Asia

My column is just out in Truthdig, entitled “Wrong Again, Sen. Graham,” on the South Carolina senator’s modest proposal to keep two big American air bases in Afghanistan “permanently.” Graham says the bases would keep Afghanistan from being taken back over by the Taliban. But is that anyway an actual prospect? And wouldn’t the bases […]

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is getting weaker over time, and the Taliban are getting stronger, according to Jessica Mathews, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Matthews says that there will be a lull in the winter, but insurgent operations will pick up in the spring. As NATO allies draw down (many have announced […]

Taliban or other radicals showed Sunday that they could strike far from their strongholds in the south and east of Afghanistan. They hit the capital, Kabul, as well as the northern province of Qunduz. The radicals derive from the Pashtun ethnic group, which is a minority in both places. On Sunday morning in Afghanistan, two […]