A Bipartisan Way Out of Iraq - Joe Sestak, Christian Science Monitor

There is a bipartisan "way ahead" in Iraq if viewed in terms of progress for America's security and not solely Iraq's, with a strategy that focuses on our national interests in this conflict, not just the interests of Iraqis.

Our troops have served our country courageously and brilliantly, but our engagement in Iraq has degraded our security, pushing our Army to the breaking point so that it cannot confront other pressing security concerns at home and abroad.

My military service as a three-star vice admiral – having led an aircraft carrier battle group in combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and served as director of the Navy's anti-terrorism unit – convinces me that an inconclusive, open-ended involvement in Iraq is not in our security interests. Ending this war is necessary. But how we end it is of even greater importance for both our security and our troops' safety. These two considerations are the dual catalysts for a bipartisan discussion on this issue…

Defamation is Not Discourse - Dan Thomasson, Washington Times

While negative political advertising has been around since the beginning of the republic, MoveOn.org seems to have cut some new ground for meanness and ratcheted up the incivility level more than a notch or two, as if it weren't high enough already. Probably not since Lyndon Johnson's vicious attempt to portray Barry Goldwater as a threat to nuclear sanity has there been a more controversial attack on a public official than the one implying Gen. David Petraeus has betrayed the nation…

Gen. Petraeus, after all, is not a politician. He is a military man assigned to an incredibly difficult task, which, from all indications, has managed so far to do rather well. His focus, just as those of his predecessors, has been to stabilize the scene so ultimately there is only a U.S. diplomatic presence in Iraq. He says that may take more years than MoveOn and many Americans believe is acceptable. Fine. But to allege he has betrayed his country and kowtowed to the White House by preparing a dishonest assessment is itself an act of indecency and should be offensive even to those who oppose this war.

Once again the Internet has provided a platform for those who would take us to new lows in public discourse. Despite the lack of substantive credentials that would lend legitimacy to their influence, the mainly faceless directors of such groups at both ends of the philosophical spectrum somehow manage to further pollute an already poisonous political atmosphere. Who are these people and where do they come from? With what authority do they accuse someone of Gen. Petraeus' stature of being a liar who has betrayed the nation's best interests? …

Thwarting Terrorists: More to Be Done – Matthew Bunn, Washington Post

Today, Harvard's Project on Managing the Atom and the Nuclear Threat Initiative publish their annual report on security of nuclear weapons and materials around the world. The good news in " Securing the Bomb 2007" is that much progress has been made toward upgrading security for nuclear stockpiles. The bad news is that the essential ingredients of nuclear weapons exist in hundreds of buildings in more than 40 countries, and terrorists are actively trying to get a nuclear bomb or the materials to make one.

As early as 1993, al-Qaeda attempted to buy highly enriched uranium in Sudan. Seized documents from Afghanistan detail al-Qaeda's efforts to gain nuclear materials there from 1996 to 2001; Osama bin Laden has called getting the bomb a "religious duty." In Russia, Chechen terrorist teams carried out reconnaissance at two secret nuclear weapon storage sites in 2001…

Making Nice – London Times leader

One of the striking features of Gordon Brown’s address to the Labour Party conference on Monday was its concentration on domestic policy. Major international issues were touched upon in passing, but not in detail. Afghanistan was mentioned once, Iraq twice and the EU reform treaty in a couple of sentences. It was left, by default, for David Miliband to sketch out an approach, philosophy or strategy for British foreign policy. In doing so yesterday, he discussed what he hailed as “the second wave of new Labour foreign policy”.

Mr Miliband is a clever man who is apparently comfortable with ideas, but not so fond of controversy, and so he was anodyne on the great issues of our era. Indeed, such was his enthusiasm to make peace with his party and the world that he declared that the argument over military intervention in Iraq was one where “the passion on all sides was sincere and understandable” and that “whatever the rights and wrongs, and there have been both, we’ve got to focus on the future”…

Giving Tommy His Due – London Daily Telegraph leader

General Sir Richard Dannatt made a powerful point last week when he deplored the lack of respect with which our service men and women are regarded when they return from theatres of conflict to these islands.

As Col Bob Stewart writes elsewhere in today's Daily Telegraph, it is as if our national soul has "gone missing" in respect of our armed forces.

It may well be the case that many people are opposed to the Iraq war, and have negative feelings about the much more justifiable involvement of this country in Afghanistan. But those are political considerations…

The Iran Exception – Rich Lowry, National Review

When five American soldiers were killed at an Iraqi government building in Karbala in January, Democratic Sens. Chris Dodd and John Kerry erupted in outrage. They both knew one of the soldiers killed, a talented West Point grad. According to the Washington Post, his loss “radicalized Dodd, energized Kerry and girded the ever-more confrontational stance of Democrats in the Senate.”

It turned out that Iran’s Quds Force helped carry out the attack, providing training to the Shiite group responsible for it. So, the Iranians had effectively killed those Americans, but Dodd and Kerry have yet to become notably energized or radicalized about counter-acting Iran’s malign influence in Iraq.

Democrats angered at American casualties in Iraq can’t summon more than pro forma denunciations of one of the main forces responsible for them. It’s the Iran exception: Because our intelligence on Saddam Hussein’s weapons was flawed and the Iraq War devilishly hard, Iran has practically carte blanche from half the American political spectrum to develop a nuclear weapon, kill Americans in Iraq, pledge to wipe a nearby country off the map, arm dangerous militants throughout the region and take Westerners hostage…

Ahmadinejad the Alienator – Washington Times editorial

If anything has become clear during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's U.S., it's that his statements are alienating people who can usually be counted upon to give the benefit of the doubt to anyone opposed to President Bush: the liberal journalistic and academic elites. Not that at least some of the elites didn't try to help him out.

When Mr. Ahmadinejad addressed the National Press Club on Monday, the moderator introduced him as one of the most "noteworthy heads of state in the world" — this about a man who humanizes the "Axis of Evil." The moderator, Jeremy Zremski of the Buffalo News, chose a written question submitted from the audience about whether the Iranian leader planned on running for re-election. Mr. Ahmadinejad spent 20 minutes or so reading from the Koran and rambling on about things like "the sublime value of humanity," while prominent journalists seated at the main table like Eleanor Clift and Clarence Page looked on in bewilderment, which soon gave way to frustration. Mr. Zremski also asked Mr. Ahmadinejad about reports from organizations like Amnesty International and another about the Iranian government's closing down opposition newspapers, imprisoning journalists and sentencing them to death for the crime of "enmity toward God," and beating and torturing women's rights activists. Mr. Ahmadinejad denied the charges, saying they were all false. Likewise, when asked about Iranian weapons being smuggled into Iraq, Mr. Ahmadinejad issued a blanket denial…

The Ahmadinejad Distraction – Boston Globe editorial

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad scolded Columbia University President Lee Bollinger Monday for introducing him with insulting questions and comments. He answered a question about the recent execution of two gay men in Iran by saying, "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals like in your country." Then he got annoyed at students who laughed at that response. With the students chortling and booing him scornfully, the former Revolutionary Guard officer resorted to his favorite propaganda line: that his audience was misinformed. "In Iran we do not have this phenomenon," he said. "I don't know who's told you that we have it."

At that moment, the depth of Ahmadinejad's tragic-comic mendacity was evident. Caught in a preposterous fib, he sought to deflect attention by insinuating that unnamed malevolent forces were feeding the audience lies about his country.

Yet the laughter of the Columbia students was nothing compared with the reception he received last December from Iranian students at Amir Kabir University in Tehran. There, the students called him a "fascist president," shouting "death to the dictator" and booing him so energetically that he fled the campus…

Intolerance in the Name of Tolerance – Cal Thomas, Washington Times

… Why would Columbia expect Mr. Ahmadinejad to answer what they promised in advance would be "tough" questions? Have they not seen him interviewed by America's best reporters? He doesn't answer questions. He uses the interviews to lecture America and make his propaganda points. The exercise is useless, except to him because he scores points at home for "standing up to 'the Great Satan,' " or whatever the preferred term du jour for the United States is at the moment…

How to Build US-Iran Relations - Abbas Maleki and Kaveh Afrasiabi, Boston Globe

Seeing things with parted eyes, like Hermia in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer's Night Dream," is how US-Iran relations appear, with dialogue, both direct and indirect, and escalating tensions between the two countries transpiring simultaneously. The ongoing saga between Iran and the United States, more than a quarter of a century old, has all the marking of a potentially serious, even catastrophic, chapter in international relations.

Both Tehran and Washington need to increase efforts in preventive diplomacy in order to set relations on a peaceful track instead of a collision course. They should focus on shared or parallel interests, narrow their differences, and identify the issuesthat preclude normalization. After all, both Iran and the United States have diplomatic relations with other nations that do not completely see eye to eye with them on every important issue…

World Mustn’t Ignore Iran’s Extremism – Frida Ghitis, Miami Herald

Watching Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lecture the world from the podium at the United Nations, most people wonder whether the man with the strangely eerie smile is just an irritating figure from a curious land, or the president of a truly dangerous country that will end up in a major war with the United States and even Europe…

And it's not just his relentless pursuit of a nuclear program. No, today's Iran is more than a threat of future action. Pull a thread from among any of Israel's sworn enemies and you will reach Iranian cash, weapons and training. To this day, Iranian arms and money flow to Hezbollah, which launched 4,000 rockets into Israeli cities last summer. Iranian money helps arm and train Hamas, which just in the last few days tried to send another suicide bomber into Tel Aviv in an effort to kill civilians during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. Hamas supporters launch rockets almost every day into Israeli towns; rockets Israelis fear could one day carry more than crude explosives courtesy of Iran's nuclear program…

Iran’s New Fighter – Reuben Johnson, Weekly Standard

… The Sa'eqeh is based almost entirely on the old Northrop F-5 fighter aircraft, the chief U.S. export fighter of the 1960s and 70s, 166 of which were sold to Iran before the revolution. After the embargo was initiated the Iranian armed forces were able to purchase spares through illegal channels and on the arms black market since the F-5 had been widely exported to numerous nations friendly to the United States and there were any number of parts depots around the world…

The aircraft is outwardly a copy of the F-5 that has been enlarged proportionally by 10-15 percent, with the other chief difference being that Iranian engineers have changed the aircraft's single vertical tail into twin verticals that are canted outward in the same style as the Boeing F/A-18 Hornet. The internal systems of the aircraft are reported to be a mix of copies of older-generation U.S. technology and 1980s/early 1990s Russian avionics.

But despite its rather humble origins and two-generations ago technology, Iranian officials have spared no hyperbole in public statements about the Sa'eqeh…

For Peace Talks and Civilian Protection – Miami Herald editorial

Progress in Sudan's bloody Darfur region moves three steps forward and two steps back. That was evident last Friday, at a high-level meeting of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and diplomats from 26 nations. This is a pattern that could be changed by China, Sudan's biggest oil buyer and arms seller.

Hope for Darfur surged last summer when Sudan agreed to allow an expanded U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force to protect the region's civilians. Then on Friday, Sudan demanded that all the troops come from Africa, though such a force would lack the advanced logistics and equipment from outside the continent that is needed to be effective.

This is only the latest foot-dragging. Sudan continues to rain airstrikes on rebels and civilians alike, though it agreed to a cease-fire in Darfur. Attacks on aid workers have tripled in the last year despite promises of safe passage. Instead of extraditing its humanitarian-affairs minister to face International Criminal Court charges for crimes against humanity, Sudan cynically picked him to co-chair a human-rights panel. The man now is in charge of protecting millions of civilians he is accused of forcing into refugee camps…

The Despotism Formerly Known as Burma – New York Times editorial

By dispatching troops into the streets and imposing a curfew, Myanmar’s cruel military junta has set the stage for a serious clash with pro-democracy activists. A firm and united international response along the lines outlined by President Bush and the European Union at the United Nations yesterday offers the best hope of encouraging peaceful change in a nation that has endured a 19-year reign of fear. The question is whether the countries with the greatest influence on Myanmar’s generals — China, Russia and India, which all sell weapons to the army, as well as the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that are Myanmar’s immediate neighbors — have the good sense to condemn the repression and exert the pressures only they can wield with any hope of positive effect. It is essential that they step up to the plate, and fast, before blood is spilled…

The Saffron Revolution – Washington Times editorial

For decades, a brutal military junta has ruled the impoverished, mostly Buddhist Southeast Asian nation of Burma. But this week, simmering popular discontent has boiled over into rebellion. An estimated 100,000 protesters in a nation of 47 million have packed the streets of the capital Rangoon. Led by saffron-robed Buddhist monks, these demonstrations are the largest since a major crackdown in 1988. The junta is poised for a violent confrontation, which many fear will result in a Tiananmen Square-style massacre.

Regime change will probably only come from within for this long-stricken nation, which its leaders renamed Myanmar in 1989 and have governed with crackpot economics, extremely repressive politics and no regard for international norms. But world powers can tighten the screws to maximize regime change's chances…

Burma’s ‘Saffron Revolution’ – USA Today editorial

If people are persistent enough, even the must brutal governments tend to collapse — not usually by invasion, as in Iraq, but from within, as happened with the fall of the Soviet Union. It just takes a painfully long time and a lot of outside nudging.

Such a revolution could be brewing in Burma, with several lessons for the United States.

This week's pictures from Burma have been extraordinary: Tens of thousands of Buddhist monks in saffron robes leading protests against the Asian nation's repressive military rulers. The monks are a courageous lot. After similar demonstrations in 1988, the generals cracked down brutally. Thousands died, in a horror that foreshadowed China's Tiananmen Square massacre. Since then, the generals have lived in luxurious seclusion, where they cannot be easily uprooted. On Tuesday, they imposed a nighttime curfew as President Bush was highlighting Burma's plight in a speech at the United Nations…

Freedom for Burma – Jody Williams, Wall Street Journal

With tens of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators bravely protesting on the streets of Burma, the world's attention has finally turned to that Southeast Asian country and the brutal military dictatorship that controls it. Burma's military junta, which changed the country's name to Myanmar, crushed a nascent democracy movement in 1988, and then refused to cede power to Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party after their overwhelming electoral victory in 1990.

Before the United Nations General Assembly yesterday, President Bush called for tough new sanctions against the Burmese regime and asked member nations to help bring an end to its "19-year reign of fear." But don't expect China, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, to add its voice to the call for change. While world focus has rightly been on Chinese economic and military support for the Sudanese government's war against the people of Darfur, its involvement with other despotic regimes goes largely unnoticed. The Burmese people, however, understand clearly China's role in their continued oppression…

Now is the Time to Topple Burma’s Tyrants – Caroline Cox, London Daily Telegraph

With tens of thousands of people continuing to protest in Burma, defying the regime's warnings that it will take action to crush the movement, the time has come for the international community to break its cycle of insubstantial condemnation.

Empty rhetoric has dominated policy for the past two decades - we must now introduce concrete steps to bring change.

For too long, the regime, with its Orwellian name the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), has been allowed to get away with crimes against humanity, while the world has at best used mere words - and has often stayed silent…

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