[Peace-discuss] Just Foreign Policy News, December 26, 2006

[Robert Naiman]

don't miss today's NYT article on Bolivia. It manages to capture in
two images what the government is contending with in opposition from
the ancien regime...

Just Foreign Policy News
December 26, 2006
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/newsroom/blog/

U.S. Should Promote Diplomacy, Not War, in Somalia
Ask Congress to push the Bush Administration to support diplomacy in
Somalia, not war.
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/somalia.html

Time to Talk to Iran: Petition
More than 27,400 people have signed the Peace Action/Just Foreign
Policy petition. Please sign/circulate if you have yet to do so.
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/iranpetition.html

Tell Your Representatives: Stop the Money and Bring the Troops Home
Please write/call your Members of Congress if you have not done so
recently. The Congressional recess is also a good time to call the
local office. These phone numbers are given on the representatives'
web pages, which can be found at www.senate.gov and www.house.gov.
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/iraq.html

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Summary:
U.S./Top News
Ecuador's bonds plunged on statements from President Correa indicating
willingness to pursue an "Argentine-style" default on the country's
foreign debt, writes Mark Weisbrot on Huffington Post. The purpose of
foreign borrowing is to acquire more resources, which if invested
properly, can provide a real return to the economy that is greater
than the cost of the borrowing, he notes. If a country is simply
borrowing to pay off debt, and looks to be in that situation for the
foreseeable future, it may make sense to default and start over.

Ethiopian warplanes attacked the airport in Somalia's capital Monday
in a major escalation of fighting between the Ethiopian-backed Somali
government and the Islamic Courts movement, the Washington Post
reports. The article soft-pedals some aspects of the role of the Bush
Administration in the fighting, compared to previous reporting in the
Post. It says that the US has "remained on the sidelines," although
last week the Post reported that the US had given a "green light" and
"tacit support" to the Ethiopian invasion. It notes that regional
analysts say US Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer's claim
that the Somali Islamic movement is now under the control of an
al-Qaeda cell is exaggerated; last week the Post reported that the US
intelligence community, including Director of National Intelligence
John Negroponte, doesn't believe it either.

Juan Cole offers "top ten myths about Iraq," including: the US can
win, Iraq is not in a civil war, the Lancet study is flawed, Iraq is
the central front in the war on terror, Sunni Arab guerrillas will
follow us home if we leave, it's a bad idea to set a timetable for
withdrawal. Of the claim that insurgents would follow us home, he
writes, "People in Ramadi only have one beef with the US. Its troops
are going through their wives' underwear in the course of house
searches every day… If the US withdrew…people in Ramadi will be
happy."

The number of American troops killed in Iraq has now exceeded the
death toll from 9/11, AP reports. The milestone came on Christmas.

Iran
Iran Sunday reacted defiantly to a UN Security Council resolution
imposing sanctions because of the country's nuclear program, the New
York Times reports. The article notes the US claim that since Iran is
an oil exporter it has no need for a civilian nuclear energy program.
However, the following AP article suggests that the claim that Iran
needs to develop alternative energy sources is quite plausible. The
article also notes that Iran's progress in enriching uranium has been
slow.

Iran is suffering a dramatic decline in revenue from oil exports, and
income could virtually disappear by 2015, according to an analysis
published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, AP reports. The study's author, Roger Stern of Johns
Hopkins, suggests there could be merit to Iran's assertion that it
needs nuclear power for civilian purposes. Stern suggests that if the
US simply waits for a few years, it may find Iran a much more
conciliatory country. And that is good reason to delay any impulse to
take on Iran militarily.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Monday protested the arrest by U.S.
forces of two Iranian envoys who were in Iraq at his invitation, the
Los Angeles Times reports. As the visiting diplomats were invited as
part of the Iraqi government's efforts to calm the country
politically, the incident suggests that the Bush Administration's
claims that the Iraqi government is sovereign are somewhat dubious.

Iraq
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani rejected a U.S.-backed proposal to isolate
to isolate Muqtada Sadr, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Suspected Iraqi insurgents in Kurdish prisons face the prospect of
routine torture, but no prospect for trial or other procedure to
separate the innocent from the guilty, the New York Times reports.

Israel/Palestine
The Israeli government agreed to remove two dozen military checkpoints
in the West Bank, out of more than 500, the New York Times reports.

The Archbishop of Canterbury criticized the Israeli-built wall around
Bethlehem, AP reports.

Israel has approved a new settlement in the West Bank to house former
Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip, AP reports, breaking a promise to
the U.S. to halt home construction in the Palestinian territories.

Lebanon
The anti-government protests in Lebanon are portrayed in the Western
media as a sectarian battle or a coup attempt, The Nation reports. But
the biggest motivator driving many protestors is economic inequality.
The article notes that in addition to reconstruction costs from the
Israeli bombardment this summer, Lebanon faces a huge public debt,
which may suggest that a campaign to cancel this debt might be a good
way to atone for US collusion in the war.

Bolivia
Tension between Bolivia's "affluent east" and the national government
is captured by a cellphone image of President Morales with a gunshot
wound to the head and the words "Viva Santa Cruz" scrawled above him
in blood, Simon Romero reports for the New York Times. Protesters have
painted the phrase "Evo, Chola de Chávez" ("Evo, Chávez' Indian
Woman") on walls throughout the city. The article notes that the
economy is growing, President Morales' approval rating has risen, and
the government's assertion of control over the energy sector has gone
better than expected by many critics.

Chile
The Chilean government has recommended that the privatized pension
system be supplanted by a system in which the state would play a much
larger role, the New York Times reports, responding to complaints that
the system is failing to deliver adequate benefits. The article notes
that the Bush Administration had touted the Chilean system as a model
in its efforts to "privatize" the US Social Security system. A further
irony, not noted in the article, is the significant role played by the
Washington-dominated World Bank in promoting privatization of public
pension systems in Chile and elsewhere, now widely acknowledged to
have been a catastrophe. The article notes that commissions in the
Chilean system are estimated to absorb one-third of workers'
contributions, perhaps explaining the wild popularity of the system in
the financial sector, if not among workers.

Contents:
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/newsroom/blog/

-
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org