US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to the press on Monday afternoon:
CLINTON: I want to take a moment to discuss the recent news reports of classified documents that were illegally provided from United States Government computers.
It is not simply a matter of ideology versus technology. The Taliban is not one unified body. The Afghan insurgency is fueled by fighters with a wide variety of motivations. Some are dedicated jihadists, but others are fighting to defend their land or are seeking revenge for the killing of family members by NATO or Afghan forces. While Al Qaeda has been almost entirely expelled from Afghanistan, the insurgency still counts a small number of non-Afghans among its ranks. Bolstering the Taliban's recruitment efforts is the perception in Afghanistan that the Taliban pays better than NATO or the Afghan army or police.
The hard reality US officials don't want to discuss is this: the cultural and religious values of much of the Pashtun population--which comprises 25–40 percent of the country--more closely align with those of the Taliban than they do with Afghan government or US/NATO forces.
Success/withdrawal is dead. Long live the new date for success/non-withdrawal.
The amnesia in most of the reporting on this week's NATO summit on Afghanistan is quite remarkable. No one mentions that, only weeks ago, President Obama's policy was for a total pull-out of US combat forces by July 2011. Instead the assumption --- pushed by the US military --- was now established: troops would remain until 2014.
And now, even more remarkably, the media is pulled along with yet another narrative: "NATO and American officials also warned that if Afghanistan had not made sufficient progress in managing its own security, 2014 was not a hard and fast deadline for the end of combat operations."
It will be a perpetual transition.
According to the London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi, Ramallah --- noting the recent US "incentives" offered to Israel to get a three-month extension of the freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank --- is also seeking its own American package.
The Obama administration is being asked to increase funds for the Palestinians and to spell out a "political commitment" for an agreement on the border issue within three months. The Palestinian Authority also wants Washington's assurance that it will deal with the issue of Palestinian refugees, compensating them through an international fund that would involve most countries in the region, including Israel.
A special envoy from President Barack Obama raised the possibility in a secret meeting with senior Iraqi military and civilian officials in Baghdad Sep. 23 that his administration would leave more than 15,000 combat troops in Iraq after the 2011 deadline for U.S. withdrawal, according to a senior Iraqi intelligence official familiar with the details of the meeting.
But the White House official, Puneet Talwar, special assistant to the President and senior director for the Gulf States, Iran, and Iraq on the National Security Council (NSC) staff, said the deployment would have to be handled in a way that was consistent the president's pledge to withdraw U.S. troops completely from Iraq under the 2008 agreement, the official said.
Talwar suggested that the combat troops could be placed under the cover of the State Department's security force, the Iraqi intelligence official told IPS.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from his journey to the United States with an American dictate: Freeze settlements for three months, during which time speedy negotiations will be held to determine the future border between Israel and Palestine. To soften the impression that this would be seen as giving in to U.S. pressure and to make it easier to gain cabinet approval for the freeze, the dictate was padded with political and security goodies, which can be summed up as such: stealth military aircraft in exchange for an end to Netanyahu's evasive tactics.
The prime minister rejected the offer when it was made before the U.S. midterm elections, but now he understands that the game is up and he has to fall in line.
It has not been a week of progress for Palestinian officials. The reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas have failed to show any signs of reconciling, and Yasser Abed Rabbo, Secretary-General of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told reporters Sunday that he and his colleagues were in the dark on other important matters:
The Palestinian side is unaware of the details of the talks between the Israeli side and the Americans concerning finding a middle-ground form over freezing settlements. Once we receive an official American response, the Palestinian leadership would study it.
Beyond this feigned surprise, it is obvious that Ramallah is not confident with the proposal to West Jerusalem.
Saturday, November 13, 2010 at 6:38 | Scott Lucas in China and East Asia, EA Global, EA USA, Music and Culture Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao throw down over the economic clash between Washington and Beijing: "They're not enemies but Frenemies/With co-dependent economies". Courtesy of New Media Animation:
Friday, November 12, 2010 at 6:36 | Scott Lucas in China and East Asia, EA Global, EA USA, US Foreign Policy 
President Obama's visit to Indonesia this week has received relatively little attention in the US. While --- somewhat ironically --- opponents such as Bret Stephens and Charles Krauthammer have hailed the Obama speech in India for promoting the free market and an alliance to "face the common threat of radical Islam and the more long-term challenge of a rising China", the President's address in the country with the largest Muslim population in the world came and went.
Marc Lynch, writing in Foreign Policy, tries to fill in the gaps and provide a wider context for the Obama speech....
The responses came quickly to Israel's announcement on Monday that 1,300 Jewish homes had been approved for construction beyond the Green Line in East Jerusalem and another 800 homes had been endorsed in the West Bank settlement of Ariel.
The State Department conveyed its "disappointment". The European Union urged Israel to reconsider its decision, and President Obama warned that the construction in East Jerusalem could obstruct the pursuit of peace in the Middle East: "This kind of activity is never helpful when it comes to peace negotiations."
