Chancellor Merkel Addresses Joint Session Of Congress, Warns Against Nuclear Armed Iran

By Laura Smith - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated Tuesday during an address to a joint session of Congress that the international community should show no tolerance toward a nuclear armed Iran.

“Zero tolerance needs to be shown when there is a risk of weapons of mass destruction falling, for example, into the hands of Iran, infecting our security,” said Merkel.

“Iran needs to be aware of this. Iran knows our offer. But Iran also knows where we draw the line. A nuclear bomb in the hands of an Iranian President who denies the Holocaust, threatens Israel and denies Israel the right to exist, is unacceptable,” she added.

The Chancellor also urged support for Israel.

“Not just Israel is threatened, but the whole of the free world is threatened. Whoever threatens Israel, threatens us.”

She said Germany has shared former president George W. Bush’s view on terrorism after the attacks on September 11, 2001 and Germany felt they had to prevent Afghanistan from harboring a threat again. Germany has been on the ground in Afghanistan since 2002, and they hold the third largest troop contingent.

Merkel’s address to Congress comes just a few days before the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

She is the second German Chancellor to address Congress, but the only to address a joint session. The first Chancellor to address Congress was Konrad Adenauer, who addressed separate sessions in 1957.

Former Presidential Advisor And Others Reminisce Over End of Cold War

By Ravi Bhatia - Talk Radio News Service

Brent Scowcroft, former National Security Adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, reflected on the final days of the Cold War at a discussion hosted by the German Marshall Fund at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. on Monday.

“We wanted to encourage the liberalizing regimes, especially in Poland and in Hungary,” he said. “But we wanted to do it at a pace which would not bring about Soviet reaction as happened in Germany in ‘53, Hungary in ‘56, Czechoslovakia in ‘68. We didn’t know exactly what that was, but we were sort of feeling our way. How much should we encourage Eastern Europe? How much should we be cautious?”

Scowcroft spoke in a panel that included Hans-Dietrich Genscher, former Foreign Minister of the Republic of Germany, and Robert Kimmitt, former United States Ambassador to Germany. BBC World News Washington Correspondent Katty Kay presided over the discussion, which was held in honor of the upcoming 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which occurred on Nov. 9, 1989.

A barrier separating Eastern and Western Germany, the Berlin Wall symbolized the Iron Curtain between Western Europe and the Soviet Union-dominated Eastern Bloc. The fall of the wall tends to be synonymous with the reunification of Germany and the end of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.

[Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1989] believed one can reform socialism,” said Genscher. “Later, he had to learn that you could not reform socialism, you could only overcome socialism. That happened in 1989.”

Fate Of World's Climate Rests On America And China Says Kerry

“Twenty years from now, folks, I do not want to be debating who lost Earth,” Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) stated Wednesday during an address at the National Press Club in Washington.

“One hundred and ninety-two nations will gather this December in Copenhagen to hammer out a new global climate treaty, but two [the U.S. and China] have the capacity to set the tone and define what is possible,” he said, citing that the two nations together produce 40 percent of all carbon emissions in the world.

Kerry said there are grave misunderstandings between the American and Chinese populations that place a souring effect on the relationship between the two countries. He argued that America underestimates China’s willingness to fight climate change, and that China unreasonably fears that the U.S. is attempting to smother China’s economic rise.

Actually, Kerry said, China has already taken much more initiative towards renewable energy than most Americans realize. He reported that China is second in the world only to Germany in renewable energy investment; China currently invests $12.5 million per hour.

“China needs to understand that we will not enter into a global treaty ... without a meaningful commitment from China to be part of the solution,” said Kerry. He argued that the U.S. must persuade China to act quickly and decisively and that to do so is in their best interests.

Kerry said that the United States’ perception of China is far different from how China sees itself. America sees China as the leading producer of carbon emissions today, and a burgeoning economic powerhouse. However, he said, China sees itself as a country with less cumulative emissions historically than the U.S. and with 500 million citizens living on less than two dollars per day.

“Our climate diplomacy depends on building a framework that is flexible enough to accommodate individual countries’ wants and needs, but firm enough to bring all of us on board and hold all nations accountable,” said Kerry.

No Apologies Necessary: Obama's Upcoming Overseas Tour

By Courtney Ann Jackson- Talk Radio News Service

While President Obama is scheduled to travel next week to Egypt, Germany and France, his administration has not found its foreign policy footing, according to analysts at the Heritage Foundation.

“This trip next week is going to be watched very closely all over Europe, all across the world,” said Nile Gardner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation, “Every statement he makes will be scrutinized very carefully to see whether he is seeking to further atone for America’s past, which I think would be disastrous for the President to do so. The fact is that President Obama is increasingly being viewed as a soft touch on the world stage.”

On the President’s last visit to Europe he discussed American arrogance and Gardner believes it was a “huge strategic error in judgment” for him to “condemn his own country on foreign soil.”

On this tour, Obama is expected to give a speech on foreign policy while in Egypt but James Phillips, senior research fellow of Middle Eastern Affairs at the Heritage Foundation, believes the focus should be on a comparison between the people’s future defined by the Islamists and a future defined by freedom.

The consensus of the analysts was that the worst thing Obama could do on his visit is to succumb to the idea of incessantly apologizing for America’s past and issues like what the Bush administration dubbed the “War on Terror” and instead step up to the challenges boldly.

Gardner said he believes the President “needs to toughen his act on the international stage, project strong international leadership, and stand up to both the threat of a nuclear armed Iran as well as a nuclear armed North Korea.” He added that this is the time for strong U.S. leadership.

U.S. health care could learn a few things from foreign health care systems

Thomas Bjorn Zeltner, Director-General of the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, said an important step for U.S. health care reform was to develop "a long term vision, you need a long term consensus on where to go." He added that a long term consensus is something "I don't think you have right now." He said it was important to "plan for 20 years ahead."

At a briefing held by the Alliance of Health Reform, Zeltner also felt that it was important to "reduce the number of uninsured" as well as the "underinsured." He felt that drastic reform can be difficult on a national level, but individual state reforms can be "easier."

While the briefing highlighted the health care systems from Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, Senior Fellow at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago Michael O'Grady said that health care is "not really a foreign policy competition." According to O'Grady, the U.S. should look at the successes and failures of other health care systems, but "some is transferrable, some is not."

Mark McClellan, Director of the Engelberger Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution, said that there is "a common growing interest in addressing the quality of care." He felt one sticking point in the minds of citizens was that of "provider payment." He stated that many people in the U.S. want payment based on "value" rather than "fee for service."

Diana Monissen, Director General for Curative Care of the Dutch Ministry of Health, said that the Netherlands had drastic health care reform in 2006. She said that currently in the Netherlands, basic health coverage is required by law. She also stated that risk adjustment for high risk patients. She said that their new universal health care has created "a healthier society." She felt that "sometimes you really need a big step" on health care reform.

Robert Leu, Head of the Department of Economics at the University of Bern, Switzerland, stated that the Swiss health care system is "highly decentralized" and requires "hardly any financing from federal levels." He claimed that all people in Switzerland have "equal access to care" and insurance companies "have to accept anyone."

Reinhard Busse, Professor and Department Head for Health Care Management at the Berlin University of Technology, Germany, {added to the discussion by looking at the aspect of people paying a fixed percentage of their wage towards the social health care system. He added that 85 percent of people in Germany have social health insurance as opposed to only 10 percent who have private health insurance. He added that the social system provides "access to all borrowers." He also said that individual hospitals have to report on their quality of care, so people can "compare hospitals."

The briefing was concluded by Robin Osborn, Vice President and Director of the Commonwealth Fund's International Program in Health Policy and Practice, who said that their survey showed that one third of Americans felt the U.S. health care system "should be completely rebuilt."