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Original Commentaries
Setting the Record Straight
Keeping Focus on Long-Term Objectives
“[W]hile we do need to have a cooperative approach that involves many of our friends and allies in meeting with the Pakistanis, … as we work out with them a rough division of labor, the U.S., I believe, ought to be taking the lead in addressing the issues in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. And given the difficulty of doing so, I suspect that we will not have a great deal of difficulty in convincing them to allow us to take the lead there. But as we all know, there is a real tension between our short-term tactical aims in trying to capture or kill terrorists across the border and militants in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and our longer- term counterinsurgency pacification goals. We very much need to be focusing on the end state. What is it that we want this area to look like? ... In that context we need to have a common agenda with the Pakistani government and very much to include the military on counterinsurgency in that area. There needs to be, therefore, a focus on combining military efforts with economic, development and political development in those areas.”
—Robert L. Grenier, managing director and chairman for Global Security Consulting, Kroll, event, “Partnership for Progress: Advancing a New Strategy for Prosperity and Stability in Pakistan and the Region,” Center for American Progress, November 17, 2008
Middle East Analysis
December 14, 2007
"Accepting U.S. arbitration on the disagreements between us and the Palestinians, Israel gave up on its sovereignty to discuss issues vital to its security. This administration, that ignores the incitement in the Palestinian curriculum, under the Secretary, who believes Abu Mazen is another Martin Luther King, will decide who is inciting against whom. The 'judge' that Condi nominated, general James Jones, is known to be cold toward us and related to U.S. interests in Arab countries."
--Likud MK Uzi Landau, "Dangerous Friendship," Ynet, December 13, 2007
“Monitoring, monitoring, monitoring. This is the key.”
--Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel and Egypt Dan Kurtzer, on lessons learned from a study of U.S. Arab-Israeli peacemaking efforts, The Jewish Daily Forward, December 12, 2007