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This Week:
- Dan Restrepo on the U.S. preparation for Cuba’s transition
- Morton Halperin was a signatory to an open letter to President Bush on US Security and the Middle East
- Senator Tom Daschle speaks on energy security and ethanol at the American Coalition for Ethanol Conference in Kansas City.
Expert Commentary:
- PJ Crowley on the Department of Homeland Security
- Joseph Cirincione on Iran and neoconservatives
- Lawrence Korb comments on the political impact of Iraq on members of Congress who voted to authorize the war
- Lawrence Korb on Army recruitment policy
- Peter Rundlet on the London plot and CAP’s Terrorism Index
- Joseph Cirincione on the US removal of highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Poland
- PJ Crowley on airport security
Dan Restrepo, “U.S. Must Scrap Rigid Plan for Cuba’s Transition,”The Star Ledger, August 15, 2006
As speculation continues to swirl regarding the true state of Fidel Castro’s health, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: The United States is horribly ill prepared for a transition in Cuba.
Last week, President Bush uttered what should be the golden rule of U.S. policy toward a transition in Cuba when he said “the people on the island of Cuba ought to decide” its future. Unfortunately, his subsequent decision to hand humanitarian assistance during the initial stages of a transition over to the Commerce Department, instead of the professionals at the U.S. Agency for International Development, shows the Bush administration has learned next to nothing on how to handle post-authoritarian transitions from its disastrous handling of a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.
Click here to read the full oped.
Morton H. Halperin, Senior Fellow and Director of the Security and Peace Initiative, was a signatory to an open letter to President Bush on US Security and the Middle East, “Group Says Iran is ‘Not a Crisis'” The LA Times, August 16, 2006.
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Robert G. Gard, one of the letter’s signers and a former military assistant to Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara in the 1960s, said the group was particularly concerned about administration policies toward Iran, believing them to be a possible prelude to a military attack on suspected nuclear sites in that country.
Gard said the signatories — who included retired Marine Corps Gen. Joseph P. Hoar, head of U.S. Central Command from 1991 to 1994, and Morton H. Halperin, a senior State Department and National Security Council official during the Clinton administration — did not believe that Iran had the wherewithal to build a nuclear weapon in the immediate future and would push the administration to open negotiations with Tehran on the issue.
Click here to read the full article.
Senator Tom Daschle’s remarks, as prepared, for the American Coalition for Ethanol Conference on August 9, 2006.
In all of our legislative efforts, two major trends are very encouraging. The first is that many of the sponsors are new supporters of the ethanol industry. And the second is that in an era where there is so much partisanship and division, this has become a bipartisan endeavor: Lugar and Obama… McCain and Biden — the appeal of renewable fuels is helping to bring parties together for the good of the nation, and that’s an extremely positive sign.
The success we see today and the prospects for greater success in the future bring challenges, however. How well we meet those challenges will, in large measure, dictate how we write the next 25 years of ethanol’s story.
One of the reasons for our success is that people have come to realize that ethanol – and the people who promote it – have always been acting more in the national interest than in self-interest. And because we – as an industry – have been acting in the national interest, we have received some national benefits: generous tax credits… demand enhancement measures such as the RFS…encouragement for farmer-owned plants, just to name a few.
Click here to read the full transcript of the Senator’s prepared remarks.
Click here for more information on the American Coalition for Ethanol.
Expert Commentary:
St. Louis Post Dispatch, August 15 – PJ Crowley comments on the need for oversight in the Department of Homeland Security’s contracting process
Mother Jones Radio, August 14 – Joseph Cirincione comments on the neoconservatives desire to invade Iran
St. Louis Post Dispatch, August 13 – PJ Crowley comments on the need for increased airport security
CNN International, August 12 – Peter Rundlet comments on the London plot and the Center’s Terrorism Index
Christian Science Monitor, August 10 – Lawrence Korb comments on the political impact of voting for the war in Iraq on members of Congress
The Washington Post, August 10 – Lawrence Korb comments on the qualifications of current Army recruits
The Boston Globe, August 10 – Joseph Cirincione comments on the urgency of the US operation to remove highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Poland
Newsday, August 9 – Lawrence Korb comments on the political implications of having voted for the war in Iraq for members of Congress
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