David Ignatius on All Topics
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“Given the political complications in that part of the world, the key to Islamabad lies in the Indian capital of New Delhi. So it was welcome news indeed Thursday when a Pakistani government spokesman announced that India had proposed high-level talks with Pakistan -- opening the way for a dialogue the region desperately needs.”
“Though the Predators launch their Hellfire missiles from the lofty altitude of 10,000 feet, make no mistake: This is an intense and unrelenting campaign of assassination. U.S. officials hope that top al-Qaeda leaders will soon fall prey to the stepped-up drone attacks, as well.”
“The value of this alpine kaffeeklatsch is that it can tell you when ideas have reached critical mass. And that seems to have happened this year in the general enthusiasm for what I will call "post-bubble" rules among the political and business leaders gathered here. They take it as a given that the free market failed in the crash of 2008 and that the new system will be more regulated, more interventionist, more prudential than was the old.”
“This "partnership" approach hasn't been articulated by the Obama administration as a formal strategy, and it doesn't get much media coverage. But it's worth a careful look, because it may offer the best path toward a world where the United States isn't always operating as an anti-terrorist Robocop.”
“A simple suggestion: Obama should use his authority as president to start reforming the health care system right now -- without waiting for congressional passage of a behemoth health-financing bill. He should use the existing "public options" -- especially Medicare and Medicaid -- as laboratories for change.”
“There's some truth in all of the secular explanations. But they leave out the most painful and perplexing factor we encounter whenever terrible things happen: bad luck.”
“There's an understandable desire not to second-guess the procedures that allowed a Jordanian suicide bomber to enter the agency's base. But this practice of meeting with agents "inside the wire" has a controversial history within the CIA, and it offers some useful background as the agency considers changes.”
“To be effective in war, Obama needs to be faithful to his ambition to be a peacemaker and agent of change.”
“The time to fix these problems is now -- not with a spasm of second-guessing that will further weaken the CIA but through the agency's own adaptation to this war zone.”
“CIA Director Leon Panetta should use these searing events to foster a culture of initiative and accountability at a CIA that wants to do the job -- but that needs leadership and reform.”
“Will Washington become like California? Some would argue that has already happened, with the fiscal disaster masked by the federal government's ability to sell its massive debt cheaply and print money to pay its bills.”
“If there's one perverse positive sign out there, consistent over most of the past decade, it's the failure of al-Qaeda's extremist ideology. We have an enemy that makes even more mistakes than we do.”
“The strongest impression was that the administration's plan to begin transferring responsibility to the Afghan army and police in July 2011 is overly optimistic.”
“By partnering with America, Pakistan can gain sovereignty over all its tribal territory for the first time in its history -- and thereby finally complete the task of building its own nation.”
“In his prime, he was a genius, and it's hard to think of a foreigner who helped save more American lives than Saad Pasha.”
