RobertNaiman

The Joint Chiefs urged President Obama to send fresh troops to Afghanistan "only if they have spent at least a year in the U.S. since their last overseas tour." That would mean 40,000 new troops can't be in Afghanistan for the "spring fighting season," disappointing Fred Kagan. But Kai Eide of the United Nations has a better idea: let's give the "spring fighting season" a miss.

One result is clear from the Afghan election: the Afghan people are sick of war. Polls show Americans agree. But the U.S. Senate still refuses to debate an exit strategy.

It's been a month since Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was deposed in a military coup. The Obama Administration still says it is working for President Zelaya's return, but so far it has not responded to the call from Hondurans for increased U.S. pressure on the coup regime. Now Rep. Raul Grijalva is leading a Congressional effort to urge the Obama Administration to increase U.S. pressure on the coup regime by canceling U.S. visas and freezing bank accounts of coup leaders.

The Senate Intelligence Committee knows that al-Libi's false, tortured testimony linking Iraq to al-Qaida was part of Colin Powell's speech to the UN. Human Rights Watch knows it. Lawrence Wilkerson knows it. And you know it. But supposedly Colin Powell doesn't know it. Is this credible?

Congress has a unique opportunity this week to reform the policies of the International Monetary Fund. House and Senate leaders are meeting in a conference committee to work out the differences between the House and Senate versions of the supplemental appropriations bill. The Senate version of the bill is likely to include $100 billion and new authorities for the IMF, but the House version of the supplemental bill did not include funds for the IMF. Concrete, observable reforms of the IMF's policies in poor countries should be part of any agreement: there should be no "blank check" for the IMF.

Until this week, it seemed like the conventional wisdom in Washington was that stopping U.S drone strikes in Pakistan was outside the bounds of respectable discussion. That just changed - Or it should have. Counterinsurgency guru David Kilcullen has told Congress that U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan are backfiring and should be stopped.

There have been hints in the press that the Obama Administration has been considering conditioning U.S. aid to Israel on a real freeze of Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank. WorldPublicOpinion.org has just released a poll showing that three-quarters of Americans oppose Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank. This number is up 23 points from 2002. Even among respondents who say they sympathize with Israel more than the Palestinians, 64% say Israel should not build settlements in the West Bank.

In the short run, we have to oppose war with whomever is available. In the long run, we'll never have a foreign policy that truly reflects the values and interests of the majority until working people in America have more political power. That's why everyone who wants peace has a big stake in the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.

Americans elected President Obama in part based on his promise to put diplomacy and international cooperation, rather than the use and threat of military force, at the center of his foreign policy. With respect to Afghanistan and Pakistan, while there have been some encouraging signals, in terms of actually implemented policies the folks who voted for Obama are not yet getting the "diplomacy first" that they were promised. Last week the Washington Post reported that 55% of Democrats support negotiations with the Afghan Taliban, and that 56% of Democrats think the U.S. should focus more on economic development in Afghanistan than on defeating the Taliban militarily.