Americans elected President Obama in part based on his promise to put diplomacy and international cooperation, rather than the use and threat of military force, at the center of his foreign policy. With respect to Afghanistan and Pakistan, while there have been some encouraging signals, in terms of actually implemented policies the folks who voted…
The “One” campaign against global poverty reports: The Senate Budget Committee, chaired by Senator Kent Conrad, wants to cut $4 billion from the president’s International Affairs Budget — the part of the budget funding almost all of our anti-poverty work. This would be terrible policy any day of the week. Recall that on February 12,…
A progressive Congressional staffer once told me: “The first rule of Congress is – if you have the opportunity to vote both ways on the same issue, do it.” In “narrowing” the goals for the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, President Obama appears to have obeyed the first rule of Congress. In his speech on Afghanistan,…
President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton are getting big praise around the world for their new Charm Offensive. As far as I’m concerned, the praise is justified. I heard our Secretary of State interviewed on the BBC a few weeks ago about our diplomatic outreach to Iran on Afghanistan. And the BBC was all,…
Thank you, President Obama. At long last – better late than never – a high-level official of the Obama Administration has clearly affirmed U.S. neutrality ahead of Sunday’s Presidential election in El Salvador. Voice of America reports: Friday in Washington, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Tom Shannon said the United States supports the democratic process…
A progressive presidency is a terrible thing to waste. It only comes around once every so often. Wouldn’t it be a shame if Americans’ hopes for the Obama administration were squandered in Afghanistan? Members of Congress who want the Obama administration to succeed won’t do it any favors by keeping silent about the proposed military…
President Obama wants, quite reasonably, to “reset” relations with Russia. He also said, quite reasonably, he would “go through the federal budget line by line, programs that don’t work, we cut.” Our relations with Colombia also need to be reset. “Plan Colombia,” which was supposedly going to cut the flow of Colombian cocaine into the…
We all know that President Obama has a lot on his plate. On the other hand, as candidate Obama reminded us, “words matter,” especially the words spoken by the President of the United States, and with El Salvador facing a watershed Presidential election on March 15, President Obama could do a lot for the people…