The Obama administration, with the full support of the mainstream media, seems intent on starting a war with Pakistan.
Trusted Ally or Traitorous Foe: Competing narratives on Pakistan and why they matter
October 4, 2011 By
Mumbai attack – connecting the dots
December 1, 2008 By
Islamist terrorists conducted coordinated attacks against pre-selected targets in Mombai last week. This kind of attack requires a network consisting of well-developed recruiting, training, intelligence, operations, and command & control cells. While India has enough aggrieved Islamists to fill the ranks for such an attack, the Islamist networks operating out of Pakistan have a competitive […]
A New Direction in Pakistan’s COIN Effort
October 3, 2008 By
The weeks since my last post have been a busy time for those who follow Pakistani politics. As I wrote last time, I was waiting for the “other shoe to drop” as various groups in Pakistan reacted to our increased cross-border attacks. The shoe has dropped, but the result has been much more muted than […]
Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop in Pakistan
September 9, 2008 By
While few of us will ever know the complete truth (at least this side of the eschaton), it looks as though the Coalition finally made good on its threats to take matters into its own hands in the tribal areas of Pakistan. According to local reports, three helicopters deployed a team of Coalition and Afghan […]
The Coming Storm in Pakistan
August 27, 2008 By
News reports are full of optimism about Pakistan’s increased cooperation with NATO on the War on Terrorism now that Musharraf has been replaced with a democratic government. I don’t see this happening. In fact, I don’t see any likely course that makes things better. In fact, for the next couple of years, I think following […]
AF President – NIMBY on Bombing
August 14, 2008 By
Last weekend, the beleaguered President of Afghanistan made a passionate plea on behalf of innocent civilians for an end to airstrikes. This is not the first time that he has done this (last year he was moved to tears on the subject), and it does point to the difficulty of the situation. On the one […]
PK PM Gilani Defends COIN Strategy
July 29, 2008 By
The Prime Minister of Pakistan said almost everything he needed to say if he is to have any hope of keeping aid flowing and keeping us out of PK territory. FWIW, this is the same script that the Musharraf regime used, although PM Gilan did not mention (or at least the APP did not report) […]
US-PK Talks today in Washington
July 28, 2008 By
This from APP, on the scheduled talks today between Pakistan’s Prime Mister Gilan and President Bush; “WASHINGTON, July 27 (APP): Urging Washington to be patient with the elected government’s anti-terrorism strategy, Pakistan’s envoy in the United States Husain Haqqani Sunday hoped that Congress would be receptive to Pakistan’s views on security in the region.” He […]
Measurement Errors and Sample Bias in the FATA
July 24, 2008 By
It is very difficult to get good information about insurgencies. This is because they: 1. IO. They run their own information operations through their own dissemination channels, traditional channels (e.g. bazaar, mosque), and local, national, and international media of all types. In the case of the Taliban, they are very adapt at dissinformation (especially regarding […]
Signing Peace Accords with Insurgents
July 22, 2008 By
Pakistani COIN has a definite rhythm to it: increase military pressure in an area then, when things are near a breaking point, sign a peace agreement with insurgent leaders (or their proxies), according to which the insurgents promise to stop attacking Paksitan military and government forces/facilities, stop cross border operations into Afghanistan, stop creating parallel […]
