Foreign Policy News and Commentary Update January 13, 2008

Best and Worst America This Week - Rami G. Khouri (Agency Global, January 9): American military bases, secret prisons, outsourced torture chambers, and covert operations around the Arab world and Asia are expanding at a rapid rate, while American democracy activists and public diplomacy officials are widely viewed around the region as anathema.
http://www.agenceglobal.com/Article.asp?Id=1449


Our Pakistan Problem: Turmoil Requires a Shift in U.S. Policy - Brian Katulis, Caroline Wadhams (Center for American Progress, January 11): The US government has overemphasized military solutions to fighting terrorism, and has not focused sufficiently on democracy promotion, economic development, and public diplomacy.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/01/pakistan_problem.html/print.html

Baghdad Embassy Is Called A Fire Risk: 'Serious' Problems Were Ignored, Says State Dept. Official - Glenn Kessler (Washington Post, January 12): Originally expected to be completed by July 1, 2007, at a cost of $592 million, the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in the world has been plagued by poor planning, shoddy workmanship and design changes that have added to the cost. .
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/11/AR2008011103772_pf.html

For U.S., The Goal Is Now 'Iraqi Solutions': Approach Acknowledges Benchmarks Aren't Met - Thomas E. Ricks and Karen DeYoung (Washington Post, January 10): With little progress in Iraq, U.S. officials in Baghdad now are simply looking for something that works, frequently spotlighting the Iraqi government's top economic milestone -- passing a national budget and spending some of the appropriated funds.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/09/AR2008010903701_pf.html

Promises, Promises - Dan Froomkin (washingtonpost.com, January 10): rather than admit the surge in Iraq has failed in its primary task (political reconciliation), Bush is calling it a success. It's not just the surge in Iraq; Bush's predictions about the Middle East in general have been almost uniformly wrong.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/01/10/BL2008011002194_pf.html


Normalcy returns to Baghdad, block by block - Richard Tomkins (Washington Times, January 13)
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080113/FOREIGN/504850653/1001&template=printart

A war report discredited - Jeff Jacoby (Boston Globe, January 13): There was great interest when the British medical journal Lancet published a study in October 2006, three weeks before the midterm US elections, reporting that 655,000 people had died in Iraq as a result of the US-led war. But the truth, it turns out, is that the report was drenched with politics, and its jaw-dropping conclusions should have inspired anything but confidence, as demonstrated by a cover story last week in the National Journal.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/01/13/a_war_report_discredited?mode=PF
National Journal article at
http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/databomb/index.htm


Gross Distortions, Sloppy Methodology and Tendentious Reporting: How the New England Journal of Medicine Undercounted Iraqi Civilian Deaths - Andrew Cockburn (CounterPunch, January 12): A new result compiled by the Iraqi Ministry of Health under the sponsorship of the World Health Organization and published in the once reputable New England Journal of Medicine, (NEJM) estimate the number of Iraqis murdered, directly or indirectly, by George Bush and his willing executioners at 151,000 -- far less than the most recent Johns Hopkins estimate published by the Lancet magazine. The new report is guilty of sloppy methodology and tendentious reporting -- evidently inspired by the desire to discredit the horrifying Hopkins/Lancet findings, which, the NEJM study triumphantly concludes, "considerably overestimated the number of violent deaths".
http://www.counterpunch.org/andrew01122008.html

Lancet report at
http://www.thelancet.com/webfiles/images/journals/lancet/s0140673606694919.pdf


Unfinished Debate on Iraq - Editorial (New York Times, January 13): The United States must be prepared to use military force to pre-empt another attack on American soil. In Iraq, Mr. Bush went much further, invading a country that he imagined might someday pose a threat to the United States -- not pre-empting an imminent threat but preventing the possibility of a threat. To justify his actions, he persuaded Americans that Saddam Hussein had chemical, biological and, especially, nuclear weapons programs -- a claim that proved to be specious.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/opinion/13sun1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print


Iran Shows Its Own Video of Vessels Encounter in Gulf - Thom Shanker and Nazila Fathi (New York Times, January 11)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/11/world/middleeast/11hormuz.html?sq=&pagewanted=print

US Video of Iran Speedboats Doctored; Iranians Charge Fabrication Juan Cole (Informed Comment: Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion, January 11): The Bush administration's assertion that 5 small Iranian boats confronted big, well-armed US ships in the Straits of Hormuz and threatened to blow up the American vessels is looking more and more like a serious error if not a Republican Party fabrication. http://www.juancole.com/2008/01/us-video-of-iran-speedboats-flawed.html

Gulf speedboat guff - Austin Bay (Washington Times, January 11): The best long-term U.S. strategy toward Iran is political and economic -- encouraging an active domestic political opposition to Iran's clever religious leaders while whittling away at the clerics' graft-crammed Swiss bank accounts.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080111/COMMENTARY/207174951/1012&template=printart


Will Naval Incident Undermine Bush's Iran Message? - Trita Parsi (antiwar.com, January 10): The idea of an US-Arab-Israeli alliance being formed to counter Iran's rise -- a key impetus for President Bush's Mideast tour -- seems more farfetched than ever. In this context, the incident between five Iranian vessels and three US Naval ships in the Strait of Hormuz this past Sunday may not, as the Bush administration may have hoped, clarify the threat Iran poses to the region.
http://www.antiwar.com/ips/parsi.php?articleid=12184


Bush Fails Again Charley Reese (antiwar.com, January 12): Bush's trip is nothing more than a public-relations ploy to simulate an interest in peace. In fact, the main purpose of Bush's visit is to harangue the Arabs about the alleged dangers of Iran.
http://www.antiwar.com/reese/?articleid=12196


Bush's Mideast mission - Editorial (Washington Times, January 11): In recent days, Iranian and Syrian officials have publicly taunted Mr. Bush, telling him that his efforts to push forward the peace process and persuade Arab nations to stand against Iran are doomed to failure. The president should try to prove them wrong.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080111/EDITORIAL/348677052/1013&template=printart


Forging ties with Iran - Mark Brzezinski and Ray Takeyh (Boston Globe, January 11): Now that a nuclear threat is not imminent, the US long-range goal for negotiations with Iran ought to be to create a context in which Iran sees it as in its own self-interest to become more closely associated with the West and the international order.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/01/11/forging_ties_with_iran?mode=PF


George in Jihadland - Caroline Glick (Jerusalem Post, January 13): Bush stated that he has come to the Middle East to promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians and to ensure US allies that the US is committed to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Yet on both scores US actions do not accord with the president's message.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1199964893886&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


Welcome, Mr President, to the Misery You've Created: In eight years Palestinians have seen the bald eagle of enlightened US power degenerate into a phoney, biased, cynical lame duck - Jonathan Steele (Guardian, January 10/Common Dreams)
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/11/6328/


Why the President Now Seems to be Implementing the Iraq Study Group Report: Bush in the Middle East - Marwan Bishara (CounterPunch, January 11): The US president must pressure his Israeli allies to be more forthcoming in their talks with the Palestinians. He must also pressure his Baghdad allies to do more for national reconciliation in Iraq.
http://www.counterpunch.org/bishara01112008.html


Bush Faces Wall of Arab Ire: Skeptical View of President Attends His Mideast Tour - Farnaz Fassihi (Wall Street Journal, January 11): Almost everyone here believes that no other American president has had such a big impact on the region's political and social landscape, but critics say the change hasn't produced improvements.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120002441257983219.html?mod=hps_us_whats_news


Bush in the Middle East Marc Lynch (Abu Aardvark, January 10): Bush clearly views the purpose of the trip as mobilizing support for confronting Iran, something in which the Gulf states these days don't seem to have a lot of interest. Most of the Arab media, at least, sees the trip almost exclusively through the Palestinian-Israeli lens. http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark/2008/01/bush-in-the-mid.html


A Middle East Commitment: Seven years later, President Bush picks up where Bill Clinton left off ? Editorial (Washington Post, January 13): If Gaza is left to fester, Mr. Bush's push for peace may well fail in the same way as Mr. Clinton's -- with an explosion of violence.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/12/AR2008011202343_pf.html


Still Waiting to Seize the Moment Editorial (New York Times, January 12): It has been six weeks since Mr. Bush hosted the Annapolis peace conference. Six weeks and one Middle East presidential visit later, and nothing on the ground has changed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/12/opinion/12sat1.html?pagewanted=print


Pakistan, Afghanistan in tandem Editorial (Washington Times, January 11): Three-thousand additional Marines will be headed to Afghanistan if, as is expected, Defense Secretary Robert Gates approves a "mini-surge" for the country's deteriorating security situation. At some point, a more secure Pakistan will make recourse to U.S. troop increases less necessary, which would be merciful.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080111/EDITORIAL/418942338/1013&template=printart


North Korea's True Colors - John Bolton (Wall Street Journal, January 11): Getting China to take concrete steps against North Korea's nuclear capabilities through increased economic and political pressure would be a true diplomatic success for the Bush administration in its waning days.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120001236110482565.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries


Defense Ministry information office under preparation Xinhua (People''s Daily, Jauary 12): China has widely applied the news briefing system to most central government departments and local governments since 2003. http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/6337160.html


Guantánamo: How Much Longer? The notorious prison is six years old today. But despite calls from across the US political spectrum, it doesn't look likely to close soon - Moazzam Begg (Guardian, January 11/Common Dreams)
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/11/6327/


Our Shameful Guantánamo Anniversary -- The appalling fact that innocents have been locked up and abused at the U.S. prison for six long years is not the only reason we must close it now - Anthony D. Romero (Salon, January 11)
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/01/11/guantanamo_anniv/print.html


Guantánamo -- Six Years of Impunity - Rosa Maria Pegueros (Common Dreams, January 11)
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/11/6315/


Six Years Of Guantánamo: Enough Is Enough - Andy Worthington (antiwar.com, Junuary 12): A solution is to free the 130 or so detainees who are currently regarded as too dangerous to release, but not dangerous enough to be charged (which is, of course, another extraordinary invention on the part of the authorities) and to bring those regarded as genuinely dangerous -- no more than 40, according to various intelligence estimates -- to trial on the US mainland.
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/worthington.php?articleid=12194


A Terror Threat in the Courts - John Farmer (New York Times, January 12): The continued reliance on our criminal justice system as the main domestic weapon in the struggle against terrorism fails on two counts: it threatens not only to leave our nation unprotected but also to corrupt the foundations of the criminal law itself.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/opinion/13farmer.html?pagewanted=print


Repress U: How to Build a Homeland Security Campus in Seven Steps - Michael Gould-Wartofsky (TomDispatch, January 10): The homeland security state and its constituents have come a long way in their drive to remake the American campus in the image of a compound on lockdown.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/print/174879/Tomgram%253A%2520%2520Gould-Wartofsky%252C%2520Seven%2520Steps%2520to%2520a%2520Homeland%2520Security%2520Campus


Indonesia's success: using terrorists to fight terrorism - Joshua Kurlantzick (baltimoresun.com, January 13): Indonesia instituted a program called deradicalization. Former fighters who agree to help the program often receive incentives, such as reduced sentences or assistance for their families.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.antiterrorists13jan13,0,3554292.story


Cornered in square one: Trying to go back to the beginning in foreign policy, the Bush administration has hit a dead end - Steven Weber and Bruce W. Jentleson (Los Angeles Times, January 13): In trying to reverse the damage done during its first seven years -- including an overstretched military and a loss of global prestige and influence -- the administration, ironically, has quietly adopted many of the policies it once scorned.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-weber13jan13,0,2830703.story?coll=la-opinion-center


Living in a Dream World: The political fantasies of foreign service officers - Michael Rubin (Weekly Standard, January 21): Washington has always been a place where down is up, but nowhere is the world quite so inverted as at the State Department. While American forces fight wars in Afghan mountains and Iraqi deserts, train counterterror troops in Philippine jungles, and stare down North Korean soldiers across the Demilitarized Zone, Foggy Bottom remains as removed from reality as Lilliput, Brobdingnag, and Laputa ever were.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/586nbnsj.asp


Longing for the Land of Beer and Chocolate - Al Kamen (In the Loop, Washington Post, January 11): One of President Bush's most high-profile recess appointees, Ambassador to the European Union C. Boyden Gray, is back in Washington and, for the moment, out of a job. There is buzz that the White House wants to name Gray as Bush's "special envoy" to the European Union, a position that doesn't require Senate confirmation and apparently would not give him supervisory authority over mission officials.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/10/AR2008011003410_pf.html