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[Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: General Publications and Events] Iraqi Elections Show America's Wrong Ideas about Democracy's Power ...: Since votes in Central and Eastern Europe came to symbolize victory for democracy over communism, the United States has looked to elections as turning points that allow us to declare success and scale back our presence or role. Ink-stained fingers and lines at the polls have become symbols of the triumph of U.S. initiatives and the new eras of democracy or peace that we've ushered in for people in distant countries.

[The Common Language Project] The CLP » What Does Democracy Look Like?: In the United States, for example, many people on the left cheer the failures of the Bush administration as proof that their "side" is correct, often forgetting that this perspective forces them into a position where they feel vindicated when violence continues in Iraq, or when a humanitarian disaster like Hurricane Katrina exposes the incompetence of their opponents.

[Chinatripper] Oregon, Tibet, and the China Trade « Chinatripper: I spent a week in retreat at the Bo Lin (Precious Lotus) Temple on Lan Tau Island in Hong Kong.  I have visited Buddhist temples in Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, Korea, and the United States””oh, and in Cambodia, too.  I have smuggled out messages from and donated to temples in some of these countries. I have defended in print the right of Zen Buddhists to build a retreat along the Columbia river, worked an entire summer on a project to build a huge interactive web site teaching the core beliefs of Buddhism and”¦and”¦well hopefully you get the point: Om Mani Padme Hum, and all that.

[FCNL Staff Blog] Reminding Congress that It Has the Power to End the War in ...: Kucinich’s privileged resolution, to reassert the role of Congress in matters of war and peace and to send a strong signal to the administration on the need to withdraw from Afghanistan. But if the resolution’s short deadline is more than he or she can support””even recognizing that the resolution’s effect will be symbolic, rather than substantive””then urge your representative to speak out in the floor debate on the need to end the Afghanistan war and to support new legislative measures to bring the war to a responsible close in accord with FCNL’s four steps for peace:

[Antiwar.com Original] Mullen Wary of Israeli Attack on Iran by Ray McGovern -- Antiwar.com: Fallon’s attitude appears to be shared by the more politically cautious - and less rhetorically blunt - Mullen, as the same war-with-Iran drumbeat reaches a new crescendo today. Fallon abhorred the thought of being on the receiving end of an order inspired by the likes of then-Vice President Dick Cheney and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams to send American troops into what would surely be - as Mullen would describe it - a "bloody, uneven, messy, ugly and incredibly wasteful"

[Cynthia Tucker] GOP ideas already in health care bill | Cynthia Tucker: It is best to just scrap this garbage they call a bill and start over from square one and do it as obama said he was going to do it…in front of everybody so we can all see who is on what side of the issue. That includes the unions he struck deals with, the unions he DIDN’T strike deals with, the CBO to evaluate all plans, the Dems, the Reps, the Inds, the governors who will have to shoulder a lot of the financial burden, the AMA, the insurance companies, the prescription companies he struck deals with the get their support(No lobbying in his admin huh?), the trial lawyers who obama protects by not putting forth substantial tort reform, etc.

[Occidental Dissent] Occidental Dissent » Blog Archive » Look Back at AR 2008 Part 2: French voters had rejected the European Constitution when they were asked to vote on it. However power-brokers in Brussels bypassed their vote with the Lisbon treaty of December 2007 which adopted the language and ideas of the rejected European Constitution, effectively acting as if they’re unanswerable to Europe’s people.

[Crooks and Liars] PBS Frontline: The Definitive Account of "Bush's War" | Crooks and ...: Having no idea what to do in Iraq once it became clear that a civil war was underway, the Bush White House simply tried a bit of this and a bit of that, and when nothing worked, someone was singled out to be a scapegoat for failures so that it would not reflect badly on ....

[marinekslee] marinekslee - NightWatch: Afghanistan’s Pajhwok news agency reported today that Pakistani officials have assured they would hand over the seized Taliban leaders, including Taliban deputy Mullah Berader, to the Afghan government after the latter demanded their custody.

[The American Spectator and AmSpecBlog] The American Spectator : The Cold War Is History: It was not righteousness that bought Louisiana, took California, annexed Hawaii, seized the Philippines, and converted the Caribbean into an American lake. Nor did past administrations collaborate with Stalin, court the Saudi royals, depose Mossadegh, befriend Somoza, arrange the overthrow of Diem, court Mao, and tilt in favor of Saddam against the ayatollahs because of our devotion to democracy and human rights."

[SWJ Blog] The Men Who Would Govern Marjah (SWJ Blog): Amir Abdur Rahman Khan in the 1880s in order to consolidate state control over the periphery would first manipulate tribal and personal rivalries (weaken) to extend his authority. He centered his efforts on playing one khan against the other (isolate), mostly supporting the weaker ones in their attempts to challenge the stronger ones.

[zenpundit.com] zenpundit.com » Blog Archive » The Post-COIN Era is Here: It is possible to extrapolate COIN into Strategy and Grand Strategy, but only in the context that we are conserving a given order in the face of insurgency. For the US, that given order would only come about in the form of a type of aggressive imperialism (possibly under the rubric of extending "Rule Sets"–although I think the jury is still out on whether Barnett’s quasi-imperialist concepts are the least bit palatable given the state of the electorate and the fiscal shape of America, the EU, and much of the world.) 

[Idea of the Day] A Decade of Big Bad Ideas - Idea of the Day Blog - NYTimes.com: The Earth wasn't created in a week. Just as winning vs the Soviets in the space race effectively ended space progress, so winning in the war of ideas effectively ended any attempt to prove our ideas and values were better in some human sense.

[Groundswell Blog, from Peace Action West] Responding to Republican Diggs Brown: A smart, realistic foreign ...: However, the idea that chants of “Thank you America” are ringing out in Afghanistan is an view that glosses over an incredibly complex situation and growing resentment against the United States. The good intentions and the most committed, admirable efforts of individuals on the ground can’t fix the fact that the overall US approach is not only failing in its stated goals of defeating the threat of terrorism, it is contributing to instability and undermining US security by increasing anti-American sentiment.

[Matthew Yglesias] Matthew Yglesias » A John Hannah Blog Post I'd Read: to loom as a real threat in order to make it seem like, somehow, Iraq was in league with them and they were all soon going to equip terrorists with those easy to tote nuclear bomb suitcases (they had a special corps of musclemen all pumped up to tote around those 2000 to 4000 pound things) to attack the homeland. Now, of course, the latter only worked because rightwingers are addicts of computer games and terminally stupid.

Reflected tags on Technorati: Blog, Iraq War, Iran Reviews