Clipmarks | masbury's 'foreign policy' clips

Two US-Russia policies: Rice vs. Cheney

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 20:30:52 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Work through issues or return to Cold War?

we have two foreign policies. We have the State Department foreign policy, Condoleezza Rice, who often speaks of the need for a cooperative relationship with Russia, with working out these complicated issues, and we have a neoconservative foreign policy emanating from the Vice President’s Office, which isn’t interested in cooperation, which is interested in confrontation and in reviving the Cold War. And I think that they go to the countries on the border of the Soviet Union and encourage them to take a confrontational line and seek out leaders who are willing to speak this way. This is not where the rest of Europe is inclined.

It’s my impression that neoconservative circles in Washington have been egging Saakashvili on, have been telling him that he had much stronger support in Washington for this move, for this attack he made last week into South Ossetia, than he really did

And Saakashvili has been talking directly to McCain

Tags: foreign policy, georgia, russia

You're In Danger

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 03:43:24 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: John McCain would ramp up all the worst traits of the current administration

Clip Source: talkingpointsmemo.com

You're In Danger

Andrew Sullivan is right about this. This is something that transcends whatever immediate campaign tactics or even strategy Barack Obama may be pursuing. It goes beyond him. It goes beyond the Democrats. The whole country needs to wake up.

The foreign policy of the last seven-plus years has been an unmitigated disaster for the United States by virtually every measure. And John McCain would ramp up all the worst traits of the current administration. His instincts are always toward force and the people advising him come squarely from the Cheney wing of the current administration. In comparison to Bush he's not just more of the same. There's every reason to believe he'd be much worse.

The current situation in Georgia and his response should make clear to everyone how dangerous a president John McCain would be.

Tags: mccain, politics, foreign policy

Georgians expected US to come to their rescue

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 02:49:42 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "feckless policy-making" from the US emboldened Georgia to provoke the Russians

Clip Source: talkingpointsmemo.com

What pretty much everyone who's paying attention can see is that the US casually made a bunch of promises and representations to the Georgians which we were obviously neither prepared to or interested in backing up. As Fred Kaplan noted in his piece in Slate yesterday, what's both tragic and almost comical is that a lot of Georgians actually expected that we'd come to their defense militarily if got themselves into a real shooting war with the Russians. They've clearly paid a steep price for that cheap talk. Meanwhile, McCain's response is to up the ante with more bluster and nonsense, apparently not getting what happened in the first place.

I would really recommend Greg's post to everyone. This whole crisis, both in what has aptly been called the feckless policy-making that went into it and the aftermath, puts McCain's shaky grasp of foreign policy in really sharp relief.

Some shrewd analysis of the Georgia crisis from Greg Djerejian.

Tags: georgia, mccain, foreign policy

Georgia: Where US loss of moral authority matters

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 03:50:12 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Bush rebukes; Russians point to US invasion of Iraq

Clip Source: www.dailykos.com

Bush today:

"Russia has invaded a sovereign neighbouring state.... Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century.... We have no doubts about it. This is a deliberate attempt to destroy an entire country and change the regime."

Right. Invading a sovereign state to destroy a country and change the regime isn't acceptable in the 21st century. Good to know.

Charles King, Russia expert and professor in the School of Foreign Service and the Department of Government at Georgetown University, in an interivew with Glenn Greenwald:

there's that exchange in the UN where the US ambassador to the UN said that Russia had intended 'regime change' in Georgia, to which the Russian ambassador replied that that was an American concept

The U.S. has no moral authority, Bush's having "looked into Putin's soul" notwithstanding.

Tags: bush, georgia, foreign policy

Iraq may end year with $79B surplus

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:01:42 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: And the USA?

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

Audit: Iraq Could Have $79B Surplus

New projections from US government auditors show high oil prices could leave the Iraqi government with a $79 billion surplus this year. Democratic Senator Carl Levin of the Senate Armed Services Committee is leading calls for the Iraqi government to begin paying a higher share of Iraq’s reconstruction costs. The US has already spent more than $40 billion on Iraqi reconstruction, with large amounts going to private American corporations.

Tags: foreign policy, iraq

IMF policies well intentioned, but disastrously dogmatic

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 02:31:34 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Over dependence on "market signals" left them in the dark about real results on the ground

Clip Source: blog.beliefnet.com

the IMF is not a vast conspiracy of evil, cigarette-smoking men. It's a large, overly influential group of people who earnestly push policies that are often disastrous.

While many civil society advocates insist the IMF is imposing its will wholesale on poor countries, it insists it's just inspiring them to choose sound policies

IMF's critics, including me, are wrong sometimes in blaming the IMF

Overall, though, the IMF is still disastrously wrong in its unjustified overemphasis on "market signals." Take Malawi's current abundance of grain, which happened largely because the government decided to subsidize fertilizer

Malawi's fertilizer program ran directly counter to the advice of the World Bank

over the last four years, almost all the middle-income countries who had borrowed from the IMF (including 90 percent of its loan portfolio) have run for the exits to escape the IMF's policy,

it is now mostly the world's poorest countries who are dependent on the nice, but wrong, people at the IMF

Tags: imf, foreign policy, poverty

"Hard to Overstate McCain Trainwreck"

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 05:47:34 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: His one-plank foreign policy is pre-empted by Maliki

Clip Source: talkingpointsmemo.com

Hard to Overstate McCain Trainwreck

The implications for John McCain are hard to overstate, and Matt Yglesias gets it just right:

[McCain had] spent, several weeks with the main theme of his campaign being, quite literally, to criticize Barack Obama for not having been physically present in Iraq recently. This (of course) got Obama to go to Iraq, thus setting up a dilemma. Either Obama would survey the "progress" in Iraq and change his position, thus making him a flip-flopper, or else he would refuse to change his position, thus making him obstinate and out of touch with reality.
But instead of either of those things happening, Obama went to Iraq and Iraqi leaders said he'd been right all along! That's about as close to "game, set, match" as you get in terms of real world events influencing your political campaign. What's more, given the domestic situation and John McCain's inability to talk about domestic issues persuasively, he can't afford to play for a draw on Iraq.

Tags: mccain, obama, elections, foreign policy

Now McCain embraces 16-month withdrawal

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:51:57 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Well, shoot, sounds good enough for him, too.

Clip Source: thinkprogress.org

McCain Embraces 16-Month Withdrawal: ‘I Think It’s A Pretty Good Timetable’»

Following Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s declaration of support for a 16-month withdrawal timeline from Iraq, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has been struggling to respond. He spent most of this week railing against any “artificial timetable” for withdrawal from Iraq, vaguely insisting that the U.S. will withdraw only “with victory”:

But in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer today, McCain seemed to endorse the idea of a timetable. When asked if Maliki would “persist” in requesting a 16-month withdrawal timetable from Iraq, McCain responded, “He won’t. … I know him.” McCain then praised Maliki’s 16-month timetable:

BLITZER: So why do you think he said that 16 months is basically a pretty good timetable?

McCAIN: He said it’s a pretty good timetable based on conditions on the ground. I think it’s a pretty good timetable, as we should — or horizons for withdrawal. But they have to be based on conditions

Tags: mccain, obama, foreign policy

Iran Literacy Quiz: A Decent Respect for the Opinions of Mankind

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 23:36:57 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: See the answers to these and other questions, as well as supporting material at the link. Those without answers listed are true-false questions.

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Iran Conflict Literacy Quiz

1. Iran's leaders have declared their intention to acquire nuclear weapons.

2. Iran is training, arming, financing, and politically supporting Al Qaeda in Iraq

3. Iran's leaders have declared that the acquisition of nuclear weapons would be contrary to Islam

about what proportion of Iranians believe that it is "very important" that Iran master the nuclear fuel cycle?

a) 1%
b) 2%
c) 3%
d) 81%

what proportion of the Iranian population think that Iran should pursue the acquisition of nuclear weapons?
a) 100%
b) 99%
c) 98%
d) 20%

8. Iran's leaders have pledged to destroy Israel.

9. In Iran's government system, the Leader with Supreme authority over the government, especially foreign and military affairs and the country's nuclear program, is
a) Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
b) President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad

10. In 1953, the democratic government of Iran was overthrown in a coup organized by the US Central Intelligence Agency

Tags: iran, foreign policy

Panel calls for new War Powers Act

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:57:50 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "The current War Powers Resolution is 'ineffective at best and unconstitutional at worst,' and should be scrapped"

Clip Source: cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com

Panel calls for new War Powers Act

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The United States needs a new law requiring that the president consult with Congress before going to war, a blue-ribbon panel led by two former secretaries of state will say Tuesday.

The current War Powers Resolution is “ineffective at best and unconstitutional at worst,” and should be scrapped, James A. Baker III and Warren Christopher write in Tuesday’s New York Times, previewing the conclusion of the year-long study they led.

The recommendation follows failed efforts by Democrats in Congress to put a stop to the war in Iraq or to put conditions on President Bush’s conduct of it. Congress passed a joint resolution to authorize armed force against in Iraq in 2002, but some Bush opponents say it should not have been interpreted as a blank check for the United States to invade and occupy the Gulf nation.

Tags: foreign policy, politics

N Korea dynamites plutonium enrichment facility

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:51:38 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: For years, USA refused talks. Then negotiations broke out, and look what happened. One wonders if Mr. Bush calls this "appeasement."

Clip Source: talkingpointsmemo.com

Kaboom!

Dynamiting a big part of the crown jewel of their plutonium enrichment program is a pretty convincing demonstration of the North Koreans' seriousness about getting out of the nuclear business.

Tags: foreign policy

Should US Presidents talk to enemies?

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 05:16:15 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: McCain and Obama disagree; see last paragraph for a specific instance from history

Clip Source: rawstory.com

"The reason is this, that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them -- which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration -- is ridiculous," Senator Obama said.

This has drawn criticism from Republican opponent John McCain, who has said Obama's willingness to speak with the leaders of Iran and other US foes shows his "inexperience and reckless judgment", Talking Points Memo reported.

Talking Points Memo also reported Obama's response to McCain's criticisms.

"Here's the truth: the Soviet Union had thousands of nuclear weapons, and Iran doesn't have a single one. But when the world was on the brink of nuclear holocaust, Kennedy talked to Khrushchev and he got those missiles out of Cuba. Why shouldn't we have the same courage and the confidence to talk to our enemies? That's what strong countries do, that's what strong presidents do, that's what I'll do when I'm president of the United States of America."

Tags: mccain, obama, foreign policy

Germany's First Neo-Con Conference Pushes for War on Iran

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:42:48 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Likening Iran to Nazi Germany, they debate whether strikes on Iran should be nuclear or conventional

Clip Source: www.payvand.com

Germany's First Neo-Con Conference Pushes for War on Iran

"Bash these Islam-Nazis, put them in jail and kill them: That is anti-fascism!"

Anti-War Intellectuals as "Purchased Vassals" of the "Iranian Theocracy"?

Israel To Carry Out a Preventive Strike Against Iran

Following the so-called Begin Doctrine – named after a former Israeli Prime Minister and used as basis for the 1981 bombardment of the Iraqi nuclear plant »Osiraq« – his country would act preventively within one or two years from now: "I believe Israel will have to do it," Melman concluded. Not sharing Morris' suggestion of a nuclear attack on Iran, he stressed that conventional tools might be sufficient.

continued stressing that it was not the Iranian nuclear program that posed problem, but the very existence of the regime.

the "two fascisms" – Nazi-Germany and Iran – were the same and also equally dangerous

"bash these Islam-Nazis, put them in jail, and kill them" – a statement which was accompanied by large applause

Tags: iran, foreign policy

Cheney was source for Iran's nuclear capabilities

Thu, 29 May 2008 00:07:35 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Halliburton under Cheney, illegally sold nuclear equipment, while Cheney argued for eliminating sanctions that made the secret sale illegal.

Clip Source: www.projectcensored.org

Halliburton Charged with Selling Nuclear Technologies to Iran

in Top 25 Censored Stories for 2007

According to journalist Jason Leopold, sources at former Cheney company Halliburton allege that, as recently as January of 2005, Halliburton sold key components for a nuclear reactor to an Iranian oil development company.

Halliburton has a long history of doing business in Iran, starting as early as 1995, while Vice President Cheney was chief executive of the company.

During a trip to the Middle East in March 1996, Vice President Dick Cheney told a group of mostly U.S. businessmen that Congress should ease sanctions in Iran and Libya to foster better relationships,

Cheney was the chief executive of Halliburton Corporation at the time

It was Cheney who directed Halliburton toward aggressive business dealings with Iran—in violation of U.S. law—in the mid-1990s, which continued through 2005 and is the reason Iran has the capability to enrich weapons-grade uranium.

Tags: iran, cheney, foreign policy

Gen. Sanchez: Bush guilty of "Dereliction of Duty"

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 02:03:50 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "I watched helplessly as the Bush administration led America into a strategic blunder of historic proportions."

Clip Source: www.crooksandliars.com

Gen. Ricardo Sanchez: Bush Guilty of “Gross Incompetence and Dereliction of Duty”

Clip Source: www.crooksandliars.com

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, I watched helplessly as the Bush administration led America into a strategic blunder of historic proportions. It became painfully obvious that the executive branch of our government did not trust its military. It relied instead on a neoconservative ideology developed by men and women with little, if any, military experience. Some senior military leaders did not challenge civilian decision makers at the appropriate times, and the courageous few who did take a stand were subsequently forced out of the service.

Tags: sanchez, foreign policy, iraq