Press Briefing

Sep 03, 2010

The White House - West Wing Week: "Dispatches from Iraq"
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/03/west-wing-week-dispatches-iraq

Federal President Is Still AWOL on Sudan / The country may soon return to war, and the perception of U.S. indifference isn't helping
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704476104575439274119871804.html

The White House - Making Preparations Prior to the Impacts of Hurricane Earl
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/02/making-preparations-prior-impacts-hurricane-earl

Want Middle East Peace? Deny Iran Nukes / Israeli-Palestinian talks are good, but Tehran's nuclear drive continues
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703467004575464062562925390.html

The White House - Two New Studies: Health Reform Benefits Small Business
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/02/two-new-studies-health-reform-benefits-small-business

Tony Blair on the Panic - Britain's former prime minister understands better than most the origins of the financial crisis
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704206804575467523488193204.html

The White House Blog - There’s Courage in Our Country’s Classrooms
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/02/there-s-courage-our-country-s-classrooms

The Small Business The 97% Fallacy - The president's plan to raise top marginal rates is holding back the very people who should be leading the economic recovery
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703959704575454061524326290.html

Three Software Tricks for Sorting Through the Barrage of UAV Footage
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/computing/software/three-software-tricks-for-sorting-through-barrage

Democratic Salvage Plan - How Nancy Pelosi might save her majority
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704206804575467353597659766.html

The French ambassador to Iraq says it's "the true laboratory of democracy in the Arab world."
WSJ, Sep 02, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703467004575463900304368796.html

Boris Boillon, the French ambassador to Iraq, in an interview with Le Figaro, Aug. 31:

The tactic of al Qaeda, which aims to put the country in fire and blood, to rekindle the civil war, has failed. The specter of partition in Iraq is behind us. . . . The record has improved since we passed a hundred deaths per day four years ago, to ten deaths per day today. In fact, the trend reversed itself when U.S. troops began leaving the cities, in June 2009. With the final withdrawal, this trend should continue and stabilize. . . .

Of course, the Iraqis say that the allied intervention of 2003 cost them dearly in lives and destruction of infrastructure, but they are aware also that it has liberated the country. The picture is therefore both positive and negative. Iraqis enjoy the fruits of democratization: the blossoming of the press, the emergence of a civil society, the free political parties, the exemplary nature of elections. These are all facts.

It is absolutely necessary, when one speaks of Iraq, to reason nonideologically. Iraq is the true laboratory of democracy in the Arab world. It is there that the future of democracy in the region will play itself out. Iraq could potentially become a political model for its neighbors. And, whether one likes it or not, all this has come about thanks to the American intervention of 2003. . . .

That no consensus has emerged around a [new] head of government proves that the political game occurs in Iraq and no neighboring country is able to impose its choice on Iraqi politics.

Even if the door is broken open, it must be restated that the last election constituted a victory for democracy. There are not many other countries in the region where results are not known before the vote.


In Sudan and Kenya, Grassroots Diplomacy
http://blogs.state.gov/sudan/index.php/site/entry/in_sudan_grassroots_diplomacy

Hooray for the U.N. - A dispute tribunal vindicates a whistleblower, Artjon Shkurtaj
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882304575465882341825778.html