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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
August 5, 2008
"Right now the future of Iraq, whether in fact Iraq is able to be–able to fulfill its–whether we the United States are able to fulfill our objectives in Iraq rests not really on what the Iraqis do, but mostly on what we the United States do."
—Kimberly Kagan, President, Institute for the Study of War, "The Future of the U.S. Military Presence in Iraq," United States Institute of Peace, July 25, 2008 
“[T]he Iraqi government needs to do more. … More than 4,100 of our brave, young men and women have been killed and 30,000 have been wounded. Their heroic efforts have brought the Iraqi government additional time. But so far that precious time has not translated into a sufficient political reconciliation that brings a lasting peace. Unless the Iraqi government can make tough political compromises and deliver basic services to its citizens then the gains our troops fought so hard to win could be easily reversed.”
—Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), July 26, 2008