The advent of the Obama Administration presents new opportunities for talks with Iran and negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The policies and personalities that will shape the Obama Administration's approach to achieving peace in the Middle East are being determined now. Some reports indicate that former officials like Dennis...

I'm guessing that a lot of you, like me, received a lot of email from the Obama campaign over the last many months, urging your support. Many of you, like me, responded. You gave money, made phone calls, knocked on doors.

Now it's time to write back. The policy window...

The U.S. military is planning a large polling operation in Iraq over the next three years to help "build robust and positive relations with the people of Iraq and to assist the Iraqi people in forming a new government," Walter Pincus reports in the Washington Post.

This provides...

Defense Secretary Gates said Thursday that the U.S. could "ultimately" contemplate the idea of negotiating with the Taliban to secure a political settlement in Afghanistan, if the Afghan government were to pursue such talks, the Financial Times reports. Gates said a political settlement with the Taliban was "conceivable."

Remember back when Congress was arguing about Iraq? To hear some people talk at the time, whatever came out of General David Petraeus' mouth was God's Truth. General Petreaus said it. No further argument was necessary.

Listen O Ye Faithful. General Peteraus says negotiations with the Taliban could provide a...

October 7 marked the seventh anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.

Our British allies are telling us that there is no military solution, that there must be a political solution, and that there should be talks with the Taliban. It would be a step forward for U.S. policy if...

October 7 marks the seventh anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. To mark the occasion, the British government, our closest allies in Europe, are sending us a message on all channels: there is no military solution, there must be a political solution, and there should be talks with the...

Now that the Senate and the Roman people have come to consensus that Senator Biden won the debate - obviously he had an unfair advantage, since he reads newspapers - I would like to challenge Senator Biden's apparent suggestion that Obama's commitments to help alleviate extreme global poverty can be...

On Monday the House voted down the the Bush Administration's request that Congress authorize $700 billion for purchasing Wall Street's "toxic assets" linked to the collapse of the housing bubble, after being deluged by phone calls and emails in opposition. The Senate approved basically the same proposal Wednesday, and the...

Jim Lehrer missed an opportunity last night to help clarify for people watching the debate what is in dispute between Democrats like Barack Obama and Republicans like John McCain about U.S. policy towards Iran. For the record, this is what McCain adviser former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said...

We are, it seems, suffering from a national "Stockholm Syndrome" when it comes to asking basic questions about the relationship between the United States, Israel, and the Palestinians. We need to get over this. A "baby steps" strategy is in order.

This week, Jewish Voice for Peace and

The first 2008 presidential debate between Senator Obama and Senator McCain will focus on foreign policy and will occur this coming Friday. Jim Lehrer of PBS will moderate the debate.

As we have seen repeatedly in this election season, what gets asked by debate moderators is as important as what...

It may be Russia that recently sent its troops across international borders in violation of the UN Charter in a "humanitarian intervention" to protect the South Ossetians (can the Russians get Samantha Power to do PR for them about the "Responsibility to Protect"?), but Iran, apparently, remains the bogey of...

Speaking of the audacity of hope, here is my hope for the Obama administration. I'd like to see if we could get through four years of the Obama administration without invading, bombing, or threatening to invade or bomb any other countries in violation of the UN Charter. Is that too...

If you like public art, public appeals for peace, and public displays of affection, you'll love this video. Peace advocates in Denver for the Democratic National Committee meetings send the delegates a message of peace.

Note...

If you think that all that is happening in Denver this week is pundit blah blah on CNN, consider that it's only Sunday afternoon, Denver time, and already a wide variety of peace protests have taken place today in the Mile High City.

At noon Sunday a spirited CodePink...

Yesterday, MoveOn and the Center for American Progress teamed up to call out Senator McCain and Congressional Republicans for pretending that handing out huge sacks of cash to Big Oil constitutes an energy policy. CAP released a report estimating the value of subsidies and tax breaks McCain supports for...

On Wednesday, Reuters reported that "Ecuador is willing to mediate a settlement between Chevron Corp and 30,000 Amazon jungle dwellers suing the oil company for up to $16 billion in environmental damages," according to the country's top attorney.

On the face of it, an innocuous and wholesome development. Who...

On the day when journalism in the United States is held accountable to some minimum standards of competency, like medicine and the law, it might not be necessary to go to extreme lengths to defend important and obvious objective truths which are today treated by the corporate media as matters...

Dear Paris,

Along with more than two million other red-blooded Americans, I watched your response to the attack on you by John McCain. Kudos to you for not letting the wrinkly white-haired guy push you around.

But you're wrong about energy policy. Here's what you said in the video: