This week on TPMCafe's America Abroad, the bloggers are talking about...

 

The War On Terror: Lessons From Indonesia

The suicide bombings in Bali this week left America Abroad's bloggers questioning the course of the U.S. war on terror.  Juliette Kayyem was struck by the relative silence of the Bush Administration in response to the bombings, contending that the President's capacity to address "all terror, all the time" has declined.  "We have too many problems of our own...to worry about a few dozen dead in some country far away be some group we can't even pronounce," Kayyem wrote.  James Lindsay reported on the effects of America's single minded focus on terrorism after returning from a "listening tour" of Indonesia with fellow blogger Ivo Daalder.  Lindsay wrote that America's focus on terrorism, at the expense of other foreign policy concerns, hurt U.S. standing among Indonesians.  He also quoted a piece from The New York Times declaring that the presence of terrorism in Bali should teach the U.S. that "we ignore what others think at our peril."  Bruce Jentleson questioned the use of democracy promotion as an anti-terrorism strategy, citing the "extremist and intolerant political ideologies" that can take hold in the early stages of democratic transition.  Of democratization and fighting terrorism, he wrote, "We need to break out of the conventional wisdom and easy rhetoric and recognize that as much as we would like these strategies to be complementary, they are often competing."

What Comes Next In Iraq?

In the midst of the bombings in Bali and the reports of a threat to New York City's subway system, President Bush's claim last week  that the military had killed the top operational commander of Al Qaeda in Iraq seemed less than victorious.  Daniel Benjamin, writing with Steven Simon, felt a sense of deja vu during the President Bush's Rose Garden address, proclaiming the death of yet another high level operative.  This strategy of "hunting down high-value targets," as President Bush has said, is not working, according to Benjamin and Simon.  A better strategy would, among other steps, "apply the full range of our diplomatic capabilities to win allies among moderates in the Muslim world and lead non-Muslim countries to resolve the disputes...that fuel militancy."  Meanwhile, as the referendum on the Iraqi constitution approaches, Bruce Jentleson returned to the heated debate had on America Abroad in August, is it best to get the constitution done or to get it done right.  Jentleson contended that the constitution need not be perfect, but it must provide "a solid enough basis on which to build..."  

 

In Other News On America Abroad

Returning to the Valerie Plame affair, Ivo Daalder asked what the President knew and when he knew it.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, and its head Mohamed ElBaradei, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize Friday morning for dedication to nuclear non-proliferation.  Nancy Soderberg weighed in immediately pointing out that President Bush tried to remove ElBaradei from his post earlier this year, evidence that "the Bush administration has spent the last 4 and a half years undermining the very regimes that could keep Americans safe."  Soderberg congratulated the Nobel Committee on "a wise and timely choice."

 

Katherine Reilly is a recent graduate of Princeton University.