Archives for 2009

Aljazeera English reviews the first hundred days of Obama’s policies in Afghanistan. The The NYT explains that Obama is readying a major US military push to cut the neo-Taliban off from their funding sources in the poppy trade. The problem is that a) the Taliban are probably being bankrolled by Gulf millionaires to some extent, […]

AP reports that two car bombs ripped through a commercial district in Shiite East Baghdad (Sadr City) on Wednesday evening, killing at least 41 persons and wounding 68. McClatchy challenges President Obama’s assertion that violence is way down since last year. McClatchy figures show 200 killed in Baghdad alone in April, compared to 99 in […]

Brian Cloughley writes in a guest op-ed for IC: Pakistan’s army continues to face challenges, not the least of which is the growing insurrection by Taliban and Taliban-supporting tribesmen in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) abutting Afghanistan. There has of late been much international criticism of the army for allegedly failing to take action […]

The Pakistani military parachuted soldiers Tuesday into Buner, in the Malakand district of the North-West Frontier Province, to take on the estimated 500 militants who had made a bid to take over Buner. From all accounts, the Pakistani government of Asaf Ali Zardari does not think what happens in Buner is actually very important. But […]

The hundred day benchmark for journalists sizing up a new administration is probably inappropriate on foreign affairs, which are complicated and move slowly. Still, we can assess the changes in approach and tone between the Obama administration and its predecessor this winter and spring, to try to get a sense of where things are going. […]

AP reports that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has denounced a US raid in Kut as a violation of the security agreement between Washington and Baghdad. WaPo goes further and says that al-Maliki is actually calling for the troops involved to be prosecuted in Iraqi courts. The US said its troops were targeting a major funder […]

Readers have written me asking what I think of the rash of almost apocalyptic pronouncements on the security situation in Pakistan issuing from the New York Times, The Telegraph, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in recent days. And Stephen Walt also is asking why there are such varying assessments of Pakistan’s security prospects. He […]

The NYT reports that behind the scenes the US has been pressuring Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to find a way to reconcile with former Baathist elements, but that he has refused. Actually the Arab press has been reporting for some time on this issue. From the point of view of an Iraqi government dominated by […]

Update: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Baghdad Saturday morning on a mission to assess the reasons for the recent rise in large-scale bombings. Two suicide bombers killed 60 persons and wounded 125 outside the shrine of Imam Musa al-Kazim in northern Baghdad on Friday, in an attack that is much more dangerous than […]