On the road of being a journalist, there is one important lesson I have learned–never abandon your notebook. By notebook, I mean reporter’s notebook–those kind that are long and skinny and allow you to flip the pages as you furiously take notes. For a journalist in the digital age, this might seem an archaic way […]
Why are we trying to secure the ‘large population centers’ in a country that is overwhelmingly rural? Unless we’re now defining population centers as “villages with a few thousand people”, a population centric strategy focused on urban centers, in a rural country is, well, not going to work. Victor Sebestyen, in today’s New York Times, […]
Following on the heels of the Indo-US joint military exercise, Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony said that there is no possibility of Indian military involvement in Afghanistan. Though the joint military exercise was aimed at the study of counter-terrorism efforts and peace-keeping operations, the Indian Defense Minister categorically denied any intention of sending troops to […]
The announcement that Abdullah Abdullah and Hamid Karzai are not interested in a coalition government after the Afghan Presidential run-off is, in fact, not bad news. There’s no reason why a power-sharing agreement would make Afghanistan’s political system more stable, as both Karzai and Abdullah are aligned with the United States. The problems are more […]
1) The Congress Party’s hold on India, and its determination to protect (censor?) the legacies of its leaders, is examined here. 2) Some wealthy Germans want a bigger tax burden. 3) A horrific weapon is being used in the now fifteen year struggle in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. (I’ve never quite understood […]
Dexter Filkins’ recent NYTimes magazine piece is lengthy but worth reading. Filkins, a veteran war correspondent for the NYTimes, is adept at story-telling and doesn’t disappoint in this article. With his familiar, almost folksy, tone of writing, Filkins draws a vivid picture of the American war in Afghanistan: “The Marines around McChrystal, including the local […]
This is smart analysis. The obsession with the idea of an Afghan surge just doesn’t make sense to me. Why are we focusing on the major urban areas in Afghanistan, when 3/4 of the population lives in rural areas? Safe haven myths aside, wouldn’t an ‘urban’-centric COIN policy leave basically the vast majority of Aghanistan […]
As I hinted at in my last post, the spate of violence in Pakistan can actually be seen as a good thing (the wanton death and destruction aside). This piece in today’s New York Times demonstrates that Pakistan is facing the prospect that “the Taliban, Al Qaeda and militant groups once nurtured by the government […]
The War on Terror marks challenging times for Pakistan. With this weeks military incursion into northern areas to combat terrorism, increasing drone attacks, suicide bombings and a crippled economy, cooperation in our war on terror looks increasingly domestic for Pakistan.
Not to be missed on tonight’s Frontline–the newest from correspondent Martin Smith and RAINmedia on the war in Afghanistan. “Obama’s War” airs on Frontline on Tuesday, October 13 at 9pm on PBS (check local listings). According to RAINmedia: “Three years ago, a small cadre of US army officers huddled at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to re-write […]
The Obama Administration after deliberation, surge in troops and General McChrystal’s advice, is differentiating between the Al Qaeda and Taliban threat. The focus in the strategy in Afghanistan will now be on eradicating Al Qaeda.
This article by David Axe, Malou Innocent, and Jason Reich at Foreign Policy is pretty much* spot on. The Taliban, either Afghan or Pakistani, are not a security threat to America on their own—they have neither the capacity nor the will to strike at American interests. But al-Qaeda has proven itself capable of accomplishing horrific […]
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