Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Holbrooke is gonna fix Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India?

I woke up thinking I was too optimistic in my post yesterday about Pakistan. I don’t know what got into me. This morning I have on my mind about the best take I’ve ever seen on attempts by westerners to alter the ways of South Asia: Now it is not good for the Christian’s health ...

588768_090205_coin_2.5_resized2.jpg
588768_090205_coin_2.5_resized2.jpg

I woke up thinking I was too optimistic in my post yesterday about Pakistan. I don't know what got into me.

I woke up thinking I was too optimistic in my post yesterday about Pakistan. I don’t know what got into me.

This morning I have on my mind about the best take I’ve ever seen on attempts by westerners to alter the ways of South Asia:

Now it is not good for the Christian’s health
To hustle the Aryan brown,
For the Christian riles and the Aryan smiles,
And it weareth the Christian down.
And the end of the fight
Is a tombstone white
With the name of the late deceased
And the epitaph drear: ‘A fool lies here
who tried to hustle the East.'”

I am feeling very focused on Pakistan right now. I don’t see any good answers, but I think the Obama administration is going to spend a lot of time and energy just managing the issue and trying to keep a lid on it.

So today I’m doing a Best Defense Special All-Pakistan issue. 

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

More from Foreign Policy

An illustration shows the Statue of Liberty holding a torch with other hands alongside hers as she lifts the flame, also resembling laurel, into place on the edge of the United Nations laurel logo.
An illustration shows the Statue of Liberty holding a torch with other hands alongside hers as she lifts the flame, also resembling laurel, into place on the edge of the United Nations laurel logo.

A New Multilateralism

How the United States can rejuvenate the global institutions it created.

A view from the cockpit shows backlit control panels and two pilots inside a KC-130J aerial refueler en route from Williamtown to Darwin as the sun sets on the horizon.
A view from the cockpit shows backlit control panels and two pilots inside a KC-130J aerial refueler en route from Williamtown to Darwin as the sun sets on the horizon.

America Prepares for a Pacific War With China It Doesn’t Want

Embedded with U.S. forces in the Pacific, I saw the dilemmas of deterrence firsthand.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, seen in a suit and tie and in profile, walks outside the venue at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. Behind him is a sculptural tree in a larger planter that appears to be leaning away from him.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, seen in a suit and tie and in profile, walks outside the venue at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. Behind him is a sculptural tree in a larger planter that appears to be leaning away from him.

The Endless Frustration of Chinese Diplomacy

Beijing’s representatives are always scared they could be the next to vanish.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomes Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman during an official ceremony at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, on June 22, 2022.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomes Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman during an official ceremony at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, on June 22, 2022.

The End of America’s Middle East

The region’s four major countries have all forfeited Washington’s trust.