The great progressive writer Randolph Bourne once said, “Diplomacy is a disguised war, in which states seek to gain by barter and intrigue, by the cleverness of arts, the objectives which they would have to gain more clumsily by means of war.” The foundations for the Obama foreign policy are beginning to take shape. President Obama’s speech in Cairo last month had an amazing ripple effect. There is little doubt the internal strife in Iran that ensued was impacted by the speech indirectly. The conservative government in Iran could not successfully paint the uprising as the implicit work of the US following the sham election of Ahmedinejad. If you recall, the Iranian government tried to point the finger at Britain in a throwback move of a long dead age. With no true “Satan” nation to blame, the fire of the opposition continues to smolder.

Last week, George Mitchell visited Damascus in a bid to revive the Mideast peace process by greasing the wheels of the stubborn. Though no ground breaking discussions were involved, a new dialogue has begun with the Arab state. The US has imposed sanctions on Syria for their continued support of terrorists groups, primarily those residing in Lebanon. Syria has long been seen as a pariah in the region but will be a significant player if there is ever to be peace in the region. Mitchell’s visit is the Obama administration’s effort to reach out to nations that previously were seen as rogues in an effort to move them toward dialogue and moderation.

Israel is also being forced to react. The Obama position on stopping settlements in the occupied territories is causing tensions within the Jewish state. 1,500 right wing protestors marched in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to show their opposition to any proposed halt to settlements. Contact and pressure from Washington, being applied at the same time, is starting to move the rusted gears of Mideast peace. The new game of diplomacy is being played out with tact and resolve. Don’t expect grandiose results, however. The region has never evolved that way.

In the meantime Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently finished her tour of South Asia. Though not covered in great detail by the US media, the Clinton visit was seen as extremely constructive. The US would very much like India to be a strong ally in combating terrorism and preventing nuclear proliferation. Throughout the post WW II period India had carried out a cautious relationship with the US. Only in the last two decades has the relationship between the US and India turned a corner. To cement the strong ties that now bind the two countries, Obama has invited Prime Minister Singh to be the first leader to be his state guest later in 2009. The US is also selling space technology and fighter jets to India as well as allowing US companies to assist in the construction of two nuclear power plants. There is a peace process that needs to be resolved in South Asia as well. India and Pakistan have drifted farther apart in recent months after the Mumbai terror attacks were proven to have their roots in Pakistan.

Though the US is currently engaged in two wars, on the periphery the American government is initiating a sweeping diplomatic blanket that is changing not only how the US operates but also the image that is projected in much of Asia.  These calculated maneuvers are allowing the momentum in the region to move away from extremism and calming the waters for the advances we all hope will blossom in the coming years.

What does the right wing stand for these days? Can anyone get a handle on the Republican party lately? Government can’t solve our problems, they say? So who is to realign the private banking sector? The Republicans say health care needs to be reformed. So who is supposed to lead the charge? Obviously government doesn’t have the answer. And now from the belly of those who are "fair and balanced" comes an assault on volunteerism. That font of rationale, Glenn Beck, makes a mockery of those who give their time to help the less fortunate. It really needs to be seen to be believed. In an homage to National Socialism, it is presumed, Beck takes aim at the Americorps creed. The Americorps, after all, is a government institution that enables primarily the youth of this country to make a difference in their communities and the nation as a whole. It is a domestic form of the Peace Corps. Now, conservatives are making an association of fascism and volunteerism? It just goes to show how shallow and self absorbed the party of Lincoln has become. Don’t tax the rich and by all means don’t join a government organization whose creed is fascistic.

Or is it liberals who are willing to get their hands dirty doing the work that Conservatives find beneath them?

Recently fifty four Israeli soldiers were interviewed by an Israeli organization known as Breaking the Silence. These soldiers told of their orders and activities while invading Gaza. Their tactics in many cases were nothing a moral army should be proud of.  Using white phosphorous, utilizing Palestinian civilians as forced scouts and even using the locals as human shields were just some of the testimony that came out of these interviews. What makes these accounts controversial is they were done anonymously to protect the Israeli soldiers from prosecution within Israel. A very balanced look at this report was written by Josh Mitnick of the Christian Science Monitor. Specifics of the treatment of Gazans at the hands of the Israelis leaked out of the Strip during what the Israelis dubbed Operation Cast Lead despite Israel’s media lock down during the offensive. The “Breaking the Silence” report was published Wednesday and just one day later a US Jewish group contested the accounts of the Gaza War with their own web site. The web site is sponsored by a pro-Israel lobby group Stand With Us International. Shouldn’t a counter to this report come from Israel and not from the US? This just goes to show how thick we are in the morass of Israeli domestic policy, never mind foreign policy.  Though these assertions made by Israeli soldiers are not flattering (indeed in most western armies they would be criminal), at least they are revealed for the world to dissect. The transparency of nations is something all countries should aspire to become. Unfortunately for Israel their behavior in recent decades during armed conflict has been less than chivalrous. The Breaking the Silence report can be read in its entirety here.

It is about time when those who really don’t give a damn about us stop defining who can and can’t get covered for health care. Barack Obama has shifted the momentum today. He, his Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and the Democratic Party are seizing the day and weighing options on how to move forward with health care reform. With Republicans incapable of modeling reform, the Democrats are considering going it alone. These days they can do that. With 60 votes in the Senate, the Dems can seize the day. The big question is will moderate Democrats abandon their party on this issue? There will be immense pressure exerted from the White House and from their own ranks if they stray. It is simply pathetic that the US is the only industrialized nation in the world that doesn’t have a nationalized health plan. It is even more pathetic that those who gain wealth from the system can also determine who can get covered, and even those who have insurance can find they are not covered under certain circumstances. Today, with nearly one in ten Americans out of work, the crisis of health care is even more pertinent. This issue has been warm since the election of Barack Obama. It is about to get red hot. As the Congressional August recess looms, critical mass is quickly approaching. All indicators are the President wishes to have significant movement on the issue by then. Obama has also pointed out the concept will not become effective until 2013 so that the minutiae of the plan can be carefully scrutinized and perfected.

We’re not going to solve all of them immediately overnight, and that’s why I think we have to anticipate this program’s not going to start up probably until 2013. That gives us four or five years to start developing programs to solve this problem.

Barack Obama (7/15/09)

The notion of it becoming a law and then enacted immediately is simply right-wing scare tactics.  After enduring eight years of insanity at the hands of George Bush and the Republicans and now realizing the fruits of change, it is time the Democrats do what we elected them to do since their counterparts are not organizing to adopt their own proposal but instead simply wish to stop health care reform.

A University of Oregon journalist has written a provocative op-ed about the absence of Republican and right wing professors on American campuses. We all know the US college system is a bastion of liberalism but Dan Lawton has a valid point. American freedom of expression should be prevalent in all venues and especially on college campuses where the exchange of ideas is a cornerstone of rational thought. Colleges are the ideal location for young minds to have their biases and beliefs challenged. As a liberal,  taking a government class from a conservative would force you to think outside of your box. It is healthy. Mr. Lawton attends one of America’s most liberal universities in beautiful Eugene and his perspective is perfectly presented.

Related:

Nearly all my professors are Democrats. Isn’t that a problem?

The Bush years will most likely be called the “New Dark Age” of energy development. See why in the following video.

Saddam Hussein spoke to his captors about the reasons why he danced around weapons inspectors in the run up to the Iraq War. It further shows the shortsidedness of the Bush policy and its failing to understand how Iraq, sitting on the Sunni-Shia fault line, served as a buffer against a resurgent Iran.

Documents Show Iraqi Dictator’s Fears

By SCOTT SHANE

WASHINGTON — In a series of interrogations before his execution, Saddam Hussein told an F.B.I. agent that on the eve of the 2003 American invasion, Iraq was trapped between United Nations orders to demonstrate that it had disarmed and a fear that appearing too weak would invite attack from its powerful neighbor and foe, Iran. More

Reza Aslan informs us of the beginning of a strike in Iran which is wrapped in an obscure religious holiday in his latest, “Iran Goes on Strike”. It is a great read.

A massive sandstorm swept into Tehran Monday morning, blanketing the streets in a dark and dreamy haze. The tops of buildings, where, last night, the protest calls of “God is great!” rang out for the 21^st consecutive day, are barely visible. Most of Tehran’s bustling downtown appears abandoned. The air quality is so bad that people say it is difficult to breathe. An eerie calm has descended upon the city. More

The full blown demise of the Republican Party is doing nothing for the betterment of the country. That’s right, you heard it here. The ongoing collapse of the GOP highlights the flaws of a two party system. From a liberal perspective, Obama’s programs have a lot of merit but the absence of viable debate is not good. There are no leaders in the House, the Senate or among those who would be candidates for President in 2012 from the Republican Party who carry any political weight and none of them certainly can’t stand up to Obama. Those who oppose Obama’s agenda are hoping either his own party bogs him down or his policies fail on their own merit. It will not be the Republicans who bring Barack Obama down.

Many believed the bottom for the GOP had been reached with the 2008 election, but events within the party continued to spiral. It wasn’t just your average tawdry tales that has rocked the party. Rather it was decisions made by men within the party who chose to build up their credentials with fonts of morality only to fall way short of their own convictions. Ensign, Sanford and now possibly Palin have caused raised eyebrows from the party’s staunchest allies. (If it isn’t an impending scandal that has caused Palin to step down as Governor, the speech she gave today should be cause enough to end a political career.)

So the question is, who will emerge from the Republican Party to be a worthy adversary of Barack Obama? When some have staked their claim to Limbaugh to be the voice of the party, when the National Chairman is Michael Steele and there is no politician that contends to have any comprehensive answers to the problems that face this country from the conservative side, it is clear the GOP has some serious soul searching and a lot of ground to make up.