با دوستان هایی از این دشمنان ما نیاز ندارد. The meeting between Pakistan’s ‘super anchors’ and Hillary Clinton was, well, disastrous, not for America or Clinton, but for these talk show hosts. Hillary was calm, controlled, measured and she answered all sorts of questions thoroughly and intelligently. And unlike most of the panel, she was […]
Musharaff gives an interview using unkind words for Zardari and Ch. Nisar defends Zardari. Really? Ch. Nisar has two passions (if you read what he has been saying after he became the opposition leader): attacking every Zardari and attacking everything America. Therefore, it was very strange to read that Ch. Nisar huffed and puffed about […]
Zainab Jeewanjee covers Fareed Zakaria’s interview of General Musharraf on CNN’s show GPS. Musharraf talks to Zakaria about the Pakistan army’s role in defeating terrorism and whether Pakistan truly has an interest in defeating cross border terrorism in Afghanistan given that the situation is rooted in a ’60 year old geopolitical rivalry at play between India and Pakistan” .
Now that our quiet and uncomfortable introductions are out of the way, I’d like to point to another article that follows up on the one I wrote about yesterday. The Daily Star reports that : “The Detective Branch of police produced Mufti Harun Izahar, son of Islami Oikya Jote leader Mufti Izaharul Islam, Shahidul Islam […]
I look at the news of the day as either a sign or a signal. A sign is a piece or stream of data that serve as declarative propositions about the world. Signs describe the world contemporaneously, as true or false through argument, news, video, photographs or–for that matter– blog posts. Signs carry no prescriptions […]
1) Two female teachers were gunned down in northwest Pakistan. This is, obviously, an abhorrent crime, and the United States should do what it can to promote the rights of women in AfPak. But women’s rights alone are not a sufficient reason to continue the military effort there. 2) Croatia’s bid to join the EU […]
Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has been very visible lately. First, she publicly expressed frustration that al-Qaeda militants have been allowed a sanctuary inside Pakistan, along the border with Afghanistan. This vocal admonition surprised many Pakistani officials, but they really shouldn’t be surprised. Pakistan continues to play a two-way game with the United States on […]
This is “Upgrade Your Electric” week for the Obama Administration. First, the President announced a $3.4 billion upgrade for the US electric power grid. Then yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the State Department had decided to help Pakistan upgrade its electricity to prevent the frequent outages. These electricity problems, according to the […]
Following on the heels of the Indo-US joint military exercise, Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony said that there is no possibility of Indian military involvement in Afghanistan. Though the joint military exercise was aimed at the study of counter-terrorism efforts and peace-keeping operations, the Indian Defense Minister categorically denied any intention of sending troops to […]
US-India conduct two week joint military exercise. A sign of strengthening ties the joint exercise (YudhAbhyas) consisted of the Mechanised Infantry Battalion of the Indian Army and Second Squadron of 14th Cavalry Regiment of 25 Stryker Brigade Combat Team. The two countries shared experiences in peace keeping operations and also humanitarian work during disaster relief […]
Iranians have once again taken to the streets in Tehran. But this time, instead of hearing slogans fulminating against the government, you hear people mourning the deaths of their loved ones in Sunday’s suicide attack in southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan. Here is an Al-Jazeera report on how Iranians are coping with the suicide attack that killed at […]
Finally, the operation in Wazristan is under way, thank God. Pakistan is doing a good job of clearing every place that was a safe heaven for the nuts in and around Pakistan. Now, policy makers in Pakistan should not focus on achieving short term military objective. This war is not going to be easy and […]
The terrorist attacked that killed more than 42 people, including 11 commanders of Iran’s elite Islamic Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, is being blamed on Pakistan. Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has accused Pakistan of having links to the bombers who carried out a suicide attack. President Ahmadinejad is quoted as saying that he knew “some security agents […]
A BBC article documents Pakistani citizens who support a military offensive to take out terrorists. Citizens of Pakistan increasingly suffer the brunt of terrorism since 9/11 as a spillover of militants from Afghanistan found their way to the northern areas. In addition to our strategic interests, America should take into account the grave human element of suffering that our allies face in cooperating with our efforts in the War on Terror.
This is smart analysis. The obsession with the idea of an Afghan surge just doesn’t make sense to me. Why are we focusing on the major urban areas in Afghanistan, when 3/4 of the population lives in rural areas? Safe haven myths aside, wouldn’t an ‘urban’-centric COIN policy leave basically the vast majority of Aghanistan […]