Gregory D. Johnsen, a Princeton scholar who has emerged as a key Yemen analyst, explains why promoting John O. Brennan to CIA director following David Petraeus’ resignation is counterproductive:
Mr. Brennan is the president’s chief counterterrorism adviser and the architect of this model. In a recent speech, he claimed that [...]]]>
Gregory D. Johnsen, a Princeton scholar who has emerged as a key Yemen analyst, explains why promoting John O. Brennan to CIA director following David Petraeus’ resignation is counterproductive:
Mr. Brennan is the president’s chief counterterrorism adviser and the architect of this model. In a recent speech, he claimed that there was “little evidence that these actions are generating widespread anti-American sentiment or recruits for A.Q.A.P.,” referring to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Mr. Brennan’s assertion was either shockingly naïve or deliberately misleading. Testimonies from Qaeda fighters and interviews I and local journalists have conducted across Yemen attest to the centrality of civilian casualties in explaining Al Qaeda’s rapid growth there. The United States is killing women, children and members of key tribes. “Each time they kill a tribesman, they create more fighters for Al Qaeda,” one Yemeni explained to me over tea in Sana, the capital, last month. Another told CNN, after a failed strike, “I would not be surprised if a hundred tribesmen joined Al Qaeda as a result of the latest drone mistake.”
Rather than promote the author of a failing strategy, we need a C.I.A. director who will halt the agency’s creeping militarization and restore it to what it does best: collecting human intelligence. It is an intelligence agency, not a lightweight version of Joint Special Operations Command. And until America wins the intelligence war, missiles will continue to hit the wrong targets, kill too many civilians and drive young men into the waiting arms of our enemies.
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The notion of linkage contends that a festering Arab-Israeli conflict takes a strategic toll on the U.S. in the Middle East.
In an Congressional testimony, CENTCOM head Gen. James Mattis [...]]]>
The notion of linkage contends that a festering Arab-Israeli conflict takes a strategic toll on the U.S. in the Middle East.
In an Congressional testimony, CENTCOM head Gen. James Mattis said that while Israel and the Occupied Territories are outside of his purview, they affect “U.S. security interests in the region.” He described a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as “the only reliable path to lasting peace in this region.”
The CENTCOM Area of Responsibility includes nearly all countries in the Middle East and Central Asia.
Here’s the relevant bit from Mattis’s testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, via the American Forces Press Service:
Mattis said while Israel and Palestine aren’t in CENTCOM’s area of responsibility, lack of progress toward a comprehensive Middle East peace affects U.S. security interests in the region.
“I believe the only reliable path to lasting peace in this region is a viable two-state solution between Israel and Palestine,” he said. “This issue is one of many that is exploited by our adversaries in the region, and is used as a recruiting tool for extremist groups.”
By contrast, Mattis said, substantive progress in the peace process would improve CENTCOM’s opportunities to work with regional partners and support multilateral security efforts.
UPDATE: An earlier version of this said Mattis was interviewed by AFPS. Instead, the comments were made in Congressional testimony, which the article now reflects. A more broad quote of Mattis’s comments, as well as video of his testimony, can be found at the website of Americans for Peace Now.
]]>Last March, his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee clearly [...]]]>
Last March, his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee clearly laid out a military perspective on the linkage between the unresolved Israeli/ Palestinian conflict and the dangers facing US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, thereby establishing his position on the negative sentiments facing the US in the Middle East as a result of perceived US “favoritism” towards Israel.
His comments yesterday broadened the scope of issues which Petraeus directly links to America’s unpopularity in the Middle East and the difficulties of winning “hearts and minds” in Afghanistan.
The Wall Street Journal reported Petraeus as saying:
[The Quran burning] could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort.
and
It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems. Not just here [in Afghanistan], but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community.
In an email to the Associated Press Petraeus stated:
Images of the burning of a Quran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan – and around the world – to inflame public opinion and incite violence.
Dove World Ministry and its Pastor Terry Jones, who are organizing the Quran burning, are not listening to Petraus’ warning. On Tuesday, their blog posted “5 more reasons to burn the Koran.” They conclude that even if violence does happen in retaliation, they are not responsible.
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