I like Russ Feingold, a lot. His successor in the US Senate actually said in the campaign that he didn’t believe US Senators should speak out publicly on matters of war and peace and should rather communicate their views privately and discreetly to the White House. I’m not kidding. I wrote about it here.
In this segment above, NPR’s White House Correspondent Ari Shapiro spoke with the Carnegie Endowment’s Michelle Dunne and me about the Obama administration’s evolving position on Egypt and the broader Middle East region.
Recently, through no fault of the correspondent but unfortunately through context-removing snips by an editor, I was misquoted in the Wall Street Journal. Various conservatives then grabbed my comment to try and score a gotcha point against President Obama and his team.
OK. The comments are coming back — but they will be moderated.
Northwestern University’s Jeffrey Winters has just published at HuffPost a provocative, historically informed essay in which he outlines how those close to Suharto are now back in power in Indonesia; family members of Ferdinand Marcos are now back in government roles in the Philippines; and that most likely — at some point down the road…
Amjad Atallah above in this Bloggingheads exchange with Robert Wright suggests that if Arab states and Israel had been able to deliver on a two-state outcome hatching a State of Palestine the US would not have to be so fearful of falling afoul of Mubarak and siding with protesters.
Rules I have established for those commenting on this blog are being flagrantly violated. I am shutting down comments for a period of time. I am notifying a few commenters that they are banned. I will not tolerate ad hominem attacks on anyone and the regular escalations that take place here.
When big shifts occur in the world, like the successful revolution (thus far) in Egypt, Americans like to race toward ideological frames that fit the moment and which should be applied to every nation in a similar circumstance, perhaps to Algeria, Jordan, Morocco, Yemen, even Saudi Arabia.
This “It’s Time” ad will be running on various CNN slots this week to push for reduction of forces in Afghanistan. The ad is more assertive and emotional than I am on these issues. I’m not a pacifist and there are times when war and the deployment of force are important, vital tools.
There are a number of tragedies here — but the biggest is that it is unlikely that a Palestinian government in the future will make the robust set of offers that Saeb Erekat put before the Israeli government.
