David Ignatius's Blog, page 128

The problem with America’s limited wars

What happens when an American plan for limited war against the Islamic State meets the savage reality of combat, as happened this week when the extremists pounded Kurdish fighters just inside Syria’s border with Turkey ? The cry rose in Washington and abroad for more American military involvement. This is how conflicts that start off contained begin to escalate.

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David Ignatius: Obama may be looking to shake-up his White House team

Presidents often need new energy and talent to refurbish their second terms. George W. Bush opted for such a shake-up in 2006, and it arguably saved his presidency. Barack Obama is now facing a similar moment, and there are signs he’s looking to make some personnel changes after the November congressional elections.

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Book review: Leon Panetta’s ‘Worthy Fights’

Maybe Barack Obama should have asked his cabinet secretaries to sign book-royalty agreements when they took their oaths of office, so he could share in the spoils. Too late now: Here’s Leon Panetta, former secretary of defense and CIA director, publishing the third memoir by a top foreign-policy official while Obama is still in office.

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Foreign nations’ proxy war in Syria creates chaos

ISTANBUL

The squabbling factions that make up the Syrian “moderate opposition” should get their act together. But so should the foreign nations — such as the United States, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Jordan — that have been funding the chaotic melange of fighters inside Syria. These foreign machinations helped open the door for the terrorist Islamic State group to threaten the region.

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Unifying the ‘moderate opposition’ is the biggest challenge in Syria

REYHANLI, Turkey

As Syrian rebel commander Hamza al-Shamali describes the battle inside Syria, a few miles across the border, the immediate problem isn’t defeating the Islamic State. It’s coordinating the ragtag brigades of the Free Syrian Army into a coherent force that can fill the vacuum once the extremists are driven out.

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Young tech entrepreneurs from the developing world share their frustration and anger

When you talk to young technology entrepreneurs gathered at a conference in Istanbul, you hear the hunger for change that is pervasive in the Middle East. They’re frustrated and angry about the status quo, not least because they fear it has helped spawn the extremism of jihadist groups such as the Islamic State.

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The manual that chillingly foreshadows the Islamic State

ISTANBUL

It may not be as revealing as “Mein Kampf” or “The Communist Manifesto.” But people looking for insight into the extremist strategy that inflames the fighters of the Islamic State might begin with a book chillingly titled “The Management of Savagery.”

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A war strategy takes shape

The symbolism Tuesday was appropriate for a nation at war: A somber president in a plain blue suit describing military strikes in Syria the night before, an American flag fixed in his lapel while a Marine Corps helicopter waited behind him.

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From the Viet Cong to the Islamic State, the perils of underestimating the enemy’s ‘will’

Underestimating an adversary’s will to win can be a costly mistake in war, as Director of National Intelligence James Clapper noted in an interview last week. He said the U.S. had made that error recently in assessing the Islamic State, just as it did nearly 50 years ago in evaluating the staying power of the Viet Cong.

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From the Vietcong to the Islamic State, the perils of underestimating the enemy’s ‘will’

Underestimating an adversary’s will to win can be a costly mistake in war, as Director of National Intelligence James Clapper noted in an interview last week. He said the U.S. had made that error recently in assessing the Islamic State, just as it did nearly 50 years ago in evaluating the staying power of the Vietcong.

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