South Asia

In this excellent Dawn article, rock musician Salman Ahmad of Junun explains why it is a great good thing that Usama Bin Laden was taken out. Ahmad, who favors the mystical, often tolerant, Sufi form of Islam, said that few individuals in the past 1400 years had wrought as much destruction on Islam as Bin […]

Afghanistan

Taliban, al-Qaeda Flee N. Afghanistan as Morale Collapses with al-Qaeda admission of Bin Laden’s Death

Juan Cole

While Usamah Bin Laden’s passing will not destroy al-Qaeda altogether, it is a horrible blow to their morale, despite the bravado in al-Qaeda’s message acknowledging Bin Laden’s death at American hands. (By the way, for those who insisted that President Obama had to release the photos of Bin Laden’s corpse for the reality of his […]

Pakistan

Pakistani Military between Rock and Hard Place

Juan Cole

One of the reasons for which Pakistan’s military is so incensed about the unannounced US raid into Pakistan territory is that they are afraid the operation might form a precedent that could be exploited by India. Indeed, Pakistani generals thought that the SEALs were an Indian special ops team that had inserted itself at Abbottabad. […]

Afghanistan

Casio Watches an Arresting Offense in Afghanistan: Wikileaks on Guantanamo

Juan Cole

Wikileaks has released the Pentagon assessments of nearly 800 suspected al-Qaeda prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay to newspapers such as the Washington Post. The documents show that some of the prisoners were likely dangerous men, while many others were probably arrested on flimsy evidence or even out of stupidity. Wearing a Casio watch could be […]

India

Japan Nuclear Woes Galvanize Indian Protests

Juan Cole

Indian peasants in Maharashtra are protesting plans to build a nuclear plant on an earthquake fault at Jaitapur. India has an ambitious set of plans to build 21 further nuclear reactors. The peasants were already worried, but the partial melt-down at the Fukushima plant in Japan, and especially the venting of radioactive water into the […]

Afghanistan

Afghan Protests against Qur’an-Burning cause Deaths

Juan Cole

Some 2000 protesters came out in Qandahar on Friday, meeting police fire that left 9 dead and 73 injured, when they protested the burning of the Qur’an, the Muslim holy book, by a crazed American pastor. In the northern city of Mazar-i Sharif, thousands demonstrated, and a mob attacked a UN outpost and killed 5, […]

Afghanistan

Clueless in the District of Columbia (Engelhardt)

Juan Cole

I was thinking that in light of the labor and youth revolutions of 2011, Washington’s focus on Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan in the past two decades seems increasingly odd, like a set of fixations. They originated in the Cold War and in a frantic attempt to keep petroleum inexpensive so that alternative energy did […]

Afghanistan

The US Corruption Game – Cole in Tomdispatch

Juan Cole

My essay, “The Corruption Game: What the Tunisian Revolution and WikiLeaks Tell Us about American Support for Corrupt Dictatorships in the Muslim World is up at The Nation Institute’s Tomdispatch. Excerpt: In July of 2009, for instance, the U.S. ambassador dined with Nesrine Ben Ali el-Materi and Sakher el-Materi, the president’s daughter and son-in-law, at […]

Afghanistan

Olbermann Departs, as Media Consolidate Further

Juan Cole

People are blaming the abrupt departure of Keith Olbermann from MSNBC on that company’s merger with Comcast and Olbermann’s loss of the protection and patronage of Jeff Zucker, the former head of NBC programming. MSNBC says that the issue has nothing to do with Comcast. It seems Olbermann is too extreme for US television. But […]