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Just Foreign Policy News
October 8, 2008
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What the Debate Missed on Afghanistan: Brits Say Talk to Taliban
Our British allies are telling us that there is no military solution in
Afghanistan, that there must be a political solution, and that there
should be talks with the Taliban. It would be a step forward for U.S.
policy if the Presidential candidates would acknowledge this reality in
the next Presidential debate on October 15.
Can you join us in
asking the Presidential candidates and debate moderator Bob Schieffer
to acknowledge that the British say there must be
a political solution, and that there should be talks with the Taliban?
https://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/afghanreality.html
Support the Work of Just Foreign Policy
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Summary:
U.S./Top News
1)
An investigation by the US military has concluded US airstrikes on Aug.
22 in a village in western Afghanistan killed far more civilians than
US commanders there have acknowledged, the New York Times reports. The
report sticks to the military's assertion the compound was a legitimate
target, a finding likely to rekindle tensions with the government of
President Karzai. As a result of
that finding, the report does not recommend that any US troops be
punished.
2) Defense Secretary Gates said he supported talks with "reconcilable"
insurgents in
Afghanistan who might be persuaded to break with the Taliban, Bloomberg
reports. Gates also said he had no objection to Saudi Arabia trying to
broker a peace deal between the Afghan government and militants. Gates
said he drew the line at talks with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad
Omar. [Press reports have suggested that talks have indeed taken place
with representatives of Omar - JFP.]
3) Gen. Petraeus said negotiations with some members of the Taliban
could provide a way to reduce violence in sections of Afghanistan,
Reuters reports. The British commander in Afghanistan had told the
Sunday Times negotiations with the Taliban could bring needed progress.
Asked about those remarks, Petraeus noted that Britain's long
experience negotiating with adversaries helped reduce violence
in Iraq. "They've sat down with thugs throughout their history,
including us in our early days, I suspect," he said.
4) The U.S. is set to suspend a trade deal with Bolivia
that is worth 20,000 Bolivian jobs and $150 million a year, but
President Morales says Bolivia doesn't have to be afraid of "an
economic blockade by the United States against the Bolivian people,"
the Miami Herald reports. Even so, his government announced it would
send a delegation to Washington to lobby for the country's continued
participation in a regional trade pact rewarding Andean nations for
cooperating with U.S. anti-narcotics efforts.
5) A U.S. court said Ecuador's government did not have to enter
arbitration with Chevron Corp over an estimated liability of up to $16
billion stemming from oil waste pits in the Amazon rainforest, Reuters
reports. "This ruling is yet another blow to Chevron's strategy to
avoid liability in Ecuador," said an attorney
for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Chevron.
Iran
6)
U.S. presidential candidates McCain and Obama both said they would work
if elected to
toughen sanctions on Iran, Reuters reports. Obama said his
administration would push to tighten sanctions on Iran and restrict
gasoline imports to Iran [evoking the so-far defeated and discredited H
Con Res 362 - JFP.]
Iraq
7)
A nearly completed high-level U.S. intelligence analysis warns that
unresolved ethnic and sectarian tensions in Iraq could unleash a new
wave of violence, McClatchy reports. The findings seem to cast doubts
on McCain's frequent assertions that the US is "on a path to victory"
in Iraq. But they could also be used against Obama's pledge to withdraw
most US troops in 16 months, McClatchy says.
Paraguay
8)
The killing of a landless peasant in Paraguay during a police
eviction in a farm belonging to a Brazilian impelled the government to
suspend all sales of land to foreigners, Mercopress reports.
Contents:
U.S./Top
News
1) 30 Civilians Died in Afghan Raid, U.S. Inquiry Finds
Eric Schmitt, New York Times, October 8, 2008
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/washington/08inquiry.html
An investigation by the military has concluded that American airstrikes
on Aug. 22 in a village in western Afghanistan killed far more
civilians than American commanders there have acknowledged, according
to two American military officials.
The military
investigator's report found that more than 30 civilians - not 5 to 7 as
the military has long insisted - died in the airstrikes against a
suspected Taliban compound in Azizabad.
The investigator,
Brig. Gen. Michael W. Callan of the Air Force, concluded that
many more civilians, including women and children, had been buried in
the rubble than the military had asserted, one of the military
officials said.
The airstrikes have been the focus
of sharp tensions between the Afghan government, which has said that 90
civilians died in the raid, and the American military, under Gen. David
D. McKiernan, the top American military commander in Afghanistan, which
has repeatedly insisted that only a handful of civilians were killed.
The report was requested by General McKiernan on Sept. 7, more than two
weeks after the airstrikes, in response to what he said at the time was
"emerging evidence" about the raids. While American commanders in
Afghanistan have contended that 30 to 35 militants were killed in the
raid, the new report concludes that many among that group were in fact
civilians, the military officials said.
...
The report sticks
to the military's assertion that the compound was a legitimate target,
a finding that is likely to rekindle tensions with the government of
President Hamid Karzai. As a result of that finding, the report does
not single out any individual for blame or
recommend that any American troops be punished.
...
Even
before he requested the more senior investigator, General McKiernan
issued orders on Sept. 2 tightening the rules about when NATO troops in
Afghanistan were authorized to use lethal force. The new rules
emphasized putting Afghan forces out front in searches of homes and
requiring multiple sources of information before attacking targets.
2) Gates Favors Talks With 'Reconcilable' Insurgents
Ken Fireman, Bloomberg, Oct. 7
https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=auiywlETgvDc
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he supported talks with
"reconcilable" insurgents in Afghanistan who might be
persuaded to break with the Taliban and stop fighting U.S. and NATO
forces. Gates also said he had no objection to Saudi Arabia trying to
broker a peace deal between the Afghan government and
militants.
"The idea is, how do you convince some of these
people to stop killing Americans and our allies and above all Afghans
and become a part of the future of the state of Afghanistan?" Gates
told reporters en route to a five-day visit to eastern Europe, during
which he will discuss the Taliban insurgency at a NATO meeting in
Budapest. "That is one of the key long-term solutions in Afghanistan,
just as it has been in Iraq."
Taliban insurgents are stepping
up their offensive in Afghanistan as they seek to topple the government
of President Hamid Karzai. The number of clashes in the past six months
has risen to the highest level since the Taliban was driven from power
by a U.S.-led coalition in late 2001, according to the United Nations.
Gates said he drew the line at talks with Taliban leader Mullah
Mohammad Omar. "I, in my wildest imagination, would not consider Mullah
Omar a reconcilable," he said.
...
"There's now recognition that it's time to think about ways to bring
all of this to the table," said Paul Burton, policy director at the
Senlis Council, a research group with offices around the world. It will
be difficult to know who should be invited to represent the Taliban
movement because there are many factions, Burton said.
"One can't simply continue this solely military venture against an
insurgency that has demonstrated, not only over the last few years but
also during the 80s, that it's dug in and could be resilient," Burton
said in a telephone interview from Hastings, England.
3) Petraeus sees value in talking to Taliban
Reuters, Wednesday, October 8, 2008; 3:48 PM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/08/AR2008100802416.html
U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus said on Wednesday that negotiations
with some members of the Taliban could provide a way to reduce violence
in sections of Afghanistan gripped by an intensifying insurgency.
"If there are people who are willing to reconcile (with the
government), then that would be a positive step in some of these areas
that have actually been spiraling downward," said Petraeus, who will
soon take up responsibility for U.S. operations in Afghanistan.
"The key there is making sure that all of that is done in complete
coordination, with complete support of the Afghan government," he told
a forum hosted by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
...
Petraeus said negotiations with insurgents willing to consider
reconciliation could reduce violence by isolating hard-core militants,
which is what occurred in Iraq's Anbar province when Sunni tribesmen
joined U.S. forces against al Qaeda.
"You've got to set things up. You've got to know who you're talking to.
You've got to have your objectives straight," the general said. His
remarks followed a flurry of media reports about possible negotiations
with the Taliban.
Saudi King Abdullah hosted a meeting last month with representatives of
the Taliban and the Afghan government, fanning speculation about a
potential dialogue. The British commander in Afghanistan, Brig. Mark
Carleton-Smith, also told the Sunday Times that negotiations with the
Taliban could bring needed progress.
Asked about those
remarks, Petraeus noted that Britain's long experience negotiating with
adversaries helped reduce violence in Iraq. "They've sat down with
thugs throughout their history, including us in our early days, I
suspect," he said.
4) Morales: Bolivia should not fear US
'blockade'
Dan Keane, Miami Herald, Wed, Oct. 08, 2008
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/717232.html
The U.S. is set to suspend a trade deal with Bolivia that
is worth 20,000 Bolivian jobs and $150 million a year, but President
Evo Morales says South America's poorest country shouldn't worry. "We
don't have to be afraid of an economic blockade by the United States
against the Bolivian people," Morales said Tuesday during a visit to
southern town of Vallegrande, near where Cuban revolutionary Ernesto
"Che" Guevara died in 1967.
Even so, his government announced
it would send a delegation to Washington later this month to lobby for
the country's continued participation in a regional trade pact
rewarding Andean nations for cooperating with U.S. anti-narcotics
efforts.
The Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act has given Bolivia
breaks on some U.S. tariffs since 1991. But a rapidly souring relationship between the two countries has put the deal at risk.
...
Bolivia's recent demands that U.S. development
projects and Drug Enforcement Administration officials to leave the
Chapare, a coca-growing region in the country's central Andean
foothills, prompted Washington to place Bolivia on an anti-drug
blacklist last month.
The "decertification" of Bolivia's anti-drug efforts triggered U.S.
President George W. Bush to recommend the suspension of Bolivia's
participation in the trade deal. The U.S. Trade Representative is
expected to decide by month's end on whether to suspend the deal, which
covers the import of Bolivian jewelry, textiles, and wood products,
among other products.
Thomas Shannon, the top U.S. diplomat
for Latin America, told The Associated Press last week that the deal's
suspension would not necessarily be permanent. "If we can come to terms
on our
counterdrug cooperation...then we will be able to restore these ATPDEA
benefits," he said. "We haven't shut the door."
The United States is Bolivia's third largest
trading partner after Brazil and Argentina. Bolivian government and
business leaders estimate the suspension of the trade deal could cost
the country some 20,000 jobs.
But Morales recalled that, long before his election as the country's
first indigenous president in 2005, he and then Cuban President Fidel
Castro discussed the possibility that the U.S. might cut commercial
ties to Bolivia.
"I asked him, 'What happens if someday I'm
president and the U.S. puts an economic blockade on Bolivia?'" Morales
said Tuesday. "You know what Fidel told me? First, Bolivia's not an
island like Cuba. Second, Bolivia has countries like Cuba, Venezuela,
Argentina, and Brazil. And third, Bolivia has so many natural resources
- hydrocarbons, petroleum."
5)
Chevron can't arbitrate Ecuador liability-US court
Braden Reddall, Reuters, Oct 7
https://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0748580620081008
A
U.S. court said on Tuesday Ecuador's government did not have to enter
arbitration with Chevron Corp over an estimated liability of up to $16
billion stemming from oil waste pits in the Amazon rainforest.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found Chevron's claim that
Ecuador must submit to arbitration over who was responsible for any
environmental damage to be "without merit," according to a summary
order from the New York court.
In an ongoing suit in Ecuador,
locals charge that Chevron's Texaco unit damaged their health by
dumping billions of gallons of oil-laden water from 1972 to 1992,
before turning over operations to state-run Petroecuador.
"This ruling
is yet another blow to Chevron's strategy to avoid liability in Ecuador
and signals that Chevron should take responsibility for the
environmental and medical tragedy that resulted from the
contamination," Pablo Fajardo, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in
a statement.
Iran
6) McCain, Obama Would Toughen Sanctions on Iran, Reuters, October 7, 2008
Ross Colvin, Reuters, Oct 07, 2008 22:19 EST
https://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=412918
U.S. presidential candidates Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack
Obama both said Tuesday they would work if elected to toughen sanctions
on Iran to stop it acquiring nuclear weapons.
The two
candidates outlined sharp foreign policy differences during the second
of three televised debates in Nashville, Tennessee, but both agreed
that Iran should not be allowed to build an atomic bomb.
...
Obama said
that if elected on Nov. 4 his administration would push to tighten
sanctions on Iran and restrict gasoline imports to the Islamic
Republic, which suffers a shortage of refined fuel. "If
we can prevent them from importing the gasoline they need and the
refined petroleum products, that starts changing their cost benefits
analysis, that starts putting the squeeze on them," the Illinois
senator said.
He reiterated that while he was prepared to engage in direct talks with Iran, military options were "not off the table".
...
The Arizona senator said he also favored working with the United
States' allies to toughen sanctions to force the Iranians to "modify
their behavior".
Iraq
7) New US Intelligence Report Warns 'Victory' Not Certain in Iraq
Jonathan S. Landay, Warren P. Strobel & Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy Newspapers, October 07, 2008
https://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/53605.html
A nearly completed high-level U.S. intelligence analysis warns that
unresolved ethnic and sectarian tensions
in Iraq could unleash a new wave of violence, potentially reversing the
major security and political gains achieved over the last year. U.S.
officials familiar with the new National Intelligence Estimate said
they were unsure when the top-secret report would be completed and
whether it would be published before the Nov. 4 presidential election.
More than a half-dozen officials spoke to McClatchy on condition of
anonymity because NIE's, the most authoritative analyses produced by
the U.S. intelligence community, are restricted to the president, his
senior aides and members of Congress except in rare instances when just
the key findings are made public.
The new NIE, which reflects
the consensus of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, has significant
implications for
Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, whose differences
over the Iraq war are a major issue in the presidential campaign.
The findings seem to cast doubts on McCain's frequent
assertions that the United States is "on a path to victory" in Iraq by
underscoring the deep uncertainties of the situation despite the
30,000-strong U.S. troop surge for which he was the leading
congressional advocate. But McCain could also use the findings to try
to strengthen his argument for keeping U.S. troops in Iraq until
conditions stabilize.
For Obama, the report raises questions about whether he could fulfill
his pledge to withdraw most of the remaining 152,000 U.S. troops - he
would leave some there to deal with al Qaida and to protect U.S.
diplomats and civilians - within 16 months of taking office so that
more U.S. forces could be sent to battle the growing Taliban insurgency
in Afghanistan.
Word of the draft NIE comes at a time when
Iraq is
enjoying its lowest levels of violent incidents since early 2004 and a
77 percent drop in civilian deaths in June through August 2008 over the
same period in 2007, according to the Defense
Department.
U.S. officials say last year's surge of 30,000
troops, all of whom have been withdrawn, was just one reason for the
improvements. Other factors include the truce declared by anti-U.S.
cleric Muqtada al Sadr, the leader of an Iran-backed Shiite Muslim
militia; and the enlistment of former Sunni insurgents in Awakening
groups created by the U.S. military to fight al Qaida in Iraq and other
extremists.
The draft NIE, however, warns that the
improvements in security and political progress, like the recent
passage of a provincial election law, are threatened by lingering
disputes between the majority Shiite Arabs, Sunni Arabs, Kurds and
other minorities, the U.S. officials said.
Sources of tension
identified by the NIE, they said, include a struggle
between Sunni Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen for control of the oil-rich
northern city of Kirkuk; and the Shiite-led central government's
unfulfilled vows to hire former Sunni insurgents who joined
Awakening groups.
Paraguay
8) Peasant death forces Paraguay to ban foreign land holders
Mercopress, Wednesday, October 8, 2008
https://www.mercopress.com/vernoticia.do?id=14795&formato=HTML
The
killing of a landless peasant in Paraguay during a police eviction
process in a farm belonging to a Brazilian national, decided the
government on Tuesday to suspend all sales of land to foreigners. "The
subscription of all administrative procedures for the purchase from
beneficiaries of the agrarian facility by non holders of such condition
is banned", read a resolution released in internet by the National
Institute for Rural and Land
Development, Indert.
Physical foreign persons are no longer
beneficiaries of the agrarian facility, added the release. The sale of
rights and shares of plots by agrarian facility holders to
non holders in no longer legally valid or binding in Paraguay.
Bievenido Mereles, 45, a peasant leader was killed with a shot in the
neck last Friday during an armed confrontation between the police in
the process of evicting landless peasants from a farm belonging to
Oscar Farver, a Brazilian national. The farm was located 500 kilometres
to the northeast of the Paraguayan capital Asunción, next to the
Brazilian border.
The ban imposed by the administration of
President Fernando Lugo could aggravate an ongoing conflict between the
big soy bean farmers and organized peasant groups which have the tacit
sympathy from government and during the electoral campaign in 2007 were
promised plots of land.
Paraguay is the world's fourth largest
exporter of soybeans
but peasant groups and the new administration of President Lugo claim
big farmers are using agro toxic products which contaminate land and
water.
Paraguayan Finance minister
Dionisio Borda said on Monday that before December the government would
be announcing a system of duties of farm exports, similar to that
prevalent in Argentina.
Some economic experts warned that the government ban endangers the
production of big farms, mostly in Brazilian hands whose property
rights over the land in some cases "could be lacking complete legality."
-
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
Just Foreign Policy is a membership organization devoted to reforming
US foreign policy so it reflects the values and interests of the
majority of Americans.
