Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

Donate

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • Email
  • RSS
  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2023 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Uncategorized

Arc Of Crisis Panel At Yearly Kos Heres

Juan Cole 08/05/2007

Tweet
Share
Reddit
Email
0 Shares

Candidates at Yearly Kos
Reactions to Arc of Crisis Panel

Alas, although I heard the Democratic candidates for president at Yearly Kos and attended the break-out meeting afterward with Sen. Barack Obama, the controversy over his and Sen. Hillary Clinton’s remarks about Pakistan never came up. So, nothing new to report on that score.

Here is some press coverage of the candidates’ appearance Saturday afternoon.

In general, I suppose I am disturbed by the tendency of the Democratic candidates to displace 9/11 anxieties onto Afghanistan and Pakistan from Iraq. I can’t see a military mission there in the medium term (at what point will the Pushtuns decide–under US military pressure–they aren’t committed Muslism who dislike imperialism, and that they’ve changed their minds and want American bases in their territories?) If you put a lot more US military personnel into the Pushtun areas, they will just become Iraqized. My suggestion is to leave the Pushtuns alone militarily, and to depend mainly on the FBI, CIA and Afghanistan and Pakistan security services to track down the remaining, dangerous Arab al-Qaeda operatives in the area. Over 600 have been captured that way, and the rest can be, as well. As for convincing Pushtuns not to be or not to support Taliban, you can’t do that militarily. It may not even be necessary, since polling in Afghanistan shows that everybody hates the Taliban.

Here’s some comment on our panel at the Yearly Kos conference:

Democracy Arsenal;

Matthew Yglesias.

And here’s the TPMtv interview with me at Yearly Kos in Chicago, directly embedded, via YouTube:

Filed Under: Uncategorized

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

Primary Sidebar

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter and have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.

Twitter

Follow Juan Cole @jricole or Informed Comment @infcomment on Twitter

Facebook



Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2023 All Rights Reserved

Posting....