Posted by Tina
Theres a lot of evidence that, at least in the immediate future, Barack Obama will follow the established policies of the Bush administration with respect to war. There must be something compelling about that top secret information that caused him to reconsider on some of his campaign boasts. Three recent articles offer information on the transitional atmosphere with respect to the ongoing war:
Iraq Top Ally In War Against Arab Radicals, by Charles Krauthammer
** The barbarism in Mumbai and the economic crisis at home have largely overshadowed an otherwise singular event: the ratification of military and strategic cooperation agreements between Iraq and the United States. **
** They must not pass unnoted. They were certainly noted by Iran, which fought fiercely to undermine the agreements. Tehran understood how a formal U.S.-Iraqi alliance endorsed by a broad Iraqi consensus expressed in a freely elected parliament changes the strategic balance in the region. *** For the United States, it represents the single most important geopolitical advance in the region since Henry Kissinger turned Egypt from a Soviet client into an American ally. *** If we don’t blow it with too hasty a withdrawal from Iraq, we will have turned a chronically destabilizing enemy state at the epicenter of the Arab Middle East into an ally. *** Also largely overlooked at home was the sheer wonder of the procedure that produced Iraq’s consent: classic legislative maneuvering with no more than a tussle or two tame by international standards (see YouTube: “Best Taiwanese Parliament Fights of All Time!”) over the most fundamental issues of national identity and direction. *** That any of this democratic give-and-take should be happening in a peaceful parliament just two years after Iraq’s descent into sectarian hell is in itself astonishing. Nor is the setting of a withdrawal date terribly troubling. The deadline is almost entirely symbolic. ** (Editors note: This article is a must read!)
Analysis: Obama defense agenda resembles Gates’, Robert Burns AP Writer sfgate.com
** For a Democrat whose opposition to the Iraq war was a campaign centerpiece, President-elect Barack Obama is remarkably in sync with Defense Secretary Robert Gates on many core defense and national security issues even Iraq. *** The list of similarities suggests the early focus of Obama’s Pentagon may not change dramatically from President George W. Bush’s. *** Given that Obama made the unprecedented decision to keep the incumbent Republican defense secretary, it would seem natural to expect that they see eye to eye on at least some major defense issues. But the extent of their shared priorities is surprising, given Obama’s campaign criticisms of Bush’s defense policies. *** The apparent harmony between Gates and Obama on broad defense and national security aims is on display in a Foreign Affairs magazine article by the defense chief that was released Thursday. Gates lays out a comprehensive agenda based on the Bush administration’s new National Defense Strategy. In numerous ways it meshes with the defense priorities that Obama espoused during the campaign. Examples include: better integrating and coordinating military efforts with civilian agencies, including the State Department….building up the security capacity of partner nations…not overlooking the possibility of future threats from conventional military powers, even while continuing to focus on prevailing in the counterinsurgency campaigns where conventional firepower plays a lesser role. **
Bush: war in Iraq on its way to being won, by Deb Riechmann
President George W. Bush said Saturday the U.S.-Iraqi security pact approved this week calls for 150,000 American troops to be withdrawn from Iraq in two stages all by the end of 2011. *** The first stage begins next year when U.S. troops pull back from Baghdad and other Iraqi cities by the end of June, Bush said in his weekly radio address. The new pact requires all U.S. troops to leave the country by the end of 2011. *** “Only a few years ago, such an agreement was unimaginable,” Bush said. “Chaos and violence were consuming Iraq. Terrorists were seizing new ground and using violence to divide the Iraqi people along sectarian lines. And the nation was nearing the point of political collapse and civil war.” *** It replaces a U.N. mandate that gives the U.S.-led coalition sweeping powers to conduct military operations and detain people without charge if they were believed to pose a security threat. *** The war, in its sixth year, has claimed the lives of more than 4,200 U.S. military personnel. It has dominated most of Bush’s presidency and will define his legacy. He credits increased stability in Iraq to last year’s U.S. military buildup, which President-elect Barack Obama opposed. *** “The battle in Iraq has required a large amount of time and a large amount of money,” Bush said. *** “Thousands of our finest citizens have given their lives to make our country safer and bring us to this new day. The war in Iraq is not yet over, but thanks to these agreements and the courage of our men and women in Iraq, it is decisively on its way to being won.”
U.S., India Becoming Best Of Friends, Investor Business Daily
** Globalism: Terrorists tried to drive India and Pakistan to war by their attack on Mumbai. They failed. But signs are pointing to a deepening U.S.-India alliance instead. It may be the final result of the war on terror. *** Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived Wednesday in New Delhi, offering condolences to India in the wake of the attack that killed 172. “The American people want India to know that the United States stands in solidarity,” she said. *** As the U.S. so often does for embattled allies, she also offered support more valuable than just sympathy: intelligence, investigative know-how and training to prevent future terror attacks, the only U.S. foreign aid that really works. *** Underlining how important this was, she even cut short most of her European farewell tour to rush to India. While Rice was in New Delhi, U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen tag-teamed in Islamabad, urging Pakistan’s leaders to get serious about cooperating with India in the probe of the attacks. *** The entire picture shows something that isn’t well-known: India is not just an ally but now a top ally in what the State Department calls a “priority relationship” with the U.S. It’s bound to be good for the U.S., and may amount to a worthy end to the war on terror. *** “I believe that this partnership will be for the 21st century one of the most important partnerships that our country, the United States, has with any country around the world,” former Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said in a 2007 speech. “I would wager that in 20 or 30 years time, most Americans will say that India is one of our two or three most important partners worldwide.” **