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AfPak as Obama’s Wars

Juan Cole 05/01/2009

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Aljazeera English reviews the first hundred days of Obama’s policies in Afghanistan.

The The NYT explains that Obama is readying a major US military push to cut the neo-Taliban off from their funding sources in the poppy trade.

The problem is that a) the Taliban are probably being bankrolled by Gulf millionaires to some extent, and so ending the poppy trade will not put them down. Second, a lot of ordinary Afghan farmers depend on poppies and the new policy could push many of them into insurgency.

Aljazeera English also reports on Obama’s recent comments on Pakistan. He says he is not concerned about a Taliban takeover in the short term, but is anxious that the civilian Pakistani government is fragile. This stance is an improvement on that of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was talking about a Pakistani collapse within six months.

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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

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