Pentagon Press Briefing

At a press briefing held with Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell, he said that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates believes there needs to be a bigger education budget for the military, and there needs to be an improved GI Bill. It is known, Morrell said, that families determine whether or not military personnel become career, and therefore there is fear that lack of good education benefits will create incentive to leave. It is important to hold on to battle tested troops, which Morrell said Secretary Gates feels is the key in our conflicts.

Morrell said it has been made clear that we are going to be increasing pressure on Iran, to get them to change their ways. All military options, he said, are on the table. The pressure is being increased by military, economic, and diplomatic forces, so that Iran will say they’re ready to talk in a reasonable and productive way. To increase pressure on Iran, military pressure is being applied within the confines of Iraq, and also outside of Iraq, such as with our carrier groups in the Persian Gulf.

Gates explains Iran and Guatanamo policies to the Senate

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee about the FY09 Budget request for the Department of Defense. The total budget is $515.4 billion or 3.4 percent of U.S. GDP. $35 Billion more than last budget period. The budget includes $183.8 billion for modernization. Included in legislation is a request is for $70 billion in bridge funding which goes to funding the war. Gates made the complaint that the Congress still has not authorized the war supplemental request from $108 billion. Gates repeated a point made by his press secretary that Army payroll accounts could be dry by June if the Congress does not pass both the DoD budget and the war supplemental funding measures.


One of the most interesting exchanges occurred between Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Sec. Gates. Specter asked repeated question about the U.S. diplomatic relationship with Iran. Specter made reference to statements made by Gates last week, when he said that the U.S. should seek out more leverage to negotiate with Iran. Specter argued that the United States had more leverage in 2003 at the beginning of the war, when government of Iran seemed open to some kind of talks. Specter also said that it ridiculous to use our ultimate goal--the cessation of Iran's nuclear activities-- as a precondition to talks. "We sit across from them and speculate," said Specter saying that only more direct talks will lead to figuring out more leverage.


Also interesting was Sen. Diane Feinstein's (D-Calif) questions on the progress of a DoD investigation into the possibility of closing Guantanamo Bay prison. "Frankly, we're stuck," responded Gates. He outlined the roadblocks. Gates said that the Defense Department is struggling to get foreign countries to accept their detainees back, to ensure that accepted detainees are further detained and not let go, and to place detainees that will not be accepted back, will not be tried, but can not be released because of the risk that they will again engage in terrorism against the United States. Feinstein was critical saying that the investigation has done nothing so far to "absolve the massive loss of credibility" the U.S. has suffered over Guantanamo.

McCain and Bush are “joined at the hip”

Senator Joe Biden (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, spoke at the Center for American Progress Action Fund today and discussed presidential nominee John McCain’s remarks last week about Senator Obama and his statement to commence talks with Iran. Biden said that McCain’s foreign policy aims are undefined and will be following in President Bush’s footsteps.

Biden declared that Bush was “completely out of touch” with the government. The Bush Administrations foreign policy objectives have failed, Iran’s influence has expanded not diminished, Hamas runs amok in Iraq, over 4,000 American soldiers have lost their lives in the Iraq war and the Middle East is more dangerous now then it was seven years ago, Biden said.

McCain said last week that Obama is naive for seeking out peace talks with Iran, but Biden thinks that Obama understands the United State’s sophisticated relationship with Iran. The allies and partners of the United States need to know that the new administration in January will go the extra diplomatic mile to talk with Iran and use diplomatic means to work things out instead of using military force.

Biden said that McCain has no plan to remove the United States from Iraq other then the Bush plan, which is to stay. Biden maintains that there is no difference between McCain and Bush, and that they are “joined at the hip.” Obama offers new plans and ideas for United States foreign policy, which shouldn’t be slighted by Bush and McCain, but looked forward to as a way to improve America’s standing in the world in the future, and bring American troops home.

Iran's human rights violations continue under Ahmadinejad

The American Enterprise Association held a discussion on Iranian society under the current Ahmadinejad presidency, focusing on its impact on civil liberties and political efficacy.

Tom Parker, executive director of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, said that the human rights situation in Iran “is not good,” and is “typical of many authoritarian regimes” where minorities are routinely discriminated against and denied basic rights. Targeted groups for whose safety the organization is “greatly worried” include Sunnis, Suffis, women, homosexual men, bloggers, and ethnic minorities like Kurds and Arabs. Parker said there are no Sunni mosques in Tehran because of the discrimination, and that many gay men have been executed on charges of male rape. Discriminations can occur through trumped-up charges or implementation of new laws designed to target certain groups, he said. Parker mentioned a public information film released by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence that displays American politicians--one of whom is Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) working in secret below the White House to undermine the Iranian government, whose vilified plans involved cooperation of “subversive” Iranian human rights groups. Parker highlighted the importance of the Iranian blogosphere in spreading accurate information and “getting a debate going” in Iran’s largely silent or nonobjective media.

Mohebat Ahdiyyih, senior Iran analyst at the Open Source Center, said that it really is “that bad” in Iran, and that President Ahmadinejad has upset the balance of various factions in the new country. He said conditions could change if another president were elected. However, Iran Nameh editor Hermoz Hekmat said that while there are elections in Iran, there are no political parties—thus rendering the elections “non-elections.” Because Iranian society has no political parties, no free press, and no influential non-governmental organizations, he continued, the elected president “has absolutely nothing to do” with the people’s vision for their government.

The view from Tehran

The Woodrow Wilson Center held a discussion on “Iran, Iraq and the United States: The View from Tehran” with Selig S. Harrison, senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center and director of the Asia Program of the Center for International Policy. Harrison visited Tehran in February, his second visit in the past nine months, where he has met with advisors, specialists, scholars and diplomats. He said his two trips to Iran had a limited objective: “to explore the terms for a modus vivendi [an agreement to disagree] in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Gulf.”

Harrison said that in Washington “the focus of most discussions on Iran is the nuclear issue,” but in Tehran “what they want to talk about is Iraq.” He said that when President George W. Bush “destroyed the Saddam regime in the name of democracy” Iran hoped that the Shiite majority “would come into its own and that Iraq would tilt toward Iran after the American occupation ended.” He said the president did not have the “Iran and the Shiite connection on his mind” and that Pentagon advisors “were not worried about empowering Iran.” But he says now “we have to give serious attention to Iran’s view of what should come next in Iran.”

Harrison said he has been told that Iran is “ready to cooperate in stabilizing Iraq” but only if the U.S. sets a timetable to gradually withdraw combat forces and accepts Iran’s “right to be a major player in postwar Baghdad.” He said Iran wants a “friendly” Iraq, meaning one dominated by the Shiite majority. The Iranian officials he met with envisioned a bargain where the U.S. would “end its current military offensive against Moqtada Al-Sadr [Shiite politician in Baghdad]” and Iran would “pledge not to give him missiles capable of hitting the Green Zone.”

Harrison said that the Iranian perception is that the U.S. is to blame for “stepping up the power struggle among Shiite factions” because they believe the U.S. hoped that moving up the provincial elections would increase Sunni strength in the councils. He said “we’ve started something that will be difficult to stop, but from Iran’s point of view ending the “Sunni Awakening” must go with cooperation in stabilizing Iraq.” His view is that if the U.S. withdraws and if Iraq tilts to Tehran, the Sunnis will have to “accept rule by the Shiite majority” and that the U.S. has a moral obligation to “join with Saudi Arabia to prevent their persecution.”

Harrison also provided a “word about the nuclear issue.” He said that “the U.S. is not serious about a negotiated settlement or it would not be insisting on the suspension of enrichment as a precondition for negotiations.” He said Iran was conned into suspension at the onset of negotiations in 2004, and that they will not be conned again. He believes that given a settlement in Iraq, a freeze on weapons-grade enrichment under IAEA inspections will be possible, provided the U.S. “is prepared to make a formal commitment not to use U.S. nuclear weapons in the Gulf.”