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| Rethinking the Long War |
| 2009-07-23 |
| In 1993, R. James Woolsey, about to become President Clinton’s first Director of Central Intelligence, remarked to a Senate committee on the defeat of international Communism: “We have slain a large dragon.” He then added: “But we live now in a jungle filled with a bewildering variety of poisonous snakes. And in many ways, the dragon was easier to keep track of.” Years later, we still seem bewildered. America’s military has demonstrated astonishing ingenuity and adaptability, as I have argued here. But have other instruments of national power risen to the challenges posed by international jihadism? In his new book, Winning the Long War, Ilan Berman, vice president for policy at the American Foreign Policy Council, makes a persuasive case that they have not, that the U.S. instead has lost “the initiative on the dominant battlefields of today’s conflict: ideology, strategic communications, economics, law, and development.” Regaining the initiative, he urges, should be among the highest priorities of the new administration. Earth to Berman: the new administration is on the other side |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #1 "But have other instruments of national power risen to the challenges posed by international jihadism?" Clearly they have not. The State Department and CIA were busy undermining the President the last 8 years instead of rebuilding Iraq or helping to balance out the Defense Department. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2009-07-23 12:30 |