Foreign Policy News and Commentary Update August 18, 2007

U.S. USES WEB TO REACH MUSLIM YOUTH - JOHN THORNE, ASSOCIATED PRESS (USA
TODAY, AUGUST 17): The US State Department chose a novel way to publicize
baseball legend Cal Ripken Jr.'s appointment this week as its special sports
envoy. It went on YouTube.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2007-08-17-online-media-muslim-youth_N.htm
SEE ALSO
http://www.textually.org/tv/archives/2007/08/016950.htm

GOODBYE ROVE ... HELLO RIPKIN? LARISA (DAILY SHOW NEWS: COVERING THE NUMBER
ONE FAKE NEWS SHOW, COMEDY CENTRAL'S THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART, AUGUST
15): "Well not too long after Rove announced his resignation, Condoleezza Rice
publicly appointed Cal Ripken Jr to the post of Special Sports Envoy for the US
State Department. What exactly does a Special Sports Envoy do? Well according to
the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes,
'public diplomacy envoys become leaders in America's effort to engage in a
positive and constructive dialogue with the world.' Ripken's first foreign
diplomatic mission will take place in China later this year. Not surprisingly,
Jon [Stewart] thought that using Cal Ripken Jr. to get China and its people to
like the US was laughable."
http://www.dailyshownews.com/2007/08/goodbye-rove-he.html

SPACEWALK, CAL RIPKEN - (FLOSTONPARADISE, AUGUST 15): "Condi Rice's decision
to name Cal Ripken Jr. a U.S. public diplomacy envoy sounds strange to me
because unless I'm very badly misinformed, baseball is popular in only a few
countries outside the United States. ... So how many people out there are even
aware of Ripken's undeniable achievements? Wouldn't Michael Jordan have made
more sense?"
http://flostonparadise.livejournal.com/6039.html
SEE ALSO
http://daily.phanaticmag.com/2007/08/welcome-to-washington-mr-ripken.html
http://ladiesdotdotdot.wordpress.com/2007/08/14/hit-run-9/#comment-17013

AMERICA'S MAYOR, AMERICA'S ENEMIES GRACCHI (WESTMINSTER WISDOM, AUGUST
14):
http://gracchii.blogspot.com/2007/08/americas-mayor-americas-enemies.html

EXIT THE ARCHITECT (AGE, AUSTRALIA, AUGUST 14): Colleagues have dismissed
what they called the caricature of Rove. "There's this notion that there's this
devious puppetmaster in the back room pulling all the strings," said Under
Secretary of State Karen Hughes, a former White House colleague and Texas
compatriot. "It's just absurd to all of us who have worked with Karl closely."
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/exit-the-architect/2007/08/14/1186857507786.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2

RANKS OF TEXANS THINNING AT WHITE HOUSE - SUZANNE GAMBOA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
(HERALD DEMOCRAT ON LINE, AUGUST 17):
http://www.heralddemocrat.com/articles/2007/08/17/texas_news/state04.txt

GRANTS AND GIVING: MACARTHUR FOUNDATION EXPLORES VIRTUAL WORLDS - CHARLES
STORCH (CHICAGO TRIBUNE.COM, AUGUST 16):
www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-mxa0816tempocovervirtualaug16,0,1742354.story

INFORMATION WARFARE - ARAB MEDIA AND THE BATTLE FOR IDEAS (NOSI - NAVAL
OPEN SOURCE INTELLIGENCE, AUGUST 16)
http://www.nosi.org/2007/08/16#a3472

CAN US DIPLOMACY GET RELIGION: IN A WORLD WHERE RELIGION IS PUSHING
EVENTS, US DIPLOMATS NEED A GREATER EXPERTISE IN IT EDITORIAL (CHRISTIAN
SCIENCE MONITOR, AUGUST 16):
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0816/p08s02-comv.html

CONSTRUCTION WOES PLAGUE U.S. EMBASSIES: SHODDY WORK, CONTRACT CHOICES CITED
- GLENN KESSLER (WASHINGTON, AUGUST 17)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/16/AR2007081602745.html?hpid=topnews

WEB OF TERROR - RACHEL EHRENFELD AND ALYSSA A. LAPPEN (WASHINGTON TIMES,
AUGUST ): It is an "irony of the digital age that that Internet -- invented by
the Department of Defense as a way to ensure undisrupted communications in the
event of an enemy attack -- is now being used to recruit and train the
terrorists who plot such lethal attacks against Americans and other Western
targets," said Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman
Sen. Joseph Lieberman at a May 3 Senate hearing on "The Internet, a Portal for
Islamist Extremists." We need not stand helplessly by while terrorist groups
work to destroy us. Their Web sites can be shuttered.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070816/

SUICIDE RATE IN ARMY AT A 26-YEAR HIGH - PAULINE JELINEK, ASSOCIATED PRESS
(CHICAGO TRIBUNE, AUGUST 16): Failed personal relationships, legal and financial
problems and the stress of their jobs were factors motivating the soldiers to
commit suicide, according to the report. It also found a significant
relationship between suicide attempts and the number of days deployed in Iraq,
Afghanistan or nearby countries where troops were participating in the war
effort.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-army-suicides,1,1338795.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout

SECOND-GUESSING DISHONORS PARTICIPANTS IN WAR'S 'INCOMMUNICABLE EXPERIENCE'
- KATHLEEN PARKER (BALTIMORESUN.COM, AUGUST 16): Second-guessing how Marines
should act under hostile fire before the facts are known is not only unfair, but
dishonors the immense courage required to survive in the midst of such an
incommunicable experience.
www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.parker16aug16,0,1973237.story

GATES FOUNDATION ADDS IRAQ TO ITS FOCUS - VICTORIA KIM (FINANCIAL TIMES,
AUGUST 15): The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is making its first foray into
Iraq, funding a new initiative to relocate more than 150 scholars facing threat
and persecution.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/f9cae38a-4b53-11dc-861a-0000779fd2ac.html

DESPERATE SEARCH FOR SURVIVORS AMONG YAZIDI HOMES DESTROYED BY BOMBERS -
PATRICK COCKBURN (INDEPENDENT, AUGUST 16): The US military has suggested the
bombers are operating more ruthlessly in northern Iraq because they can no
longer operate in Baghdad because of the success of the American "surge." In
reality, the number of car bombings in Baghdad in July was 5 per cent higher
than last December and civilian casualties in explosions have increased by about
the same percentage.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2866788.ece
VIA
http://www.juancole.com/2007/08/thousands-of-sadrists-protest-sinjar.html

IN IRAQ, SHATTERING VILLAGES AND ILLUSIONS - EUGENE ROBINSON (WASHINGTON
POST, AUGUST 17): 'hat I do know is that anyone who says American forces have to stay
in Iraq because they're protecting the Iraqi people should tell that to the
Yazidis. Those who are left.'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/16/AR2007081601686_pf.html

21ST-CENTURY BARBARISM: THE DEADLIEST ATTACK TO DATE IN THE IRAQ WAR IS
AIMED AT DEFENSELESS CIVILIANS EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, AUGUST 16):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/15/AR2007081502133_pf.html

THE TOLL OF INTOLERANCE IN IRAQ EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, AUGUST 16): For
American policy makers, the lesson of the truck bombings Tuesday that killed
more than 250 members of the religious sect known as Yazidi in northern Iraq is
that an invading power cannot destroy the administrative and security structures
of a fragile society and expect to harvest a pluralist democracy. The lesson for
the disparate Iraqi communities is that if they don't find a way to live
together, they will go on killing each other.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/08/16/the_toll_of_intolerance_in_iraq?mode=PF

IRAQ'S EMERGENCY POLITICAL SUMMIT FAILS - MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, AUGUST
16): Lost in the reporting of the unbelievable horrific terrorist attack in
northern Iraq is a bit of a political bombshell. Al-Arabiya is reporting that
the emergency political summit of Iraq's leaders has failed to produce even
nominal political reconciliation. This is a devastating outcome for the Maliki
government and for those Americans who hoped to have some political progress to
show in the upcoming Crocker/Petraeus report. There's no other way to spin this:
this summit was billed as the last chance, and it has failed.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark/2007/08/iraqs-emergency.html

THE SUPPRESSION OF DAVID PETRAEUS CONTINUES - JONATHAN STEIN (MOTHER JONES,
AUGUST 16): You know how Gen. David Petraeus was supposed to write that
all-important September report, but won't? He's also the one who is supposed to
present it to Congress and the public. But looks like he won't. Military
officials are said to be "puzzled" that Condi Rice and Robert Gates will present
the report, and that Gen. Petraeus won't be allowed to appear in public at all.
For a guy that the administration has endlessly hyped, he sure doesn't get much
of a chance to show his talents to the world.
http://www.motherjones.com/cgi-bin/print_mojoblog.pl?url=http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2007/08/5194_the_suppression.html

WHOSE REPORT IS IT, ANYWAY? - DAN FROOMKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, AUGUST 17):
The "Petraeus Report" -- the supposedly trustworthy mid-September reckoning of
military and political progress in Iraq by Army Gen. David H. Petraeus and
Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker -- is instead looking more like a White House con job
in the making.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/08/16/BL2007081601003_pf.html

HOW NOT TO GET OUT OF IRAQ - MAX BOOT (COMMENTARY, SEPTEMBER): Now, as a
combined result of the surge, greater cooperation from Iraqi tribes, and more
effective Iraqi fighting forces, we may finally have gathered enough strength to
execute, at least in some critical locales, all phases of the 'clear, hold, and
build' approach that is at the heart of successful counterinsurgency warfare.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/cm/main/viewArticle.html?id=10920&page=all

THE LESSON OF BASRA EDITORIAL (BALTIMORESUN.COM, AUGUST 15): If the Bush
administration insists on hanging on in Iraq, it will have to develop a genuine
plan for putting that society back together, or else the continued occupation is
a foolish and destructive waste. And after more than four years of violence,
it's frankly impossible to imagine what such a plan, if it were to have any hope
of success, could entail.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bal-ed.iraq15aug15,0,4264820,print.story

FROM BELFAST TO BAGHDAD: WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED? BRITAIN TOOK 38 YEARS TO
BRING THE WARRING PARTIES TO THE MIDDLE GROUND - DOUGLAS A. BORER (CHRISTIAN
SCIENCE MONITOR, AUGUST 16): It took 38 years in Northern Ireland for the
British to bring the warring sides to the middle ground, to make peace, and to
withdraw. Anyone who claims the US can resolve the situation in Iraq more
quickly is sadly mistaken.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0816/p09s02-coop.html

KILLING FOR CONGRESS - RALPH PETERS (NEW YORK POST, AUGUST 16): We're not
really in Iraq for Iraq's sake now, but for our own. The long-mismanaged
situation has morphed from a grand attempt to create a model democracy in the
Middle East to become a fight for our strategic security -- knocking al Qaeda
down, keeping Iran out and shaping a new Iraq that's at least benign where our
interests are concerned.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/08162007/postopinion/opedcolumnists/killing_for_congress_opedcolumnists_ralph_peters.htm

ON THE MOVE: AL QAEDA COULD BEAT THE U.S. IN IRAQ IF AMERICAN POLITICAL WILL
COLLAPSES - DAVEED GARTENSTEIN-ROSS (NATIONAL REVIEW, AUGUST 16)
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MWQ2YWE0OTUxYThkZDQ2ZDdkOGVjZTE4ZjA4YWJlMWM=

PROTECTING IRAQ'S OIL - MICHAEL MAKOVSKY (WALL STREET JOURNAL, AUGUST 16):
The Bush administration should focus its effort more on working with Iraqis to
provide greater security to their key oil-production and exports facilities in
the south.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118723265350299305.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

AMATEUR HOUR ON IRAN EDITORIAL (AUGUST 16): International asset freezes
and foreign travel bans directed at Revolutionary Guard leaders and their
business partners are certainly deserved, and would make real sense as part of a
program of international sanctions and coupled with a clear American offer for
serious negotiations. By themselves they are futile.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/16/opinion/16thu1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

TERROR LABEL FOR GUARD CORP ENTRENCHES US-IRAN ENMITY - TRITA PARSI
(ANTIWAR.COM, AUGUST 16): The White House's decision to designate the Iranian
Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organization could deal a double blow
to efforts to utilize diplomacy with Iran to stabilize Iraq.
http://www.antiwar.com/ips/parsi.php?articleid=11455

AS U.S. STEPS UP PRESSURE ON IRAN, AFTEREFFECTS WORRY ALLIES - ROBIN WRIGHT
(WASHINGTON POST, AUGUST 16): America's allies are increasingly concerned about
the Bush administration's plans to unilaterally escalate pressure on Iran,
fearing that an evolving strategy may also set in motion a process that could
lead to military action if Iran does not back down, according to diplomats and
officials of foreign countries.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/15/AR2007081502199_pf.html

US MISSILE DEFENSE FOR EUROPE ATTACKED BY IRAN: CHINA, RUSSIA, AND IRAN
AGREE THAT AMERICA'S POSITION AS THE SOLE SUPERPOWER MUST NOT GO UNCHALLENGED,
AND CRITICS WORRY ABOUT A NEW ARMS RACE.
DAN MURPHY (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, AUGUST 17)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0816/p99s01-duts.html

WEAPONS OF MASS PRESERVATION - ANTHONY H. CORDESMAN (NEW YORK TIMES, AUGUST
16): In an ideal world, arms sales are hardly the tool the United States would
use to win stability and influence. America does not, however, exist in an ideal
world, nor in one that it can suddenly reform with good intentions and soft
power. Those pressuring Congress to kill the Bush administration?s proposed $20
billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states need to step
back into the real world.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/16/opinion/16cordesman.html?pagewanted=print

THE U.N.'S FLAWED KOSOVO PLAN - ALAN J. KUPERMAN (WALL STREET JOURNAL,
AUGUST 16): Twice in the early 1990s the international community prematurely
supported the independence of a former Yugoslav territory before addressing the
concerns of its Serb minority. Today, the United States is poised to repeat the
mistake by recognizing the independence of Kosovo before Serb concerns are
addressed.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118723233231999353.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

FOR U.S. OFFICIALS, FRANCE IS THE PLACE TO BE: AS CHILL OVER IRAQ WAR EASES,
SECRETARIES, GENERALS AND JUSTICES HEAD ACROSS ATLANTIC - MOLLY MOORE
(WASHINGTON POST, AUGUST 17)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/16/AR2007081602571_pf.html