International Affairs

The last full week of October 2011 marked another bad week for Greece. Earlier Monday, the Athens stock market plummeted on news that the nation’s European allies had failed to meet an agreement to keep the nation afloat.

Greece’s bank shares took a beating on news they may be forced to accept higher losses on their government’s bonds as part of the larger European deal.

And while the government seems paralyzed with inaction, the people of Greece (mostly public workers) took to the streets once again to protest.

Not many outside of Washington are aware the Obama administration has dispatched close to 100 “military advisers” (read: mostly CIA) to the far reaches of East Africa to combat a menace in the Uganda/Democratic Republic of Congo regions knows as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
 
The group has been around for decades, terrorizing that part of the continent and taking no prisoners. They brutally murder, maim and wreak havoc where and when they want.
 
I agree we should probably have our troops over there. Heck, they should’ve gone sooner, if what the White House says about the LRA’s activities has only worsened.

What I’m worried about is what the president chooses to call military campaigns such as this. If I’m not mistaken, the White House exercised its authority and sent military troops not for humanitarian reasons or to protect American interests and people. No, the president said this was clearly in the name of the national interests of the United States. In effect, he was saying this band of mercenaries represented a clear and present danger to the security interests of our nation. That’s a bit of a stretch, even for a military hawk such as myself.

By all accounts, the Libyan people had few qualms about the violent end of Col. Moammar Gadhafi, the brutal tyrant who ruled them with a rod of iron for 42 years.

So why should we in the West object to what appears to have been a summary execution of Gadhafi, even though we still don’t know exactly the circumstances in which he met his end through a shot to the head, and maybe never will?

The Libyan transitional prime minister wants the world to believe that Gadhafi was killed in crossfire between rebels and Gadhafi loyalists, having been captured alive. His golden pistol was snatched by a Libyan, wearing a Yankees cap, who found him in a sewer. This is the stuff that Hollywood films are made of. (Wait, there’s already a movie called “The Man With the Golden Gun”).

Another chapter of the Arab Spring concluded with Gadhafi’s death yesterday. The U.S. played a significant financial role in toppling his regime. We lost no troops and avoided political turmoil by putting no boots on the ground. There are important lessons that can be learned, such as the use of counterterrorism exercises and technology, as opposed to flesh and blood, to win wars. We should learn how to enhance our ability to effect regime change without risking the lives of military personnel. Gadhafi is like many other dictators, including Saddam Hussein; he needed to be removed for the sake of the people. Hopefully, our future military exercises will be based on such humanitarian principles, and not on political expediency or the agendas of our foreign allies.

After more than five years as a prisoner of Hamas, the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was freed on Tuesday. The move came after Israel transferred hundreds of Palestinian prisoners to Egypt for their eventual releases into the Gaza Strip or abroad. Shalit is “alive and well,” according to the IDF, and he has already returned to Israel, where his family greeted him at the border. Israel will release 1,027 prisoners in total in exchange for Shalit.
— The Daily Beast, Oct. 18, 2011

Israel’s latest dilemma resulted from the release of captured soldier Gilad Shalit. Under other circumstances, no one would call the negotiated release anything but morally powerful — one life of an Israeli is worth whatever it takes, so important to Israeli morality is the preservation of its citizens. It is a profound moral statement. And surely I would champion the move were I the parents of soldier Shalit.

Hillary Clinton has made a surprise trip to “new” Libya to support the National Transitional Council even before the capture of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

The secretary of State met with NTC Chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil, Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril and Finance Minister Ali Tarhouni, offering funding and technical support. She said afterward that Libya should be governed by “the rule of law, not the whims of men,” and should have a “transparent and fair judicial system.”

Question to Republican hopefuls: Would you bring the Churchill bust back to the White House?

What was the real purpose of division between the U.S. and England during the American Revolution? Trade? Taxes? Or something more? At its mythical core we might look to Sir James George Frasier, who wrote that one of the central myths of a rising people is the cutting down of father's tree so as to make one's own generation rise in the world. And this mythical significance is found in Washington, who could not tell a lie but had no problem with random vandalism; he chopped down the tree on behalf of his revolutionary generation.

China last night joined Russia in a double veto on a Syrian resolution before the U.N. Security Council that broadcast a disastrous message of international disunity and marks a severe setback for U.S. attempts to ease Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad from power.

The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice, was so exasperated that she described the vetoes as a “cheap ruse by those who would rather sell arms to the Syrian regime than stand with the Syrian people.” She stormed out of the chamber after the vote.

For one brief shining moment I thought I was going to finally agree with Armstrong Williams. Then I read his post. Sorry, Armstrong, I don’t make apologies for dictators who believe in forced sterilization, who imprison human-rights activists and who pay slave wages with no benefits. I do not make apologies for American companies who praise these dictators over the red, white and blue.

What the CEO of Coke said was disgraceful. The "Blame Americans First" conservatives and Republicans are dead wrong, and in the case of many dictators, dead means dead for people they kill.

Ever since Adm. Mike Mullen blew his top over the links between Pakistani military intelligence and the Haqqani clan accused of attacking the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, there has been much speculation about what this means for America’s already-strained relationship with Pakistan.

The outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff went public at an appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee last Thursday. In particular, he said that not only the attack on the embassy, but also a truck bombing on Sept. 10 that killed five Afghans and wounded 77 NATO troops, were “planned and conducted” by the Pakistan-based Haqqani network.