[Peace-discuss] Fw: JFP 1/27: US "wrestles" with "olive branch" to Taliban

Thu Jan 28 11:24:51 CST 2010

For those not already subscribed to Just Foreign Policy News, here's some hopeful info, along w/ things we and the US still need to work on. (The JFP News Summary is a great way to stay informed. Strongly recommended.) --Jenifer

--- On Wed, 1/27/10, Just Foreign Policy <naiman at justforeignpolicy.org> wrote:

        Just Foreign Policy News

January 27, 2010 

Just Foreign Policy News on the Web: 

http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/462

Change.org: End the War in Afghanistan 

The vote on funding for military escalation in Afghanistan will be the next major opportunity for Congress to change course. Now is the time to begin establishing "timetable for withdrawal" and "political negotiations" as demands on the supplemental. Help us move these ideas to the center of public discussion. 

http://www.change.org/ideas/view/end_the_war_in_afghanistan_establish_a_timeline_for_withdrawal_and_begin_political_negotiations

Beverly Bell: "7.0 on the Horror Scale - Notes on the Haitian Earthquake" 

Beverly Bell, author of "Walking on Fire: Haitian Women's Stories of Survival and Resistance," publishes her log of 10 days following the earthquake.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/beverly-bell-70-on-the-ho_b_439164.html

UN: Time for Direct Talks with Afghan Taliban Leaders 

The top UN official for Afghanistan has called for direct talks with senior Taliban leaders. Is Washington listening?

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/27-4

Members of Congress to Obama: Ease Gaza Suffering 

54 Members of Congress wrote to President Obama, urging the lifting of restrictions on the movement of people, access to clean water, food, medicine construction materials for repairs and rebuilding, and fuel. (Just Foreign Policy members wrote to Congress in support of this letter)

http://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=3800&issue_id=36

Support the work of Just Foreign Policy: 

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Summary:

U.S./Top News 

1) Administration officials acknowledge privately that they are considering outreach to leaders of the Taliban, the New York Times reports. But they warn that the plan is rife with political risk at home. "Today, people agree that part of the solution for Afghanistan is going to include an accommodation with the Taliban, even above low- and middle-level fighters," said an administration official. Vice President Biden is said to be more open to reaching out, because he believes it will help shorten the military engagement in Afghanistan. 

2) An ISAF official said Gen. McChrystal's cautiously-worded support for a negotiated settlement with the Taliban leadership is only the first public signal of a policy decision by the Obama administration to support a political settlement between the Afghan government and the Taliban, Gareth Porter reports for IPS. The debate among US officials is not whether the Taliban movement will be participating in the Afghan political system, but on whether the administration could accept the participation of Mullah Omar. 

3) Haitian President Preval issued an urgent appeal calling for 200,000 tents and urging that the aircraft carrying them be given urgent landing priority at Port-au-Prince airport, AP reports. [That the Haitian President would have to issue an "urgent appeal" concerning landing priority at the airport would seem to undermine the U.S. claim that the Haitian government is in charge - JFP]

4) The U.S. government response to the disaster in Haiti has been no better than the response to Hurricane Katrina, argue three New York doctors who organized a relief team, writing in the Wall Street Journal. The U.S. response to the earthquake should be considered an embarrassment, they write.

5) A U.N. Security Council committee announced it had lifted sanctions against five former Taliban officials, bolstering efforts to pursue peace talks, the Washington Post reports. Sanctions have been lifted against Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, who was a minister of foreign affairs in the Taliban government, and Abdul Hakim Monib, another former Taliban official who has since served as Karzai's governor in Uruzgan province.

6) The cost to U.S. taxpayers of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 has topped $1 trillion, Reuters reports. Congress has approved $1.075 trillion dollars for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and "war-related activities" since 2001, according to the Congressional Budget Office..

Afghanistan 

7) The Afghan government, U.S. officials and NATO are preparing a new effort to bring mid- and low-level Taliban fighters back into society, the Los Angeles Times reports. In doing so, they face the task of convincing militants that the jobs and amnesty they promise this time will materialize; similar promises in the past were not kept.

8) NATO's billion-dollar aid budget is putting lives at risk and undermining the long-term prospects for stability in Afghanistan, according to some of the world's leading NGOs, the Times of London reports. Oxfam, Care and ActionAid say too much money is being channelled through the military, risking the safety of humanitarian staff by blurring the lines between aid workers and the army. Research by Care found that schools built with NATO money were considered far more likely to be attacked by insurgents. Giving army commanders control of the purse strings has also skewed the way aid is delivered, the groups say; some of the poorest parts of Afghanistan have been almost completely neglected, because they aren't considered militarily strategic.

Yemen 

9) U.S. military teams are deeply involved in joint operations with Yemeni troops, the Washington Post reports. The far-reaching U.S. role could prove politically challenging for Yemen's president, who faces the possibility of a backlash by tribal, political and religious groups whose members resent what they see as U.S. interference in Yemen.

Iran 

10) U.S. business groups warned the White House that congressional plans to expand U.S. sanctions on Iran threaten to significantly undermine U.S. economic and security interests, Reuters reports. the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers signed the letter.

Haiti 

11) Save the Children and World Vision have called for a suspension of new adoptions from Haiti until every child has been given the chance to be reunited with his or her family, VOA reports. But Senator Landrieu rejected appeals to suspend the adoptions.

Israel/Palestine 

12) Israeli Defence Minister Barak called the absence of a two-state peace deal with the Palestinians a more serious threat to Israel than any "Iranian bomb," Reuters reports. [Spectacularly, the Reuters article includes the standard media incantation that Israel perceives Iran's nuclear program as an existential threat - even in an article reporting that Israel's *defense minister* says that the lack of a peace deal with the Palestinians is a bigger threat. Perhaps future Reuters articles will inform readers that Israel sees the lack of a peace deal with the Palestinians as an "existential threat" - JFP.]

-

Robert Naiman 

Just Foreign Policy

www.justforeignpolicy.org

Just Foreign Policy is a membership organization devoted to reforming US foreign policy so it reflects the values and interests of the majority of Americans.

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