March 20

"[T]oday there's a square in Jerusalem named for Pollard."

--Bret Stephens, "Don't Free Jonathan Pollard: A man who betrayed his country is no martyr to the Jewish people," Wall Street Journal; image from; on Pollard, see.

VIDEO

Bush Administration Officials Face Public Shaming On 10th Anniversary Of Iraq War - Nick Wing, huffingtonpost.com 

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Traditional Leaders Trip to the United States - grants.gov: "Category Explanation: Public Diplomacy Expected Number of Awards: 1 Estimated Total Program Funding: $500,000 Award Ceiling: $500,000 Award Floor: $300,000 CFDA Number(s): 19.501 -- Public Diplomacy Programs for Afghanistan and Pakistan [.] ... Description [:] The Public Affairs Section (PAS) of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan is pleased to announce an open competition for an assistance award through this Request for Grant Proposals (RFGP).

PAS Kabul invites all eligible organizations to submit a proposal to send a select group of Afghan High Peace Council (HPC) members and other Afghan traditional leaders to the United States to increase their understanding of American society and values and to see how religious pluralism works in the United States. The program should include visits to Muslim-American communities, experiences with Afghan-American and Muslim life in America first-hand, meetings with organizations dedicated to reconciliation and conflict resolution, and the viewing of examples of American civil society working to improve local communities." Image from

Public Schedule for March 20, 2013 - Public Schedule, Washington, DC , March 20, 2013 - U.S. Department of State: "UNDER SECRETARY FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS TARA SONENSHINE 2:30 p.m. Under Secretary Sonenshine meets with women leaders from the Middle East and North Africa currently participating in State Department International Visitor Programs, at the Department of State. (CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)"

U.S. Department of State: Western Hemisphere Affairs - Facebook: "During her visit, Ms. Sanchez, winner of the 2011 Secretary’s International Women of Courage award, met with

Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Tara Sonenshine, Acting Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Sharon Wiener, and representatives from the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, and the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor." Image from entry

FOR THE RECORD – AFRICA – U.S. Government Events, Statements, and Articles - A weekly compilation by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS) Economic Statecraft at Work: Promoting Corporate Social Responsibility in Zimbabwe U.S. Department of State DipNote Blog [scroll down link for item] - africacenter.org: “'Shortly after arriving in Zimbabwe, I became involved in the world of corporate social responsibility (CSR). U.S. Embassy Harare’s Public Affairs Section partnered with the Regional Center for Social Responsibility (RCSR) to launch a comprehensive CSR outreach campaign supported by the State Department’s Fund for Economic Innovation in Public Diplomacy. As a Political and Economic Officer, I was grateful to have the opportunity to engage on a critical business issue and participate in this ground-breaking Zimbabwean initiative.' – Jean Phillipson,Political and Economic Officer at the U.S Embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe"

Reporting from Dellamanistan – Paul Rockower, Levantine: "In addition to playing festivals and clubs throughout the United States, Della Mae recently expanded the scale of its touring efforts after participating in the U.S. State Department's American Music Abroad program. Selected as cultural ambassadors, the band spent 43 days traveling in Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, where they collaborated with local musicians, taught educational programs for children, and played concerts for local audiences. 'It's been a life-changing experience for us, individually and as a band,' Ludiker says of the tour. 'A cool thing about playing music in Central Asian countries is in the lack of distinction their audience places between musical genres. We found that if music is played with feeling, all people connected to it.

They find themselves smiling and relating without even understanding the language.' Indeed, Della Mae demonstrates how effectively music builds bridges and transcends artificially constructed borders, whether they're national or genre-based. And one more report from Dellamanistan: while in Pakistan, Della Mae played for the Lettuce Bee Kids, an ngo that works with Afghan refugee and Pakistani street kids to give them some opportunities for fun and education. These are the pics that the kiddies drew from their day with the Dellas.” Della Mae image from

Used to Baghdad’s Battles, and Adjusting to New York’s Bustle - Jim Dwyer, New York Times: "Iraqis are finding their way to new homes. Since the invasion, 10 years ago this month, 82,000 Iraqis have settled in the United States. [Among them is] Mr. Mashhadani [Omar al-Mashhadani] [who] was a journalist in Iraq, a Sunni who found himself in jeopardy because he worked for a time with Radio Sawa, a broadcast network created by the United States in a public diplomacy initiative."

Renewal of the Charter for the Advisory Committee On International Economic Policy - Media Note, Office of the Spokesperson, Washington, DC, March 19, 2013, U.S. Department of State: "On March 12, the Department of State renewed the Charter of the Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy. The Committee serves in a solely advisory capacity concerning major issues and problems in international economic policy.

The Committee provides information and advice on the effective integration of economic interests into overall foreign policy and on the Department of State's role in advancing American economic and commercial interests in a competitive global economy. The Committee also appraises the roles and limits of international economic institutions and advises on the formulation of U.S. economic policy and positions. ... For further information, please contact Gregory Maggio, Deputy Coordinator, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, Office of Economic Policy Analysis and Public Diplomacy, U.S. Department of State, at (202) 647-2231 or email at Maggiogf@state.gov." Image from

The Trans-Pacific Partnership: Japanese Strategic Diplomacy or Chinese Containment - Larry Catá Backer, lcbackerblog.blogspot.com: "The need to avoid American encirclement is particularly acute for the Chinese when it comes to the building of a governance web through rules of global engagement. The later point was brought home in Hu Jinatao’s Report to the 18th Chinese Communist Party Congress in November 2012. He noted a Chinese policy objective of projecting power beyond economics to the fields of international regulatory development, that is to have a greater say in what global rules are going to be. [']We will actively participate in multilateral affairs, support the United Nations, G20, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, BRICS and other multilateral organizations in playing an active role in international affairs, and work to make the international order and system more just and equitable. We will take solid steps to promote public diplomacy as well as people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and protect China's legitimate rights and interests overseas.[']"

Good work, Minister Khar! - Ejaz Haider, tribune.com.pk: "When Hina Rabbani Khar became the foreign minister in July 2011, I was sceptical. She had already been the minister of state for foreign affairs for roughly five months and I didn’t think that period was enough to have groomed her for the top job. I didn’t doubt her smartness and her articulation — she is very sharp on picking nuances and complexities — but diplomacy is a veritable minefield and 2011 was a particularly difficult time for Pakistan. ... Three basic postulates governed the exercise of foreign policy: zero conflict in the region; friendly relations with all neighbours in the region and with states beyond the region; and, by doing so, getting Pakistan to focus on the internal security threats, two of which — terrorism and a dwindling economy — stand out.

For once, it was the foreign policy guiding the security policy rather than the other way round. 'The military is a very important part of the government and state and, of course, any government would get their professional input, but they didn’t run the foreign policy and they have no business running it,' Khar told me. She liked to get external input and to reach out. To that end, she worked the concept of public diplomacy. She got Mosharraf Zaidi to help her and Mosharraf did a brilliant job of it. I say this not because Mosharraf is a friend, which he is and a very dear one at that, but because he really worked hard at his remit. He would constantly think up new things and try and implement them and enabled us and many others to have regular meetings with the FM and the foreign secretary for deep-end background briefings. This was a most useful exercise and helped inform our analysis even when the discussions were based on Chatham House rules." Khar Image from

Qatar Broaches Sensitive Demography Through Soccer – Analysis - James M. Dorsey, Eurasia Review: "Qatar’s soccer league, in a break with a reluctance among Gulf states to give their largely expatriate majorities a sense of belonging, is next month organizing the region’s first cup for foreign workers’ teams. The cup, involving up to 24 teams formed by foreign workers primarily from Asia who account for the bulk of Qatar’s 1.5 million expatriates, is part of an effort to improve working and living conditions as well as a bid to fend off international trade union demands to meet global labor standards. ... The cup further fits into Qatar’s sports strategy that aims to make sports part of the country’s national identity and constitutes a key pillar of its cultural and public diplomacy as well as its global projection of soft power as part of its foreign, defence and security policy. International trade unions have threatened Qatar with a boycot of its hosting of the 2022 World Cup if it failed to adopt international labor standards. Human rights groups are meanwhile documenting individual cases of workers that they consider to be violations and in some case are intervening to improve their conditions. The government’s tacit cooperation like the soccer cup and moves to improve worker safety and security as well as living conditions constitute small but not insignificant steps forward."

Bad role model? Bar Refaeli hits back at the army: Supermodel says she ‘doesn’t lose any sleep’ over IDF letter to Foreign Ministry stating she is bad role model because of her failure to complete military service - Supermodel Bar Refaeli responded Tuesday evening to IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai’s letter to the Foreign Ministry on Sunday in which he criticized the latter’s use of Refaeli in a new PR campaign to boost Israel’s image around the world. ... Refaeli had acknowledged the brewing controversy on Monday in a Hebrew tweet, writing, 'You can use the clip for the Foreign Ministry or drop it, but my Instagram feed has more readers than Israel’s most popular newspaper [Yedioth Ahronoth]!'

The tweet linked to a picture of a banner calling on US President Barack Obama to free imprisoned spy-for-Israel Jonathan Pollard. Refaeli was chosen last month to star in a new series of campaigns that aim to show Israel’s technological and innovative side." Image from article, with caption: Bar Refaeli unfazed by negative comments made by IDF Spokesman ahead of new Foreign Ministry PR campaign in which she stars.

Israel Public Relations/Hasbara Program With Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Ronn Torossian, "The Center for Public Diplomacy/Hasbarah is hosting a breakthrough program once again for Israel advocacy and education, organized in conjunction with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. www.Cpdh2012.com has more information. Collaborating with many academic institutions and organizations around the world, last summer there was a diverse group of students, professionals, and diplomats from 15 countries across 5 continents in our Coexistence in the Middle East Program. This summer, the program is offering two full-credit summer programs at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, ranked one of the Top 100 Universities in the World. These programs seek to build a more informed, balanced, and positive view of Israel on campus by exposing Jewish and non-Jewish students from across the globe to Israel, beyond the headlines. A key program is InnovNation – An innovation program that exposes participants to the top entrepreneurs and high tech companies in the Start-Up Nation. View program’s brochure: www.innovNation.net/pdf."

Cool Dark Pictures - nowin.wordwd.com: "Today, 'followed by' only squad of Hamas rockets on Twitter @ alqassambrigade of surfing or www.qassam. ps , where you can even choose your favorite color combination. More shameful Palestinian rocket launcher teams now Google Earth to choose their targets civiles. Israël remained always, when it comes to public diplomacy -

The infamous 'hasbara' In trying to world public opinion affect the standard mode of the government was a cacophony of competing – and sometimes contradictory – messages from various manifestations of the Government Press Office, IDF, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense . Cette time it is different. Israel is ready to quickly, accurately, and – believe it or not -. 'Media savvy' The Ministry of Public Diplomacy coordinated an aggressive campaign under the banner ………. 'Israel is under attack.'” Image from

On Privacy, Networking and their Meaning for Public Diplomacy - Igor Lyubashenko, neweasterneurope.eu: "[T]he meaning of social media in terms of building new channels of public diplomacy addressed to these states should not be underestimated. The concepts of digitally-augmented public diplomacy (or e-diplomacy), ... are not groundless, although not necessarily easy to implement. One should keep in mind that the will to stay connected does not necessarily go hand in hand with political engagement.

It only provides new communication channels, which should be managed adequately. ... [T]he genuine impact of social media on political processes can only be measured accurately when the overall political, economic and social background in each particular country is taken into account." Image from article

RELATED ITEMS

With Obama's Israel Visit, an Opportunity: Forming a 'strategic triangle' to ensure Middle East security - Ehud Barack, Wall Street Journal: The major challenges in the Middle East today are failed or failing states armed with thousands of rockets and missiles, the presence of global terror groups such as al Qaeda, and, of course, Iran's nuclear-weapons program. In the face of these serious challenges, there is an opportunity for the United States, moderate Arab regimes and Israel to tackle these challenges together. The strategic triangle of a Regional Security Framework, a reinvigorated peace process with the Palestinians, and an effective halt of the Iranian nuclear program is the most effective approach to deal with the dynamic challenges on our horizon.

Why is Obama going to Israel? The visit underscores the nation's role as a key ally in upholding vital American interests in a Mideast region beset with turmoil - Michael Oren, latimes.com: "In a region of shifting alliances, Israel is America's unwavering ally," Prime Minister Netanyahu told Congress. "Israel has always been pro-American. Israel will always be pro-American."

That is why Obama is going to Israel. Image from article, with caption: A cyclist passes a billboard near the hotel where President Obama will be staying in Jerusalem, when he arrives on March 20 for his two-day visit.

As Israelis Press Obama on Iran, Let’s Remember they Urged Iraq War, Too - juancole.com: The Israeli leadership, including Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, will attempt to strong-arm President Barack Obama, during his visit to Israel, into attacking Iran. (In part this noise about Iran is to deflect attention from the vast Israeli land grab in the Palestinian West Bank). It is now often forgotten, and even denied, that the then Israeli leadership was also a huge cheering section for the disastrous Iraq War. Netanyahu in particular wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed in late 2002 entitled "The Case for Toppling Saddam." The Israeli officials of the time were unanimous that Saddam Hussein was within months of having a nuclear weapon (Iraq’s nuclear enrichment program was mothballed in 1991). 

American Withdrawal and Global Disorder: As Obama ends U.S. security guarantees, nuclear weapons and violence will spread - Eliot Cohen, Wall Street Journal: Since the days of the Monroe Doctrine, American foreign policy has rested on a global system of explicit or implicit commitments to use military power to guarantee the interests of the U.S. and its allies. The current administration has chosen to reduce, limit or underfund those commitments, and the results—which we may begin to see before President Obama's term ends—will be dangerous. The U.S. has no defense treaty with Israel, but repeated presidential declarations, including those Mr. Obama will make during his trip this week, amount to nearly the same thing. A world in which the U.S. abnegates its leadership will be a world of unrestricted self-help in which China sets the rules of politics and trade in Asia, mayhem and chaos is the order of the day in the Middle East, and timidity and appeasement paralyze the free European states.

Democrats, Dragons or Drones? - Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times: Today there are no outsiders — no Ottomans, Europeans, Americans, Arab League or U.N. — who want to govern in the place of dictators and no dictators who can sustain their iron fists.

So either the communities in these Arab states find a way to share power or the entire Arab world is going to become like one of those regions on medieval maps labeled: “Beware: Here Be Dragons.” Friedman image from

The what if's of Iraq: Miscalculation on WMDs and wishful thinking led to the invasion 10 years ago. Once we were there, the mistakes multiplied - Max Boot, latimes.com: Ten years of history can't be altered after the fact. Our only hope now is that, just as we were surprised by the initial insurgency in Iraq and surprised, somewhat later, by the surge's success in

defeating or converting most of the insurgents, so too we may yet be surprised by how Iraq turns out. Image from article, with caption: An assault vehicle takes up a position in March 2003

Ten Years After - Editorial Board, New York Times: Iraq is a reminder of the need for political leaders to ask the right questions before allowing military action and to listen honestly rather than acting on ideological or political impulses. Mr. Bush led the war, but Democrats as well as Republicans in Congress endorsed it. Iraq also shows the limits of America’s influence in regions where sectarian enmity remains strong and where democracy has no real history. The United States needs to calibrate its policies continually and should not allow the Iraq experience to paralyze its response to different circumstances.

What America Learned in Iraq - John A. Nagl, New York Times: The first lesson is for America’s politicians, from both parties, who pushed our country into a war that we did not need to fight for dubious reasons that were eventually proved false. The second lesson is for the American military, justly proud of its renaissance after the debacle of Vietnam and subsequent triumph in the cold war but grievously unprepared for the wars of this century.

Finally, the experience of the Iraq war offers a breath of hope for the American people at large: The all-volunteer force has come through these crucibles of blood and fire with enormous distinction. Image from

Iraq in Retrospect: The history the war's critics choose to ignore 10 years later - Review and Outlook, Wall Street Journal: Whatever else might be said about the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which began 10 years ago, its origins, motives and justifications did not lie in the Administration of George W. Bush. On the contrary, when Mr. Bush came to office in January 2001 he inherited an Iraq that amounted to a simmering and endless crisis for the U.S.—one that Saddam appeared to be winning. The larger intelligence (and military) failure was not anticipating the kind of war the U.S. would wind up waging in Iraq. Don't be surprised if someday Iraq is remembered as the war George Bush won and the peace Barack Obama lost.

Mission Unaccomplished - Why the Invasion of Iraq Was the Single Worst Foreign Policy Decision in American History - Peter Van Buren, Huffington Post: Happy 10th anniversary, Iraq War! A decade after the invasion, a chaotic and unstable Middle East is the unfinished legacy of our invasion.

Was It Worth It? - Room for Debate, New York Times: On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion on Iraq, peace seemed far from secured. On Tuesday, more than 50 people, including a Ministry of Finance official, were killed and nearly 200 wounded in 18 bombings in Baghdad. With stability and real democracy still out of reach, and violence a continued threat, was the war worth it? Is America better off now than it was when Saddam Hussein was in power?

How the Propaganda is Cranked up - dailynews.lk: The propaganda aimed against the Sri Lankan state and the Sinhala people in particular is now being done almost to the level of an exact science. The agit-prop machinery against the Sri Lankan state has reached levels that seek to be far more effective than before George W. Bush's war on terror, when Sri Lanka's campaign against the terrorist LTTE was similarly attacked by the usual suspects.

Jacques Ellul on the demand for propaganda - Mencius Moldbug, Unqualified Rservations: "Usually I only post excerpts of very good books or very bad ones. Jacques Ellul's Propaganda (1962) is neither - it is a pretty good book.  It's dated in many ways and has many of the faults of the postwar French intellectual.  Nonetheless, Ellul lived and observed in Vichy France, a great laboratory of this black art in which fascist and communist propagandas of every conceivable flavor competed, interacted, and interbred. ... The core of Ellul's work is his explanation of why both the State and the People need propaganda."

AMERICANA

UPDATE - Sacred mystery: Latest blockbuster ratings for ‘The Bible’ continue to confound Hollywood: In new Nielsens, cable’s David of a mini-series tops anything on network Goliaths ABC, NBC - By Daniel Wattenberg, Washington Times: According to the latest Nielsens, released Tuesday, Sunday night’s telecast of “The Bible,” produced by husband-and-wife team Mark Burnett and Roma Downey for basic cable’s History channel, managed to attract more viewers than anything on two on the “Big 4” broadcast networks — NBC and ABC — during the entire week. This publicity image

released by History shows Diogo Morgado as Jesus, center, being baptized by Daniel Percival, as John, in a scene from "The Bible." The five-part mini-series, produced by the husband-and-wife team of Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, will air Sunday nights in three more installments concluding March 31, Easter Sunday.

'The Bible' producers deny Satan meant to look like President Obama - Meredith Blake, latimes.com. Image from article, with caption: Some viewers of "The Bible" have remarked on the resemblance between Moroccan actor Mehdi Ouzaani and President Obama.