Foreign Policy News and Commentary Update January 20, 2008

"Daily Show": Bush Channels Woody Allen in Saudi Arabia (Jon Stewart)
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/20080118_daily_show_bush_channels_woody_allen_in_saudi_arabia/

Surgetopia (Mark Fiore, Mother Jones, January 16)
http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/fiore/2008/01/surgetopia.html

President Making A Final Push On Foreign Policy: Bush, World Leaders Anticipating 2009 - Michael Abramowitz (Washington Post, January 20): As Bush's Middle East trip underscored, his power to sway world events during his final months in the White House is dwindling.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/19/AR2008011902235_pf.html

Has The Bush Administration Been Checked By An 'Executive Coup D'etat'? - William Pfaff (Tribune Media Service, January 17): Bush's tour -- his farewell to the Middle East -- lent weight to the judgment many abroad have already reached, that he no longer governs the United States, and indeed does not even understand its present foreign relationships.
http://www.tmsinternational.com/latsi/subcategory.jsp?catid=1594

Israeli Atrocity on Gaza Civilians - Juan Cole (Informed Comment: Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion, January 20): The US primary season has created a news blackout on US television about foreign news (apparently the public of the world's sole superpower is not estimated by corporate news executives to be able to handle more than one story).
http://www.juancole.com/2008/01/israeli-atrocity-on-gaza-civilians.html

The murky toll of the Iraq war - John Tirman (Boston Globe, January 19): Strategies to reduce violence against civilians and to increase economic and physical security are paramount. Iraq's neighbors must be part of the solution, given the scale of misery. President Bush has never embraced this idea, but it seems more and more obvious as the war drags on.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/01/19/the_murky_toll_of_the_iraq_war?mode=PF

Iraqi Mirages: A new law may not bring real reconciliation much closer. That's no reason to give up Editorial (Washington Post, January 18): The worst mistake the United States could make would be to allow its frustration with Iraqi political leaders to cause it to abandon the military strategy that has delivered that progress.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/17/AR2008011702385_pf.html

Patience in Iraq: We Need to Guard the Progress Being Made - Jack Keane, Frederick W. Kagan and Michael O'Hanlon (Washington Post, January 20): Reducing forces in Iraq too rapidly, even by one or two brigades, might seriously jeopardize the tenuous success we are seeing. We should not take that risk.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/18/AR2008011802937_pf.html

Surge to Nowhere: Don't buy the hawks' hype. The war may be off the front pages, but Iraq is broken beyond repair, and we still own it - Andrew J. Bacevich (Washington Post, January 20): The real legacy of the surge is that it will enable Bush to bequeath the Iraq war to his successor.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/18/AR2008011802873_pf.html
http://www.juancole.com/2008/01/iraq-is-still-bad-bargain.html

Iraq's fragile calm - Editorial (San Francisco Chronicle, January 17): The surge of 30,000 extra U.S. troops can only be a respite until long-term solutions are found for the nation's fragile civil life.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/17/EDIJUGC7U.DTL

Federalism, Not Partition: A System Devolving Power to the Regions Is the Route to a Viable Iraq - Mowaffak al-Rubaie (Washington Post, January 18): The shape of a reconstructed, federal Iraq could vary, but it should permit the assignment of nearly all domestic powers to the regions, to be funded out of a percentage of oil revenue distributed on the basis of population. (The writer is Iraq's national security adviser.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/17/AR2008011702240_pf.html

Sins of the Son: An attempt to penetrate the family drama behind George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq [review of The Bush Tragedy By Jacob Weisberg] - Michael Getler (Washington Post, January 20): After five years of war in Iraq, it remains remarkable how little we know about exactly how, why, when and in whose presence one of the most important -- and maybe one of the worst -- decisions in recent American history was made.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/17/AR2008011702692_pf.html

Bush in Egypt: Democracy, democracy, democracy! Mubarak: Whaddat? - Edward M. Gomez (World Views, San Francisco Chronicle, January 16): Since he moved into the White House, George W. Bush has continued Washington's decades-long, ignominious enabling of the democracy-crushing dictatorship of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=15&entry_id=23532

Iran's Small Boats Are a Big Problem - David B. Crist (New York Times, January 20): History shows that a tough but measured military response to Iranian harassment may lessen the odds of a much bigger clash down the road.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/opinion/20crist.html?pagewanted=print

Free Phones Build US-Iran Bridges - (IslamOnline, January 19): With many misconceptions on both sides, an American anti-war group, Enough Fear group, is allowing Americans to talk to ordinary Iranians through a special free-of-charge phone service.
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1199279738777&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout

GCC-Iran Watch Marc Lynch (Abu Aardvark, January 17): On Iran issues the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and other key Arab states seem to be going right on exploring engagement with Iran despite the American sabre-rattling.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark/2008/01/gcc-iran-watch.html

No Sunshine For Bush In Mideast - Leon Hadar (Courant.com, January 17): President Bush's failed policies in the region -- in Iraq, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine -- have turned him into one of the most despised figures in the Middle East and brought American prestige in the Arab and Muslim worlds to an all-time low.
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/op_ed/hc-hadar0117.artjan17,0,2948273,print.story

Bloody Reality Bears No Relation to the Delusions of This President - Robert Fisk (Independent, January 18; Common Dreams): Instead of advocating a "New Middle East," Mr. Bush, lying amid his silken sheets in the Saudi king's palace, is now pursuing a return to the "Old Middle East", a place of secret policemen, torture chambers -- to which prisoners can be usefully 'renditioned' -- and dictatorial 'moderate' presidents and monarchs.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/18/6450/

Sticks 'n' Stones and Allies - Editorial (New York Times, January 20): Afghanistan is NATO's first out-of-area mission. What happens to the alliance if it fails?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/opinion/20sun2.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

A Forgotten Crisis: The United Nations pledged to act on Burma. Instead, it has allowed itself to be bullied and shamed Editorial (Washington Post, January 20): Bush administration officials are pushing China, India and the Europeans to pressure the Burmese, but without much luck.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/19/AR2008011902016_pf.html

Engage with Cuba Editorial Comment (Financial Times, January 20): It is too late for the Bush presidency to change course but a new and more effective policy based on Cuban realities ought to be high on the agenda of the next US president.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6b75de1a-c785-11dc-a0b4-0000779fd2ac,s01=1.html

A tale of two allies: The Polish lesson: America must give something in return for support - A. Wess Mitchell (Christian Science Monitor, January 18): Warsaw's new mind-set is replicated across the capitals of the "New Europe," where officials are weary of what they see as Washington's failure to reward its allies for support in the Iraq war.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0118/p09s01-coop.html

An Establishment Teeters, in Kenya and Beyond - Jim Hoagland (Washington Post, January 20): The forces of globalization and of immediate, intrusive electronic communication have connected the lives of Americans and Europeans much more closely to the people of the developing world -- on the surface. But the increase in communication has not been matched by an increase in understanding of the Third World's dilemmas or a commitment to help resolve them.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/18/AR2008011802742_pf.html

The Account of Sami al-Haj: A Letter from Guantánamo - Andy Worthington (CounterPunch, January 19): In Guantánamo, Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj has been subjected to an extraordinary array of vague allegations for which the administration has failed to provide any evidence.
http://www.counterpunch.org/worthington01182008.html

Book Review: 'They Knew They Were Right' by Jacob Heilbrunn: The neoconservatives' rise to power' By Andrew J. Bacevich (Los Angeles Times, January 20): One of the broadly unflattering impressions emerging from Heilbrunn's narrative is that although they pose as intellectuals, neoconservatives more typically function as propagandists. Theirs is not the disinterested pursuit of truth so much as the endless repetition of ostensibly self-evident truisms.
http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/books/la-bk-bacevich20jan20,1,3431193.story

Undersecretary of State Decides to Step Down: R. Nicholas Burns Is Latest Diplomat to Depart; William Burns to Replace Him - Robin Wright (Washington Post, January 19): Nicholas Burns, 51, is the latest of almost 20 top diplomats to depart over the past year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/18/AR2008011801207_pf.html

Roger Lowenstein, "The Education of Ben Bernanke" (New York Times, January 20)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/magazine/20Ben-Bernanke-t.html?ref=magazine