Action Spotlight
Support Peace Talks in Afghanistan
Recent press reports indicate that the Obama Administration is having an internal debate on whether to supports talks with senior Afghan Taliban leaders. Senior officials like Vice President Biden are said to be more open to reaching out because they believe it will help shorten the war.
Urge President Obama to support peace talks with Taliban >
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JFP 2/8; UK Defense Min.: Don't Wait For Victory To Start Talks With Taliban
Just Foreign Policy News
February 8, 2010
CEPR's Haiti Relief Watch Blog
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/
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Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) The British defense secretary, Bob Ainsworth, said NATO should not seek the Taliban's unconditional surrender and warned against "setting the bar too high" for peace talks, the Guardian reports. Ainsworth argued it was unrealistic to require insurgents to support western-style democracy before entering dialogue. "Afghanistan is a conservative Muslim country. It's never going to be Bavaria or Surrey," Ainsworth said. "Neither must we wait until there has been victory before we try to reconcile and bring in those elements from the insurgency who are prepared to come across." US envoy Holbrooke "distanced" the US from talks, the Guardian says. But Ainsworth disagreed, saying: "I don't believe that reintegration is something you do after victory. This is not total war. We're not looking for unconditional surrender in Afghanistan. We're looking for the stabilisation of a country and its participation in the world in a manner that doesn't threaten its neighbours and doesn't threaten us. "We mustn't raise that bar too high in terms of our preparedness to bring people in. Neither should we wait until there is real victory before we try to reconcile or reintegrate those elements in the insurgency who are prepared to come across."
JFP 2/5: US Treasury Backs Debt Cancellation, Grants for Haiti
Just Foreign Policy News
February 5, 2010
Okinawa Anti-Base YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/2010okinawa
CEPR's Haiti Relief Watch Blog
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/
Change.org: End the War in Afghanistan
http://www.change.org/ideas/browse/war_and_peace
Support the work of Just Foreign Policy:
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/donate.html
Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) The US Treasury Department released a statement saying it is supporting the cancellation of Haiti's external debt, and financing of recovery through grants.
JFP 2/4: CEPR Launches Haiti Relief Watch Blog
Just Foreign Policy News
February 4, 2010
FSRN: Plan to negotiate with Taliban leaders gathers support from world leaders
Just Foreign Policy talks with Free Speech Radio News about prospects for negotiations with the Afghan Taliban.
http://www.fsrn.org/audio/web-special-plan-negotiate-with-taliban-leaders-gathers-support-world-leaders/6144
CEPR Launches Haiti Relief Watch Blog
CEPR has launched a blog, "Haiti: Relief and Reconstruction Watch," to monitor aid efforts to Haiti.
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/
Eat Your Spinach: Time for Peace Talks in Afghanistan
When U.S. and British officials say the end of the war in Afghanistan is a negotiated political settlement with the Afghan Taliban, it's time for the talks to produce that agreement to start.
http://www.truthout.org/eat-your-spinach-time-peace-talks-afghanistan56626
Change.org: End the War in Afghanistan
At this writing, our proposal is in second place in change.org's war and peace category (behind Peace Action West's worthy "Freeze Pentagon Spending" proposal - since the top three proposals in the category will emerge from this round, you can vote for our proposal without fear of harming Peace Action West.) Now is the time to begin establishing "timetable for withdrawal" and "political negotiations" as demands on the war supplemental. Help us move these ideas to the center of public discussion.
JFP 2/3: Aid Groups, Labor Call for Financial Transactions Taxes
Just Foreign Policy News
February 3, 2010
Eat Your Spinach: Time for Peace Talks in Afghanistan
When U.S. and British officials say the end of the war in Afghanistan is a negotiated political settlement with the Afghan Taliban, it's time for the talks to produce that agreement to start.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/02/03-5
Change.org: End the War in Afghanistan
At this writing, our proposal is in second place in change.org's war and peace category. Now is the time to begin establishing "timetable for withdrawal" and "political negotiations" as demands on the war supplemental. Help us move these ideas to the center of public discussion.
http://www.change.org/ideas/view/end_the_war_in_afghanistan_establish_a_timeline_for_withdrawal_and_begin_political_negotiations
Health GAP: Aid Groups, Labor Call for Financial Transactions Taxes
The G-20 charged the IMF with preparing a report on options countries are considering for how the financial sector could make a fair and substantial contribution toward paying for burdens associated with government interventions to repair the banking system. Seventy aid, labor, development, and environemental organizations from around the world, including the AFL-CIO, Oxfam, RESULTS, Public Citizen, and Friends of the Earth, have called on the IMF to "tell the truth" about financial transactions taxes: FTTs are feasible, would raise significant revenue, and would discourage speculation.
http://www.healthgap.org/imf_ftt_letter.htm
Okinawa Anti-Base YouTube Channel:
JFP 2/2: Karzai Defies Obama on Taliban Peace Talks
Just Foreign Policy News
February 2, 2010
Eat Your Spinach: Time for Peace Talks in Afghanistan
When Mom says you can have ice cream after you've eaten your spinach, you eat your spinach. When U.S. and British officials say the end of the war in Afghanistan is a negotiated political settlement with the Afghan Taliban, it's time for the talks to produce that agreement to start.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/eat-your-spinach-time-for_b_446149.html
Change.org: End the War in Afghanistan
The vote on funding for military escalation in Afghanistan will be the next major opportunity for Congress to change course. Now is the time to begin establishing "timetable for withdrawal" and "political negotiations" as demands on the supplemental. Help us move these ideas to the center of public discussion.
http://www.change.org/ideas/view/end_the_war_in_afghanistan_establish_a_timeline_for_withdrawal_and_begin_political_negotiations
Support the work of Just Foreign Policy:
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/donate.html
Summary:
U.S./Top News
Eat Your Spinach: Time for Peace Talks in Afghanistan
In the last week the New York Times and Inter Press Service have reported that the Obama Administration is having an internal debate on whether to supports talks with senior Afghan Taliban leaders, including Mullah Muhammad Omar, as a means of ending the war in Afghanistan. Senior officials like Vice President Biden are said to be more open to reaching out because they believe it will help shorten the war.
Wouldn't it be remarkable if this remained merely an "internal debate" within the Obama Administration? Wouldn't you expect that the part of public opinion that wants the war to end would try to intervene in this debate on behalf of talks in order to end the war?
As an administration official told the New York Times,
"Today, people agree that part of the solution for Afghanistan is going to include an accommodation with the Taliban, even above low- and middle-level fighters."
And in fact, US and British officials have been saying for months that the "endgame" in Afghanistan includes a negotiated political settlement with the Afghan Taliban.
Now, suppose you tell Mom that you want to have ice cream. And Mom says, you can have ice cream when you've eaten your spinach. Wouldn't you eat your spinach? If you don't eat your spinach now, you didn't want ice cream very badly.
JFP 2/1: ISI officer says Omar ready to break with al Qaeda
Just Foreign Policy News
February 1, 2010
Change.org: End the War in Afghanistan
The vote on funding for military escalation in Afghanistan will be the next major opportunity for Congress to change course. Now is the time to begin establishing "timetable for withdrawal" and "political negotiations" as demands on the supplemental. Help us move these ideas to the center of public discussion.
http://www.change.org/ideas/view/end_the_war_in_afghanistan_establish_a_timeline_for_withdrawal_and_begin_political_negotiations
Support the work of Just Foreign Policy:
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/donate.html
Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) A former Pakistani intelligence (ISI) officer says Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar is ready to break with al-Qaida to make peace, the Guardian reports.
Brigadier Sultan Amir Tarar said Taliban talks could succeed only through direct engagement with Omar. A senior western official said the ISI's co-operation in negotiations was vital - if not to aid negotiations, then at least to prevent the spy agency sabotaging them.
2) India's foreign minister said India is willing to back efforts to seek peace with Taliban to stabilise Afghanistan, Reuters reports. "If the Taliban meets the three conditions put forward - acceptance of the Afghan constitution, severing connections with al Qaeda and other terrorist groups and renunciation of violence, and are accepted in the mainstream of Afghan politics and society, we could do business," foreign minister S.M. Krishna said.
JFP 1/29: Haiti's Prime Minister Slams US Aid Delays
Just Foreign Policy News
January 29, 2010
Al Jazeera Video: Haiti PM slams US aid delays
Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive says he does not understand why so much water and food in storage facilities at the airport is not being distributed. Bellerive expressed his frustration with security decisions made by the US military that are hindering the earthquake relief effort. "Haitians don't care about the security, they just want the water, food and medicine to get to them ... they don't feel that there is the need for so much security," he said.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/01/2010129151615240430.html
Change.org: End the War in Afghanistan
The vote on funding for military escalation in Afghanistan will be the next major opportunity for Congress to change course. Now is the time to begin establishing "timetable for withdrawal" and "political negotiations" as demands on the supplemental. Help us move these ideas to the center of public discussion.
http://www.change.org/ideas/view/end_the_war_in_afghanistan_establish_a_timeline_for_withdrawal_and_begin_political_negotiations
Support the work of Just Foreign Policy:
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/donate.html
Summary:
U.S./Top News
JFP 1/28: Jesse Jackson, Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte: Speed Emergency Aid to Haiti
Just Foreign Policy News
January 28, 2010
Jesse Jackson, Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte: Speed Emergency Aid to Haiti
Reverend Jesse Jackson, Danny Glover, and Harry Belafonte, together with Haiti NGOs, peace groups, and Latin America scholars, have written to Congress urging that the delivery of medical aid and other urgently needed aid to Haiti be speeded up and prioritized over the deployment of U.S. troops.
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/464/
AWOL from the SOTU: Peace, Reconciliation, and Debt
On foreign policy, while the President said some good things, he missed key opportunities to say better things. In particular, he missed opportunities to promote reconciliation as an essential way of ending our wars and promoting peace. In speaking about U.S. domestic politics, the President is eloquent in his efforts to promote reconciliation, but he seems to have lost his voice in applying these ideas to our foreign policy.
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/463
Change.org: End the War in Afghanistan
The vote on funding for military escalation in Afghanistan will be the next major opportunity for Congress to change course. Now is the time to begin establishing "timetable for withdrawal" and "political negotiations" as demands on the supplemental. Help us move these ideas to the center of public discussion.
http://www.change.org/ideas/view/end_the_war_in_afghanistan_establish_a_timeline_for_withdrawal_and_begin_political_negotiations
Support the work of Just Foreign Policy:
Jesse Jackson, Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte: Speed Aid to Haiti
Reverend Jesse Jackson, Danny Glover, and Harry Belafonte, together with Haiti NGOs, peace groups, and Latin America scholars, have written to Congress urging that the delivery of medical aid and other urgently needed aid to Haiti be speeded up and prioritized over the deployment of U.S. troops.
The letter is here.
An article in the Miami Herald is here.