[Peace-discuss] Just Foreign Policy News, January 4, 2007

Robert Naiman naiman.uiuc at gmail.com
Thu Jan 4 16:41:05 CST 2007


Just Foreign Policy News
January 4, 2007
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/newsroom/blog/

The Four Questions
The new Congress is taking its seats. President Bush is planning to
"surge" troops in Iraq. Get Members of Congress and Presidential
Candidates on the record on the Four Questions. The "Surge." The
timetable. The funding. Talks with Iran.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-weisbrot-and-robert-naiman/the-four-questions-get_b_37841.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. http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/iraq.html

Talk to Iran: Petition
More than 40,000 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

Support the Work of Just Foreign Policy
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http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/podcasts/podcast_howto.html

Summary:
U.S./Top News
Many politicians are getting away with bobbing and weaving on key
questions about Iraq policy, writes Robert Naiman on Huffington Post.
Just Foreign Policy calls on Americans to demand straight answers from
politicians on Bush's "surge," a timetable for withdrawal of all US
troops and bases, opposition to funding to continue the war into 2008,
and direct US talks with Iran and Syria.

Some key Senate Democrats say they could consider supporting a
short-term increase in American troop levels in Iraq, the New York
Times reports. Senator Carl Levin, head of the Armed Services
Committee, said he would not "prejudge" the president's proposal.  But
Senator Joseph Biden, chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, has
said he is opposed to increasing troop strength regardless of the
plan.

President Bush plans to order extra U.S. troops to Iraq, but in
smaller numbers than previously reported, the Miami Herald reports.
The president is considering dispatching three to four U.S. combat
brigades to Iraq, or no more than 15,000 to 20,000 U.S. troops.

A small but increasingly influential group of neoconservatives are
again helping steer Iraq policy, the Los Angeles Times reports. A key
part of the plan Bush is expected to announce next week - a surge in
troops coupled with a more focused counterinsurgency effort - has been
one of the chief recommendations of these neocons since 2003.

The taunts hurled at Saddam Hussein before his execution Saturday have
prompted some U.S. officials and Iraqi politicians to conclude Prime
Minister Maliki's government is led by Shiite Muslim radicals and
can't be counted on to disarm Shiite militias, McClatchy News reports.
Several U.S. officials said the Bush administration no longer can
expect Maliki to tackle the militias because Hussein's hanging exposed
the depth of the government's sectarianism.

Across the country Americans are holding vigils to mark 3000 U.S.
deaths in Iraq and call for the end to the war, USA Today reports.
Anne Chay, a high school teacher whose son is in Baghdad, said the
presence of U.S. troops in Iraq was serving no good purpose. "We don't
appear to be welcome there," she said. "Hearing it firsthand from your
son … it's just very discouraging."

For the first time, more troops disapprove of the president's handling
of the war than approve of it, Military Times reports. Only 41 percent
of the military said the U.S. should have gone to war in Iraq in the
first place.

The number of injured U.S. troops in Iraq has far outstripped the
dead, with the Veterans Administration reporting that more than
150,000 veterans of the Iraq war are receiving disability benefits,
Inter Press Service reports. Soldiers who survive attacks are often
severely disabled for life. Pentagon guidelines now allow commanders
to redeploy soldiers suffering from traumatic stress disorders, a
policy veterans blame for the death of Army Reservist James Dean,
killed in a standoff with police over Christmas. Dean, who served 18
months in Afghanistan, had been diagnosed with PTSD. He had just been
informed his unit would be sent to Iraq on Jan. 14.

The first Muslim elected to Congress says he will take his oath of
office using a Quran once owned by Thomas Jefferson, USA Today
reports.

Iran
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, President Ahmedinijad's main opponent in the
last presidential elections in Iran, warned that international
pressure on Iran could have dangerous consequences, the New York Times
reports. But a former nuclear negotiator for Iran said that Iran
should try to understand the international community's concerns.

Israel must help President Bush pave the way for a U.S. military
attack on Iran by lobbying the Democratic Party, U.S. newspaper
editors and Democratic presidential candidates, writes Israeli general
Oded Tira, in the online version of Israel's largest daily.

Israel/Palestine
Five Palestinians were killed Wednesday in a resurgence of factional
violence in the Gaza Strip, AP reports.

Israeli forces mounted a rare raid into the West Bank city of
Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian government, killing four
Palestinians, Reuters reports, hours before Israeli Prime Minister
Olmert and Egyptian President Mubarak met to explore restarting
stalled peacemaking.

Afghanistan
NATO officials said Wednesday the organization's forces had killed too
many Afghan civilians last year and would work to change that in 2007,
AP reports.

Somalia
Within hours of the Islamists' departure from Mogadishu, militiamen
loyal to warlords ousted in June reappeared at checkpoints in the city
where they used to rob, rape and murder civilians, Reuters reports. On
the last day of a three-day government ultimatum for Mogadishu
residents and militia to turn in their guns, few have been turned in.

Venezuela
President Chávez' plan for a single Socialist party among his varied
supporters has created concern, "even among sympathetic political
analysts," that the step would turn Venezuela into a "one-party
state," writes Simon Romero in the New York Times. Unsurprisingly,
Romero doesn't cite any "sympathetic political analysts" who actually
make this far-fetched claim.

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

-
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org


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