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Summary: U.S./Top News Rafael Correa, a progressive economist who called for cutting ties with the IMF and the World Bank, won Ecuador's presidential election, news agencies reported.
A draft Iraq Study Group report on strategies for Iraq urges an aggressive regional diplomatic initiative that includes direct talks with Iran and Syria but sets no timetables for a military withdrawal, the New York Times reports, but members of the commission expected a divisive debate about timetables for beginning an American withdrawal.
Iran said Sunday it is willing to help the US calm Iraq's escalating sectarian violence if the U.S. drops its "bullying" policy toward Iran, AP reports.
Senior members of the House Armed Services Committee and former Defense Department officials yesterday criticized poor U.S. training of the Iraqi army and police as a major reason the Iraqi government cannot provide security, the Washington Post reports.
There will be no victory or defeat for the US in Iraq, Senator Chuck Hagel wrote in a Washington Post op-ed yesterday. The time for more U.S. troops in Iraq has passed, he says. We do not have more troops to send and, even if we did, they would not bring a resolution to Iraq. Hagel is making the case for withdrawal that Congressional Democrats should be offering, writes John Nichols for The Nation: "The US must begin planning for a phased troop withdrawal from Iraq... We've already spent more than $300 billion there to prosecute an almost four-year-old war and are still spending $8 billion per month."
The Bush administration continues to insist that Iraq is not in a civil war, but a growing number of scholars, leaders and policy analysts say the fighting in Iraq meets the standard definition of the term, Edward Wong reports for the New York Times. Wong notes that a month after the bombing of the Samarra shrine former Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi said, "If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is."
Iraq The anti-war movement has been a major factor in mobilizing a majority of the American public to oppose the occupation and killing in Iraq, Just Foreign Policy board member Tom Hayden wrote yesterday in the San Francisco Chronicle. After peace activists sought an anti-war candidate to run against Nancy Pelosi, she shifted from a vague centrism to support for Rep. Murtha's call for withdrawal, Hayden notes. After Sen. Clinton was booed at a liberal rally, she began supporting Sen. Levin's proposal to start a phased withdrawal by year's end.
For U.S. officials, dismantling the Mahdi Army is a cornerstone of their plan to stabilize Iraq, the Washington Post reports. But the militia's role in helping Sadr City residents recover from massive attacks Thursday illustrated the political difficulties involved in tackling them. The militiamen were heroes, residents said. They did everything Iraq's government did not do.
A classified US government report says the insurgency in Iraq is now self-sustaining financially, raising tens of millions of dollars a year from oil smuggling, kidnapping, counterfeiting, and other crimes the Iraqi government and the US have been unable to prevent, the New York Times reports.
Moqtada al-Sadr's political bloc, a key player in the Iraqi government, threatened Friday to withdraw from the cabinet and parliament if Maliki met President Bush in Jordan next week, Reuters reported.
Britain said Monday it expects to withdraw thousands of its 7,000 military personnel from Iraq by the end of next year, while Poland and Italy announced the impending withdrawal of their remaining troops, AP reports.
Lebanon As the struggle between Hezbollah and the governing coalition reaches a crescendo, people in Lebanon are asking if it is the prelude to a civil war, the New York Times reports. Analysts say the political situation in Lebanon and the region recalls the period before the outbreak of civil war in 1975.
The U.N. Mine Action Coordination Center said Saturday that Israel laid mines in Lebanon this summer, the first time Israel has been accused of planting mines during the latest fighting, AP reports.
Israel/Palestine A cease-fire in Gaza appeared to largely hold on Sunday after Palestinian factions stopped firing rockets at Israel in exchange for an Israeli troop withdrawal from the territory, the New York Times reports.
Israel is prepared to release many jailed Palestinians, including long-serving prisoners, in return for a soldier militants seized in June, Israeli Prime Minister Olmert said. It was the first time he had offered to exchange prisoners for Gilad Shalit, Reuters reports. Hamas said Olmert's offer was not enough, alluding to its demand for an exchange of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for Shalit.
Afghanistan The Afghan mission threatens a rift within NATO between those nations willing to participate fully in combat operations in Afghanistan and those nations that are not, the New York Times reports.
Bahrain Critics in Bahrain say recent elections were similar to those in many Arab countries: designed to give the appearance of democracy while maintaining the government's tight grip on power, the Washington Post reports. Some democracy activists told the Post that Western pressure is the only option that could force Arab governments to give up some of their power.
Bolivia President Morales proposed disbanding the Senate, which has been resisting his calls for ambitious land reform legislation, the New York Times reported in a news brief. The proposal would be considered by an assembly that is rewriting Bolivia's Constitution.
Venezuela Newsweek International carried a piece by former Mexican Foreign Minister and New York University professor Jorge Castañeda which contains several important distortions about Venezuela. He suggested that turnout in the 2004 referendum was less than 30%, when in fact it was 70%; he cites the discredited polling firm Penn, Schoen & Berland to suggest the presidential race is close when all reputable polls show a substantial lead for President Chávez; he claims that poverty has not diminished in Venezuela although official statistics show it has fallen.
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- Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org