Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Obama following Bush's foreign policy?.. no ..

General Stanley McChrystal Doing Al Jazeera
Wednesday, Dec 09 2009 .. excerpt ..

While I disagree pretty substantially with McChrystal's -- and now President Obama's -- prescriptions for
the Afghanistan quagmire, I think that it's excellent that he's reaching out broadly to varied audiences.

Next time he puts a war plan together for Afghanistan though, he should include people less surge-happy than Frederick and Kimberly Kagan, who were the primary sculptors of the Iraq surge. If he wanted some tilting his direction, then the general should consider my colleagues Steve Coll, author of the book on the subject -- Ghost Wars, or al Qaeda-tracking Peter Bergen. For those on the skeptic side, I am sure that Flynt Leverett, Andrew Bacevich, Paul Pillar, Stephen Walt, or I would be happy to give him some straight, contrarian counsel.

Bravo to General McChrystal though for reaching out to Al Jazeera.

This shows a substantial shift in the Obama administration's direction in dealing with Arab media. .. [...]

Very glad we are getting passed the era of not talking to the part of the world we are spending a lot of time messing with.

-- Steve Clemons .. http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2009/12/general_stanley/

Aside .. excerpt ..

Some in the American Left are anticipating that they will be disappointed as quickly as I was after Brandt’s re-election in 1972. They are already grumbling: that he has appointed conservatives to key positions, and that he has been toning down his reformist rhetoric. I am willing to put my trust in the next American president. While I am as anxious for substantial change as many of those now voicing or anticipating their disappointment, I believe the capacity to effect far-reaching change is also dependent on a policy maker’s character, intellect and instincts. The author of Dreams from my Father strikes me as somebody with the right character, intellect and instincts. He may just be able to pull it off.•

Klaus Neumann works at the Institute for Social Research at Swinburne University of Technology
http://inside.org.au/obama-soliloquy/