Amitai Etzioni Notes

The Iraq Commission Tesimony

Transcript. You may also watch my testimony here.

Lord Tom King
Dr Etzioni, welcome.  Thank you for coming very much to this first hearing of The Iraq Commission, this morning.  You know that what we’re looking at is the challenges faced by our countries and the present situation in Iraq, not looking backwards but looking forwards.  If I could introduce my colleagues, with, with me today:  Sir Patrick Walker, who’s a former Director General MI5, with which you may be familiar; Maeve Sherlock who is the former Director of the Refugee Council; Dr Rosemary Hollis who’s Research Director of Chatham House; Professor Brian Brivati, Professor of Contemporary History at Kingston University.  I believe you’d like to make an opening statement.  We’d be very pleased to hear it.  Yes.

A Less Perfect Union

Several leading scholars have identified nuclear terrorism as the greatest threat the United States and its allies face and have concluded that such an attack is very much within the realm of possibility.

In the National Interest Online:

Break Up to Make Up

by James W. Riley

After the political spinning has backfired, utopian dreams of Western liberal democracy in Iraq lay shattered, and tribal and sectarian loyalties undermine efforts to unite and pacify a country spiraling into civil war, one is pressed to ask: How realistic is U.S. foreign policy in terms of its ability to quell the bloodshed in Iraq? Or more specifically, how will the United States end the ensuing Iraqi civil war fuelled by U.S. occupation? The answer is simple: It can’t.

Break Up to Make Up

by James W. Riley

After the political spinning has backfired, utopian dreams of Western liberal democracy in Iraq lay shattered, and tribal and sectarian loyalties undermine efforts to unite and pacify a country spiraling into civil war, one is pressed to ask: How realistic is U.S. foreign policy in terms of its ability to quell the bloodshed in Iraq? Or more specifically, how will the United States end the ensuing Iraqi civil war fuelled by U.S. occupation? The answer is simple: It can’t.

In the Daily Standard:

Partition Iraq?

by Stephen Schwartz

On Monday, June 18, some of Washington's "usual suspects" in the controversy over the Mesopotamian war assembled at the invitation of Sen. Joseph Biden, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and George Washington University professor Amitai Etzioni. The topic for debate was the so-called "plan Z" for Iraq, which Biden has embraced and which calls for a "soft partition" of that country.

Partition Iraq?

by Stephen Schwartz

On Monday, June 18, some of Washington's "usual suspects" in the controversy over the Mesopotamian war assembled at the invitation of Sen. Joseph Biden, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and George Washington University professor Amitai Etzioni. The topic for debate was the so-called "plan Z" for Iraq, which Biden has embraced and which calls for a "soft partition" of that country.

Foreign Policy After Bush

My lecture to the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce is online.

(Via Matthew's Blog)

Where is the voice? First shoot the debt collectors

The Wall Street Journal, not one of those liberal magazines that is trying to imitate flashy magazines with multiple colors and cartoons, reports: Federal law says creditors can't garnish Social Security and Veteran's benefits to pay debts, yet the practice is widespread. Worse: There are no procedures in place for enforcing the federal prohibition.