Archive for the 'Foreign Policy' Category

Palin Gets Asked A Question. Reporters Asked To Leave.

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Foreign Policy, McCain, Palin, Republicans, The World

I’m sorry folks, but it’s getting downright comical at this point.
Via Politico comes this revealing moment after McCain and Palins’ meeting with Georgian President Saakashvilli and Ukrainian President Yushchenko…
McCain then looked around the room and gestured as if to welcome questions. The AP reporter shouted a question at Gov. Palin (“Governor, what have you learned [...]

September 24th, 2008 | Permalink| 5 Comments »

Colin Powell On Russia/Georgia Conflict: Georgia Started It

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Foreign Policy, Georgia, McCain, Russia, Video

I watched part of CNN’s “The Next President: A World of Challenges” forum on Sunday, but I missed this bit that reveals Colin Powell not only saying that Georgia started it, but it also appears that he backs away a bit from McCain’s response to the crisis.

As I’ve said before, Colin Powell’s endorsement could be [...]

September 22nd, 2008 | Permalink| 18 Comments »

Defending Palin’s Foreign Policy Experience

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Foreign Policy, McCain, Palin

John McCain struggles to come up with a good way to make Palin seem more palatable…
In a joint appearance, the Republican presidential candidate said defensively: “She has been commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard. Fact. On September 11 a contingent of the guard deployed to Iraq and her son was one of them [...]

September 18th, 2008 | Permalink| 10 Comments »

Pakistani Troops Will Fire If U.S. Raids

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Afghanistan, Foreign Policy, Pakistan, The War On Terrorism, Video, al Qaeda

This is not good news…

Surprisingly enough, Christopher Hitchens thinks Obama has the right plan when it comes to Pakistan…
Sen. Barack Obama has, if anything, been the more militant of the two presidential candidates in stressing the danger here and the need to act without too much sentiment about our so-called Islamabad ally. He began [...]

September 16th, 2008 | Permalink| 5 Comments »

First Two Segments Of Charlie Gibson’s Interview With Sarah Palin

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Energy, Foreign Policy, McCain, Palin, Religion, Republicans

The other two segments will be on Good Morning America and 20/20.
World News Tonight - Part 1

As mentioned earlier, her lack of understanding of the Bush Doctrine and the “head of state” excuse are extremely troubling. And, in general, it doesn’t really seem like she truly knows about what she’s talking about.
I know that [...]

September 12th, 2008 | Permalink| 5 Comments »

Interview Gives Us A Peek Into Palin’s Foreign Policy Knowledge

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Foreign Policy, Palin, Video

A couple things from today’s interview were revealing.
First, Palin didn’t really seem to know what the Bush Doctrine is.

I don’t know, maybe it was just nerves, but that was a pretty weak, “talking pointy” answer. For most anybody who follows politics, that answer would have been a gimme.
Second, she tried to excuse her lack on [...]

September 11th, 2008 | Permalink| 7 Comments »

Why Is Cindy McCain Going To Georgia?

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Bad Decisions, Cindy McCain, Foreign Policy, Georgia, McCain, Republicans

This is just odd…
McCain is traveling with the U.N.’s World Food Programme, whose work she monitored in Southeast Asia and Africa this spring and summer. McCain plans to meet with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and to visit wounded Georgian soldiers. She would also visit representatives of the HALO Trust, which works to remove land mines [...]

August 25th, 2008 | Permalink| 17 Comments »

Maliki: US Completely Out By 2012

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Foreign Policy, Iraq, Military

That’s right. Nobody there.
Let’s hope this ist true…
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Prime Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday that an agreement had been reached in negotiations on a security pact with the United States to end any foreign military presence in Iraq by the end of 2011.
“There is an agreement actually reached, reached between [...]

August 25th, 2008 | Permalink| No Comments »

US And Iraq Have A Withdrawal Plan

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Bush, Foreign Policy, Iraq, Military, United States, War

With a start date of June 30, 2009 no less!
From AP:
The negotiations over a withdrawal timetable follow long insistence by President Bush that setting any schedule for U.S. troops to leave would be dangerous. The draft agreement with Iraq would link troop reductions to achievement of certain security milestones, although the details have not been [...]

August 21st, 2008 | Permalink| 9 Comments »

Bob Barr Talks Russia/Georgia Conflict

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Barr, Foreign Policy, Georgia, Russia

And makes a lot of sense…
“Obviously, America should encourage both countries to back down and resolve their differences peacefully,” explains Barr. But “the status of South Ossetia, as well as Abkhazia, another Russian-supported separatist zone within Georgia, matters a lot more to Russia, on which the two territories border, than to the U.S. Moreover, Washington [...]

August 14th, 2008 | Permalink| 3 Comments »

We Are All Georgians?

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Bad Decisions, Foreign Policy, Georgia, McCain, Russia

John McCain’s latest editorial is entitled “We Are All Georgians” and I have to say pretty bluntly that McCain absolutely does not speak for me.
First off, McCain’s not the President. Obviously he knows this, but when he says something so broad it feels like he’s speaking for America. Perhaps this isn’t what he meant, but [...]

August 14th, 2008 | Permalink| 2 Comments »

On McCain’s Russian Response

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Foreign Policy, McCain, Russia, United States

Greg Djerejian echoes what many in the blogosphere are saying about McCain’s hardline stance…
An honorable man who served his country well, it is clear his time has past and his grasp on the most basic foreign policy calls we’ll need to make in the coming years is very tentative indeed. He’ll be surrounded by second-tier [...]

August 12th, 2008 | Permalink| 5 Comments »

Russia Stops Bombing Georgia

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Foreign Policy, Russia, United States

At least that’s the latest report. We probably won’t have confirmation on this until sometime later today.
From NY Times:
MOSCOW — President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia announced Tuesday that he had ordered a halt to his country’s military operation in Georgia, although he did not say that troops were pulling out and he insisted that [...]

August 12th, 2008 | Permalink| No Comments »

South Ossetia Citizens Known As Ossetes (& Ossetians)

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Foreign Policy, Georgia, History, Russia, United States

I’ve been incorrectly saying “Ossetians” so I’ll use the correct verbiage from here on out. (Looks like both can be used, according to Mikhail Gorbachev)
This little factoid comes from the Times Online, which provides a very good timeline of what has gone down in the past, and sums it up as such…
Russia’s policy is driven [...]

August 11th, 2008 | Permalink| No Comments »

Georgia on our mind

By donar | Related entries in Cartoons, Foreign Policy, Iran, Political Graffiti, Russia
August 11th, 2008 | Permalink| No Comments »

Georgia, Russia And The Candidates’ Diplomatic Style

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Foreign Policy, McCain, Russia, The World

Given the recent flare up in Georgia yesterday and into today, it was expected that the candidates would have to take a position. Both don’t view Russia’s actions as justified, but as Politico points out this represents one of the campaign’s first “3 a.m.” moments and could give us a glimpse into how the candidates [...]

August 9th, 2008 | Permalink| 12 Comments »

Majority Feel Surge A Success, But Even More Want To Get Out

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Independents, McCain, Polls, Republicans

By 52% to 41%, Americans believe that our latest efforts in Iraq have worked. That has to be heartening for the McCain camp and troubling for Obama, right?
Well…
The Illinois senator has said he thinks the surge has improved conditions on the ground but would still have not supported it, instead favoring a “strategy that [...]

July 31st, 2008 | Permalink| No Comments »

Obama’s Foreign Policy Platform Gaining Traction

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Foreign Policy, Iraq, McCain, The World

Who knew the views he expressed last fall would be so popular nowadays? And this overseas trip only put an exclamation point on the fact that many seem to adopting his stances in one way or another.
Frank Rich breaks it down…
First, on July 7, the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, dissed Bush dogma by raising [...]

July 27th, 2008 | Permalink| 13 Comments »

Obama’s Berlin Speech

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Foreign Policy, The War On Terrorism, The World, Video

Provided in full by MSNBC…

Ultimately I think this speech was a worldwide call to unite in the War on Terrorism, and in that respect I think it could help him.
What did you think?

July 24th, 2008 | Permalink| No Comments »

Iraqi Government Confirms Preference For 2010 Withdrawal

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Barack, Foreign Policy, Iraq, McCain, Video, War

And this time, just so there’s no confusion, they say it in English.

So…is this definitive enough for all of you who’ve been doubting that Maliki meant sooner rather than later? Is the word “timetable” specific enough?
Meanwhile, Obama is talking about a timetable that specifically states we would get out by 2010, and McCain has hinted [...]

July 21st, 2008 | Permalink| 7 Comments »