If we are able to recognize that US foreign policy in respect to instability in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India is irrational due to the absence of a ‘necessary but not sufficient’ condition – bolstering of Pakistan’s strategic advantages over India – then the easy part is done. Crafting a foreign policy that addresses this contingent […]
Nicholas Kristof’s recent op-ed in the New York Times highlighted Richard Holbrooke’s concern for the declining relationship between the US and Pakistan and, essentially, pronounced the need for America not to forsake Pakistan, as tumultuous as relations may be. Pakistan, without question, is grappling with a litany of issues: rampant poverty and natural disasters; protection of minorities […]
The Asia Society last week released what it calls a unique sixty-one page report Pakistan 2020: A vision for Building a Better Future in New York and Washington DC. The report has endeavored to look at Pakistan from multiple lenses rather than solely focusing on the country’s security issues. A team of around thirty American […]
President Obama’s first move in his speech at the State Department on U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East was to address directly and immediately the hunt for and death of Osama bin Laden. He argued, forcefully, that bin Laden was not a martyr. Indeed he was anything but. The president reminded his domestic and international […]
Did the US get away clean? Almost. As close to it, maybe, as Fate allows. For the past few days, another story, a sidebar to the bigger report, has been gaining steam: one of the Stealth Blackhawks used to invade the bin Laden compound crashed as a result of a ‘hard landing.’ An accident. No matter. It turns out that the Stealth Helicopters used to transport the Navy SEALs are “never-before-seen,” state-of-the-art military technology, composed of carbon fibers that resist standard detection by the enemy. Cutting edge, top-secret, and not available to the world.
Last week the U.S. ‘took out’ Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. As an American, I cannot help but have a visceral reaction of delight. Such a major blow will surely expedite the end of ‘the war on terror’. Whatever your opinion is of that endeavor, we can all be relieved by its conclusion. If […]
I have recently written about TAPI, the 1,680 km (1,000 mile) $7.6 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India proposed pipeline scheduled for completion in 2016 with a capacity to transfer 90 million cubic meters of gas per day to energy starved South Asia. According to the TAPI agreement, Turkmenistan will supply 38 mmcmd each going to Pakistan and India, […]
The U.S. operation that led to the killing of Al-Qadea leader Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad earlier this week has stirred a hornet’s nest. While details of the operation continue to pour in each day, the sentiment that “Pakistan has some explaining to do” is gaining force. Pakistan’s Ambassador to U.S. Husain Haqqani, has appeared […]
Just like the United States, India too has a host of enemies who have taken shelter or been given sanctuary deep inside Pakistan. So how likely is it that New Delhi could pull off a daring commando assault against them? The short answer is not at all.
But let’s talk about bin Laden. The first notion we can discard is that the US pulled this feat off alone–that our intelligence and military capabilities allowed a convoy of Blackhawk helicopters carrying teams of Navy Seals, along with gunships (loaded with 100+ Army Rangers or Marines) flying defense above the Blackhawks, to penetrate, probably from Afghanistan, 100 miles or more into Pakistan’s airspace to one of the country’s most heavily guarded locations (Pakistan’s ‘West Point’) without detection by Pakistan’s intelligence/ military forces or without encountering Pakistani fighter jets.
Bin Ladin is dead. Again. In the last ten years he has been reported “killed” at least four times. The only difference this time was that the President of the United States announced the death of the number one terrorist in the world. Above all, this time he was killed not in Tora Bora, not […]
AFGHANISTAN: ALREADY AT UNEASE FOR POST-WAR Afghanistan may be one place, where its people have legitimate worries after the elimination of one of the strongest points of the U.S. war on terror. Now that the “terrorist” is gone, the war might be shortened, making the Afghan lands abandoned once again. No surprise that there were […]
The location of Osama’s death underlines the work required on Pakistan After a decade of anxiety, fear and anticipation, the friends and families of the victims of 9/11 have finally received closure. Osama bin Laden was killed in his hideout in Abbottabad in Pakistan through a special operation by US forces in the wee hours […]
Zainab Jeewanjee comments on America’s killing of Osama bin Laden. She describes a resilient, rejuvenated United States that has an opportunity to foster new relationships with our allies, namely Pakistan.
President Obama is about to address the nation and declare that U.S troops have killed Osama Bin Laden, and that the U.S military is in possession of his body. The most wanted man in the world, responsible for the attacks on American soil on September 11, 2001 is now dead. The man whose actions led […]