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Summary: US/Top News The US might launch a military strike on Iran before April 2007, the Arab Times reported in Kuwait. The report said that the attack would be launched from the sea, while Patriot missiles would guard Arab countries in the Gulf. Reaction to the report in Kuwait suggested that it was being taken seriously, with the speaker of the parliament saying that Kuwait would not support a U.S. attack on Iran.
The U.S. media misrepresents the reality of Venezuela, writes Mark Weisbrot on Huffington Post. Last week a Washington Post editorial claimed that "despite a one-sided campaign that left a majority of Venezuelans believing they might be punished if they did not cast their ballots for him, Chávez received only 7 million votes." But voting in Venezuela is by secret ballot, as any observer from the OAS or EU could have told them. There was no reported evidence that this secrecy was violated or that voters were intimidated into re-electing Chavez. The 7 million votes constituted a 50-year record, in number and percentage - 63 percent, the highest of 9 presidential elections in Latin America last year. The Post description of the election was ridiculous.
President Bush's address last week failed to move public opinion in support of his plan to increase US troop levels in Iraq, USA Today reports. More than 6 of 10 people back the idea of a non-binding congressional resolution expressing opposition to Bush's plan to commit additional troops. But those surveyed were split, 47%-50%, over whether Congress should deny funding for the additional troops.
To pay for the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US has used its credit card, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The US is spending about $10 billion a month on Iraq and Afghanistan. By the end of this year, the total funds appropriated will be nearly $600 billion – approaching the amount spent on the Vietnam or Korean wars, when adjusted for inflation.
Two Navy men have established a Web site, AppealforRedress.org, that enables active-duty, reserve and National Guard troops to appeal directly to Congress to withdraw military personnel from Iraq, the Washington Post reports. Monday the group held its coming-out news conference, announcing more than 1,000 people have signed appeals. On Tuesday, the pleas will be presented to Rep. Dennis Kucinich on Capitol Hill.
Iran Defense Secretary Gates said Monday Iran was "acting in a very negative way" and the US was building up its forces to demonstrate its resolve to remain in the Persian Gulf, the New York Times reports. Gates, who endorsed resuming diplomatic contacts with Iran in 2004, said Iran's behavior had worsened and resuming diplomatic relations would be possible only when Iran was "prepared to play a constructive role."
The Iraqi government is moving to solidify relations with Iran, even as the US turns up the rhetorical heat and bolsters its military forces to confront Iran's influence in Iraq, the Los Angeles Times reports. The US military is still holding five Iranians detained in a raid on an Iranian office in northern Iraq last week. Iraqis, who have echoed Iran's calls for the US to release the five men, say the three-way standoff that has ensued reveals more about American meddling in Iraqi affairs than about Iranian influence.
Diplomats in Vienna, where the International Atomic Energy Agency is based, said Thursday that the enrichment program in Natanz had ground to a halt, AP reports.
Iraq The Kurdish makeup of two of the three Iraqi army brigades due to be sent to Baghdad under President Bush's new strategic plan is drawing concern from Iraqi and US experts, the Washington Post reports. Last week a prominent member of the Iraqi Kurdish Coalition declared his opposition to Kurds going into Baghdad. "There are fears that a fight like this, pitting Kurds against the Arabs, is bound to add an ethnic touch to the conflict," he said.
Somalia Somalia's transitional government shut three of the country's biggest radio stations on Monday, the New York Times reports. The government also closed the Mogadishu office of Al Jazeera. Some accused the government of being hypocritical because officials had criticized the Islamists for not allowing radio stations to play Western music. Now the government was going further by closing the same stations.
Afghanistan NATO is fighting a war to eradicate opium from Afghanistan, writes Anne Applebaum in the Washington Post. The current policy has failed. It would make more sense to support a program for legal poppy cultivation, like the successful program that the U.S. still supports in Turkey.
Peru/Venezuela Peruvian President García and Venezuelan President Chávez agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations within a month, AP reports. The two leaders said they would also discuss cooperation in the energy sector.
Brazil A Brazilian government plan will bring large-scale logging deep into the heart of the Amazon rain forest, in a calculated gamble that new monitoring efforts can offset any danger of increased devastation, the New York Times reports. The new system assumes that the world community will also play a part and buy timber only from merchants who are properly licensed and will avoid unscrupulous dealers.
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- Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org