NATO Defense Ministers Meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia

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Strategy Review -- Substantial U.S. troop increase in Afghanistan

NATO defense ministers meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia, endorsed the strategy put forward by Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the U.S. and allied commander. The alliance rejected competing proposals to narrow the military mission to fighting the remnants of Al Qaeda.

They did not discuss specific troop levels, but U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said a number of allies indicated they were thinking about increasing their own military or civilian contributions."

The only way to ensure that Afghanistan does not become once again a safe haven for terrorism is if it is made strong enough to resist the insurgency as well”, said Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the NATO secretary-general. "In Afghanistan, you cannot separate counter-terrorism from counterinsurgency"... Los Angles Times
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Multicultural Blogs – periodic roundup

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International Haplif & Haplifnet NEWS -- WordPress [introduction]

Research on ARTIFICAL BRAIN & SINGULARITY

Obama’s envisaged global climate pact hindered [UN, US Senate]

Global Navigation Agreement at G20 Summit in Pittsburgh

Arianna Huffington’s new book on the US system’s failures

EU - Wüstenstrom und Klimaschutzverbesserung ▪ Desertec-Projekt

Global Investments into Solar Energy ▪ Solar Millennium, Siemens, DESERTEC-EUMENA
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Angela Merkel’s second victory in German elections

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BERLIN -- Chancellor Angela Merkel claimed victory in national elections today, with projections by public television stations putting her conservative party on a path to form a new center-right government and achieve her goal of ending the country’s “grand coalition” with the Social Democrats.

If the slim lead for her conservative Christian Democrats and the pro-business Free Democrats holds after all the ballots are tallied, Mrs. Merkel will finally have the chance to enact the kind of liberalizing economic reforms she proposed when she first ran for chancellor four years ago. But the celebration will be muted by the knowledge that rising budget deficits as a result of the economic crisis have dramatically limited the kind of tax cuts the new coalition will be able to enact... Read more by Nicholas Kulish, New York Times
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Multicultural Blogs – periodic roundup

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International Haplif & Haplifnet NEWS -- WordPress [introduction]

Barack Obama has urged students to accept responsibility

Barack Obama’s Healthcare Plan & Medicare Spending

Biz Stone - New Terms of Service for Twitter

Barack Obama’s Rhetoric vs. Wall Street Reality

One EU voice on financial reform ahead of G20 summit

Russia scrapped missile deployment plans in Eastern Europe
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Shelved missile defense plan -- shattered confidence in Europe

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President Obama's decision to shelve the Bush administration's missile defense plans has created a crisis of confidence in Washington's relations with Central and Eastern Europe. The defense architecture the administration proposes may make more strategic sense in addressing the immediate Iranian threat. Nevertheless, it runs the risk of shattering the morale and standing of transatlantic leaders in the region who now feel politically undermined and exposed. The roots of this crisis lie less in missile defense than in policy failures over the past decade. Understanding and rectifying those errors is key to getting back on track with our allies.

Our first mistake was being overly optimistic about what would happen when these countries joined NATO and the European Union. We basically checked the box "mission accomplished." We assumed that Russia would finally accept that Central and Eastern Europe were gone from its sphere of influence and stop trying to interfere in their regional politics. But geopolitical competition didn't stop. Moscow simply tried to pressure and interfere in new ways, using energy and other weapons. It seeks to marginalize these countries in NATO and the European Union by going above their heads. It still wants to create a zone of special Russian interest, influence and lesser security… Read more by Ronald D. Asmus, Washington Post

Supplementary (later today):

Russia scrapped missile deployment plans in Eastern Europe

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Multicultural Blogs – periodic roundup

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International Haplif & Haplifnet NEWS -- WordPress [introduction]

Results and Prospects of State Elections in Germany

Montessorian and Ecological Concepts ▪ Angie Cordeiro [HuffPost Blogging]

The US bailout -- and the consolidation isn’t yet over ▪ Arianna Huffington

Top Bankers' Bonuses to be curbed ▪ EU (Brussels) preparing for G20 (Pittsburgh)

US Economy facing long-term economic growth (Prof. Joseph Stiglitz)
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US Healthcare and Education Issues at HuffPost

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So We Can't Have Single Payer for Health Care, But How About Single Payer for Education? By Arianna Huffington

Health care is rightly dominating the national debate, but with children all across the country heading back to school, education, currently seated in the back row of the national classroom, is raising its hand and asking to be called on.

On Tuesday (Sep 8), President Obama will be giving a nationally televised speech on education to America's students, broadcast on C-SPAN and the White House website. On the same day, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is sponsoring a major conference in Los Angeles that will serve as the kick off of Get Schooled, a far-reaching initiative geared to developing solutions to the problems facing America's education system. (I'll be one of the speakers)… Read more

Addendum, Sep 7: Obama Back To School Speech: FULL TEXT
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