Well now. This isn’t good. The Karzai Administration is taking in more than $1 million a year off the books from Iran’s government to pay for presidential expenses. The Chief of Staff is taking in the cash, no doubt helping Mr. Karzai pay for his lavishly, handsomely decorated, pain-stakingly made shawls. Some of it goes […]
Who played whom in the overlapping battles over the mayor of Moscow, the Khimki forest road, and the presidential race of 2012? This question is not (just) a convenient platform to shamelessly promote my new article about The New Civic Activism in Russia, out in the latest edition of The Nation (still, why not check […]
My hometown paper, the San Diego Union Tribune, has been running a series of reports about the US war effort in Afghanistan that have provided a real service to our community. The weekly reports may not be groundbreaking, but they have provided its readers with a more in depth view of the situation, especially in […]
NATO’s Afghanistan force ISAF has been strategically bombing rushedly discovered Taliban and Al Qaeda locations for some time now. This scaled up move is designed to get the Taliban leadership to the negotiating table. No doubt, apart from major disruptive turns away from the chosen path, the strategy is understood to be working. ISAF is […]
The War in Afghanistan has fallen off the American’s people’s radar. It raises the question: was it ever on the people’s radar–that is after the hooooohaaahhh of ramped up, spoon fed nationalism faded to the recyclable detritus of our ill-appreciated commuter lives. Yes. From 2001 until 2007, one might do well to vaguely recall the […]
Ata-Jurt leader Kamchybek Tashiev Yesterday, on October 10, Kyrgyz voters cast their ballots for a new parliament. Overall, there were not a lot of new faces chosen, casting doubt on a fresh start after June’s riots and killings, when over 400 people reportedly died and more than 400,000 were forced out of their homes. On the other […]
Benjamin Domenech at Real Clear World’s ‘The Compass‘ blog produced this interesting piece on Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak’s efforts to bring a moderate form of Islam to Afghanistan. Here’s an excerpt: It was on this day in 2001 that the United States and Britain launched Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, which seems as proper […]
Australia is not happy with the FPA Russia blog. The University of Sydney’s Philipp Ivanov wrote that my “arguments and the way they’re presented extremely narrow-minded, seriously lacking in depth and…biased”, leaving him “very disappointed that such a credible source of commentary as FPA fails to present a balanced and well-researched view on developments, issues […]
Bob Woodward has been flying about D.C talking up his book, “Obama’s Wars”. And for good reason. He’s leveling very serious arguments against President Obama’s handling of the War in Afghanistan. He has already talked up a storm with Larry King. Now he’s delivered quite a few blows to the White House during a conversation […]
In his interview with Larry King, journalist Bob Woodward has come out and said outright that Colin Powell is the best candidate for Secretary of Defense after Robert Gates steps down from that role in 2011. General Powell, as Woodward has pointed out numerous times, is a walking embodiment of the history of American wars […]
The Washington Post editorial page shares my concern of President Obama’s seeming lack of commitment in his Afghanistan strategy, as portrayed in Bob Woodward’s ‘Obama’s Wars’ series: What’s most disturbing in Mr. Woodward’s book is the evidence it offers that Mr. Obama’s own commitment to his plan is weak. The president is described as preoccupied […]
However disgracefully he was forced out, let’s get one thing straight: Luzhkov was a dirty crook. And so is the interim Mayor. Today’s New York Times grandly muses about the ‘two sides’ of Luzhkov – the top city manager who turned Moscow from a “trash-strewn” dump to a “humming megalopolis of skyscrapers, luxury boutiques and […]
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