Robert Grenier

Trump-style re­alpoli­tik is tak­ing a ham­mer to long-stand­ing US for­eign pol­i­cy norms and the Wash­ing­ton es­tab­lish­ment.

As Al Jazeera ex­pos­es a brazen in­flu­ence cam­paign in the UK, a re­tired CIA of­fi­cial ex­plores the bound­aries of lob­by­ing.

Long-sup­pressed re­port finds Pak­istani gov­ern­ment was neg­li­gent, in­ef­fi­cient, and in­com­pe­tent in the bin Laden af­fair.

A feck­less vi­o­la­tion of the Gen­er­al’s per­son­al life has cost the US one of its top pub­lic ser­vants.

Now that the US has in ef­fect called Ne­tanyahu’s bluff, will the Is­raeli leader make a fate­ful throw of the dice?

The CIA is be­ing used to rec­on­cile the in­her­ent con­tra­dic­tions in the ad­min­is­tra­tion’s ap­proach to the up­ris­ing.

Re­pub­li­can politi­cians’ at­tack on a Mus­lim State De­part­ment of­fi­cial echoes the Com­mu­nist witch-hunts of an ear­li­er era.

Pak­istan should ac­knowl­edge and ad­dress the dead­ly threats em­a­nat­ing from its un­governed ter­ri­to­ries.

The best course open to the US, lest Mali be­come the next Yemen, might well be to con­tin­ue to watch, wait – do noth­ing.

Even in a coun­try rav­aged by ter­ror and po­lit­i­cal my­opia, there is still rea­son to hope for the fu­ture, says au­thor.