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 […]

Three Anti-Taliban Tribal Elders Killed in Pakistan

Three anti-Taliban tribal elders were among six killed in a sui­cide bomb­ing and gun attack in north­west Pak­istan, The News Inter­na­tional reported Aug. 13, cit­ing offi­cials. Malik Khadeen died when a bomber strapped with explo­sives rammed a motor­bike into Khadeen’s vehi­cle. Khadeen was a pri­mary anti-Taliban facil­i­ta­tor. Regard­ing the gun attack that killed two tribal elders: “We think Taliban […]

Iraq: Two Suicide Bombers Kill 17, Wound 20

At least 17 peo­ple were killed and 20 wounded by two sui­cide bombers Aug. 13 in a cafe in the town of Sin­jar, about 240 miles north­west of Bagh­dad, the BBC reported, cit­ing local police offi­cials.
via Iraq: Two Sui­cide Bombers Kill 17, Wound 20 | STRATFOR.

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 […]

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

If you’re a reg­u­lar reader, you’ve no doubt noticed that I’ve put a new coat of paint on the place and spiffed it up a bit. The new design you’re read­ing now will (hope­fully) make it eas­ier to dis­cover older mate­r­ial while mak­ing the new stuff more front-and-center. I’ve also added a num­ber of news feeds so you can […]

Stratfor: Mehsud's Death Confirmed

From Strat­for:
Pak­istani Intel­li­gence sources have con­firmed Bait­ul­lah Mehsud’s death, Pak­istani For­eign Min­is­ter Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Aug. 7, Dawn News reported. Bait­ul­lah Mehsud, the leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pak­istan (TTP) insur­gent group, along with one of his wives and six body­guards were killed in a mis­sile attack Aug. 5. Reuters reported that the TTP lead­er­ship called […]

Baitullah Mehsud May Be Dead

ISLAM­ABAD — If con­firmed, this would be a huge vic­tory in the fight against tak­firi mil­i­tants in Pak­istan:
U.S. and Pak­istani author­i­ties were inves­ti­gat­ing whether Pak­istani Tal­iban chief Bait­ul­lah Mehsud, who has led a vio­lent cam­paign of sui­cide attacks and assas­si­na­tions against Pakistan’s gov­ern­ment, was killed in a CIA mis­sile strike.
A Pak­istani offi­cial said Fri­day that reports of the militant […]

"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 […]

The Kids Are All Right

Current.com has an inter­est­ing (if a bit old) video short on the youth cul­ture of Karachi, Pak­istan. It’s def­i­nitely worth a look. As an aside, I’ve found sim­i­lar stir­rings of a vibrant youth cul­ture here in Islam­abad, which I will be writ­ing more on in the future.

Baitullah Mehsud Rival Gunned Down

ISLAM­ABAD — Hoo, boy, talk about Pro­pa­ganda of the Deed. Early this morn­ing, Qar’i Zain­ud­din Mehsud, who just days ago spoke out pub­licly against Tehrik-i-Taliban Pak­istan (TTP) leader, Bait­ul­lah Mehsud, was shot dead by his own body­guard. AfPax Insider had a scoop in wait, with a 14-minute inter­view with the old jihadist, who had decided that his […]

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