Taliban

The resurgent Taliban is putting in place a full shadow government in much of Afghanistan. As close as 30 miles from Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, the Taliban has provincial governors, police chiefs and courts in session ruling under Sharia laws. Associated Press reports that, “…The Taliban has long operated its own shadow government in the [...]

  If you have seen the movie, ‘Charlie Wilson’s War’, you will know more than most about the consequences of how the US-Pakistan-Saudi involvement with the Taliban war against the Soviets, and the incomplete way the business was finished, has contributed a great deal to current day problems. It is even more ironic, how the [...]

The recent murder of Major-General Faisal Alavi, the former head of the Pakistani Special Forces, is yet another death in the mysterious sequence of events surrounding the alleged involvement of Pakistan’s intelligence service, ISI,  with the Taliban. Prior to his death, Alavi supposedly sent a letter naming two Pakistani Generals that he said he [...]

There are fundamental misconceptions at the heart of US policy on the war on terror that effect its efficient implementation. Firstly, it seems to be assumed that the terrorists are somewhere ‘over there’, and if we fight them there, then we won’t have to fight them here.  Secondly, there is a tacit political agreement that [...]

  Somewhat lost in the headlines today is a report showing that the Taliban footprint in Afghanistan has increased from 54% of the country to 72% in the last year. The release of this data got hidden in many publications, dwarfed by domestic issues and reports of the Blackwater guards’ surrender. However, the latest report released by the [...]

If, as many analysts are now predicting, the US-Afghanistan war ends in disaster, it will be due to a large extent to a lack of understanding of the Pashtun factor. The seeds for the US difficulties in Afghanistan were sown in 2003. At this point in the conflict, the US had the upper hand. [...]

  According to an Associated Press wire, a Taliban warlord made an offer today to stop fighting against Pakistan, and instead fight with them in a war against India. The offer came in the form of a video recording by deputy chief of the faction Tehrik-e-Taliban, Maulvi Faqir Mohammad. He is quoted as saying, “If India [...]

NATO took a few diplomatic hits overnight in its efforts in the Afghan war. It had been warned about the devastating effect of the UAV drones (unmanned aerial vehicles). The US pilotless drones have been an effective weapon from NATO’s perspective, but their collateral killing of innocent bystanders may have finally driven a wedge in [...]

It is increasingly difficult to separate Pakistan from Afghanistan in the war against the Taliban. While the West remains broiled in intra-country politics, the Taliban moves back and forth unchecked across the borders,  frustrating the efforts of NATO Command. The Taliban are also much smarter than the Western press’ depiction of them as a rag-tag [...]

  Afghanistan is getting close scrutiny by a lot of parties including the world press, NATO, the US and equally important the Taliban. Depending on which side of the ideological divide you stand the numbers are either good or bad but they are certainly telling a story. This year violence is up 30%. Attacks by [...]

It’s been a big news weekend for Afghanistan.  Word leaked of a high-level meeting between the Taliban and the Afghan government, sponsored by Saudi Arabia (one of the very few countries that recognized the Taliban government officially when it was in office) .  This was a meeting looking for a tentative peace settlement, though no [...]

The French press is reporting that a leaked coded diplomatic communication from the Briritish Ambassador says the military strategy will fail and that the only solution is the installation of an “acceptable dictator”.  Jean-Francois Fito, France’s Deputy Ambassador to Kabul quotes the British envoy in the communication sent to the French President and Foreign office. The [...]