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Thought Provoking

Just finished listening to historian and author Steven Pressfield’s video blogs (see parts 1-5 on the subtitle bar, or left sidebar) on tribalism and Afghanistan. Good stuff for the most part, although I think his hierarchical characterization of the Afghan tribes (at least) is contradictory to the codes of Pashtunwali, which teaches that every man [...]

Mumbai, Revisited

In late November of last year, 10 Pakistani members of Lashkar e Toiyba (the army of the “righteous”) launched a terrorist attack on the Indian city of Mumbai. When the smoke had cleared after four days of horror, nearly two hundred people had been killed and over 300 wounded.
This video shows not only the depth [...]

Persistence

UAVs have it:
The US carried out its second Predator airstrike inside South Waziristan today. Unmanned Predator aircraft killed more than 65 Taliban fighters in a follow-on attack near the headquarters for Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.
The Predator strike aircraft fired three Hellfire missiles as Taliban fighters gathered for a funeral of Khog Wali, a leader [...]

Boot on the Af

Max Boot has a generally favorable review of General Stanley McChrystal’s  strategy in Afghanistan in the WSJ:
Gen. McChrystal’s decision to set up a Pakistan Afghanistan Coordination Cell means creating a corps of roughly 400 officers who will spend years focused on Afghanistan, shuttling in and out of the country and working on those issues even [...]

Tommy Writes

Two new books by British soldiers – one a sniper in Iraq, the other an Apache driver in the Af – are reviewed by the Weekly Standard’s Stuart Koehl.
He has kind words for the men and women in the front line club. Less for those who sent them. Less still for those who “welcomed” them [...]

Uighering Where?

The government has finally grasped the nettle of those poor Uighers caught up in the GWOT net and sent to a tropical island for detention by sending them to Palau, a tropical island chain.
The United States has won an agreement to transfer up to 17 Chinese Muslims from the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, [...]

Forward to the Past!

In a return to the policies of 9/10, the GWOT Long War Overseas Contingency Operation(s) are now to be increasingly prosecuted as a law enforcement issue, rather than as a military/intelligence problem:
The FBI and Justice Department plan to significantly expand their role in global counter-terrorism operations, part of a U.S. policy shift that will replace [...]

Helping Pakistan

Fouad Ajami says that the battle to help the Pakistani army retake the Swat Valley – and save the soul of Pakistan – could use a little more sweep and a little less cynicism. An ideological underpinning, if you will.
Too bad we’re fresh out.

Obama v. Cheney

The president says that the US went badly off course in its conduct of the GWOT, the former Vice President disagrees. All the usual lines are drawn in the sand, nothing new to learn and few, if any, minds to change.
Except these lines  jump out at me:
“I know some have argued that brutal methods like water-boarding [...]

Jailhouse Converts

Another reason to keep GTMO operating:
The FBI and NYPD busted a four-man homegrown terror cell Wednesday night that was plotting to blow up two Bronx synagogues while simultaneously shooting a plane out of the sky, sources told the Daily News.
The idea was to create a “fireball that would make the country gasp,” one law enforcement [...]

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