Perhaps the biggest news is that the United States Senate has decided to call it quits and adjourn for the fall election maybe as early as September 30th. What the hey, they weren’t getting much done and seemed unlikely to follow Blog for Iowa’s modest proposal. The Republican minority has essentially run out the clock. On Sunday Blog for Iowa posted on the lame duck session, but in light of this week’s news, the idea of the Senate getting anything else done in the remaining time of the 111th congress may itself be lame.
BFIA
follows progress on the New START Treaty, and with the truncated work period, chances of ratification before the elections are reduced. In the usually conservative Washington Times, Brent Scowcroft and Jake Garn co-wrote an opinion piece that calls for ratification of the New START Treaty and addresses the principal objections raised by the opponents. As the Senate takes their time to get to ratification, our ability to inspect the Russian Federation’s nuclear deployment on the ground is gone and that is one of the things Scowcroft and Garn point out.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in New York City for the convening of the United Nations General Assembly. Ahmadinejad is always popular with the corporate media and receives a lot of coverage. According to Jason Rezaian at Slate, the press has been briefed on how to avoid “getting played” by the Iranian President. What Blog for Iowa would like to see is a news cycle where the focus turns from Iran’s developing nuclear program to the human rights issues within that country. We wonder what happened to the so-called Green Movement in Iran. In Slate, Rezaian suggests Ahmadinejad could become a conduit to improve relations with neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan. Now that would be a paradigm shift. For a deeper dive into what makes Ahmadinejad Ahmadinejad, click here.
It has been almost a month since the working White House dinner with President Obama, President Mubarak, His Majesty King Abdullah, Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas. While many in the world hope for a resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict, during a question and answer period at the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council, Republican candidate for Congress Mariannette Miller-Meeks criticized President Obama for calling for an end to Israeli settlements in disputed territory as the talks between the parties were beginning. It does not appear that being hopeful about peace in the Middle East is in the genetic makeup of members of the party of no, where any accomplishment of the Obama administration can be spun negatively.
Finally, discussion of Bob Woodward’s latest book, “Obama’s Wars,” appeared in the New York Times and in other news outlets. In an article in Tuesday’s edition, Peter Baker wrote, “Some of the critical players in President Obama’s national security team doubt his strategy in Afghanistan will succeed and have spent much of the last 20 months quarreling with one another over policy, personalities and turf, according to a new book.” The BFIA take on this is that when we are investing substantial amounts of the country’s blood and treasure in a war, when administration officials disagree, it seems like a good thing. Perhaps Mr. Woodward should consider retirement after this one.
~Paul Deaton is a native Iowan living in rural Johnson County and weekend editor of Blog for Iowa.
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