This Week On America Abroad
This week on TPMCafe's America Abroad, the bloggers are talking about...
War In The Middle East: What Comes After?
Fighting continued in the Middle East this week, reaching the 17th day of hostilities today. British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Washington today to hold talks with President Bush on solutions for the region. On America Abroad, Bruce Jentleson offered his take on the emerging consensus around sending an international peace keeping force under the auspices of the United Nations and emphasized the need to do it right or not at all. "The key," Jentleson wrote, "is to recognize that this is not a peacekeeping situation. There is not yet a peace to be kept. It instead will be a peace enforcing force...That has much more robust requisites for rules of engagement that allow the use of force to enforce the mandate. It also will require more than patched-together military forces, jerry-rigged logistical structures and other military capacities." Meanwhile, Juliette Kayyem outlined the potential outcomes for Lebanon including an Israeli invasion, the arrival of Syria, and civil war in Lebanon, as she posed the question, "Who will speak for Lebanon?"
Secretary Lieberman?
Former President Bill Clinton visited Connecticut this week to stump for Senator Joseph Lieberman as he faces an uphill battle in the state's Democratic primary against challenger Ned Lamont. Juliette Kayyem offered one possibility for the Senator should he be defeated in the Democratic primary and as an Independent in the general election come November: Secretary of Defense. "Wouldn't the Bush Administration consider him for something? I mean, it would be a smart political move on their part -- Dems who supported the war and support the President ought, actually, to be Republicans. The Democratic umbrella isn't big enough for the Lieberman types, etc. etc...Wouldn't be surprised to see him still around."
In Other News On America Abroad
* Ernest Wilson analyzed the notion of conventional vs. unconventional warfare and wondered, in these times, which is which. "I thought that unconventional warfare had become the conventional wisdom. I thought that army and marine generals knew that American troops are much less likely these days to line up in rows as we thought we would if the cold war turned hot while the commies still held central and eastern Europe, and we would fight big tank battles on the borders of Germany and Poland. I thought the new conventional wisdom meant having the flexibility to fight a range of wars –‘conventional’, ‘unconventional’ and guerilla wars (is that ‘nonconventional’?)."
* Bruce Jentleson examined the results of a new New York Times poll, finding an American public aware of the need for international involvement but disillusioned with current foreign policy.
* Rachel Kleinfeld criticized America's overstretched foreign policy position and advised "a buffer for foreign policy - not a buff-er foreign policy."
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