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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
July 7, 2008
"[I]t would be a mistake of historic proportions to retreat from Iraq despite the clear progress and to create a power vacuum that the Iranians would just gladly go in and take over.”
--John Boehner (R-OH), House Minority Leader, 2008 AIPAC Policy Conference speech, June 4, 2008
“America's way out of Iraq will require a regional diplomatic strategy that includes a sustained and disciplined American engagement with all of Iraq's neighbors, notably Iran and Syria, as well as the international community. This would also include a regional security conference supported by key international institutions. Our goal should be to build a constructive regional and security framework supported by the international community to help the Iraqis achieve a core of political stability. It is up to the Iraqis how they will shape their government and build their country.”
--Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE), speech, the Brookings Institution, June 26, 2008