tagged w/ International Relations
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Another fake humanitarian crisis after provacatuers were sent into Syria to stir dissent, just like what was done in Libya.
Plus don't forget that on March 2nd 2007 Former General Wesley Clark casually explained to Democracy Now's Amy Goodman that the Pentagon had already planned to take out Iran, along with 6 countries in 5 years including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan (2007 up to 2012).
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Although the U.S. focus remains on exerting diplomatic and economic pressure on Syria, the Pentagon and the U.S. Central Command have begun a preliminary internal review of U.S. military capabilities, CNN has learned.
The options are being prepared in the event President Barack Obama were to call for them. Two senior administration officials who spoke about the review to CNN emphasized that U.S. policy for now remains the use of non-military options.
The focus on diplomatic options was underscored by the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in an interview with CNN on Tuesday.
The military’s work to analyze potential military options for Syria has been quietly going on for several weeks, two administration officials confirm to CNN. The bulk of the analysis is being done by staff of General Mattis, who would be the senior commander if the President were to order any action.
Mattis’ analysis is being shared with General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who would then present options to the White House, if it came to that.
“We don’t want to be in the position of suddenly dusting off some five year old plan,” one official said. The official emphasized the work is extremely preliminary but said the military would look at a full range of contingencies.Another fake humanitarian crisis after provacatuers were sent into Syria to stir... more
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China and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade, Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced late on Tuesday.
Chinese experts said the move reflected closer relations between Beijing and Moscow and is not aimed at challenging the dollar, but to protect their domestic economies.
"About trade settlement, we have decided to use our own currencies," Putin said at a joint news conference with Wen in St. Petersburg.
The two countries were accustomed to using other currencies, especially the dollar, for bilateral trade. Since the financial crisis, however, high-ranking officials on both sides began to explore other possibilities.
The yuan has now started trading against the Russian rouble in the Chinese interbank market, while the renminbi will soon be allowed to trade against the rouble in Russia, Putin said.
"That has forged an important step in bilateral trade and it is a result of the consolidated financial systems of world countries," he said.
Putin made his remarks after a meeting with Wen. They also officiated at a signing ceremony for 12 documents, including energy cooperation.
The documents covered cooperation on aviation, railroad construction, customs, protecting intellectual property, culture and a joint communiqu. Details of the documents have yet to be released.
Putin said one of the pacts between the two countries is about the purchase of two nuclear reactors from Russia by China's Tianwan nuclear power plant, the most advanced nuclear power complex in China.
Putin has called for boosting sales of natural resources - Russia's main export - to China, but price has proven to be a sticking point.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who holds sway over Russia's energy sector, said following a meeting with Chinese representatives that Moscow and Beijing are unlikely to agree on the price of Russian gas supplies to China before the middle of next year.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-11/24/content_11599087.htmChina and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own... more
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Dagum
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Latest Complete News Updates “The Lieberman threat should worry us all. It is a greater threat than Iran. We must go out and protest,” said Mr. Oppenheimer. In late September of last year, Iran announced a delay to the launch of their nuclear power plant.Latest Complete News Updates “The Lieberman threat should worry us all. It is a... more
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A U.S. offer to supply Pakistan with its own fleet of surveillance drone aircraft delighted Islamabad a year ago but now threatens to turn into another source of friction between the two nations.
The offer was made by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates during a trip to Islamabad in January 2010 but talks have failed to gain traction, with Pakistan privately voicing concern about what it says are exorbitant prices and a snail-pace delivery timeline.
http://www.indiareport.com/India-usa-uk-news/reuters/National/76576A U.S. offer to supply Pakistan with its own fleet of surveillance drone aircraft... more
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Wikileaks reveals scary security stories
By Nick Farrell
Tue Dec 07 2010, 09:42
THE WIKILEAKS LEAKS have shown that Chinese security firms with ties to the Chinese military hired the hacker group responsible for the original Blaster worm.
According to the Guardian US diplomats have also discovered that the security firms have access to the source code of Microsoft Windows to assist them breaking it.
In a US State Department daily security briefing of June 29, 2009, Topsec of Beijing had employed Lin Yong, aka "Lion," the hacker served as a senior security service engineer to "manage security service and training".
Topsec, China's largest security vendor, provides training and support service for the People's Liberation Army.
Apparently all this information was not that secret as it had been sourced to an interview in state-run media with the firm's founder and chairman, He Weidong.
Another company, Venustech employed a hacking group called Xfocus, which reportedly was responsible for crafting the original Blaster worm in mid-2003.
The US thinks that ties between government-backed companies and hackers is part of China's nationally-funded "network attack scientific research project".
What is strange is that both outfits have links to Microsoft and have signed agreements with the Vole to give them access to Windows' source code. µ
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1930414/chinese-hired-blaster-worm-hackersWikileaks reveals scary security stories
By Nick Farrell
Tue Dec 07 2010, 09:42
THE... more
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Cleaning Up After Leaks
WASHINGTON – Bristling over the unauthorized release of more than a quarter million classified State Department documents, the Obama White House on Monday ordered a government-wide review of how agencies safeguard sensitive information.
The weekend release of documents reflecting, in some cases, unflattering assessments of world leaders has caused embarrassment to the administration. The director of the White House's Office of Management and Budget, Jacob Lew, said in ordering the agency-wide assessment Monday that the disclosures are unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
The U.S. cables contained raw comments normally muffled by diplomatic politesse: Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah pressing the U.S. to "cut off the head of the snake" by taking action against Iran's nuclear program. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi described as "feckless" and "vain." German Chancellor Angela Merkel dismissed as "risk averse and rarely creative."
Publication of the secret memos and documents made public by the online whistle-blower Wikileaks Sunday amplified widespread global alarm about Iran's nuclear ambitions. It also unveiled occasional U.S. pressure tactics aimed at hot spots in Afghanistan, Pakistan and North Korea. The leaks disclosed bluntly candid impressions from both diplomats and other world leaders about America's allies and foes.
It was, said Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, the "Sept. 11 of world diplomacy."
In the wake of the massive document dump by online whistleblower WikiLeaks and numerous media reports detailing their contents, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was expected to address the diplomatic repercussions later Monday. Clinton may have to confront the fallout first hand after she leaves Washington on a four-nation tour of Central Asia and the Middle East — a region that figures prominently in the leaked documents.
Most of the disclosures focused on familiar diplomatic issues that have long stymied U.S. officials and their foreign counterparts — the nuclear ambitions of Iran, North Korea and Pakistan, China's growth as a superpower, the frustrations of combating terrorism.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101129/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/wikileaks
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http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dSyIizN3UI4/TFNGefE2WGI/AAAAAAAAAxQ/g7_M6iyCDvo/s1600/news.jpgCleaning Up After Leaks
WASHINGTON – Bristling over the unauthorized release of... more
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- but this is MORE than yellow journalism
Analysis: US carrier visit a dilemma for China
BEIJING – This weekend's arrival of a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Yellow Sea poses a dilemma for Beijing: Should it protest angrily and aggravate ties with Washington, or quietly accept the presence of a key symbol of American military pre-eminence off Chinese shores?
The USS George Washington, accompanied by escort ships, is to take part in military drills with South Korea following North Korea's shelling of a South Korean island Tuesday that was one of the most serious confrontations since the Korean War a half-century ago.
It's a scenario China has sought to prevent. Only four months ago, Chinese officials and military officers shrilly warned Washington against sending a carrier into the Yellow Sea for an earlier set of exercises. Some said it would escalate tensions after the sinking of a South Korean navy ship blamed on North Korea. Others went further, calling the carrier deployment a threat to Chinese security.
Beijing believes its objections worked. Although Washington never said why, no aircraft carrier sailed into the strategic Yellow Sea, which laps at several Chinese provinces and the Korean peninsula.
This time around, with outrage high over the shelling, the U.S. raising pressure on China to rein in wayward ally North Korea, and a Chinese-American summit in the works, the warship is coming, and Beijing is muffling any criticisms.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_koreas_clash_china_analysis
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http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20101126/capt.0e05b68164654488a627e3882bf5e535-0e05b68164654488a627e3882bf5e535-0.jpg- but this is MORE than yellow journalism
Analysis: US carrier visit a dilemma for... more
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Is there indeed a Unique Peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue?
Yes, there indeed does exist the UNIQUE, SUSTAINABLE, OUT-OF-THE-BOX, BOLD and PERMANENT, solution to the KASHMIR CRISIS to the full satisfaction of all the Conflicting- Competing - Elements.
The KAHMIR is a CRISIS and not a PROBLEM. The Use of the word the PROBLEM implies the existence of a disease and the person affected with that disease. It would wrongly imply the KASHMIRIS as being PERCEIVED wrongly to be a PROBLEM by the Indian government.
The KASHMIR is a CRISIS and its PEOPLE are not a problem. The KASHMIR and its people are not a disease. Its people too are human beings like any other ordinary human beings on this Earth. So, the KASHMIRIS have to be perceived as being the fellow human beings like any other fellow human being in India by the government of India.
In the current ongoing turmoil and unrest in the KAHMIR valley for the last three months, 50 plus innocent human lives have been lost in the unfortunate firing by the Indian security personnel at the behest of the Omar Abdullah ministry aided suitably by a willing complacent central government hawk P Chidambaram in New Delhi besides the loss of the hundreds of crores [millions] of rupees in terms of the lost economic opportunities, activities and damaged properties in the KASHMIR valley.
To top it all, some bad elements of the Indian intelligence agencies have been reported to have MISLED, MISGUIDED and MISADVISED the political bosses both OMAR ABDULLAH and those in New Delhi regarding the current KAHMIR boiling pot. It’s to be pointed out here that not all the elements within the Indian intelligence set-up are bad or rogue guys. There indeed do exist many excellent truthful intelligence agents in the Indian intelligence agencies, but these honest-truthful intelligence agents are either overlooked or ignored by the political bosses in New Delhi.
The KASHMIRI people have been reported by the Indian mass media as asking correctly as to why ONLY the KASHMIRIS were fired upon and killed in the public-led Anti-Indian government demonstrations when the BJP-led Anti-Price-Rise demonstrators, the leaders of the BJP and other Indian political parties earlier were spared their lives in the non-Kashmiri parts of India?
The BJP too has unfortunately read it wrong as seen in its misinterpretation of the current KASHMIRI YOUTH-ANGER as having been instigated, promoted and sustained by the separatist groups sitting in Pakistan. It is only to be expected because it’s BJP’s political compulsion for the BJP to be seen as bashing Pakistan so as to keep its own BJP-VOTE-BANK in excellent humour and on its side. Why didn’t the BJP use its political power and diplomatic-manoeuvering-skills when the BJP itself was the main part of the NDA-Coalition that was ruling in New Delhi, to scrap boldly the Article 370 of the Indian constitution that granted the KASHMIR the special status?
Yes, I have this UNIQUE, SUSTAINABLE, OUT-OF-THE-BOX AND BOLD, solution to the KASHMIR CRISIS. The Bad guys of the Indian intelligence set-up beware – Don’t try to hack up my cyber-world-platforms. The solution is stored at the back of my mind only.
Yes, I am more than willing to spell-out this solution, but for that to happen, P Chidambaram and UPA-company MUST become EGOLESS and FULLY HUMBLE.
I CAN GIVE OUT THIS SOLUTION IF P CHIDAMBARAM, RAHUL GANDHI OR SONIA GANDHI MEET ME PERSONALLY AND REQUEST ME TO GIVE THIS SOLUTION. KINDLY DON’T MISINTERPRET MY THIS STATEMENT AS MY UNREASONABLE EGOISM. As a citizen of India, I too like P Chidambaram and UPA-Company have got certain political rights, powers and special privileges.
NOTE:
LOVE to all the sweet fellow tweeters/Facebook-friends/Current-TV-Buddies/World-Peace-Blog-Readers, take care, love your near & dear ones, think & act positive, spread positive vibrations all around.......................................... I'm going in the long internet/wired-world-hibernation. So, I may not be on the Tweeter/Facebook/Current TV/Blog now before December, 2010.................................................I'm taking a long break from the wired world…………………………………...just to be with my own self.................................just to be my own self………………………………I pray for the wellbeing for all of you……………….………………However………………………...You will continue reading many of my articles [that have already been scheduled in advance for the web-publishing later on] as per the pre-set schedule……………..........................Good-Bye (till at least December, 2010) to you all lovely sweet fellow tweeters/Facebook-Friends/Current-TV-Buddies/World-Peace-Blog-Readers.............................................…………………..:-)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))Is there indeed a Unique Peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue?
Yes, there... more
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1. This booklet was first written on 12th of July 2006 and was intended to be published then itself instead of waiting for the year 2010. However, Thakur Sher Singh Parmar alias Swaamee Aprtemaanandaa Jee concluded that the time was still not ripe for its publication in July, 2006 in view of the-then prevailing chaotic Anti-American Geo-political scenario.
2. In any case, Thakur Sher Singh Parmar alias Swaamee Aprtemaanandaa Jee had already made a promise in 2005-2006 to make this booklet public in the year 2010. By publishing this booklet now, Thakur Sher Singh Parmar alias Swaamee Aprtemaanandaa Jee has kept his promise.
3. This booklet clearly shows for the first time in the world that the ECONOMIC INTEGRATION OF ALL the nation-States IS THE ONLY VIABLE LONG-TERM SUSTAINABLE SOLUTION [FOR THE WORLD-PEACE] TO THE GEO-POLITICAL CONFLICTS/WARS ON OUR BEAUTIFUL PLANET EARTH.
4. It is hoped that the WISE STATESPERSONS shall be helped immensely by the wisdom shown in this book so that the long-term sustainable peace prevails amongst all the nation-States.
5. The international publishers interested in publishing this booklet or including this booklet in their publications must seek a prior written permission from Thakur Sher Singh Parmar alias Swaamee Aprtemaanandaa Jee.
Currently reading: WHAT CAUSED ME TO TRIGGER THE HIMALAYAN AMERICAN FOREIGN ... http://www.scribd.com/doc/297382021. This booklet was first written on 12th of July 2006 and was intended to be... more
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Plenty of things can cause a diplomatic ruckus. Saying you're preparing for war against a neighboring country, for example (lookin' at you Hugo Chavez). It's fun for everybody: headlines, street protests, recalling ambassadors. And it seems North African nations Egypt and Algeria are well down that road this week.
One of the Egyptian protesters, holding a sign calling for the expulsion of the Algerian ambassador, told Agence France-Presse: “We should treat Algeria like any country that has declared war on us.”
Wait, so what happened? An errant Egyptian drone strike in a suburb of Algiers? Why no, Algeria beat Egypt in a World Cup qualifying match 1-0 and there were reports that Egyptian fans were assaulted by Algerians leaving the game. And, bam, the streets of Cairo have exploded with violence! 35 people injured!
And that was at least a clean game! Poor Ireland is protesting it's World Cup loss to France after a French player scored a game-winning goal - using his hands. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has apologized for the incident but has not agreed with the Irish PM's call for a replay. To see the very evident handball, check out this Irish-produced video from YouTube showing it over and over again and set to dance music. (It's entrancing.)
(Big thanks to The Lede Blog for finding that one.)
I know what you're thinking, American reading audience: "Who cares about soccer?" Well, first off they call it "football" and second, worry you not - I've got an American football/international relations story for you too: Even Iraqi prisoners hate Packers fans (FP Passport)
Iraqi prisoners at a detainment camp run by the Wisconsin National Guard have learned some English, unfortunately for the soldiers, it is mainly about the former pride of Green Bay.
"They know Favre by name," said First Lieutenant Tim Boehnen, who is from New Richmond, Wis.
"One of the big words they know now is shenanigan. They'll constantly talk about 'Favre shenanigans,' 'He's so good for the Vikings,' and 'The Packers have got to really feel bad about that one.' "
Recently on the Current News Blog:
- Poll: GOP voters think ACORN stole election for Obama
- Obama's dialogue with a Cuban blogger
- Surviving as a freelancer - Real Recovery
- UK considers Pirate Finder General
- Why 14.6% of America can't afford enough food - Real RecoveryPlenty of things can cause a diplomatic ruckus. Saying you're preparing for war... more
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To understand fully the ramifications of the American president Obama's recent surprise peace visit to Kabul, it is first essential to understand the positions of the 6 key players involved in the current Afghan conundrum: the USA, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, China, India and the Taliban as follows:
•1. The American Position:
With the Obama Administration firmly in the place after one year in the office in Washington after two successive wins for Obama in the last 10 days in terms of the successful historic health insurance reform bill and the conclusion of nuclear-disarmament talks with Russia, one can notice clearly the enhanced enthusiasm amongst its key players including Obama himself as reflected in Obama' recent surprise visit to Kabul for the war update.
Obama is said to have told Hamid Karzai, the current Afghan president to make progress on things like a merit-based system for appointment of key government officials, battling the corruption, taking the fight to the narco-traffickers, which fuels and provides a lot of economic engine for the insurgents.
The current Afghan visit by Obama seems to be a conscious continuous part of the foreign policy of Obama, aimed at breaking up sharply from the Bush-era of mutual distrust and suspicion with respect to the Muslim world.
Simultaneously, Obama intends ensuring the full security of the American interests without letting the Anti-American interests gain the upper hand amongst the world Muslim population, especially in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That's why he hasn't pulled out the American troops from Afghanistan and instead has permitted to let the number of the American troops increase by 30,000 to a grand total of 100,000 by the end of the year 2010 in Afghanistan in addition to more than 40,000 troops from other NATO members.
•2. The Saudi Arabian Position:
The Saudi Arabian government must use its good offices with Pakistan to convince and persuade the later to desist from creating a political mess in terms of encouraging the certain Taliban elements [Pak or Afghan] to keep fighting against the coalition forces, especially when a totally Peace-Oriented statesperson like Obama is in command of the Presidency at the White House.
The Saudi Arabia must use its all political capital to dissuade all the Talibani elements from getting into fight with the coalition forces in Kandhar, the southern Afghan province, where a bigger fight than that took place in Marja, Helmand is said to be looming large.
•3. The Pakistani Position:
The Pakistani Establishment's temptation to try to use the Taliban card to gain the strategic depth in Afghanistan is quite misplaced. Assuming that Pakistan gets the full handle in Afghanistan, what shall Pakistan then gain? Will it then try to use that handle as a launching pad to influence, colonize or destabilize the other central Asian nation-States including Afghanistan itself? Will it then try to help China get a land route to the Indian Ocean through the Afghanistan-Pakistan land corridor?
Let us examine critically all these questions one by one:
1. Pakistan cannot use Afghanistan as a launching pad, as it'll be biting more than its capacity to chew, leading to the draining out of the economic resources of an already weakened- Pakistan. Russia has become wary of the Cyclonic Pak-Afghan political boundary. The Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov is quoted to have said in the aftermath of the recent twin suicide blast at Moscow subway stations killing at least 39 people, that Moscow "is well informed about the so-called no-man's land on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan," where "the terrorist underground has entrenched itself."
2. Already, Pakistan is increasingly finding it difficult to handle divisive tendencies in Sindh and the North West Frontier Province. The Occupation of Afghanistan shall only mean opening up the unknown Pandora box containing the sure recipe for full disintegration of Pakistan. Moreover, even China may find the Pakistani presence in Afghanistan increasingly harmful to the Chinese interests in terms of the then increased propensity of the Muslim extremists to use Afghanistan to foment trouble in Chinese areas like Uighur,etc.
3. Trying to get China a land passage to the Indian Ocean shall only disturb the international political equilibrium and inevitably invite the wrath of the White House which in turn would lead to drying up of the much needed and valuable irreplaceable diverse aid from the USA.
Of course, It is not to deny the Pakistan Foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi's perceptibly correct claim that Pakistan has more stake in war-torn Afghanistan, than India. This claim seems to be true in view of the facts of Pakistan having a troublesome, long, porous, cyclonic political boundary inhabited on both sides by Muslims with Afghanistan in the north, unlike India.This phenomenon may best be understood from the term ‘Conjoined brothers' used by Hamid Karzai to describe Afghanistan and Pakistan.
If the Pakistan's intention behind using the Taliban card was to try to extract whatever possible from the USA, the intention has already been carried out with the Obama Administration having committed abundant and sufficient help to Pakistan barring the Nuke-deal, during Quereshi's recent visit to Washington despite the Pakistani Establishment's inability to create a favorable view of the USA amongst a majority of the Pakistani population.
Beyond this, Washington is unlikely to be forced into giving more concessions to Pakistan. The erstwhile USSR is no more present in Afghanistan as an excuse to try to get military-financial aid from the USA. Any further attempts by Pakistan to use the Taliban card in any ways to get more shall only in all likelihood risk the delicate elastic thread of the friendship binding the White House and the Pakistani Establishment.To understand fully the ramifications of the American president Obama's recent... more
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Israel's air force has unveiled a fleet of unmanned aircraft that its says are able to reach the Gulf, putting Iran within range.
The Heron TP drones, which have a wingspan the size of a Boeing 737 passenger jet, were presented to the media on Sunday, as Israel pushes for international action against the Islamic republic over its nuclear programme.
The aircraft, developed by the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, can fly at least 20 consecutive hours and be used for surveillance or launching a missile attack.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2010/02/2010221181347325634.htmlIsrael's air force has unveiled a fleet of unmanned aircraft that its says are... more
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DOHA, Feb 13 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Saturday he was naming a special envoy to a top Islamic body to further Washington's cooperation with the Muslim world.
Obama told a U.S.-Islamic World Forum in the Qatari capital Doha in a recorded video message that he was naming White House official Rashad Hussain as special envoy to the 56-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference.
"As an accomplished lawyer and a close and trusted member of my White House staff, Rashad has played a key role in developing the partnerships I called for in Cairo," Obama said.
In a speech in Cairo last June, Obama called for a "new beginning" in ties between the United States and Muslims, many of whom felt targeted by the "war on terror" launched by President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"Since then, my administration has made a sustained effort to listen. We've held thousands of events and town halls ...in the United States and around the world ... And I look forward to continuing the dialogue during my visit to Indonesia next month," Obama said.
Obama told Muslims in his June 4 speech in Cairo that violent extremists had exploited tensions between Muslims and the West and that Islam was not part of the problem.
His speech was welcomed by many Muslims, though some said they wanted him to spell out specific actions to resolve long-running problems like the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
"And as a hafiz of the Koran, (Hussain) is a respected member of the American Muslim community, and I thank him for carrying forward this important work," Obama said in his message to the Doha meeting, using the term for someone who has mastered and memorised the Muslim holy book.
Hussain was named deputy associate counsel to Obama in January 2009. He has served as a trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice and as assistant on the House Judiciary Committee, where he reviewed legislation such as the USA Patriot Act.
Hussain, who has a master's degree in public administration and in Arabic and Islamic studies from Harvard University, graduated from Yale Law School, where he served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/02/13/world/international-obama-muslims-envoy.html?_r=1&src=twt&twt=nytimesDOHA, Feb 13 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Saturday he was naming a... more
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The world at large and the USA citizens in particular are perplexed as to what is there in the heart and mind of Barack Obama , the current USA President as regards his international policies. Everyone seems to be puzzled - how come Obama received Nobel prize for peace in 2009 and still he is continuing with the ongoing USA military role both in Iraq and Afghanistan? All those who supported him to become the USA President, in the hope that he would quickly call the American troops from Iraq and Afghanistan back home once he assumed powers in the White House seem to be dismayed. So, where has all the idealism of Obama evaporated? Has Obama become a realist in the sense that he has realised it to be necessary to continue with the present American military roles in both these countries?
Well, to my mind, Obama unwittingly is following the policy - BE NEITHER AN IDEALIST NOR A REALIST OR A PRAGMATIST, BUT BE AN IDEALISTICALLY REALIST AND REALISTICALLY IDEALIST PRAGMATIST [ IRRIP ].
Being idealist totally involves ignoring the realities of the given situation and the person perceives everything from the angle of full idealism. On the other hand, being realist totally means the person does not care a fig for any element of idealism.The totally pragmatist person is concerned neither with any idealism nor any realism. Such a person does not mind achieving objectives even if it meant casting aside/trampling upon any idealist necessities/aspirations of the players involved.
Also, such a person tends to ignore realities around, with the achieving of his/her own objective at any cost being the uppermost priority in his/her mind.But, the person adopting the IRRIP approach does not ignore the realities around and does not give up all of the idealism. Such a person tries to achieve his/her ideal/s by placing such ideal/s correctly in the context of the existing realities.
Obama seems to be following the above explained IRRIP approach on the foreign policy front in the context of Iraq and Afghanistan. Its true Obama had during his electoral race for the White House idealistically promised a quick pull out of the American troops from these two war ravaged countries. But, then he seems to have realised the realities of the situation after assuming the office as the President of the USA that its not possible to pull out American troops immediately without jeopardising the national interests of the USA and cause of the world-peace. He could not do a FULLY IDEALIST VP SINGH ACT. VP Singh had on becoming the Prime Minister of India quickly withdrawn the Indian troops from the trouble-torn SriLanka to fulfil the promise he had made during his election campaign. Both these cases are altogether different necessiting different treatments.
Obama no doubt realised the existing ground realities in Iraq and Afghanistan. Still, he has tried to achieve his idealism in terms of trying to fulfil the promise of the American Troops pull out from these two countries.But, the element of realism has perceptibly resulted into the delayed time table for withdrawal of the American troops. Obama's this IRRIP approach is certainly better than what any Republican President in the White House would have done - He/She would have displayed full realist inclination and would in all probability have continued with the presence of the American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for an undefined period!
Thakur Sher Singh Parmar
Links:
http://shersinghparmar.blogspot.com
http://geographicalworld.blogspot.com
http://a-journey-to-the-stars.blogspot.com
http://theworldpeace-globalthinktank.blogspot.com
http://theeducation-toolsmethodologies.blogspot.com
http://importantcorrewebspondence.blogspot.com
http://worldgeography.multiply.com
http://www.facebook.com/people/Sher-Singh-Parmar/100000718992959The world at large and the USA citizens in particular are perplexed as to what is... more
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Newly-released documents have revealed the UK's "special relationship" with the US was under strain at the height of the Northern Ireland Troubles.
The National Archives files show the murder of Lord Mountbatten by the IRA in 1979 did not prompt the response from the US that the UK had hoped for.
While president Jimmy Carter expressed his "profound sadness" at the death, he made no reference to terrorism.Newly-released documents have revealed the UK's "special relationship"... more
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Japan was asked not to greet Britain's first female prime minister with a security escort of 20 "karate ladies", newly-released government papers show.
Margaret Thatcher visited Tokyo for an economic summit in June 1979 - a month after winning the general election.
After Japanese officials confirmed the "karate ladies" story, the Lord Privy Seal wrote to the Foreign office.
He said Mrs Thatcher wanted "to be treated in exactly the same manner" as other leaders and not "singled out".
The letter, written on 21 May 1979, is among government papers released by the National Archives under the 30-year rule.Japan was asked not to greet Britain's first female prime minister with a... more
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