And people are still dying there. The fallout from the invasion has definitely not run its entire course yet.
And people are still dying there. The fallout from the invasion has definitely not run its entire course yet.
A recent Facebook video has documented prisoner abuse by the Pakistani Army. This, needless to say, will not help Pakistan’s efforts to stem its Taliban insurgency in the Northwest Frontier Province, nor will it help America’s mission in the region. Regardless of the morality of torturing and abusing prisoners of war (and, to put it […]
Meet the new generation of voters—same as the old generation. A British study has concluded that half of all babies born in wealthy countries will live to be 100 years old. This is certainly a good thing—more of the most fleeting resource humanity has (time) is nothing to play down. But for countries with long […]
Sovereign risk in Turkey was once talked about in the same breath as Brazil’s. Not so anymore. One is going hat in hand to the IMF, likely to get $45 billion in the coming weeks; the other is largely self-financing. What went wrong in Turkey? Always keep your eye on the current account deficit, folks, even when […]
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 […]
Saudi Arabia has opened a university where both women and men are allowed to attend and mix together. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it certainly is. Social attitudes in the conservative kingdom are some of the most repressive in the world, and women’s rights are few and far between. Women will be […]
The manufacturer that makes the popular—ubiquitous—Kalashnikov rifle is filing for bankruptcy. The problem is that the Soviet Union granted basically any socialist country a license to produce the assault rifle in order to make “freeing the people” easier. After the Soviet Union fell, the licenses were effectively null. Except everybody kept making the guns. Most […]
Pakistan has a lot of problems. (How’s that for an understated opening?) One of the major problems in the country, however, is the lack of credible state institutions. In fact, the only state institution that is universally recognized and respected is the Pakistani Army. So it comes as a bit of good news that the […]
In an aspect of parliamentary politics that many Americans simply can’t understand, Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) performed worse in general elections than they did four years ago—but this time, get to form their preferred coalition government. The Free Democratic Party (FDP) bested its 2005 total by nearly fifty percent, jumping to 14.5 percent of […]
The Telegraph reported two days ago an absolutely absurd story about the movie actress Julia Roberts and the shooting of the new film, “Eat, Pray, Love.” Apparently, Roberts managed to prevent villagers from celebrating the religious rites of Navratri by closing a local temple to the public and placing 350 guards in front and inside. […]
General Stanley McChrystal’s request for more troops is, of course, expected. Military commanders are always going to want more resources to utilize, regardless of whether they know how to use them or not (McChrystal’s insistence on a population-centric strategy in rural Afghanistan seems to make little sense). As reported in today’s New York Times, President […]
Kigali is nearing completion of a link to an underseas fiber optic Internet connection, reports the BBC. This is a big development for Rwanda, and the greater region. President Paul Kagame—a leader of the Tutsi rebels that drove the genocidal Hutu militias (and their government sponsors) out of the country—is making an effort to turn […]
Embedded video from CNN Video Fareed Zakaria interviewed Russian President Dmitry Medvedev about his relationship (or rivalry) with Vladimir Putin, Russia’s ties with the United States, Iran’s nuclear program, politics and the economy. Recently, Medvedev penned a piece arguing that “an inefficient economy, semi-Soviet social sphere, fragile democracy, negative demographic trends, and unstable Caucasus represent […]
General Stanley McChrystal, the Obama Administration’s guy in South Asia, has warned that without more troops the war in Afghanistan “will likely fail”, reports the Washington Post. President Barack Obama, not surprisingly, is worried about becoming embroiled in an escalating situation, where victory only requires an ever-increasing number of ‘just a few more (thousands) troops”. […]
A month ago a new wave of fighting started between Yemen’s government forces and rebel Shi’ite Muslims. According to Reuters/Alert Net, the conflict has spread and the plight of civilians is at “alarming levels.” The most recent fighting has been on-going for five years, displacing about 150,000 people. The government argues that the Houthi rebels […]