Restrained Approach | The Majalla Magazine

President Obama?s cautious engagement with the Middle East

INNOCENTS ABROAD Blog: The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrims? Progress, the title of Mark Twain?s famed travel book written in 1867 following his voyage from America to the Middle East. Innocents Abroad blog brings you commentary on the ever-evolving relationship between the United States and the Middle East.

US President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference with John Brennan (R), and Chuck Hagel (L) on 7 January 2013 in Washington, DC. Source: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

With the unveiling of the second-term national security team; Senator John Kerry, former Senator Chuck Hagel, and John Brennan?a group of men who are noted for their opposition to America?s engagements in the Middle East during the Bush administration?Obama?s second term is unlikely to see a change of course or new thinking towards the region.

In many ways, President Obama has chosen experienced hands to execute foreign policy, more so than to shape it. Although a veteran of American diplomacy after his tenure as Chair of Senate Foreign Relations, Senator John Kerry is unlikely to ever embody the persona of Secretary Hilary Clinton, both in miles travelled and in terms of her distinctive brand of diplomacy. This change of guard is not necessarily a negative development, but those looking to State and Defense as a sign that President Obama is taking new initiatives on the Middle East will likely be left wanting.

As all signs indicate, President Obama and his trusted National Security Advisor, Thomas Donilon, will continue to push for a restrained American engagement with the Middle East. The underlying fear and hesitancy of Obama?s tenure as president is becoming defined by another costly American intervention in the region. It cannot be stressed enough how symbolically important Benghazi has been, both in re-enforcing the current strategy and deterring any active American engagement in the region, despite pressure from his more vocal advisors, Samantha Power and Ambassador Susan Rice, which could burn his legacy.

In many senses, Ambassador Rice, one of the main proponents of America?s intervention in Libya, paid the price for the blowback of Obama?s most active response to the Arab uprisings when she withdrew her name for consideration for Secretary of State. While counterfactuals are usually the obsession of historians, one may ask, would President Obama have undertaken a more confident Middle East policy had Benghazi not become such a political storm?

This retrospection is not to say that President Obama?s restrained engagement has been entirely misguided; it has afforded him more realistic opportunities in a more multi-polar, fiscally-constrained world. Unlike his predecessor who rode too fervently into war, President Obama correctly chose to take a more measured approach to Libya. Obama has also tried to use American soft and hard power to engage the new political leaderships emerging in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen, as well as maintaining relationships with America?s long-standing allies in the region, the Gulf, Morocco, Algeria, and Jordan.

Benghazi aside, the rising challenges facing Obama require a deeper vision for America?s role in the Middle East so that America can seek to be a credible and positive voice in the region. As much as the president was initially hailed after his Cairo speech in 2009, his vision for the region in his rhetorical speeches have become orphans to political expediency and pragmatism.

As the growing crisis in Syria has the potential to destabilize its neighbors, President Obama has preferred to act with restraint and pragmatism instead of with urgency and more active leadership. This restrained approach hasn?t produced the results he seeks and has the potential to destabilize the region and foil his intention to tilt America?s focus towards Asia. Whether the president seizes this moment in his next term will be something to watch in the coming months, but the signs so far are nothing extraordinary.

Andrew Bowen

Andrew Bowen is a Baker Institute Scholar for the Middle East at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. He regularly writes, teaches, and consults on Middle Eastern politics and American foreign policy. His work primarily focuses on the regional and international politics of the Levant, but he frequently comments on the international relations of the Gulf and American national security policy. Follow Andrew on Twitter @abowen17

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Source: http://www.majalla.com/eng/2013/01/article55237223

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Winning Stories of Freedom From Debt: 16th Annual Story ... - Finance

I despise budgeting but here we go! Setting some new goals to help our financial situation. Just like losing weight we are hoping to lose the debt. Here?s what we?re starting with. Check out my blog realhousewifeofboca.blogspot.com

FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. (PRWEB) January 09, 2013

Consolidated Credit, a national credit counseling agency and financial literacy provider, questioned clients to write about how the organization and its programs impacted their money management skills, helped them to live within a budget, or helped them in achieving a specific goal.

Linda Diaz of Houston, Texas won first place for her submission where she writes, Desperate to hold on to my house while at the same time raising two teenage daughters alone, I maxed out my credit cards. To make matters worse, I turned to payday loans, and the nightmare grew more intense. I didnt know where to turn. My only option was to file for bankruptcy or so I thought. I heard about Consolidated Credit and chose to reach out to them for help. I was able to start the process of digging my way out. It felt like the weight of the world was lifted from my shoulders. What a welcome relief.

I am so thankful to all the Consolidated Credit customer representatives for being so kind to us, writes the second place winner, Marla and Rob Tebbenkamp of Alma, MO. They were able to negotiate with our creditors and get us lower interest rates. They were able to get us a budget for groceries and gas. No longer, do we feel that our life is spinning out of our control I have used many of the financial tools available online. I have used http://www.powerwallet.com. We are beginning to start thinking about saving for our retirement and our childrens college education. Now we have a better handle on our financial future. I hope that I can teach my children how to have financial freedom.

Tales from real people about their situations are fantastic to share with others who may be facing a similar situation who are unaware that there is help available. In light of the continuing economic down turn many people need help and we want to be there for them. Consolidated Credits budgeting application and online financial literature, which anyone can use for free, we provide in the hopes that it will be simpler for people to deal with money matters and stay out of debt in the future, said Howard Dvorkin, CPA and founder of Consolidated Credit.

Alan Hogan of Rowlett, TX told us his tale of surviving a layoff and being scammed by an unscrupulous debt relief company to finding Consolidated Credit and finally having a solid plot and organization to help him pay off his debts. He writes I chose to do my homework and check out Consolidated Credit. You can only imagine how distrusting I would be after being scammed before. I took the plunge and had Consolidated Credit to take over my accounts? From the beginning, they made me feel at ease, clarified the program and offered solutions. I cut up all my credit cards, only pay cash and I?m about to end school. It?s hard, but I feel more at ease. My life is getting back to normal. Thanks Consolidated Credit, I?m a believer.

The first prize winner receives $ 300, the second prize is $ 200 and the third place wins $ 100. The tales will be spotlighted on Consolidated Credits web site and personal finance blog, MissMoneyBee.com. For more information about Consolidated Credit and to find debt help, fill out an online debt analysis form or call 1.800.728.3632 to receive a free debt analysis from a certified credit counselor today!

About:

Consolidated Credit Counseling Services, Inc., founded in 1993, is one of the nation?s largest credit counseling organizations in the country and has helped over 5 million people with financial issues. Their mission is to help families throughout the United States in ending financial crisis and solving money management problems through education and professional counseling.

Tagged as: 16th, Announced, Annual, Consolidated, Contest, Counseling, credit, Debt, Freedom, from, Inc., Services, Stories, Story, Winners, Winning

Source: http://finance.only-the-news.com/winning-stories-of-freedom-from-debt-16th-annual-story-contest-winners-announced-by-consolidated-credit-counseling-services-inc/

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Passages from Massachusetts marriage ruling become popular wedding readings

By Adam Polaski
Jan 10, 2013 at 12:00 pm

Just over ten years ago, in November 2003, Margaret H. Marshall, the chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, penned a decision in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, which granted?same-sex couples in Massachusetts?the freedom to marry.

"Civil marriage is at once a deeply personal commitment to another being and a highly public celebration of the ideals of mutuality, companionship, intimacy, fidelity, and family," she wrote, in part. "Because it fulfills yearnings for security, safe haven, and connection that express our common humanity, civil marriage is an esteemed institution, and the decision whether and whom to marry is among life's momentous acts of self-definition.

Now, according to Boston.com, some language from the decision is a popular selection for readings at weddings?- between different-sex and same-sex couples.?Boston.com reports:

Wedding celebrants, who design the ceremonies for weddings and, in some jurisdictions, officiate at them, said the passage is as trendy at modern weddings as origami invitations and handing out fake mustaches at the reception to look funny in the photos. The passage is especially popular at same-sex weddings, they said.

And its use isn't restricted to Massachusetts, where the ruling was made. The New-Jersey Celebrant Institute, which trains wedding celebrants who work across the country, includes portions of the passage in packets of recommended wedding readings.

Cindy Matchett, owner of the Harvard-based Meaningful Weddings, said that for same-sex couples the Goodridge decision is an affirmation of the meaningfulness of their relationships. Even when the reader doesn't introduce the text as being from Goodridge, she said, guests at same-sex weddings recognize it.

As so many couples have seen - the couples who benefited from the decision in Massachusetts when marriages between same-sex couples began in 2004, and couples who have only recently discovered the weight of these statements - the Goodridge decision beautifully articulates many of the reasons that marriage matters.?Read more about this fun and poignant wedding trend HERE.?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/StraightTalkOnMarriage/~3/EBubYm4N47E/

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FDA advisory panel backs J&J diabetes drug approval

(Reuters) - A panel of advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended the agency approve an experimental new treatment for diabetes developed by Johnson & Johnson, potentially making it the first drug of its type to be approved in the United States.

The FDA's Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drug Advisory Committee voted 10-5 on Thursday to recommend the agency approve the drug, canagliflozin, for Type 2 diabetes, saying that it proved effective at lowering blood sugar in patients with diabetes, though some panelists had lingering concerns about its potential to cause cardiovascular problems and recommended longer term follow-up.

Canagliflozin, which will be sold under the brand name Invokana, is a member of a new class of diabetes drugs known as sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors which lower blood sugar by blocking reabsorbtion of glucose by the kidney and increasing the excretion of glucose in urine.

In its discussion, the panel weighed the relative risks and benefits of canagliflozin, especially in relation to any potential it might have to increase the risk of heart attack or stroke.

A clinical trial of patients at especially high risk of cardiovascular disease showed that within the first 30 days, 13 patients taking canagliflozin suffered a major cardiovascular event compared with just one patient taking a placebo. After that the imbalance was reversed. The drug also caused a slight increase in unhealthy LDL cholesterol.

The majority of panelists felt the overall risk benefit profile was acceptable but that longer-term data will be needed to fully assess the impact on patients of the higher LDL levels. They were unable to determine conclusively that the imbalance in cardiovascular events seen in the first 30 days was a statistical anomaly.

Diabetes is a condition that affects the body's ability to metabolize glucose and is often caused by obesity. Left untreated, the disease can cause nerve disease leading to amputation, as well as kidney disease and blindness. It affects roughly 26 million people in the United States.

The panel also weighed the relative benefit of the drug for patients with impaired kidney function -- a common feature of patients with diabetes. They concluded that since the drug is less effective in patients whose kidney function is damaged, the risks may well outweigh the benefits in those patients.

Jeff Jonas, an analyst with Gabelli & Co, who estimates the drug will generate at least a billion dollars in annual sales for J&J, said he believes the FDA will approve the drug.

"It clearly works, and the side effects were not a major issue. If a patient has impaired kidneys, I think the FDA will say no, don't use it."

Damien Conover, an analyst at Morningstar, believes the drug could generate peak annual sales of more than $2 billion.

The vote in favor of canagliflozin follows the agency's rejection last January of a similar drug made by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co and AstraZeneca Plc. That drug was subsequently approved in Europe, however, under the brand name Forxiga. European regulators concluded that concerns cited by the FDA about a potential increased risk of cancer or liver injury were addressed by warnings in the drug's product label.

A recent report by market research firm Decision Resources estimated that the market for Type 2 diabetes drugs will nearly double over the next decade, increasing from $26 billion in 2011 to nearly $50 billion in 2021 in the United States, Japan and the main markets of Europe.

The FDA is set to rule on whether to approve the drug by March 29th. The agency is not required to follow the advice of its advisory panel but typically does so.

(Reporting By Toni Clarke in Boston; additional reporting by Ransdell Pierson and Bill Berkrot in New York; editing by Carol Bishopric)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fda-advisory-panel-backs-j-j-diabetes-drug-224322206--finance.html

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The Movie Club

Still of the film John Carter

?2011 Disney.

Here?s what I want: McConaughey?s oiled pecs. At 48 frames per second. In 3-D. For $16 a ticket.

McConaughey has labored to find a persona that works both for him and for an audience. He?s aged into himself, and we?ve aged into him. In 1996, he was presented to us the way Julia Ormond and Gretchen Mol were: as products the movie industry invented, packaged, and sold. But he was too sleazy for stardom in 1996 and '97 and '98. Spielberg and Zemeckis cast him as these figures of piety and virtue, and seeing him with that hair and hearing use that sexed-up drawl on African slaves and Jodie Foster, you just laugh, especially now. It was never acting at the beginning of his career. It was always Halloween. Of course part of the reason we still have him and not Ormond or Mol is that movie sexism is pernicious and sucks. ?

Anyway, back then, we couldn?t have known that McConaughey really was the creep outside the Emporium pool hall trying to score high school girls. He eventually found a way to bend romantic comedies to his druggy, slutty conceitedness. And now he?s come out on the other side. We like The Lincoln Lawyer?and?Killer Joe?and?Magic Mike?because they?re the truth to the lies?Contact and?Amistad?were peddling. Even when Matthew McConaughey?s being good, a kind of lasciviousness comes through and stains all his principles like sweat on silk. Stephanie, I don?t use ?trash? as some kind of demarcation that separates the so-called lowbrow from the high. I use it as a genre of moviemaking with its own special pleasures and properties, and I?d like here and now to crown McConuaghey as that genre?s king. If we want this man?and we do now?we don?t want him fulsome and half-cocked. We want him fully plumed and fulminating.

Channing Tatum turned a different corner last year. McConaughey gained respectability by being disreputable. Tatum is more like Pinocchio, cute wood that turned into an adorable man.?21 Jump Street?did it for me. The movie was a stoopid comedy whose every joke managed to contain a joke or two more, and Tatum was in on all of them. I didn?t laugh at anything as hard as I did when he and Jonah Hill take that party drug and try to play it straight?the cutaways to their freak-outs are just glorious gonzo comedy. I left that movie excited to see what else Tatum would do. Having just typed that, I also feel bad for the Bizarro Tatum: Taylor Kitsch. Kitsch easily could have been in any of the 23 movies Tatum was in. Instead made?Battleship?and the absurdly over-hated but admittedly flavorless?John Carter?(that movie is what happens when Avatar starts taking its medication). Conversely, Tatum could have been in both movies and they would have been hits. He became a bigger deal by flashing a sense of humor. I mean, you have to have one to make something as backward as?The Vow. But in just one year and without much to show for it (not even Oliver Stone?s lavish cartel embarrassment?Savages), Kitsch might have run out of chances. He wasn?t even lucky enough to live up to his surname.

About?The Master?and the argument for the ?twicer,? I?ve been encouraging people to see it again not because they?re too simple or stupid to appreciate it the first time but because I just think the movie was ill-served by the advance speculation about its being an allegory for Scientology. I also saw the film under some of the worst possible moviegoing conditions and was so disappointed by everything that I arranged to see it again, and found it devastating. Freddie Quell is just a great movie character, a man you or I might see as tragic and who?s being goaded into seeing himself the same way because he can?t make it to wherever the Cause is trying to get him to go. He doesn?t have that kind of soul. At the end of the day, he just wants a nice girl whether she?s made of flesh or sand.

The movie?s about the limits of belief. For some people, it?s just about the limits of Paul Thomas Anderson writing and directing. I?m still speaking to those people, but it?s very hard. At their best, he, Wes Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, and this rejuvenated Kathryn Bigelow are the most exciting American directors right now, artists who can balance the artistic and the commercial, ambiguity and clarity, whose new work you?re desperate to see. In any case, I don?t know that I would have found Freddie?s brokenness so moving without a second viewing. The same is true for?Holy Motors, a movie whose insanity I enjoyed once but whose spirituality overtook me a second time. I don?t know why seeing it again was necessary, but I did it.

I sometimes see movies twice and wish I hadn?t. But a great or very good movie should be able to withstand and reward a second viewing. Argo?did that, even with that rigged ending?so suspenseful, so cheap! We should devote some time to Michael Haneke?s?Amour, which I?ve also seen twice and found even more harrowing the second time than the first. Haneke is a great film artist who?s made a movie that hasn?t divided audiences in half the way his films tend to: Code Unknown,?The Piano Teacher,?Cach?, two versions of Funny Games,?The White Ribbon. I don?t know that that?s an achievement, although the movie itself certainly is.

His detractors find him doomy and punitive, but the dread that his bleakness produces in me is viscerally appealing, the way a roller coaster?s climb to that first drop is.?No one in the movies writes worst-case scenarios the way Haneke does. This new one has caught on because there?s an acknowledgement of transcendent, transfixing holiness in it that?s unprecedented for him.

I think most of us like this movie. Do we all like him? ?????????

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=5a4d9d61c720fc6af35b2497049ce4b8

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AP Source: Surgery reveals damage to RG3's ACL

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A person familiar with the situation says the surgery on Robert Griffin III's knee revealed damage to the ACL.

The Washington Redskins quarterback had surgery Wednesday morning to repair a torn lateral collateral ligament in his right knee. The procedure also examined Griffin's ACL, which he tore while playing for Baylor in 2009. Another torn ACL would complicate Griffin's chances of returning by the start of next season.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the Redskins had not made an announcement about the latest details surrounding the rookie quarterback's injury.

Griffin sprained the LCL last month and reinjured the knee in Sunday's playoff loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

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Follow Joseph White on Twitter: http://twitter.com/JGWhiteAP

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Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-source-surgery-reveals-damage-rg3s-acl-161052194--nfl.html

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Fighting flares in Palestinian camp in Damascus

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) ? Palestinian factions in Syria called for a cease-fire Tuesday after fighting flared at a refugee camp in the capital, Damascus, highlighting a split among Palestinians as the civil war intensifies.

The Yarmouk camp has been the scene of heavy clashes in the past, but the battles subsided last month after Syrian rebels fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, battled loyalists there to a standstill.

In Tuesday's fighting, five people were killed on Yarmouk Street, four of them when a shell exploded and the fifth in sniper fire, according to The Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights that relies on reports from activists on the ground.

The group said intense clashes were taking place on the edges of the camp, where the Syrian troops are positioned, and the nearby Hajar Aswad district.

In a statement, representatives of 14 Damascus-based Palestinian factions called for a cease-fire and a halt to all military operations to enable medical teams and food supply trucks to enter the camp. They urged gunmen to withdraw from the camp "in order not to bear the responsibility of the continuing displacement of (Yarmouk's) residents."

About half of Yarmouk's 150,000 residents have fled since fighting erupted in mid-December, according to estimates by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees that administers Palestinian camps in the Middle East. Some sought refuge in neighboring Lebanon, and others found shelter in UNRWA schools in Damascus and other Syrian cities.

Dozens have been killed in the fighting, although the United Nations did not provide an exact figure of casualties in Yarmouk violence that has included airstrikes and artillery shelling from the Syrian military and clashes between rebels and Assad loyalists.

Khaled Abdul-Majid, a senior representative of the Palestinian factions that issued the statement, told reporters in Damascus, "We are working to end those clashes."

An UNRWA spokesman told The Associated Press Syrian forces continue blocking the camp's entrances, though residents were allowed to retrieve personal belongings. All UNRWA facilities in the camp remain closed, including three heath centers that are inaccessible because of the fighting, said the spokesman, Sami Mshasha.

When the revolt against Assad's rule began in March 2011, the half-million-strong Palestinian community in Syria stayed on the sidelines. As the civil war deepened, most Palestinians backed the rebels, while some groups ? such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command ? have been fighting alongside the troops. The PFLP-GC joined the call for a truce on Tuesday. The group is led by Ahmed Jibril, a long-time Assad ally.

Yarmouk is the largest of nine Palestinian camps in Syria. Since the camp's creation in 1957, it has evolved into a densely populated residential district just five miles (eight kilometers) from the center of Damascus. Several generations of Palestinian refugees live there.

Also Tuesday, rebels claimed they shot down a military helicopter at the Taftanaz air base in the northern province of Idlib. The Observatory said the helicopter was flying toward the base.

Rebel units, including the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra group, have battled army troops for weeks for control of the base, from which warplanes have been taking off on missions to bomb rebel-held areas around Syria.

Amateur video posted on YouTube by activists showed black smoke rising from what appears to be an airfield. The video was consistent with AP reporting from the area.

Syria's state-run SANA news agency said army units fought rebels in several areas of Idlib province, including near the Taftanaz base, "killing several terrorists, injuring many others, and destroying their weapons." Troops also battled opposition fighters in the Damascus suburb of Daraya, and in the northern city of Aleppo, the agency said.

In Damascus, Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar, who was seriously wounded when a bomb hit his ministry in Damascus last month, attended a Cabinet meeting to discuss Assad's initiative to end the civil war. In a broadcast of Tuesday's meeting on Syrian state TV, al-Shaar was seen with a bandaged right hand and a scar on his forehead.

In a speech Sunday, Assad struck a defiant tone, ignoring international demands to step down and saying he is ready to talk ? but only with those "who have not betrayed Syria." He also vowed to continue the battle "as long as there is one terrorist left," a term the government uses for rebels.

The opposition rejected the offer, which also drew harsh international criticism.

The Observatory and other activists also reported heavy fighting Tuesday in suburbs of Damascus, including the Sayda Zeinab district, and shelling of the towns of Beit Saham and Aqraba, both near Damascus airport.

As fighting rages on, more than one million Syrians are suffering from food shortages but are out of reach of vital aid because of the fighting and government restrictions, according a statement Tuesday by the World Food Program.

The conflict started as peaceful protests against the Assad rule, but it turned into a civil war after a harsh government crackdown. More than 60,000 people have been killed since the uprising began in March 2011.

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Surk reported from Beirut.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fighting-flares-palestinian-camp-damascus-123432097.html

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