moderate predecessor, Mohammad Khatami, and the stage is now set for exploring what Ali Larijani, the former chief nuclear negotiator and current representative of the Supreme Leader in the Supreme National Security Council, has termed as "shared interests" between the US and Iran. The mere introduction of this term in the foreign policy lexicon of Iran is a sign of the evolution of Iranian thinking toward detente with the US, and the US would be remiss to ignore it.
Notes
1. Vali Nasr and Ray Takeyh, The Costs of containing Iran, Council on Foreign Affairs, January/February 2008. Similarly, the authors make the error of denying any real foreign policy input by President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, attributing it solely to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei , yet another caricature of reality that overlooks the complex, and dynamic, nature of foreign policy making in today's Iran, where the leader, although the final arbiter of policies, does not necessarily act as a fount of policies, stemming from a complex set of variables including the executive branch led by the president.
2. See the author's Pan-regionalism: the next stage in Iran's foreign policy, Payvand's Iran News, March 22, 2002.
When Governments Substitute Paranoia For Law.
By Eileen Fleming
The Israelis have this very beautiful article about freedom and liberty but they want to destroy anyone who criticizes them for revealing the truth to the world. The world must look and see what kind of democracy Israel is when one speaks out the truth. Israel is not a democracy unless you are a Jew." Continue
By Eileen Fleming
The Israelis have this very beautiful article about freedom and liberty but they want to destroy anyone who criticizes them for revealing the truth to the world. The world must look and see what kind of democracy Israel is when one speaks out the truth. Israel is not a democracy unless you are a Jew." Continue
An Open Letter to the Antiwar Left
Why we shouldn't ignore Ron Paul's candidacy...
By Joshua Frank
This is not about Rep. Paul as an individual per se, but about his grassroots following. He's exciting many newcomers to the movement and that must be welcomed. We certainly don't share the same views with all who have latched on to his campaign, but on the issue of the Iraq war we are in total agreement. One doesn't not have to be a member of the left to oppose empire. Continue
Why we shouldn't ignore Ron Paul's candidacy...
By Joshua Frank
This is not about Rep. Paul as an individual per se, but about his grassroots following. He's exciting many newcomers to the movement and that must be welcomed. We certainly don't share the same views with all who have latched on to his campaign, but on the issue of the Iraq war we are in total agreement. One doesn't not have to be a member of the left to oppose empire. Continue
The Terror Within
By Angie Riedel
There is more terror here at home than there is anywhere else in the industrial so-called civilized world.Continue
By Angie Riedel
There is more terror here at home than there is anywhere else in the industrial so-called civilized world.Continue
Why We Resist
By Chris Hedges
Acts of resistance are moral acts. They begin because people of conscience can no longer tolerate abuse and despotism. They are carried out not because they are effective but because they are right. Continue
By Chris Hedges
Acts of resistance are moral acts. They begin because people of conscience can no longer tolerate abuse and despotism. They are carried out not because they are effective but because they are right. Continue
Drag Uribe To the Negotiating Table
Open Letter To President Sarkozy
By James Petras
I read with great interest your letter to FARC leader Manuel Marulanda. I share with you a humanitarian impulse to end the imprisonment of political prisoners in Colombia. However let us be clear, principled and realistic about this: The freedom of the political prisoners of the FARC is dependent on a quid pro quo – the liberation of the resistance fighters of the FARC in the dungeons of the Colombian state. Continue
Open Letter To President Sarkozy
By James Petras
I read with great interest your letter to FARC leader Manuel Marulanda. I share with you a humanitarian impulse to end the imprisonment of political prisoners in Colombia. However let us be clear, principled and realistic about this: The freedom of the political prisoners of the FARC is dependent on a quid pro quo – the liberation of the resistance fighters of the FARC in the dungeons of the Colombian state. Continue
Tired of Promises
Vicenza, Italy Demands Action Against New U.S. Military Base
By Stephanie Westbrook
They left Vicenza just after midnight and drove through the night to arrive in Rome on Sunday morning; six buses carrying the women and men of the Presidio Permanente No Dal Molin, the movement against the new U.S. military base in this northern Italian city. Continue
Vicenza, Italy Demands Action Against New U.S. Military Base
By Stephanie Westbrook
They left Vicenza just after midnight and drove through the night to arrive in Rome on Sunday morning; six buses carrying the women and men of the Presidio Permanente No Dal Molin, the movement against the new U.S. military base in this northern Italian city. Continue
MRAP: Another Casualty of the Surge – Christian Lowe, Weekly Standard
Powerful Awakening Shakes Iraqi Politics - Trudy Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer
Who Speaks for Iraq’s Shiites? – Nathaniel Rabkin, Weekly Standard
More Constructive Approach to Afghanistan - The Independent editorial
Taliban Can Lose Battles, Win War – Tom Coghlan, London Daily Telegraph
Britain's Afghan Mission Failing - Simon Jenkins, Guardian
Ticking Time Bombs in Kabul - Wahid Monawar, Toronto Star
A Muslim American – National Review Q&A
Confronting Canada’s Speech Police – Rebecca Walberg, National Review
No Peace in Our Time - David Warren, Ottawa Citizen
Iran Debate Will Continue – Harlan Ullman, Washington Times
Iran Still a Threat – Claude Salhani, Washington Times
Losing Weight in the Gulf? – Thomas Freidman, New York Times
Kosovo Deserves Independence – Anthony Loyd, London Times
Politics, Putin Style? – New York Times editorial
Putin’s Puppet Prez – New York Post editorial
Putin and Power - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial
Russia’s New Oligarchy – Anders Aslund, Washington Post
Putin Holds the Royal Scepter – Reuben Johnson, Weekly Standard
Hello Gazpromia – Helle Dale, Washington Times
Pakistan Back to Normal? – Bronwen Maddox, London Times
U.N. Force Won't End Darfur Tragedy - Julie Flint, The Independent
Khadafy Inside the Tent – Boston Globe editorial
South Africa Grows Up? – Mark Gevisser, New York Times
Put End to Waterboarding - San Francisco Chronicle editorial
Torture Law is Clear - Baltimore Sun editorial
Too Graphic for the CIA? – Boston Globe editorial
A FISA Fix – Michael Mukasey, Los Angeles Times
How to Weaken Al Qaeda - Ken Ballen, Miami Herald
Sea Law Turbulence – Ken Adelman, Washington Times
Powerful Awakening Shakes Iraqi Politics - Trudy Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer
Who Speaks for Iraq’s Shiites? – Nathaniel Rabkin, Weekly Standard
More Constructive Approach to Afghanistan - The Independent editorial
Taliban Can Lose Battles, Win War – Tom Coghlan, London Daily Telegraph
Britain's Afghan Mission Failing - Simon Jenkins, Guardian
Ticking Time Bombs in Kabul - Wahid Monawar, Toronto Star
A Muslim American – National Review Q&A
Confronting Canada’s Speech Police – Rebecca Walberg, National Review
No Peace in Our Time - David Warren, Ottawa Citizen
Iran Debate Will Continue – Harlan Ullman, Washington Times
Iran Still a Threat – Claude Salhani, Washington Times
Losing Weight in the Gulf? – Thomas Freidman, New York Times
Kosovo Deserves Independence – Anthony Loyd, London Times
Politics, Putin Style? – New York Times editorial
Putin’s Puppet Prez – New York Post editorial
Putin and Power - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial
Russia’s New Oligarchy – Anders Aslund, Washington Post
Putin Holds the Royal Scepter – Reuben Johnson, Weekly Standard
Hello Gazpromia – Helle Dale, Washington Times
Pakistan Back to Normal? – Bronwen Maddox, London Times
U.N. Force Won't End Darfur Tragedy - Julie Flint, The Independent
Khadafy Inside the Tent – Boston Globe editorial
South Africa Grows Up? – Mark Gevisser, New York Times
Put End to Waterboarding - San Francisco Chronicle editorial
Torture Law is Clear - Baltimore Sun editorial
Too Graphic for the CIA? – Boston Globe editorial
A FISA Fix – Michael Mukasey, Los Angeles Times
How to Weaken Al Qaeda - Ken Ballen, Miami Herald
Sea Law Turbulence – Ken Adelman, Washington Times
The Arab Citizen’s Task: Complaining and Voting by Rami G. Khouri
Jordan is neither a shining Arab democracy nor a vile police state that does the bidding of the United States or Israel.
more...
First Test of Annapolis by Rami G. Khouri
How the United States responds on Har Homa (Jabal Abu Ghneim) -- where the Israelis plan to build 300 housing units on Palestinian land -- will reveal if the Annapolis process has any credibility.
more...
Annapolis and Iran by Richard Bulliet
The Annapolis meeting was said to be set in the context of a need to rein in Iran. Hence the Arab countries participation -- lured by their fear of Iranian dominance. But the connections between the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and Iran were not well thought out.
more...
Jewish Israel Needs Wholesome, Healed Palestine by Rami G. Khouri
Israeli and Palestinian national narratives must make room for the other, if either wishes to be acknowledged and legitimized. Or as Bob Dylan put it: “I’ll let you be in my dream, if you let me be in yours.”
more...
Jordan is neither a shining Arab democracy nor a vile police state that does the bidding of the United States or Israel.
more...
First Test of Annapolis by Rami G. Khouri
How the United States responds on Har Homa (Jabal Abu Ghneim) -- where the Israelis plan to build 300 housing units on Palestinian land -- will reveal if the Annapolis process has any credibility.
more...
Annapolis and Iran by Richard Bulliet
The Annapolis meeting was said to be set in the context of a need to rein in Iran. Hence the Arab countries participation -- lured by their fear of Iranian dominance. But the connections between the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and Iran were not well thought out.
more...
Jewish Israel Needs Wholesome, Healed Palestine by Rami G. Khouri
Israeli and Palestinian national narratives must make room for the other, if either wishes to be acknowledged and legitimized. Or as Bob Dylan put it: “I’ll let you be in my dream, if you let me be in yours.”
more...
Palestine Park
by J.A. Miller / December 12th, 2007
Desiring Westerners
This past fall I traveled to Boston to attend the Sabeel Conference on the “Apartheid Paradigm in Palestine-Israel” held in the Old South Church. Global warming was in full swing on the muggy weekend which coincided with the October 27th anti-war demonstrations organized by UFPJ. Sabeel — Arabic for “path” — is a Palestinian Christian organization billing itself as an “ecumenical, international grassroots peace movement that promotes nonviolence, human rights, international law, democratic principles and Gospel teachings on justice and peace-building”. Since the Zionist project was originated by Protestants hundreds of years ago and is now sustained not only by the murderous brutality of the Israeli army, the efficient ministrations of The Lobby and American largesse but also by the very edifice of Protestantism I was curious to see what the liberals among them were up to these days in this regard. The use of the word “apartheid” seemed promising so I bought my ticket and off I went. (Full article …)
Muhammad Khurshid: US Can Defeat Terrorism In Pakistan Politically The world is a global village and events in one part will certainly affect its other parts. The terrorism in tribal areas will certainly affect the U.S. as terrorism emerged in the areas after the horrible attacks of 9/11. The people of tribal areas think that the US can defeat terrorism in Pakistan through political means. There is no need of army for defeating terrorism in Pakistan. It can be defeated politically.
Bernard Weiner, The Crisis Papers: Bush's Nuclear-Boogeyman Scam CheneyBush were on track to attack Iran by pulling the same nuclear-fear scam that worked for them in getting the U.S. into Iraq. But powerful forces of rebellion within the Administration foiled them. Or did it? CheneyBush remain determined to bomb Iran's military/scientific infrastructure.
Putin's choice: Charm could be unlucky
Vladimir Putin's endorsement of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as the official Kremlin candidate for the upcoming presidential elections will charm Western powers (Medvedev, formerly the head of Gazprom, is reportedly a Black Sabbath fan) and Beijing. But he's virtually an unknown as far Russia's old ally India is concerned, and the charm could wear thin soon. - M K Bhadrakumar (Dec 13, '07)
Vladimir Putin's endorsement of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as the official Kremlin candidate for the upcoming presidential elections will charm Western powers (Medvedev, formerly the head of Gazprom, is reportedly a Black Sabbath fan) and Beijing. But he's virtually an unknown as far Russia's old ally India is concerned, and the charm could wear thin soon. - M K Bhadrakumar (Dec 13, '07)
Ties on Iran's nuclear program loosen
New cracks in Washington's hardline stance against Iran's nuclear program are emerging, including US experts calling for limited uranium enrichment capability or simply for strict nuclear transparency. The White House and Iran might not yet agree, but it's clear that the time to end United Nations sanctions has arrived, and the US's own sanctions on Iran are now due for reconsideration. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Dec 13, '07)
New cracks in Washington's hardline stance against Iran's nuclear program are emerging, including US experts calling for limited uranium enrichment capability or simply for strict nuclear transparency. The White House and Iran might not yet agree, but it's clear that the time to end United Nations sanctions has arrived, and the US's own sanctions on Iran are now due for reconsideration. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Dec 13, '07)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IL14Ak01.html
Ties on Iran's nuclear program loosen
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
It's a tough pill for Washington and its European allies to swallow, yet the fact that the new US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) warrants a considerable revision of Western strategy toward Iran's nuclear program is inescapable and, already, new cracks in the previously rigid US stance on Iran can be discerned.
Case in point, Matthew Bunn, a leading nuclear expert at Harvard University, has maintained that the US's option of "zero centrifuges" is no longer viable, in light of Iran's rapid advances in mastering the nuclear fuel cycle, and the US should now probe a range of other options. [1]
According to Bunn, a viable option is an international consortium producing nuclear fuel for Iran, while allowing a limited number (ie one to four) cascades of centrifuges to operate in Iran. Each cascade contains 164 centrifuges. This would be well below the 3,000 centrifuges that Iran has reportedly assembled already, considered a "magic number" because of the potential for diversion to bomb production.
Considering this a "face-saving" option for Iran, which prides itself for making the scientific breakthrough with centrifuge technology, Bunn argues that Iran's limited centrifuges would give Iran a fallback option in case the international guarantees on the delivery of nuclear fuel did not pan out. Per Bunn's proposal, Iran has a medium to high probability of accepting this "package". It would be linked to various incentives, such as a security guarantee. Iran's alternative of rejecting such a package would be continued sanctions and even threats of military action.
Bunn's proposal has certain merits and represents a welcome step forward compared to the rigid and unrealistic White House's demand for a complete halt to Iran's sensitive nuclear activities. As the "Five plus One" diplomats (United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China plus Germany ) continue to confer on the next steps regarding Iran, in light of Iran's defiance of UN Security Council resolutions demanding a full suspension of uranium enrichment activities, Bunn's proposal deserves a healthy pause. This is principally because it turns an absolute position (no centrifuges) into a relative one and, in turn, opens a new space for negotiations.
Iran's main objection would be, of course, on what grounds should it refrain from "industrial scale" centrifuge technology, something enjoyed by other nations, as long as thorough inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are in place. The Iranian experience with outside nuclear contractors is rife with bitter memories of betrayed promises. It's all the more reason why today Iran is unwilling to forego its right to produce nuclear fuel on its own soil, instead of becoming permanently dependent on foreign sources.
Another Iranian objection would be why limit it to a maximum of four cascades, when even by US's own admission, even with 18-20 cascades Iran would still not be in a position to yield sufficient highly-enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb. To meet this potential objection, then, the US may need to consider a higher number of Iranian cascades. The qualitative issue of a "threshold" regarding bomb-making capability involves a quantitative haggling over the number of cascades that, theoretically speaking, can be negotiated without preconditions).
Interestingly, a number of other US pundits, including former senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council, Flynt Levertt, and his wife Hillary Mann, a former Foreign Service officer who participated in the United States' discussions with Iran from 2001 to 2003, have dispensed altogether with the idea of any such set limits on Iran's nuclear program.
In an article in the New York Times they called simply for strict nuclear transparency and full IAEA monitoring of Iran's nuclear program, without directly mentioning the issue of Iran's centrifuges. In comparison, Bunn's proposal at least has the merit of directly addressing the heart of the matter and pointing at a concrete option that may signal the end of the Iranian nuclear crisis.
Yet another problem with any such proposal, however, is that Iran's domestic politics is predisposed against any serious concessions and the combined factional politics intermixed with upcoming parliamentary election's prerogatives and pressures "from below" by nationalistic Iranians actually militate against it.
The premium put on the politicians' ability to reach a compromise is, at the same time, tempered by the increasingly painful result of international sanctions on Iran, hitting the Iranian economy. This, in turn, has led to a growing call by prominent Iranians for greater flexibility and compromise. The question is what level of compromise is politically expedient, beyond which it amounts to political suicide.
In conclusion, there is yet another option that from Iran's vantage point seems more, and not less, probable in the aftermath of the NIE report, that substantially reduces the risks of military confrontation between Iran and the West over the nuclear issue, and that is "zero sanctions, 100% transparency".
After all, the Iranian case against UN sanctions has just been bolstered in the form of the NIE report, putting the West on the defensive (See The case against sanctions on Iran Asia Times Online, May 2, 2006).
The time to end the UN sanctions has arrived, and the US's own sanctions on Iran too are now candidates for reconsideration, particularly if the US heeds President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's call to take further concrete steps to prove its goodwill toward Iran.
Note
1. Constraining Iran's nuclear program. Matthew Bunn, Managing the Atom Project, Harvard University Oak Ridge National Laboratory, November 15, 2007.
Kaveh L Afrasiabi, PhD, is the author of After Khomeini: New Directions in Iran's Foreign Policy (Westview Press) and co-author of "Negotiating Iran's Nuclear Populism", Brown Journal of World Affairs, Volume XII, Issue 2, Summer 2005, with Mustafa Kibaroglu. He also wrote "Keeping Iran's nuclear potential latent", Harvard International Review, and is author of Iran's Nuclear Program: Debating Facts Versus Fiction.
(Copyright 2007 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
Ties on Iran's nuclear program loosen
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
It's a tough pill for Washington and its European allies to swallow, yet the fact that the new US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) warrants a considerable revision of Western strategy toward Iran's nuclear program is inescapable and, already, new cracks in the previously rigid US stance on Iran can be discerned.
Case in point, Matthew Bunn, a leading nuclear expert at Harvard University, has maintained that the US's option of "zero centrifuges" is no longer viable, in light of Iran's rapid advances in mastering the nuclear fuel cycle, and the US should now probe a range of other options. [1]
According to Bunn, a viable option is an international consortium producing nuclear fuel for Iran, while allowing a limited number (ie one to four) cascades of centrifuges to operate in Iran. Each cascade contains 164 centrifuges. This would be well below the 3,000 centrifuges that Iran has reportedly assembled already, considered a "magic number" because of the potential for diversion to bomb production.
Considering this a "face-saving" option for Iran, which prides itself for making the scientific breakthrough with centrifuge technology, Bunn argues that Iran's limited centrifuges would give Iran a fallback option in case the international guarantees on the delivery of nuclear fuel did not pan out. Per Bunn's proposal, Iran has a medium to high probability of accepting this "package". It would be linked to various incentives, such as a security guarantee. Iran's alternative of rejecting such a package would be continued sanctions and even threats of military action.
Bunn's proposal has certain merits and represents a welcome step forward compared to the rigid and unrealistic White House's demand for a complete halt to Iran's sensitive nuclear activities. As the "Five plus One" diplomats (United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China plus Germany ) continue to confer on the next steps regarding Iran, in light of Iran's defiance of UN Security Council resolutions demanding a full suspension of uranium enrichment activities, Bunn's proposal deserves a healthy pause. This is principally because it turns an absolute position (no centrifuges) into a relative one and, in turn, opens a new space for negotiations.
Iran's main objection would be, of course, on what grounds should it refrain from "industrial scale" centrifuge technology, something enjoyed by other nations, as long as thorough inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are in place. The Iranian experience with outside nuclear contractors is rife with bitter memories of betrayed promises. It's all the more reason why today Iran is unwilling to forego its right to produce nuclear fuel on its own soil, instead of becoming permanently dependent on foreign sources.
Another Iranian objection would be why limit it to a maximum of four cascades, when even by US's own admission, even with 18-20 cascades Iran would still not be in a position to yield sufficient highly-enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb. To meet this potential objection, then, the US may need to consider a higher number of Iranian cascades. The qualitative issue of a "threshold" regarding bomb-making capability involves a quantitative haggling over the number of cascades that, theoretically speaking, can be negotiated without preconditions).
Interestingly, a number of other US pundits, including former senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council, Flynt Levertt, and his wife Hillary Mann, a former Foreign Service officer who participated in the United States' discussions with Iran from 2001 to 2003, have dispensed altogether with the idea of any such set limits on Iran's nuclear program.
In an article in the New York Times they called simply for strict nuclear transparency and full IAEA monitoring of Iran's nuclear program, without directly mentioning the issue of Iran's centrifuges. In comparison, Bunn's proposal at least has the merit of directly addressing the heart of the matter and pointing at a concrete option that may signal the end of the Iranian nuclear crisis.
Yet another problem with any such proposal, however, is that Iran's domestic politics is predisposed against any serious concessions and the combined factional politics intermixed with upcoming parliamentary election's prerogatives and pressures "from below" by nationalistic Iranians actually militate against it.
The premium put on the politicians' ability to reach a compromise is, at the same time, tempered by the increasingly painful result of international sanctions on Iran, hitting the Iranian economy. This, in turn, has led to a growing call by prominent Iranians for greater flexibility and compromise. The question is what level of compromise is politically expedient, beyond which it amounts to political suicide.
In conclusion, there is yet another option that from Iran's vantage point seems more, and not less, probable in the aftermath of the NIE report, that substantially reduces the risks of military confrontation between Iran and the West over the nuclear issue, and that is "zero sanctions, 100% transparency".
After all, the Iranian case against UN sanctions has just been bolstered in the form of the NIE report, putting the West on the defensive (See The case against sanctions on Iran Asia Times Online, May 2, 2006).
The time to end the UN sanctions has arrived, and the US's own sanctions on Iran too are now candidates for reconsideration, particularly if the US heeds President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's call to take further concrete steps to prove its goodwill toward Iran.
Note
1. Constraining Iran's nuclear program. Matthew Bunn, Managing the Atom Project, Harvard University Oak Ridge National Laboratory, November 15, 2007.
Kaveh L Afrasiabi, PhD, is the author of After Khomeini: New Directions in Iran's Foreign Policy (Westview Press) and co-author of "Negotiating Iran's Nuclear Populism", Brown Journal of World Affairs, Volume XII, Issue 2, Summer 2005, with Mustafa Kibaroglu. He also wrote "Keeping Iran's nuclear potential latent", Harvard International Review, and is author of Iran's Nuclear Program: Debating Facts Versus Fiction.
(Copyright 2007 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
It's a fragile 'quiet' in Iraq
The decline in violence in Iraq rests uneasily on several unrelated and loosely related processes. The "surge" is certainly one, but it is not foremost. Iranian pressure is another, as is the forced relocation of 2 million or so Sunnis who have fled to foreign countries. The attendant fragility of these factors does not inspire confidence that the decline in violence can continue. - Brian M Downing (Dec 13, '07)
The decline in violence in Iraq rests uneasily on several unrelated and loosely related processes. The "surge" is certainly one, but it is not foremost. Iranian pressure is another, as is the forced relocation of 2 million or so Sunnis who have fled to foreign countries. The attendant fragility of these factors does not inspire confidence that the decline in violence can continue. - Brian M Downing (Dec 13, '07)
Sino silence in
subprime swamp
China has emerged as a leading and growing buyer of US debt, notably bonds linked to the troubled American housing market. Yet as world markets are roiled to the point of seizure by the subprime mortgage crisis, the Middle Kingdom remains silent over the scale of its holdings, the risk of huge losses they entail, and why it continues its purchases as the value of the US dollar slides. - Max Fraad Wolff
subprime swamp
China has emerged as a leading and growing buyer of US debt, notably bonds linked to the troubled American housing market. Yet as world markets are roiled to the point of seizure by the subprime mortgage crisis, the Middle Kingdom remains silent over the scale of its holdings, the risk of huge losses they entail, and why it continues its purchases as the value of the US dollar slides. - Max Fraad Wolff
Strange bedfellows emerge in Pakistan
Just weeks ahead of Pakistan's national elections, militants based in the tribal areas, the country's premier urban-based Islamic party, civil society and even al-Qaeda find themselves on the same side. They are lined up against the political parties now under the military establishment's wing headed by President Pervez Musharraf. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Dec 13, '07)
Just weeks ahead of Pakistan's national elections, militants based in the tribal areas, the country's premier urban-based Islamic party, civil society and even al-Qaeda find themselves on the same side. They are lined up against the political parties now under the military establishment's wing headed by President Pervez Musharraf. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Dec 13, '07)
US looks on as Malaysia wobbles
On paper, Malaysia is exactly the sort of moderate Muslim country with which the US should nurture relations. But simmering domestic issues and protests are being met with a clampdown on civil liberties, clouding the future of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi. Washington's reaction is yet to be seen, but at stake are a free trade agreement and the security of the Strait of Malacca. - Tony Wilson (Dec 13, '07)
On paper, Malaysia is exactly the sort of moderate Muslim country with which the US should nurture relations. But simmering domestic issues and protests are being met with a clampdown on civil liberties, clouding the future of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi. Washington's reaction is yet to be seen, but at stake are a free trade agreement and the security of the Strait of Malacca. - Tony Wilson (Dec 13, '07)
The paradox of East Asian peace
North Korea is hard-pressed to give up its nukes. The United States is reluctant to give up its hegemonic position in East Asia. These are the dilemmas posed by the strongest and the weakest powers in the six-party talks. The middle powers - China, Russia and South Korea - are the most supportive of a potential regional peace and security mechanism, leaving Japan as the wild card. - John Feffer (Dec 13, '07)
North Korea is hard-pressed to give up its nukes. The United States is reluctant to give up its hegemonic position in East Asia. These are the dilemmas posed by the strongest and the weakest powers in the six-party talks. The middle powers - China, Russia and South Korea - are the most supportive of a potential regional peace and security mechanism, leaving Japan as the wild card. - John Feffer (Dec 13, '07)
Bulls, bankers blind to inevitable bust
The bull market of the past five years has produced investors who know little of how rapid credit creation ultimately ends in collapse and who are ill-prepared for a period of contracting credit. Nor have central bankers recognized the vanity of trying to save crumbling markets by throwing dollars at the problem. - Doug Wakefield
The bull market of the past five years has produced investors who know little of how rapid credit creation ultimately ends in collapse and who are ill-prepared for a period of contracting credit. Nor have central bankers recognized the vanity of trying to save crumbling markets by throwing dollars at the problem. - Doug Wakefield
China outwits the EU in Africa
On the back of a business-first foreign policy, China is rapidly supplanting Europe as Africa's major trade and development partner. It is an intriguing geopolitical alliance between the world's fastest-expanding economy and the most impoverished continent. Meanwhile, the EU squirms as Beijing's non-interference policy ignores its lofty plans for good governance and sustainability. - Bernt Berger (Dec 12, '07)
On the back of a business-first foreign policy, China is rapidly supplanting Europe as Africa's major trade and development partner. It is an intriguing geopolitical alliance between the world's fastest-expanding economy and the most impoverished continent. Meanwhile, the EU squirms as Beijing's non-interference policy ignores its lofty plans for good governance and sustainability. - Bernt Berger (Dec 12, '07)
A strain of thought anticipated by Ehud Olmert is gaining ground among Palestinians....
Thanks, but no thanks
Statehood does not offer the equitable and fair solution the Palestinian people deserve
Ahmad Samih Khalidi
Thursday December 13, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2226424,00.html
The Palestinian state has now become the universal standard for all solutions to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The international community applauds the concept. President Bush proudly proclaims it as his "vision". The Israelis have come to it belatedly, after years of steadfast refusal and rejection.
Today Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, not only supports the idea but proclaims it as an existential Israeli interest: without it, Israel is fated to disappear under dire assault from the ever-expanding Arab population in both Israel and the occupied territories. This apparent human tide may yet bring disaster to the Jewish state, by demanding equal civil rights to those of the Jews themselves.
But statehood as such is a relatively recent addition to Palestinian aspirations. The main Palestinian impetus after the disaster of 1948 was that of "return"; it was more about reversing the loss of Arab land and patrimony, than the fulfilment of classical post-colonial self-determination, via statehood.
Driven into national concussion by the catastrophic forced displacement of 1948 and up until the mid-1960s, the sense of a separate "Palestinian" national identity all but disappeared. This "lost consciousness" was only reversed by the emergence of Fatah under Yasser Arafat in the Arab diaspora in the late 1950s.
It was only after the 1967 debacle that a new Palestinian national identity began to take shape. At its core was the notion of the armed struggle as a galvanising force. Armed struggle, according to Fatah, restored Palestinian dignity and gave the Palestinians a say in determining their future.
Statehood and state building had no real place in this scheme. Indeed, the first tentative proposals to establish a state in Palestine (ie the West Bank) were rejected as defeatist and a betrayal of the national cause. This was certainly not an exercise in institution building, land acquisition and state building by stealth, as in the Zionist movement before 1948. After the 1973 war, Fatah's leaders turned to the notion again. This was largely the result of a realistic reading of the balance of power and a recognition of the limits of what force, on the part of the Arab states or Palestinian irregulars, was likely to achieve. Eventually, in 1988, Arafat himself backed the idea of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders as a historic compromise; Israel behind these borders would get 77% of Mandatory Palestine, and the Palestinians would be reconciled to the remaining 23%.
Today, the Palestinian state is largely a punitive construct devised by the Palestinians' worst historical enemies: Israel and its implacable ally, the US. The intention behind the state today is to constrain Palestinian aspirations territorially, to force them to give up on their moral rights, renege on their history and submit to Israel's diktats on fundamental issues of sovereignty.
Its core is the rump Palestinian Authority that is now fundamentally sustained by the IDF presence on the West Bank. The PA is increasingly being turned into an accoutrement of Israeli occupation; its function is to serve Israeli security interests as designated by Israel itself and the US military teams that have been overseeing the buildup of Palestinian security forces.
It is very unclear how an independent state can be built on the spears of the very force that is occupying it. Or how state institutions can be constructed while the occupation continues to determine every aspect of Palestinian life.
The notion of a state was an offshoot of the Palestinian struggle and not its nodal point. Nonetheless, there was a period from the mid-1970s onwards when the state could have represented the point where Palestinian national aspirations met the boundaries of what is possible.
Now this concept is less attractive than ever. Olmert demands of Palestinians that they must give up their history. President Bush decides for them what their borders and rights must be. And Tony Blair wags a finger and tells Palestinians that they won't get a state at all unless, it meets his high standards (sic) of governance .
The temptation is to say, thanks, but no thanks. Under such circumstances, Palestinians may just opt for something else. They could evoke Olmert's worst nightmare and call for a more equitable and fair resolution that is built on a different basis; one of mutual respect, equality and mutuality, and a sense of genuine partnership in sharing the land.
Or Palestinians could simply continue to say no to a state that does nothing to address its basic needs. Either way, its hard to see how Israel can win this struggle in the long term.
Ahmad Samih Khalidi is a senior associate member of St Antony's College, Oxford aswk@yahoo.com
Thanks, but no thanks
Statehood does not offer the equitable and fair solution the Palestinian people deserve
Ahmad Samih Khalidi
Thursday December 13, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2226424,00.html
The Palestinian state has now become the universal standard for all solutions to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The international community applauds the concept. President Bush proudly proclaims it as his "vision". The Israelis have come to it belatedly, after years of steadfast refusal and rejection.
Today Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, not only supports the idea but proclaims it as an existential Israeli interest: without it, Israel is fated to disappear under dire assault from the ever-expanding Arab population in both Israel and the occupied territories. This apparent human tide may yet bring disaster to the Jewish state, by demanding equal civil rights to those of the Jews themselves.
But statehood as such is a relatively recent addition to Palestinian aspirations. The main Palestinian impetus after the disaster of 1948 was that of "return"; it was more about reversing the loss of Arab land and patrimony, than the fulfilment of classical post-colonial self-determination, via statehood.
Driven into national concussion by the catastrophic forced displacement of 1948 and up until the mid-1960s, the sense of a separate "Palestinian" national identity all but disappeared. This "lost consciousness" was only reversed by the emergence of Fatah under Yasser Arafat in the Arab diaspora in the late 1950s.
It was only after the 1967 debacle that a new Palestinian national identity began to take shape. At its core was the notion of the armed struggle as a galvanising force. Armed struggle, according to Fatah, restored Palestinian dignity and gave the Palestinians a say in determining their future.
Statehood and state building had no real place in this scheme. Indeed, the first tentative proposals to establish a state in Palestine (ie the West Bank) were rejected as defeatist and a betrayal of the national cause. This was certainly not an exercise in institution building, land acquisition and state building by stealth, as in the Zionist movement before 1948. After the 1973 war, Fatah's leaders turned to the notion again. This was largely the result of a realistic reading of the balance of power and a recognition of the limits of what force, on the part of the Arab states or Palestinian irregulars, was likely to achieve. Eventually, in 1988, Arafat himself backed the idea of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders as a historic compromise; Israel behind these borders would get 77% of Mandatory Palestine, and the Palestinians would be reconciled to the remaining 23%.
Today, the Palestinian state is largely a punitive construct devised by the Palestinians' worst historical enemies: Israel and its implacable ally, the US. The intention behind the state today is to constrain Palestinian aspirations territorially, to force them to give up on their moral rights, renege on their history and submit to Israel's diktats on fundamental issues of sovereignty.
Its core is the rump Palestinian Authority that is now fundamentally sustained by the IDF presence on the West Bank. The PA is increasingly being turned into an accoutrement of Israeli occupation; its function is to serve Israeli security interests as designated by Israel itself and the US military teams that have been overseeing the buildup of Palestinian security forces.
It is very unclear how an independent state can be built on the spears of the very force that is occupying it. Or how state institutions can be constructed while the occupation continues to determine every aspect of Palestinian life.
The notion of a state was an offshoot of the Palestinian struggle and not its nodal point. Nonetheless, there was a period from the mid-1970s onwards when the state could have represented the point where Palestinian national aspirations met the boundaries of what is possible.
Now this concept is less attractive than ever. Olmert demands of Palestinians that they must give up their history. President Bush decides for them what their borders and rights must be. And Tony Blair wags a finger and tells Palestinians that they won't get a state at all unless, it meets his high standards (sic) of governance .
The temptation is to say, thanks, but no thanks. Under such circumstances, Palestinians may just opt for something else. They could evoke Olmert's worst nightmare and call for a more equitable and fair resolution that is built on a different basis; one of mutual respect, equality and mutuality, and a sense of genuine partnership in sharing the land.
Or Palestinians could simply continue to say no to a state that does nothing to address its basic needs. Either way, its hard to see how Israel can win this struggle in the long term.
Ahmad Samih Khalidi is a senior associate member of St Antony's College, Oxford aswk@yahoo.com
Understanding the NIE, Carnegie Analysis
Iraq's Danger Signals Paul Rogers Open Democracy - December, 2007 Behind the headlines, then, the Bush administration is seeking to strengthen its influence in Iraq in the face of a weak and corrupt government that is ready to complete numerous contracts with oil companies. At the heart of United States strategy in Iraq remains the aim of securing ultimate control of what to it is Iraq's most precious resource.
The Impossible Forfeit Donniel Hartman Ha'aretz - December, 2007 To ask a Muslim or Christian who is an Israeli citizen to regard himself as a citizen of a Jewish state is to expect him to declare himself a perennial outsider within his own country.
Dignity Denied in the Occupied Palestinian Territories International Committee of the Red Cross - December, 2007 Throughout the occupied Palestinian territories, in the Gaza Strip as well as in the West Bank, Palestinians continuously face hardship in simply going about their lives; they are prevented from doing what makes up the daily fabric of most people's existence. The Palestinian territories face a deep human crisis, where millions of people are denied their human dignity. Not once in a while, but every day.
The Impossible Forfeit Donniel Hartman Ha'aretz - December, 2007 To ask a Muslim or Christian who is an Israeli citizen to regard himself as a citizen of a Jewish state is to expect him to declare himself a perennial outsider within his own country.
Dignity Denied in the Occupied Palestinian Territories International Committee of the Red Cross - December, 2007 Throughout the occupied Palestinian territories, in the Gaza Strip as well as in the West Bank, Palestinians continuously face hardship in simply going about their lives; they are prevented from doing what makes up the daily fabric of most people's existence. The Palestinian territories face a deep human crisis, where millions of people are denied their human dignity. Not once in a while, but every day.
Amb. Spiers (USFS, Ret.) served as Undersecretary of State and Undersecretary-General of the United Nations as well as ambassador to Turkey and Pakistan.
Article published Dec 13, 2007
The Rutland Herald
Another way in the Mideast
For over half a century diplomats and statesmen have been trying to move the Palestinians and Israelis toward a "two-state" solution.
The U.S. initially accepted the 1948 U.N. General Assembly majority plan that proposed this answer to the conundrum of Palestine after the British gave up their mandate over the territory. The Arabs accepted neither this nor the minority plan which recommended a single state with separate Swiss-like cantons for Arabs and Jews. The Jews proceeded to declare an independent state of Israel without explicitly accepting the borders proposed in the U.N. majority plan. The Arab inhabitants rejected both versions and resisted any division of Palestine.
The rest has been a persistent conflict between the two communities, with periodic attempts at reconciliation, as at Camp David, Wye, Madrid, Oslo, Taba and, last month, Annapolis — all unsuccessful at making any lasting progress or averting repeated eruptions of violence.
November's Annapolis conference has come and gone, producing only an agreement to keep on talking about the "two-state" solution without closing any of the gaps on the so-called "core" issues: borders, settlements, Jerusalem, water rights. The Israelis resisted any reference to these issues and the Palestinians were unable to get those that concern them even mentioned in the final statement. The only concrete action was in endorsing Tony Blair's charge to help Palestinian institutions prepare for statehood, and Gen. Jim Jones' charge to monitor and judge the PLO effectiveness in reigning in violence from the occupied territories and Israel's fulfillment of promises to freeze settlements.
The whole Annapolis operation has been greeted by many with cynicism and even ridicule, but no one is prepared to throw in the cards on the "peace process" that many consider all "process" and no peace. Two weak leaderships continue unable to produce a consensus among their populations that will support the needed compromises for peace. The Quartet has, so far, been unable or unwilling to present a position of its own on the "core" issues and to press the parties to accept it.
The Palestinians think that the Israelis' vision of a Palestinian "state" is a phantom sovereignty of a collection of "Bantustan" reservations surrounded by Israeli settlements that will essentially control movement and resources. The Israelis, suspicious that the Palestinians will never be ready to accept a genuine peace with Israel, continue to encroach on occupied territory, exacerbating Palestinian support for violence. Things get progressively worse.
The time may now have passed when a viable two-state solution is possible. If this is the case, the international community should advocate creation of a single state, democratic and universally recognized, with equal rights for all of its citizens, Jew, Christian or Muslim, following the pattern of all true democracies. Diverse racial, national and religious groups live in peace together today in the United States, in the European Union and, most recently, in South Africa. And, after all, this is what the Bush administration purports to seek for the Middle East.
There is no genuine reason this vision could not inspire hope in the Holy Land and around the world.
RONALD SPIERS
South Londonderry
Article published Dec 13, 2007
The Rutland Herald
Another way in the Mideast
For over half a century diplomats and statesmen have been trying to move the Palestinians and Israelis toward a "two-state" solution.
The U.S. initially accepted the 1948 U.N. General Assembly majority plan that proposed this answer to the conundrum of Palestine after the British gave up their mandate over the territory. The Arabs accepted neither this nor the minority plan which recommended a single state with separate Swiss-like cantons for Arabs and Jews. The Jews proceeded to declare an independent state of Israel without explicitly accepting the borders proposed in the U.N. majority plan. The Arab inhabitants rejected both versions and resisted any division of Palestine.
The rest has been a persistent conflict between the two communities, with periodic attempts at reconciliation, as at Camp David, Wye, Madrid, Oslo, Taba and, last month, Annapolis — all unsuccessful at making any lasting progress or averting repeated eruptions of violence.
November's Annapolis conference has come and gone, producing only an agreement to keep on talking about the "two-state" solution without closing any of the gaps on the so-called "core" issues: borders, settlements, Jerusalem, water rights. The Israelis resisted any reference to these issues and the Palestinians were unable to get those that concern them even mentioned in the final statement. The only concrete action was in endorsing Tony Blair's charge to help Palestinian institutions prepare for statehood, and Gen. Jim Jones' charge to monitor and judge the PLO effectiveness in reigning in violence from the occupied territories and Israel's fulfillment of promises to freeze settlements.
The whole Annapolis operation has been greeted by many with cynicism and even ridicule, but no one is prepared to throw in the cards on the "peace process" that many consider all "process" and no peace. Two weak leaderships continue unable to produce a consensus among their populations that will support the needed compromises for peace. The Quartet has, so far, been unable or unwilling to present a position of its own on the "core" issues and to press the parties to accept it.
The Palestinians think that the Israelis' vision of a Palestinian "state" is a phantom sovereignty of a collection of "Bantustan" reservations surrounded by Israeli settlements that will essentially control movement and resources. The Israelis, suspicious that the Palestinians will never be ready to accept a genuine peace with Israel, continue to encroach on occupied territory, exacerbating Palestinian support for violence. Things get progressively worse.
The time may now have passed when a viable two-state solution is possible. If this is the case, the international community should advocate creation of a single state, democratic and universally recognized, with equal rights for all of its citizens, Jew, Christian or Muslim, following the pattern of all true democracies. Diverse racial, national and religious groups live in peace together today in the United States, in the European Union and, most recently, in South Africa. And, after all, this is what the Bush administration purports to seek for the Middle East.
There is no genuine reason this vision could not inspire hope in the Holy Land and around the world.
RONALD SPIERS
South Londonderry
Plenty of Blame for Afghanistan? – New York Times editorial
No Hope for Victory Soon in Afghanistan – Jason Burke, Guardian
Muscle Alone Won’t Solve Afghan Problems – James Fergusson, The Independent
An Iraq Town Shrugs Off Terror – Ulrike Putz, Der Spiegel
Conventional Wisdom Wrong on Iraq – Victor Davis Hanson, National Review
Coherent Policy, Hurdles Remain in Iraq – Trudy Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer
The New Iraq – Oliver North, Washington Times
National Guard’s Turn to Surge – Sydney Freedberg Jr., National Journal
COIN in the Philippines - Philippines Inquirer editorial
America’s Priorities in the War on Terror – Mike Huckabee, Real Clear Politics
Even in Peace Iran Will Hate – Greg Sheridan, The Australian
Stuck on Darfur – Washington Post editorial
Darfur Horrors Aren’t Genocide – Jonathan Kolieb, Baltimore Sun
Palestinian Scapegoats in Lebanon – Nir Rosen, Washington Post
No Peace in Our Time – Greg Sheridan, Sydney Daily Telegraph
Peace of the Pragmatists – Petra Marquardt-Bigman, Guardian
A Conversation with Pervez Musharraf – Lally Weymouth, Washington Post
N. Korea Optimism Misguided - Richard Halloran, Taipei Times
A Gates-Style Thaw – Jim Hoagland, Washington Post
Serbia’s Self-Defeating Posturing – Ian Williams, Guardian
Medvedez’s Challenge – Ariel Cohen, Washington Times
Congress Must Fix FISA – Michael Mukasey, Baltimore Sun
5 Myths about Torture and Truth – Darius Rejali, Washington Post
In Defense of the CIA – Terrence Jeffrey, Washington Times
Royal Navy Commitment Priorities – Liam Fox, Human Events
Time for Muslim Comedians to Stand Up – Sarfraz Manzoor, Washington Post
Veteran’s Charities Need Oversight – Washington Post editorial
No Hope for Victory Soon in Afghanistan – Jason Burke, Guardian
Muscle Alone Won’t Solve Afghan Problems – James Fergusson, The Independent
An Iraq Town Shrugs Off Terror – Ulrike Putz, Der Spiegel
Conventional Wisdom Wrong on Iraq – Victor Davis Hanson, National Review
Coherent Policy, Hurdles Remain in Iraq – Trudy Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer
The New Iraq – Oliver North, Washington Times
National Guard’s Turn to Surge – Sydney Freedberg Jr., National Journal
COIN in the Philippines - Philippines Inquirer editorial
America’s Priorities in the War on Terror – Mike Huckabee, Real Clear Politics
Even in Peace Iran Will Hate – Greg Sheridan, The Australian
Stuck on Darfur – Washington Post editorial
Darfur Horrors Aren’t Genocide – Jonathan Kolieb, Baltimore Sun
Palestinian Scapegoats in Lebanon – Nir Rosen, Washington Post
No Peace in Our Time – Greg Sheridan, Sydney Daily Telegraph
Peace of the Pragmatists – Petra Marquardt-Bigman, Guardian
A Conversation with Pervez Musharraf – Lally Weymouth, Washington Post
N. Korea Optimism Misguided - Richard Halloran, Taipei Times
A Gates-Style Thaw – Jim Hoagland, Washington Post
Serbia’s Self-Defeating Posturing – Ian Williams, Guardian
Medvedez’s Challenge – Ariel Cohen, Washington Times
Congress Must Fix FISA – Michael Mukasey, Baltimore Sun
5 Myths about Torture and Truth – Darius Rejali, Washington Post
In Defense of the CIA – Terrence Jeffrey, Washington Times
Royal Navy Commitment Priorities – Liam Fox, Human Events
Time for Muslim Comedians to Stand Up – Sarfraz Manzoor, Washington Post
Veteran’s Charities Need Oversight – Washington Post editorial
Iraq: The Best-Story of the Year – Tim Hames, London Times
Awakening Shakes up Iraqi Politics - Trudy Rubin, Miami Herald
A Civilian Partner for Our Troops - Lugar and Rice, Washington Post
A Realistic and Principled Foreign Policy – Bill Richardson, Real Clear Politics
Failures Force U.S. Foreign Policy Change – Michael Nacht, Sydney Morning Herald
Two Debates, Two Countries – David Broder, Real Clear Politics
Torture Not the American Way - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial
Chief Prosecutor: Why I Quit Gitmo - Morris Davis, Miami Herald
Treating Enemies as Equals - William Hawkins, Washington Times
Interrogation Crimes Worse than Cover-up - Rosa Brooks, Miami Herald
Building an Atomic Bomb - Peter Huessy, Washington Times
The Iran NIE Bombs - Steve Coll, The New Yorker
Jihadist Indoctrination in Iran's Schools - Nir Boms. Washington Times
A Real End to Pakistan's Emergency? - Simon Robinson, Time Magazine
Two Months in Pakistan - Lally Weymouth, Washington Post
Questions for Musharraf and Bush - Tierney and Ahsan, Washington Post
Sorting out Australia’s Defence Mess – Carlo Kopp, Canberra Times
Paying Asylum Seekers to go Home – London Daily Telegraph editorial
The Region: Survivor, Gulf Style – Barry Rubin, Jerusalem Post
Bush on the Way to Israel – Jerusalem Post editorial
Israeli Military Option Failed – Haaretz editorial
Bring us War in Gaza – Zvi Bar’el, Haaretz
Israel Will Never be Recognized as a Jewish State – Issam Makhoul, Daily Star
Al Jazeera Goes Mainstream - Ned Lamont, The Nation
The Algerian Terror Lesson - Boston Globe editorial
Egypt's YouTube Democrats - Jackson Diehl, Washington Post
Libya Doesn’t Deserve the Red Carpet – David Schenker, Christian Science Monitor
Mauritanian Democracy Needs Prosperity – Salma Waheedi, Daily Star
Seeking a Leader in South Africa – London Times editorial
Russia – Europe: Friend or Foe? – Giles Meritt, Guardian
Challenge in Kosovo - Washington Post editorial
Another Balkans Battle? - Doug Bandow, Washington Times
Belgium: A Surreal State? - Roger Cohen, New York Times
Awakening Shakes up Iraqi Politics - Trudy Rubin, Miami Herald
A Civilian Partner for Our Troops - Lugar and Rice, Washington Post
A Realistic and Principled Foreign Policy – Bill Richardson, Real Clear Politics
Failures Force U.S. Foreign Policy Change – Michael Nacht, Sydney Morning Herald
Two Debates, Two Countries – David Broder, Real Clear Politics
Torture Not the American Way - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial
Chief Prosecutor: Why I Quit Gitmo - Morris Davis, Miami Herald
Treating Enemies as Equals - William Hawkins, Washington Times
Interrogation Crimes Worse than Cover-up - Rosa Brooks, Miami Herald
Building an Atomic Bomb - Peter Huessy, Washington Times
The Iran NIE Bombs - Steve Coll, The New Yorker
Jihadist Indoctrination in Iran's Schools - Nir Boms. Washington Times
A Real End to Pakistan's Emergency? - Simon Robinson, Time Magazine
Two Months in Pakistan - Lally Weymouth, Washington Post
Questions for Musharraf and Bush - Tierney and Ahsan, Washington Post
Sorting out Australia’s Defence Mess – Carlo Kopp, Canberra Times
Paying Asylum Seekers to go Home – London Daily Telegraph editorial
The Region: Survivor, Gulf Style – Barry Rubin, Jerusalem Post
Bush on the Way to Israel – Jerusalem Post editorial
Israeli Military Option Failed – Haaretz editorial
Bring us War in Gaza – Zvi Bar’el, Haaretz
Israel Will Never be Recognized as a Jewish State – Issam Makhoul, Daily Star
Al Jazeera Goes Mainstream - Ned Lamont, The Nation
The Algerian Terror Lesson - Boston Globe editorial
Egypt's YouTube Democrats - Jackson Diehl, Washington Post
Libya Doesn’t Deserve the Red Carpet – David Schenker, Christian Science Monitor
Mauritanian Democracy Needs Prosperity – Salma Waheedi, Daily Star
Seeking a Leader in South Africa – London Times editorial
Russia – Europe: Friend or Foe? – Giles Meritt, Guardian
Challenge in Kosovo - Washington Post editorial
Another Balkans Battle? - Doug Bandow, Washington Times
Belgium: A Surreal State? - Roger Cohen, New York Times
<h3 class="entry-header">From Iraq to Afghanistan</h3> by SWJ Editors The Washington Post reports today that President Bush is facing new pressure from the U.S. Military to accelerate a force reduction in Iraq in order to increase capabilities in Afghanistan.
Continue reading "From Iraq to Afghanistan" »
Administration officials said the White House could start to debate the future of the American military commitment in both Iraq and Afghanistan as early as next month. Some Pentagon officials are urging a further drawdown of forces in Iraq beyond that envisioned by the White House, which is set to reduce the number of combat brigades from 20 to 15 by the end of next summer. At the same time, commanders in Afghanistan are looking for several additional battalions, helicopters and other resources to confront a resurgent Taliban movement.
Administration officials say the White House has become more concerned in recent months about the situation in Afghanistan, where grinding poverty, rampant corruption, poor infrastructure and the growing challenge from the Taliban are hindering U.S. stabilization efforts. Senior administration officials now believe Afghanistan may pose a greater longer-term challenge than Iraq.According to NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) there are currently 41,700 troops (including National Support Elements) in Afghanistan. However, as the Post reports, Britain, the Netherlands, Canada and Australia have assumed the heaviest part of the combat burden alongside U.S. troops.
U.S. Army Gen. Dan K. McNeill, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, is asking for an additional three battalions of troops from NATO countries -- the equivalent of another brigade combat team -- but colleagues believe that would not be enough. U.S. officials are doubtful that allies will provide all the requested troops, and predict Bush will be faced with a request for even more U.S. troops, possibly after attending a NATO summit in April in Bucharest, Romania.
U.S. officials said Bush may also consider revamping the current military structure in Afghanistan, which has McNeill serving alongside a four-star NATO commander. Restrictions by NATO members on how their troops can be used -- Germany, for instance, limits where its forces can be deployed -- have made it difficult to mount a coherent response to the Taliban resurgence. U.S. forces, which have been largely confined to a small part of the country in the east, have little presence in the south, where much of the insurgency has taken hold.Nothing follows.
Continue reading "From Iraq to Afghanistan" »
Foreign Policy News and Commentary Update December 17, 2007
Top 10 Propaganda Videos
http://listverse.com/politics/top-10-propa.../#comment-21077
BUBBLE DENIAL PAUL KRUGMAN (CONSCIENCE OF A LIBERAL, NEW YORK TIMES, DECEMBER 10): http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/10/bubble-denial/
A GATES-STYLE THAW - JIM HOAGLAND (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 16): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1401520_pf.html
CLINTON LIBRARY GOT FUNDS FROM ABROAD: SAUDIS SAID TO HAVE GIVEN $10 MILLION - JOHN SOLOMON AND JEFFREY H. BIRNBAUM (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 15): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1402124_pf.html
EGYPT'S YOUTUBE DEMOCRATS - JACKSON DIEHL (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 17): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7121601559.html
A CIVILIAN PARTNER FOR OUR TROOPS: WHY THE U.S. NEEDS A RECONSTRUCTION RESERVE - RICHARD G. LUGAR AND CONDOLEEZZA RICE (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 17): .
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1601560_pf.html
DOLLARS FOR DIPLOMACY - JOHN NALAND, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION (LETTER TO THE EDITOR, WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 17): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1601430_pf.html
AMERICANS ARE LESS PLEASED WITH U.S. SERVICES - STEPHEN BARR (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 17): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1601528_pf.html
THE NEW IRAQ - OLIVER NORTH (WASHINGTON TIMES, DECEMBER 16): http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.d...mplate=printart
SPOILS OF WAR: HOW IRAQ CONFLICT REWARDS A KUWAITI MERCHANT FAMILY; SULTANS' SUPPLY DEALS BRING RAPID GROWTH BUT TRIGGER U.S. PROBES - CAM SIMPSON AND GLENN R. SIMPSON (WALL STREET JOURNAL, DECEMBER 17): A handful of businessmen in the Middle East are reaping huge rewards from Washington's need to sustain its tens of thousands of American troops.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1197858688...=hps_us_pageone
BUSH FACES PRESSURE TO SHIFT WAR PRIORITIES: AS IRAQ CALMS, FOCUS TURNS TO AFGHANISTAN - MICHAEL ABRAMOWITZ AND PETER BAKER (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 17) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7121601823.html
PLENTY OF BLAME FOR AFGHANISTAN? EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, DECEMBER 16): Unless the United States and Europe come up with a better strategy -- and invest more money, attention and troops -- the good war in Afghanistan will go irretrievably bad.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/opinion/...agewanted=print
BUREAUCRATIC MUTINY MAY BACKFIRE - SAUL SINGER (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 14): Nothing substantial has changed in Iran's behavior; what is new is the American national security system's decision to arbitrarily distinguish between Iran's "civilian" efforts to enrich uranium and the other two components of its bomb program: building missiles and assembling a weapon.
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglo...cratic_mut.html
JIHADIST INDOCTRINATION IN THE SCHOOLS - NIR BOMS (WASHINGTON TIMES,DECEMBER 17): The content of Iran's school textbooks, which was recently analyzed by the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace, adds an important dimension to the Iran debate. Iranian students from the first grade onward are taught in their educational curriculum that they must fight to bring about a global Islamic victory or accept collective martyrdom.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.d...mplate=printart
US, RUSSIA AS PARTNERS - MELANIE GETREUER AND SUSAN SYPKO (BOSTON GLOBE, DECEMBER 15): To prevent an Iranian bomb, the US and Russia need to be more imaginative and less self-centered.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editoria...artners?mode=PF
QUESTIONS FOR MUSHARRAF AND BUSH - JOHN F. TIERNEY AND AITZAZ AHSAN (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 17): One of the questions: How will you address the increasing anti-Americanism in Pakistan in light of the growing, and not unjustified, perception among Pakistan's democratic moderates that the United States is not willing to stand with the people of Pakistan against an increasingly authoritarian and anti-democratic government in Islamabad?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1601563_pf.html
CHALLENGE IN KOSOVO: EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES SHOULD NOT ALLOW RUSSIA TO BLOCK THE BALKAN PROVINCE'S INDEPENDENCE EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 17)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7121601432.html
ANOTHER BALKANS BATTLE? - DOUG BANDOW (WASHINGTON TIMES, DECEMBER 17): The best hope to avert a new, and possibly violent, breakdown in the Balkans is for both Washington and Brussels to tell Pristina "no" on independence. But they must do so quickly.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.d...mplate=printart
STUCK ON DARFUR: A PLANNED PEACEKEEPING FORCE IS STALLED, TWO WEEKS BEFORE IT IS DUE TO DEPLOY? EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 16): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7121501582.html
DARFUR HORRORS AREN'T 'GENOCIDE' - JONATHAN KOLIEB (BALTIMORESUN.COM, DECEMBER 16): The U.S. is the only government in the world that has labeled Darfur genocide, but even its own special envoy for Sudan, Andrew Natsios, pointedly refrains from referring to it as such.
www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.darfur16dec16,0,1912284.story
CHINA PORT POWER PLAY - RICHARD HALLORAN (WASHINGTON TIMES, DECEMBER 15): http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.d...mplate=printart
DISAPPOINTMENTS ON CLIMATE EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, DECEMBER 17): http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/17/opinion/...agewanted=print
WHAT BUSH REALLY WON IN BALI: FOR THE FIRST TIME, ALL NATIONS SAID THEY WILL CONSIDER WAYS TO REDUCE GLOBAL WARMING -- AS BUSH SOUGHT -- COMMENTARY (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, DECEMBER 17)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1217/p08s01-comv.html
5 MYTHS ABOUT TORTURE AND TRUTH: MYTHS ABOUT TORTURE AND TRUTH - DARIUS REJALI (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 16): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1301303_pf.html
US MILITARY PROPAGANDA TEAM BUSTED: ESPERATE DISINFORMATION FROM GITMO - EGAN ORION (INQUIRER, DECEMBER 17): WIKILEAKS, the website that published manuals leaked from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, has caught US armed forces personnel there conducting propaganda attacks over the Internet.
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/new...nda-team-busted
YOU SAID WHAT? A HAPPY HISTORY OF LIES AND PROPAGANDA - NICK GILLESPIE (REASON, DECEMBER 14):
http://reason.com/news/printer/123939.html
CONDI ROUNDUP: GINGERBREAD WOMAN - PETER HUESTIS (WONKETTE, DECEMBER 17): so
http://wonkette.com/politics/condi-roundup...oman-334514.php
Top 10 Propaganda Videos
http://listverse.com/politics/top-10-propa.../#comment-21077
BUBBLE DENIAL PAUL KRUGMAN (CONSCIENCE OF A LIBERAL, NEW YORK TIMES, DECEMBER 10): http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/10/bubble-denial/
A GATES-STYLE THAW - JIM HOAGLAND (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 16): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1401520_pf.html
CLINTON LIBRARY GOT FUNDS FROM ABROAD: SAUDIS SAID TO HAVE GIVEN $10 MILLION - JOHN SOLOMON AND JEFFREY H. BIRNBAUM (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 15): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1402124_pf.html
EGYPT'S YOUTUBE DEMOCRATS - JACKSON DIEHL (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 17): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7121601559.html
A CIVILIAN PARTNER FOR OUR TROOPS: WHY THE U.S. NEEDS A RECONSTRUCTION RESERVE - RICHARD G. LUGAR AND CONDOLEEZZA RICE (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 17): .
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1601560_pf.html
DOLLARS FOR DIPLOMACY - JOHN NALAND, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION (LETTER TO THE EDITOR, WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 17): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1601430_pf.html
AMERICANS ARE LESS PLEASED WITH U.S. SERVICES - STEPHEN BARR (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 17): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1601528_pf.html
THE NEW IRAQ - OLIVER NORTH (WASHINGTON TIMES, DECEMBER 16): http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.d...mplate=printart
SPOILS OF WAR: HOW IRAQ CONFLICT REWARDS A KUWAITI MERCHANT FAMILY; SULTANS' SUPPLY DEALS BRING RAPID GROWTH BUT TRIGGER U.S. PROBES - CAM SIMPSON AND GLENN R. SIMPSON (WALL STREET JOURNAL, DECEMBER 17): A handful of businessmen in the Middle East are reaping huge rewards from Washington's need to sustain its tens of thousands of American troops.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1197858688...=hps_us_pageone
BUSH FACES PRESSURE TO SHIFT WAR PRIORITIES: AS IRAQ CALMS, FOCUS TURNS TO AFGHANISTAN - MICHAEL ABRAMOWITZ AND PETER BAKER (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 17) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7121601823.html
PLENTY OF BLAME FOR AFGHANISTAN? EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, DECEMBER 16): Unless the United States and Europe come up with a better strategy -- and invest more money, attention and troops -- the good war in Afghanistan will go irretrievably bad.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/opinion/...agewanted=print
BUREAUCRATIC MUTINY MAY BACKFIRE - SAUL SINGER (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 14): Nothing substantial has changed in Iran's behavior; what is new is the American national security system's decision to arbitrarily distinguish between Iran's "civilian" efforts to enrich uranium and the other two components of its bomb program: building missiles and assembling a weapon.
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglo...cratic_mut.html
JIHADIST INDOCTRINATION IN THE SCHOOLS - NIR BOMS (WASHINGTON TIMES,DECEMBER 17): The content of Iran's school textbooks, which was recently analyzed by the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace, adds an important dimension to the Iran debate. Iranian students from the first grade onward are taught in their educational curriculum that they must fight to bring about a global Islamic victory or accept collective martyrdom.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.d...mplate=printart
US, RUSSIA AS PARTNERS - MELANIE GETREUER AND SUSAN SYPKO (BOSTON GLOBE, DECEMBER 15): To prevent an Iranian bomb, the US and Russia need to be more imaginative and less self-centered.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editoria...artners?mode=PF
QUESTIONS FOR MUSHARRAF AND BUSH - JOHN F. TIERNEY AND AITZAZ AHSAN (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 17): One of the questions: How will you address the increasing anti-Americanism in Pakistan in light of the growing, and not unjustified, perception among Pakistan's democratic moderates that the United States is not willing to stand with the people of Pakistan against an increasingly authoritarian and anti-democratic government in Islamabad?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1601563_pf.html
CHALLENGE IN KOSOVO: EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES SHOULD NOT ALLOW RUSSIA TO BLOCK THE BALKAN PROVINCE'S INDEPENDENCE EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 17)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7121601432.html
ANOTHER BALKANS BATTLE? - DOUG BANDOW (WASHINGTON TIMES, DECEMBER 17): The best hope to avert a new, and possibly violent, breakdown in the Balkans is for both Washington and Brussels to tell Pristina "no" on independence. But they must do so quickly.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.d...mplate=printart
STUCK ON DARFUR: A PLANNED PEACEKEEPING FORCE IS STALLED, TWO WEEKS BEFORE IT IS DUE TO DEPLOY? EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 16): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7121501582.html
DARFUR HORRORS AREN'T 'GENOCIDE' - JONATHAN KOLIEB (BALTIMORESUN.COM, DECEMBER 16): The U.S. is the only government in the world that has labeled Darfur genocide, but even its own special envoy for Sudan, Andrew Natsios, pointedly refrains from referring to it as such.
www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.darfur16dec16,0,1912284.story
CHINA PORT POWER PLAY - RICHARD HALLORAN (WASHINGTON TIMES, DECEMBER 15): http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.d...mplate=printart
DISAPPOINTMENTS ON CLIMATE EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, DECEMBER 17): http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/17/opinion/...agewanted=print
WHAT BUSH REALLY WON IN BALI: FOR THE FIRST TIME, ALL NATIONS SAID THEY WILL CONSIDER WAYS TO REDUCE GLOBAL WARMING -- AS BUSH SOUGHT -- COMMENTARY (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, DECEMBER 17)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1217/p08s01-comv.html
5 MYTHS ABOUT TORTURE AND TRUTH: MYTHS ABOUT TORTURE AND TRUTH - DARIUS REJALI (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 16): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1301303_pf.html
US MILITARY PROPAGANDA TEAM BUSTED: ESPERATE DISINFORMATION FROM GITMO - EGAN ORION (INQUIRER, DECEMBER 17): WIKILEAKS, the website that published manuals leaked from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, has caught US armed forces personnel there conducting propaganda attacks over the Internet.
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/new...nda-team-busted
YOU SAID WHAT? A HAPPY HISTORY OF LIES AND PROPAGANDA - NICK GILLESPIE (REASON, DECEMBER 14):
http://reason.com/news/printer/123939.html
CONDI ROUNDUP: GINGERBREAD WOMAN - PETER HUESTIS (WONKETTE, DECEMBER 17): so
http://wonkette.com/politics/condi-roundup...oman-334514.php
COIN: Learning, Adapting, Applying – Alexander Alderson, RUSI
HTS: Touchy, Feely in the Kill Chain – David Isenberg, Asia Times
Importance of a Strong Navy – Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal
Turkey’s Harmful Empty Gesture – Boston Globe editorial
Turkey Strikes Rebels – Tulin Daloglu, Washington Times
Brit’s Basra Model – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial
Casualties of the Iraq War – Geoffrey Wheatcroft, The Australian
An Afghan Ant’s Nest – The Australian editorial
NIE in the Sky? – James Zumwalt, Washington Times
Nuclear Danger Remains Real – Jonathan Schell, Miami Hearld
Effective Policy that Keeps Iran in Check - Rachel Loeffler, Philadelphia Inquirer
Inside the War on Terror – Joshua Sinai, Washington Times
Kosovo Revisited – USA Today editorial
U.K. Detention: Be Liberal, But Not with Facts – David Aaronovitch, London Times
The Mutation of the United Nations – Frank Gaffney Jr., Washington Times
West Bankers – London Times editorial
Two Conflicts Key to Mideast Peace – DeWayne Wickham, USA Today
Palestinians Need Peace and Aid – Tim Butcher, London Daily Telegraph
A Threat to Israel – Zalman Shoval, Washington Times
Guess Who Didn’t Come to Annapolis – Jonathan Karl, Weekly Standard
Waterboarding and the Left – Jonah Goldberg, Miami Hearld
The Homeles 'Vets' Who Aren't - Michael Fumento, New York Post
HTS: Touchy, Feely in the Kill Chain – David Isenberg, Asia Times
Importance of a Strong Navy – Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal
Turkey’s Harmful Empty Gesture – Boston Globe editorial
Turkey Strikes Rebels – Tulin Daloglu, Washington Times
Brit’s Basra Model – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial
Casualties of the Iraq War – Geoffrey Wheatcroft, The Australian
An Afghan Ant’s Nest – The Australian editorial
NIE in the Sky? – James Zumwalt, Washington Times
Nuclear Danger Remains Real – Jonathan Schell, Miami Hearld
Effective Policy that Keeps Iran in Check - Rachel Loeffler, Philadelphia Inquirer
Inside the War on Terror – Joshua Sinai, Washington Times
Kosovo Revisited – USA Today editorial
U.K. Detention: Be Liberal, But Not with Facts – David Aaronovitch, London Times
The Mutation of the United Nations – Frank Gaffney Jr., Washington Times
West Bankers – London Times editorial
Two Conflicts Key to Mideast Peace – DeWayne Wickham, USA Today
Palestinians Need Peace and Aid – Tim Butcher, London Daily Telegraph
A Threat to Israel – Zalman Shoval, Washington Times
Guess Who Didn’t Come to Annapolis – Jonathan Karl, Weekly Standard
Waterboarding and the Left – Jonah Goldberg, Miami Hearld
The Homeles 'Vets' Who Aren't - Michael Fumento, New York Post
Al-Qaeda plays dealbreaker in Pakistan
The almost farcical escape from Pakistani custody of Rashid Rauf points to the likelihood of a deal between Islamabad and militants who had threatened to boycott and disrupt Pakistan's general elections next month. But Rauf, a British subject of Pakistani origin once linked to a plot to blow up commercial aircraft and wanted in Britain in connection with a murder probe, is only part of the picture. It's not in al-Qaeda's interests to have militants making deals, and it might yet have the last word. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Dec 18, '07)
The almost farcical escape from Pakistani custody of Rashid Rauf points to the likelihood of a deal between Islamabad and militants who had threatened to boycott and disrupt Pakistan's general elections next month. But Rauf, a British subject of Pakistani origin once linked to a plot to blow up commercial aircraft and wanted in Britain in connection with a murder probe, is only part of the picture. It's not in al-Qaeda's interests to have militants making deals, and it might yet have the last word. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Dec 18, '07)
Pakistan learns the US nuclear way
The United States has spent US$100 million helping Pakistan secure its nuclear weapons and the materials used to make them. Yet the US - which for years had the launch codes for its nuclear missiles cunningly set at 00000000 - suffers serious problems with securing its own nuclear weapons, nuclear materials and weapons-related information. (Dec 18, '07)
The United States has spent US$100 million helping Pakistan secure its nuclear weapons and the materials used to make them. Yet the US - which for years had the launch codes for its nuclear missiles cunningly set at 00000000 - suffers serious problems with securing its own nuclear weapons, nuclear materials and weapons-related information. (Dec 18, '07)
Assassination jars US's Syria detente
The assassination of a leading political figure in Lebanon has put the brakes on Washington's nascent engagement of Syria, which is being blamed for the killing. Damascus protests its innocence, but says it won't bend to international pressure to alter its influence in Lebanon. (Dec 18, '07)
Turkey's bombs do most of the talking
After nearly eight months of threats, Turkey is finally letting its air force loose against Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq. At the same time, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is trying to convince the rebels to lay down their arms and prevent the outlawed group from recruiting restive Kurdish youths in Turkey. (Dec 18, '07)
The assassination of a leading political figure in Lebanon has put the brakes on Washington's nascent engagement of Syria, which is being blamed for the killing. Damascus protests its innocence, but says it won't bend to international pressure to alter its influence in Lebanon. (Dec 18, '07)
Turkey's bombs do most of the talking
After nearly eight months of threats, Turkey is finally letting its air force loose against Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq. At the same time, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is trying to convince the rebels to lay down their arms and prevent the outlawed group from recruiting restive Kurdish youths in Turkey. (Dec 18, '07)
China deepens business
ties with Pakistan
The opening of Pak-China Investment Co offices in Karachi this week aims to help the two countries expand business ties and triple bilateral trade to US$15 billion in the next five years. The murder of several Chinese workers in Pakistan over the past three years looks like holding back potential deals. - Syed Fazl-e-Haider
ties with Pakistan
The opening of Pak-China Investment Co offices in Karachi this week aims to help the two countries expand business ties and triple bilateral trade to US$15 billion in the next five years. The murder of several Chinese workers in Pakistan over the past three years looks like holding back potential deals. - Syed Fazl-e-Haider
Neocons Won't Let Facts Stand in the Way of Iran 'Threat'
by Leon Hadar
http://www.antiwar.com/hadar/?articleid=12075
by Leon Hadar
http://www.antiwar.com/hadar/?articleid=12075
Turkey gets a free hand in Iraq
The Iraqi government in Baghdad and the semi-independent Kurdish regional government can complain as much as they like about the Turkish air and ground raids over the past few days into northern Iraq to strike at Kurdish rebels. Washington, while not explicitly sanctioning the incursions, has little choice but to condone them to protect its recent gains in Iraq. - Sami Moubayed (Dec 19, '07)
India adds oomph to its space race
India's development of a cryogenic engine places it in the ranks of China, the US, Japan, Russia and Europe when it comes to rocket power. The engines are used for communications satellites and will allow India to compete for the commercial satellite market. For less peaceful purposes, the engine will ramp up India's ballistic missile capabilities. - Siddharth Srivastava (Dec 19, '07)
The Iraqi government in Baghdad and the semi-independent Kurdish regional government can complain as much as they like about the Turkish air and ground raids over the past few days into northern Iraq to strike at Kurdish rebels. Washington, while not explicitly sanctioning the incursions, has little choice but to condone them to protect its recent gains in Iraq. - Sami Moubayed (Dec 19, '07)
India adds oomph to its space race
India's development of a cryogenic engine places it in the ranks of China, the US, Japan, Russia and Europe when it comes to rocket power. The engines are used for communications satellites and will allow India to compete for the commercial satellite market. For less peaceful purposes, the engine will ramp up India's ballistic missile capabilities. - Siddharth Srivastava (Dec 19, '07)
China seeks six-party solution on Iran
Washington and Beijing have different takes on Tehran. As the biggest consumers of the Middle East's oil they're both significant stakeholders in Iran's stability, but divergent perceptions and differing historical relations are again placing Iran high on the agenda of Sino-US relations. (Dec 19, '07)
Bush's new McSpinmeister
With the resignation of the top US government spin doctor, President George W Bush had to go looking for a second opinionist. Enter James Glassman, a former syndicated columnist and a cast-iron neo-con now tasked with improving the US's ugly image abroad. As America's new idealogue, many are saying Glassman is less than ideal. He's already under attack for a number of ethical gaffes, including touting for McDonald's. (Dec 19, '07)
Washington and Beijing have different takes on Tehran. As the biggest consumers of the Middle East's oil they're both significant stakeholders in Iran's stability, but divergent perceptions and differing historical relations are again placing Iran high on the agenda of Sino-US relations. (Dec 19, '07)
Bush's new McSpinmeister
With the resignation of the top US government spin doctor, President George W Bush had to go looking for a second opinionist. Enter James Glassman, a former syndicated columnist and a cast-iron neo-con now tasked with improving the US's ugly image abroad. As America's new idealogue, many are saying Glassman is less than ideal. He's already under attack for a number of ethical gaffes, including touting for McDonald's. (Dec 19, '07)
US tweaks stance on Taiwan vote
The United States has altered its opposition to Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's plan for a referendum over UN membership as "Taiwan" rather than the "Republic of China". The US shift to reluctant toleration of the plan seems to be guided by China, but with presidential elections and the referendum still months away, there is time for a rethink. - Ting-I Tsai (Dec 19, '07)
The United States has altered its opposition to Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's plan for a referendum over UN membership as "Taiwan" rather than the "Republic of China". The US shift to reluctant toleration of the plan seems to be guided by China, but with presidential elections and the referendum still months away, there is time for a rethink. - Ting-I Tsai (Dec 19, '07)
China, Vietnam churn diplomatic waters
The slow-burning dispute over sovereignty of the Paracel and Spratly islands is threatening to flare again. Recent actions have a familiar ring: the award of an oil exploration contract to India's state-owned ONGC; administrative moves over the islands by China; student demonstrations in Hanoi warning of ''hegemony''. New to the picture is that Vietnam is about to take up a seat at the United Nations Security Council. - Andrew Symon
The slow-burning dispute over sovereignty of the Paracel and Spratly islands is threatening to flare again. Recent actions have a familiar ring: the award of an oil exploration contract to India's state-owned ONGC; administrative moves over the islands by China; student demonstrations in Hanoi warning of ''hegemony''. New to the picture is that Vietnam is about to take up a seat at the United Nations Security Council. - Andrew Symon
Europe Should Put Its Mouth Where Its Money Is by Rami G. Khouri
This week's pledge of $2 billion of Palestinian aid by European countries would best be balanced by direct diplomatic activism by the Europeans -- returning to their role as guardians of international law and peace-keeping.
more...
The NIE Report on Iran: A Major Reversal? by Immanuel Wallerstein
It is most likely that the Bush administration had prior knowledge of, and permitted the public release of, the 2007 NIE report on Iran. The Bush statements on Iran are part of a series of verbal facades of little impact or meaning, as everyone waits for 2009.
more...
Bloomberg's Irony in Beijing by Peter Kwong
I had hoped Mayor Bloomberg would have called for corporate moral responsibility in helping build democracy in China. I'd also suggest the same to save democracy in the United States.
more...
This week's pledge of $2 billion of Palestinian aid by European countries would best be balanced by direct diplomatic activism by the Europeans -- returning to their role as guardians of international law and peace-keeping.
more...
The NIE Report on Iran: A Major Reversal? by Immanuel Wallerstein
It is most likely that the Bush administration had prior knowledge of, and permitted the public release of, the 2007 NIE report on Iran. The Bush statements on Iran are part of a series of verbal facades of little impact or meaning, as everyone waits for 2009.
more...
Bloomberg's Irony in Beijing by Peter Kwong
I had hoped Mayor Bloomberg would have called for corporate moral responsibility in helping build democracy in China. I'd also suggest the same to save democracy in the United States.
more...
Feature: Russia's next president? Nonproliferation: Iran and the National Intelligence Estimate; U.S.-Iran talks; nuclear energy revival Energy/Climate: Financing energy efficiency in China China: Economy; corruption; Asian democracy Middle East: King's dilemma in the Arab World; Arab Reform Bulletin December issue Democracy: Democracy promotion; Mauritanian democracy South Asia: India'