Ahmed Rashid:
[...] Pakistan is far less resilient than it was a few years ago. Even as Pakistani officials bluntly criticize Holbrooke for linking Afghanistan and Pakistan in his ‘AfPak’ strategy, some Pakistanis already see a chronic ‘Afghanization’ of their nation. Current realities include a collapse of law and order in parts of the country, state [...]
Archive for the ‘Afghanistan’ Category
‘American Departure Would Seal the Region’s Fate’
Posted in Afghanistan, Pakistan on October 23, 2009 | 7 Comments »
Department of Tasting One’s Own Medicine: Pakistan Urges NATO to ‘Seal the Border’
Posted in Afghanistan, Pakistan on October 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
You gotta be kidding me:
As government forces pressed ahead with the Waziristan offensive, the military called on the NATO troops in Afghanistan to seal the border ‘to prevent cross-border movement and flow of weapons.’
Pakistan Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC) Chairman General Tariq Majid made the call during talks with Britain’s Chief of Defence Staff, [...]
Afghanistan: Important Or Not?
Posted in Afghanistan, Pakistan on September 28, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Some great stuff I don’t have time to comment on right now (am putting the finishing touches on a story about a Finnish ISAF soldier wounded by friendly fire in 2006):
In the September issue of the CTC Sentinel, Anne Stenersen examines why the Afghan Taliban are unlikely to attack targets in the West. Food for [...]
Afghanistan: The Limits of CT
Posted in Afghanistan on September 24, 2009 | 2 Comments »
I’ve poked fun at Fred and Kimberly Kagan many times in the past, so when they actually come up with something worth our attention, I feel I owe them a nod. Say what you will about the conclusions of their new PowerPoint on Afghanistan, you have to admit they do get down to specifics. For [...]
Afghanistan: Why South Asia Matters
Posted in Afghanistan, Pakistan on September 23, 2009 | 4 Comments »
I’ve been a fan of Steve Coll’s ever since we both covered South Asia in the early 90s, so needless to say, I feel somewhat… what’s that nice English word… vindicated by this:
The United States has a deep interest in the emergence of a stable, modernizing, economically integrated, peaceful South Asia—by which I mean the [...]
Afghanistan: The Fallacy of the ‘Safe Haven Fallacy’
Posted in Afghanistan on September 16, 2009 | 16 Comments »
Oh please, not this again:
The preparations most important to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks took place not in training camps in Afghanistan but, rather, in apartments in Germany, hotel rooms in Spain and flight schools in the United States.
This meme of Afghanistan actually, really, truly not being so relevant to 9/11 has been doing the [...]
Afghanistan Debate: Area Experts Missing in Action
Posted in Afghanistan on September 16, 2009 | 5 Comments »
A group of American foreign policy scholars and activists has written a letter to President Barack Obama, urging him to re-focus the U.S. mission in Afghanistan “more clearly on al Qaeda instead of expanding the mission into an ambitious experiment in state building”:
[...] We are concerned that the war in Afghanistan is growing increasingly detached [...]
Afghanistan: Answering Finel’s 10 Questions
Posted in Afghanistan, Pakistan on September 8, 2009 | 2 Comments »
In his FP article ”Doubting Afghanistan”, Bernard Finel puts forward 10 questions he believes one must be able to “convincingly answer” to make “a compelling case” for bolstering the Western military commitment in Afghanistan.
To be precise, there are seven questions and three strawmen. And some of the questions come close to being… well, outright inane, [...]
Breaking: Taliban Declared Winners in Afghan Election
Posted in Afghanistan on August 28, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Reuters:
Afghanistan’s Electoral Complaints Commission has received more than 2,000 complaints of fraud or abuse in last week’s disputed presidential election, with 270 now listed as serious enough to affect the result, it said Friday.
Breaking: Finnish Blogger Nibbled to Death by Fellow Doves
Posted in Afghanistan, Pakistan on August 24, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Matthew Yglesias thinks I’m overestimating the Taliban:
Seriously, however high ‘toppling the Pakistani government’ may be on the Taliban to-do list, it’s still, you know, hard. Indeed, it’s worth emphasizing that on both sides of the border there are actual human beings living and fighting against the Taliban who would continue to resist Taliban domination of [...]
