March 26, 2009: "What do we do in Iraq,
cont'd"
The News:
- Netanyahu
Promises Peace Effort, NYT March 26, 2009
- Clash
in tense Israeli-Arab town, BBC March 24, 2009
- Jonathan Cook, Turkey's
fallout with Israel deals blow to settlers , Electronic
Intifada, March 25, 2009
- Study
Says Pentagon’s Africa Command Needs to Refine
Mission, NYT
March 26, 2009 (see map
of Africa, esp. North Africa and Sahel)
- raises issue of how Pentagon plans fit into foreign
policy.
- Afghan
Strikes by Taliban Get Pakistan Help, U.S. Aides
Say, NYT
March 26, 2009
- Iran’s
Parliament Speaker Disparages Obama’s Video
Overture, NYT
March 26, 2009
- 16
Killed in Baghdad Bombing, online
NYT March 26,
2009
Two year ago:
- NYT Editorial:
Congress’s Challenge on Iraq, March 22,
2007
- House
Democrats Weigh Plan for Iraq Withdrawal . NYT March 22, 2007
- Sensing
Shift in Bush Policy, Another Hawk Leaves, NYT March 21, 2007
- George Soros, "On
Israel, America and AIPAC,"
New York Review of Books, March 15, 2007
- Iraqi poll
again -BBC - March 19, 2007 (a bit more
user friendly!)
- Iraq's
New Political Map, by Phebe Marr, US
Institute of Peace, Jan 2007
- What to do in Iraq in 2009-2010?
- US capabilities? -
- hard power? cf. French in
Algeria 1954-62 with up to 800,000
troops
- the need for international cooperation - a
revitalized UN presence and regional cooperation, not "Sunni"
(Saudi, Egypt, Jordan) vs. "Shi'ite" Iran (and Syria's Alawi
leadership).
- Iraq
Study Group (James Baker, Lee
Hamilton)
- regional and external track:
diplomacy! - Right upfront: cannot launch a successful diplo
unless also US "deals directly with the Arab-Israeli conflict
and regional instability."
- internal: benchmarks and orderly US troop
withdrawal
- Zbigniew
Brzezinski (Jimmy Carter's NSC
Advisor)
- 1. The United States should reaffirm
explicitly and unambiguously its determination to leave Iraq in
a reasonably short period of time
- 2. The United States should announce that
it is undertaking talks with the Iraqi leaders to jointly set
with them a date by which U.S. military disengagement should be
completed, and the resulting setting of such a date should be
announced as a joint decision. In the meantime, the U.S. should
avoid military escalation.
- 3. The United States should issue jointly
with appropriate Iraqi leaders, or perhaps let the Iraqi
leaders issue, an invitation to all neighbors of Iraq (and
perhaps some other Muslim countries such as Egypt, Morocco,
Algeria, and Pakistan) to engage in a dialogue regarding how
best to enhance stability in Iraq in conjunction with U.S.
military disengagement and to participate eventually in a
conference regarding regional stability.
- 4. Concurrently, the United States should
activate a credible and energetic effort to finally reach an
Israeli-Palestinian peace, making it clear in the process as to
what the basic parameters of such a final accommodation ought
to involve.
- Obama's policy
statement of Feb 27, 2009 - combat
troops out by Aug 31, 2010; all troops by end of 2011.
- The issues - see the Project on Defense
Alternatives June
2008 proposals on your syllabus
- Prospects? see CRS
report Feb 2009
- interdependence of issues
- Iran and nukes
- Israel and Palestinians
- critical role of Iran concerning both Iraq
and Afghanistan.
-
Main page | classes
| syllabus
March 26, 2009
- Department
of Government, College
of Liberal Arts, University of Texas at
Austin.Questions, Comments, and
Suggestions to chenry@mail.utexas.edu
