Foreign Policy News and Commentary Update November 1, 2007

VETERAN BUSH AIDE RESIGNS AS ENVOY TO RETURN TO TEXAS - HELENE COOPER (NEW YORK TIMES, NOVEMBER 1): http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/washington/01hughes.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=world&pagewanted=print

BUSH CONFIDANT QUITS ADMINISTRATION: KAREN HUGHES, ONE THE LAST OF THE PRESIDENT'S TEXAS INNER CIRCLE, IS LEAVING HER STATE DEPARTMENT POST, IN WHICH SHE STRUGGLED TRYING TO BOOST AMERICA'S IMAGE OVERSEAS - PAUL RICHTER (LOS ANGELES TIMES, NOVEMBER 1):
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-hughes1nov01,1,4132597.story?coll=la-news-a_section

HUGHES TO LEAVE STATE DEPT. AFTER MIXED RESULTS IN OUTREACH POST - GLENN KESSLER AND ROBIN WRIGHT)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/31/AR2007103100788_pf.html

UNANSWERED QUESTION OF THE DAY: PRESS BRIEFING BY DANA PERINO TIM DICKINSON (ROLLING STONE, OCTOBER 31): http://www.rollingstone.com/nationalaffairs/index.php/2007/10/31/unanswered-question-of-the-day-2/

AU REVOIR, FORGETTABOUTIT DAVID (DAVZRAVES: A PLACE FOR ME TO EXPRESS MY HEART, OCTOBER 31): So long, Karen Hughes. The Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy is the latest Bushista to skip ship. Ms. Hughes -- whose tenure at State as a communications guru has been criticized as an abysmal failure -- gave all of us some Halloween candy by kissing her job goodbye.
http://davzraves.blogspot.com/2007/10/au-revoir-forgettaboutit.html

THE EVACUATION OFF THE TITANIC CONTINUES - EVE FAIRBANKS (PLANK, NEW REPIUBLIC, OCTOBER 31): Karen Hughes -- Bush's public-diplomacy maven, whom Tucker Carlson once called mentally ill -- is getting on that one-way train back to Texas.
http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2007/10/31/the-evacuation-off-the-titanic-continues.aspx

HUGHES IS LEAVING MOUNTAINRUNNER (OCTOBER 31): "It's too late for memoir season, so thankfully we'll be spared a book from Ms. Hughes. If one did come out, I'd expect it to be much like Bremer's."
http://mountainrunner.us/2007/10/hughes_is_leaving.html#comments

NEWS FLASH: HUGHES OUT AT STATE; PENTAGON DEPARTURE LOOMS? - STEVE FIELD (THE D-RING: WHERE THE MILITARY AND NEW MEDIA COLLIDE, OCTOBER 31): Hughes probably had the hardest job in government today -- making foreigners like America again. However, her thinking on the best way to achieve this mission was, at best, small minded. A Pentagon insider tells the D-Ring that a similarly high-profiled communicator at the Department of Defense is on the way out as well, with an announcement to come in the near future. Apparently, no one wants the job of talking about the administration?s foreign policy at the moment.
http://dring.wordpress.com/2007/10/31/news-flash-hughes-out-at-state-pentagon-departure-looms/

HUGHES LEAVES STATE DEPT. AMID QUESTIONABLE PERFORMANCE D. CUPPLES (BUCK NAKED POLITICS, OCTOBER 31): Perhaps recent State Department upheaval prompted Hughes' resignation: e.g., the embassy mess, the Blackwater mess, the Department's failure to monitor contractors' behavior and billing....
http://bucknakedpolitics.typepad.com/buck_naked_politics/2007/10/hughes-leaves-s.html

KAREN HUGHES EXITS STAGE RIGHT ? STEVE BENEN (CARPETBAGGER REPORT, OCTOBER 31): On one of her Mideast trips [Hughes] talked down to her audience, offered the kind of schlock that no one in the Arab world wants, and lectured them about the inadequacies of their culture. Lo and behold, this didn't improve matters. Now, if there are any actual diplomats around who could take over as undersecretary of state, that'd be really helpful.
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/13427.html

BYE, BYE KAREN! - SCOTT MACLEO/DOHA (IRAQ UPDATE, OCTOBER 31): "I'm not sure you really need an undersecretary for public diplomacy; presumably, that's the job that diplomats are supposed to do every day. Certainly, the best among them -- and I could make a long list here -- are out meeting people, arguing America's case, listening to local views and trying to bridge understanding. But if you are going to make a big deal out of appointing high fliers like Karen Hughes in order to underscore the importance you assign to the task, then find somebody who knows what they are doing, and who?s willing to see the mission out."
http://iraqupdate.wordpress.com/2007/10/31/bye-bye-karen/

"GAFFE MACHINE" KAREN HUGHES LEAVING STATE DEPARTMENT - JOHN E. CAREY (MEDIA FOR FREEDOM, NEPAL, OCTOBER 31, 2007): An American gaffe machine gets set to go home. Good riddance. No amount of costuming on this Halloween can convince us that Mrs. Hughes made a valuable contribution to U.S. foreign policy.
http://www.mediaforfreedom.com/ReadArticle.asp?ArticleID=5560

DIPLOMATIC SWAT TEAM SENT TO RESCUE RUMSFELD JOHN (PARABOLICMIRROR.COM: NEWS AND POLITICAL SATIRE, OCTOBER 31): Breaking News... Washington D.C. Hot on the heels of former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's brush with French authorities, the US State Department is launching a bold new diplomatic rescue effort. The diplomatic SWAT team is the brainchild of Karen Hughes who resigned her position as the head of the State Department's Public Diplomacy Operation, so that she may head up the rescue effort herself.
http://www.parabolicmirror.com/2007/10/diplomatic-swat-team-sent-to-rescue.html

FIRST LADY LAURA BUSH'S WHIRLWIND MIDEAST TRIP FOX NEWS (OCTOBER 30): Greta Van Susteren, Host: http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,306476,00.html

U.S. BASEBALL LEGEND [CAL RIPKEN JR.] VISITS CHINA ? (XINHUA, CHINA, OCTOBER 30): PHOTOS of the Public Diplomacy Envoy with Chinese children.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-10/31/content_6977125.htm

IRAN: I KNOW YOU ARE BUT WHAT AM I? - BLAKE HOUNSHELL (PASSPORT, FOREIGN POLICY, OCTOBER 30): Facing escalating drumbeats from the United States, Iran has launched what appears to be a coordinated public diplomacy campaign.
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/6846

FROM THE DESK OF DONALD RUMSFELD . . . IN SOMETIMES-BRUSQUE 'SNOWFLAKES,' HE SHARED WORLDVIEW, SHAPED POLICYROBIN WRIGHT (WASHINGTON POST, NOVEMBER 1): In a series of internal musings and memos to his staff, then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld argued that Muslims avoid "physical labor" and wrote of the need to "keep elevating the threat," "link Iraq to Iran" and develop "bumper sticker statements" to rally public support for an increasingly unpopular war.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/31/AR2007103103095.html?hpid=topnews

STATE WATCH PATRICIA K. KUSHLIS (WHIRLED VIEW, OCTOBER 31): The bottom line is that the Foreign Service, like the US Army, is broken. This administration's demands far exceed the Foreign Service's ability to fulfill the requirements placed upon it. It's just that simple. And that sad.
http://whirledview.typepad.com/whirledview/2007/10/state-watch.html

ENVOYS RESIST FORCED IRAQ DUTY: TOP STATE DEPT. OFFICIALS FACE ANGRY QUESTIONS - KAREN DEYOUNG (WASHINGTON POST, NOVEMBER 1): Uneasy U.S. diplomats yesterday challenged senior State Department officials in unusually blunt terms over a decision to order some of them to serve at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad or risk losing their jobs. Service in Iraq is "a potential death sentence," said one man who identified himself as a 46-year Foreign Service veteran. "Any other embassy in the world would be closed by now," he said to sustained applause.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/31/AR2007103101626_pf.html

HELP WANTED ? EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 31): Congress has finally pried open America's door to Iraqis and Afghans who have served this country at great risk. Congress needs to go a lot further, adding more visa slots and approving resettlement benefits that would allow these people to grab the lifeline the United States has been far too slow to offer.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/opinion/31wed2.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

JUSTICE IN IRAQ: QUESTIONABLE OFFERS OF IMMUNITY TO BLACKWATER GUARDS MAY HINDER A U.S. INQUIRY INTO THE DEATHS OF 17 IRAQIS EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 31)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-blackwater31oct31,0,831469.story?coll=la-opinion-leftrail

U.S. MILITARY WILL OVERSEE CONTRACTORS - JOHN M. BRODER AND DAVID JOHNSTON (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 30)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/washington/31contractor.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

BUSH'S LEGACY OF CYNICISM - RICHARD COHEN (WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 30): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/29/AR2007102901473_pf.html

WINNING IN AFGHANISTAN - HARLAN ULLMAN (WASHINGTON TIMES, OCTOBER 31): NATO cannot lose in Afghanistan.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071031/EDITORIAL/110310006/1013/EDITORIAL&template=printart


AFGHANISTAN AT THE BRINK - ROGER COHEN (NEW YORK TIMES, NOVEMBER 1): With Afghanistan at a tipping point, the next U.S. president will face an enduring challenge here of immense proportions.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/opinion/01cohen.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

BUSH'S NORTH KOREA MELTDOWN - JOHN R. BOLTON (WALL STREET JOURNAL, OCTOBER 31): The Bush administration apparently believes North Korea is serious this time, unlike all the others. The concessions continue to flow in essentially only one direction, crossing repeated "red lines" Washington had drawn.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119379446210477079.html?mod=todays_us_opinion

NUCLEAR INDIA - RICHARD HALLORAN (WASHINGTON TIMES, NOVEMBER 1): A nuclear agreement that was to have been emblematic of new strategic relations between the United Stares and India appears to be falling apart, with serious consequence all around.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071101/COMMENTARY/111010012/1012

U.S. ON THE SIDELINES OF GLOBAL TRENDS? - ANNE-MARIE SLAUGHTER (NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 28): ASEAN countries want us in the region to help create space for them, the kind of space smaller countries tend to enjoy when bigger powers balance each other?s influence. In short, it is not a part of the world that we can afford to neglect.
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/us-on-the-sidelines-of-global-trends/index.html?ref=opinion