USC Center on Public Diplomacy

Direct link to this article: http://uscpublicdiplomacy.com/index.php/newsroom/johnbrown_detail/2403/

Published: JUL 23, 2007 - 7:04PM PDT

John Brown's Public Diplomacy Review
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 JULY 21-23, 2007
 by John H. Brown

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY PRESS AND BLOG REVIEW (JULY 21-23)

“The word ‘homeland’ ... resonates sinisterly like das Vaterland in German or rodina in Russian ... while Vaterland or rodina have non-ideological colloquial roots and were expropriated by Hitler and Stalin, ‘homeland’ is a purely ideological construct of Bush administration.”

--Werther, “Beyond Euphemism: How to Read a National Intelligence Estimate” (CounterPunch, July 21)
http://www.counterpunch.org/werther07212007.html

VIDEO

Thinking robots (MountainRunner Blog, July 19) – “My mind is on robots right now (it is actually directly on target of the core mission of this blog)… follow me there and watch this clip. The beginning is ok, but I like the last third when they start the ‘Pacific Islander’ dancing.”
http://mountainrunner.us/2007/07/thinking_robots.html

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Public Diplomacy—Compilation: Ali Molenaar, Library and Documentation Centre Clingendael Institute, April 2007, Library and Documentation Centre, Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’
http://www.clingendael.nl/library/literature/public-diplomacy.pdf

A) PUBLIC DIPLOMACY (1-21)

1. U.S. PARES OTHER DIPLOMACY TO FOCUS ON IRAQ, REST OF MIDEAST - PETER BAKER (WASHINGTON POST, JULY 22): While the Bush team has waged war in Iraq, China has expanded its global influence, Russia has been reborn as an increasingly authoritarian and antagonistic power, and anti-Americanism has spread in Latin America. “There have been substantial public diplomacy resources that have been diverted to Iraq and, I would assume as well, personnel,” said Peter DeShazo, former deputy assistant secretary of state under Bush and now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Maintaining relations, he said, requires constant diplomatic investment.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/21/AR2007072101207_pf.html

2. PRESIDENT CHENEY AND IRAN - WILLIAM M. ARKIN (WASHINGTON POST, JULY 23): The loose talk of preemptive war against Iran does have consequences beyond the fertile imagination of bloggers: In Tehran, hard-liners use every stray speculation of imminent war to crack down and justify their nuclear pursuits. Meanwhile, the United States is attempting to enlist Iran’s assistance in crafting some kind of honorable peace and withdrawal from Iraq—a far more consequential objective, and also one undermined by all the rumors and threats. Too bad the administration isn’t competent enough to correct its public diplomacy and put these rumors to rest.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2007/07/president_cheney_and_iran_1.html

3. BEYOND EUPHEMISM: HOW TO READ A NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE ESTIMATE – WERTHER (COUNTERPUNCH, JULY 21/22): “To spare readers the pain and confusion of reading a document [the National Intelligence Estimate] assembled by a committee, we will reproduce excerpts of the ‘Key Judgments’ section and annotate them by translating them into ordinary English. Please be warned, however, that in order to faithfully reproduce the reasoning that goes on in government bureaucracies, we are forced to depart from our usual decorum. Unlike [the current Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs] Karen Hughes claiming that President Bush never uses profanity, we prefer accuracy to euphemism.”
http://www.counterpunch.org/werther07212007.html

4. CAN’T FIND OSAMA? ATTACK IRAN INSTEAD - PHILIP GIRALDI (GLOBAL RESEARCH, JULY 19):  The irrepressible Karen Hughes at State Department has summoned her Myrmidons, “countering al-Qaeda’s violent message,” challenging terrorists to cyber duels over the Internet. It’s Star Wars all over again. “We remain vigilant.” It’s all there in the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) “On the Terrorist Threat to the U.S. Homeland.”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6367
ON MYRMIDONS SEE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmidons

5. GEORGETOWN’S JOHN ESPOSITO A PANELIST IN “MUSLIMS SPEAK OUT” WANT TO UNDERSTAND ISLAM? – CINNAMON STILLWELL (CAMPUS WATCH (MONITORING MIDDLE EAST STUDIES ON CAMPUS, JULY 20): The joint Washington Post and Newsweek blog On Faith will be hosting an “online dialogue” from July 22-27 during which Muslim clerics, thinkers, and related figures will discuss “religion, terrorism and human rights.” Titled “Muslims Speak Out,” the event is being held in conjunction with Georgetown University and perhaps not coincidentally, religion, international affairs, and Islamic studies professor John Esposito will be one of the panelists. The entire event is emblematic of the continuing blindness in this country as to who constitutes true allies among the Muslim community, as well experts in Middle East studies on related issues. The fact that Karen Hughes, who’s in charge of “building bridges” between America and the Muslim world, is a devoted acolyte of Esposito’s work says it all. SEE BELOW ITEM 27.
http://www.campus-watch.org/weblog/id/84

6. ISLAM IN AMERICA: A SPECIAL REPORT—MUSLIM AMERICANS ARE ONE OF THIS COUNTRY’S GREATEST STRENGTHS. BUT THEY’RE VULNERABLE AS NEVER BEFORE - LISA MILLER (NEWSWEEK, JULY 30): Fareed Siddiq is a successful businessman and a father of two. At a recent presidential event for business leaders in Cleveland, he was moved to ask George W. Bush a question: “What,” he asked, “are we doing with public diplomacy to change the hearts and minds of a billion and a half Muslims around the world?” What should he tell his friends and relatives in Pakistan about why he continues to live in the United States? “Great question,” answered the president. “I’m confident your answer is, “I love living in America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, the country where you can come and ask the president a question and a country where—“Are you a Muslim?” “Yes,” answered Siddiq. “Where you can worship your religion freely. It’s a great country where you can do that.” It was a good answer, says Siddiq, but not enough for him.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19876834/site/newsweek/

7. (KIM ANDREW ELLIOTT DISCUSSING INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING AND PUBLIC DIPLOMACY), latest edition.
http://www.kimandrewelliott.com/

8. BAGHDAD CONFIDENTIAL – GREG VEIS (MOTHER JONES, JULY 16): In 2004, Selwan Abdelghani Medhi al-Niemi, a freelance translator for Voice of America, was murdered, along with his mother and four-year-old daughter. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 19 Iraqis working for U.S. and other foreign news outlets have been killed since the beginning of the war. Since 2004, about three times as many local reporters have been killed as the foreign reporters they assist.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2007/07/baghdad_confidential.html

9. AMERICAN AMBASSADOR’S TIRASPOL VISIT SEEN AS PUBLIC DIPLOMACY WIN - KAREN RYAN (TIRASPOL TIMES, JULY 19):  Michael Kirby scored a diplomatic “hole in one” during Wednesday’s visit to Pridnestrovie’s capital. The American Ambassador held firm on his country’s anti-independence position but was nevertheless well received by youth in Tiraspol.
http://tiraspoltimes.com/news/american_ambassadors_tiraspol_visit_a_public_diplomacy_win.html
SEE ALSO
http://transdniestria.co.uk/2007/rethinking-tiraspol-times.html

10. WHY 1924-THINKING FOR TRANSNISTRIA - MOLDOVA UNIFICATION WON’T - JOHN MOYNIHAN (TIRASPOL TIMES, JULY 21): “Unfortunately, a U.S. policy change based on a realistic assessment of Transnistria’s statehood claim under international law isn’t really an option at this point. The best we can do is try to mitigate the downside which our painting-ourselves-into-a-corner insistence on the Moldova/Transnistria union has created among the majority of the population in Transnistria. The way to do that is with a well-designed strategy of communicating with the people whose independence-desire we hope would go away. It’s called ‘public diplomacy’ and the Bush Administration does a lousy job of it. I know that ‘winning hearts and minds’ sounds like leftist lunacy to some people. Here’s the problem: there is no other way out of the current mess. We cannot kill half a million Transnistrians.”
http://www.tiraspoltimes.com/opinion/why_1924_thinking_for_transnistria_moldova_unification_wont_work.html

11. BLAND RAND DEMAND NEW BRAND HAND — LET LINGER THE MIDDLE FINGER ZINGER – EXTREME MORTMAN (JULY 21): Shocking evidence of how American customs infuriate the rest of the world, and presumably instigate terror attacks against us, include the shameful episode in American history, and public diplomacy fiasco, when President Bush made a “hook ‘em horns” gesture familiar to University of Texas fans during the 2005 inaugural parade. According to a Rand Corp. report commissioned by the U.S. Joint Forces Command that provides examples of how misinterpreted images have damaged the U.S. government’s credibility in Iraq, Afghanistan and other nations, “Unfortunately, that particular gesture is not unique to Texas, and it carries different meanings elsewhere in the world ... Mediterranean viewers and those in parts of Central and South America ... [s]aw the president indicating that someone’s wife was unfaithful.” INCLUDES PHOTO OF BUSH’S GESTURE.
http://www.extrememortman.com/terrorism/bland-rand-demand-new-brand-hand-let-linger-the-middle-finger-zinger/

12. US OFFICIALS READY TO ENGAGE IN ‘CONGESTED’ PACIFIC - PACIFIC RADIO NEWS (JULY 23): The State Department has now opened a new office in Suva, with a specific regional environment and ocean focus. A second office is due to open next year, which will manage public diplomacy efforts via media and cultural affairs, as well as education programmes, like offering Fulbright scholarships.
http://www.niufm.com/?t=3&View=FullStory&newsID=2222

13. ANDERSON COOPER SHOUT-OUT – MOCHOA (BEN FRANKLIN TRANSATALNTIC FELLOWS INITIATIVE, JULY 23): “Today we had a teleconference with a member of the department of state. He started off with the topic of globalization in general. ... Questions ... consisted of Immigration, Urbanization, Americanization, Cultural extension, and the difference between propaganda and public diplomacy.”
http://globalization.blogs.bftf.org/2007/07/23/18/

14. U.S. STUDENTS JOIN WINNERS CIRCLE FOR PRESTIGIOUS NATO COMPETITION – PRESS RELEASE (EMEDIAWIRE (JULY 20): In late June, 80 students from Europe and the United States competed for a prestigious prize at the international finals of the annual Aliante competition. The Aliante project is made possible thanks to a generous support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, the Slovak Ministry of Defence, the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence, the United States Department of Defence, the NATO Public Diplomacy Division, the Office of the Governor of California, and U.S. Tactical, inc.
http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2007/7/emw540996.htm

15. NEW DIPLOMACY: CHALLENGES FOR FOREIGN POLICY - RT HON DAVID MILIBAND MP, FOREIGN SECRETARY (FOREIGN COMMONWEALTH OFFICE NEWS, JULY 19): “[T]he new diplomacy is public as well as private, mass as well as elite, real-time as well as deliberative.”
http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1007029391647&a=KArticle&aid=1184751108322

16. IS MILIBAND GIVING ACTIVISTS A ROLE ON THE INSIDE? - COLIN MCKAY (SOSAIDTHE.ORGANIZATION, JULY 21): The larger question remains how new British Foreign secretary David Miliband’s past experience with online comment and activism will be reflected in the polices and practices developed by the FCO. Will public diplomacy really change as a result? Or will the process be more incremental, simply as a result of institutional inertia and the greater challenge of shifting the course of a large foreign policy apparatus.
http://www.sosaidthe.org/2007/07/21/is-miliband-giving-activists-a-role-on-the-inside/

17. CHINA’S SOFT POWER SUCCESSES: CHINESE EXPORTS HAVE BEEN TAINTED BY RECENT FOOD SCANDALS, BUT CHINA IS DOMINATING IN MANY OTHER ARENAS ON THE WORLD STAGE - JOSHUA KURLANTZICK (GUARDIAN, JULY 23): Beijing has launched a soft power offensive, which focuses on public diplomacy and cultural outreach.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/joshua_kurlantzick/2007/07/chinas_soft_power_successes.html

18. EUROPEAN MEDIA SLANT - ISRACAST, ISRAEL (JULY 23): Media Analyst Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs: “I think the first thing we should do is stop being verbal vegetarians. We are the only nation in the world which doesn’t fully tell how barbarian its enemies are. It has never been performed, usually people exaggerate the enemy. We under-expose it. We have to first tell with whom we are dealing, what the record of the Palestinians is—the Palestinians are a crime permeated society, ideologically crime-permeated society, the predecessor of Haniyeh, in fact, was the Mufti of Jerusalem who helped put up S.S. units in Bosnia and Kosovo, and wanted to have a concentration camp in Israel. We remain silent about this, and this verbal vegetarianism is at the origin of our weakness in public diplomacy.”
http://www.isracast.com/Articles/article.aspx?ID=750

19. 23 - BRITISH EMBASSY LAUNCHES PHOTO CONTEST ... – (BAYANIHAN, JULY 23): A photography competition entitled “Everyday Islam” sponsored by the British Embassy has been launched to depict Muslim life in the Philippines, following the example set by UK-based and internationally renowned photographer and Muslim convert Peter Sanders. The winning photos will be included in the British Embassy’s photobank, to be used for future public diplomacy endeavours as appropriate.
http://www.bayanihan.org/html/article.php/20070723171846707

20. HOW TO SELL AN ENDLESS WAR: BUY HARD - DAVID KEEN (COUNTERPUNCH, JULY 20): When Colin Powell appointed a Madison Avenue advertising star, Charlotte Beers, as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, he explained on 6 September 2001: “I wanted one of the world’s greatest advertising experts, because what are we doing? We’re selling. We’re selling a product democracy the free enterprise system, the American value system.”
http://www.counterpunch.org/keen07212007.html
SEE ALSO
http://strategicinfluence.blogspot.com/2007/07/how-to-sell-endless-war.html

21. L’HISTOIRE DE SKULL & BONES CONTINUE - (LE NOUVEL ORDRE MONDIAL, JULY 22): “Pendant les opérations de l’affaire Iran-Contra, la fondation Smith Richardson fut un ‘comité de donneurs privés’ travaillant pour le National Security Council, afin de coordonner le Office of Public Diplomacy. Ce fut un effort pour faire de la propagande pour le grand public en faveur des opérations de l’affaire Iran-Contra.”
http://www.nouvelordremondial.cc/2007/07/22/qui-est-dans-skull-bones-22/

B) RELATED ITEMS (people-to-people exchanges between U.S. and India, 23; world opinion about U.S., 24-27; US foreign aid, 28; Arab bloggers, 29; Iraq, 30-50; Iran, 51-53; Israel/Palestine, 54; Middle East, 55-57; Pakistan, 58-60; Kosovo, 61-62; Ethiopia, 63; North Korea, 64; US torture, 65-66; Guantanamo, 67; war on terror, 68-72; U.S. in world, 73-74; Rice, 75-77)

22. GROWING LINKS FOR US AND INDIA - XENIA DORMANDY (BOSTON GLOBE, JULY 19): People-to-people links have multiplied: For the last three years, India has sent more students to the United States than any other country including China. At the same time, the number of American students in India has doubled over the past year. More and more Indian entrepreneurs are returning to India after some years in America in a “reverse brain-drain.”
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/07/19/growing_links_for_us_and_india?mode=PF

23. THE SINKING DOLLAR ALSO HAS AN UPSIDE: THE UNITED STATES AS CHEAP TOURIST HOT SPOT - DANIEL GROSS (SLATE, JULY 21): Many Europeans may view the United States as an arrogant hyperpower that has become hostile to foreigners. But nothing makes people think more warmly of the United States than a weak dollar.
http://www.slate.com/id/2170745/

24. ‘WHY DO THEY HATE US?’ - MOHSIN HAMID (WASHINGTON POST, JULY 22): Part of the reason people abroad resent the United States is something Americans can do very little about: envy. But there is another major reason for anti-Americanism: the accreted residue of many years of U.S. foreign policies.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/20/AR2007072001806_pf.html

25. THE WORLD AFTER GEORGE W. BUSH – EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, JULY 22): There has been an ominous decline in America’s reputation throughout much of the Muslim world and even in Europe. Bush has played into the hands of propagandists who portray America as hostile to all Muslims or a threat to world peace. The result is a loss of soft power, the good will that inclines foreign states and populations to give America the benefit of the doubt. Bush’s successor, whether a Democrat or a Republican, will need to revive the internationalist traditions of his predecessors to clean up the mess he is leaving behind.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/07/22/the_world_after_george_w_bush?mode=PF

26. BUSH STILL DOESN’T GET IT - AKBAR AHMED (WASHINGTON POST, JULY 22): With a wiser strategy and a mighty reduction of hubris, the United States could still improve its relations with the Muslim world. U.S. diplomats should make an effort to come out from their embassy fortresses and meet with cultural and religious leaders. That simple step would do much to make friends for America.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/20/AR2007072001805_pf.html

27. WANT TO UNDERSTAND ISLAM? START HERE - JOHN L. ESPOSITO (WASHINGTON POST, JULY 22): Muslim hostility toward the West is mostly political, not religious; Muslims hope the West will show their faith more respect. In our post-9/11 world, the ability to distinguish between Islam itself and Muslim extremism will be critical.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/20/AR2007072002137_pf.html

28. HILL, AID GROUPS: ONE OPAQUE SYSTEM REPLACED ANOTHER - GLENN KESSLER (WASHINGTON POST, JULY 22): Congress and aid groups contend a small group of people are deciding how foreign aid dollars are divvied up, what countries they reach and who controls them.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/21/AR2007072100661_pf.html

29. FIGHT FOR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: ARAB BLOGGERS PAY TOLL FOR TRUTH; JOURNALISTS CHALLENGE AUTHORITY IN UNFRIENDLY ENVIRONS - STEPHEN FRANKLIN (CHICAGOTRIBUNE.COM, JULY 22): Rather than hailing the Arab world’s catch-up with the Internet revolution some Arab regimes have done the opposite. They have blocked blogs, removed posts and arrested and detained bloggers or prohibited them from traveling, according to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, a Cairo-based group.
www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-blog_thinkjul22,0,1428230.story

30. U.S. AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ SUMS UP ATMOSPHERE ON THE GROUND: ‘FEAR’: BEFORE A WAR-WEARY SENATE YESTERDAY, AMBASSADOR RYAN CROCKER GAVE A CANDID ASSESSMENT OF THE SECURITY SITUATION IN IRAQ, BUT DOWNPLAYED THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE IRAQI GOVERNMENT’S POOR PROGRESS ON MEETING CONGRESSIONALLY MANDATED BENCHMARKS - JONATHAN STEIN (MOTHER JONES, JULY 20)
http://www.motherjones.com/cgi-bin/print_article.pl?url=http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2007/07/crocker_iraq_ambassador.html

31. WHEN TIME HEALS NOTHING: BUSH’S WAR POLICY - RAMZY BAROUD (COUNTERPUMCH, JULY 20): It’s too obvious that the US policies in Iraq have failed beyond repair. That failure wouldn’t be of too much consequence if it were not for the fact that hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis have paid the price.
http://www.counterpunch.org/baroud07202007.html

32. THE CONQUEST OF AMERICA BY IRAQ – DOUG BANDOW (ANTIWAR.COM, JULY 20):  Unfortunately, the war is doing more than just expose America’s sinful soul. The war is further corrupting the essence of America. Barbarity and brutality are inevitable in any conflict, of course—which is another good reason to always make war a last resort— but today a disturbing number of American troops appear to routinely treat Iraqis as an enemy other, deserving little or no respect.
http://www.antiwar.com/bandow/?articleid=11314

33. ENVOY URGES VISAS FOR IRAQIS AIDING U.S.: TARGETS OF VIOLENCE ARE SEEKING REFUGE - SPENCER S. HSU (WASHINGTON POST, JULY 22): The American ambassador in Baghdad, Ryan C. Crocker, has asked the Bush administration to take the unusual step of granting immigrant visas to all Iraqis employed by the U.S. government in Iraq because of growing concern that they will quit and flee the country if they cannot be assured eventual safe passage to the United States.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/21/AR2007072101359.html?hpid=topnews

34. THINKING THE UNTHINKABLE: LEAVING IRAQ WITH DIGNITY, COMPASSION AND IRAQI EMPLOYEES – PATRICIA H. KUSHLIS (WHIRLED VIEW, JULY 22): Given America’s poor track record on the taking-care-of-those-who-work-for-us front, it’s no wonder that current Iraqi employees of the U.S. government now demand assurances for the afterwards. They and their families will need to depart Iraq to survive. The US government on its part has a moral obligation to help them resettle elsewhere—most likely the U.S.
http://whirledview.typepad.com/whirledview/2007/07/thinking-the-un.html

35. AN IRAQI’S PROGRESS REPORT: BAGHDAD’S NATIONAL SECURITY CHIEF LISTS THE ADVANCES AND ARGUES FOR MORE TIME - MOWAFFAK RUBAIE (LOS ANGELES TIMES, JULY 21): The military force increase by the United States called “the surge” is only one element in the Iraqi and coalition strategy. The other elements are the political/diplomatic initiatives and economic progress—and the reality is that the strategy is working in spite of the monumental obstacles presented by international terrorists and difficult conditions inside Iraq.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rubaie21jul21,0,4739661.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

36. SURGE PRODUCING RESULTS - DONALD LAMBRO (WASHINGTON TIMES, JULY 23): American and Iraqi forces have cleared several terrorist-infested areas, including Anbar Province. Large swaths of Baghdad have also been made safer as a result of the surge of U.S. troops.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070723/COMMENTARY05/107230018/1012/COMMENTARY&template=printart

37. THE IRAQ WAR DEBATE: THE GREAT DENIER – EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, JULY 21): It is Mr. Bush who has denied the military what it needs, first by shortchanging the Pentagon on troops and armor and then by stranding American forces in a civil war with no achievable military goal and evaporating political support. Mr. Bush denied Americans a serious debate about starting this war. It’s far past time for a serious and honest debate about how to end it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/21/opinion/21sat1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

38. THEY DON’T REALLY SUPPORT THE TROOPS: THE LATEST FROM THE NEW REPUBLIC AND THE NATION - WILLIAM KRISTOL (WEEKLY STANDARD, JULY 30): Having turned against a war that some of them supported, the left is now turning against the troops they claim still to support. They sense that history is progressing away from them—that these soldiers, fighting courageously in a just cause, could still win the war, that they are proud of their service, and that they will be future leaders of this country. They are not “Shock Troops.”
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/901rhkhq.asp
SEE ALSO
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/891gxtcb.asp

39. IRAQ: THE WAY TO GO - PETER W. GALBRAITH (NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, AUGUST 28): We need to recognize that Iraq no longer exists as a unified country. In the parts where we can accomplish nothing, we should withdraw. But there are still three missions that may be achievable—disrupting al-Qaeda, preserving Kurdistan’s democracy, and limiting Iran’s increasing domination. These can all be served by a modest US presence in Kurdistan.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20470

40. ORDER IS IN ORDER: THE ARAB WORLD DOESN’T HAVE A GREAT GRASP OF WHAT DEMOCRACY IS, BUT IT DOES HAVE A KEEN SENSE OF JUSTICE AND ORDER - JONAH GOLDBERG (NATIONAL REVIEW, JULY 20): In Iraq, security isn’t merely the most important thing, it’s the only thing.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTA3Mjc1ODg4MWM1ZjIzYjg2ZDRjNmE2YzFjYTU5YTA=

41. THE IRAQ WAR DEBATE: A REALITY CHECK ON MILITARY SPENDING – EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, JULY 21): Defending Americans from today’s terrorists and other threats will require fewer air-to-air combat jets, big stealthy ships and submarines. It will require better-protected ground troops and larger investments in diplomacy, peacemaking and eliminating dangerous nuclear materials.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/21/opinion/21sat2.html?pagewanted=print

42. US AIRSTRIKE KILLS 15 CHILDREN, WOMEN, MEN – JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT : THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, JULY 22): “Tim Phelps of Newsday interviews academic Iraq experts and finds that they generally agree that a precipitate US military withdrawal will throw Iraq into catastrophic violence with bad effects for Iraqis and for the world. I am the dissenter among them in this article, but I agree that the risks are substantial if the withdrawal is not done right. I completely disagree, however, with the scenario where “al-Qaeda” takes over anything in Iraq. If by this is meant the few hundred Sunni Arab volunteers of a Salafi Jihadi persuasion, the Iraqis would slit their throats and the country’s neighbors would help.”
http://www.juancole.com/2007/07/us-airstrike-kills-15-children-women.html

43. THIS IS HOW EMPIRES END - PATRICK J. BUCHANAN (ANTIWAR.COM, JULY 20): With a U.S. defeat in Iraq, U.S. prestige would plummet across the region. Who will rely on a U.S. commitment for its security? Like the British and French before us, we will be heading home from the Middle East. What we are about to witness is how empires end.
http://www.antiwar.com/pat/?articleid=11319

44. RIPPLES OF RETREAT: DARK PREDICTIONS FOR A POST-WITHDRAWAL WORLD - VICTOR DAVIS HANSON (NATIONAL REVIEW, JULY 20): It is not easy securing Iraq, but if we decide to quit and “redeploy,” Americans should at least accept that the effort to stabilize Iraq was a crushing military defeat, that our generation established a precedent of withdrawing an entire army group from combat operations on the battlefield, and that the consequences will be better known even to our enemies than they are to us.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NTM2NGNmMTFjMTM4MTg4ZGRiNmU1M2FmOWZiMjMyMTY=

45. TOMGRAM: IRA CHERNUS, DEMOCRATIC DOUBLESPEAK ON IRAQ – TOM ENGELHARDT (TOMDISPATCH, JULY 22): Withdrawal isn’t withdrawal at all.
http://tomdispatch.com/post/174823/ira_chernus_democratic_doublespeak_on_iraq

46. IRAQ HASN’T EVEN BEGUN: CONSEQUENCES FROM THE DISASTER WE COULD HAVE AVOIDED WILL PLAGUE THE WORLD LONG INTO THE FUTURE - TIMOTHY GARTON ASH (LOS ANGELES TIMES, JULY 19/COMMON DREAMS): The U.S. has probably not yet fully woken up to the appalling fact that, after a long period in which the first motto of its military was “no more Vietnams,” it faces another Vietnam. There are many important differences, but the basic result is similar: The mightiest military in the world fails to achieve its strategic goals and is, in the end, politically defeated by an economically and technologically inferior adversary.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/19/2630/

47. “ALL OF THE PROBLEMS COME FROM THE OCCUPATION”: IRAQIS WILL BE THE DECIDERS - MARJORIE COHN (COUNTERPUNCH, JULY 20): Our national discourse must include a discussion of U.S. intentions for Iraq after a troop withdrawal. But ultimately, as in Vietnam, it will be the Iraqi people who are the deciders.
http://www.counterpunch.org/cohn07202007.html

48. VIETNAM AND IRAQ: A TWICE-TOLD TALE; AGAIN, WE DID KNOW BETTER – RON GLASSER (HUFFINGTON POST, JULY 23): History shows that when wars are badly begun, the errors and problems accumulate. It takes extraordinary leadership—Lincoln during our civil war—to overcome a bad beginning. For those who still refuse to connect the two wars, it is here, unarguably, that Vietnam and Iraq are exactly alike.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ron-glasser/vietnam-and-iraq-a-twice_b_57428.html

49. IRAQ ISN’T VIETNAM, HENRY - MAX BOOT (LOS ANGELES TIMES, JULY 22): If any previous model of peacemaking applies to Iraq (and that’s a big if), the one we should look at is Korea. President Eisenhower concluded a lasting armistice in 1953 because he made clear that U.S. troops would stay in South Korea until kingdom come—and even threatened to escalate the conflict with atomic weapons if necessary.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-boot22jul22,0,515437.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

50. HOW TO WIN IN IRAQ - WILLIAM S. LIND (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, JULY 30): Rapprochement with Iran and neutrality toward Iraq’s Shi’ites is the only way America might yet salvage victory.
http://www.amconmag.com/2007/2007_07_16/article1.html
ENTRY FROM
http://www.amconmag.com/2007/2007_07_16/article1.html

51. CONFRONTING IRAN’S INTRUSION - JAMES A. LYONS JR. (WASHINGTON TIMES, JULY 22): It is often repeated in Washington that no responsible American leader wants a conflict with Iran. This is exactly what the mullahs and Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadjinejad count on.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070722/COMMENTARY/107220018/1012/COMMENTARY06&template=printar

52. HOW TO TALK TO IRAN - JAMES DOBBINS (WASHINGTON POST, JULY 22): Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, recently proposed that the U.N. secretary general convene an institutionalized dialogue among Iraq, its neighbors and others with a stake in that country’s future. Such a forum, where American and Iranian diplomats would necessarily encounter each other daily, could provide the ideal framework for meaningful dialogue.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/20/AR2007072002056_pf.html

53. THOSE IRASCIBLE IRANIANS - MARK STEYN (WASHINGTON TIMES, JULY 23): Once Iran goes nuclear, do you think there will be fewer fatwas on writers, stonings of homosexuals, kidnappings in international waters, forced confessions of American hostages, and bankrolling of terror groups worldwide?
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070723/COMMENTARY08/107230017/1012/COMMENTARY&template=printart

54. FOR JERUSALEM, SHARED SOVEREIGNTY - HADY AMR AND JOEL H. SAMUELS (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, JULY 21): American leadership on “shared” sovereignty in Jerusalem can help bring peace to Israelis and Palestinians. Equally important is the implicit message this will send to the Muslim world: that “shared” solutions for “shared” U.S. and Muslim world security can be found and that Americans are committed to making that happen.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/20/AR2007072001816_pf.html

55. GIVING PEACE A CHANCE: ALTHOUGH PITFALLS LURK IN PRESIDENT BUSH’S PROPOSED MIDEAST MEETING, IT BEATS THE STATUS QUO – EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, JULY 20): In coupling the conference with pleas for financial support for Abbas and his Fatah administration, Bush finds himself hoist on the petard of his simplistic insistence that democracy is the key to the transformation of the Middle East.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-mideast20jul20,0,7190947.story?coll=la-news-comment-editorials

56. DAMAGE CONTROL IN THE MIDEAST - DAVID IGNATIUS (WASHINGTON POST, JULY 22): It’s easier to talk about positive change in the Middle East than to make it happen. To make real progress on either front—Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations or a concert of Iraq’s neighbors—will require an intensity and deftness in diplomacy the administration hasn’t yet shown.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/20/AR2007072002046_pf.html

57. THE CONFERENCE BUSH NEEDS - JIM HOAGLAND (WASHINGTON POST, JULY 22): President Bush’s call for an international peace conference on the Middle East puts him in the right church but the wrong pew. The big-power conference Bush needs to propose should have Iraq as its main subject, not the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/20/AR2007072002049_pf.html

58. BUSH’S NEXT WAR OF AGGRESSION - GORDON PRATHER (ANTIWAR.COM, JULY 21): Now, here’s the bad news. Suppose Bush’s next war of aggression is against Pakistan.
http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=11325

59. AMERICA’S NEXT BIG BLUNDER - ERIC MARGOLIS (TORONTO SUN, JULY 22/COMMON DREAMS): Fears are growing the U.S. may be planning to attack Pakistan’s “autonomous” tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/22/2688/

60. LETTER FROM PAKISTAN: DAYS OF RAGE—CHALLENGES FOR THE NATION’S FUTURE - WILLIAM DALRYMPLE (NEW YORKER, JULY 23): Dependent on the support of the mullahs as well as on that of the Americans, Pakistan’s president Musharraf is in an almost impossible position.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/07/23/070723fa_fact_dalrymple?printable=true

61. KOSOVO’S LONG PATH TO AUTONOMY - DAVID L. PHILLIPS (BOSTON GLOBE, JULY 20): Today, the Bush administration can win praise for championing Kosovo’s legitimate national aspirations. Supporting Kosovo’s independence is not only consistent with America’s time-tested promotion of democracy. Doing right by Kosovo’s mostly Muslim population is also in America’s interest.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/07/20/kosovos_long_path_to_autonomy?mode=PF

62. STANDING WITH KOSOVO AGAIN - JOHN PODESTA (WASHINGTON POST, JULY 23): It is time for the international community to fulfill its obligations and help complete the process that will create a country not of Kosovar Albanians or Kosovar Serbs, but a new nation for all Kosovars.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/22/AR2007072200883_pf.html

63. PROBLEMATIC ALLY: THE MORAL HAZARDS OF DEALING WITH ETHIOPIA’S MELES ZENAWI – EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, JULY 21): Mr. Meles’s troops also stand accused of human rights abuses in Somalia and in the country’s internal war against rebels in the Ogaden region. The Bush administration has remained mostly quiet about all of this, though the State Department played a back-channel role helping to arrange the prisoners’ release.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/20/AR2007072001945_pf.html

64. BUSH DOWNPLAYS PROGRESS IN KOREA - JOE CONASON (TRUTHDIG, JULY 18): For the first time in a long time, encouraging news is emanating from North Korea. On July 16, the International Atomic Energy Agency verified earlier reports that the Kim Jong Il regime has shut down the Yongbyon nuclear reactor and stopped producing the plutonium used to build atomic weapons. Yet the Bush administration so far has drawn little attention to this happy achievement by its own diplomats. http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070718_bush_downplays_progress_in_korea/

65. BUSH’S TORTURE BAN IS FULL OF LOOPHOLES: THE PRESIDENT HAS ISSUED AN EXECUTIVE ORDER TO STOP THE CIA FROM USING TORTURE, BUT THE BAN IS UNENFORCEABLE - DAVID COLE (SALON, JULY 23):This administration has shown repeatedly that it approaches the prohibitions on coercive interrogation the way a particularly creative tax lawyer might treat the tax code.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/07/23/torture/print.html

66. DO WE TORTURE? – DAN FROOMKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, JULY 23): The White House’s Friday afternoon rollout of its new policy on torture was a marvel of loopholes and obfuscation regarding what should be a crystal-clear moral issue.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/07/23/BL2007072300799_pf.html

67. PISTACHIOS AT GUANTANAMO - JACKSON DIEHL (WASHINGTON POST, JULY 23): The question regarding Guantanamo is whether the value of the intelligence—and of keeping potential fighters off the battlefield—is worth the continuing harm of a detention system that most of the world sees as illegitimate.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/22/AR2007072200882_pf.html

68. GETTING IT WRONG – ALAN BOCK (ANTIWAR.COM, JULY 21): Once the U.S. is freed of the diversion of attention and resources the Iraqi commitment represent, it can focus more intelligently on the worldwide terrorist threat.
http://www.antiwar.com/bock/?articleid=11327

69. IN THE NAME OF OBJECTIVITY, MEDIA CLOUDS THE REALITY OF TERROR REPORT - ARIANNA HUFFINGTON (HUFFINGTON POST, JULY 20/COMMON DREAMS): The NIE (National Intelligence Estimate) report represents the consensus view of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies and is a stark and unambiguous repudiation of the Bush administration’s counterterrorism strategy and its contention that the war in Iraq has made us safer.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/20/2645/

70. WHY AMERICA IS LOSING TO AL-QAIDA - DAVID H. SCHANZER (BALTIMORESUN.COM, JULY 23): The next president will need to maintain the aggressive counterterrorism operations that have been established under the Bush administration, but totally recraft the way in which we engage with the Muslim world.
www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.alqaida23jul23,0,1152323.story

71. BIN LADEN GETS HIS WISH, THANKS TO BUSH ADMINISTRATION - CYNTHIA TUCKER (BALTIMORESUN.COM, JULY 23): We might have been better prepared if the president and his advisers had used the terrorism threat to shore up our defenses and ramp up our emergency planning rather than to manipulate us into voting for their candidates and supporting their foolish war.
www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.tucker23jul23,0,5442063.story

72. FINDERS KEEPERS: CAN A FOREIGN SYSTEM OF PREVENTIVE DETENTION WORK IN THE UNITED STATES? - AZIZ HUQ (NEW REPUBLIC, JULY 23): Counter-terrorism laws in the United States, are driven as much by partisan politics as by need. No system erected in the United States, then—British or otherwise—however legally sound, will work without the political will to enforce its provisions.
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w072307&s=huq072307

73. AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY AFTER IRAQ - JOSEPH S. NYE JR. (CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, JULY 23): There is clearly no consensus in academe about the future of American foreign policy. The questions of military intervention—why and how—remain fraught. But one thing that seems clear is that American foreign policy post-Iraq will not resemble American foreign policy after Vietnam. A post-Iraq foreign policy cannot afford to let one issue absorb all our attention in the complex world we are entering. Academe will have to develop a liberal-realist synthesis and find more effective ways of advancing such a rational-center analysis.
http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=8gTqcXwmXmGnhCSxnvtkwNkm3n64btsz
COURTESY BALDYGA

74. PAX AMERICANA OR PRIMUS INTER PARES? - LEON T. HADAR (CATO INSTITUTE, JULY 20): The choice that Washington will face in the aftermath of Iraq is between continuing to strive for strategic dominance in a way that ignites more opposition at home and resistance abroad—or working together with other powers to contain threats to the international system. In that case, the United States will still be first among equals (or primus inter pares)—which is the next best thing to being Number One.
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=8500

75. WHAT WOULD A DIPLOMAT DO? – EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, JULY 23): With time so short for a Middle East peace meeting, Ms. Rice should either be shuttling full time or sending out a legion of diplomats to try to ensure that there are enough heavy hitters at the table and enough they’re willing to talk about to make all sides want to keep talking.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/23/opinion/23mon1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

76. WANING INFLUENCE: SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZZA RICE FINDS THAT HER STAR IS FADING - JOEL BRINKLEY (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, JULY 22)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/07/22/INGDFR1UV512.DTL&type=printable
COURTESY ANDY STERNBERG
SEE ALSO
http://uscpublicdiplomacy.com/index.php/newsroom/johnbrown_print/forget_karen_hughes_wheres_condi_presented_with_thanks/
http://wonkette.com/politics/state-dept%27-dept%27/no-one-liks-condi-281487.php

77. TWO CENTS: WHAT SHOULD CONDOLEEZZA RICE’S NEXT JOB BE? – (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, JULY 22)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/07/22/INGOTQ8JJC1.DTL

C) ONLY IN AMERICA?

78. HOW THE OTHER 1 PER CENT LIVES: ACCORDING TO ROBERT FRANK’S RICHISTAN, AMERICA’S SUPER-RICH EARN MORE THAN CANADA [REVIEW OF RICHISTAN: A JOURNEY THROUGH THE 21ST CENTURY WEALTH BOOM AND THE LIVES OF THE NEW RICH BY ROBERT FRANK] - TIM ADAMS (OBSERVER, JULY 22)
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,330238213-102280,00.html

79. IT’S ALL ABOUT PERSPECTIVE: ARE AMERICANS LESS ATTUNED TO OTHERS’ VIEWS? A STUDY SAYS YES, BUT THERE’S MORE TO IT - GREGORY RODRIGUEZ (LOS ANGELES TIMES, JULY 23): The United States is a country continually being cobbled together by newcomers who bring their own frames of reference to the mix, a place where etiquette is unclear and social norms are forever changing.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-rodriguez23jul23,0,506095.column?coll=la-opinion-rightrail

D) MORE QUOTATIONS FOR THE DAY

“If you feed enough oats to the horse, some will pass through to feed the sparrows.”

--J. K. Galbraith; cited in Tim Adams, “How the other 1 per cent lives” (Observer, July 22)

“[I]t would be very wrong to assume that the program of the past would move into the future unchanged.”

--A senior intelligence official, when asked whether a classified document with new CIA interrogation guidelines includes such widely criticized methods as the simulated drowning known as “waterboarding”; cited in Karen DeYoung, “Bush Approves New CIA Methods: Interrogations Of Detainees To Resume” (Washington Post, July 21)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/20/AR2007072001264_pf.html

“[I]n Guatemala in 1994 ... the CIA chief of station confronted the American ambassador, Marilyn McAfee, with intelligence, as she recalled, that ‘I was having an affair with my secretary, whose name was Carol Murphy.’ The CIA’s friends in the Guatemalan military had bugged McAfee’s bedroom ... and ‘recorded her cooing endearments to Murphy. They spread the word that the ambassador was a lesbian.’ The CIA’s ‘Murphy memo’ was widely distributed in Washington. There was only one problem: the ambassador was married, not gay and not sleeping with her secretary. ‘ ‘Murphy’ was the name of her two-year-old black standard poodle. The bug in her bedroom had recorded her petting her dog.”

--David Wise, “Covert Action: Has the CIA ever been good at intelligence gathering? [Review of Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner] (Washington Post, July 22)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/19/AR2007071902217_pf.html

“I considered network TV to be propaganda for the corporate state.”

--David Chase, creator of the television hit the Sopranos; cited in Geoffrey O’Brien, “A Northern New Jersey of the Mind” (New York Review of Books, August 16)
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20473

“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it compromises and develops the germ of every other.”

--James Madison; cited in Robert Scheer, “King George W.: James Madison’s Nightmare” (Truthdig, July 17)
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070717_the_president_we_were_warned_about/

“She was a non-contradiction—a compassionate Christian.”

--No Marsupial Equivalent, commenting on “Audioblogging: Funeral Music for Tammy Faye Bakker” (Princess Sparkle Pony’s Princess Sparkle Pony’s Photo Blog: I keep track of Condoleezza’s hairdo so you don’t have to, July 23)
http://sparklepony.blogspot.com/2007/07/audioblogging-funeral-music-for-tammy.html

E) ONE MORE VIDEO

How to create an Angry American – YouTube (July 14)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgfzqulvhlQ
VIA
http://www.juancole.com/2007/07/how-to-create-angry-american.html#comments

F) BIO

Eric Edelman: Undersecretary of Defense for Policy
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1143

©2008 USC Center on Public Diplomacy. All rights reserved.