A Pakistani Awakening?
Some interesting news out of the Swat Valley yesterday:
TOTANA BANDAI: When a posse of Taliban fighters entered a mosque in this village during evening prayers last week to demand the allegiance of the congregation, long-suffering locals decided they had enough.
The villagers, of whom a majority had only just returned to their homes following the conclusion of major military […]
Afghan Orphans Show Off Artistry
My friend Natalie Carney is in Kabul doing a documentary on Afghan orphans. And although I’ve seen it many times, I’m always blown away by the sheer resilience of kids in war zones. The urge and ability to be a kid — to play, to smile, to escape a lot of the shit of their everyday lives — […]
Afghanistan : Vietnam as … ?
A good friend of mine who asked to remain anonymous, but who is very smart and wise on such things, quibbled with my Vietnam analogy. With his kind permission, it is reprinted below:
A good post, though I have to offer one quibble: I hold that all comparisons of Afghanistan to Vietnam are de facto false without there […]
Afghan Elections: What's Obama to Do?
Dexter Filkins and Carlotta Gall of the New York Times have a thoroughly dispiriting story today.
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghans loyal to President Hamid Karzai set up hundreds of fictitious polling sites where no one voted but where hundreds of thousands of ballots were still recorded toward the president’s re-election, according to senior Western and Afghan officials here.
The […]
Pakistan: Show us the money!
This is a non-starter for D.C., I reckon:
Shaukat Tarin, Pakistan’s finance minister, has urged the US to channel its assistance through Pakistani agencies instead to save on high intermediation costs incurred by US counterparts. …
“Whatever aid [the US is] giving must have full impact on the ground which is why they should route as much of this […]
Why Pakistan's Delaying its Waziristan Push
Well, not to say I told you so, but …
Pakistan will need months to prepare for a ground offensive against the Taliban in their South Waziristan stronghold on the Afghan border, a senior army commander said on Tuesday, citing equipment shortages.
…
“It’s going to take months,” and possibly beyond the coming winter, [Lt. Gen. Nadeem] Ahmed said, when asked how long […]
'The more troops they send, the more targets we have'
My friend Ghaith Abdul-Ahad has a crackerjack story in today’s Guardian on the Afghanistan Taliban. Yes, there have been other “Inside the Taliban” stories, but Ghaith is a ballsy guy and managed to hook up with fighters from the Haqqani network. The details of the story stand out, such as this note about how the fighters avoid […]
The Iraqi Endgame: A Podcast
So the other day I did a podcast interview with the International Relations and Security Network, based in Zurich. The very nice interviewer, Kaisa Schreck, asked some pointed questions and I hope I was able to draw upon my experience in Iraq to give some insightful answers. I’ll let you be the judge, however. You can listen to the […]
"It was always a bad year to get out of Vietnam"
Compare and contrast:
Obama’s Vietnam: “Vietnam analogies can be tiresome. To critics, especially those on the left, all American interventions after Vietnam have been potential “quagmires.” But sometimes clichés come true, and, especially lately, it seems that the war in Afghanistan is shaping up in all-too-familiar ways. The parallels are disturbing: the president, eager to show […]
Kerry-Lugar’s First Victim
Posted by Christopher Allbritton on October 12, 2009 at 6:58 pm +0000 · 1 Comment
If true, this is total bullshit:
After strong criticism on the Kerry-Lugar bill in Pakistan, the government has decided to replace Pakistan’s ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani and the announcement in this respect is expected within the next two days.
There’s nothing in the bill reasonable Pakistanis should object to, but blatant demagoguery has apparently won the […]
Filed under Commentary, Featured, Pakistan, Politics · Tagged with Demogogues, Kerry-Lugar, Overreaction, Pakistan, Politics