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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.

PDPBR FOR DECEMBER 5-6
by John H. Brown

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY PRESS AND BLOG REVIEW, DECEMBER 5-6, 2006

“IT’S A REMARKABLE COUNTRY WHEN MILLIONS PRAY FOR ME AND LAURA.”

--President George W. Bush, cited in Dan Froomkin, “‘The Load Is Not Heavy,’ Bush Denies Reaching Out to Dad"(washingtonpost.com, December 5)
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“BOMBASTIC, JINGOISTIC AND TOTALLY DEVOTED TO THEORIES OF FORCE AND POWER AS THE ONLY WORTHWHILE ELEMENTS IN THE WORLD.”

--How, according to president Dwight D. Eisenhower in a letter to his brother Edgar (1955), the rest of the world views the United States; cited in “Worth Repeating: Eisenhower: What It Takes to be a Leader” (Chicago Tribune, December 6)
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A) PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

1. IRAQ STUDY GROUP’S RECOMMENDATIONS: THE 79 SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE IRAQ STUDY GROUP - (WALL STREET JOURNAL, DECEMBER 6): RECOMMENDATION 19: The President and the leadership of his national security team should remain in close and frequent contact with the Iraqi leadership. These contacts must convey a clear message: there must be action by the Iraqi government to make substantial progress toward the achievement of milestones. In public diplomacy, the President should convey as much detail as possible about the substance of these exchanges in order to keep the American people, the Iraqi people, and the countries in the region well informed.
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Full text of report at
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2. CONTAINING IRAN WITH THE GULF MINNOWS WILL BE TOUGH - EMILE EL-HOKAYEM (DAILY STAR, DECEMBER 5): For the moment, Iran has won the public diplomacy campaign in the Arab world—a reversible achievement in today’s tense, sectarian climate. But the US is poorly positioned to effect this change: In the wake of the Iraq fiasco, the US must seriously, and humbly, consider whether it can wage an effective diplomatic and communications campaign to counter Iranian influence by playing on sectarian tensions.
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3. IS AMERICAN SUPPORT FOR MIDDLE EASTERN DISSIDENTS THE KISS OF DEATH? - MICHAEL RUBIN (MIDDLE EASTERN OUTLOOK, AEI ONLINE, DECEMBER 5): As he traveled through the United States, former Revolutionary Guard member-turned-investigative journalist Akbar Ganji was vocal in his opposition to funding other dissidents. Such sentiments, though, reflect poor U.S. public diplomacy more than the taint of outside assistance.
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4. EAST ASIAN FIASCO: GEORGE BUSH’S TOUR OF EAST ASIA AFTER ATTENDING THE APEC SUMMIT DOES NOT PRODUCE ANY MAJOR SUCCESS STORIES - P. S. SURYANARAYANA (FRONTLINE, INDIA, DECEMBER 5): The U.S. and Singapore have a vibrant economic relationship, underpinned in more recent times by a free trade agreement, and China has never really figured as an issue of concern to either side in this bilateral equation. This has remained the defining feature of their public diplomacy, despite Singapore’s well-known identity as a multi-cultural society with an ethnic Chinese majority.
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5. WHY NEWT IS RIGHT – JOSH MANCHESTER (TSC DAILY, DECEMBER 5): A cultural war against extremism, in addition to physically stopping or legally outlawing the ideas behind radicalism, might seek to propagate competing memes, which appeal to the same core demographic that is apt to become extremists. To be successful, such a tactic might require the use of popular culture and mass media, instead of the techniques of public diplomacy as they are usually conceived.
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6. U.S. LOOKS TO DISNEY FOR WELCOME FOR VISITORS - BERND DEBUSMANN, REUTERS (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 6): More visitors would also help to reduce anti-American sentiment, which a series of global opinion polls have shown to be running at unprecedented highs. “Welcoming visitors into this country is Public Diplomacy 101,” said Geoff Freeman, executive director of the Discover America Partnership. “Foreigners who have visited the U.S. have more positive attitudes than those who have not.”
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7. KAREN HUGHES—HEALTHCARE DIPLOMACY - PRESS RELEASE (US STATE DEPARTMENT, DECEMBER 6): Hughes, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, speaking at the Why Mercy Matters Conference: “I believe that … medical diplomacy, medical outreach, is one of the most effective ways that we can reach out people to people across our world. … Educational outreach and the healthcare diplomacy … are exactly the kind of personal interaction, the people-to-people connections that we need to forge at this important moment in our country’s history.”
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8. (KIM ANDREW ELLIOTT DISCUSSING INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING AND PUBLIC DIPLOMACY), updated since PDPBR December 3-4).
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9. DINING ROOM DIPLOMACY: AS BOMBS FELL ON THE MIDDLE EAST, I COOKED A GOURMET MEAL FOR A GROUP OF ARAB ARTISTS—AND BETWEEN BITES OF ROASTED TOMATOES AND BABY LETTUCE, THE WORLD SEEMED AT PEACE - ANDY ISAACSON (SALON, DECEMBER 4): The State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program partners with nonprofit organizations to arrange home hospitality visits with local volunteers. After all, not everyone deserves a black-tie state dinner, but stomachs are a proven route into hearts and minds.
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10. IT’S ALL HER FAULT!: NATION: LATELY, MORE ILLS OF THE WORLD ARE BLAMED ON WOMEN - KATHA POLLITT (CBS NEWS, DECEMBER 4): Iraq:  And you thought Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and those other neocons were in charge! Not so, according to the American Enterprise Institute’s Michael Ledeen, quoted by David Rose in the November Vanity Fair: “Ask yourself who the most powerful people in the White House are. They are women who are in love with the president: Laura, Condi, Harriet Miers, and Karen Hughes.” Ladies, you had the President’s heart in your soft little hands, and you blew it. Now all those Iraqi children are dead!
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11. BAD BEHAVIOR: RUMSFELD’S LAST SOLO – STEVEN (UNSPEAK, DECEMBER 5) The leaked memo written by Donald Rumsfeld two days before he stepped down turns out to be a final delirious improvisation. RUMSFELD MEMO: “Announce that whatever new approach the U.S. decides on, the U.S. is doing so on a trial basis. This will give us the ability to readjust and move to another course, if necessary, and therefore not ‘lose.’” BLOG COMMENT: “This is such an ingenious idea of ‘public diplomacy’ that it is only a shame it was not adopted three years earlier. If the US had announced from the start that it was going to war in Iraq ‘on a trial basis,’ history would surely have taken a different course.”
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12. FROM PARIS, WITH EDGE: FRENCH ‘CNN’ BEAMS NEW VIEW - SUSAN SACHS | CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR (DECEMBER 6): The mission of France 24, according to the charter which its staffers must sign, is to spread French values, culture, and “art de vivre” throughout the world, as well as a sense of “debate, confrontation, and contradiction.” In some ways, France 24 harkens back to the competitive philosophy of the cold war when the US and the Soviet Union, among others, created Radio Free Europe and Radio Moscow to promote their own ideological values and culture.
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13. ISRAEL EMBARKS ON PR FACE-LIFT - ANJU S. BAWA (WASHINGTON TIMES, DECEMBER 5): Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni met with public relations executives, branding specialists and diplomats in September in Tel Aviv to brainstorm about improving the country’s image by using the marketing insights first developed to sell peanut butter and Pontiacs.
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14. BULGARIA WILL TRAIN YOUNG AFGHAN DIPLOMATS – (SOFIA NEWS AGENCY, BULGARIA, DECEMBER 4): A two-week course for ten Afghanistan diplomats was officially opened Monday at the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry. The course has been organised by the Diplomatic Institute and Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry and will focus on Bulgaria’s foreign policy priorities, its role in the Balkans and the Black Sea region, its cooperation with international organisations (UN, NATO, OSCE, and EU), the new challenges to security, terrorism and public diplomacy.
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15. AMERICA’S DIALOGUE WITH THE WORLD: A REVIEW ESSAY – PATRICIA H. KUSHLIS (WHIRLED VIEW, DECEMBER 6): This latest work published by the Public Diplomacy Council is meant for Americans who are seriously concerned about the poor U.S. image abroad and want to understand—beyond the headlines and the reports—what went wrong and what needs to happen to rectify the problem. This book is written primarily by American practitioners -– most, but not all of whom - are specialists in the field.
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B) RELATED ITEMS (citizen musicians, 16; U.S. image, 17-18; Al-Jazeera, 19-21; Iraq, 22-45; Iran, Syria, 46-53; Israel, 54-55; Middle East, 56-59; Afghanistan, 60-65; Islam, 66; China, 67; Venezuela, 68; Cuba, 69-70; Latin America, 71; Russia, 72-75; war on terror, 76-82; U.S. trade, 83; Bolton, 84-88; State Department, 89-90; Rice, 91)

16. CITIZEN MUSICIANS GIVING PEACE A CHANCE - CESAR CHELALA (JAPAN TIMES, DECEMBER 5):  Only by increasing communal work and cooperation will we have any hope of ending brutal conflicts worldwide. Perhaps through civilian efforts like music, we can reach a level of understanding that can eventually lead to less violence.
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17. HOW THE US DISTORTS ITS SELF-IMAGE - ROBERT KAGAN (FINANCIAL TIMES, DECEMBER 5): True realism would recognize America for what it is, an ambitious, ideological, revolutionary nation with a belief in its own world-transforming powers and a historical record of enough success to sustain that belief.
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18. GIVING ENEMIES NO CAUSE FOR FEAR – CAL THOMAS (BALTIMORE SUN, DECEMBER 6): The United States of America was once feared and respected around the world. Whatever happened to “if you touch us, it will be the last thing you touch”?
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19. ENGLISH TERROR TV – TASTE (WALL STREET JOURNAL, DECEMBER 1): Al Jazeera’s new English-language service is barely two weeks old. But already it’s proving to be another propaganda outlet for those who spread fear and terror. No wonder no American cable network has agreed to carry the English face of Terror TV.
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20. PENTAGON CARRYING AL JAZEERA ENGLISH – UPI (DECEMBER 4): AJE premiered this week on closed circuit Pentagon TV, available to anyone with access to the Pentagon’s channel 2, according to Bryan Whitman, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Public Affairs.
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21. U.S. CABLE PROVIDERS SHOULD RECONSIDER ARAB CHANNEL – EDITORIAL (BANGOR DAILY NEWS, MAINE, DECEMBER 5): Many Americans know Al Jazeera as a propaganda mouthpiece that carried video messages from Osama bin Laden and pictures of U.S. prisoners. But, even in its Arabic channel, it has come a long way toward mainstream journalism, albeit as an Arab voice.
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22. RADIO STATION EDITOR KILLED IN BAGHDAD - COMMITTEE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS (STATEMENT, DECEMBER 5): Murder accounts for 69 percent of work-related deaths among journalists and media support workers in Iraq, with crossfire accounting for the rest. In all, 89 journalists, including al-Dulaimi, and 37 media support workers have been killed for their work since the the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, making it the deadliest conflict in CPJ’s 25-year history.
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23. THE “IRAQI KID RUNS FOR WATER” VIDEO - COLLEEN TURNER (OPED NEW, DECEMBER 5): Within a week the YouTube.com internet video clip called “Iraqi Kid Runs for Water” became a top selection with half a million viewers around the globe. The video depicts U.S. soldiers taunting Iraqi boys from the back of their truck by acting as though they would give them bottled water if they ran fast enough to catch up. How will an increased American military presence ever make a constructive difference in Iraq, or anywhere else, if even a few U.S. troops behave like this?
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24. TOMGRAM: BIKING WITH DONALD RUMSFELD—RUMSFELD’S LAST STAND - TOM ENGELHARDT (TOMDISPATCH, DECEMBER 5): The image of the Iraqi (child) learning how to ride the bike of democracy—or whatever—with the American (parent) looming behind, hand steadying the seat, was already not just a neocolonial, but a neocon classic by the time the President used it back in May 2004.
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25. THE NEW WASHINGTON CONSENSUS: BLAME THE VICTIMS IN IRAQ - SHARON SMITH (COUNTERPUNCH, DECEMBER 5): Democrats and Republicans have joined together to take aim at the ungrateful Iraqi population, who apparently fail to appreciate the U.S.’ selfless efforts to impose “democracy” through military occupation.
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26. CUT AND WALK - NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF (NEW YORK TIMES, DECEMBER 5): Iraqis themselves say overwhelmingly in polls that our presence is inflaming the violence rather than reducing it, and a timetable for withdrawal would be a useful signal that we really are going to pull out and that Iraqi factions need to conciliate and address their own problems.
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27. KNOWING WHEN TO LET GO - MARK MOYAR (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 6): Restoring order will require numerous decisions based on perceptions of the beliefs, loyalties and alliances of particular Iraqis. No American is likely to perceive these things as accurately as an astute Iraqi.
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28. WHY WE PERSEVERE - WILLIAM CALDWELL IV (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 6): Regardless of what academics and pundits decide to label this conflict, hundreds of thousands of brave Iraqi soldiers, police officers and civil servants will continue to go to work building a free, prosperous and united Iraq.
(Army Maj. Gen. Caldwell is the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq.)
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29. WOMAN IN IRAQ ENDURE SHARP DECLINE IN FREEDOM - DAHR JAMAIL AND ALI AL-FADHILY (ELECTRONIC IRAQ, DECEMBER 5)
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30. PACIFICATION AND IRAQIFICATION: A WAR WASHINGTON CAN’T WIN - RON JACOBS (COUNTERPUNCH, DECEMBER 5): The pretense of liberation is over. The pretense that US Galahads were going to come in and save Iraqi and Afghani women from the more medieval practices of certain Islamic fundamentalists is over. Now, those women and their children are being killed indiscriminately by US bombs and missiles.
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31. CENSUS COUNTS 100,000 CONTRACTORS IN IRAQ: CIVILIAN NUMBER, DUTIES ARE ISSUES - RENAE MERLE (WASHINGTON POST DECEMBER 5): There are about 100,000 government contractors operating in Iraq, not counting subcontractors, a total that is approaching the size of the U.S. military force there, according to the military’s first census of the growing population of civilians operating in the battlefield.
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32. MEDIA SHAM FOR IRAQ WAR—IT’S HAPPENING AGAIN – NORMAN SOLOMON (COMMON DREAMS, DECEMBER 5): The current media travesty is a drumbeat for the idea that the U.S. war effort must keep going.
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33. BRIDGE TO NOWHERE: POLITICAL CONSENSUS ISN’T GOING TO SOLVE AMERICA’S IRAQ PROBLEM - MATTHEW YGLESIAS (AMERICAN PROSPECT, DECEMBER 5): Bridging the debate over the war would, of course, be an excellent thing to achieve if it was done in a way that fixed American foreign policy. But fixing the policy problem—not bridging the debate—should be the focus.
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34. WITHDRAWING FROM DEBATE ON IRAQ - PETER HART (TOMPAINE.COM, DECEMBER 6): Whatever the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, their report presents an opportunity for the press to engage in a more wide-ranging debate on Iraq policy—not just a chance to further restrict debate over the most important issue of our time.
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35. REPORT: IRAQ ‘GRAVE AND DETERIORATING’: BIPARTISAN COMMISSION ISSUES LONG-AWAITED FINDINGS - ANNE PLUMMER FLAHERTY, ASSOCIATED PRESS (BALTIMORE SUN)
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36. IRAQ REPORT CONFRONTS BUSH RESOLVE: THE PRESIDENT IS FACING INTENSE PRESSURE TO ADJUST AN IRAQ STRATEGY THAT MOST EXPERTS CONCLUDE IS FAILING - HOWARD LAFRANCHI (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, DECEMBER 5)
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37. “THERE IS NO MAGIC FORMULA” – TIM GRIEVE (SALON, DECEMBER 5): We’ve heard so many different things about the Iraq Study Group’s proposals—a phased withdrawal, a phased pullback, a switch from combat to training, diplomacy with Iran and Syria, benchmarks for progress by the Iraqi government and threats if it doesn’t meet them—that we’re beginning to suspect that the final report is such a vague mish-mash that it will offer something for everyone and yet nothing that could help attain any truly desirable result.
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38. THE UN-RUMSFELD: ROBERT GATES WOWED SENATORS BY ADMITTING THE U.S. INVADED IRAQ WITHOUT ENOUGH TROOPS AND ISN’T WINNING THE WAR. BUT HE LEFT DETAILS OF WHAT HE’D DO INSTEAD FOR ANOTHER DAY - MICHAEL SCHERER (SALON, DECEMBER 6)
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39. BUSH’S STRATEGY OF WISHFUL THINKING - H.D.S. GREENWAY (BOSTON GLOBE, DECEMBER 5): As Iraq’s society falls apart, other potential civil wars could rise to haunt us.
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40. MORE TROOPS NEEDED – EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, DECEMBER 6): Another 50,000 to 80,000 troops would enable the U.S. military to combat the terrorist armies now roiling in Baghdad without drawing forces away from Anbar and other dangerous parts of the country.
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41. THE TRUTH ON IRAQ - JOHN PODHORETZ (NEW YORK POST, DECEMBER 5): The only plan that will work is a plan to face the tripartite enemy—the Saddamists, the foreign terrorists and the Shiite sectarians—and bring them to heel. Kill as many bad guys as we can, with as many troops as we can muster.
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42. THE COMING CLASH OVER IRAQ POLICY – IVAN ELAND (ANTIWAR.COM, DECEMBER 5): Both the president and the Democrats and Republicans need to be honest that conducting an unprovoked invasion of Iraq was a horrendous mistake, which had little chance of ever implanting self-sustaining democracy there. They need to cut their losses and get out now.
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43. IT’S TIME TO DECLARE WAR ON IRAQ: NEVER MIND THE CIVIL WAR DEBATE — THE REAL QUESTION IS WHY DIDN’T THE U.S. MAKE A WAR DECLARATION IN THE FIRST PLACE? THAT COULD BRING AN END TO SOMETHING THAT NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN STARTED - JEFFREY KLUGER (TIME, DECEMBER 1): Here’s one two-part strategy I’d wager no one thought of: Declare war, then get out.
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44. WHEN IRAQ WENT WRONG - TIM PRITCHARD (NEW YORK TIMES, DECEMBER 5): The short fight to get to Baghdad and the long one in which coalition forces have been engaged ever since have much in common.
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45. ODD BEDFELLOWS: BUSH WOOS SHI’ITE LEADER - SAMI MOUBAYED (ASIA TIMES, DECEMBER 7): In looking back, the US realizes that it has failed to appease both the Sunnis and the Shi’ites. It only has the Kurds, who are always a minority in Iraqi politics.
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46. AS RICE’S IRAN STRATEGY FIZZLES, CHENEY WAITS - GARETH PORTER (ASIA TIMES, DECEMBER 5): US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s months-long diplomatic effort to get five other powers to agree to a tough United Nations Security Council resolution on sanctions against Iran now seems certain to fail, because of Russian and Chinese resistance. The beneficiaries of that failure in Washington will be Vice President Dick Cheney and other hardliners
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47. REALISM AND IRAN: HOWEVER SINCERE TEHRAN’S MODERATES MAY BE, ITS HARDLINERS HAVE TORPEDOED DEALS - REVIEW & OUTLOOK (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, DECEMBER 5)
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48. THE PRICE OF IRAN’S HELP - DAVID IGNATIUS (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 6): Tehran’s view of current realities: Iran is up, America is down, and any post-Iraq settlement should reflect those facts. That’s the steep price of Tehran’s help.
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49. THE DANGER OF ENGAGING WITH THE ENEMY - JEFF JACOBY (BOSTON GLOBE COLUMNIST, DECEMBER 6): Negotiating with Iran and Syria over the future of Iraq is about as promising a strategy for preventing more bloodshed as negotiating with Adolf Hitler over the future of Czechoslovakia was in 1938.
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50. WE’VE BEEN TALKING : IT’S A MYTH THAT THE U.S. HASN’T ALREADY ENGAGED SYRIA AND IRAN - JOEL HIMELFARB (OPINION JOURNAL FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE, DECEMBER 6): Based on the historical record, the advocates of U.S. engagement with these regimes are delusional.
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51. BAKER’S IRAQ ADVICE: TOO HIGH A PRICE - PETER BROOKES (NEW YORK POST, DECEMBER 4): Instead of engaging Iran and Syria, it might be better to build a regional coalition of Arab states to contain them.
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52. DAMASCUS RISING: SYRIANA - MARTIN PERETZ (NEW REPUBLIC, DECEMBER 5): Baker wants to involve Syria in calming the waters of Babylon. But what will be Assad’s price? The tacit U.S. blessing over his restored control of the Lebanese fragment of the Greater Syria imperium, no doubt.
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53. A ROLE FOR SYRIA - KENNETH H. BACON (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 6): Working through the United Nations or directly, the United States has an opportunity to engage with Damascus to mitigate the suffering of Iraqi refugees and the growing burden on Syria.
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54. MAKING THE CONNECTION BETWEEN IRAQ AND ISRAEL - BOB BURNETT (COMMON DREAMS, DECEMBER 5): Because of America’s new political religiosity, it’s become politically incorrect to appear to criticize Israel.
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55. THANK YOU, JIMMY CARTER - RABBI MICHAEL LERNER (TOMPAINE.COM, DECEMBER 6): When the U.S. government is following a self-destructive policy, even a policy backed by people in both major political parties, its best friends are those who try to change its direction and are not afraid to offer intense critique. That is precisely what Jimmy Carter is trying to do for Israel and the Jewish people in his new book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.
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56. TO HALT MIDEAST TREMORS, HEAL THE FAULT LINE: THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT MUST BE RESOLVED BEFORE WE CAN EXPECT PEACE IN LEBANON AND ELSEWHERE - JOHN K. COOLEY (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, DECEMBER 6): Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, an expert Kremlinologist, has undoubtedly been a fast learner about the Middle East. But Mr. Bush and his neoconservative advisers have restrained the kind of active Mideast shuttle diplomacy other secretaries effectively used in the past. Ms. Rice’s current efforts to strengthen a shaky Palestinian-Israeli truce in Gaza indicates this may be changing.
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57. BUSH’S FREEDOM SPEECH - TOD LINDBERG (WASHINGTON TIMES, DECEMBER 5): If the Middle East is ever the home of moderate, democratic politics, Mr. Bush will be remembered for seeing that possibility and seeking to act on it, however difficult it was.
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58. THE DREAM PALACE OF THE BUSHIES: ARABS CERTAINLY HAVE NO MONOPOLY ON DELUSIONAL NOTIONS AND RIGID IDEOLOGY - BLAKE HOUNSHELL (AMERICAN PROSPECT, DECEMBER 4): Elected governments in the Middle East will neither be pro-American nor liberal.
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59. GOODNESS GRACIOUS! THE TRUTH! - MAUREEN DOWD (NEW YORK TIMES, DECEMBER 6): The Bush administration has gone from a breathless plan to change the Middle East to a breathless plan to preserve it, from democracy promotion to conflagration avoidance.
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60. LOSING THE GOOD WAR – EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, DECEMBER 5): Afghanistan was supposed to be the good war—and the war America was winning. But because of the Bush administration’s inattention and mismanagement, even the good war is going wrong.
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61. FAILING IN THE JUST WAR – JOSEPH NYE (HUFFINGTON POST, DECEMBER 5): One of the great costs of the Bush Administration’s mistaken policy in Iraq has been to divert attention and resources away from the just war in Afghanistan.
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62. HOPE FOR AFGHAN GIRLS - HELLE DALE (WASHINGTON TIMES, DECEMBER 6): Since 2002, the United States has committed $10.3 billion in funding to the work of the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council, much of it focused on health care and education, which of course does not benefit girls alone.
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63. AFGHANISTAN: U.S. OFFICIAL ‘MARVELS’ AS AFGHANS PERSEVERE: U.S. UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR DEMOCRACY AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS PAULA DOBRIANSKY IS NEAR THE HEART OF WASHINGTON’S EFFORT TO PROMOTE ITS VISION OF EQUALITY AND THE RULE OF LAW IN AFGHANISTAN. RADIO FREE AFGHANISTAN AND RFE/RL RECENTLY ASKED DOBRIANSKY ABOUT AFGHANISTAN, AND PARTICULARLY WOMEN’S ROLES IN THAT HISTORICALLY PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY - (RFE/RL, DECEMBER 5)
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64. TAKING ON THE TALIBAN - DENNIS KUX AND KARL F. INDERFURTH (BALTIMORE SUN, DECEMBER 5): As long as the Taliban have a haven in Pakistan, they can continue their insurgency indefinitely, making it virtually impossible for Afghanistan to become a country at peace with itself and its neighbors.
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65. NATO SUMMIT THROWS UP A SURPRISE – M. K. BHADRAKUMAR (ASIA TIMES, DECEMBER 5): The main difficulty for the US at the NATO in Riga was that Bush’s entreaties (faithfully supported by British Prime Minister Tony Blair) —that by augmenting its muscle power in Afghanistan’s Helmand and Kandahar provinces by 2,200 soldiers, NATO could win the Afghan war —did not carry conviction with the hard-boiled statesmen from Old Europe.
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66. ISLAM GETS CONCESSIONS; INFIDELS GET CONQUERED: WHAT THEY CAPTURE, THEY KEEP. WHEN THEY LOSE, THEY COMPLAIN TO THE U.N. - RAYMOND IBRAHIM (LOS ANGELES TIMES, DECEMBER 5): By criticizing itself, apologizing and offering concessions—all things the Islamic world has yet to do—the West reaffirms that Islam has a privileged status in the world.
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67. WASHINGTON’S SCHIZOPHRENIC CHINA POLICY - DONALD ALFORD WEADON JR. AND CAROL A KALINOSKI (ASIA TIMES, DECEMBER 4): Having concluded that the United States is not capable of creating a consistent and sustainable position on trade issues where there is a glimmer of “mutual benefit,” the Chinese will, as they have done before with other hapless US emissaries (Alexander Haig, George Shultz and others), quietly divide and conquer, sending US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. and his fellow emissaries home with a scintilla of dignity but absolutely no results.
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68. VENEZUELA’S CHAVEZ WINS BIG AND INCHES FURTHER TO THE LEFT – EDWARD M. GOMEZ (WORLD VIEWS, SF GATE, DECEMBER 5)
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69. WHAT’S NEXT FOR CUBA - AND LATIN AMERICA - AFTER CASTRO?: CHAVEZ MAY SUCCEED CASTRO AS CHAMPION FOR THE SOCIALIST CAUSE IN LATIN AMERICA - JOHN HUGHES (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, DECEMBER 6): Chavez clearly is undaunted in his ambition to succeed Fidel Castro as a significant figure from Latin America who proudly waves the socialist banner and taunts the US.
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70. CUBA’S FUTURE IS ALREADY HERE - EUGENE ROBINSON (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 5): The Cuban regime has accomplished something that the Bush administration had pledged to thwart: an uneventful transition that leaves the Cuban Communist Party still comfortably in charge.
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71. IN LATIN AMERICA, THE CHALLENGE IS PRAGMATISM: WHETHER THE REGION IS MOVING ‘LEFT’ OR ‘RIGHT’ IS IRRELEVANT. IT MUST RESOLVE ITS INTERNAL PROBLEMS - WILLIAM RATLIFF (LOS ANGELES TIMES, DECEMBER 5): The very noisy “pseudo new left” types, led by just-reelected Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez with his hangers-on in Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua are characters that may in some respects be well meaning, but they are largely rudderless, reactionary anti-American populists and/or fascists whose old populist ideas will fail in the future as they have in the past.
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72. OSCE: U.S., RUSSIA CLASH OVER ORGANIZATION’S FUTURE – AHTO LOBJAKAS (RFE/LB, DECEMBER 5)
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73. FOLLOWING THE LITVINENKO TRAIL: DEATH BY POISON, DIRECT FROM MOSCOW—WHY ARE RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN’S OPPONENTS DYING? FORMER KGB AGENT ALEXANDER LITVINENKO IS ONLY THE MOST RECENT VICTIM OF ASSASSINATION. INDICATIONS HINT AT A BATTLE FOR POWER IN MOSCOW—BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT AND THE SECRET SERVICE – (SPIEGEL ONLINE, DECEMBER 5): The ailing United States now needs Russia more than it could ever have wanted.
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74. DON’T PLAY DEAD FOR PUTIN: WHAT THE WEST CAN DO HELP STOP THE AUTHORITARIAN RUSSIAN PRESIDENT FROM GARNERING TOO MUCH INFLUENCE IN THE WORLD - MAX BOOT (LOS ANGELES TIMES, DECEMBER 6): We need to stop thinking of how to cozy up to Putin and start thinking of how to frustrate his illiberal imperial designs.
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75. ALEXANDER LITVINENKO: BLACKMAILER, SMUGGLER, GANGSTER EXTRAORDINAIRE: IN THE MURKY UNDERWORLD HE INHABITED, THE EX-KGB OFFICER HAD PLENTY OF ENEMIES – JUSTIN RAIMONDO (ANTIWAR.COM, DECEMBER 4): After all, why in the name of all that’s holy would Vladimir Putin launch what amounts to the first act of nuclear terrorism—and on British soil, to boot? Is it just a coincidence that this tsunami of accusations against the Kremlin rose up just prior to an important Nato summit meeting held in Riga?
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76. TRUTH, JUSTICE, AND THE UN-AMERICAN WAY - JOHN CAVANAGH (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, DECEMBER 5): The policy of “extraordinary rendition,” the post-9/11 practice of transferring detainees into the custody of foreign governments known for routinely practicing torture, is abhorrent.
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77. THE PROBLEM ITSELF – DANIEL PIPES (JERUSALEM POST, DECEMBER 6): An effective counterterrorism strategy must focus on the fact that terrorism by Muslims in the name of Islam presents the strategic threat today to civilized peoples, whether Muslim or non-Muslim. The most effective form of counterterrorism fights not the terrorists but the ideas that motivate them.
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78. THE CASE FOR FEAR - CASS R. SUNSTEIN (NEW REPUBLIC, DECEMBER 5): Whatever our government ought to be doing in terms of security, individual Americans continue to feel far more vulnerable to terrorists than the statistical realities warrant. Our state of mind, and our behavior, will be better if we are able to appreciate that fact.
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79. BECOMING WHAT WE DESPISE – ROBERT SCHEER (HUFFINGTON POST, DECEMBER 6): The excuse for an entire orgy of despicable treatment of prisoners held in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo and a gulag archipelago of secret military facilities around the world is that our enemies, all linked through sophistry to the 9/11 terror attacks, are so vile and dangerous that the limitations on government power enshrined in our guiding documents and political culture no longer apply.
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80. WAR AGAINST TERROR: “BIN LADEN WILL BE BACK”—FORMER CIA AGENT MICHAEL SCHEUER ON THE PROSPECTS OF FINDING BIN LADEN, THE OUTLOOK FOR AL QAEDA AND THE RISK OF NEW TERROR ATTACKS IN THE UNITED STATES – (SPIEGEL ONLINE, DECEMBER 5)
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81. FIGHT THE REAL WAR: STABILIZING IRAQ WHILE IRAN AND AL QAEDA ARE ASCENDANT IS NOT “VICTORY” - ANDREW C. MCCARTHY (NATIONAL REVIEW, DECEMBER 6): There is only one good reason for American troops to be in Iraq. It is the reason we sent them there in 2003: To fight and win the “war on terror”—i.e., the war against radical Islam—by deposing rogue regimes helping the terror network wage a long-term, existential jihad against the United States.
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82. CYCLE OF CONFLICT: THE WAR ON TERROR IN THE SWEEP OF HISTORY - CLARK S. JUDGE (NATIONAL REVIEW, DECEMBER 6): We should fix in our minds that the current conflict is the latest and, if successfully resolved, the final stage in a hundred years war, which, while often global, has focused on the fallen empires of World War I. In the context of a century of war, the present episode could possibly be ended within a decade and still be short.
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83. CAN’T BE BOTHERED: THERE’S NO EXCUSE FOR CONGRESSIONAL LETHARGY ON TRADE – EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 5): What Congress is saying is that leaving town for the holidays is more important than jobs in developing countries. No wonder the United States is seen as arrogant.
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84. MR. BOLTON RESIGNS – EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, DECEMBER 5): John Bolton’s decision to resign as America’s envoy to the United Nations was a wise move.
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85. JOHN BOLTON’S GREATEST HITS - IAN WILLIAMS (NATION, DECEMBER 4): To be fair, while Bolton’s tenure has from the standpoint of any rational diplomacy been a disaster, it has not been an unmitigated one. He has been a very well-trained attack dog, always coming to heel when the White House wanted and chewing his own words when necessary.
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86. BOLTON DEPARTS – REVIEW & OUTLOOK (WALL STREET JOURNAL, DECEMBER 5): If one measure of a man is his enemies, then John Bolton must have done something right during his six years in the Bush Administration.
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87. W’S DRIFT TO IMPOTENCE: LOSING HIS MOST LOYAL HANDS - JOHN O’SULLIVAN (NEW YOR POST, DECEMBER 6): John Bolton’s resignation as the American ambassador to the United Nations makes it official: The Bush administration is now drifting idly toward a mixture of centrism and impotence.
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88. GOING DIPLOMATIC – OPINION (BALTIMORE SUN, DECEMBER 5): John R. Bolton is on his way out as ambassador to the United Nations - another casualty of last month’s election - and this gives President Bush the opportunity to nominate as a replacement someone who could better advance America’s worldwide interests at so critical a moment.
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89. KUDOS FOR THOSE WHO DO GOOD WORKS OVERSEAS - ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 6): Every year, beside the holiday trees in the stately Benjamin Franklin Room on the department’s eighth floor, Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide present the Secretary of State’s Awards for Volunteerism Overseas, a mouthful of a prize for State employees and spouses whose pro bono goodwill benefits their host countries.
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90. POTENTIAL EMPLOYEES EXPRESS LUKEWARM INTEREST IN WORKING FOR THE GOVERNMENT - STEPHEN BARR (WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 6): Two agencies, the State Department and the National Science Foundation, got mixed results—respondents said that they were interesting places to work but that they had relatively little awareness about their key responsibilities.
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91. BUSH, CONDI BABIES COMING SOON TO COMEDY CENTRAL (PRINCESS SPARKLE PONY’S PHOTO BLOG: I KEEP TRACK OF CONDOLEEZZA’S HAIRDO SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO, December 6): “Obviously I love the idea of a cartoon series featuring a grade-school-age Condi ‘who pines for Lil’ Bush and does his homework for him.’”
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C) ONLY IN AMERICA?

92. FLATULENCE, NOT TURBULENCE, FORCES PLANE TO LAND: PASSENGER LIGHTED MATCHES TO HIDE ODOR - SAMUEL SHU (TENNESSEAN, DECEMBER 5): Flatulence brought 99 passengers on an American Airlines flight to an unscheduled visit to Nashville early Monday morning. The FBI questioned a passenger who admitted she struck the matches in an attempt to conceal body odor caused by flatulence. The flight took off again, but the woman was not allowed back on the plane.
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D) MORE QUOTATIONS FOR THE DAY

“I’M INTERESTED IN TALKING TO A GUY I LOVE.”

--President George W. Bush, regarding his father, ex-President George W. H. Bush; cited in Dan Froomkin, “Interview Excerpt, Bush Denies Reaching Out to Dad” (washingtonpost.com, December 5)
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“THE SCIENCE IS DONE.”

--Monty Newborn, a professor of computer science at McGill University in Montreal, commenting that the defeat of Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, the world chess champion, by Deep Fritz, a souped-up version of commercially available chess software made by Chessbase, may end the interest in future chess matches between human champions and computers; cited in Dylan Loeb McClain, “Once Again, Machine Beats Human Champion at Chess” (New York Times, December 5)
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