Iraq Becoming A Bigger Problem Globally

as it dominates over all the other important issues of the world.

WASHINGTON - Two months ago, President Bush enthusiastically accepted an invitation to visit Singapore in September. But he abruptly changed plans, and his summit with Southeast Asian leaders is off. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is skipping an Asian meeting, too, and tossed out plans to visit Africa this week. Defense Secretary Robert Gates' mission to Latin America ? Postponed.

The reason is Iraq .

As the White House struggles to show progress in the 52-month-old war, other important global issues increasingly are getting pushed to the side, according to U.S. officials, diplomats and analysts.

" The United States is very focused on Iraq and the Middle East . We know we are not a white-heat zone . . . which is good for us. But it means we are not on top of the list," said Heng Chee Chan, Singapore's ambassador to the United States .

Bush had promised to attend a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations - which includes several longtime U.S. allies - in Singapore in September. Chen said the summit had been postponed, not canceled.

Few doubt Iraq's centrality in U.S. foreign policy. Failure there could damage America's prestige for years, if not decades, and suck Iraq's neighbors into the vortex of violence.

But the high-level U.S. attention and energy drawn away from all but a handful of other world problems is yet another cost of the Iraq war.

"Canceling a meeting here or there may not seem like a big deal, but the slights are piling up," Asia expert Walter Lohman of the conservative Heritage Foundation wrote recently. "Unless the Bush administration can quickly get back on track, the game is over; it will fall to the next president to revitalize the U.S. commitment" to Asia .

I call it a "scorched Earth policy." Everywhere Bush goes, everything Bush touches becomes scorched.

Antarctic Base At Risk Due To Glboal Warming

Just another example of the big lie:

The Antarctic base occupied by British explorer Robert Falcon Scott on his ill-fated expedition to the South Pole on foot early last century has been included on a list of the world's 100 most endangered sites.

The list, compiled by an international panel and released Wednesday by the World Monuments Fund, identifies what are considered to be the world's most endangered historic, architectural and cultural treasures.

The WMF identified climate change as the biggest threat to the hut, built in 1911 at Cape Evans by Captain Scott's British Antarctic expedition. The hut is wooden but for decades was permanently frozen. With the ice melting, the timbers have become waterlogged and are rotting.

Common Sense Appears Magically In WaPo Op-Ed

An Egghead For The Oval Office

When I look at what the next president will have to deal with, I don't see much that can be solved with just a winning smile, a firm handshake and a ton of resolve. I see conundrums, dilemmas, quandaries, impasses, gnarly thickets of fateful possibility with no obvious way out. Iraq is the obvious place he or she will have to start; I want a president smart enough to figure out how to minimize the damage.

I want a president who reads newspapers, who reads books other than those that confirm his worldview, who bones up on Persian history before deciding how to deal with Iran's ambitious dreams of glory. I want a president who understands the relationship between energy policy at home and U.S. interests in the Middle East -- and who's smart enough to form his or her own opinions, not just rely on what old friends in the oil business say.

I want a president who looks forward to policy meetings on health care and has ideas to throw into the mix.

I want a president who believes in empirical fact, whose understanding of spirituality is complete enough to know that faith is "the evidence of things not seen" and who knows that for things that can be seen, the relevant evidence is fact, not belief. I want a president -- and it's amazing that I even have to put this on my wish list -- smart enough to know that Darwin was right.

... (Image Source)

Amen. We need more people to write letters like this.

Lots more.

Nancy Pelosi Asks...

"Congress Is Working On Legislation To Address Global Warming - What Would You Like To See Included?"

It's a good question to ask. Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of the common sense and otherwise good and reasonable answers are being downrated so that they're hidden while political jabs are being uprated.

As I read over the answers being left, I see a lot of good responses like further research into alternative fuels and technology like wind, water, and air power. Someone had the idea of federal subsidies for retrofitting homes with this equipment in order to create a massive national power grid that was partly provided by those homes specifically and taking off some reliance on fossil fuels.

Mandated higher MPG's and hybrid vehicles was another good idea, as well as was expansion of mass transit. Although I didn't see it yet, a high speed national rail system would be nice, as well.

Then you have the people who simply close their eyes and think if they stick their fingers in their ears and go "la-la-la-la-la-la-la" long and loud enough, they won't have to defend their ridiculous arguments.

Like:

Nothing, because no one knows if it is real or just a natural Earth climate cycle. No matter what liberal science says. And besides, to think man has enough talent, brains, whatever to think he can change an entire planet is extremely egotistical.

Change an entire planet...pshh! Where would anyone



get the idea



that humans have any talents



brains



or....what-



-ever...



to change the planet!?

That kind of thinking could get someone locked up for a good long time. Better to just keep it to yourself.

The World Has A Message For The US

Listen more:

A BBC international opinion poll suggests there is widespread disquiet about the United States' role in Iraq and its other foreign policy priorities. The BBC's Jonathan Marcus analyses the results.

...

Overall, this new opinion poll sampled the views of 26,000 people in 25 countries.

Three in every four of those questioned disapproved of how the US government was dealing with the crisis in Iraq.

The poll did not just deal with Iraq. It also asked questions about the US handling of Guantanamo detainees; the Israel-Hezbollah war; Iran's nuclear programme; global warming; and North Korea's nuclear programme.

In every case, a majority of those questioned disapproved of America's handling of the issue concerned.

...

What is striking in this survey is how negatively the US is seen across a range of diverse countries. Indeed the same policies are, in many cases, even unpopular in the US itself.

Now, I first came across this article from a write up on The Existentialist Cowboy and if it wasn't for this chart

I might not have clicked through to see the entire article where I found even more interesting charts with brief descriptions for each. You'll have to click through to see them but one thing I found interesting, that I don't know the background of, is that it seemed that in terms of disapproval with regards to issues such as global warming, Iraq, and world influence, the US received some of the highest voiced rates of disapproval from developed, economically stable countries such as Great Britain, France, China, Australia yet received some of the lowest levels of disapproval from Nigeria, the Phillipines, Lebanon, and Indonesia.

For some reason, it just stood out to me and I'm wondering if perhaps the countries that seem to be rating the US more positively are doing so because of the risk involved with losing valuable aid assistance if they voice discomfort or dissatisfaction with the way the US is handling a particular angle of some foreign policy issue.

Given this administration's use of "You're either with us or against us," I would not be surprised to see foreign aid used as a wedge of some sorts to struggling or economically depressed countries that are on the receiving end of that aid for a whole variety of dirty political tactics.

Lastly, there was one more part of the article that I wanted you to read, though.

This, then, raises an obvious question. Is it simply the Bush administration's foreign policy or the whole image of America that is unpopular?

I haven't finish the article yet to see how that question was ultimately answered, if at all, but living here in the US, I can only take a guess....