Main Page | Month Archive | Email Updates | RSS Feed | Print Version

John Brown aggregates all the most recent public diplomacy related news, including current issues in U.S. foreign policy, international broadcasting and media, propaganda, cultural diplomacy, educational exchanges, anti-Americanism, and the reception of American popular culture abroad.

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY PRESS AND BLOG REVIEW, NOVEMBER 29-30, 2007
by John H. Brown

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY PRESS AND BLOG REVIEW, NOVEMBER 29-30

“This has been a joyous experience, and still is.”

--President George W. Bush, regarding his tenure in office; cited in Rich Lowry & Kate O’Beirne, “Reading Bush: Meeting a confident, fluid president” (National Review, November 28)
LINK

“You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you”

--Leon Trotsky; cited in Brendan Bernhard, “A Jewish Home Away From Home” (New York Sun, November 30)
LINK

SITE OF INTEREST

Window On Eurasia by Paul Goble
LINK

WORTH COMPARING – USIA FILM AND GRAVEL CAMPAIGN AD

a) 1970s United States Information Agency (USIA) film on US bicentennial:
LINK

b) Presidential Candidate Mike Gravel ad: LINK

A) PUBLIC DIPLOMACY, 1-20

1. THE GATES CRITIQUE – EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, NOVEMBER 29):  Secretary of Defense Robert Gates displayed solid news judgment in presenting a valid critique of recent US efforts to meet contemporary challenges almost entirely by military means. His prescription for righting the imbalance between hard power and soft power should be debated by the presidential candidates of both parties. What Gates left unsaid, but should have said, is that America will not be able to retrieve its squandered soft power without showing a decent respect for the international treaties and organizations of a world order that was laboriously constructed by previous US administrations. 
LINK
COURTESY PAT KUSHLIS
TRANSCRIPT OF GATES SPEECH AT
LINK

2. SECRETARY GATES ON AMERICA’S “MISERABLE” INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS – (KIM ANDREW ELLIOTT DISCUSSING INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING AND PUBLIC DIPLOMACY, POSTED NOVEMBER 27): In the transcript of his speech at Kansas State University, in which Secretary Robert Gates stated that “In short, based on my experience serving seven presidents, Secretary of Defense Gates does not use the term “public diplomacy.” LINK

3. WHAT THE SECDEF DIDN’T CALL FOR, BUT SHOULD HAVE - MATT ARMSTRONG (SMALL WARS JOURNAL, NOVEMBER 30): In his clarion call to revamp the current structures of government to meet modern threats, Defense Secretary Gates sidestepped an obstacle that has been misinterpreted and misapplied over the last three decades: Public Law 402: United States Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948, commonly known as the Smith-Mundt Act. Smith-Mundt has shaped the content and methods of communications from State and Defense through institutionalized firewalls created along artificial lines, fostering a bureaucratic culture of discrimination that hampers America’s ability to participate in the modern struggle over ideas and managing perceptions. PDPBR COMPILER NOTE: The above videos have relevance to discussions regarding the Smith-Mundt Act.
LINK
SEE ALSO
LINK

4. BUSH’S NEW PROTOCOL CHIEF AIMS TO BOOST U.S. IMAGE - KATHRINE SCHMIDT (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, NOVEMBER 30): Nancy Brinker was sworn in last month as the White House protocol chief, the top State Department officer overseeing diplomatic conduct. Brinker, 60, is hoping to shift the emphasis of a job that often focused on place settings and handshakes on the tarmac. “This is no longer about classic protocol,”’ said the former US ambassador to Hungary. She sees her role as the home-front of public diplomacy in the Bush administration’s drive to improve America’s image abroad. LINK

5. NICARAGUA: IS DANIEL ORTEGA A VEGETARIAN OR A CARNIVORE? - JAMES M. ROBERTS (HERITAGE FOUNDATION, WEBMEMO #1712, NOVEMBER 28): The Bush Administration should increase and enhance its State Department public diplomacy efforts in Nicaragua to encourage the viability of strong, transparent, market-based, and pro-democracy political parties, economic policies, and institutions in Nicaragua. Congress should increase funding for this purpose.
LINK

6. U.S. PUBLIC DIPLOMACY: AN IMPOSSIBLE DREAM? – JEFF (POLITICS AND PRESS, NOVEMBER 29): The “moral edge” that the U.S. historically deserved is gone; for any public diplomacy program to succeed the country needs to regain that edge and that does not seem to be possible in the immediate or foreseeable future.
LINK

7. STATE DEPARTMENT DISPATCHES VIRTUAL JAZZ AMBASSADORS - BOB BREWIN (GOVEXEC.COM, NOVEMBER 28): In 1956, at the height of the Cold War, the State Department sent jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and his band on an acclaimed tour of the Middle East, Asia and South America. Last month, the State Department, in cooperation with the Voice of America and the University of Southern California’s Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School of Communications, reprised the spirit of the Gillespie tour, not in the real world but in the virtual world of Second Life.
LINK

8. WHY ROMNEY’S COMMENT AT THAT FUNDRAISER MATTERS – JIM GERAGHTY (CAMPAIGN SPOT, NATIONAL REVIEW, NOVEMBER 28): “In two years in Turkey, I saw a lot of really basic misconceptions about the United States and its policies among Muslims. I think the right—qualified—high-profile figure, articulating the case for U.S. foreign policy, who was a Muslim could persuade a lot of his or her fellow Muslims that the war on terror isn’t a war on Islam. I think the fact that the arguments were coming from a Muslim—and perhaps even ideally in the target audience’s own language, Arabic, Turkish, Indonesian, Persian, Pashto, etc.—could really turn a lot of heads, and get some Muslims to evaluate our policies with a more open mind. ... (Just thinking out loud here, would Fareed Zakaria do a more effective or less effective job at public diplomacy than Karen Hughes?) ”
LINK

9. (KIM ANDREW ELLIOTT DISCUSSING INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING AND PUBLIC DIPLOMACY, latest edition) LINK

10. US PLANS TO ‘FIGHT THE NET’ REVEALED - ADAM BROOKES, BBC PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (INFOSHOP NEWS, NOVEMBER 29; first appeared January 27, 2006): From The newly declassified “Information Operations Roadmap” (2003): “Information intended for foreign audiences, including public diplomacy and Psyops, is increasingly consumed by our domestic audience.”
LINK
DOCUMENT AT
LINK

11. BIDEN: DIPLOMACY CAN AID U.S. - MIKE MCCORD (SEACOSTONLINE, NOVEMBER 30): Presidential candidate Joe Biden looked to recent history and the uses of American power in places such as Bosnia and Kosovo that have proved very successful and stabilizing. Biden, chairman of the foreign relations committee, said the world is waiting to pitch in and that he hopes to leave a legacy of restoring the country’s moral legitimacy and the ability to use widespread public diplomacy.
LINK

12. THE REALITY-BASED COMMUNITY TAKES A DIVE - WELDON BERGER (SMIRKING CHIMP, NOVEMBER 28): The refusal by Democrats in Congress to impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney represents a monumental political and public diplomacy failure, trumping even their inability to offer more than half-assed opposition to the continuing occupation of Iraq.
LINK

13. THE REPUBLICAN WAY OF WAR - KEVIN MATTSON (GUARDIAN, NOVEMBER 29): Why bother explaining what you stand for when what you stand for is so incredibly self-evident and obvious? This explains why Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes’s attempts at public diplomacy have fallen flat on their face and why she recently resigned from the state department. Assuredness about virtue is no recipe for public diplomacy.
LINK

14. INDIA CAN OFFER QUIET DIPLOMACY - JAMIA MILLIA ISLAMIA (ECONOMIC TIMES, INDIA, NOVEMBER 30): The real issue is not what India can, or rather could have contributed at the US-hosted Mid-East peace conference in Annapolis. It is what India might contribute now that the conference is over. First, we can offer quiet diplomacy to help in those tracks where change is possible, and that itself will be something of a balm for those suffering from too much public diplomacy, which is the case with all of West Asia.
LINK

15. ANNAPOLIS, A CHANCE TO JOIN THE MIDEAST PEACE TRAIN - ENDY M. BAYUNI (JAKARTA POST, JAKARTA, NOVEMBER 30): If Indonesia is changing its Middle East policy in the wake of the country’s participation in Annapolis, and is seeking a more active role in the peace process, then the government had better work on its public diplomacy on the home front as well. SEE ALSO BELOW ITEMS 39-43.
LINK

16. UKRAINE’S PUBLIC DIPLOMACY SAYS: WE ARE NOT RUSSIA – (KIM ANDREW ELLIOT DISCUSSING INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING AND PUBLIC DIPLOMACY, NOVEMBER 29): Ukraine Rising is a twelve-page insert in the 25 November Washington Post magazine. Among the headlines: “Business is Booming: ‘Ukraine is a little under-rated’,” and “Ukraine is not Russia.” In the latter story: “‘Russia wants to re-establish itself as a world leader’ whereas ‘all Ukrainians want to be European.’”
LINK

17. CONTROVERSIAL PROPAGANDA: USING STALIN TO BOOST RUSSIA ABROAD—MOSCOW’S INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTER, RUSSIA TODAY, IS RAISING EYEBROWS WITH A NEW AD CAMPAIGN SHOWING THE FORMER SOVIET DICTATOR JOSEF STALIN’S LESS-KNOWN SOFTER SIDE – DSL (SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL, NOVEMBER 20): Under the slogan “proud to be different,” Russian state propaganda channel Russia Today (RT) has recently been running full-page ads featuring Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in a general’s uniform, armed with a quill in hand. “Stalin wrote romantic poetry,” the ad states. “Did you know that?” RT, which has about 700 employees and whose signal can be received in about 100 countries, went on the air in April 2005 and broadcasts in English and Arabic. Its creator, Michail Lessin, the 49-year-old former press minister and current media advisor to President Vladimir Putin, wanted to establish a news channel that would counter CNN and BBC—with a Moscow spin.
LINK
VIA
LINK
OTHER RUSSIA-RELATED ITEM AT
LINK

18. DENMARK’S GOOD NAME - (SIMON ANHOLT’S PLACEBLOG, NOVEMBER 30): “Just back from Billund and the annual conference of the Invest in Denmark agency, where the discussions were about Denmark’s image in the world, its profile in developing countries, the links between public diplomacy and investment promotion, and the importance of the 2009 UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen.”
LINK

19. SRI LANKA EMBASSY IN WASHINGTON EXPOSES TAMIL TIGER GLOBAL DECEPTIONS, MISINFORMATION AND DISTORTIONS THAT MISLED THE WEST – (ASIAN TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 29): It is to the delight of Asian Tribune readers that the Sri Lanka Embassy in Washington is now taking a lead to reverse the trend in global public diplomacy that has been in favor of the Tamil Tigers all these years.
LINK

20. A JEWISH HOME AWAY FROM HOME - BRENDAN BERNHARD (NEW YORK SUN, NOVEMBER 30): Nostalgia for a home that never quite felt like home is the bittersweet theme of “The Last Jews of Libya,” a 50-minute documentary directed by Vivienne Roumani-Denn. One of the Roumani children, Jacques, attended an American high school in Libya. “They had very good parties,” he recalls over a succession of marvelous photographs that prove he is not viewing the past through rose-tinted glasses. “We were taken in by what would today be called American public diplomacy,” he says, relishing the irony, for back then, American public diplomacy was at its zenith.
LINK

B) RELATED ITEMS (U.S., others pledge to protect journalists, 21; foreign students in U.S., 22; Airline Ambassadors International, 23; US military winning over a occupied population, 24; Iraq, 25-36; Iran, 37-38; Annapolis meeting, Middle East, 39-43; Afghanistan, 44-45; Pakistan, 46-48; Islam, 49; China, 50; Venezuela, 51; Guantanamo, 52; U.S. in world, 53; Rice, 54-57)

21. US, OTHERS PLEDGE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS - ASSOCIATED PRESS (NEW YORK TIMES, NOVEMBER 30): The United States, Britain and France publicly pledged Thursday to take all necessary steps to ensure the safety of journalists in war zones. The three countries became the first signatories of the Geneva Convention to accept a new nonbinding accord on protecting correspondents in conflict, said the International Committee of the Red Cross, which oversees compliance with the 1949 treaty on the rules of war.
LINK

22. AMERICAN BRAIN DRAIN – REVIEW & OUTLOOK (WALL STREET JOURNAL, NOVEMBER 30): Foreign students comprised 44% of science and engineering doctorates last year. Closing the door to foreign professionals puts US companies at a competitive disadvantage and pushes jobs out of the country.
LINK
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

23. INTERNATIONAL CHARITY WITH A PERSONAL TOUCH: AIRLINE AMBASSADORS ASK WHAT IS NEEDED LOCALLY, DELIVER IT THEMSELVES, AND ARRANGE FOR FOLLOW-UP - LESLEY BANNATYNE (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, NOVEMBER 29): Founded by American Airlines flight attendant Nancy Rivard as a nonprofit in 1996, Airline Ambassadors International now works with thousands of volunteers to run missions in 45 countries. The organization began as a network of airline employees using their pass privileges to bring aid to others.
LINK

24. THE ALGEBRA OF OCCUPATION - CONN HALLINAN (FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS, NOVEMBER 27): “Winning over the population,” continues to be the illusion of every occupier. Testifying before Congress, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, “Army soldiers can expect to be tasked with reviving public services, rebuilding infrastructure, and promoting good government.” And then there is the real world.
LINK

25. AL QAEDA’S EMERGING DEFEAT - AUSTIN BAY (WASHINGTON TIMES, NOVEMBER 30): What the Pentagon calls “the governmental (political participation and structure building), information (Intel, media and political perception) and economic (economic development, infrastructure creation) lines of operation” will ultimately secure victory in Iraq, and these operations will take another six to eight years of effort.
LINK

26. REOPENING OF LOOTED MUSEUM SIGNALS A CALMER BAGHDAD - JON SWAIN (SUNDAY TIMES, NOVEMBER 25): Nearly five years after it was ransacked by hordes of looters in the wake of Saddam Hussein’s overthrow, the Iraq museum in Baghdad is about to open its doors again.
LINK

27. IRAQI TV, THEN AND NOW: ‘FRIENDS’, ‘DR. PHIL’ AND SATELLITE DISHES TAKE PLACE OF ACTION FLICKS AND SADDAM – (WALL STREET JOURNAL, NOVEMBER 28)
LINK
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

28. IRAQ LACKS PLAN ON THE RETURN OF REFUGEES, MILITARY SAYS - MICHAEL R. GORDON AND STEPHEN FARRELL (NEW YORK TIMES, NOVEMBER 30)
LINK

29. PROCESSING OF IRAQI REFUGEES IMPROVES, OFFICIALS SAY: STATE DEPARTMENT EXPECTS AS MANY AS 12,000 TO ARRIVE IN THE UNITED STATES NEXT YEAR - WALTER PINCUS (WASHINGTON POST, NOVEMBER 30)
LINK

30. IRAQIS’ QUALITY OF LIFE MARKED BY SLOW GAINS, MANY SETBACKS: WORRIES ABOUND THAT GOVERNMENT ISN’T UP TO TASK OF PROVIDING SERVICES - AMIT R. PALEY AND KAREN DEYOUNG (WASHINGTON POST, NOVEMBER 30)
LINK

31. QUIET BEFORE A NEW IRAQ STORM? IN THE FOX’S LAIR - WILLIAM S. LIND (COUNTERPUNCH, NOVEMBER 28): In past wars, quiet periods at the front have often preceded a “big push” by one side or both. Such may prove to be the case in Iraq as well, at least as far as Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army are concerned.
LINK

32. STILL NO WAY OUT - EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, NOVEMBER 30): Iraq’s leaders are no closer to making the political deals that are the only hope for building a self-sustaining peace. Americans need to ask themselves the questions Mr. Bush is refusing to answer: Is this country signing on to keep the peace in Iraq indefinitely? If so, how many American and Iraqi deaths a month are an acceptable price? If not, what’s the plan for getting out?
LINK

33. BUSH’S NEXT PREEMPTIVE STRIKE - HAROLD MEYERSON (WASHINGTON POST, NOVEMBER 29): On Monday, Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signed a declaration pledging that their governments would put in place a long-term political and security pact sometime next year. What Bush will almost surely be pushing for is permanent U.S. bases in Iraq, enshrined in a pact he can sign a few months before he leaves office.
LINK

34. BUSH ISN’T THE ONLY DECIDER: HE SHOULDN’T BE ALLOWED TO LOCK IN AN IRAQ TREATY WITHOUT CONGRESS’ APPROVAL - BRUCE ACKERMAN (LOS ANGELES TIMES, NOVEMBER 29): President Bush is again in legacy mode. His White House “czar” on Iraq, Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, explained that the administration intends to reach a final agreement between the two countries by July 31, 2008. In describing the negotiations, he made a remarkable suggestion: Only the Iraqi parliament, not the US Congress, needs to formally approve the agreement.
LINK

35. THERE’S REASON FOR HOPE IN IRAQ, BUT MANY HURDLES REMAIN – TRUDY RUBIN (BALTIMORESUN.COM, NOVEMBER 27): Remnants of al-Qaida in Iraq wait in the wings. Radical Shiite militias retain their arms. The al-Maliki government is weak and inept. But the current security lull at least provides a base on which to build something sustainable before U.S. troops start to withdraw. This Iraqi opening deserves a chance.
LINK

36. WHERE TO FIND PROGRESS IN IRAQ: BAGHDAD SHOULDN’T BE THE COUNTRY’S ONLY BELLWETHER - JON P. DORSCHNER (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, NOVEMBER 29): After years of violence, insurgency, and uprisings, the current window of relative peace may present an unprecedented opportunity to move ahead economically and politically. Provincial people and their governments appear determined to grab this opportunity and run with it, with or without the government in Baghdad. And that is a legitimate sign of progress for the country. (Jon P. Dorschner is a career foreign-service officer and the Iraq provincial affairs officer in the Italian-led Provincial Reconstruction Team in Dhi Qar Province. This piece was subject to State Department review.)
LINK

37. POSSIBLE DEMOCRAT CHOICE AS NEXT SECRETARY OF STATE SAYS PENTAGON IS FIERCELY OPPOSED TO STRIKE: HOLBROOKE SAYS BUSH WON’T ATTACK IRAN - JEFF BERG (COUNTERPUNCH, NOVEMBER 28)
LINK

38. U.S. WANTS TO HAVE IT BOTH WAYS ON IRANIAN NONINTERVENTION PACT - REESE ERLICH (BATIMORESUN.COM, NOVEMBER 28): President Bush and leading Democratic presidential candidates have said a military attack on Iran is a viable option. Yet the 1981 Algiers Accords, backed by Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, prohibit such an attack. SEE BELOW ITEM 50.
LINK

39. AFTER ANNAPOLIS: NEGOTIATIONS TO COME AND A FUTURE STILL UNKNOWN – EDWARD M. GOMEZ (WORLD VIEWS, SF GATE, NOVEMBER 28)
LINK

40. THEY MUST HAVE HAD TO WASH THEIR HAIR – AL KAMEN (IN THE LOOP, WASHINGTON POST, NOVEMBER 30): So let’s see, a “senior administration official” told reporters Tuesday he was most pleased that there was a great turnout at the confab in Annapolis. “As I look at the membership of the Arab League,” he said, “there are only six members out of the 22 who are not here—Comoros, Djibouti, Somalia—each of them probably have better things to do—Iraq, Kuwait and Libya.”
LINK
Scroll down link for item
COURTESY GERRY LOFTUS

41. IN MIDEAST PEACE PROCESS, HOW BIG A ROLE WILL BUSH PLAY? BUSH APPEARS TO BE PLAYING DOWN THE IMPORTANCE OF THE US IN THE PROCESS, BUT SOME EXPERTS SEE A NEED FOR AN ACTIVE OUTSIDE ARBITER - HOWARD LAFRANCHI (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, NOVEMBER 29)
LINK

42. BUSH’S NEXT STEP? WHO KNOWS? - DAN FROOMKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, NOVEMBER 29): When it comes to achieving peace in the Middle East, President Bush seems to have no idea what to do next.
LINK

43. THE WHITE HOUSE ‘AFTER PARTY’ - DAN FROOMKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, NOVEMBER 28): Bush’s flirtation with Middle East summitry looks more like an attempt to humor his beloved secretary of state than it does a departure from his hands-off and ardently pro-Israeli posture of the past seven years. SEE ALSO BELOW ITEMS 54-57.
LINK

44. AFGHAN COUNTERINSURGENCY BY THE BOOK - FAWZIA SHEIKH (ASIA TIMES, NOVEMBER 28): The Afghanistan Counterinsurgency Academy, a work in progress, aims to teach counterinsurgency practices to newly arrived Western trainers sent to embed with the Afghan security forces, as well as to coalition forces and to senior members of the Afghan military, police and intelligence services. The academy received US$1 million this year but is lobbying for an annual budget of $7-9 million to spend on paying instructors and for building infrastructure.
LINK
VIA
LINK
SEE ALSO
LINK
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

45. A ‘SURGE’ FOR AFGHANISTAN? A MARINE PROPOSAL UNDER DISCUSSION THIS WEEK WOULD REDEPLOY TROOPS FROM IRAQ - GORDON LUBOLD (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, NOVEMBER 29)
LINK

46. THE GENERAL STANDS ALONE – EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, NOVEMBER 30): Pakistan’s democratic opposition is embittered at the continued U.S. support for Mr. Musharraf, and will probably boycott the January elections.
LINK

47. THE GENERAL RETIRES: BUT STILL PERVEZ MUSHARRAF CLINGS TO POWER, PROLONGING PAKISTAN’S CRISIS – EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, NOVEMBER 29): If Pakistan’s moderate center is to have a chance of defeating al-Qaeda and the Taliban, Mr. Musharraf will have to retire from public life. The sooner he and Pakistan’s army get that message from Washington, the quicker the current crisis can be ended.
LINK

48. IF YOU THOUGHT MUSARRAF WAS BAD . . .: FORMER PAKISTANI PRIME MINISTERS SHARIF AND BHUTTO ARE HARDLY THE RIGHT LEADERS TO NUTURE DEMOCRACY AND FIGHT TERRORISM - MANSOOR IJAZ (LOS ANGELES TIMES, NOVEMBER 30): Given the players and the circumstances, the elections in January will resolve little. LINK

49. POLITICAL ISLAM AND EUROPEAN FOREIGN POLICY – EFFWIT (SWEDISH MEATBALLS CONFIDENTIAL, NOVEMBER 29): The Centre for European Policy Studies released an important report yesterday dealing with the necessity for the E.U. (and by extension, the U.S.) to do a better job of engaging Islamic political parties in the Arab world. One conclusion is that the heavy lifting will likely have to be conducted through the Europeans, due to the toxicity of the U.S. brand in the opinion of the target audience.
LINK

50. A PARTNER FOR DEALING WITH IRAN? THE LESSONS OF U.S.-CHINA COOPERATION ON PYONGYANG - ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI (WASHINGTON POST, NOVEMBER 30): A comprehensive, strategic dialogue between the United States and China regarding the relevance of their shared experience dealing with North Korea to the potential crisis with Iran could be timely and historically expedient.
LINK

51. SHUTTING UP VENEZUELA’S CHÁVEZ - ROGER COHEN (NEW YORK TIMES, NOVEMBER 29): Chávez’s grab for socialist-emperor status is grotesque and dangerous.
LINK

52. AMERICA’S GULAG GOES BEFORE THE COURT - MARIE COCCO (TRUTHDIG, NOVEMBER 28): It has been more than three years since the Supreme Court ruled that the Guantanamo detainees indeed have a right to contest their confinement before a U.S. court, and that the circumstances under which they are held—without charge, without having seen the government’s evidence against them and without the ability to gather evidence of their own—violate the Constitution and various treaties the United States has signed. But that ruling in Rasul v. Bush didn’t prompt compliance. It touched off a round of cynical circumvention.
LINK

53. GET SERIOUS [REVIEW OF CONTAINMENT: REBUILDING A STRATEGY AGAINST GLOBAL TERROR BY IAN SHAPIRO] - JAMES P. RUBIN (NEW REPUBLIC, NOVEMBER 29): If the know-one-thing opponents of the Iraq war such as Ian Shapiro get the upper hand in the campaign debate, and in history’s first judgments, there is a real risk that the pendulum of American politics will overshoot the responsible mark, and post-Iraq wisdom will turn into post-Iraq folly.
LINK

54. REPORT: RICE COMPARES LIFE IN U.S. SOUTH TO PALESTINIANS’ PLIGHT –(HAARETZ, NOVEMBER 28)
LINK

55. RICE’S WAY: RESTRAINT IN QUEST FOR PEACE - HELENE COOPER (NEW YORK TIMES, NOVEMBER 29): One thing is clear: the Rice approach to Middle East diplomacy is far more restrained than that of her predecessors, and it consists of pushing Israel—as well as her boss, President Bush—only so far, while putting off the big, hard fights until the end.
LINK

56. SO HAPPY TOGETHER - (PRINCESS SPARKLE PONY’S PHOTO BLOG: I KEEP TRACK OF PRINCESS CONDOLEEZZA’S HAIRDO SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO, NOVEMBER 29): “And that’s the great thing about the Mid-East Peace Process! It’s really all about Condi! I, for one, wouldn’t have it any other way.”
LINK

57. DON’T DRINK THE GRAPE FLAVOR-AID - (PRINCESS SPARKLE PONY’S PHOTO BLOG: I KEEP TRACK OF PRINCESS CONDOLEEZZA’S HAIRDO SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO, NOVEMBER 28) PHOTO: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice(R) listens as former NATO commander General Jim Jones speaks after being introduced as special envoy for Middle East security, focusing on Palestinian and Israeli security issues at the State Department in Washington, DC. Jones will assist the Palestinians to “better design a security concept” for the future country they want to create, Rice told reporters.(AFP/Tim Sloan). COMMENT: “A what? A security concept? Once again, Madame Secretary’s ability to wax meaningless leaves me bewildered and impressed. Good luck, General Jim!”
LINK

C) DOCUMENT (posted here with the kind permission of its author)

Subject: FW: Weekly Standard editorial attacking the Foreign Service: Of Diplomats and Men / and A Response
[PDPBR compiler note: article in question at LINK ]

Dear Editor:

Common standards of journalism call for some attention to facts. But your scurrilous and defamatory November 12th editorial about the American Foreign Service belies that principle.

The Weekly Standard has long disregarded fairness and truth in its editorials and articles in support of the catastrophic Iraq War. However, your attack on brave and dedicated Foreign Service personnel is a step too far. It sinks the magazine to the same low level as the “Swift Boaters.” It is a shameful effort to deflect focus on your complicity in sending others to die for the disastrous policies you triumphed, and to shift the “blame” falsely to intelligent, dedicated, and brave public servants. It is shameful.

First, a few facts. As noted, some three Foreign Service personnel have already died in Iraq. They were all volunteers. You and other “sit by the fire” warriors now call for sending many other U.S. diplomats into that purposeless maelstrom — badly protected and asked to carry out responsibilities for which the Bush Administration has created impossible conditions for any hope of success. Bush and his supporters have failed Foreign Service officers in every sense — just as it has failed for American solders by not providing proper body armor and by putting them in situations they are not trained for and can never truly win.

Like the country’s wounded solders, the Administration has badly neglected Foreign Service and civil servants who served in Iraq. Those who are scarred and wounded are without adequate medical treatment and psychological support from the State Department.

You also neglected to mention in your editorial that most of those who have already served have stories of impossibly dangerous environments, incompetent leadership, and dumfounded policies and ideologically driven appointees with no expertise or education in those areas they oversee.

The advice offered in the halls of State among many of those who have served in Iraq is “don’t go.” Even so, all but a few of the slots for next year’s assignment rotation had been filled at the time of your editorial despite the widespread belief that the Administration’s policies and service is Iraq is a fiasco. The so-called provincial regional development teams face the threat of death for themselves and those who work with them each day they go out of their offices. Their security is a joke. It is absurdly dangerous as press reports on Blackwater “protection” has shown. Their work also puts at risk the innocent civilians that they are hoping to help. Despite all this recently the Department of State has announced that all slots for Iraq are now filled by volunteers. Already most Foreign Service Officers serve in dangerous or hardship posts.

The reality which the Weekly Standard continues to ignore is that Americans and Iraqis die each week for a lie. And neither the military nor the Foreign Service has been given the resources, protection, or a policy and environment for which they have the remotest chance to succeed. The blatant diversion of blaming those who have already risked their lives or those that choose not to risk their lives without purpose for a spurious cause in order to shift the blame from themselves for the irresponsible and disastrous policies supported by your magazine, is both cowardice and reprehensible.

Sincerely,
Harry C. Blaney III, FSO (Ret.)

Bethesda, Maryland

D) ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

“Deep Web.”

--That part of the Internet for which there is no street map; cited in Richard Fernandez, “When The Library Is Online: The Future Of Knowing” (Pajamasmedia, November 27)
LINK

Read Comments:

Add a Comment: