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 Meanwhile, Brian Ulrich notes that the alarming report Ignatius uses to motivate Operation Windmill is actually out of date.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.