Vladimir Putin “We discussed this important issue yesterday over a beer...”
Barack OBAMA “You know, my faith is one that admits some doubt...”
By Chris McGreal and Jon Boone: Barack Obama rejected calls to abandon his Afghan war strategy and either offer an open-ended commitment to US troops fighting there or start withdrawing immediately, after his dismissal of the US and Nato commander in Kabul, General Stanley McChrystal. Leading Republican politicians and the former American secretary of state [...]
By Robert Parry: If there is one overriding consensus among Washington opinion leaders today, it is that Gen. David Petraeus is the perfect choice to turn around the failing war in Afghanistan because he supposedly already achieved such a feat in Iraq. But what if that conventional wisdom is wrong? What if Petraeus’s takeover in [...]
By George Friedman: The Afghan War is the longest war in U.S. history. It began in 1980 and continues to rage. It began under Democrats but has been fought under both Republican and Democratic administrations, making it truly a bipartisan war. The conflict is an odd obsession of U.S. foreign policy, one that never goes [...]
By Patrick Cockburn: General David Petraeus has a high reputation but his real abilities are not the ones usually attributed to him. He is, above all, a general with an acute sense of US politics combined with a realization of the importance of understanding the politics of Iraq and Afghanistan. His great achievement in Iraq [...]
By Nikolas Gvosdev: Are the deck chairs being reshuffled on the Titanic that is the Afghan war? First, Afghan President Hamid Karzai forced the resignations of his interior minister, Hanif Atmar, and the head of his intelligence services, Amrullah Saleh. Next, the U.K. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Sherard Cowper-Coles, went on indefinite leave, [...]
By a Special Correspondent: Iran has stuck to the core elements of the controversy over its standoff with the West in delivering its riposte to United Nations sanctions, banning two UN inspectors from visiting nuclear installations. The retaliatory move against the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reflected Tehran’s anger over measures designed to tighten the [...]
By Benjamin Bidder and Matthias Schepp: Kyrgyzstan was once seen as a model of democracy in Central Asia. Now it appears to have become ungovernable, with tens of thousands of residents fleeing the country after deadly ethnic clashes. Is this the end of democracy in the region? Young Uzbeks, Tajiks, Turkmen and Kyrgyzs study at [...]
The Economist A plaintive siren wails as a government unit, invisible in the darkness, patrols. “We will shoot anyone on the streets. Military curfew! Do not leave your homes”, comes the clipped command in Russian over the loudspeaker. A round of tank-artillery fire rings out. A machinegun crackles a response. This is “calm”, of a [...]
By Zahid U Kramet: A report by the London School of Economics charging that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence still has strong ties to the Afghan Taliban has drawn a swift and angry response from Islamabad – and even the Taliban. The issue goes to the heart of the complex relationship between Pakistan and bitter neighbor India [...]
By Mahir Ali: The vehement denials that have lately been pouring out of Islamabad with reference to Matt Waldman’s controversial discussion paper on the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate’s embroilment with the Afghan Taliban offer little cause for surprise. Even a relatively milder indictment of the ISI’s role in Afghanistan would have been greeted with a [...]
MOROCCO: 20th February “Movement of change”
Pakistan all set to start with a win against Kenya
TTP releases video of Colonel Imam’s killing
Immediate military withdrawal ordered in Bahrain
40 UK arms export licenses revoked for Bahrain
Bahrain sets up “Unity Alliance” amid violent uprisings:
Dark clouds hover over Pakistan amid internal and external pressure