The conventional wisdom seems to be that Pakistan is the cause of instability in Afghanistan, and that if the government of Pakistan cannot solve the problem we should go in and solve it for them. Earlier I argued that there is not such entity as “Pakistan”, that Pakistan’s bureaucracies are corrupt and inefficient, and that […]
Who is Pakistan and where can I meet him?
July 17, 2008 By
Our brains just don’t work well in certain situations. Unfortunately, the world is full of “those situations”. There is a wonderful literature out there on how our brains let us down when we do certain kinds of analysis (The Psychology of Intelligence by Richard Heuer remains the best, although ). Nassim Taleb (The Black Swan) […]
Should We Use Force in the FATA?
July 16, 2008 By
On Tuesday, Senators Obama and McCain talked about Pakistan and the war in Afghanistan. I am not really all that interested in campaign politics, but I am interested in counter-insurgency (COIN), especially COIN in Pakistan and Afghanistan. And some of the things the candidates say about this theater worry me. Sen. Obama has been criticized […]
