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America's Top Intelligence Official: "The U.S. Can't Fix the Middle East"
(Washington Post) David Ignatius - James Clapper, 75, has worked in intelligence for 53 years and has served almost six years as America's top intelligence official. He says the U.S. is slowly degrading the Islamic State but probably won't capture its key Iraqi stronghold of Mosul this year and faces a long-term struggle that will last decades. "The U.S. can't fix it. The fundamental issues they have - the large population bulge of disaffected young males, ungoverned spaces, economic challenges and the availability of weapons - won't go away for a long time." At the same time, he says, "I don't think the U.S. can just leave town. Things happen around the world when U.S. leadership is absent. We have to be present - to facilitate, broker and sometimes provide the force."