U.S. Plans Post-Iraq Troop Increase in Persian Gulf. As ties with US sour, Pak cosies up to China, Saudi Arabia. How Disappointed are Arabs in US Policies? Answer: Very | Middle East. How disappointed are Arabs in the policies of the United States since President Barack Obama took office? The answer: very. The Arab American Institute (AAI) released the findings of the latest AAI/Zogby International poll findings conducted in six Arab nations: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Lebanon. The poll was commissioned after President Obama's State Department address on the popular uprisings in the Arab world two months ago.
More than 4,000 Arab citizens were surveyed. Related video: After a remarkable improvement in U.S. popularity in the Arab world with the election of President Obama in 2008, favorable ratings of the U.S. across the Arab world have plummeted even lower than where they were at the end of the Bush Administration. For example, favorability ratings dropped from 26 percent in 2008 to 12 percent in 2011 in Morocco and from 9 percent to 5 percent in Egypt.
Why did Arabs lose faith? Is polling empowering? "We`re not economic villains in Africa" – China to US - China perspective. BEIJING - Over the centuries, great generals and leaders have repeatedly acknowledged that success in war is about far more than weapons and soldiers. Napoleon spoke of how one friendly newspaper was more powerful in war than a thousand bayonets. Ultimate victory, as former US President Lyndon B Johnson once famously declared, depends not merely on hardware but "on the hearts and minds of the people who actually live out there". The idea of broader social alliances and friendly citizens supporting strategic objectives is rooted in Mao Zedong thought, still so powerfully influential here in China. War, as Chairman Mao states in his Little Red Book, is after all merely the continuation of politics.
When it comes to Africa and securing reliable access to the continent's extremely attractive mineral wealth and markets, war is not really an option for the world's next superpower. Other means must be used; softer means, more diplomatic means, more political. China pours money into propaganda. Obama Letter to Congress on Libya Sparks Protests.
Big changes coming to Obama’s Asia team. Several senior Obama administration Asia officials are set to either leave government or move to new jobs within the bureaucracy in the coming months, as the White House tries to hit the reset button on U.S. -China relations. As part of a cautious warming of U.S. -China relations in the early days of President Barack Obama's term, his administration elected to postpone arms sales to Taiwan and a visit by the Dalai Lama in 2009.
Beijing was pleased, but that evaporated when the arms sales went through in January 2010 and the visit went ahead in February 2010. China's aggressive stance on a range of issues, such as its claimed of sovereignty over the South China Sea, as well as Beijing's de facto defense of North Korean bad behavior, contributed to a worsening of ties. The United States has also joined regional organizations, such as the East Asia Summit, which signaled increased U.S. attention to the region. Meanwhile, back at State, there are other moves in the works. Richard Holbrooke's relentless work for American leadership. Like legions of people around the world whose lives were improved by contact with Richard C. Holbrooke, we are feeling his loss very keenly. Mr. Holbrooke, who died Monday at the age of 69, wrote a monthly column for this newspaper during one respite from his successive tours of public service. The latter - public service - was at the core of Mr.
Holbrooke's identity, and his contributions to American diplomacy over the past five decades will find their place in the history books. The flair for drama is irrepressible. If the column - and the man - were passionate about policy, it was because he knew how much policy mattered. " From this core insight - that people can shape history - much else followed: Mr. Mr. World Pays Tribute to Holbrooke. Washington Shows Support for Jailed Nobel Peace Prize Winner - The Note. Dec 10, 2010 3:54pm ABC News' Sherisse Pham reports: Washington support for Nobel Peace Prize winner and jailed human rights activist Liu Xiaobo flowed from the highest branches of office Friday. President Obama said in a statement, “Mr. Liu Xiaobo is far more deserving of this award than I was.” The president added that the U.S. respects China’s ‘extraordinary’ accomplishment of lifting millions from poverty, and that human rights includes the dignity that comes with freedom from want.
“But,” Obama continued, “Mr. Secretary of State’s statement echoed the call for Liu’s release, and urged China to again revisit its human rights policy. “We urge China to uphold its international human rights obligations and to respect the fundamental freedoms and human rights of all Chinese citizens,” said Clinton. With Liu Xiaobo imprisoned and his wife Liu Xia under house arrest, no one travelled to Norway to accept the prize. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND), had harsher words for the Chinese government. VOA | US Calls North Korean Artillery Strike Armistice Violation | News. The United States said Wednesday North Korea's lethal artillery strike on a South Korean island was premeditated and a violation of the 1953 Korean War armistice. But U.S. officials do not believe Pyongyang is preparing for an extended military campaign.
Officials here are not minimizing the seriousness of the North Korean artillery barrage, which they call a serious provocation and a deliberate violation of the Korean armistice. But they say they are not observing preparations for a broader conflict by North Korea, and say they are looking to China to play a "pivotal" role in restraining its neighbor. State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters the United States is engaged in wide-ranging diplomacy with China and others in the aftermath of the artillery clash, and intends to raise the matter directly with North Korea in the armistice framework.
The spokesman rejected North Korea's claim it acted in self defense after South Korean shelling in a military exercise. Saving Yemen. Yemen rose to the forefront of U.S. counterterrorism efforts in December 2009, when Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who was trained in Yemen by al Qaeda, attempted to bomb an airliner bound for Detroit. Since then, Washington has become concerned about the growing influence of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and its spokesman, the U.S. -born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. When two bombs were sent on cargo from Yemen to the United States last month, public attention again focused on U.S. strategies to combat AQAP. So far, however, these efforts have been complicated by the current state of Yemen itself, which faces a multitude of internal problems that are pushing it to the brink of failure.
Interconnected threats from the Houthi rebellion in the north, an increasingly active secessionist movement in the south, and a host of growing socioeconomic problems make Yemen a priority for experts in both counterterrorism and development. To continue reading, please log in. Don't have an account? Register. Ignoring Yemen at Our Peril - By Gregory D. Johnsen. Seven years ago this month, al Qaeda in Yemen was on its last legs, worn down by years of U.S. and Yemeni strikes. The group's original leader, Abu Ali al-Harithi, was dead, the target of a November 2002 strike by an unmanned CIA drone. His replacement, an amputee named Muhammad Hamdi al-Ahdal, fared little better. One year after the death of his boss, the veteran of the fighting in Bosnia and Chechnya was presiding over an organization in disarray. Like a general without an army, al-Ahdal was out of options. In November 2003, he was tracked down to a safe house on the outskirts of Sanaa, the Yemeni capital.
A last-minute mediator from the president's office prevented a shootout in the residential neighborhood, convincing al-Ahdal to surrender. Just like that, the threat had been eliminated. Since then, things have not gone so well. The Yemeni government was just as distracted. Both countries were guilty of lapsed vigilance. But still the threat was ignored. Clinton might address human rights issues. News Analysis - A Shared Concern About China Aligns U.S. and Vietnam. A steady progression of careful gestures has eroded the enmities of the Vietnam War, built a basis of increasing trust and turned the two nations’ attention, in large part, from issues of the past to the present. It is the second cabinet-level visit to Vietnam in four months; Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton came in July. Exchanges at this level have become almost routine. “I would say that relations are at their highest point in 15 years,” said Nguyen Manh Hung, director of the Indochina Institute at George Mason University in Virginia.
“We have basically removed the major hurdles of suspicion in military to military relations, and I would expect things to proceed quite fast.” Mr. Gates was expected to meet with General Phung Quang Thanh, the Vietnamese defense minister, at a gathering of defense chiefs from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations and partner countries. It is an issue with some irony. In response, during a visit to Hanoi in July, Mrs. Mrs.
Afghanistan. Robert Gates, Tom Donilon repair ties - Mike Allen. Poll: Most Americans against joining Israel in Iran strike | JTA - Jewish & Israel News. Tech@State. Muslim Women Tech Leaders Coming to America. Starting next spring, 38 young women from the Muslim world who are emerging technology leaders in their home countries will come to the United States for five-week mentorships at leading technology companies. The State Department set up the program, called TechWomen, earlier this year following President Obama’s Cairo speech, which talked about the need to reboot relations between the U.S. and Muslim-majority countries. The women, who have not been selected yet, will range in age from 25-42 and will come from countries the U.S. specifically wants to focus on: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the West Bank and Gaza. Though final details haven’t been nailed down yet, companies that have expressed interest in hosting the professionals include Facebook, Microsoft, IBM, Yahoo, and HP, as well as Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Agilent Technologies, Symantec, and Sandia National Laboratories.
The learning opportunity may go both ways. [Photo by Steve Evans]