Latest news with #Bodine
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Everyday Hero: Former ambassador talks Middle East peace
This month's speaker for the World Affairs Council of Charleston was Barbara Bodine—a diplomat with a lifetime of foreign service and what a life it has been. As a former US ambassador to Yemen in 1997, she was there when terrorists attacked the U.S.S. Cole. She was in a plane that was hijacked in 2001 and was a hostage in Kuwait during the Iraqi invasion and occupation in 1990. During that time, for almost five months, there was no electricity or water, and when they were hungry, there was this. 'So, for 137 days, we ate tuna fish for lunch and dinner every single day. I do not eat tuna fish anymore,' Bodine said. But Bodine wasn't complaining during our one-on-one conversation she was just saying it was a difficult time. 'Most diplomats serve in posts that are difficult on one level or another. They're dangerous, they're unhealthy and it's just part of the job,' Bodine explained. Bodine is currently the director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University. She was among the first generation of women diplomats, and the ambassador's foreign service took her around the globe, but the focus of our conversation was the Middle East. 'It's a region you cannot ignore,' Bodine said. And what she says are concerns from other countries about our credibility, consistency, and decision-making process. 'How we deal not just with adversaries but how are we dealing with our friends, what kind of tools are we willing to use, but I think the biggest question really is that people are not really clear on what our end game is,' Bodine said. 'They know what we've walked away from; they don't know what we're walking toward.' The most immediate problem that affects the entire region and far beyond, Bodine says, is the Israeli war with Hamas in Gaza and the US not being able to do much about it. 'We can't tell anybody out in the region this is what you will do, this is my plan, this is the game, this what you do,' Bodine explained. 'We don't have that power. I'm not sure we ever really did, but we really don't now.' It's an ever-changing Middle East, and Bodine argues Iran's desire to go nuclear is much different than that country using it as a weapon. 'I don't think that they are as hell-bent on getting a weapon as we're sometimes concerned, but they can be pushed and threatened to the point where they feel that a weapon is the only thing that's going to protect them,' Bodine said. 'I do applaud the president for restarting the talks with Iran. I applaud the Iranians for getting involved again, so this is a good thing, but it's going to be a long, hard process.' As for the age-old question, can there be peace in the Middle East? Many would say no, but Bodine points to Southeast Asia in the 1960s and 1970s as a reason for hope. 'I do a lot of biking, and the bike company I work with actually has a cycling trip down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. If you had told me that in the 70s, I would've laughed as you are laughing,' Bodine said. 'So there are places where it looked irredeemable, unfixable, just no, and they have managed to come back, and so I'm not willing to say that it's impossible.' Diplomacy is required for peace or at least stability, and it won't happen quickly. And that's coming from someone who has seen it firsthand. Ambassador Bodine was awarded the Secretary of State's award for valor for her work in Kuwait during the Gulf War, and she proudly pointed out to me that they had safely evacuated 3,000 Americans. If you have an Everyday Hero, email bclark@ or submit it here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Todd Bodine Says It's Time for Change in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
Two-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Todd Bodine says that even though the truck series is healthy, the business model for it needs to change within the next five years. 'We need to refine what we're doing and try to figure out how to save money,' Bodine says. 'There's a lot of local short-track teams that would love to be involved more heavily in the truck series, but a guy that has a local plumbing business can afford to race short tracks and he can maybe run a couple of truck races, but that's all he can do.' The 61-year-old Chemung, New York, native who now is an analyst on Fox Sports truck telecasts, notes people always want more money in the race purses. However, 'as in any sport, it does have to grow and refine as we go.' Bodine notes the series is different now than when it began, because initially it was comprised of drivers who were at the end of their careers such as himself, Ron Hornaday, Mike Skinner and Jack Sprague. 'We'd already had success,' Bodine says. 'We'd been in the Cup Series, Xfinity or Busch Series. We were there (truck series) because we wanted to race and have fun. We wanted to do it as long as we could, and the truck series afforded us that opportunity.' Today, it's different because most of the series drivers are at the beginning of their careers. 'They're trying to make a name for themselves,' Bodine says. 'Look at the guys that have come out of the truck series in the last five, six, even 10 years. We've got champions in the Cup Series and guys winning races in the Cup Series and Xfinity Series. It's just crazy to see these good drivers coming out of the truck series. We've got 10 or 12 drivers that are just outstanding, that probably will move to Xfinity or get their opportunity in the Cup Series.' Bodine cited Cup Series rookie Carson Hocevar as one who 'bulldozed his way through the truck series and got right into the Cup Series.' 'These kids come through the truck series to try to learn race craft, the right and wrong things to do with their trucks in traffic, out of traffic, drafting, all these things that they didn't grow up learning on short tracks,' Bodine says. 'It's a different era, different world, different mentality. It's just as good as it was back then. It's just a little different.'
