The unpopularity of US drone strikes has been exaggerated
Pakistani politicians fume and rant against US unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) strikes against al-Qaeda and Taliban targets in the tribal areas in Pakistan’s North-west. The outrage is a charade, at least for the politicians in government, because some of the UAVs are operating out air bases in [...]
Pakistan’s strategic retreat will be irreversible…unless the military establishment is transformed
First the facts: the Pakistani government has struck a deal with Maulana Sufi Mohammed, who heads an organisation called the Tanzim Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) to impose Nizam-e-Adl regulations, which are based on Sharia law, in the Malakand Division of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). [...]
And this is not the time for irresponsible talk
Direct military strikes against Pakistan in retaliation for the terrorist attack on Mumbai are not in India’s interests. [See these posts] There is little chance of that happening. So voluble souls like NDTV’s Barkha Dutt must just shut up, to put it politely. The TV media has [...]
A question of superior force, superior tactics and resolve
Sushant Sareen’s piece on the psy-war in Afghanistan makes an important point:
Even more galling is the nonsense being peddled that this war is not winnable and that the Pashtun lands are the graveyards of empires past and present. Not only is this historically incorrect, it is also [...]
Say the corps commanders of the Pakistani army?
Bruce Loudon of The Australian reports that the Pakistani army’s corps commanders have ordered their troops to retaliate against US troops crossing over into their territory.
What amounts to a dramatic order to “kill the invaders”, as one senior officer put it last night, was disclosed after the commanders—who [...]
Connecting the dots in Waziristan, Afghanistan, Islamabad, Davos and London
The United States ‘offers’ to send special forces and military assistance to the Pakistani army fighting the Taliban militia in South Waziristan and other tribal areas. Politicians, pundits and even ordinary people around the world publicly express worries about Pakistan’s nuclear weapons falling into jihadi hands. [...]
Peshawar and Mansehra in the spotlight again
People looking out for bird flu cases are sitting up, for it has emerged that the feared human-to-human transmission of the flu virus might have occured. Scott McPherson writes:
In one of the numerous Pakistani H5N1-related bird culls of the past few months, a veterinarian appears to have been exposed [...]
Recent Comments