In his Washington Post piece this morning, David Ignatius added to
my concern about the Obama administration’s anti-terrorism
policy in Pakistan, Yemen, and other areas.
The issue is whether ambassadors to countries like Pakistan should be able
to veto CIA plans – the use of drones, for instance – that they believe will be
harmful. How, in other words, “covert weapons should coexist with the goals of
statecraft,” Ignatius writes.
Cameron Munter, the outgoing US ambassador to Pakistan, has been trying to
strengthen our relationship with that country, and he has been concerned that
the Obama administration’s ramped-up use of drones is making things worse.
Obama, Ignatius writes, has decided to let the decision about that question
rest with the CIA director and himself. That gives diplomacy a back seat: not a
positive change.
This article appears in Bye bye unions?.
