South Asia

(By Rebecca Gordon) The US military involvement in Iraq has more or less ended, and the war in Afghanistan is limping to a conclusion. Yet leaks of Senate torture reports about actions in 2002 to 2006 are still breaking news. Don’t the problems of torture really belong to the bad old days of an earlier […]

Afghanistan

Obama and David Brooks’s Manhood Problem

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) David Brooks attacked President Obama on Sunday, saying: “Basically since Yalta we’ve had an assumption that borders are basically going to be borders, and once that comes into question, if in Ukraine or in Crimea or anywhere else, then all over the world … all bets are off . . .” … […]

Afghanistan

An Int’l Trail of Death and Heartbreak: How the Bush Wars came home with the Vets

Juan Cole

(By Ann Jones) After an argument about a leave denied, Specialist Ivan Lopez pulled out a .45-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun and began a shooting spree at Fort Hood, America’s biggest stateside base, that left three soldiers dead and 16 wounded. When he did so, he also pulled America’s fading wars out of the closet. […]

FATA

5 Ways Nevada Rancher Militia Resembles Pakistan’s Taliban

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) 1. Federal versus local control of land Pakistan The Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) of Pakistan is ruled directly from the capital, Islamabad, rather than having an elected provincial government or legislature. The local tribes such as Mehsud, from which the Taliban are recruited, want more local autonomy. Nevada The Federal government […]

Climate Change

Global Solar Power generation Increased by 1/3 In 2013 Alone (with Charts)

Juan Cole

With about 37,007 megawatts (MW) of solar PV power installed in 2013, world solar PV power capacity increased about 35% to 136,697 MW. Whereas Europe had dominated annual growth for years up until 2013 (10 years, to be precise), solar PV growth was…

Bangladesh

Save Bangladesh & you Save the World: Give Green Energy aid to Developing Nations of Global South

Juan Cole

(By Paul Rogers) Recent examples of short-term climate disruption have done much to bring the overall issue of climate change up the political agenda. In responding to what will be one of the key challenges of the next decades – well beyond the 15-year lifetime of the post-2015 global development goals currently under discussion – […]

Drones

#Notabugsplat: Artists erect a giant portrait of drone victim for pilots (+ Vice Video)

Juan Cole

(By Eric Stoner) A portrait of a drone victim in Pakistan as seen from a drone. (notabugsplat.com) In a brilliant creative action, an art collective with the help of enthusiastic locals unfurled an enormous poster in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of a young girl who lost her parents and two younger siblings to a drone […]

Afghanistan

Top 7 Surprising pieces of Good news in Afghanistan Presidential Election

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) Afghanistan went to the polls on Saturday, despite threats by the Taliban to disrupt the elections and calls by the extremists for Afghans to boycott the vote. As it turns out, the elections appear to have been a success, despite many problems (including a last-minute shortage of ballots as more voters showed […]

Afghanistan

Will electoral Fraud undermine Afghanistan’s new President?

Juan Cole

(By Djeyhoun Ostowar) War-torn Afghanistan does not possess a civil registry. It therefore lacks reliable statistics. Given widespread corruption, the absence of an identification system and the high security risk of voting, is mass-election fraud a necessary and acceptable price for peace? On April 5, the Afghan people will vote in the country’s presidential elections, […]