pakistan
Zbigniew Bzrezinski Holds Forth on Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan
Former Carter administration National Security Adviser Zbigniew Bzrezinski has moved far to the left over the past several decades — and in particular over the last eight years, when he’s become downright combative — and so today it’s interesting to hear him talk about four distinct but somewhat linked issues: Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. [...]
The Future of Nuclear (Counter-)Proliferation (Maybe)
Outgoing Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Eric Edelman says that counter-proliferation is “becoming a bipartisan consensus,” with a special urgency on countries like Iran, and that vigorous negotiations are necessary to stop emerging nuclear capabilities. He reiterates that Iran is on the rise in the Middle East — how’d that happen? — and rejects the [...]
Pakistani Forces Moving From Afghan Border to Indian Border
Via Matthew Yglesias, the post-Mumbai climate of increased Indo-Pakistani tensions is causing the Pakistani military to redeploy forces from the northwest frontier province, where the task is allegedly combatting Pakistani militants and preventing exfiltration to Afghanistan, to the Indian border. Whether or not the Mumbai attacks were planned in the Pakistani tribal areas by Pakistani [...]
Car Bomb Detonates Outside U.S. Embassy in Kabul
Worth keeping in mind for for this morning’s rollout of President-elect Obama’s national security team:
Obama’s First Test?
Developments in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India pose new challenges for the still forming Obama foreign-policy team. The Karzai government has unilaterally moved to wind down its conflict with the Taliban, new leaders in Islamabad are sending mixed signals and the assault in Mumbai could inflame India-Pakistan tensions. The new president could face hard choices.
Obama’s Afghanistan Refocus
The Afghanistan war is about to focus on al-Qaeda again:
Do I Talk About the Karzai-Taliban Negotiations in Platitudes?
Joshua Foust says I’ve been writing too many platitudes about the Karzai-Taliban negotiations. I think he means I’m guilty of wishful thinking, and I can see how he has a point there, at least in the breezy block quote he picks out. So let me take up this question:
Maddow Asks — and Obama Dodges — on Afghan Mission
To follow on Ari’s post about Rachel Maddow’s interview with Obama, Maddow asked a question about the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. Obama has consistently argued for a larger troop presence there, but what’s the mission, exactly? And how would more troops accomplish it?
Obama dodged this one like he was Harry Whittington seeing Dick Cheney cleaning [...]
OH NOES! Negotiating With the Taliban!!!1
In the course of a spittle-inflected Small Wars Journal diatribe against my friend Nir Rosen for the alleged moral failing of embedding with the Taliban, Atlantic correspondent Bing West — whose recent book I preliminarily praised in TWI — offers this bit of dubious moral outrage:
Having told the reader what his intent was, Rosen described [...]
Afghanistan/Pakistan Forms Committees for Taliban Peace Talks
Just how fast are those prospective Karzai-Taliban peace talks advancing?
According to this Voice of America report, a “mini-jirga” meeting of Afghan and Pakistan officials in Islamabad has put together committees in Afghanistan and Pakistan to send feelers out to the Taliban:
