Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) says waiting to deploy troops to Afghanistan because of lack of a plan adds to the time it already takes to get military bases started. :44
By Ravi Bhatia, Talk Radio News Service
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed Friday the U.S agenda for the upcoming United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), touching on issues such as the Obama administration’s missile defense strategy, the conflict in the Middle East, nuclear proliferation and the threat posed by Iran.
While she read her speech at the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C., she discussed the “ambitious” intentions of the Obama administration at next week’s UNGA in New York, and alluded to a long term goal of a world “with no nuclear weapons.” While fielding questions, she reflected on the state of American foreign policy today.
“For many years, [the U.S] outsourced our policy and concerns about the nuclear program to others to try to intervene with and persuade Iran to change course,” she said. “So we were on the sidelines…we were just trying to figure out how to get other people to go on the field and deal with this problem and look where we are today. We’re really nowhere.”
Clinton also discussed the Obama administration’s missile defense strategy, which was retooled to focus on defending the United States and its allies in Europe from short and mid-range missile attacks. The strategy rejects the Bush administration’s plan to station interceptors in the Czech Republic and Poland that were intended to stop long-range missiles that the current administration believes Iran does not have. Since Poland and the Czech Republic will no longer have land-based interceptors, the new plan eases pressure on Russia, displeasing some Republican members of Congress upon Obama’s announcement of the strategy on Thursday.
“This decision was not about Russia,” she said. “It was about Iran and the threat its ballistic missile program poses. Because of this position, we believe we will be in a far stronger position to deal with that threat and to do so with technology that works and a higher degree of confidence that what we pledge to do we can actually deliver.”
She later discussed Iran and the repercussions the country must face for not revealing its intentions to the international community for nuclear technology.
“Our concern is not Iran’s right to develop peaceful nuclear energy, but its responsibility to demonstrate that it’s program is intended exclusively for peaceful purposes,” she said. “This is not hard to do. The Iranian government seeks a sense of justice in the world, but stands in the way of the justice it seeks.”
In response to a question from Brookings Institute President Strobe Talbott, Clinton also discussed the U.S. government’s strategy for restructuring the country’s health care policy.
“It’s interesting that what we are proposing is fundamentally so conservative compared with so many of our friends and allies around the world, who do a much better job then we do in covering everybody and keeping costs down,” Clinton said. “And yet some of the political opposition is so overheated. We have to calm down here, take two aspirin, go to bed, think about it in the morning. But I’m optimistic.”
By Learned Foote- Talk Radio News Service
The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is weighing the possibility of levying economic sanctions against Iran. During a hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday, the committee discussed ways to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Nicholas Burns, a professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and former State Department official during the Bush administration, said that Iran’s hotly contested presidential election has compromised the power of its government, and that America “should seek to diminish its strength further.” He said that “Americans should seek to maintain our position as the dominant power in the Middle East, because our influence is positive in that region, and Iran’s is not.”
Burns said that President Obama has generally followed former President’s Bush “basic strategy” by trying to end the nuclear weapons project in Iran through negotiations before applying “draconian” economic sanctions. He said that he did not believe negotiations alone will successfully end Iran’s nuclear program, but said that financial, economic, and energy sanctions would be more effective.
Dr. Suzanne Maloney, a Senior Fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institute, discussed the economic outlook in Iran. She said the country faces “serious economic problems: double-digit inflation, power shortages, a tumbling stock market, stubbornly high unemployment rates,…increasing dependence on volatile resource revenues, and perhaps most ominously for the Iranian leadership, a rising tide of popular indignation about economic frustrations.”
The panelists agreed that unilateral sanctions will not be effective unless other countries join in sanctions against Iran. “We alone in the United States don’t have the capacity to cripple the Iranian economy with our sanctions,” said Maloney. She argued that “multilateral steps represent the only real alternative to a negotiated solution.”
Testifying before the committee, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I- Conn.) praised an amendment added to the Defense Authorization bill, which passed last week. The amendment places a time limit on how long Iran would have to respond to U.S. requests for negotiation before sanctions would be imposed.
“This bill will basically say to companies worldwide who are selling gasoline to Iran, who are shipping it to Iran, or who are insuring or financing those shipments, you got a choice to make. You can continue what you are doing with Iran, or you can do business in the United States of America. You cannot do both,” said Sen. Lieberman. He said that the amendment would not force President Obama to act, but would grant him the authority of enacting economic sanctions.
Sen. Lieberman said that the amendment had bipartisan support. “No matter what may divide us on other issues, we are very united in our concern, our anger about the Iranian program of nuclear weapons development,” he said. “The greatest threat to peace is for Iran to get a nuclear weapons capability.”
By Sam Wechsler – Talk Radio News Service
A series of recently released poll results suggest there may be peace in the Middle East in the near future. Nader Said, the General Director for Arab World for Research and Development, shared during a briefing that 78% of Israelis and 74% of Palestinians are willing to accept a two-state solution. He also stated that 95% of Israelis and 92% of Palestinians are willing to accept negotiated peace.
James Zogby, Founder and President of the Arab-American Institute said Arab-Americans and Jewish-Americans agree “on almost every issue, to the degree whereby [their] attitudes are within the margin of error of each other on almost all questions.”
Zogby also stated that the most troubling information he gathered was the partisan split in American opinion over the Arab-Israeli conflict: 70% of Obama supporters in the most recent Presidential election believe the President should “get tough on [Jewish] settlements [in the West Bank]”, whereas 71% of McCain supporters believe the President should not.
Jim Gerstein, Principal at Gerstein Agne, said that in a July 2008 poll, Jewish-Americans were asked what the two most important issues they would be voting on were. Only 8% cited the Arab-Israeli conflict as one of the two most important issues. In addition, 72% of Jewish-Americans approve of President Obama’s approach to the conflict.
By Michael Combier-Talk Radio News Service
Middle East Institute Scholar Graeme Bannerman says that the Shia community in Lebanon considers Hezbollah as their mentor and their leader. (0:27)
By Michael Combier-Talk Radio News Service
Middle East Institute Scholar Graeme Bannerman says that 95 percent of the Shia voting population has voted for Hezbollah in the recent Parliamentary election in Lebanon and that for this reason the organization cannot be pushed aside from the political arena. (0:15)
By Aaron Richardson-Talk Radio News Service
The popular opinion regarding Pakistan has been misrepresented by a headline-seeking media and conflicting U.S. policies with the Middle Eastern country according to a panel of experts and elected officials in Washington, D.C.
“The U.S. wants to create better relations with Pakistan, yet the bombing continues,” said panelist Samina Ahmed, South Asia Project Director at the International Crisis Group.
Congress has allocated millions of dollars to assist Pakistani civilians who have lost homes and belongings due to bombings, according to Wendy Chamberlin, President of the Middle East Institute.
“The media created a picture of them being anti-American, all Muslims do not hate America…do not call these extremists the Taliban, that means nothing, they are al-Qaida. The extremists are not popular there,” said Chamberlin.
Chamberlain said the media’s portrayal of Pakistan has had a devastating effect on the country’s international relations. U.S. Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.), who was also a part of the panel, discussed strategy for ending extremism in Pakistan during a May hearing with the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs.
“Campaign against extremism will not succeed with bullets and bombs alone. A critical part of the administration’s new strategy is to significantly increase civilian staffing,” Tierney said.
By Courtney Ann Jackson- Talk Radio News Service
Today former British Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed to members of Congress his support of a two state
peace solution between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. Speaking to the U.S. Senate Committee on
Foreign Relations, Blair said that he looks at the Middle East with the eyes of an optimist.
Significant arguments over territory, refugees, security and water in the region, Blair said, “although immensely challenging, are resolvable.”
He said that if the possibility of a two state solution became a reality, a majority of Palestinian and Israeli citizens would support it.
Blair currently serves as Quartet Representative and was in Washinton to promote the Quartet objectives. He is responsible for revitalizing the Palestinian economy and promoting the Quartet objectives. In his written statement to the Committee, Blair said “The opportunity is there. But it won’t remain if not seized. As President Obama has recognized, this is the right time to seize it.”
Committee member Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) said that “a peace settlement would require Israeli and Palestinian leaders with thin majorities to get beyond calculations designed to protect their own political interests.” Lugar also said the United States would have to be “very active and very creative” as they aided in the progress toward a settlement.
Blair said that leaders need to make sincere efforts to “reinvigorate the credibility” of a peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority need to “The only unity that works is a unity of genuine agreement,” he said.
By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service
Israeli President Shimon Peres spoke today in favor of peace in the Middle East, but some in the audience likely couldn’t hear his call, as protesters within the room shouted him down. Three eruptions of protesters in the audience were stopped by police. The protesters shouted from tabletops and waved signs saying “stop the occupation” and “free gaza.” This all transpired at the Washington DC Convention Center, at a conference led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Peres spoke of his commitment to the peace process, saying that one of the big challenges they all faced was to “disconnect religion from terror”, so extremists are not killing in the name of a higher power.
“History is on the side of peace… history’s on our side,” Peres said. He continued that the extremists leading Iran “are on the wrong side of history.” Peres acknowledged that most Iranians are good people whom he respects, but pointed his finger at extremists like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as being the problem.
“Iran is not threatened by anybody,” Peres said, and continued that Iran’s new missile programs are unnecessary. He said that Iran’s missile development and nuclear program are a threat to Israel “and the global community at large.”
Peres said that he trusts President Obama to make meaningful bilateral negotiations, and to contribute significantly to the peace process.
By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service
According to General David Petraeus, an educated American soldier that can bridge the cultural divide with the Muslim world can more effectively fight the War on Terror. This soldier would understand the social context they are operating within, and would understand the broad implications and consequences of military action.
General Petraeus, Commander of U.S. Central Command, discussed U.S. military strategy in the Middle East and South Asia while testifying today before Congress.
“While additional military forces clearly are necessary (in Afghanistan), they will not by themselves be sufficient to achieve our objective,” said the General. America’s objective, he said, is to make sure extremists do not have a haven from which to plan and execute another attack on the level of the 9-11 attacks.
A smarter military can better understand the necessary social infrastructure to facilitate lasting peace within a region. This combined with intelligent military action, international cooperation, the building of infrastructure and a swath of other initiatives will help America secure the region, according to Petraeus. “You cannot kill or capture your way out of an industrial strength insurgency,” the General said.
“We also need to expand just the basic knowledge of Afghanistan among our forces,” Petraeus said. He continued that greater knowledge will lead to a “nuanced and granular understanding” that will enable the Army to undertake the kind of sophisticated reconciliation processes in Afghanistan that were important in Iraq.
Congressman Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) agreed that soldiers should be educated, and brought attention to the U.S. Army’s Homestead Program. Dicks said this program involves an Officer taking a year off from active service to live in a country, learn the language, and understand the culture. Retired Army General John Abizaid did a program similar to this. Abizaid was former Commander of U.S. Central Command.
The U.S. Army could not be reached for comment on the current funding of the program, but Dicks expressed concern on the small number of individuals enrolled in it.
The necessary approach to success involves placing security in the hands of the Afghans, Petraeus said, which means helping them collectively realize that the biggest security threat in the region comes from dissident extremist elements within the country, most notably Al-Qaeda. He emphasized that America’s presence in Afghanistan is not permanent, and that Afghanistan’s government and economy must be encouraged by its citizens.
