David Ignatius's Blog, page 125

The U.S.-Iranian double game in nuclear talks

As the United States and Iran continue negotiating a possible breakthrough nuclear agreement, both sides are carrying concealed weapons that could be used if the talks collapse. The threats that underlie the bargaining are rarely discussed publicly, but both countries recognize the dangers ahead if they don’t reach an agreement by the June 30 deadline. The United States’ leverage is its demonstrated ability to use cyberweapons to attack Iranian nuclear facilities; Iran’s leverage is its ability to target the 2,190 U.S. military personnel now in Iraq.Read full article >>

Learning from the oil market

The recent plunge of oil prices to below $50 a barrel offers the same lessons as previous sharp fluctuations: Energy markets work, and politicians who try to steer them almost always get it wrong. It’s ironic that, amid this demonstration of the inexorable power of supply and demand, Congress is beginning its debate on the symbolic issue of the Keystone XL pipeline. The premise on both sides of the aisle is that legislative decisions will shape the supply of crude oil. But 40 years of experience says otherwise. Read full article >>

New York’s police commissioner has to reinvent policing once more

When William J. Bratton was appointed to his second stint as New York police commissioner by Mayor Bill de Blasio in late 2013, he said he wanted every New Yorker to think of the force as “their police.” Now, a year later, Bratton leads officers who are turning their backs on the mayor of a city where many residents are furious at the cops.Read full article >>

U.S. slow to support Iraqi tribes in the fight against the Islamic State

Watching events unfold in Iraq this year has been like viewing a slow-motion train wreck. Iraqi tribal leaders have been warning since spring about the rise of the terrorist Islamic State and pleading for American help. But after months of slaughter, the United States is only now beginning to build an effective tribal-assistance program.Read full article >>

Warren’s war against Wall Street

The revival of the U.S. financial system after the crash of 2008 is arguably the Obama administration’s biggest domestic policy success. But Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), in her jihad against Wall Street, seems determined to devalue this accomplishment — and to make financial expertise a mark of shame for Democrats, rather than a source of pride.Read full article >>

David Ignatius: In his final two years, Obama breaks out his changeup

The nadir for President Obama’s foreign policy probably came in April. His Republican critics were calling him “weak” and “indecisive” after Russia’s invasion of Crimea. A deflated Obama responded meekly that sometimes the best a president can do is to hit “singles” and “doubles.”Read full article >>

David Ignatius: A U.S.-China ‘reset’?

BEIJINGThis year began with some Chinese and American foreign-policy analysts looking back a century to World War I and wondering if confrontation was inevitable between a rising power and a dominant one. But now there has been progress on climate, trade and security issues and what seems a modest “reset” of the Sino-American relationship. Read full article >>

Gen. John Allen carries a heavy rucksack in the fight against the Islamic State

Gen. John Allen must sometimes feel as if he’s navigating a maze as he organizes the coalition to defeat the Islamic State: Iran is a silent partner in Iraq but a potential adversary in Syria and elsewhere; Turkey and Saudi Arabia are crucial allies but skittish and self-interested ones; the very map of battle is uncertain, as boundaries in the region begin to blur.Read full article >>

The torture report’s one glaring weakness

The Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA’s use of torture was immensely valuable. But it should have addressed Congress’s own failure to oversee these activities more effectively. By giving lawmakers a pass, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) weakened the very process of accountability her report was meant to enhance.

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David Ignatius: The Senate’s CIA report is a necessary public accounting

A CIA medical officer who was assigned to monitor the interrogation of an al-Qaeda operative named Abu Zubaida sent a message to his superiors on Aug. 4, 2002, the day the CIA first used the technique known as “waterboarding.” He hauntingly titled his cable: “So it begins.”

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