Foreign Policy News and Commentary Update September 10. 2007

John Brown, 'Walk Away from the Lies: A Recommendation to General Petraeus from a Foreign Service Officer? (Common Dreams, September 9): 'When you speak before the Congress, General, may I suggest that, instead of promising 'victory' in Iraq ... you should announce your resignation from your commission, as one more effort to help bring an illegitimate war to an end."
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/09/3713/
SEE ALSO
http://www.salon.com/comics/opus/2007/09/09/opus/

ARE WE SAFER TODAY? SIX YEARS AFTER 9/11 AND THREE YEARS AFTER THE 9/11 REPORT, IS THE U.S. READY TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT TERRORISM? - THOMAS H. KEAN AND LEE H. HAMILTON (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 9, 2007): Military power is essential to our security, but if the only tool is a hammer, pretty soon every problem looks like a nail. We must use all the tools of U.S. power -- including foreign aid, educational assistance and vigorous public diplomacy that emphasizes scholarship, libraries and exchange programs -- to shape a Middle East and a Muslim world that are less hostile to our interests and values. America's long-term security relies on being viewed not as a threat but as a source of opportunity and hope.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/07/AR2007090702050_pf.html

THE MEANING OF BIN LADEN'S NEW VIDEO (LAURENCEJARVIKONLINE: A BLOG ABOUT INTERESTING IDEAS, THINGS, PEOPLE, AND EVENTS, SEPTEMBER 10): That six years after 9/11 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) senior correspondent Judy Woodruff even thought Bin Laden might have made some sense, demonstrates how skillful Al Qaeda propaganda -- and how inept Bush administration "public diplomacy" -- has been. Bin Laden's speech is an example of what David Horowitz' book calls an unholy alliance between the radical left and Islamist extremists.
http://laurencejarvikonline.blogspot.com/2007/09/meaning-of-bin-ladens-new-video.html

THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES' FOREIGN POLICY STATEMENTS: RUDOLPH GIULIANI CHERYL ROFER (WHIRLED VIEW, SEPTEMBER 10): Among Giuliani's foreign policy statements: Make changes in the State Department and the Foreign Service. Refine the diplomats' mission down to their core purpose: presenting U.S. policy to the rest of the world. Our ambassadors must clearly understand and clearly advocate for U.S. policies and be judged on the results. Strengthen and broaden the Voice of America; expand Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. Upgrade and extend public diplomacy and strategic communications, with a greater focus on new media such as the Internet.
http://whirledview.typepad.com/whirledview/2007/09/the-president-1.html

TAKE GONZALES, PLEASE! (PEOPLE'S WEEKLY WORLD, SEPTEMBER 6): Texas newspapers listed a rogue?s gallery of former Bushites already nesting in Texas' bosom. Where do Americans think the underhanded Karl Rove will lurk? What about propagandist Karen Hughes?
http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/11684/1/389

NUMBERS MATTER: EUROPEANS TELL BUSH - TRANS-ATLANTIC BRUISES LINGER - JOSH WARD (SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL, SEPTEMBER 7): A new survey of European attitudes toward America released this week holds that: We share your fear of terrorists. We don't like Bush. And we don't necessarily plan on being nice once he's gone. At the same time, another world poll adds: And, please, leave Iraq.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,504475,00.html
SEE ALSO
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/07_09_07_iraq_poll07.pdf

POLL HIGHLIGHTS DISCONNECT BETWEEN U.S. COMMANDERS, IRAQIS - MEGAN GREENWELL (WASHINGTON POST STAFF SEPTEMBER 10): Seven out of 10 Iraqis believe the U.S. troop buildup in Baghdad and Anbar province has made security worse in those areas, and nearly as many say their own lives are going badly, according to a new poll.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/10/AR2007091000528_pf.html

WIDE SKEPTICISM AHEAD OF ASSESSMENT: POLL RESPONDENTS DOUBT PETRAEUS WILL GIVE TRUE PICTURE OF SITUATION IN IRAQ - JON COHEN AND JENNIFER AGIESTA (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 9)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/08/AR2007090801777.html

TOMGRAM: LAUNCHING BRAND PETRAEUS TOM ENGELHARDT (TOMDISPATCH, SEPTEMBER 9): Think of it this way: The most political general in recent memory has been asked to assess his own work (as has our ambassador in Iraq), and then present "recommendations" to the White House in a "report" that is actually being written in the White House. You couldn't call it a political version of "the honor system"; but perhaps the dishonor system would do.
http://tomdispatch.com/post/174834/launching_brand_petraeus

PETRAEUS REPORT ALREADY SEEN AS BS ? WISCO (GRIPER BLADE: GRUMBLINGS FROM THE HEARTLAND, SEPTEMBER 10): Bush's propaganda is dismissed these days before it's even presented.
http://griperblade.blogspot.com/2007/09/petraeus-report-already-seen-as-bs.html

SEPTEMBER PROPAGANDA SPECTACULAR DAVE (SEPTEMBER 10, THE DAILY RECKONING'S DESIDOORU SALOON): So here we are, a day before the sixth anniversary of 9/11, at the launch of what could be an unprecedented week of Washington-generated propaganda. Gen. Petraeus will lie to Congress so as to keep the farce going: He'll say the 'surge' needs more time to demonstrate its effectiveness.
http://www.dailyreckoning.us/blog/?p=523

AS THE IRAQIS STAND DOWN, WE'LL STAND UP - FRANK RICH (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 9): The stay-the-surge propaganda offensive crests with this week's Congressional testimony of Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, with history repeating itself in almost every particular.
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/opinion/09rich.html?pagewanted=print
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THE DC ESTABLISHMENT VERSUS AMERICAN PUBLIC OPINION - GLENN GREENWALD (SALON, SEPTEMBER 9): The P.R. campaign to persuade the country that the Surge is Succeeding has been as intense and potent as any P.R. campaign since the one that justified the invasion itself.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/09/09/dc_establishment/index.html

AMONG TOP OFFICIALS, 'SURGE' HAS SPARKED DISSENT, INFIGHTING - PETER BAKER, KAREN DEYOUNG, THOMAS E. RICKS, ANN SCOTT TYSON, JOBY WARRICK AND ROBIN WRIGHT AND RESEARCHER JULIE TATE (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 9): From the start of the Bush surge plan, the White House communications office had been blitzing an e-mail list of as many as 5,000 journalists, lawmakers, lobbyists, conservative bloggers, military groups and others with talking points or rebuttals of criticism. Between Jan. 10 and last week, the office put out 94 such documents in various categories -- "Myths/Facts" or "Setting the Record Straight" to take issue with negative news articles, and "In Case You Missed It" to distribute positive articles or speeches.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/08/AR2007090801846_pf.html

ARE PETRAEUS AND WESTMORELAND BIRDS OF A FEATHER? - RAY MCGOVERN (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 8): What Gen. David Petraeus has set in motion, or at least condoned, is the massaging of data to justify what his boss, President Bush, wants to do in Iraq; namely, to keep enough troops "in the fight" in order to stave off definitive defeat before he and Vice President Dick Cheney leave office in January 2009. That's what the "surge" is all about, and Petraeus is smart enough to know that only too well.
http://www.antiwar.com/mcgovern/?articleid=11572

CROSS-EXAMINE PETRAEUS: THE GENERAL AND AMBASSADOR CROCKER MUST DO MORE THAN ARGUE THAT THE 'SURGE' IS WORKING; THEY MUST GIVE BUSH AN EXIT STRATEGY ? EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 8)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-iraq8sep08,0,5420003.story?coll=la-opinion-leftrail

ACCEPTING IRAQI REALITY: BOTH PRESIDENT BUSH AND CONGRESS NEED TO ADJUST TO THE MIXED RESULTS OF THE 'SURGE' ? EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 9): If there is to be no political accord in the near future -- and such an accord seems as distant today as it did in January -- what will be the goals of the U.S. mission in Iraq? The president needs to spell out concrete and realistic aims for American forces -- and limit troop levels to those necessary to accomplish them.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/08/AR2007090801421_pf.html

PETRAEUS CANNOT SALVAGE A DEBACLE ? EDITORIAL (FINANCIAL TIMES, SEPTEMBER 9): Petraeus report on the 'surge' of US troops is likely to be non-committal, and overshadowed by 9/11 anniversary stagecraft designed to eclipse any suggestion of failure in a surge of patriotism as Americans recall the atrocity visited upon them by the al-Qaeda attacks six years ago. Yet it is high time for a hard-nosed summary of the Iraq debacle.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bdf5d888-5efe-11dc-837c-0000779fd2ac.html

LETTING SOLDIERS DO THE THINKING - GEORGE F. WILL (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 9): The surge is a tactical success disconnected from the strategic objective it is supposed to serve.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/07/AR2007090702252_pf.html

HOW TO VIEW THE REPORT ON THE SURGE - BRIAN KATULIS (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, SEPTEMBER 10): To end the conflict in Iraq, the U.S. must get Iraq's national leaders to agree to share power and take responsibility for their own affairs -- something not yet achieved by staying with the same strategy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/07/AR2007090702180_pf.html

THE 'SURGE' IS WORKING: CASUALTIES ARE DOWN AND SECURITY IS IMPROVING IN IRAQ; WASHINGTON MUST GIVE THE STRATEGY MORE TIME - MAX BOOT (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 8)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-boot8sep08,0,6693162,print.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

BACK FROM IRAQ, STILL FACING FIRE (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 10): Today and tomorrow, the United States ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, and the top American general there, David Petraeus, will appear before Congress to offer a progress report on the war. The Op-Ed page asked six experts on the Iraq conflict to come up with three questions they would pose to the two men.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/opinion/10precede.html?pagewanted=print

WILL BUSH'S TRAGEDY TRAP HIS SUCCESSOR IN IRAQ? - GRAHAM ALLISON (HUFFINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 7): No one should have any doubt about President Bush's overriding operational objective. It is to hand over this war to his successor.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/graham-allison/will-bushs-tragedy-trap-_b_63511.html

WHAT'S MISSING IN BAGHDAD - THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 9): Above all, Iraq teaches us that democracy is possible only when people want both pillars of it ? liberty and self-government ? and build both themselves. We?re miles away from that in Baghdad.
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/opinion/09friedmancolumn.html?pagewanted=print

US BRIBE INSURGENTS TO FIGHT AL-QAEDA -MARIE COLVIN AND SARAH BAXTER (TIMES, LONDON, SEPTEMBER 9): American forces are paying Sunni insurgents hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to switch sides and help them to defeat Al-Qaeda in Iraq. The tactic has boosted the efforts of American forces to restore some order to war-torn provinces around Baghdad in the run-up to a report by General David Petraeus to Congress.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article2413200.ece

'YOU HAVE LIBERATED A PEOPLE' - FOUAD AJAMI (WALL STREET JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 10): Peace has not come to Iraq, the feuds have not fully burned out, but the center holds.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118938716117822176.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

SETTING THE TONE ? OLIVER NORTH (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 9): In Iraq sectarian rivalries can be overcome and security restored in places previously thought to be hopeless.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070909/COMMENTARY06/109090008/1012&template=printart

ACCEPTING IRAQI REALITY: BOTH PRESIDENT BUSH AND CONGRESS NEED TO ADJUST TO THE MIXED RESULTS OF THE 'SURGE' EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 9): If there is to be no political accord in the near future -- and such an accord seems as distant today as it did in January -- what will be the goals of the U.S. mission in Iraq? The president needs to spell out concrete and realistic aims for American forces -- and limit troop levels to those necessary to accomplish them.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/08/AR2007090801421_pf.html

REPORTERS: THE IRAQ REPORTS, SHORT - BARRON YOUNGSMITH, MARIN COGAN & MELANIE MASON (TNR ONLINE, SEPTEMBER 7): In recent weeks, a flood of highly-touted evaluations, studies, and analyses of the state of Iraq have generated numerous headlines. But which ones are the most trustworthy, and which ones are going to matter the most (two categories that are often, sadly, independent)? The below link contains handy summary of how to tell them apart, and what you need to know about their conclusions.
http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=w070910&s=iraqreports090707

THE OTHER VICTIMS IN IRAQ - MOKHTAR LAMANI AND HE HANY BESADA (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 8): With precious time left, neighboring governments and occupying forces ought to muster enough courage, even to the detriment of their short-term foreign policy objectives, to treat Iraq's minorities with special care and consideration.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/09/08/the_other_victims_in_iraq?mode=PF

PLANNING FOR DEFEAT: HOW SHOULD WE WITHDRAW FROM IRAQ? - GEORGE PACKER (NEW YORKER, SEPTEMBER 17): America?s diplomatic leverage will be weakened by a withdrawal, and Iraq?s predatory neighbors will take advantage of the power vacuum to pursue their own interests. Whenever this country decides that the bloody experience in Iraq requires the departure of American troops, complete disengagement will be neither desirable nor possible. We might want to be rid of Iraq, but Iraq won?t let it happen.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/09/17/070917fa_fact_packer?printable=true

HIDING BEHIND THE GENERAL EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 9): Mr. Bush, deeply unpopular with the American people, is counting on General Petraeus to restore credibility to his discredited Iraq policy. The United States needs a prudent exit strategy that will withdraw American forces and try to stop Iraq?s chaos from spreading.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/opinion/09sun1.html?pagewanted=print

HOW TO WITHDRAW QUICKLY AND SAFELY - LAWRENCE J. KORB AND MAX A. BERGMANN (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 9): A withdrawal of US forces will be complex. But it can be accomplished safely within one year's time through careful planning and by focusing on getting out sensitive and critical equipment.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/09/09/how_to_withdraw_quickly_and_safely?mode=PF

IRAQ REPORT INCLUDES TROOPS TIMETABLE: INSTITUTE SUPPORTS COMPLETE EXIT IN FIVE YEARS, PRESSES FACTIONS TO NEGOTIATE - ROBIN WRIGHT (WASHINGTON POST STAFF SEPTEMBER 9): In a report to be released today, a panel of experts assembled by the U.S. Institute of Peace calls for a 50 percent reduction in U.S. forces in Iraq within three years and a total withdrawal and handover of security to the Iraqi military in five years.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/08/AR2007090801471.html?hpid=topnews

WHY WE SHOULD EXIT IRAQ NOW - BILL RICHARDSON (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 8): The presence of American forces in Iraq weakens us in the war against al-Qaeda. It endows the anti-American propaganda of those who portray us as occupiers plundering Iraq's oil and repressing Muslims. The day we leave, this myth collapses, and the Iraqis will drive foreign jihadists out of their country.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/07/AR2007090702063_pf.html

WHY WE MUST LEAVE IRAQ EDITORIAL (NATION, SEPTEMBER 6): Not only is withdrawing from Iraq in our national interest; it is also the moral, responsible thing to do. There is one way to atone for our illegal invasion and reckon with the human catastrophe our occupation has caused: End the occupation and abandon the pretense that only American power can bring order and democracy to the region.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070924/editors

WILL THE US REALLY BOMB IRAN? - ALEXANDER COCKBURN (COUNTERPUNCH, SEPTEMBER 8/9): Weigh it all up, and you'd be foolish to bet that an attack on Iran won't happen.
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn09082007.html

US VIEWED AS TURKEY'S 'GREATEST THREAT' - JONATHAN BELL (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 7): Nearly two-thirds of the Turkish public named the United States as their country's greatest future threat, a recent Pew Global Attitudes Project survey has revealed -- the highest percentage of any Middle Eastern or Islamic country polled.
http://www.antiwar.com/ips/bell.php?articleid=11575

THE 'ISRAEL LOBBY' MYTH - GEORGE P. SHULTZ (U.S. WORLD & NEWS REPORT, SEPTEMBER 9): Jewish groups are influential. They also largely agree that the United States should support Israel. But the notion that they have anything like a uniform agenda and that U.S. policy in Israel and the Middle East is the result of this influence is simply wrong.
http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/2007/09/09/the-israel-lobby-myth_print.htm

THE NEW AL-QAEDA CENTRAL: FAR FROM DECLINING, THE NETWORK HAS REBUILT, WITH FRESH FACES AND A VIGOROUS MEDIA ARM - CRAIG WHITLOCK (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 9)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/08/AR2007090801845.html?hpid=topnews

EYE OF THE TERROR STORM - VICTOR DAVIS HANSON (COMMON DREAMS, SEPTEMBER 8): Six years of quiet at home have fooled some into thinking terrorists pose little danger here -- or that we may be doing far too much rather than too little to stop such killers.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070908/COMMENTARY/109080008/1012&template=printart

HIS TOUGHNESS PROBLEM?AND OURS [REVIEW OF WORLD WAR IV: THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST ISLAMOFASCISM BY NORMAN PODHORETZ] - IAN BURUMA (NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, SEPTEMBER 27): World War IV expresses a weird longing for the state of war, for the clarity it brings, and for the chance to divide one's fellow citizens, or indeed the whole world, neatly into friends and foes, comrades and traitors, warriors and appeasers, those who are with us and those who are against. When it comes to the specifics of the war, exactly whom we are supposed to be fighting, why it is a fourth world war, and how it relates to earlier wars,Podhoretz becomes fuzzy indeed.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20590

ENEMIES LIST [REVIEW OF WORLD WAR IV THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST ISLAMOFASCISM BY NORMAN PODHORETZ; THE IRANIAN TIME BOMB THE MULLAH ZEALOTS? QUEST FOR DESTRUCTION BY MICHAEL A. LEDEEN] - PETER BEINART (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 9): Unlike Podhoretz, for whom ?World War IV? is largely an excuse to insult his old foes on the left and titillate himself with fantasies of civic violence, Michael Ledeen has written an actual book on the Middle East. In particular, he is passionate about Iran. If Podhoretz is vague about whom exactly America is fighting, Ledeen is precise: everything traces back to Tehran.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/books/review/Beinart-t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

AN ANTITERRORISM LESSON EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 8): The arrest Tuesday of three suspects in a plot to carry out bombings in Germany offers crucial lessons about preventing terrorism. Some of those lessons have to do with the tactics of law-enforcement and intelligence agencies. But the most beneficial insight Americans could gain from the German example is that war is the wrong metaphor for a nation's defense against terrorism.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/09/08/an_antiterrorism_lesson?mode=PF

WAR ON TERROR IS WORKING - JEFF JACOBY (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 9): What is in the enemy's mind we cannot know for sure. What we do know -- what 9/11 made brutally clear -- is that we are at war. The enemy is in this till the finish. We had better be, too.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/09/09/war_on_terror_is_working?mode=PF

WHERE'S THE WAR? THE PLACIDITY OF THE DOMESTIC FRONT - MARK STEYN (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 9): On this sixth anniversary, as 9/11 retreats into history, many Americans see no war at all.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OGE4ZTQzMmRjNGI4ODYyOWFjMTMxNGFlYjM0YWE5ODE=

A U.S. GENERAL'S DISQUIET - ROGER COHEN (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 10): 'Our current problems raise the legitimate question of whether the U.S., or any democracy, can successfully prosecute an extended war without a true national commitment,? writes Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli. Unless you believe the United States can simply withdraw from the world, a popular but naïve view, that essential strategic question needs addressing beyond the Iraq tactics before Congress this week. An answer is the minimum the now overstretched shopping nation owes the long overstretched fighting nation it seldom notices.'
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/opinion/10cohen.html?pagewanted=print

FROM GONZO TO POTTYGATE: THE IRRATIONAL DRAMA OF A DECLINING EMPIRE - SAUL LANDAU (COUNTERPUNCH, SEPTEMBER 8/9): As Bush's empire sink lower in world opinion polls, the drama moves from surrealism to cruel teenage comedy.
http://www.counterpunch.org/landau09082007.html

FADING SUPERPOWER? LIKE ALL EMPIRES BEFORE IT, THE U.S. WILL SLIP FROM THE TOP OF THE HEAP. LET'S START GETTING READY - DAVID RIEFF (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 9): For the moment, the U.S. is the sole superpower. But instead of deluding ourselves that we will go on that way into the indeterminate future, an intelligently self-interested foreign policy would have us do everything in our power to shape, according to our most urgent priorities, the international rules that will govern relations between states after the American moment has passed -- as it inevitably will.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-rieff9sep09,0,7088267.story?coll=la-opinion-center

ON LANGUAGE: REDACT THIS - WILLIAM SAFIRE (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 9): 9/11 is an Americanism not picked up by the rest of the English-speaking world because we put the number of the month ahead of the number of the day; from Britain to Australia, 9/11 signifies not the 11th day of September, but the 9th day of November. Over there, they refer to 'the attacks of 11 September 2001' or 'the World Trade Center attack' (which leaves out the crash into the Pentagon and Flight 93).
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/magazine/09wwln-safire-t.html?ref=magazine&pagewanted=print