Obamacare premiums to soar by double-digits by 2015 in Ohio
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/30/obamacare-premiums-soar-double-digits-2015-ohio/
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Saturday, May 31, 2014
Obamacare premiums to soar by double-digits by 2015 in Ohio
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/30/obamacare-premiums-soar-double-digits-2015-ohio/
Cancer Survivor’s Obamacare Plan Doesn’t Cover A Single Doctor In 400 Miles Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/05/30/cancer-survivors-obamacare-plan-doesnt-cover-a-single-doctor-in-400-miles/#ixzz33Icp2NMH
Cancer Survivor’s Obamacare Plan Doesn’t Cover A Single Doctor In 400 Miles
http://dailycaller.com/2014/05/30/cancer-survivors-obamacare-plan-doesnt-cover-a-single-doctor-in-400-miles/
Obama's Dangerous Scandal At the VA
Obama's Dangerous Scandal At the VA
05/30/14
Jacob Heilbrunn
Security, United States
The
surprising thing isn't that Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki
resigned today but that he didn't do so sooner. Like Kathleen Sebelius,
he is another Obama administration appointee who simply lacked the
management skills to run a large organization. He charitably described
himself as "too trusting." But his resignation itself won't shield
President Obama himself from the political fallout of what appears to be
a real scandal at the VA as opposed to the manufactured one of
Benghazi. With 42 VA hospitals under investigation for
falsifying patient records, Democrats are rightly worried that this
debacle, which signals a lack of accountability and big government
running amok, will severely damage their electoral fortunes in November.
For
Shinseki himself it is a poignant end to what was a distinguished
career that began in the jungles of Vietnam, where he was twice-wounded,
and ended in the almost equally dangerous environment of Washington. He
garnered attention in 2003 when he flatly dismissed the notion before
Congress that postwar Iraq would be a cakewalk to govern. His remarks
sent the Bush administration into overdrive to debunk him. Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in a news conference, "The idea that it
would take several hundred thousand U.S. forces I think is far off the
mark," In one of his most notorious appearances on Capitol Hill, deputy
defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz declared that Shinseki had it all wrong. According to Wolfowitz,
We have no idea what we will need until we get there on the ground. Every time we get a briefing on the war plan, it immediately goes down six different branches to see what the scenarios look like. If we costed each and every one, the costs would range from $10 billion to $100 billion.
Oops.
To
his credit, Shinseki did not back down from his remarks. He was
essentially frozen out for them by the Bush administration. Shinseki
became a hero to the left. Obama sought to rehabilitate and reward him
for the mettle he had displayed by appointing him head of the VA. It was
an imprudent choice. Shinseki didn't turn out to be a bad man but an
incompetent one.
Read full articlehttp://nationalinterest.org/blog/jacob-heilbrunn/obamas-dangerous-scandal-the-va-10571
Could Tensions in the South China Sea Spark a War?
Could Tensions in the South China Sea Spark a War?
05/31/14
Abraham M. Denmark
Security, Asia
And by the way...Washington could get dragged in.
In
the South China Sea, China’s ambitious “nine-dash line” claim of
sovereignty has been disputed by several other claimants, relations have
in recent weeks turned remarkably chillier. Vietnam and the Philippines
are facing the brunt of Beijing’s ire, and the potential for crisis and
conflict is significant. Positions are hardening, willingness to
compromise is low, and the fact that the Philippines is an ally of the
United States raises the potential for a disastrous crisis and potential
conflict between the U.S. and China.
The
clash between China and Vietnam has attracted more attention in recent
days. Just a few days after President Obama’s visit to the region, a Chinese mobile oil rig took position in a carefully selected site
that, while closer to the Vietnam mainland than China’s Hainan Island,
is just fourteen nautical miles from Chinese-occupied island, a part of
the Paracel Island group that is claimed by both China and Vietnam.
China sent a large flotilla of ships to escort the derrick; a group that
included several armed Naval vessels. After Hanoi expressed outrage at
this action and violence against Chinese nationals across Vietnam,
Beijing expanded the escort flotilla to over 100 ships. Most recently,
Chinese ships interdicted, rammed, and sunk a Vietnamese fishing vessel
that was challenging the derrick. Vietnam claims that four ships were
attacked in all, and now there are reportedly 113 ships standing off
against sixty Vietnamese vessels.
Similar
incidents have played out in recent months between China and the
Philippines. After China took effective control over the Scarborough
Shoal in 2012, Beijing seemed to set its sights on the Second Thomas
Shoal—a small land formation about 105 nautical miles from the
Philippines but is claimed by both countries. To buttress its claim, the
Philippines in 1999 intentionally beached the hospital ship Sierra Madre
on the reef and has maintained a small crew on the beached craft ever
since (see an exceptional piece about the sailors on the ship and the
broader dispute by the New York Times here).
Most recently, the Philippines arrested a group of Chinese fishermen
found 70 miles from the Philippines near Half Moon Shoal with a ship
filled with endangered (and valuable) turtles.
Read full articlehttp://nationalinterest.org/feature/could-tensions-the-south-china-sea-spark-war-10572
Tomgram: Pepe Escobar, Who's Pivoting Where in Eurasia?
http://www.tomdispatch.com/
Consider this: our advanced robotic creatures, those drone aircraft grimly named Predators and Reapers, are still blowing away human beings from Yemen to Pakistan. Meanwhile, the Pentagon is now testing out a 14,000-pound drone advanced enough to take off and land on its own on the deck of an aircraft carrier -- no human pilot involved. (As it happens, it’s only a "demonstrator" and, at a cost of $1.4 billion, can’t do much else.) While we’re talking about the skies, who could forget that the U.S. military is committed to buying 2,400 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, already dubbed, amid cost overruns of every sort, "the most expensive weapons system in history." The bill for them: nearly $400 billion or twice what it cost to put a man on the moon.
Tomgram: Pepe Escobar, Who's Pivoting Where in Eurasia?
Posted by Pepe Escobar, May 18, 2014.
Consider this: our advanced robotic creatures, those drone aircraft grimly named Predators and Reapers, are still blowing away human beings from Yemen to Pakistan. Meanwhile, the Pentagon is now testing out a 14,000-pound drone advanced enough to take off and land on its own on the deck of an aircraft carrier -- no human pilot involved. (As it happens, it’s only a "demonstrator" and, at a cost of $1.4 billion, can’t do much else.) While we’re talking about the skies, who could forget that the U.S. military is committed to buying 2,400 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, already dubbed, amid cost overruns of every sort, "the most expensive weapons system in history." The bill for them: nearly $400 billion or twice what it cost to put a man on the moon.
The Harvard Spring by Syrian Senior Orator Sarah Abushaar
linkis.com/youtu.be/TBuWOThe Harvard Spring by Syrian Senior Orator Sarah Abushaar
Directive No. 3025.18 [PDF]: "Defense Support of Civil Authorities"
Directive No. 3025.18 [PDF]: "Defense Support of Civil Authorities," Dec. 29, 2010
“Federal military commanders are provided EMERGENCY AUTHORITY under this Directive. Federal military forces shall not be used to quell civil disturbances unless specifically authorized by the President in accordance with applicable law.. In these circumstances, those Federal military commanders have the authority, in extraordinary emergency circumstances where prior authorization by the President is impossible and duly constituted local authorities are unable to control the situation to engage temporarily in activities that are necessary to quell large-scale, unexpected civil disturbances…”http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/302518p.pdf
“Federal military commanders are provided EMERGENCY AUTHORITY under this Directive. Federal military forces shall not be used to quell civil disturbances unless specifically authorized by the President in accordance with applicable law.. In these circumstances, those Federal military commanders have the authority, in extraordinary emergency circumstances where prior authorization by the President is impossible and duly constituted local authorities are unable to control the situation to engage temporarily in activities that are necessary to quell large-scale, unexpected civil disturbances…”http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/302518p.pdf
DoD Directive Grants Military Authority to ‘Quell Large-scale, Unexpected Civil Disturbances’
DoD Directive Grants Military Authority to ‘Quell Large-scale, Unexpected Civil Disturbances’
Militarization of federal agencies across the board puts everyday Americans square in the crosshairs
http://www.infowars.com/dod-directive-grants-military-authority-to-quell-large-scale-unexpected-civil-disturbances/
Obama Considered Using Military Against Bundy and Supporters
Obama Considered Using Military Against Bundy and Supporters
Pentagon directive authorizes use of federal troops and drones in violation of Posse Comitatus
http://www.infowars.com/obama-considered-using-military-against-bundy-and-supporters/
Edward Snowden Interview with NBC Brian Williams
Edward Snowden Interview with NBC Brian Williams
Video
Edward Snowden, blamed the State Department for stranding him in Russia, saying he "never intended" to wind up there.
Inside the Ring: Memo outlines Obama’s plan to use the military against citizens
Inside the Ring: Memo outlines Obama’s plan to use the military against citizens
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/28/inside-the-ring-directive-outlines-obamas-policy-t/
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/28/inside-the-ring-directive-outlines-obamas-policy-t/
Friday, May 30, 2014
Bloomberg's Harvard Commencement Speech.
Bloomberg's Harvard Commencement Speech.
This is worth watching.http://bostinno.streetwise.co/
Shamus Cooke: The Democrats’ New Fake Populism
Shamus Cooke: The Democrats’ New Fake Populism
http://www.commondreams.org/
http://www.commondreams.org/
Dean Baker: Why Is It So Acceptable to Lie to Promote Trade Deals?
Dean Baker: Why Is It So Acceptable to Lie to Promote Trade Deals?
http://www.commondreams.org/
http://www.commondreams.org/
Juan Cole: Mr. Kerry: Why Snowden Can’t 'Make his Case' in 'Our System of Justice'
Juan Cole: Mr. Kerry: Why Snowden Can’t 'Make his Case' in 'Our System of Justice'
http://www.commondreams.org/
http://www.commondreams.org/
Stiglitz: Tax-Dodging, Corporate Welfare Destroying US Economy
Stiglitz: Tax-Dodging, Corporate Welfare Destroying US Economy
http://www.commondreams.org/
http://www.commondreams.org/
Snowden and NSA Go Tête-à-Tête over Internal Emails
Snowden and NSA Go Tête-à-Tête over Internal Emails
http://www.commondreams.org/
http://www.commondreams.org/
Health-care fraud in America That’s where the money is
Health-care fraud in America
That’s where the money is
How to hand over $272 billion a year to criminals
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21603026-how-hand-over-272-billion-year-criminals-thats-where-money
US Should Support ICC Jurisdiction in Palestine
Published in
The Hill
US Should Support ICC Jurisdiction in Palestine
Bill Van Esveld
May 29, 2014
Secretary
of State John Kerry called the collapse of the latest round of
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks “reality-check time” for the peace
process. That reassessment should
include the self-defeating U.S. policy of opposing steps toward justice
and accountability in the name of negotiations.
Was the Iranian threat fabricated by Israel and the U.S.?
Was the Iranian threat fabricated by Israel and the U.S.?
In a new book and in a conversation with Haaretz, U.S. historian Gareth Porter charges that U.S. and Israeli policies on Iran have been based on fabricated evidence.
Why America Needs Good Spies Like the CIA's Robert Ames
Graham E. Fuller
Former vice
chairman of the CIA’s National Intelligence Council; author, 'Turkey and
the Arab Spring: Leadership in the Middle East'
Why America Needs Good Spies Like the CIA's Robert Ames
WPR Articles May 26, 2014 - May 30, 2014
WPR Articles May 26, 2014 - May 30, 2014
After Ukraine, Limited Prospects for U.S.-Russian Security Cooperation
By: Richard Weitz | Column
I spent part of last week in Russia,
giving a talk at the Moscow Carnegie Center on U.S.-Russia security
cooperation after Ukraine, and attending a security conference organized
by the Russian Defense Ministry. The difference between the two
audiences was striking, and in the end, only a few opportunities for
near-term cooperation were identified, most notably regarding
Afghanistan and Iran’s nuclear program.
Venezuela’s Ideologically Diverse Opposition Faces Coordination Challenges
By: The Editors | Trend Lines
Venezuela has faced months of opposition
protests as international mediation efforts have proved inconclusive. In
an email interview, Michael McCarthy, a professorial lecturer of Latin
American politics at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International
Studies, explained the diverse constituencies the opposition represents.
Factions in U.S., Iran Continue to Dispute Purpose of Talks
By: Eric Auner | Trend Lines
Representatives from the U.S.-led P5+1
countries and Iran met earlier this month for talks on Iran’s nuclear
program that observers generally agree were inconclusive. As the parties
prepare for the next round in Vienna June 16-20
and the July 20 deadline for a final agreement approaches, domestic
forces in both the United States and Iran are trying to affect the goals
and substance of a final agreement.
South Sudan Conflict Destabilizes Ethiopia’s Regional Strategy
By: Harry Verhoeven | Briefing
Once that of an impoverished, war-torn
nation, Ethiopia’s international image is now exemplified by the
construction of the Renaissance Dam, Africa’s biggest infrastructure
project. Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn continues to pursue his
predecessor’s dream of establishing Ethiopia as a regional hegemon
through energy diplomacy. But South Sudan’s conflict and its regional
dimensions now threaten this vision.
Kazakhstan a Model for Ukraine in Accommodating Russia
By: Nikolas Gvosdev | Column
With chaos continuing in Ukraine, the
country’s new president-elect, Petro Poroshenko, and his team might want
to consider learning from how another mid-sized Eurasian state has
managed its relationship with the Russian bear. This week, in a ceremony
overshadowed by the events in Ukraine, Kazakhstan’s Nursultan
Nazarbayev signed the agreements formally creating the Eurasian Economic
Union with Russia.
EU Migrants Caught Between Economic Crisis and Domestic PoliticsBy: Nur Abdelkhaliq | Briefing
Shortly after assuming power in May 2010,
the U.K. government began setting caps on immigration levels, ultimately
promising to reduce net migration into the U.K. to fewer than 100,000
people per year by the 2015 general election. The focus on immigration
was unsurprising. But the overlooked and crucial question was how
effective a cap on immigration could be given the European Union’s free
movement provisions.
Debate Over ‘Targeted Killings’ About More Than Just TerminologyBy: Matt Peterson | Trend Lines
Last week’s confirmation process for David
Barron, a former Obama administration lawyer nominated to the federal
judiciary, reopened a debate about what has come to be known as the U.S.
“targeted killing” program. Differing interpretations of the
terminology at the heart of the debate speak to broader questions about
the future of the American war on terror.
Details of China-Russia Gas Deal Put ‘Historic’ Agreement in PerspectiveBy: Thijs Van de Graaf | Briefing
On May 21, after a decade of negotiations,
Russia signed a gas deal with China. The $400 billion agreement
foresees the delivery of 38 bcm of Siberian gas a year to China for 30
years. Commentators were quick to call the deal “historic,” and Putin
trumpeted it as “the biggest contract in the history of the gas sector
of the former USSR.” But a closer look at some of the details puts the
agreement in perspective.
Is America Losing the Capability to Fight a Major War?By: Steven Metz | Column
Throughout history, Americans have
expected and planned for short wars. Today is no exception: The U.S.
military’s war games almost all plan for relatively short wars or
operations. But while it would probably succeed against another
third-rate military or transnational terrorist movement, it is not clear
that America would or could undertake a length major war to reverse
aggression by another great power.
Egypt’s Passion Wanes for Its New PresidentBy: Frida Ghitis | Column
A funny thing happened on the way to the
apotheosis of Egypt’s next president: The adoring crowds stayed home.
The former military leader, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, was supposed to win a
landslide victory with support from a public that had given every
indication of burning with passion for him. But el-Sissi’s coronation
appears less enthusiastic than he had hoped, and that will have
implications for his rule.
India’s Modi Takes a Step Toward New Era of Relations With PakistanBy: Rupakjyoti Borah | Briefing
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi scored
his first diplomatic coup by receiving Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif at his swearing-in ceremony Monday.
The fact that Sharif came shows his willingness to stand up to
Pakistan’s hard-liners in an effort to normalize relations with India.
For his part, Modi may be better positioned than his predecessor to work
toward a new era of India-Pakistan relations.
|
Can Obamacare's Narrow Networks Really Be Good for Patients?
Can Obamacare's Narrow Networks Really Be Good for Patients?
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/fieldclinic/Can-Obamacares-Narrow-Networks-Really-Be-Good-for-Patients.html#j869WkOQB5EktRJA.99
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/fieldclinic/Can-Obamacares-Narrow-Networks-Really-Be-Good-for-Patients.html#j869WkOQB5EktRJA.99
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/fieldclinic/Can-Obamacares-Narrow-Networks-Really-Be-Good-for-Patients.html
Pope Francis in Palestine
Phyllis Bennis and Foreign Policy
In Focus on May 28, 2014
Pope
Francis touches the separation wall, May 25, 2014. (AP Photo/Osservatore
Romano)
This
article is a joint publication of TheNation.com and Foreign Policy
In Focus.
The information wars
The information wars |
The US government continues its efforts to clamp down on leaks of classified information. |
Obama’s West Point Realism The president defends a George H.W. Bush foreign policy against George W. Bush critics.
http://www.
The American Conservative
I watched President Barack Obama’s address to the graduating cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on Wednesday, then read and re-read the transcript of the speech that outlined his foreign policy doctrine. I was reminded of why I voted for him twice and not for his Republican presidential rivals.
Just imagine what the current situation would be if John McCain or Mitt Romney, not Obama, occupied the White House. My guess is that U.S. troops would still be engaged in combat in Iraq on the side of the theocratic and pro-Iran regime in Baghdad, and that the Republican president would have refrained from declaring, as Obama did on Wednesday, that U.S. forces Afghanistan would fall to zero at the end of 2016 even if the situation in that country remained unstable. And you don’t have to be a psychic to imagine President McCain reliving the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis as he sends an ultimatum to Iran to dispose of its nuclear program and U.S. aircraft carriers move towards the Strait of Hormuz. And then consider the image of President Romney, consulting with his neoconservative foreign policy aides (Robert Kagan? John Bolton?) and with former Vice President Dick Cheney on devising a strategy of “regime change” in Damascus, and working together with our Polish and Japanese allies in preparation for cold or hot wars with Russia and China.
The American Conservative
Obama’s West Point Realism
The president defends a George H.W. Bush foreign policy against George W. Bush critics.
By Leon Hadar • May 30, 2014
I watched President Barack Obama’s address to the graduating cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on Wednesday, then read and re-read the transcript of the speech that outlined his foreign policy doctrine. I was reminded of why I voted for him twice and not for his Republican presidential rivals.
Just imagine what the current situation would be if John McCain or Mitt Romney, not Obama, occupied the White House. My guess is that U.S. troops would still be engaged in combat in Iraq on the side of the theocratic and pro-Iran regime in Baghdad, and that the Republican president would have refrained from declaring, as Obama did on Wednesday, that U.S. forces Afghanistan would fall to zero at the end of 2016 even if the situation in that country remained unstable. And you don’t have to be a psychic to imagine President McCain reliving the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis as he sends an ultimatum to Iran to dispose of its nuclear program and U.S. aircraft carriers move towards the Strait of Hormuz. And then consider the image of President Romney, consulting with his neoconservative foreign policy aides (Robert Kagan? John Bolton?) and with former Vice President Dick Cheney on devising a strategy of “regime change” in Damascus, and working together with our Polish and Japanese allies in preparation for cold or hot wars with Russia and China.
Get Ready World: The U.S.-Russian Rivalry Is Back
Get Ready World: The U.S.-Russian Rivalry Is Back
And it could get ugly.
May 28, 2014 inhttp://nationalinterest.org/
Israel Eavesdropped on President Clinton’s Diplomatic Phone Calls
Thoughts on Edward Snowden’s Interview By Benjamin Wittes
http://www.lawfareblog.com/
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Let’s give Edward Snowden his due: He did himself a lot of good in his interview with NBC’s Brian Williams, which aired last night. He presents well, coming across as earnest, thoughtful and intelligent. There is no manic gleam in his eye, no evident hatred of his country. He is well-spoken and articulate. He presents his own case more compellingly than does Glenn Greenwald, who speaks with a barely-suppressed rage much of the time—and an altogether unsuppressed hostility all of the time. Snowden, by contrast, is cool and measured, his affect cerebral. Where Greenwald and Julian Assange talk about NSA as an evil monolith, Snowden talks about how he misses his former colleagues, whom he regards as good people. He gamely objects to their vilification. I have no doubt that his performance will move many viewers, who will see—as he clearly does—nobility in his sacrifices, purity in his motives, and honor in his decision to defy the law in some larger defense of morality as he sees it.
Yet I was unmoved by Snowden’s performance.
Hard National Security Choices
Thoughts on Edward Snowden’s Interview
By Benjamin WittesThursday, May 29, 2014
Let’s give Edward Snowden his due: He did himself a lot of good in his interview with NBC’s Brian Williams, which aired last night. He presents well, coming across as earnest, thoughtful and intelligent. There is no manic gleam in his eye, no evident hatred of his country. He is well-spoken and articulate. He presents his own case more compellingly than does Glenn Greenwald, who speaks with a barely-suppressed rage much of the time—and an altogether unsuppressed hostility all of the time. Snowden, by contrast, is cool and measured, his affect cerebral. Where Greenwald and Julian Assange talk about NSA as an evil monolith, Snowden talks about how he misses his former colleagues, whom he regards as good people. He gamely objects to their vilification. I have no doubt that his performance will move many viewers, who will see—as he clearly does—nobility in his sacrifices, purity in his motives, and honor in his decision to defy the law in some larger defense of morality as he sees it.
Yet I was unmoved by Snowden’s performance.
Obama Should Not Let Europe Slip Away
The Washington Post (May 29, 2014)
Obama Should Not Let Europe Slip Away
By Bruce Ackerman
at
For Israel: The Worst of Times...and the Best of Times
05/29/14
Jonathan Adelman
Security, Israel
Israel faces an array of threats unknown since 1973.
The
Iranian nuclear program existentially threatens Israel because of its
small size (8,000 square miles), concentration in three cities, nearness
to Iran (700 miles from its missile bases), and limitations to
anti-missile defense. Israel faces significant threats on its Lebanese
border (Hezbollah) and Gazan border (Hamas) plus possible threats from
its Syrian border (jihadists) and eastern border (possible
Hamas-dominated West Bank).
But
it is also the best of times. Israel has developed strong relationships
with three of the four BRIC countries (India, Russia and China). The
Indian electoral victory of Narendra Modi, who has visited Israel and
worked with Israeli companies in Gujarat, will likely lead to a $15
billion a year free trade zone. Israel is a leading military supplier to
India and works with that country on rockets and counter-intelligence.
Last year an Israeli company and Swiss company agreed to build two
semiconductor fabrication plants in India worth over $10 billion.
Russia
is another partner. Israel is negotiating a free-trade agreement with
Russia, which would triple trade to $6 billion by 2024. Israel
commercializes products at the Skolkovo high-tech zone and sells UAVs to
Russia. It refused to condemn Russia over Ukraine at the United
Nations.
While
Vladimir Putin has visited Israel twice, Bibi Netanyahu has visited
Moscow five times. Putin allowed a Jewish museum in Moscow, condemned
anti-Semitism in Ukraine and cancelled the S-300 sale for the Iranian
nuclear program. Every week thousands of Israelis travel to Russia to do
business.
As
for China, Bibi Netanyahu and Shimon Peres recently visited Beijing
while PLA Chief of Staff Chen Bingle (2011) and Foreign Minister Wang Yi
(2013) visited Israel. Bilateral trade will shortly reach $10 billion.
In Shantou, Technion will open its first foreign high-tech school.
While Israel has problems with these powers over Iran, it has built good relations with all of them.
Israel’s
relationship with the United States remains strong in military and
intelligence. Technion was chosen by Cornell to help run its new
Manhattan high-tech zone. Israel, despite issues, has joined the €77
billion 2020 EU Horizon Project of Research and Development.
In the inner circle, Egypt and Jordan remain unthreatening and Syria, badly weakened by civil war, poses little threat.
Read full articlehttp://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/israel-the-worst-timesand-the-best-times-10560
The Seven Faces of Barack Obama
The Seven Faces of Barack Obama
05/29/14
Daniel R. DePetris
Grand Strategy, United States
In a speech that was designed to clarify his foreign policy, Obama may have done the opposite.
The
last time President Barack Obama gave a speech at the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point, it was December 1, 2009. At that time, the war
in Afghanistan was the only foreign policy issue that Americans across
the country could talk about. The war by most indications was going
badly, or at least not well enough, fast enough, and President Obama had
to make a monumental decision at a pivotal moment in his young
presidency: whether to send tens of thousands of additional U.S. troops
to the war zone. In front of a national audience and thousands of West
Point cadets—some of whom would be deployed to Afghanistan in the future
(and four of whom would be killed serving the country)—Obama doubled
down on a counterinsurgency-
Over
four years later, President Obama returned to West Point with
Afghanistan looking a whole lot different (just a day earlier, Obama
announced in the Rose Garden that practically all U.S. troops would be
withdrawn from Afghanistan by 2016) and with a different goal in mind:
defending his foreign policy record.
To
the president’s supporters, Obama said what he needed to say to fight
back against Republican critics in the U.S. Congress and some within the
Washington foreign policy establishment who have been complaining about
his administration’s lack of focus in world affairs. To some, like
frequent critics John McCain and Ed Royce, Obama’s address was more of the same: long on rhetoric, short on action.
But
neither side has it quite right. The real problem with president
Obama’s commencement address to West Point’s latest graduating class is
that it was a perfect microcosm of his many personalities and traits as
Commander-in-Chief. Obama may have hoped to lay out a broad vision of
the world for the rest of his term, but in doing so, he exhibited the
multiple faces, attitudes, and approaches to the world that has defined
his presidency for the past five and a half years. The result has been
confusion.
Read full articlehttp://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-seven-faces-barack-obama-10561
Obama Wants Allies to Share the Burden. It Won't Happen.
Obama Wants Allies to Share the Burden. It Won't Happen.
05/30/14
Christopher A. Preble
International Institutions, NATO, Defense, Europe, Asia, United States
America's friends won't take more responsibility for their own defense if we don't make them.
In
his West Point speech this week, President Obama vowed to encourage
America’s allies to shoulder more of the burden in dealing with
international problems and providing for their own defense.
Unfortunately, this is far-fetched unless Obama acts to reduce America’s
global military commitments.
Obama’s speech
will not satisfy the harshest critics of his foreign policy, but, in
fairness, no speech was likely to do that. If the critics were expecting
him to, for example, recant his opposition to sending U.S. troops into
the middle of brutal civil wars, they were sure to be disappointed.
But
a dramatic change in U.S. foreign policy dedicated to the use of force
to advance U.S. interests was unlikely because there are real
constraints on the United States’ ability to use force. And Barack Obama
must fashion a policy within those constraints.
The
speech revealed the limits of U.S. military power. Indeed, in a line
sure to enrage Iraq war proponents, Obama explained, “some of our most
costly mistakes came not from our restraint, but from our willingness to
rush into military adventures—without thinking through the
consequences...or leveling with the American people about the sacrifice
required.”
While
the speech won’t appeal to those anxious for the U.S. military to
become engaged in a range of new conflicts, however, it may be equally
disappointing to a public hungry for a different foreign policy that
keeps us out of reckless wars.
Even
if President Obama were inclined to send the U.S. military on more
missions around the world, he knows that the American people are not so
inclined. He learned that the hard way after he drew an ill-advised red
line before Syria’s Bashar Assad, and then was forced into a humiliating
retreat when the public rose up in opposition.
The
president intends to avoid a repeat of that particular debacle, as he
made clear in his speech, by calling on other countries to step forward.
He pledged to “coordinate with our friends and allies in Europe and the
Arab world...and make sure that those countries, and not just the
United States, are contributing their fair share of support to the
Syrian people.”
Read full articlehttp://nationalinterest.org/feature/obama-wants-allies-share-the-burden-it-wont-happen-10562
Barack Obama Gets Realistic at West Point
Barack Obama Gets Realistic at West Point
05/30/14
James Joyner
The Presidency, United States
Breaking down the president's remarks could result in an interesting conclusion.
In December 2009, not quite a year into office, President Barack Obama addressed the cadets at West Point
to announce the Afghan surge. Faced with political goals that were
unachievable given the time and resources available as well as strong
pressure from his hand-selected field commander, General Stanley
McCrystal, and congressional Republicans, he ordered in another 30,000
troops to support a more aggressive counterterrorism posture while
simultaneously announcing that the war effort world end in 2014. It was
the worst possible strategic decision, but one that provided political
cover.
On Wednesday, Obama returned to West Point to give another speech,
this time to graduates of a class that had yet to enter the academy in
2009. His foreign policy has matured significantly over the years.
He
declared, correctly, that "by most measures, America has rarely been
stronger relative to the rest of the world." As has been true—but often
ignored—for going on a quarter century, "Our military has no peer. The
odds of a direct threat against us by any nation are low and do not come
close to the dangers we faced during the Cold War." While some might
quibble with his assertions that "our economy remains the most dynamic
on Earth; our businesses the most innovative," it's inarguable that our
economy remains the most powerful. Additionally, he rightly noted, "Each
year, we grow more energy independent. From Europe to Asia, we are the
hub of alliances unrivaled in the history of nations. America continues
to attract striving immigrants."
It's
also true, although perhaps not an unalloyed good, that "when a typhoon
hits the Philippines, or schoolgirls are kidnapped in Nigeria, or
masked men occupy a building in Ukraine, it is America that the world
looks to for help."
From
there, Obama transitioned to an odd straw man: "Today, according to
self-described realists, conflicts in Syria or Ukraine or the Central
African Republic are not ours to solve." The president declared that "in
the 21st century American isolationism is not an option. We don't have a
choice to ignore what happens beyond our borders."
Read full articlehttp://nationalinterest.org/feature/barack-obama-gets-realistic-west-point-10563
A Middle East Tragedy: Obama's Syria-Policy Disaster
A Middle East Tragedy: Obama's Syria-Policy Disaster
05/30/14
Flynt Leverett , Hillary Mann Leverett
Security, Syria
"How many more Syrians need to die before Washington rethinks its policy?"
For
over three years, the United States has sought to overthrow Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad by supporting an Al Qaeda-infused opposition
that Washington either knew or should have known would fail. Yet, in his commencement address at West Point on Wednesday, President Obama promised the American people and the rest of the world more of the same.
Obama’s
vague pledge to “ramp up” support for selected oppositionists is a
craven sop to those claiming that U.S. backing for the opposition so
far—nonlethal aid, training opposition fighters, coordination with other
countries openly providing lethal aid, and high-level political backing
(including three years of public demands from Obama that Assad “must
go”)—has been inadequate, and that Assad could be removed if only
America would do more. This claim should be decisively rejected as a
basis for policy making, rather than disingenuously humored, for it is
dangerously detached from reality.
Read full articlehttp://nationalinterest.org/feature/middle-east-tragedy-obamas-syria-policy-disaster-10565
How to Start a Civil War in Ukraine (and How to Avoid One)
How to Start a Civil War in Ukraine (and How to Avoid One)
05/30/14
Robert W. Merry
Security, Ukraine
Contrary to some interpretations of unfolding events, it isn’t possible for Ukraine to join the West while coexisting peacefully with Russia.
Buried near the bottom of the Wall Street Journal’s Tuesday editorial on the Ukrainian elections was this sentence:
“Sunday’s vote showed that Ukrainians want to join the West while
co-existing peacefully with Russia.” There are two problems with this.
First, it is far from clear that this was the underlying civic sentiment
expressed in the elections. Second, even if the Journal’s
reading of the vote is correct, it isn’t remotely possible for Ukraine
to join the West while coexisting peacefully with Russia.
If
Ukraine’s electoral winner, Petro Poroshenko, is going to succeed, he
must correctly dissect the vote, and the stakes posed by this challenge
are immense. As the Journal notes, the “chance for civil war is
real,” and avoidance of such bloodshed will require a delicate
balancing act and an uncommon deftness in knitting disparate political
sentiments, passions and interests into a governing coalition. If he
takes the Journal’s position—that the election settled with
finality the question of Ukraine’s tragic dual identity—he almost
inevitably will unleash that civil war.
As I have emphasized in these spaces over the past several months, Ukraine is what the late Samuel Huntington called a “cleft country”,
split between a European-oriented, nationalist region in the west and a
Russian-oriented, largely Orthodox-influenced region in the east. Since
Ukraine’s independence at the end of the Cold War, no Ukrainian
politician has been able to bridge the gap between these two regions and
these two cultural sensibilities. Electoral results over the years have
reflected this dual identity—and also reflected the consequent
inability of any population segment to impose, through politics, its
cultural identity upon the nation as a whole.
Read full articlehttp://nationalinterest.org/feature/how-start-civil-war-ukraine-how-avoid-one-10567
The Indian Ocean: A Great-Power Danger Zone? | The National Interest
Five years ago, Robert D. Kaplan detailed the promise and the peril of this vital part of the globe. Will it be a source of tension or trust in the 21st century?
In 2009, emblazoned in large red letters on the cover of Foreign Affairs
were the words “Rivalry in the Indian Ocean.” In this featured article,
Robert D. Kaplan announced to the Western world the growing importance
of a long-neglected geographic entity in the study of international
politics. His essay,
“Center Stage for the 21st Century: Power Plays in the Indian Ocean”
continues to be cited in countless articles and paved the way for his
2010 book, Monsoon.
Kaplan’s contribution was to explain the civilizational and political
connections of disparate Asian, African and Middle Eastern players in
the Indian Ocean. Although Robert Kaplan’s recent work
examines the South China Sea, his influential 2009 article on
Chinese-Indian competition in the Indian Ocean and U.S. interests in the
region deserves to be revisited on its five-year anniversary.
In
2009, Kaplan saw energy security and geopolitics converging in the
Indian Ocean. Because roughly two-thirds of petroleum traffic traverses
this body of water, it will become increasingly important to numerous
stakeholders, whose interests and infrastructure projects he detailed.
Other than the United States, the countries commanding most of Kaplan’s
attention were India and China. Given their size and growing dependence
on the sea lanes for energy supplies and trade, Kaplan saw an inevitable
geopolitical “great game” rivalry emerging in the Indian Ocean. As a
solution, he argued that the United States should “act as a broker” to
mitigate the likelihood of conflict between these two rising economic
and military powerhouses, even though he foresaw the superpower as
experiencing an unavoidable “elegant decline.”
The Indian Ocean: A Great-Power Danger Zone? | The National Interest
The Week with IPS 5/30
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Small Farmers’ Loss of Land Increases World Hunger
Stephen Leahy
The world is increasingly hungry because small farmers are losing access
to farmland. Small farmers produce most of the world’s food but are now
squeezed onto less than 25 percent of the world’s farmland, a new
report reveals. Corporate and commercial farms, big biofuel operations
and land ...
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Rural Communities Push El Salvador Towards Ban on Mining
Edgardo Ayala
Mining is not viable in this country, say Salvador Sánchez Cerén - who will be sworn in as the new president of El Salvador on Jun. 1 - and his team of environmental advisers.
The struggle waged by many rural communities affected by mining lies behind the position taken by the left-wing ...
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Ugandan Lawyer Revolutionises Access to Justice with Just an iPhone and Facebook
Amy Fallon
When Gerald Abila received an iPhone as a gift almost two years ago, the
Ugandan law student didn’t just use it to text his friends. He used it
to create what would eventually become the first entity of its kind in
East Africa — a tech savvy, multi-award winning, organisation that uses
Facebook, ...
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Where Will The New Europe Go?
Roberto Savio
“An era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted” is a
phrase from Arthur Miller which applies well to the European elections
that have just ended. What those elections showed was that
disenchantment with Europe as an ideal has grown to a dangerous point.
It is true that the ...
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OP-ED: Why Ending Child Marriage in Africa Can No Longer Wait
Julitta Onabanjo , Benoit Kalasa , and Mohamed Abdel-Ahad
Just 17 years old, Clarisse is already a mother of two, who lives with
her husband and his four other wives in rural southern Chad. Three years
earlier, she had watched her mom and sisters preparing food for a party
one day. At first she celebrated along with everyone else, not
realising it was her ...
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Offsets to Cushion South African Carbon Tax
Brendon Bosworth
To curb greenhouse gas emissions, South Africa wants to put a tax on
carbon emissions from big polluters.
The aim of making polluters pay for the carbon they pump into the
atmosphere is to help South Africa, the world’s 12th highest emitter of
greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, transition to a ...
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Schools Reflect Segregation in Chile’s Educational System
Marianela Jarroud
The decentralisation of Chile’s public schools, which were handed over
to the municipalities to run in 1981, gave rise to a de facto
segregation that has cast a shadow over several generations of Chileans.
Patricia Durán and Erna Sáez are the head teachers at two municipal
schools in the region ...
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The Evolution of Climate Legislation in Three Infographs
IPS Correspondents
The global canon of climate legislation has undergone significant
changes over the last four decades. These changes in recent years have
included a growing body of signature laws and initiatives spearheaded by
countries in the global South, many of which are disproportionally
affected by decades of ...
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Somalia Warns Kenyan Refugee Expulsion Will Lead to ‘Chaos and Anarchy'
Muhyadin Ahmed Roble
Somalia’s State Minister for Interior and Federalism Affairs Mohamud
Moalim Yahye has told IPS that the hasty repatriation and mass
deportation of its citizens by Kenya could compromise recent, critical
security improvements made by regional governments against the Islamic
extremist group, ...
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Burundi Headed for Election Turmoil as Ruling Party Allegedly Arms Youth Wing
Bernard Bankukira
Burundi could be heading for political violence ahead of the 2015
elections amid allegations that the ruling National Council for the
Defence of Democracy-Forces for Defence of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) has been
arming its youth wing.
Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, the chairman of the civil society ...
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Protests Threaten to Paralyse Brazil Ahead of World Cup
Fabiola Ortiz
As the FIFA World Cup approaches, the streets of Brazil are heating up
with strikes and demonstrations, and there are worries that the social
unrest could escalate into a wave of protests similar to the ones that
shook the country in June 2013.
Groups of public and private sector workers have ...
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Seasonal Agricultural Workers Left Out of Chilean Boom
Marianela Jarroud
Tens of thousands of women employed as seasonal workers in rural areas
of Chile suffer high levels of poverty and poor working conditions, even
though their labour generates huge profits for agricultural exporters.
In 2013, Chile’s agro-exports amounted to nearly 11.6 billion dollars.
But most ...
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