Jim Lobe

The right-wing coalition that powered the United States into Iraq earlier this year appears in ever greater disarray amid increasingly heated complaints by friends, as well as foes, that the US occupation is not going well at all. The main target is Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, who appears increasingly at a loss to explain US … Continue reading “Rumsfeld Takes More Friendly Fire”

In what the White House billed as a major address, President George W. Bush Thursday announced the United States has adopted a new policy he called "a forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East." The speech, which comes amid growing public and congressional unease about the costs and duration of the US occupation of … Continue reading “Bush Vision Advances Mission-Creep in Mideast”

"What’s gonna happen with Feith?” That, in a nutshell, is the question of the month for the Washington cognoscenti trying to figure out whether a major shift in the Bush administration’s unilateralist and ultra-hawkish foreign policy is or is not underway. The reference is to Douglas Feith, the administration’s rather obscure but nonetheless strategically placed … Continue reading “All Roads Lead to Feith”

The major new player on the National Security Council (NSC), Robert Blackwill, attended as did the chief Asia specialist at the State Department, Assistant Secretary James Kelly. But when it came time at the Chinese embassy’s dinner last week to lift glasses in honor of the visiting guest, Beijing’s defense minister, Gen. Cao Gangchuan, his … Continue reading “Bush Team Split on China, but Realists Hold the Reins”

A major Pentagon hawk has abruptly resigned his post in a move that, in the context of other recent developments, is likely to fuel speculation that the White House might be trying to soften the harder edges of its controversial policies. The Pentagon announced Wednesday evening that Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy, … Continue reading “Pentagon Hawk Released; Straws in the Wind?”

U.S. President George W. Bush’s latest gesture to persuade Muslims both here and abroad that the United States is not seeking a "clash of civilisations" has not gone over well with its intended audience. The White House was clearly hoping its Iftaar dinner Tuesday evening, to which ambassadors from predominantly Muslim nations and individual U.S. … Continue reading “Bush’s Muslim Troubles”

U.S. military training to the Indonesian Armed Forces will be banned until its officials cooperate with investigators probing the ambush and killing of staff from an international school in West Papua province last year, according to amendments passed by the Senate. The change to the 2004 foreign-aid bill that will ban training for Indonesian army … Continue reading “Senate Blocks Military Aid to Indonesia”

If U.S. President George W. Bush was surprised on his recent trip to Indonesia by the negative image the country’s Muslim leaders had of his administration, he is unlikely to be reassured by two new surveys from Latin America and Europe. Nearly 90 percent of more than 500 elite figures in six Latin American countries … Continue reading “Bush Falls From Favor Abroad, Too”

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz’s weekend tour of Iraq appeared to be going splendidly: everywhere he went – even in Saddam Hussein’s former stronghold of Tikrit – Iraqis greeted him with smiles and warm handshakes, no doubt adding to his conviction that the war really was for "liberation" rather than "occupation." Until Sunday morning, that … Continue reading “Who Are the Bombers?”

Thursday’s unexpectedly lop-sided vote by the Republican-led U.S. Senate to end a 40-year ban on U.S. citizens travelling to Cuba marks another embarrassing defeat for President George W. Bush. Less than two weeks ago the president announced new measures to make it more difficult for people who travel to the Caribbean island illegally. The 59-36 … Continue reading “Cuba Vote Shows Bush’s Waning Authority”