FORGET IRAN. How about a CIA proxy war in Pakistan? That’s what the Washington Post‘s David Ignatius suggests the United States do to root out al-Qaeda factions in the northwest Pakistani province of Waziristan.

Intervening in another Muslim country is risky, to put it mildly. That’s why a successful counterinsurgency program would need Pakistani support and why its economic and social development components would be critical … The United States can begin to take action now against al-Qaeda’s new haven. Or we can wait, and hope that we don’t get hit again. The biggest danger in waiting is that if retaliation proves necessary later, it could be ill-planned and heavy-handed — precisely what got us in trouble in Iraq.

But doesn’t evidence show that all Bush administration military interventions are ill-planned and heavy-handed? I continue to be amazed by national security experts who would place any trust in this president.

–Dana Goldstein

Dana Goldstein, a former associate editor and writer at the Prospect, comes from a family of public-school educators. She received the Spencer Fellowship in Education Journalism, a Schwarz Fellowship at the New America Foundation, and a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellowship at the Nation Institute. Her journalism is regularly featured in Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and other publications, and she is a staff writer at the Marshall Project.