David Ignatius's Blog, page 133
June 4, 2014
Claims of U.S. weakness and retreat of U.S. power are unfounded
When CBS News brought Dwight Eisenhower back to Normandy for the 20th anniversary of the D-Day landings in 1964, you might have expected the former commander of Allied forces to conclude with a triumphal comment. Instead, CBS captured an anguished Eisenhower against the backdrop of crosses at the U.S. cemetery at St. Laurent, ruminating: “We must find some way . . . to gain an eternal peace for this world.”
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May 28, 2014
Obama’s foreign policy repeats some avoidable mistakes
President Obama’s measured defense of his foreign policy at West Point on Wednesday made many cogent points to rebut critics. Unfortunately, the speech also showed that he hasn’t digested some of the crucial lessons of his presidency.
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May 27, 2014
On Mideast, a hopeful dialogue
BRUSSELS
Getting the former spy chiefs of Israel and Saudi Arabia to talk together about peace is hardly a breakthrough, but it at least helps keep alive the idea of an eventual Israeli-Palestinian settlement.
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May 22, 2014
Lessons from ‘The Good Spy’ on how to do intelligence right
What makes a good spy? It’s not the flashy qualities you see in the movies, or the “Murder Inc.” tactics the CIA has sometimes been ordered to use against terrorists during the past decade. It’s something more delicate and human, as explained in a remarkable new biography of one of the CIA’s bravest and best officers ever in the Middle East.
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May 21, 2014
Congress not letting military get rid of outdated A-10s
One of Washington’s recurring idiocies is the way members of the congressional armed services committees, who profess to revere the U.S. military, insist on imposing their own judgments to preserve outmoded systems the military wants to cut.
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May 20, 2014
A Finland model for Ukraine?
After months of war fever over Ukraine, perhaps the biggest surprise is that citizens there will be voting to choose a new government in elections that observers predict will be free and fair in most areas.
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May 15, 2014
Why the Mideast peace process is in tatters
Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better. Other times, they just get worse. We’ll find out soon which of those descriptions characterizes the collapsed Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
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May 13, 2014
A nightmare group in Syria could target the U.S.
The chamber of horrors of the Syrian civil war has spawned a terrorist group so extreme that it has been rejected even by al-Qaeda — and this toxic group is now establishing a safe haven in the city of Raqqah in northern Syria that could soon be used to attack foreign targets.
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May 8, 2014
Putin is winging it on Ukraine
In the chess game that is the Ukraine crisis, it’s increasingly clear that Russian President Vladimir Putin hasn’t thought his way through to the endgame. He’s aggressive in his moves, but also calculating. He wants success but not at any cost.
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May 6, 2014
Obama tends to create his own foreign policy headaches
It’s painful watching the YouTube video of President Obama in Manila last week, talking about hitting singles and doubles in foreign policy. Everything he says is measured, and most of it is correct. But he acts as if he’s talking to a rational world, as opposed to one inhabited by leaders such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
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