Foreign Policy News and Commentary Update January 17, 2008

What This Country Needs Is A Real Chief Marketing Officer - Keith Ferrazzi (Huffington Post, January 16): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keith-ferrazzi/what-this-country-needs-i_b_81820.html

One soldier's assessment of the global war on terror - Rami G. Khouri (Daily Star, Lebanon, January 17): Colonel Laurence Andrew Dobrot, the deputy director of the US Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser Program, in his paper "The Global War on Terrorism: A Religious War?": "To repair its credibility, the United States must focus on applying just practices. ... Specifically, the United States must recognize democratically elected governments such as Hamas and actively engage them in public diplomacy, even if it disagrees with them."
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=5&article_id=88059

'War of ideas' claims neo-con casualty - Khody Akhavi (Asia Times, January 18): While most policy-makers and experts acknowledge that Washington has a serious public diplomacy problem on its hands -- especially with regard to Arabs and Muslims -- the dismissal of the Pentagon's "foremost" specialist on Islamic law and Islamic extremism, Stephen Coughlin, and its aftermath reflect the latest salvo by neo-cons to retain the dubious language of the "war on terror."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JA18Ak02.html

How the Pentagon Planted a False Story - Gareth Porter (antiwar.com, January 16): http://www.antiwar.com/porter/?articleid=12221

Pentagon's PSYOPs: Information Warfare Using Aggressive Psychological Operations - Brent Jessop (Global Research, January 13; posted on ALexJones' TruthNews.us.): The Pentagon's plans for psychological operations or PSYOP in the global information environment of the 21st century are wide ranging and aggressive.
http://www.truthnews.us/?p=1674

Iraq, anyone? : Why aren't presidential candidates talking about the postwar era and how they would repair the damage this terrible war has done to the nation? After all, our own reconstruction is at stake - By James Reston Jr. (USA Today, January 16):
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080115/oplede15.art.htm

U.S. Boosts Its Use of Airstrikes In Iraq: Strategy Supports Troop Increase - Josh White (Washington, January 17): The U.S. military conducted more than five times as many airstrikes in Iraq last year as it did in 2006.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/16/AR2008011604148_pf.html

Iraqi Spending to Rebuild Has Slowed, Report Says - James Glantz (New York Times, January 16): In its report on Tuesday, the Government Accountability Office said official Iraqi Finance Ministry records showed that Iraq had spent only 4.4 percent of the reconstruction budget by August 2007. It also said that the rate of spending had substantially slowed from the previous year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/world/middleeast/16reconstruction.html?sq=&pagewanted=print

State Dept. Official Disputes Iraq Report: GAO Challenged Claims of Progress - Walter Pincus (Washington Post, January 17)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/16/AR2008011604009.html

The Corpse on the Gurney: The "Success" Mantra in Iraq - Tom Engelhardt (TomDispatch, January 17): Our media may be filled with discussions about just how "successful" the President's surge plan has been, but really, Iraq is the corpse in the room. The surge was always, in a sense, a gamble for time, a pacification program directed at the "home front" in the President's Global War on Terror as well as at Iraq itself.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174882

Visser: Partition Iraq? Marc Lynch (Abu Aardvark, January 16): According to scholar Reidar Visser, unless things change dramatically, Iraq is heading towards the "Nigeria model"... a warlord state where the oil flows and things generally don't totally break down.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark/2008/01/visser-partitio.html

Pessimistic Predictions: The Middle East Studies sector continues to deny success in Iraq - Jonathan Schanzer (National Review, January 16): When good news arrives from Iraq, most Americans celebrate. But not the Middle East studies professors who are often quoted in the mainstream press. For them, good news is bad news.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MDI1MmEwYzVjNDliNGY0NjU5ZWVkOTYxNDI2MTljYWE=

Don't Tie the Next President?s Hands - Editorial (New York Times, January 17): President Bush is discussing a new agreement with Baghdad that would govern the deployment of American troops in Iraq. With so many Americans adamant about bringing our forces home as soon as possible, a sentiment we strongly share, Mr. Bush must not be allowed to tie the hands of his successor and ensure the country?s continued involvement in an open-ended war.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/17/opinion/17thu1.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

GAO Report Challenges Effect of Longtime U.S. Sanctions on Iran - Robin Wright (Washington Post, January 17)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/16/AR2008011603711.html

Trying to sell democracy - Claude Salhani (Washington Times, January 16): But just as the leaders in the Middle East heard from Mr. Bush talk about democratization, which they did not necessarily appreciate, he has heard from them talk about Iran that he in turn has not appreciated. What Mr. Bush has heard from Iran's neighbors is to tone down the rhetoric and avoid a confrontation that would drag the entire region into mayhem.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/COMMENTARY/256509541/1012&template=printart

Those Ungrateful Saudis - Robert Scheer (Truthdig, January 15): they own it.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080115_those_ungrateful_saudis/
Bush's big arms deal with Saudis: Who wins? Who loses? - Edward M. Gomez (SF Gate, January 16): The really big news coming out of Bush's Middle East boondoggle was his promise to Saudi King Abdullah, the ruler of the top oil-producing country in the world, of a weapons sale worth some $120 billion.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=15&entry_id=23500

Middle East Triangle - Hussein Agha and Robert Malley (Washington Post, January 17):http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/16/AR2008011603442_pf.html

Faith, Freedom And Bling In The Middle East - Maureen Dowd (New York Times, January 16): Bush's message in the Middle East boiled down to: Iran bad, Israel good, Iraq doing better.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/opinion/16dowd.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

Death of the Bush Doctrine - Jeff Jacoby (Boston Globe, January 16): http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/01/16/death_of_the_bush_doctrine?mode=PF

Globaloney - Frank J. Gaffney Jr. (Washington Times, January 15): There is something surreal about the spectacle of President Bush touring the Persian Gulf. It calls to mind the signature line of Mad Magazine's mascot, Alfred E. Neuman: "What, me worry?" Confidence in the inexorable forces of "globalization" is as misplaced in the case of the so-called "pro-Western" Arab states as are the other assumptions driving American policy towards the region at the moment.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080115/COMMENTARY03/916311015/1012&template=printart

Fight in Afghanistan: It's becoming clear that the war must be won by U.S. troops, and not by NATO Editorial (Washington Post, January 17)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/16/AR2008011603521_pf.html

The Surge Hits Pakistan - William M. Arkin (washingtonpost.com, January 17): The top US commander for the Middle East says that the deteriorating situation in the country and the increased violence in the frontier area have prompted Islamabad to accept plans for US forces in the country for the first time since early 2002.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2008/01/the_surge_hits_pakistan.html

Pakistan's personality test ? Editorial (Boston Globe, January 16): America can help by altering the security outlook of Pakistan's leadership. Above all, this means taking an active diplomatic role in resolving Pakistan's conflict with India.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2008/01/16/pakistans_personality_test?mode=PF

The Pakistan Conundrum - Scott Ritter (Truthdig, January 16): The experience of Afghanistan shows that without a doubt the policies embraced by the Bush administration in pursuing its war on terror were fundamentally flawed. In the cause-and-effect world of reality, as opposed to the never-never land of neoconservative fantasy, any continued push against Pakistan in the name of the war on terror would be extremely counterproductive.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080116_the_pakistan_conundrum/

The more North Korea changes . . . - Paul Greenberg (Washington Times, January 17): The State Department keeps finding excuses to accept North Korea's worthless promises.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080117/COMMENTARY/966649432/1012&template=printart

Fixing Kosovo - Helle Dale (Washington Times, January 16): The most logical is for the entire Balkan area eventually to become part of NATO and the European Union, which will offer hope of economic development and integration into its structures. How we get to there from here, however, is a difficult road to envision.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/EDITORIAL06/457233965/1013&template=printart

The Baltic Model - Maris Riekstins and Ronald Asmus (Wall Street Journal, January 16): The signing of the U.S.-Baltic Charter in the White House (1998) was a special moment. It led to NATO enlargement and thus undid the historical injustice of Yalta as the U.S. advanced the cause of freedom.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120043210462392247.html

Don't Ignore the Violence in Kenya - Wangari Maathai (Wall Street Journal, January 17): http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120053336729696211.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

America needs realists, not William Kristol: If the New York Times wants true diversity on its Op-Ed pages, it should hire foreign policy realists, not ideologues - Stephen M. Walt (Salon, January 16): What's missing in America's mainstream media is the voice of realism. As the label implies, realists think foreign policy should be based on the world as it really is, rather than what we might like it to be.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/01/16/realism/print.html

Monsters of our own making: Foreign policy nightmares are everywhere for the U.S. these days - Rosa Brooks (Los Angeles Times, January 17): http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-brooks17jan17,0,2355911.column?coll=la-opinion-rightrail

Gates's voice moderating US policies: Stances on war, torture, Iran mark key shift - Bryan Bender (Boston Globe, January 16): Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in an alliance with his former aide, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, has helped to roll back some of the most hawkish stances of the first six years of the Bush presidency -- on the use of torture, US-Iranian relations, and the policy of preemptive war that Vice President Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld, and others espoused, according to interviews with current and former administration officials and private analysts.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/01/16/gatess_voice_moderating_us_policies?mode=PF

Bush's Future Tense: President Bush addresses the troops while visiting the Middle East and predicts the end of history. (Jon Stewart)
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=147534&rsspartner=rssBloglines

Communism vs Capitalism
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1321957604698523294&q=Soviet+propaganda&total=465&start=0&num=10&so=1&type=search&plindex=1


1950's Cold War Propaganda - Plowshare The Peaceful Atom
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2926563203549148615&q=Soviet+propaganda&total=465&start=20&num=10&so=1&type=search&plindex=0


Soviet Propaganda
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8555916011791727408&q=Soviet+propaganda&total=465&start=20&num=10&so=1&type=search&plindex=6