[Peace-discuss] Just Foreign Policy News, August 21, 2006

[Robert Naiman]

Just Foreign Policy News
August 21, 2006

Summary:
U.S. Politics
Sen. Joe Lieberman on Sunday called on Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld to resign and backed an international conference to find a
way out of the crisis in Iraq. The New York Times called on Hillary
Clinton to agree to debate her opponent in the Sept. 12 Democratic
primary on the war in Iraq. Sen. John Kerry blasted Sen. Joe Lieberman
for continuing his bid in the Connecticut Senate race despite his loss
to Ned Lamont in the Democratic primary and accused Lieberman  of
"adopting the rhetoric of Dick Cheney."

Lebanon
European countries delayed a decision on committing troops until the
mission is more clearly defined. A Israeli officer was killed and two
commandos wounded in a raid near the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek
on Saturday; the Lebanese prime minister called it a "flagrant
violation" of the UN cease-fire. Lebanon's defense minister said if
Israel carried out any more raids, he would ask the cabinet to halt
the Lebanese Army's deployment in the south. Lebanon's defense
minister also said anyone firing rockets at Israel from the south will
be considered a traitor and be firmly dealt with by the army and
expressed confidence Hezbollah was committed to the UN-brokered truce.
Writing in the Financial Times, Philip Gordon and Jeremy Shapiro of
the Brookings Institution say that Washington's support of the Lebanon
war and tolerance for the way it was fought have been a disaster. The
Guardian reports that the south of Lebanon is carpeted with unexploded
cluster bombs, which pose a deadly threat to villagers stumbling back
to their homes, killing 4 so far. The Centre for Economic Research in
Beirut said last week that repair and reconstruction costs in Lebanon
will rise above $7billion.

Israel
Bradley Burston, writing in Haaretz, gives voice to resentment against
well-off people in Tel Aviv who were unscathed by the war, noting that
during the war the daily Maariv devoted 10 pages to the question of
why so many of its readers would like to see Hassan Nasrallah make
good on his threat to launch a rocket that would strike Tel Aviv. The
Washington Post notes that the kidnapping of the Palestinian minister
of education by the Israeli military may portend a deal for the
release of a Israeli captive soldier; the minister's staff said his
detention would seriously complicate efforts to reopen schools for 1.2
million children and 150,000 Palestinian college students. The
families of Israeli soldiers captured by Hizbollah urged Prime Minster
Olmert to negotiate with Hezbollah for their freedom.  Despite a
cease-fire agreement, Israel intends to do its best to keep Iran and
Syria from rearming Hezbollah and to kill the militia's leader, Sheik
Hassan Nasrallah, a senior Israeli commander says. Israeli reservists,
in a scathing open letter published on Monday, accused government
leaders and top army officers of inept handling of the war in Lebanon
and called for a broad investigation of their actions.

Iran
Iran has turned away U.N. inspectors wanting to examine its
underground nuclear site in an apparent violation of the
Nonproliferation Treaty. Iran's supreme leader said Tehran will pursue
nuclear technology despite a U.N. Security Council deadline to suspend
uranium enrichment. The Iranian newspaper Shargh Saturday quoted a
Turkish newspaper report that Turkey had forced two Iranian aircraft
on their way to Syria to land in Turkey after Israel said the two
aircraft were carrying weapons for Hezbollah. It said no weapons were
found on the planes. Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a senior cleric who
is in charge of the powerful Expediency Council, warned the US in a
sermon not to initiate a war on Iran over its nuclear program. "We
hope America has learned a lesson from the war in Lebanon and refrains
from getting involved in another conflict and causing insecurity in
our region," he said. "The problem should be resolved by wise people
through negotiations so that we can end this regional and
international issue in a good way."

Iraq
Recent surveys indicated Iraqi opinions of Americans have deteriorated
further. When asked what they thought were the three main reasons why
the US invaded Iraq, 76 percent gave "to control Iraqi oil" as their
first choice.

Gitmo
Six Algerians remain locked up at Guantanamo, even though the original
allegations about the embassy attack have been discredited and
dropped, reports the Washington Post. The detainees and their lawyers
say the Pentagon knows the men are not guilty but is unwilling to let
them go free because that would be an acknowledgment of a grave error.

War on Drugs
The latest chapter in America's long war on drugs has left the price,
quality and availability of cocaine on American streets virtually
unchanged, reports Juan Forero in the New York Times.

Trade
Senior Congressional Republicans are threatening such countries as
Brazil and India with loss of trade benefits under the Generalized
System of Preferences in retaliation for their failure to agree to US
proposals in the World Trade Organization.

In this issue:
U.S. Politics
1) Lieberman Calls for Rumsfeld to Resign
2) Hillary Clinton's Low Profile
3) Kerry Calls Lieberman the New Cheney
Lebanon
4) Reconstruction alone estimated at $7bn in Lebanon
5) Europeans Delay Decision on Role Inside Lebanon
6) Truce Strained as Israelis Raid Lebanon Site
7) Lebanon sounds ceasefire warning
8) America has emerged as a loser in the Middle East
9) Unexploded Cluster Bombs Prompt Fear and Fury in Returning Refugees
Israel
10) Death to Yuppiestan, or, Nasrallah was right
11) Leverage for a Prisoner Swap: Seizure of Hamas Officials May
Portend Deal for Israeli Soldier
12) For Families of Captives, a Long Wait in the Dark
13) Israel Committed to Block Arms and Kill Nasrallah
14)  Israeli Reservists Slam Leaders
Iran
15) Iran's Leader Vows to Continue Nuclear Program
16) No nuclear halt, warns Khamenei
17) Iran Fires Practice Missiles and Affirms Nuclear Stance
18) Diplomats: Iran Refuses U.N. Inspectors
Iraq
19) Killing Won't Win This War
20) Schwartz, 7 Facts Making Sense of Our Iraqi Disaster
Iraqi Attitudes: Survey Documents Big Changes
Gitmo
22) At Guantanamo, Six Caught in a Legal Trap
Columbia
23) Colombia's Coca Survives U.S. Plan to Uproot It
Trade
24) U.S. Turns Tough on Trade
Culture
25) Musicians Rock, Rap and Twang Against the War

Contents:

U.S. Politics
1) Lieberman Calls for Rumsfeld to Resign
Associated Press - August 20, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Connecticut-Senate.html
Sen. Joe Lieberman on Sunday called on Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld to resign and backed an international conference to find a
way out of the crisis in Iraq.

2) Hillary Clinton's Low Profile
New York Times Editorial - August 21, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/21/opinion/21mon3.html
Many people are unaware that Senator Hillary Clinton is facing a
challenge for the Democratic nomination in New York's Sept. 12 primary
elections. Clinton has ignored her opponent, Jonathan Tasini, and has
no intention of responding to demands that she meet him in a debate.
She should change her mind. Since Tasini is running an antiwar
campaign, it would be very useful for New Yorkers to have a chance to
hear the two Democratic candidates debate that issue. New York voters
have been exposed to all the drama in Connecticut over Senator
Lieberman, who like Clinton supported the invasion of Iraq. Clinton
has not been forced to discuss in great detail exactly what she thinks
should be done now that things have gone so far awry in the Middle
East. There is a good chance she could coast all the way to November
without being tested on any important issue. Right now is a good time
to make sure that does not happen.

3) Kerry Calls Lieberman the New Cheney
Senator Labels Bush Iraq Policy 'Disaster,' Lieberman Bid 'Huge Mistake'
ABC News - Sunday, August 20, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0820-01.htm
Sen. John Kerry blasted Sen. Joe Lieberman for continuing his bid in
the Connecticut Senate race despite a loss to Ned Lamont in the
Democratic primary. "I'm concerned that [Lieberman] is making a
Republican case," Kerry told ABC. Kerry accused Lieberman  of
"adopting the rhetoric of Dick Cheney," on the issue of Iraq. "Joe
Lieberman is out of step with the people of Connecticut," Kerry added,
insisting Lieberman's stance on Iraq, "shows you just why he got in
trouble with the Democrats there." Kerry called Lieberman's
independent bid a "huge mistake" and applauded Lamont as "courageous"
for challenging Lieberman on the war.

Lebanon
4) Reconstruction alone estimated at $7bn in Lebanon
Guardian (UK) - Wednesday August 16, 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/syria/story/0,,1851197,00.html
Lebanese government ministers met yesterday to begin the laborious
process of estimating civilian damage caused by a month of Israeli
bombing. The Centre for Economic Research in Beirut predicts repair
and reconstruction costs will rise above $7bn. The biggest cost will
be for repairs to roads, bridges ports and airports, recently
estimated at $404m. More than 94 roads and 70 bridges were bombed by
the Israelis. Other government repair costs include power supplies
($208m), telecoms ($99m), water ($74m) and military installations
($16m). The number of homes destroyed is still unclear, but Hizbullah
says more than 15,000 homes have been completely destroyed and many
more damaged. Another estimate is that 10,000 homes will need
rebuilding or repairing. More than 900 small and medium-sized
businesses have been destroyed, according to officials quoted by the
Beirut Daily Star, with damage estimated at $200m. Lebanon's economy
had been expected to grow by 5 to 6% this year, but revised estimates
now put growth between zero and -3%.

5) Europeans Delay Decision on Role Inside Lebanon
Marlise Simons And John Kifner
New York Times
August 21, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/21/world/middleeast/21mideast.html
The UN cease-fire in Lebanon suffered another blow on Sunday when the
European countries that had been called upon to provide the backbone
of a peacekeeping force delayed a decision on committing troops until
the mission is more clearly defined. Their reservations postponed any
action on the force at least until Wednesday, when the EU will take up
the issue. A spokesman for the Spanish Foreign Ministry said Spain was
willing to send troops, "but the rules have to be clarified and agreed
on." The confusion over the peacekeeping force added to fears that the
cease-fire could easily break down.

6) Truce Strained as Israelis Raid Lebanon Site
Robert F. Worth And John Kifner
New York Times
August 20, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/world/middleeast/20lebanon.html
Israeli commandos landed near the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek on
Saturday and engaged in a lengthy firefight in what the Lebanese prime
minister, Fouad Siniora, called a "flagrant violation" of the
cease-fire brokered by the UN. The UN issued a statement that
Secretary General Kofi Annan also considered the raid a violation and
was "deeply concerned." Villagers said the soldiers were dressed in
Lebanese Army uniforms. [This is a violation of the laws of war -
JFP.] One Israeli special operations officer was killed and two
commandos were wounded, but the Israeli Army said the "objectives had
been attained in full." Villagers said otherwise. "They failed
completely," said Sadiq Hamdi. "They were still on the road when the
Hezbollah came upon them. They did not take 1 percent of what they
were trying to do." Lebanon's defense minister, Elias Murr, said that
if Israel carried out any more raids, he would ask the cabinet to halt
the Lebanese Army's deployment in the south. That deployment is the
cornerstone of the cease-fire, and ending it could end the delicate
truce between Israel and Hezbollah that has held since Monday.

7) Lebanon sounds ceasefire warning
BBC News - 20 August 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5268418.stm
Lebanon's defence minister says anyone firing rockets at Israel from
the south will be considered a traitor and be firmly dealt with by the
army. Elias Murr's remarks are being seen as a warning to militias,
but he also expressed confidence Hezbollah was committed to the
UN-brokered truce. Murr told a news conference that any ceasefire
violation that would give Israel the justification to strike Lebanon
would be "treated harshly"."It will be considered as direct
collaboration with the Israeli enemy," Murr said, adding that those
responsible "will be tried and referred to a military tribunal".

8) America has emerged as a loser in the Middle East
Philip Gordon and Jeremy Shapiro, Brookings Institution
Financial Times - August 21 2006
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/d2b8fad4-30b0-11db-9156-0000779e2340.html
One outcome already seems clear: America lost. Washington's support of
this war and tolerance for the way it was fought have been a disaster.
It has driven Sunni and and Shia Arabs together in an anti-US front,
at a time when potential US allies among Sunni Muslims were themselves
worrying about the rise of Hizbollah and Iran. It has provoked and
empowered the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, just as Washington is
deploying more troops to Baghdad to try to quell the violence there.
It has destroyed whatever remaining hope there was for the US to be
perceived as an honest broker between Israelis and Arabs. It has
undermined US allies and democratic reformers in Arab states. It has
also created a new crisis of confidence with America's European allies
just when transatlantic relations were starting to improve. Perhaps
most important, it has almost certainly helped create more terrorist
enemies, as images of Lebanese women and children crushed under
Israeli bombs were broadcast on satellite televisions throughout the
world. These developments vastly outweigh whatever benefits came from
giving Israel a few more weeks to destroy Hizbollah's mostly
replaceable missiles. It is too late now to undo all this damage. In
the future, however, the US must think more carefully about the
broader impact of its Middle East diplomacy, even if at times this
means taking a different position from its closest regional ally. This
would be the best way to help Israel, which would benefit from having
a superpower friend that maintains some credibility and diplomatic
influence in the Middle East.

9) Unexploded Cluster Bombs Prompt Fear and Fury in Returning Refugees
Four dead as mine-clearing teams fear death toll from Israeli weapons could soar
Guardian (UK) - Monday, August 21, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0821-02.htm
The south is carpeted with unexploded cluster bombs, innocuous looking
black canisters, barely larger than a flashlight battery, which pose a
deadly threat to villagers stumbling back to their homes.
Mine-clearing teams scrambling across the region have logged 89
cluster bomb sites so far, and expect to find about 110 more.
Meanwhile, casualties are being taken into hospital - four dead and 21
injured so far. Officials fear the toll could eventually stretch into
the thousands. Cluster bombs are permitted under international law,
but UN and human rights officials claim Israel violated provisions
forbidding their use in urban areas. "We're finding them in orange
plantations, on streets, in cars, near hospitals - pretty much
everywhere," said Chris Clark of the UN Mine Action Coordination
Centre. The bombs are ejected from artillery shells in mid-flight,
showering a wide area with explosions that can kill within 10 metres
(33ft). But up to a quarter fail to explode, creating minefields that
kill civilians once the war is over. A decades-old campaign to ban
them has failed.

Israel
10) Death to Yuppiestan, or, Nasrallah was right
Bradley Burston, Haaretz, 18/08/2006  	 	
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/752138.html
The largest city in Israel is under attack. And not a moment too soon.
The target of these attacks is the tony metroplex that became, in the
boom years of the 1990s, Yuppiestan. Why the anger? Because of the
sense that Yuppiestan sat out this war. It is the sense that many of
the young and smug and spoiled children of Yuppiestan have dodged more
than the draft, however convincing their arguments for why they should
be allowed to avoid serving in combat units, or allowed to avoid
serving their country altogether.  These are not conscientious
objectors, who are few in number, serious of purpose, have a lot to
lose by sincerely refusing to serve, and do lose a lot, beginning with
prison. These are the young who duck the draft by buying their way
out, sleazing their way out, lying their way out using parents'
connections, any connections, anything not to serve, and not to pay
the price. There is also anger over Kirya Syndrome, the sense that a
large percentage of the youth of greater Tel Aviv sees out its army
service partly as nine-to-five bureaucrats in the IDF's Kirya
headquarters, and partly as nine-to-five mall rats in the adjacent
Azrieli Towers shopping/dining/coffee and cake complex. There is
anger, no less, over the army's signal failures in adequately
equipping and even feeding the tens of thousands it sent over the line
into Lebanon. The anger became stronger this week, as reservists came
back and begun to spill their experiences. There was the ambulance
medic who took a wounded reservist from a medivac helicopter to the
trauma room at Rambam hospital in Haifa, and heard only these words
from the soldier: "Do you maybe have some food? I haven't eaten in
three days." There was another reservist, whose company was so hungry
that they all crowded into the house of an elderly Lebanese couple, to
search for food. "The couple were sitting there," the soldier
recalled. "They could have been my grandparents. It was a horrible
scene." Other units, left without supplies for days, broke into
grocery stores, searching for water and food. The war was the catalyst
for this week's unprecedented outpouring of resentment toward Tel
Aviv. A week ago, with the war still at full horror, the north
crippled by more than 200 Katyusha rockets a day, Maariv devoted a
full 10 pages to the question of why so many of its readers would like
to see Hassan Nasrallah make good on his threat to launch a Hezbollah
rocket that would strike Tel Aviv.

11) Leverage for a Prisoner Swap: Seizure of Hamas Officials May
Portend Deal for Israeli Soldier
Doug Struck, Washington Post, Monday, August 21, 2006; A10
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/20/AR2006082000690.html
Nasser Shaer, a bookish former professor and British-educated scholar
who wrote dissertations on comparative religions, was hardly a
firebrand. But the Palestinian minister of education was a man on the
run. He sneaked into his office at the ministry when he could, took
paperwork with him and made calls for work from hidden locations,
organizing the start of the Palestinian school year. This weekend, he
met his wife and six children to rendezvous secretly at another house.
That's where the Israelis found him. Soldiers stormed into the house
shortly before dawn and took Shaer away to be yet another chip in a
potential prisoner swap for an abducted Israeli soldier. As the top
education official and a deputy prime minister in the Hamas-led
government, he is a ranking chip. A few hours before Shaer's arrest,
Israeli commandos landed deep in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. Israeli
officials insisted the nighttime raid was an effort to disrupt the
flow of arms to Hezbollah, but many in Lebanon and Israel suspect the
commandos were trying to capture a ranking militia member for a swap.
The events were seen as more evidence that Israel may try to win the
release of its soldiers abducted to Gaza and Lebanon through a
prisoner exchange, an idea once firmly opposed by Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert. At the Palestinian Education Ministry, Shaer's staff said his
detention would seriously complicate efforts to reopen schools for 1.2
million children and 150,000 Palestinian college students. The
teachers have not been paid, but "Dr. Shaer was the one who was
talking to the president, to the international community, to the
teachers, to try to get the resources and get the school year
started," Basri Saleh, an education official, said at the ministry
building in Ramallah. "They have targeted the man who was trying to
keep education alive in Palestine," Saleh said. "What will they
benefit from that?"

12) For Families of Captives, a Long Wait in the Dark
Dina Kraft, New York Times, August 20, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/world/middleeast/20soldiers.html
The Goldwasser and Regev families were invited to meet Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert. Why, they wondered, was a war that had been started to
get the men back now ending without their return or even any
information on their fate? They urged Olmert, as they had repeatedly
since the soldiers were taken on July 12, to negotiate with Hezbollah
for their freedom. "We say let's talk and make a deal," Mr. Regev
said. "We've done so in the past." In January 2004, Israel freed 429
prisoners, including 23 Lebanese, in exchange for an Israeli
businessman and the remains of three soldiers being held by Hezbollah.
But Olmert is adamantly opposed to a prisoner swap and continues to
demand the unconditional release of the soldiers, Israeli officials
said.

13) Israel Committed to Block Arms and Kill Nasrallah
Steven Erlanger, New York Times, August 20, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/world/middleeast/20mideast.html
Despite a cease-fire agreement, Israel intends to do its best to keep
Iran and Syria from rearming Hezbollah and to kill the militia's
leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, says a senior Israeli commander.
Speaking one day before commandos carried out a raid that Israeli
officials said was to disrupt arms shipments for Hezbollah from Syria
and Iran, he was explicit that Israel would continue to seek out and
block any such attempts. He also emphasized that, despite criticism
from the Israeli public and even troops of the performance of the Army
and government, he considered the threat and the fighting ability of
Hezbollah to have been severely diminished. Furthermore, he made it
clear that Sheik Nasrallah remained a target as the leader of a group
that Israel and the United States have labeled terrorist. "There's
only one solution for him," he said. At another point, he said simply,
"This man must die."

14)  Israeli Reservists Slam Leaders
Reuters - Monday, August 21, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0821-03.htm
Israeli reservists, in a scathing open letter published on Monday,
accused government leaders and top army officers of inept handling of
the war in Lebanon and called for a broad investigation of their
actions. The letter, appearing in the newspaper Haaretz, was signed by
hundreds of veterans of the Lebanon campaign.  An Israeli general said
the military had been "guilty of the sin of arrogance" in its approach
to the battle against Hizbollah guerrillas, remarks that appeared to
justify growing public criticism of the conduct of the campaign. "I
failed to prepare the infantry better for war," Brigadier-General
Yossi Heiman, the outgoing chief infantry and paratroops officer, told
troops on Sunday. In the letter, troops of the Spearhead Paratroop
Brigade raised questions about how the government and senior officers
conducted a war in which the Israeli military failed to deliver a
knockout blow to the Lebanese group or prevent it from firing nearly
4,000 missiles into Israel. Accusing the army of failing to prepare
properly for war against Hizbollah, the reservists demanded "a
thorough and worthy investigative commission under the auspices of the
state". Such a commission would have broader powers, including a
mandate to investigate Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other cabinet
members, than an inquiry panel, set up by Defense Minister Amir
Peretz, that began work on Sunday. One security official told Reuters
that military intelligence on Hizbollah's strength and positions in
southern Lebanon had been inadequate. The official said troops were
often sent into villages with little idea of the type of opposition
they would face. Reservists have formed the backbone of Israel's
fighting forces in past wars. After the 1973 Middle East war, in which
Egypt and Syria scored initial successes that caused heavy Israeli
casualties, demobilized reservists were at the forefront of public
criticism that ultimately forced Prime Minister Golda Meir to resign.

Iran
15) Iran's Leader Vows to Continue Nuclear Program
Associated Press
August 21, 2006
Filed at 12:36 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iran-Nuclear.html
Iran has turned away U.N. inspectors wanting to examine its
underground nuclear site in an apparent violation of the
Nonproliferation Treaty, diplomats and U.N. officials said Monday. The
officials said that Iran's unprecedented refusal to allow access to
the facility at Natanz could seriously hamper international efforts to
ensure that Tehran is not trying to make nuclear weapons. Meanwhile,
Iran's supreme leader said Tehran will pursue nuclear technology
despite a U.N. Security Council deadline to suspend uranium enrichment
by the end of the month or face the threat of economic and diplomatic
sanctions. ''The Islamic Republic of Iran has made its own decision
and in the nuclear case, God willing, with patience and power, will
continue its path,'' said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. His declaration came
on the eve of Iran's self-imposed Tuesday deadline to respond to a
Western incentives package for it to roll back its nuclear program.
The UN Security Council has given Tehran until the end of August to
suspend uranium enrichment.

16) No nuclear halt, warns Khamenei
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5271344.stm
The deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Mohammad Saeedi,
said on Monday that suspension of uranium enrichment was "no longer
possible", according to the Iranian Fars news agency. He also said a
heavy water production plant at Arak would become operational "in the
near future". Heavy water is used to moderate the nuclear fission
chain reaction in certain types of nuclear reactor, but can also be
used to produce plutonium which can be used to make nuclear bombs. On
Sunday, foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said a resolution
to the issue would have to come out of negotiations, but a halt to
uranium enrichment was "not on the agenda".

17) Iran Fires Practice Missiles and Affirms Nuclear Stance
Nazila Fathi
New York Times
August 21, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/21/world/middleeast/21iran.html
Iran has come under increasing international pressure since the war in
Lebanon broke out. The US and Israel have accused Iran of financing
and arming Hezbollah The newspaper Shargh Saturday quoted a Turkish
newspaper report that Turkey had forced two Iranian aircraft on their
way to Syria to land in Turkey after Israel said the two aircraft were
carrying weapons for Hezbollah. It said no weapons were found on the
planes. Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a senior cleric who is in charge
of the powerful Expediency Council, warned the US in a sermon not to
initiate a war on Iran over its nuclear program. "We hope America has
learned a lesson from the war in Lebanon and refrains from getting
involved in another conflict and causing insecurity in our region," he
said. "The problem should be resolved by wise people through
negotiations so that we can end this regional and international issue
in a good way."

Iraq
18) Op-Ed: Killing Won't Win This War
Terence J. Daly, retired military intelligence officer and
counterinsurgency specialist; served in Vietnam as a province-level
adviser.
New York Times
August 21, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/21/opinion/21daly.html
Three years into the Sunni insurgency in Iraq, everyone from
slicksleeved privates fighting for survival in Ramadi to the echelons
above reality at the Pentagon still believes that eliminating
insurgents will eliminate the insurgency. They are wrong. There is a
difference between killing insurgents and fighting an insurgency. In
three years, the Sunni insurgency has grown from nothing into a force
that threatens our national objective of establishing and maintaining
a free, independent and united Iraq. During that time, we have fought
insurgents with airstrikes, artillery, and new technology worth
billions of dollars. We are further from our goal than we were when we
started. Counterinsurgency is about gaining control of the population,
not killing or detaining enemy fighters. American soldiers deride
"winning hearts and minds" as the equivalent of sitting around a
campfire singing "Kumbaya." But in fact it is a sophisticated,
multifaceted, even ruthless struggle to wrest control of a population
from cunning and often brutal foes. Counterinsurgency is work better
suited to a police force than a military one. Military forces are best
at killing people and breaking things. Police organizations, on the
other hand, operate with minimum force.

19) Schwartz: 7 Facts You Might Not Know about the Iraq War
Michael Schwartz, Professor of Sociology, Stony Brook University
TomDispatch.com
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=114108
1. The Iraqi Government Is Little More Than a Group of "Talking Heads"
2. There Is No Iraqi Army
3. The Recent Decline in American Casualties Is Not a Result of Less
Fighting (and Anyway, It's Probably Ending)
4. Most Iraqi Cities Have Active and Often Viable Local Governments
5. Outside Baghdad, Violence Arrives with the Occupation Army
6. There Is a Growing Resistance Movement in the Shia Areas of Iraq
7. There Are Three Distinct Types of Terrorism in Iraq, All Directly
or Indirectly Connected to the Occupation

20) Iraqi Attitudes: Survey Documents Big Changes
Turkish Press.com (Michigan) - Monday, August 21, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0821-05.htm
Over the last two years, Iraqi political values have become more
secular and nationalistic, even though attitudes toward Americans have
deteriorated, according to surveys of the population conducted in
November 2004 and April 2006. The percentage of Iraqis who said they
would not want to have Americans as neighbors rose from 87 percent in
2004 to 90 percent in 2006. When asked what they thought were the
three main reasons why the US invaded Iraq, 76 percent gave "to
control Iraqi oil" as their first choice.

Gitmo
21) At Guantanamo, Caught in a Legal Trap
6 Algerians Languish Despite Foreign Rulings, Dropped Charges
Craig Whitlock, Washington Post, Monday, August 21, 2006; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/20/AR2006082000660.html
In 2002, six men suspected of plotting to attack the U.S. Embassy were
seized in Bosnia by U.S. troops and flown to Cuba. The seizure was
ordered by senior U.S. officials in defiance of rulings by courts in
Bosnia that the men were entitled to their freedom and could not be
deported. More than four years later, the six remain locked up at
Guantanamo, even though the original allegations about the embassy
attack have been discredited and dropped. In 2004, Bosnian prosecutors
and police formally exonerated the six men after a lengthy criminal
investigation. Last year, the Bosnian prime minister asked the Bush
administration to release them, calling the case a miscarriage of
justice. The men came from Algeria to Bosnia during the 1992-95
Bosnian war. Most were former Muslim fighters who became humanitarian
aid workers after the war. They remain imprisoned because the U.S.
military still classifies them as "enemy combatants" in the fight
against terrorism. A review of thousands of pages of military and
civilian court documents shows that many reasons given for the
designation are based on flawed or dubious evidence. Senior Bosnian
officials said they have been told by U.S. diplomats that the six
Algerians will never be allowed to return to Bosnia, which granted
dual citizenship to most of the men before their seizure. The
detainees and their lawyers say the Pentagon knows the men are not
guilty but is unwilling to let them go free because that would be an
acknowledgment of a grave error.

Columbia
22) Colombia's Coca Survives U.S. Plan to Uproot It
Juan Forero, New York Times, August 19, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/19/world/americas/19coca.html
The latest chapter in America's long war on drugs - a six-year, $4.7
billion effort to slash Colombia's coca crop - has left the price,
quality and availability of cocaine on American streets virtually
unchanged. The effort, begun in 2000 and known as Plan Colombia, had a
goal of halving this Colombia's coca crop in five years. That has not
happened. As much coca is cultivated today in Colombia as was grown at
the start of the large-scale aerial fumigation effort in 2000,
according to State Department figures. Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, the
leading sources of coca and cocaine, produce more than enough cocaine
to satisfy world demand, and possibly as much as in the mid-1990's,
the UN says. In the US, the government's tracking over the past
quarter century shows that the price of cocaine has tumbled and that
purity remains high, signs that the drug is as available as ever. Over
all, demand in the US has dipped in recent years, but experts say that
may be a result of many factors, including changing social fads and
better law enforcement techniques at home. "If we were to evaluate
Plan Colombia by its initial overriding criteria, the results of the
drug war have been dubious at best," said Russell Crandall, a former
adviser to the White House and author of "Driven by Drugs," a book on
the drug war in the Andes.

Trade
23) U.S. Turns Tough on Trade
Threat of Losing Sweetheart Deals
May Bring Nations Back to Talks
Greg Hitt, Wall Street Journal, August 19, 2006; Page A4
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115594576665140022.html
Here's the new U.S. strategy for reviving global trade talks: threaten
to cut off sweetheart trade deals with big developing nations like
India and Brazil to make them more willing to compromise. Cheered on
by such influential lawmakers as Iowa Republican Charles Grassley, the
Bush administration is conducting a highly publicized "review" of
whether to pare special trade benefits that the U.S. offers to Brazil,
India and 11 other trading partners. Those nations are part of a
32-year-old program called the Generalized System of Preferences, or
GSP, designed to help the world's poorest nations by giving them
duty-free access to the U.S. market on farm and manufactured products.

Culture
24) Musicians Rock, Rap and Twang Against the War
Three Years After the Dixie Chicks Got Pounded for Criticizing
President Bush, Diverse Musicians Join the Chorus
Dan Harris and Felicia Biberica, ABC News, Monday, August 21, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0821-08.htm
Today's stars are now increasingly criticizing the government over the
war in Iraq. Just a few years ago, this was considered a risky career
move, but now rocking against the war is, quite literally, all the
rage. Neil Young has a new album, "Living With War," filled with songs
like "Let's Impeach the President." That a major record label put out
this album signals a real cultural shift. In 2003, the Dixie Chicks
were bashed and boycotted for criticizing the president.Today, the
Dixie Chicks have a hit record. Anti-war songs are pouring in from all
corners of the musical spectrum -- including country legends such as
Merle Haggard, classic rockers such as Bruce Springsteen, pop stars
such as Pink, rappers such as KRS-One and punk rockers such as Green
Day and Anti-Flag.

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Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org