Foreign Policy News and Commentary September 22, 2007

BUSH'S STAIRWAY TO PARADISE: HOPING THAT HISTORY WILL SOMEHOW VINDICATE HIM, THE PRESIDENT HAS ENTERED A PHASE OF DECADENT PERVERSITY - SIDNEY BLUMENTHAL (SALON, SEPTEMBER 20): In his 2004 debates with Sen. John Kerry, no one felt comfortable or confident enough to discuss with Bush the importance of his personal demeanor. When his trusted old public relations handler, Karen Hughes, tried gently to tell him, "You looked mad," he shot back, "I wasn't mad! Tell them that!"
http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2007/09/20/bush_draper/print.html

OUTSOURCING FOREIGN POLICY: THE LATEST BLACKWATER CONTROVERSY EXPOSES A LARGER EFFORT TO AUCTION OFF KEY GOVERNMENT ROLES TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER - ROSA BROOKS (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 21): What's been happening in Iraq -- and in Afghanistan, Colombia, Somalia and the Pentagon and the State Department -- goes far beyond the "outsourcing of key military and security jobs." For years, the administration has been quietly auctioning off U.S. foreign policy to the highest corporate bidder -- and it may be too late for us to buy it back.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-brooks21sep21,0,4584140.column?coll=la-opinion-rightrail

BLACKWATER AFFAIR A PROPAGANDA VICTORY FOR U.S. FOES ? NPR (SEPTEMBER 21): While U.S. politicians and talk show hosts debate what really happened in Sunday's deadly shooting involving security firm Blackwater USA in Baghdad, the Iraqi public seems to have already decided the matter ? they think Blackwater's employees are guilty of murder, CBS News reports.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/news/2007/09/blackwater_affair_a_propaganda_1.html

PRIVATIZING MURDER - MARIE COCCO (TRUTHDIG, SEPTEMBER 20): There is no set piece more emblematic of the tragic farce that is the American involvement in Iraq than the grotesque episode of Blackwater USA and the killing of civilians in Baghdad -- at least nine and as many as 28 on Sunday. In keeping with the administration?s overarching philosophy that private business is always better at everything than government, we have privatized the most elemental government function of waging war.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/privatizing_murder/

BLACKWATER AND OIL SHOW ADMINISTRATION?S M.O. IN IRAQ - RUTH CONNIFF (PROGRESSIVE, SEPTEMBER 20/COMMON DREAMS): As Jeremy Scahill, author of the book Blackwater: The Rise of the World?s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, puts it, ?war is very profitable? for certain private interests. For the regular troops, who are paying with their lives, and the taxpayers who are paying the bills, and for the Iraqi civilians living in an increasingly dangerous and ruined country, it is an unmitigated disaster.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/20/3968/
SEE ALSO
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071008/scahill0921

BLACKWATER IN IRAQ: THE NEW PRIVATE WARRIORS - SGT. MARTIN SMITH (COUNTERPUNCH, SEPTEMBER 19): The instability in Iraq has benefited the entire mercenary industry, diverting expenditures away from reconstruction. The rise of the security-industrial-complex represents the potential staying power and resilience of U.S. imperialism around the globe
http://www.counterpunch.org/smith09192007.html

GUARDS? SHOTS NOT PROVOKED, IRAQ CONCLUDES - SABRINA TAVERNISE AND JAMES GLANZ (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 21): Iraq?s Ministry of Interior has concluded that employees of a private American security firm fired an unprovoked barrage in the shooting last Sunday in which at least eight Iraqis were killed and is proposing a radical reshaping of the way American diplomats and contractors here are protected.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/21/world/middleeast/21blackwater.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1190373403-TzzfWlHeOZScgRZ8MCx0+g&pagewanted=print

BLACKWATER UNDER SCRUTINY IN IRAQ: THE U.S. EMBASSY AND THE GROUP PROTECT EACH OTHER, SAYS A DIPLOMAT, AS IRAQIS DOUBT AN INQUIRY WILL YIELD ANY RESULTS - NED PARKER AND RAHEEM SALMAN (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 21): Blackwater has long operated off the U.S. military's radar, answering instead to the embassy's security staff. Military officials express resentment at what they view as renegade behavior by private security contractors, including running Iraqis off the road, throwing water bottles and a quick trigger finger. "We pay for their indiscretions every day," one U.S. officer said on condition of anonymity.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-shootings21sep21,0,7119637.story?coll=la-home-center

IRAQ NEEDS CONTRACTORS: CIVILIAN EMPLOYEES -- MANY OF THEM FOREIGNERS -- NOW FILL CRUCIAL SUPPORT ROLES ONCE HELD BY SOLDIERS, SAYS A PERSON ON THE GROUND - TIMOTHY K. HSIA (LOS ANGELES TIMES, SEPTEMBER 21): The revolution in military affairs envisaged by Donald H. Rumsfeld early in his tenure as secretary of Defense has occurred. The military can deploy with fewer soldiers and still achieve the administration's goals. Implicit in this revolution, though, is the reality that civilian contractors have come to take a significant, vital and cloaked role in the country's prosecution of a war in which Americans are fooled by the actual numbers required to carry out a war. (Timothy K. Hsia is an Army infantry captain on his second deployment to Iraq.)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-hsia21sep21,0,1536033.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail

BLACKWATER DOWN: PRIVATE MILITARY CONTRACTORS ARE FORCED TO DEFEND CONDUCT IN IRAQ - MARK HEMINGWAY (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 21): Many of the problems surrounding private security contractors stem from the government itself.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ODdkOGYyNzdiZTFmODgxYTU3YzA0OTNhYWM1ZDRlMDU=

BATTLE OF THE MINDS: AN INTERVIEW WITH MAJOR GENERAL DOUGLAS STONE (MOUNTAINRUNNER, SEPTEMBER 19): Marine Maj. Gen. Douglas M. Stone is Commander, U.S. detention facilities in Iraq.
http://mountainrunner.us/2007/09/battle_of_the_minds_an_intervi.html

IRAQ EMBASSY BUILDER TIED TO KICKBACKS - ASSOCIATED PRESS (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 20): The Kuwaiti company building the U.S. embassy in Baghdad has been accused of agreeing to pay $200,000 in kickbacks in return for two unrelated Army contracts in Iraq.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Baghdad-Embassy.html?pagewanted=print

BRIGHT SPOT IN IRAQ: THE EMERGING PRESS - JUSTIN MARTIN (BALTIMORESUN.COM, SEPTEMBER 21)
www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.iraqipress21sep21,0,5693974.story

SHAKY ALLIES IN ANBAR - DAVID IGNATIUS (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 20): The American plan now, apparently, is to extend the Anbar model and create "bottom-up" solutions throughout Iraq. These local deals may make sense as short-term methods for stabilizing the country. But we shouldn't confuse these tactical alliances with nation-building. Over time, they will break Iraq apart rather than pull it together.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/19/AR2007091901704_pf.html

LONG DIVISION EDITORS (NEW REPUBLIC, SEPTEMBER 21): Unlike other alternatives to Bush's bullish insistence on American "victory," partition has the makings of bipartisan consensus.
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20070924&s=editorial092407a

THE AMERICAN AUDIENCE IN THE THEATER OF WAR ? IRA CHERNUS (TOM DISPATCH, SEPTEMBER 21): Is it moral for our troops to occupy another country for years, bomb its cities and villages, and kill untold numbers of people halfway across the planet? If the script ever makes room for that question, we'll be able to watch -- and participate in -- a far more profound debate about the war.
http://tomdispatch.com/post/174839/chernus_the_american_audience_in_the_theater_of_war

IS AMERICA FROM 1776-1965? - MICHAEL CURRIE SCHAFFER (NEW REPUBLIC, SEPTEMBER 21): George Bush's acolytes have never been particular sticklers for accuracy when it comes to their analogies. But perhaps the most troubling metaphor was the one rolled out on Capitol Hill last week by Ambassador Ryan Crocker: Iraq, he explained, is just like ... the United States of America.
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w070917&s=schaffer092007

PETRAEUS'S REPORT IS A JOKE/MYTHS AND FACTS ? (ALLEN L ROLAND'S RADIO WEBLOG, SEPTEMBER 21)
http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2007/09/21.html

'MUGGED BY REALITY' INSIGHTS - THOMAS SOWELL (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 21): The worst mistake of the U.S. in Iraq, in John Agresto's view as expressed in his recently published ?Mugged by Reality" subtitled: "The Liberation of Iraq and the Failure of Good Intentions,? was the failure to establish law and order in the wake of the military victory, before undertaking the grandiose project of attempting to create democracy in Iraq. From this fundamental mistake, many of the other tragedies followed.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070921/COMMENTARY07/109210013/1012&template=printart

U.S. SEEKS NEW SANCTIONS ON IRAN; IT BEGINS LOBBYING FOR A THIRD U.N. RESOLUTION, WITH STIFFER PENALTIES, TO HALT TEHRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM - HOWARD LAFRANCHI (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, SEPTEMBER 20)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0920/p03s03-usfp.html

BOYCOTT AHMADINEJAD: LET THE IRANIAN PRESIDENT (AND THE COLUMBIA PRESIDENT) SPEAK TO A SEA OF EMPTY SEATS - WILLIAM KRISTOL (WEEKLY STANDARD, SEPTEMBER 21)
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/133puqpb.asp

IRAN DOESN'T LOVE NEW YORK EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 21): Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's planned wreath-laying visit to Ground Zero is an egregious insult to Americans in general and in particular to the family members and victims killed during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070921/EDITORIAL/109210003/1013/editorial&template=printart

MIDDLE EAST VOLCANO - CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 21): Sanctions will not stop Ahmadinejad. But there are others in the Iranian elite who might stop him and the nuclear program before the volcano explodes. These rival elites may be radical, but they are not suicidal. And they believe, with reason, that whatever damage Ahmadinejad's apocalyptic folly may inflict upon the region and the world, on Crusader and Jew, on infidel and believer, the one certain result of such an eruption is Iran's Islamic republic buried under the ash.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/20/AR2007092001955_pf.html

THE NEXT IRANIAN REVOLUTION: HOW ARMED EXILES ARE WORKING TO TOPPLE TEHRAN'S ISLAMIC GOVERNMENT - MICHAEL J. TOTTEN (REASON, OCTOBER)
http://reason.com/news/printer/122023.html

BUSH'S 'PROXY WAR' CLAIM OVER IRAN EXPOSED - GARETH PORTER (ASIA TIMES, SEPTEMBER 19): The charge that Iran is using the Quds Force to fight a proxy war is an effort to raise tensions with Iran by suggesting a potential reason for a US attack against that country.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/II19Ak03.html
via
http://swedemeat.blogspot.com/2007/09/pushing-irans-buttons.html


DISSIMILAR VIEWS OF IRAN ? EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 20): Within the European Union, Germany has been attempting to block efforts by the United States and France to tighten sanctions on Iran, arguing that Tehran be given "a chance to recover the international community's lost confidence." For its part, the Iranian regime doesn't seem very interested in winning the West's "confidence"; instead, Tehran recently hinted that it might share nuclear technology with terrorist groups.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070920/EDITORIAL/109200006/1013/editorial&template=printart

U.S., IRAN NEED TO BUILD CONFIDENCE - ABBAS MALEKI, KAVEH L. AFRASIABI (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, SEPTEMBER 21): What's necessary is not the "grand bargain," as called for by some American pundits, but concrete baby steps aimed at incremental improvement of the U.S.-Iran climate -- something that is feasible, and yet sadly lacking today.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/09/21/EDGBSA72B.DTL&type=printable

SHOWDOWN IN LEBANON - MICHAEL YOUNG (WALL STREET JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 21): The U.S. knows the hazards of the Lebanese presidential election, and the Bush administration will not sign off on a president it regards as pro-Syrian.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119034386929634936.html?mod=todays_us_opinion


WHY WE SHOULD CARE ABOUT THE LEBANESE ELECTIONS - ELI KHOURY (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 20): In a region of turmoil, the upcoming presidential process is an opportunity for Lebanon to signal to the world that it can play a stabilizing role, something that would benefit American soldiers and citizens. The upcoming election is literally a matter of life and death.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/09/20/why_we_should_care_about_the_lebanese_elections?mode=PF

SEEDS OF ANTI-SEMITISM - MICHAEL GERSON (WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 21): Last year, Stephen Walt of Harvard and John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago published a paper accusing the "Israel Lobby" of having "unmatched power" and managing to "manipulate the American political system" into actions that undermine U.S. interests. Walt and Mearsheimer are careful to say they are not anti-Semitic or conspiracy-minded. But their main inference -- that Israel, the Israel lobby and Jewish neoconservatives called the shots for Bush, Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Stephen Hadley, Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld -- is not only rubbish, it is dangerous rubbish.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/20/AR2007092001959_pf.html

AFGHANISTAN SIX YEARS LATER - AUSTIN BAY (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 21): U.S. and international-sponsored Provincial Reconstructions Teams (PRTs) play a critical role in this type of "capacity building," Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States, Said T. Jawad, said.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070921/COMMENTARY/109210009/1012&template=printart

PAKISTAN'S CRISIS AND OURS EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, SEPTEMBER 20): The more Musharraf bows to the democratic will of the public and to constitutional rules affirmed by an independent judiciary, the better for Pakistan and for long-term US interests.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/09/20/pakistans_crisis_and_ours?mode=PF

WHEN NEGOTIATION DOESN'T WORK - PETER HUESSY (WASHINGTON TIMES, SEPTEMBER 20): We are at war with nations with a vision that requires them to kill all those they perceive to stand in the way of a new totalitarian Islamic caliphate, including fellow Muslims.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070920/EDITORIAL/109200011/1013&template=printart

THE PODHORETZ CAVALRY: NORMAN TO THE RESCUE - MONA CHAREN (NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 20): What was missing was a full-throated, unequivocal, intellectually sparkling defense of the Bush Doctrine. It is missing no more. With World War IV, Norman Podhoretz has ridden to Bush's side like the cavalry.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MWQ1NjBjMWQ4NDQ5M2Y2NmFjOGY5YWM5YjFjNzI1ZGY=

READY, WILLING, AND ABLE: WE'VE GOT THE SHIPS, WE'VE GOT THE MEN, WE'VE GOT THE MONEY TOO - THOMAS DONNELLY (WEEKLY STANDARD, SEPTEMBER 24): For better or worse, it is and will be for quite a while the duty of America's land forces to fight the Long War. Of the three great security challenges of our time -- the rise of China, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and the dangers of revolutionary Islam -- it is the third that requires of us strong land power capabilities.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/112jmlts.asp?pg=2

PREEMPTIVE APPEASEMENT : EUROPE'S NEW STRATEGY FOR THE WAR ON TERROR - DANIEL MANDEL (WEEKLY STANDARD, SEPTEMBER 21): It isn't at all clear that Europeans appreciate the implicit long-term threat to their liberties stemming from a growing population of Muslim supremacists.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/132hqeaa.asp

IS TERRORISM A MORTAL THREAT? PAT BUCHANAN (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 21): For all the blather of a restored caliphate, the "Islamofascists," as the neocons call them, cannot create or run a modern state, or pose a mortal threat to America. The GNP of the entire Arab world is not equal to Spain's. Oil aside, its exports are equal to Finland's.
http://www.antiwar.com/pat/?articleid=11651

HOW MUCH ARE WE SPENDING ON THE WARS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN? DON'T ASK THE PENTAGON: DETERMINING HOW MUCH FEDERAL FUNDING HAS BEEN DIRECTED TO THE WARS SHOULD BE A FAIRLY SIMPLE PROPOSITION. THANKS TO THE PENTAGON, IT'S ANYBODY'S GUESS - WINSLOW T. WHEELER (MOTHER JONES, SEPTEMBER 20)
http://www.motherjones.com/cgi-bin/print_article.pl?url=http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2007/09/pentagon-war-spending.html

DESPERATELY SEARCHING FOR A NEW FOREIGN POLICY DOUG BANDOW (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 21): Today, most Americans realize that US foreign policy is in crisis. If America is to thrive in the future, it must take a new approach to the world -- realistic and ethical, tough and humane.
http://www.antiwar.com/bandow/?articleid=11652

DITCH THE EMPIRE, STICK TO COMMERCE - CHARLEY REESE (ANTIWAR.COM, SEPTEMBER 30): Sooner or later, the American people will realize we don't have the brains or the grit to run a world empire. When our political leaders try, they make fools of themselves. Business and commerce are our forte, and that's what we should stick to. Let somebody else play Caesar.
http://www.antiwar.com/reese/?articleid=11620

THE U.S. MEDIA AND NAZI PROPAGANDA -- ACCORDING TO AL JAZEERA - MARIO LOYOLA (CORNER, NATIONAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 19): In a recent article in a Syrian newspaper, the very gracious Dr. Faisal compared U.S. media to Nazi propaganda. Loyola's response to Faisal' article: 'Dear Dr. Faisal, I have learned of your recent comparison of U.S. media to Nazi propaganda. I was surprised and somewhat confused that you would write this, since the essential message of Nazi propaganda was that (a) the western democracies are corrupt, (b) they are controlled by a capitalist conspiracy dominated by Jews, and (c) their purpose is to oppress the poor people of the world. Since this is also and often the message of Al Jazeera, I ask you ? do you mean this comparison to Nazi propaganda as a compliment?'
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjM1NjZkNTg1MDI0OTUxNGUzNmYxOTA5MWRiODMyNDY=

POPE REFUSES TO MEET RICE: REPORT AFP (BREITBART.COM, SEPTEMBER 19): Pope Benedict XVI refused to meet US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in August, saying he was on holiday, an Italian newspaper reported Wednesday.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070919165838.f0y81otc&show_article=1