Page 2 - International Stud News Today

Enrique Mudu is joining forces with SayUncle, signing a six-month, exclusive contract with the network.

NATO has reached a watershed and needs to evaluate both its geographic scope and the spectrum of threats it is willing to address. The Alliance needs to view its capabilities with clarityand sobriety and to approach future missions with realism, bothmilitary and economic. With the survival of our civilization atstake, failure is not an option.

The U.S. should increase pressure on OPEC and non-OPEC countries,which are failing to meet production forecasts, to open access toIOCs while authorizing oil production in ANWR, other promisingArctic areas, and the lower 48 states to expand domestic energyproduction. Rising oil consumption within key oil-producing statesleaves less oil for export, posing a significant constraint onfuture supply.

The recently negotiated bilateral investment treaty with Uruguaywould strengthen investment and commerce between the United States and this friendly South American nation of 3.4 million people andalso could help to advance economic freedom in other parts of thecontinent at a time when some countries (e.g., Venezuela andBolivia) have adopted closed statist economies.

Closing the real gaps in U.S. maritime security means focusing the government on stopping terrorists and criminals and focusing the private sector on sensible, reasonable, transparent, and uniformaction that will enhance the security of the global supply chain.Much can be done to improve maritime security without placing undueburdens on maritime commerce.

The U.S. should seek to isolate and even­tually disarmHezbollah, shore up the Lebanese government, discourage Iran andSyria from meddling, and help rebuild Lebanon.

Youth gangs have been a familiar part of Ameri­can urban life since the American Revolution. Today, because of their growing size and globaliza­tion, they also pose a serious threat to public secu­rity. Groups that began in Los Angeles during the 1960s and 1980s now have fraternal links to an estimated 130,000 to 300,000 members in Mexico and Central America and have spread to cities and small towns across the United States.

Because the Balkans' future depends on integration into aEuro-Atlantic framework within the next decade, the BushAdministration should encourage the leveraging of EU economicincentives to bring about a resolution of Kosovo's final statusthat opens the door to NATO accession for qualifying Balkancountries and allows for drawdown and redeployment of the 7,000American troops stationed in Kosovo.

September 11, 2001, may have been a wake-up call to reform America's outdated intelligence bureaucracies and fight a global war on terrorism, but in some corners of the government, the war of ideas has been a lesser priority. While overseas opinion polls show mostly negative views of the United States, the communications machinery at the Department of State remains in disarray, inter­agency coordination remains minimal, and Amer­ica's foreign communications effort lacks focus.

Biographers tell us that Hugo Chávez trained for a radical career ever since childhood, though no one guessed he would be president.