BBC News
-
VIDEO: Beckham: 'Don't ignore children in crisis' September 24, 2015
In an interview with the BBC, David Beckham said his experience of being a father has driven him to speak out on behalf of the world's disadvantaged children.
-
VIDEO: Huts that tell of Tasmania's past September 24, 2015
Tasmania was once home to hundreds of huts, built by people seeking new lives in the wild - and a group of volunteers is trying to preserve them.
-
VIDEO: Reporter at Hajj: 'My aunt is missing' September 24, 2015
A BBC Hausa Service correspondent who was at the scene of a deadly stampede near Mecca, says she has lost her aunt, and some members of her group are missing.
-
VIDEO: Migrants' hopes of reaching EU 'dashed' September 24, 2015
Syrian migrants camped out on Turkey's frontier with Greece are being bussed to other locations in the country after the EU strengthened border controls, as Mark Lowen reports.
-
VIDEO: African musicians create jazz fusion September 24, 2015
Hugh Masekela and Oliver Mtukudzi are bringing together a collaboration of Jazz and Tuku
-
VIDEO: 'End poverty' - and 16 more UN Global Goals September 24, 2015
Ending poverty is one of 17 goals outlined by the UN to replace the Millennium Development Goals which expire this year, as Naomi Grimley explains.
-
AUDIO: Girl migrant 'travelled alone for two weeks' September 24, 2015
A girl migrant tells the BBC how she travelled alone from Iran to Greece for two weeks, despite being just 12 years old.
-
VIDEO: Hajj in numbers - in 60 seconds September 24, 2015
Numbers involved with this year's Hajj pilgrimage - in 60 seconds.
-
VIDEO: Paraplegic man walks after spine 'bypass' September 24, 2015
A paraplegic man has been able to walk a short distance after scientists used a computer which read signals from his brain and then sent stimulus to his legs.
– BUSH-OBAMA DEBATE
On Thursday 05/15/2008 President Bush in a speach in the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, to mark the 60th anniversary of Israel, stirred up the internal USA policy and presidential campaign when he referred to Iran and denounced those who would negotiate with “terrorists and radicals” and compared them to Nazi appeasers before World War II, aiming to the candidate Barak Obama. The plain and simple fact is that USA, under the presidency of George Bush, held few rounds of security talks with Iran in Baghdad. The last round was held on 07/24/2007.
The talks led to unilateral ceasefire declared, on 08/29/2007, by the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr. The relative calm and improvement in Iraq’s security situation in the last half of 2007, and General David Petraeus’s successful security plan was, to a large extent, due to this cease fire.(See – IRANIAN foreign-policy )
USA also offered directly and indirectly, economic incentives to Iran should Iran stop the Uranium enriching programme and used a series of mediators from Europe and the Arab world to reach out to the Iranian regime. Only a maximal political effort to solve the Iranian problem, or any other conflict in the world, can justify later the use of power if it comes to this point. It is not the principle of political negotiation with “terrorists and radicals” that should be questioned but the terms of negotiation and if it is useful and helpful in the current stage of the conflict, whether it is the conflict with the radical Islam or radical Iran.
It is Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that recently pushed toward indirect negotiation with Hamas through Egyptian mediation in order to lift the economic siege from Gaza Strip (See – FLIK-FLAK )
In response Senator Barack Obama blamed President Bush that the invasion to Iraq strengthened the Islamic militancy all over the world. Barak Obama also argued that the insistence of the Bush administration to include the Hamas in the Palestinian elections of 01/2006 and to impose democracy on a non democratic society brought the Hamas to power and legitimized the Hamas even more in the Palestinian society.
Assuming Barak Obama is right diagnosing one source, of many, of the problems in the Middle East, he said nothing about how he intends to solve the given problem when he will be in power.
It is fair to say that it is very rare in a conflict where there is no common ground of values, like the values that link Europe and the Democracies to USA and vice versa, or a common base of economic interests, to achieve something merely through negotiation without having the military option in the background. At the same time it is difficult to achieve anything only through military power without keeping the diplomatic channel opened at the same time. After all the war is the continuation of diplomacy but with other means and vice versa (Clausewitz).
************************
Read more ;