South Asia

Dawn is breaking the news that some of the attackers behind the massive explosion on Thursday night at a Sindh Crime Investigation Department building in Karachi, which killed 18 and wounded 100, may have been able to escape. The southern Pakistani port city of Karachi (pop. 14 million) is a cauldron of ethnic and religious […]

India

Cole in Tomdispatch: Asia Rising, American Hessians

Juan Cole

My column is out in Tomdispatch on the troubling ways that President Obama’s Asian trip suggest America’s weakening position in the world, especially with regard to a rising Asia– given our debilitating wars and our hollowed out economy. Read the whole thing.

Afghanistan

Afghan Poll: We don’t Like Taliban but will Gladly Talk with Them

Juan Cole

A summer, 2010, poll done in Afghanistan by the San Francisco-based Asian Foundation, the results of which have just been released, shows: More and more Afghans, now the vast majority, say they have no sympathy with the insurgent groups fighting NATO and the Karzai government; Most people support programs to lure Taliban and other fighters […]

India

What does Pakistan think of Obama’s India Trip?

Juan Cole

Pakistanis are from all accounts rather miffed that President Barack Obama did not stop in Islamabad as part of his Asian tour. The officer corps is the angriest, but it is viewed widely as a put-down. From a Pakistani point of view, the US and Pakistan have been allies since the 1950s. They stood shoulder […]

Pakistan

Over 70 Killed in Mosque Bombings, northwestern Pakistan

Juan Cole

The Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan) bombed two mosques in Pakistan’s Pashtun northwest on Friday, killing over 70 persons and wounding many others. CSM argues that one of the bombings, in Dara Adam Khel, was a reprisal against the Akhurwal tribe for opposing the Taliban and allying with the Pakistani army. Dara Adam Khel is […]

India

Bachmann Harms US Economy, Security with Scurrilous Charges about Obama in India

Juan Cole

One of the great things about the victory of so many eccentrics in the congressional races of 2010 for bloggers is that we can look forward to at least two years of having lots of fun with them. Of course, old-time funny people have come back, as well, such as cut-up Michele Bachmann. Bachmann is […]

Afghanistan

Cole in Truthdig: “The World Is Safer Without a Republican House”

Juan Cole

My column is out at Truthdig is out, entitled “The World Is Safer Without a Republican House” Excerpt: ‘ Although Congress for the most part leaves foreign policy to the president, it can occasionally intervene pivotally in that arena, as when it shot down Woodrow Wilson’s plan to have the U.S. join the League of […]

Afghanistan

On How War with Iran might Destroy the United States

Juan Cole

David Broder is a respected political analyst. I once had breakfast with him and I like him. I often think his columns are on the mark. So I am sure he by now regrets his piece on Saturday in the Washington Post on how Obama can get the country out of the economic doldrums. Broder […]

Afghanistan

Ballot Fraud, Mafia Rule making Afghans Pessimistic: Chayes

Juan Cole

I heard Sarah Chayes at the Michigan Theater on Thursday afternoon, speaking on Afghanistan. She is a long time expatriate in Qandahar, where she arrived late in 2001 as a reporter. She has gone on to be an entrepreneur of the Peace Corps kind, and a consultant to the ISAF forces…. …[Text removed at speaker’s […]