Foreign Policy News and Commentary Update December 28, 2007

Venezuela to Pick Up Hostages (MountainRunner, December 27): Chavez was preparing to send Venezuelan helicopters into Colombia's lawless jungles to retrieve three hostages from an anti-Colombian government rebel hideaway. Mountain Runner comment: 'Well played, Hugo Chavez. This has the real potential of being a public diplomacy coup.'
http://mountainrunner.us/2007/12/venezuela_to_pick_up_hostages.html

U.S. Navy Aims to Flex 'Soft Power': Goodwill missions could become the Navy's chief strategy in the war on terror - Gordon Lubold (Christian Science Monitor, December 27): The US Navy is trying to set a new course, embracing a shift in strategy that focuses heavily on administering humanitarian aid, disaster relief, and other forms of so-called soft power to woo allies to help the United States fight global terrorism.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1227/p02s01-usgn.html

Al Qaeda: Propaganda and Media Strategy - Canadian Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, The Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University (Volume 2007-2)
http://www.csis-scrs.gc.ca/en/itac/itacdocs/2007-2.pdf

Overseas security threats to U.S. businesses cited: Cyber-attacks, terrorism and piracy are among the issues in a State Department report - Associated Press (Los Angeles Times, December 28)
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cyber28dec28,1,2499475.story

Doubts Engulf an American Aid Plan for Pakistan - Jane Perlez (New York Times, December 25): Weeks before it is to begin, an ambitious American aid plan to counter militancy in Pakistan's tribal areas is threatened by important unresolved questions about who will monitor the money and whether it could fall into the wrong hands, according to American and Pakistani officials and analysts familiar with the plan. The disputes have left many skeptical that the $750 million five-year plan can succeed in competing for the allegiance of an estimated 400,000 young tribesmen in the restive tribal region, a mountainous swath of territory left destitute by British colonialists and ignored by successive Pakistani governments.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/25/world/asia/25pakistan.html?pagewanted=print
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/24/world/asia/24military.html

News Analysis: Salvaging U.S. Diplomacy Amid Division - Helene Cooper and Steven Lee Myers (New York Times, December 28): The assassination of Benazir Bhutto on Thursday left in ruins the delicate diplomatic effort the Bush administration had pursued in the past year to reconcile Pakistan?s deeply divided political factions. Now it is scrambling to sort through ever more limited options, as American influence on Pakistan?s internal affairs continues to decline.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/world/asia/28policy.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

After Benazir Bhutto Editorial (New York Times, December 28): The United States cannot afford to have Pakistan unravel any further. The lesson of the last six years is that authoritarian leaders -- even ones backed with billions in American aid -- don?t make reliable allies, and they can?t guarantee security. American policy must now be directed at building a strong democracy in Pakistan that has the respect and the support of its own citizens and the will and the means to fight Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/opinion/28fri1.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

Assassination in Pakistan: The murder of Benazir Bhutto demands quick action to stabilize the country Editorial (Washington Post, December 28): The Bush administration should follow up aggressively on the president's suggestion that Pakistan "honor Benazir Bhutto's memory by continuing with the democratic process for which she so bravely gave her life."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/27/AR2007122702074_pf.html

Pakistan at an Uncertain Hour - Teresita C. Schaffer (Washington Post, December 28): Benazir Bhutto's assassination leaves slim possibilities for a democratic transition that now matters more than ever to the United States.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/27/AR2007122701935_pf.html

The Void Left Behind - Ahmed Rashid (Washington Post, December 28): If rioting and political mayhem worsen, if the opposition refuses to cooperate with Musharraf and the United States finally begins to distance itself from him, then the army may be forced to tell Musharraf to call it a day. If that happens, it will be even more urgent that the world support a national government, elections and a speedy return to civilian rule -- and not another military dictatorship.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/27/AR2007122701521_pf.html

With Bhutto gone, does Bush have a Plan B? Bush's failed policies in Pakistan, a nuclear power that al-Qaida still uses to plot against the West, threatens U.S. security more than Iraq ever did - Juan Cole (Salon, December 27)
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/12/27/bhutto/

Pakistan's perilous path Editorial (Washington Times, December 28): No time for lofty rhetoric or finger-pointing, the Bush administration, neighboring countries, including Afghanistan and India, and other allies must seek policies that quell turmoil and push democracy and stability even if those policies lead to a less-than-ideal scenario.
http://washingtontimes.com/article/20071228/EDITORIAL/524490508/1013

The Legacy of Benazir Bhutto - David Ignatius (Washington Post, December 28): The Bush administration attempted a bit of political engineering when it tried to broker an alliance between Musharraf and Bhutto and sought to position her as the country's next prime minister. Yesterday's events were a reminder that global politics is not Prospero's island, where we can conjure up the outcomes we want.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/27/AR2007122701479_pf.html

Bhutto's Legacy - Husain Haqqani (Wall Street Journal, December 28): As Pakistanis mourn the death of a popular democratic leader, the United States must review its policy of trusting the military-dominated regime led by Pervez Musharraf to secure, stabilize and democratize Pakistan.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119880391731054395.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

Pakistani Punditry - Victor Davis Hanson (National Review, December 28): When we talk about our current failures vis-a-vis Pakistan and the general chaos abroad, history may take a longer view, and see that our present dismal prospects in Pakistan derive in large part from its nuclearization (Khan was exposed and his nuclear profiteering abroad shut down in 2003/4) a decade ago, and that, contrary to conventional wisdom, we have done pretty well in trying to limit the number of new nuclear states during the last few years.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWRkZDQxNzE1N2FiZmVjZTI5Nzk1ZjFkYTU0YmNmYmE=

Benazir Bhutto: Killed by the real Pakistan - Andrew C. McCarthy (National Review, December 27): Jihadists are not going to be wished away, rule-of-lawed into submission, or democratized out of existence. If you really want democracy and the rule of law in places like Pakistan, you need to kill the jihadists first. Or they will kill you, just like, today, they killed Benazir Bhutto.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTExNmE0MzY3YjBlYWEwZDkzOThkMWJiM2JmZGQ2NDE=

At the Precipice: Pakistan after Benazir Bhutto - Joshua Kurlantzick (New Republic, December 27): The White House itself admitted in an intelligence assessment this summer that Musharraf's supposed battle against terrorists was failing miserably. Yet at the same time, Musharraf has neutered Pakistan's political culture, helping create a vacuum in which there are few other credible leaders besides Sharif and the slain Bhutto. With Bhutto gone, Musharraf may -- surprise -- again fill that vacuum. That could be the greatest tragedy of all.
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=fbe985b2-373a-45cf-a2ec-290f66d4c1f7

The U.S. Army's Intelligence Analysis of the 2004 Fallujah Attack: Fallujah, the Information War and U.S. Propaganda - Stephen Soldz (CounterPunch, December 27): The greater success in manipulating the information war in November was offset, however, by the U.S.'s inability to hide the country's descent into full-scale civil war from reporters and thus, from the world. It remains to be seen if the relative lull in civil war currently occurring as the various factions reevaluate the situation will allow the U.S. greater success in the information war, if not in the real war of occupation.
http://www.counterpunch.org/soldz12272007.html

Hope in Times of War - H.D.S. Greenway (International Herald Tribune, December 27/Common Dreams): ?America needs to keep engaged in the world, and isolationism is not the answer. But I am forever haunted by Graham Greene's lines to the 'Quiet American' who thought that bombs could bring democracy. What people want, says Greene's weary old journalist, is 'enough rice. They don't want to be shot at. They want one day to be much the same as another. They don't want our white skins around telling them what they want.'"
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/27/6022/

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"In Pakistan, everything is possible, even the impossible."

--Mir Murtaza Bhutto, brother of Benazir Bhutto; cited in Amy Wilentz, 'The Benazir I knew' (Los Angeles Times, December 28)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-wilentz28dec28,0,7386357,print.story?coll=la-tot-opinion