David Ignatius, Svengali

David Ignatius must have some kind of magical powers of mesmerism since he managed to provoke a remarkable quantity of serious commentary on Tapped about a column that proposes that the CIA mount a covert program to "install windmills and solar panels to generate electricity" in Waziristan. Surely that doesn't pass the laugh test. As long as we're allowed to play make-believe, why don't we just have Treadstone take care of things? It's completely preposterous. If you want to bribe people, just give them money. The desire to transform a simple exchange of money for favors into an eco-friendly global development scheme is, I think, a tip-off we're not meant to take this too seriously. Meanwhile, Brian Ulrich notes that the alarming report Ignatius uses to motivate Operation Windmill is actually out of date. Oh, well.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2007/07/david-ignatius-svengali/42562/