Archive for October, 2009
Pani ki kahani – Running on Empty
Where all the players, which in recent months were used by Pakistanis as scapegoats for all their sorrows come together – a report on Pakistan’s water crisis. It includes Kerry-Lugar, the sugar industry, WAPDA, Kalabagh and India – and brings it all together to give a meaningful insight of what goes wrong and what right. [...]
The Life of two foreigners in Kandahar
Most interesting article of two western foreigners living in Kandahar, the heart of Taliban resistance. They report about he boredom of sitting in their flat, because leaving would be too dangerous, but also about the thrill living so close to the “faltline” of history.
The Case for Humility in Afghanistan
Steve Coll analyses the current process of rethinking AfPak strategy by the Obama administration.
Afghan Alliance Building
When US troops entered Afghanistan, there prime target was to find Osama Bin Laden. Finding a base in hostile Taliban land made the US choose their allies with two eyes closed. As long as the warlords of the Northern Alliance were fighting against the Taliban, US troops would turn away from drug trafficing, smuggeling and human rights abuse.
The McChrystal Report – a link collection
The report by General Stanley McChrystal, date 30th of August. These three articles in the Economist ask whether to “surge” or to go “surgical”, thereby presenting the two opposing parties when it comes to the future strategy in Afghanistan. While the one side, represented by Vice President Joe Biden, Obama’s security adviser James Jones and [...]
The McChrystal Report – a summary
40.000 – from Kabul to Washington this number achieved media attention a number gets not that often (except maybe the Down Jones: 10.000 break through). 40.000 this is the speculated number of troops the new ISAF Commander General McChrystal wants to finally win the war in Afghanistan. McChrystal’s report on the situation in Afghanistan is [...]
Asia Society Task Force Report
In April this year the Asia Society published a Task Force report (led by Barnett Rubin and Thomas Pickering, the team including Ahmed Rashid and Peter Bergen among others) on the strategy the US administration should take on AfPak. It can be downloaded here. The presentation of the report was recorded on video and included [...]
Obamas Retter (Obama’s saviors)
Ulrich Ladurner seeks out the “key players” of the West’s plan that Afghanistan will soon be able to stand on its own feet. As in Germany, Italy, Netherlands etc. the support for a continued engagement in Afghanistan sinks rapidly, the call fo a rushed training of the ANA and Afghan Police Force has become the [...]
The Bonn Conference – History and Impact
From a review by Ahmed Rashid (“Afghanistan: On the Brink” in the New York Review of Books) I turned towards another assessment by Barnett Rubin – his pragmatic comments on the targets set by the US and during the Bonn conference, written in 2006 but already addressing many points some pundits pretend to have invented only recently.
Pakistan’s “Other-People’s-Money” Problem
Mosharraf Zaidi’s second part of commentary on Kerry-Lugar Bill from the prevalent perspective amongst Pakistani people: http://www.mosharrafzaidi.com/2009/10/10/pakistans-%E2%80%9Cother-peoples-money%E2%80%9D-problem/
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