Usman Ahmad’s Reviews > The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat > Status Update

“As Defense Secretary Robert Gates put it after hearing another earful on Iran from King Abdullah, the Saudis were eager to “fight Iran to the last American.”35 So they kept doing their best to nudge America toward war.”

“America’s Arab allies would rather see a U.S.-Iran war than a U.S.-Iran rapprochement. The Persian Gulf states in particular are afraid of the latter. They also dislike the scenario of regime change in Tehran (too much uncertainty) and prefer a permanent U.S. commitment to defend them.

“Sanctions are not likely to work in the case of Iran either. The reasons Iran craves nuclear status run too deep for it to be swayed by economic pressure.”

“Pakistan is a democracy with a vibrant civil society, a rambunctious free press, an independent judiciary, and a sizable middle class and private sector that are eroding the military’s grip on power,...”
Bollocks! They are the ones who sustain military's dominance.

“The combination of ethnic tensions, extremist revolt, a sagging economy, and political gridlock with a war next door and no real institutional alternatives means that weakening Pakistan’s military could mean opening the door to the unknown”

“Humiliating and weakening a military that is choking democracy is not a bad thing. That is the only way to change the balance of power in favor of civilians and give democracy a chance. But Pakistan is not Spain or Argentina.

“There is one constant in Pakistan: fear and envy of India. The rivalry with its larger neighbor has so consumed Pakistan that the country pretty much defines itself as the Muslim “anti-India.” Thus it should come as no surprise that Pakistan would see Afghanistan only through the prism of the Indian challenge.”

“In the months that followed, Washington’s pressure-only policy threw relations into a downward spiral that put us at great risk. America quickly learned that Pakistan could be even less cooperative, and to our surprise, we could not live with that”