This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com.

Obama agrees to support Russia’s bid to end Libya action with mediation

Medvedev and Obama meeting in Moscow in 2009 (AP)

President Barack Obama will support the mediation attempt by Russia’s president Dmitry Medvedev to end the Libya conflict by mediation, provided that Muammar Gaddafi steps aside:

“President Obama spoke with Russian President Medvedev today to discuss a range of bilateral and international issues and to express his condolences on the tragic sinking of the MS Bulgaria.

President Obama thanked President Medvedev for Russia’s efforts at mediation in Libya, emphasizing that the United States is prepared to support negotiations that lead to a democratic transition in Libya as long as Gaddafi steps aside.”

The statement doesn’t mention whether there are any other conditions, such as requiring Gaddafi to leave Libya, or preventing Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam from stepping as the new leader, fronting for Muammar. AFP

Though unannounced, Nato discontinued air strikes on Saturday, July 9, essentially because 15,000 flight missions and 6,000 bombardments of Qaddafi targets had failed to achieve their object: removing Gaddafi from power. Thus, Obama’s acceptance of Medvedev as mediator means that the military action in Libya is pretty much over, on terms acceptable to Gaddafi. Debka

Russia’s Medvedev increasingly marginalized in the face of domestic challenges

A year before Russia’s presidential election, in which he may be running against Vladimir Putin, president Dmitry Medvedev is being marginalized by domestic challenges, including manmade disasters. The sinking on July 10 of the MS Bulgaria riverboat on the Volga River, killing 105, and the June 21 crash of a plane, killing 47, are both being blamed on massive negligence and corruption that’s stretching all the way to the Kremlin and President Medvedev. Jamestown

S&P may downgrade U.S. debt even if a debt ceiling agreement is reached

Standard & Poor’s ratings service put the U.S. debt on negative watch on Thursday evening, and said that there’s a 50% chance that it might lower U.S.’s credit rating soon, if a deal on raising the government’s debt ceiling is not agreed soon. The S&P statement added, “[Even if] an agreement is reached, we do not believe that it likely will stabilize the U.S.’ debt dynamics,” and we “would expect to lower the long-term ‘AAA’ rating, affirm the ‘A-1+’ short-term rating, and assign a negative outlook on the long-term rating.” Reuters

Pakistan’s Jamaat-ud-Dawa Steps Up Campaign of Anti-American Rhetoric

Although doing so is illegal, Pakistan’s Islamic charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) has stepped up its overt anti-Indian and anti-Western rhetoric. The JuD is believed to act as a front organization for the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group, responsible for the horrific 2008 assault on Mumbai. Following the death of Osama bin Laden, hundreds of JuD activists descended into the streets of Pakistan’s main cities, including Karachi and Lahore, to offer special “funerary prayers in absentia” and to pronounce Bin Laden a martyr. Later, JuD activisits joined other Islamist terror groups to organize a rally in Karachi in support of the government of Saudi Arabia against “conspiracies” hatched by the United States and its allies. Jamestown

Arab League endorses Palestinian bid for United Nations statehood

The Arab League, meeting in Doha, Qatar, will ask the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state on pre-1967 lines. Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas is planning to visit a number of EU countries in the coming days to try to persuade them to support the statehood bid at the UN. Jerusalem Post

Evidence points to Indian Mujahideen in Mumbai terrorist attacks

Police investigating the multiple terrorist attacks in Mumbai on Wednesday, killing 18 people and injuring over 100, are not yet blaming Lashkar-e-Toiba or other Pakistani terrorist groups. The use of ammonium nitrate-based explosive and shrapnel, to cause maximum casualties from the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) is more typical of the Indian Mujahideen (IM), an Islamist terrorist group within India itself. Hindustan Times

‘Because like it or not, he is all of us’

Quote without comment:

“[C]an we just enjoy Obama for a moment? Before the policy choices have to be weighed and the hard decisions have to be made, can we just take a month or two to contemplate him the way we might contemplate a painting by Vermeer or a guitar lick by the early-seventies Rolling Stones or a Peyton Manning pass or any other astounding, ecstatic human achievement? Because twenty years from now, we’re going to look back on this time as a glorious idyll in American politics, with a confident, intelligent, fascinating president riding the surge of his prodigious talents from triumph to triumph. Whatever happens this fall or next, the summer of 2011 is the summer of Obama.” — Stephen Marche

Esquire