Just Foreign Policy News
November 18, 2011
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I) Actions and Featured Articles
Tell the Senate: End the War in Afghanistan
Senator Merkey is introducing an amendment (#1174) to the National Defense Authorization Act that would expedite US military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Ask your Senators to support the Merkley Amendment.
https://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/ndaa2012senate
PBS Need to Know 11/18: The Pentagon: Hard times, hard choices
Former NBC Pentagon correspondent Fred Francis hosts a panel of military experts who discuss the wisdom of spending on multi-billion-dollar airplanes and ships, and whether it compromises troop training and safety. They also explore whether military health care benefits and pensions should be cut, if overseas troop deployments dating from the 1940s and 1950s are still necessary and how the Pentagon can deal with foreign threats without spending too much during difficult economic times.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/uncategorized/need-to-know-november-18-2011-the-pentagon-hard-times-hard-choices/12374/
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II) Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) A senior military official says U.S. forces soon will begin winding down counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan, The Hill reports. "I’m pretty confident … that over the next 12 months that we can transition from what you would call classic counterinsurgency operations to … training and advising" Afghan forces, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos said.
President Karzai wants the US military to stop nighttime raids. But Senate Armed Services Chair Carl Levin pushed back, The Hill says, saying the night raids were standard US doctrine.
The course of the Afghanistan conflict is expected to be among the top foreign-policy issues in the 2012 election, The Hill says. Sen. Chris Coons recently told The Hill the war ranks among the top issues his constituents bring up. "It’s jobs, the deficit and Afghanistan," he said.
2) The US is accelerating the withdrawal of its forces from Iraq and is expected to pull out all its approximately 40,000 troops by early December, Al Arabiya reports. In the first week of December, Vice President Biden will visit Iraq to celebrate the end of the war and the return of the last US soldier home.
3) U.S. Defense Secretary Panetta said he would raise US concerns about the unintended consequences of any military action against Iran during talks with his Israeli counterpart, including its potential impact on the world economy, Reuters reports. Panetta pointed to a U.S. analysis that a strike on Iran would set back its nuclear program by one or two years at most. It would also have implications for U.S. forces in the region.
4) A GAO audit found inadequate monitoring of US weapons sales to Persian Gulf countries with questionable human rights records or recent clashes with protesters, AP reports. The issue is sensitive because of a proposed $53 million arms deal with Bahrain, AP says. The State Department has held off on a final decision ahead of a Bahraini probe into the government’s crackdown on protesters earlier this year. The findings of that investigation are expected to be released next week.
5) The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says at least some of the weather extremes being seen around the world are consequences of human-induced climate change, the New York Times reports. The report sided with experts who say the claim that hurricanes are growing more intense because of climate change is premature.
Afghanistan
6) A large majority of Afghans say that one of the things that frightens them most in their daily life is the prospect of crossing paths with foreign troops, the Christian Science Monitor Reports. A survey by the Asia Foundation found that 76 percent of Afghans are fearful of encountering US and other foreign troops in the country. A majority of Afghans support initiatives to engage in a dialogue with militant groups and ultimately to make peace with them, the survey said.
Iran
7) Robert Kelley, a retired I.A.E.A. director and nuclear engineer, says he could find very little new information in the I.A.E.A. report on Iran’s nuclear program, reports Seymour Hersh at the New Yorker. "I wonder why this same stuff is now considered ‘new information’ by the same reporters," Kelley said. The shift in tone at the I.A.E.A. seems linked to a change at the top, Hersh notes. In a September 2009 WikiLeaks cable, US ambassador Glyn Davies reported that the new IAEA head Yukiya Amano told him he "was solidly in the U.S. court on… the handling of Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program."
Egypt
8) Tens of thousands of protesters flooded into Tahrir Square Friday to push Egypt’s military rulers to hand over power to elected officials after the caretaker government floated a controversial proposal this month that would leave the armed forces unaccountable to an elected parliament, the Washington Post reports. Contingents representing youth groups, liberals and secularists were calling for the same goal as the Islamists: to hold a presidential election quickly and end military rule by April 2012 rather than in 2013, as the council has proposed.
Mexico
9) Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the presidential hopeful of the Mexican left, says soldiers should be sent back to their barracks and replaced by social workers and jobs to address the crime problem, GlobalPost reports. López Obrador faces Enrique Peña Nieto of the PRI. Peña Nieto has publicly promised to continue to fight drug gangs. But privately, many Mexicans believe that a new PRI president would be able to negotiate peace between cartels – since that was the case during seven decades of PRI rule.
Haiti
10) Haiti’s president on Friday put off a controversial plan to restore the country’s disbanded military until a commission can be formed to study how best a new army can replace the U.N. peacekeeping force, AP reports. The commission will be required to present its findings on Jan. 1, Haiti’s independence day.
Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) Afghanistan war strategy shift portends troop drawdown
John T. Bennett, The Hill, 11/17/11 07:50 PM ET
http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/policy-and-strategy/194455-afghanistan-strategy-shift-portends-troop-drawdown
A senior military official says U.S. forces soon will begin winding down counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan, signaling a major shift in the decade-old conflict.
U.S. forces are working to "set the conditions" for Afghan government officials and security forces to assume control of key provinces by next fall as American troops begin to exit, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos told The Hill.
President Obama has directed that 30,000 U.S. forces be withdrawn from Afghanistan by September 2012.
"I’m pretty confident … that over the next 12 months that we can transition from what you would call classic counterinsurgency operations to … training and advising" Afghan forces, Amos said in an interview.
Amos said his Marines are "working really hard" to build local governments and police, as well as Afghanistan’s national security force. Once those entities are adequate, he said, "I’m very confident that the Afghans can take care of this on their own. "That’ll happen over the next year," the commandant said, noting "it won’t be a clean transition, it’ll be a rolling transition."
Amos’s description of Marines increasingly taking a backseat to indigenous forces and officials came just days before a flap between Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and U.S. officials. Karzai wants the American military to stop nighttime raids.
"We want a strategic partnership but with specific conditions: our national integrity, no night raids, no house searches," Karzai said during a major forum of thousands of Afghan leaders in Kabul, according to media reports.
The night raids have long been a grievance of Afghan citizens, and Karzai is seeking assurances that they will cease before his government agrees to a long-term security pact with Washington.
[…] Lawmakers on Thursday pushed back against Karzai’s demands.
The overnight raids long have been a part of U.S. tactical doctrine, and have led to the capture of "thousands" of suspected American foes, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said.
[…] One Pentagon adviser, however, is less optimistic. "The odds of meaningful strategic success have dropped from roughly even in 2009, to between 4:1 to 6:1 against at the end of 2011," said Anthony Cordesman, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who often advises the Pentagon.
The United States "has yet to present a credible and detailed plan for transition that shows that the U.S. and its allies can achieve some form of stable, strategic outcome in Afghanistan," said Cordesman, who helped military commanders revise their Afghanistan war strategy in 2009.
The course of the Afghanistan conflict is expected to be among the top foreign-policy issues in the 2012 election.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) recently told The Hill the war ranks among the top issues his constituents bring up. "It’s jobs, the deficit and Afghanistan," he said.
2) U.S. moves to withdraw troops from Iraq weeks ahead of schedule
Pierre Ghanem, Al Arabiya, November 18, 2011
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/11/18/177830.html
Washington – The United States is accelerating the withdrawal of its forces from Iraq and is expected to pull out all its approximately 40,000 troops by early December, weeks ahead of schedule, sources told Al Arabiya in Washington. In the first week of December, US Vice President Joseph Biden will visit Iraq to celebrate the end of the war and the return of the last US soldier home, three weeks ahead of schedule.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, meanwhile, plans to visit Washington on Dec, 12 to discuss with President Barack Obama the future of the US-Iraq relations.
Obama said on Oct. 21 that he had decided to withdraw all US troops from Iraq by the end of the year. The announcement triggered panic in the ranks of Republicans in Congress and relief among Democrats.
[…]
3) Strike On Iran Could Hurt World Economy, US Says
Phil Stewart, Reuters, Fri, Nov 18 2011
http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/11/18/idINIndia-60594220111118
Halifax, Nova Scotia – U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he would raise American concerns about the unintended consequences of any military action against Iran during talks with his Israeli counterpart on Friday, including its potential impact on the world economy.
[…] Panetta, speaking to reporters traveling with him to Canada, said the United States believed the most effective way to confront Iran still was to use diplomatic pressure and sanctions to try to curb the Islamic state’s nuclear program.
"Obviously to go beyond that raises our concerns about the unintended consequences that could result," Panetta said. He pointed to a U.S. analysis that a strike on Iran would set back its nuclear program, which Iran says is only for peaceful purposes, by one or two years at most. It would also have implications for U.S. forces in the region.
"And I have to tell you, thirdly, there are going to be economic consequences to that, that could impact not just on our economy but the world economy," Panetta said.
[…] Iran has warned that it will respond to any attacks by hitting Israel and U.S. interests in the Gulf. Analysts say Tehran could retaliate by closing the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway where about 40 percent of all traded oil passes.
[…]
4) Government audit finds ‘gaps’ in monitoring of US arms sales to Persian Gulf countries
Associated Press, Friday, November 18, 4:57 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/government-audit-finds-gaps-in-monitoring-of-us-arms-sales-to-persian-gulf-countries/2011/11/18/gIQA9t8CZN_story.html
Washington – A U.S. government audit on Friday found inadequate monitoring of American weapons sales to Persian Gulf countries with questionable human rights records or recent clashes with protesters.
The Government Accountability Office said gaps in the State and Defense departments’ monitoring of equipment after it’s sold leaves technology such as night-vision devices "prone to diversion." It also looked at equipment such as medium range air-to-air missiles and javelin missiles.
U.S. arms deals are likely to increase with Gulf countries concerned about Iranian intentions and how the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq will affect the stability of the region.
The issue is also sensitive because of a proposed $53 million arms deal with Bahrain.
The State Department says the deal is solely for Bahrain’s external defense and that the U.S. will monitor the use of all transferred equipment. But the department has held off on a final decision ahead of a Bahraini probe into the government’s crackdown on protesters earlier this year. The findings of that investigation are expected to be released next week.
Still, the GAO’s 67-page report expressed concerns with how the U.S. government ensures the proper use of military equipment sold to countries such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
It noted that the State Department has conducted human rights vetting for hundreds of individuals and units receiving U.S.-funded training in the Gulf. But it hasn’t undertaken similar vetting for recipients of about $188 million of U.S.-funded equipment in Bahrain and Oman. It also cited shortcomings in post-shipment inspections.
"Such vetting is especially critical given Bahrain’s use of its security forces to quell public demonstrations," the report said.
[…]
5) U.N. Panel Finds Climate Change Behind Some Extreme Weather Events
Justin Gillis, New York Times, November 18, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/19/science/earth/un-panel-finds-climate-change-behind-some-extreme-weather-events.html
At least some of the weather extremes being seen around the world are consequences of human-induced climate change and can be expected to worsen in coming decades, a United Nations panel reported on Friday.
It is likely that greenhouse gas emissions related to human activity have already led to more record-high temperatures and fewer record lows, as well as to greater coastal flooding and possibly to more extremes of precipitation, the report said.
Whether inland flooding is getting worse because of greenhouse gases is murkier, the report said. Nor, it found, can any firm conclusion be drawn at this point about a human influence on hurricanes, typhoons, hail storms or tornadoes.
The findings were released at a conference in Kampala, Uganda, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a high-profile United Nations body assigned to review and report periodically on developments in climate research. They come at a time of unusual weather disasters around the globe, from catastrophic flooding in Asia and Australia to blizzards, floods, heat waves, droughts, wildfires and windstorms in the United States that have cost billions of dollars.
"A hotter, moister atmosphere is an atmosphere primed to trigger disasters," said Michael Oppenheimer, a Princeton University climate scientist and a principal author of the new report. "As the world gets hotter, the risk gets higher."
[…] The new report on extreme weather, one of a string of reports that the panel is issuing on relatively narrow issues, did not break much ground scientifically, essentially refining findings that have been emerging in climate science papers in recent years.
Indeed, the delegates meeting in Kampala adopted scientifically cautious positions in some areas. For instance, some researchers have presented evidence suggesting that hurricanes are growing more intense because of climate change, but the report sided with a group of experts who say that such a claim is premature.
[…] Increases in population density and in the value of property at risk, rather than changes in the climate, are the likeliest explanation for rising disaster losses in many countries, the report said. It called on governments to do a better job of protecting people and heading off catastrophes before they strike.
[…]
Afghanistan
6) More In Afghanistan Criticize Country’s Direction. What It Means For US Troops.
A recent Afghanistan poll finds progress on several fronts but some worrisome signs, including a jump in the number who say the country is headed in the wrong direction. Security is still a major issue.
Howard LaFranchi, Christian Science Monitor, November 17, 2011
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2011/1117/More-in-Afghanistan-criticize-country-s-direction.-What-it-means-for-US-troops
More Afghans than not say their country is moving in the right direction, but the number who say that a decade into a Western-led war Afghanistan is headed in the wrong direction is increasing – now to more than one-third of the population.
Even as Afghan President Hamid Karzai lays out a plan that envisions US troops remaining in his country for years to come, a large majority of Afghans say that one of the things that frightens them most in their daily life is the prospect of crossing paths with foreign troops.
Those are among the finds of an annual survey of the Afghan people conducted by the Asia Foundation, a Washington-based organization focused on US-Asia relations.
[…] The main reason cited for the higher pessimism: lack of security.
One factor that may have contributed to this sense of deteriorating security was the rising level of violence in some regions as a greater number of US troops (as a result of the mini-surge of 2010) launched more anti-Taliban assaults.
But the survey also found dwindling sympathy for the country’s militants. Afghans expressing support for at least some aims of the armed antigovernment groups fell to below a third – 29 percent compared with 40 percent last year, the lowest level of any of the annual surveys.
At the same time, a majority of Afghans support initiatives to engage in a dialogue with militant groups and ultimately to make peace with them.
[…] Karzai said he has a set of conditions for reaching an agreement with the US. The Afghan leader said the US would have to agree to end a number of its practices – carrying out night raids, invading Afghan homes, detaining Afghan citizens – that he said he could not support as the head of a sovereign nation.
The military practices Karzai cited are also among the reasons average Afghans cite for feeling fearful around foreign troops. The survey found that 76 percent of Afghans are fearful of encountering US and other foreign troops in the country.
In contrast, 55 percent said they fear encountering the Afghan National Army.
[…]
Iran
7) Iran and the I.A.E.A.
Seymour M. Hersh, New Yorker, November 18, 2011
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2011/11/iran-and-the-iaea.html
The first question in last Saturday night’s Republican debate on foreign policy dealt with Iran, and a newly published report by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The report, which raised renewed concern about the "possible existence of undeclared nuclear facilities and material in Iran," struck a darker tone than previous assessments. But it was carefully hedged. On the debate platform, however, any ambiguity was lost. One of the moderators said that the I.A.E.A. report had provided "additional credible evidence that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon" and asked what various candidates, upon winning the Presidency, would do to stop Iran. Herman Cain said he would assist those who are trying to overthrow the government. Newt Gingrich said he would coördinate with the Israeli government and maximize covert operations to block the Iranian weapons program. Mitt Romney called the state of Iran’s nuclear program Obama’s "greatest failing, from a foreign-policy standpoint" and added, "Look, one thing you can know … and that is if we reëlect Barack Obama Iran will have a nuclear weapon." The Iranian bomb was a sure thing Saturday night.
I’ve been reporting on Iran and the bomb for The New Yorker for the past decade, with a focus on the repeatedly inability of the best and the brightest of the Joint Special Operations Command to find definitive evidence of a nuclear-weapons production program in Iran. The goal of the high-risk American covert operations was to find something physical-a "smoking calutron," as a knowledgeable official once told me-to show the world that Iran was working on warheads at an undisclosed site, to make the evidence public, and then to attack and destroy the site.
The Times reported, in its lead story the day after the report came out, that I.A.E.A. investigators "have amassed a trove of new evidence that, they say, makes a ‘credible’ case" that Iran may be carrying out nuclear-weapons activities. The newspaper quoted a Western diplomat as declaring that "the level of detail is unbelievable…. The report describes virtually all the steps to make a nuclear warhead and the progress Iran has achieved in each of those steps. It reads likes a menu." The Times set the tone for much of the coverage. (A second Times story that day on the I.A.E.A. report noted, more cautiously, that "it is true that the basic allegations in the report are not substantially new, and have been discussed by experts for years.")
But how definitive, or transformative, were the findings? The I.A.E.A. said it had continued in recent years "to receive, collect and evaluate information relevant to possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program" and, as a result, it has been able "to refine its analysis." The net effect has been to create "more concern." But Robert Kelley, a retired I.A.E.A. director and nuclear engineer who previously spent more than thirty years with the Department of Energy’s nuclear-weapons program, told me that he could find very little new information in the I.A.E.A. report. He noted that hundreds of pages of material appears to come from a single source: a laptop computer, allegedly supplied to the I.A.E.A. by a Western intelligence agency, whose provenance could not be established. Those materials, and others, "were old news," Kelley said, and known to many journalists. "I wonder why this same stuff is now considered ‘new information’ by the same reporters."
A nuanced assessment of the I.A.E.A. report was published by the Arms Control Association (A.C.A.), a nonprofit whose mission is to encourage public support for effective arms control. The A.C.A. noted that the I.A.E.A. did "reinforce what the nonproliferation community has recognized for some time: that Iran engaged in various nuclear weapons development activities until 2003, then stopped many of them, but continued others." (The American intelligence community reached the same conclusion in a still classified 2007 estimate.) The I.A.E.A.’s report "suggests," the A.C.A. paper said, that Iran "is working to shorten the timeframe to build the bomb once and if it makes that decision. But it remains apparent that a nuclear-armed Iran is still not imminent nor is it inevitable." Greg Thielmann, a former State Department and Senate Intelligence Committee analyst who was one of the authors of the A.C.A. assessment, told me, "There is troubling evidence suggesting that studies are still going on, but there is nothing that indicates that Iran is really building a bomb." He added, "Those who want to drum up support for a bombing attack on Iran sort of aggressively misrepresented the report."
Joseph Cirincione, the president of the Ploughshare Fund, a disarmament group, who serves on Hillary Clinton’s International Security Advisory Board, said, "I was briefed on most of this stuff several years ago at the I.A.E.A. headquarters in Vienna. There’s little new in the report. Most of this information is well known to experts who follow the issue." Cirincione noted that "post-2003, the report only cites computer modelling and a few other experiments." (A senior I.A.E.A. official similarly told me, "I was underwhelmed by the information.")
The report did note that its on-site camera inspection process of Iran’s civilian nuclear enrichment facilities-mandated under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which Iran is a signatory-"continues to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material." In other words, all of the low enriched uranium now known to be produced inside Iran is accounted for; if highly enriched uranium is being used for the manufacture of a bomb, it would have to have another, unknown source.
The shift in tone at the I.A.E.A. seems linked to a change at the top. The I.A.E.A.’s report had extra weight because the Agency has had a reputation for years as a reliable arbiter on Iran. Mohammed ElBaradei, who retired as the I.A.E.A.’s Director General two years ago, was viewed internationally, although not always in Washington, as an honest broker-a view that lead to the awarding of a Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. ElBaradei’s replacement is Yukiya Amano of Japan. Late last year, a classified U.S. Embassy cable from Vienna, the site of the I.A.E.A. headquarters, described Amano as being "ready for prime time." According to the cable, which was obtained by WikiLeaks, in a meeting in September, 2009, with Glyn Davies, the American permanent representative to the I.A.E.A., said, "Amano reminded Ambassador on several occasions that he would need to make concessions to the G-77 [the group of developing countries], which correctly required him to be fair-minded and independent, but that he was solidly in the U.S. court on every strategic decision, from high-level personnel appointments to the handling of Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program." The cable added that Amano’s "willingness to speak candidly with U.S. interlocutors on his strategy … bodes well for our future relationship."
[…]
Egypt
8) In Egypt, crowds urge end to military rule
Leila Fadel, Washington Post, Friday, November 18, 11:41 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/in-egypt-crowds-urge-end-to-military-rule/2011/11/18/gIQAZ8tYYN_story.html
Cairo – Tens of thousands of protesters flooded into Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Friday to push Egypt’s military rulers to hand over power to elected officials after the caretaker government floated a controversial proposal this month that would leave the armed forces unaccountable to an elected parliament.
The demonstration was one of the largest since the 18-day revolt last winter that ousted President Hosni Mubarak, and it underscored the changes that have occurred since those participating in the uprising chanted, "The people and the army are one hand."
The protesters Friday were mainly Islamists, some bused in from across the capital and the country to voice opposition to a draft document issued under the auspices of the military council to guide the writing of a new constitution. Some liberals have advocated such guidance, seeing it as a potential bulwark against religious fundamentalists, but Islamists have described it as undemocratic, saying it marks an expansion of military powers and robs an elected body of the responsibility to shape the constitution.
But on Friday, contingents representing youth groups, liberals and secularists were calling for the same goal as the Islamists: to hold a presidential election quickly and end military rule by April 2012 rather than in 2013, as the council has proposed.
Nahed Shukri, 39, a social studies teacher, said the turnout of people of all ages, classes and allegiances reminded her of the days when Egyptians were united against Mubarak.
[…]
Mexico
9) Calderon rival has new answer to the drug war
Lopez Obrador wants focus on economy
Ioan Grillo, GlobalPost, Nov 17, 2011, 9:25 am
http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/nationworld/report/111711_mexico_calderon_rival/calderon-rival-has-new-answer-drug-war/
Mexico City – The death toll in Mexico’s drug war has topped 50,000 in five years. Soldiers and marines are accused of widespread human rights abuses. Officials have been assassinated or died in mysterious air crashes.
But the whole mess can be cleared up in the first six months of a new administration. At least, that’s the campaign pledge of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the silver-haired presidential hopeful of the Mexican left.
López Obrador, also known as "El Peje" after a tough fish from his native state of Tabasco, has jumped into the drug-war debate this week after winning the candidacy of three leftist parties for the 2012 presidential race.
A lifelong defender of Mexico’s poor and downtrodden, the 58-year-old López Obrador argues that soldiers should be sent back to their barracks and replaced by social workers and jobs.
"You can’t fight violence with violence," López Obrador said on national radio Wednesday. "We need a loving republic. We need opportunities for young people so they don’t fall into the arms of organized crime."
Between now and the election day in July, López Obrador says, he will convince the Mexican people for a new peaceful approach – as opposed to the military policies of the present President Felipe Calderón or the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party.
Calderón’s war on drug cartels, the leftist candidate said, has been a disaster for Mexico, unleashing more bloodshed and destroying the economy.
[…] A former mayor of Mexico City, López Obrador said he would govern along the lines of Brazil’s former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva rather than Venezuela’s more polarizing Hugo Chavez. He won’t wage class war, he says, but will work with businesses for social democracy.
López Obrador does not explicitly argue for legalizing drugs but on changing priority from law enforcement to the causes of violence.
[…] Running against Calderón’s war on drug cartels will likely prove popular in a country where many are fed up with daily shoot-outs between soldiers and gangsters.
[…] But López Obrador also has to face off against the very popular candidate Enrique Peña Nieto, the former governor of the State of Mexico.
Peña Nieto is a leading figure in the Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI, which held the Mexican presidency from 1929 to 2000.
[…] Peña Nieto has publicly promised to continue to fight drug gangs. However, privately, many Mexicans believe that a new PRI president would be able to negotiate peace between cartels – since that was the case during seven decades of PRI rule.
[…]
Haiti
10) Haiti president backs off new army plan, appoints commission to study how to replace UN forces
Associated Press, Friday, November 18, 4:00 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/americas/haitis-president-says-he-will-set-up-new-military-force-as-country-marks-19th-century-battle/2011/11/18/gIQAjo5vXN_story.html
Port-au-Prince, Haiti – Haiti’s president on Friday put off a controversial plan to restore the country’s disbanded military until a commission can be formed to study how best a new army can replace the U.N. peacekeeping force.
President Michel Martelly said he was appointing a civilian commission that over the course of 40 days will identify the goals of a new military force.
The restoration of the military was one of Martelly’s campaign promises but drew immediate opposition from foreign diplomats and other critics, who said the country would be better off beefing up its underfunded and undermanned national police force.
[…] Martelly told his audience of diplomats, government officials and supporters that the new military force would combat smuggling and patrol parts of Haiti where he said terrorists are a constant threat. He did not elaborate on what he meant by terrorists, who have not been known to pose a threat in Haiti.
A government official had said earlier that Martelly would use the national speech to issue a decree creating the new military. Besides the issue of cost, some critics have expressed alarm at restoring a military that had been notorious for abuses before it was disbanded in 1995 under former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
[…] Some critics have also questioned whether Haiti needs a new army as it still struggles to recover from the January 2010 earthquake and a cholera epidemic that’s given the country the highest infection rate in the world.
But many in Haiti welcome the military’s restoration as a source of potential jobs amid deep poverty – and as a point of national pride. The idea resonates in a country where Martelly and other politicians have denounced the U.N. peacekeeping force that has helped keep order since Aristide’s ouster in 2004.
"You can’t talk about the withdrawal (of the U.N. force) if you don’t have a plan for your own army," Martelly told a crowd of about 100 supporters who interrupted his speech at times to chant, "Long live the army."
Martelly said a decree will be announced on Monday that will name members of the commission. During its 40-day mandate, the panel will define the mission of the army in meetings with business and religious leaders, lawmakers, attorneys, political parties and grassroots groups.
The commission will be required to present its findings on Jan. 1, Haiti’s independence day.
[…]
–
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