Juan Cole

Two bombs rocked the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Thursday. The first, in the morning, targeted the city’s courthouse. The suicide bomber, wearing a vest, was stopped by security before he could get into the building. He detonated his payload outside, killing 20 persons and wounding 50. Thursday evening another bomber struck at a […]

Brian Cloughley writes in a guest editorial for IC When the Taliban insurrection in Pakistan began in earnest, in 2005, the Pakistan army did not have enough troops in North-West Frontier Province to combat the growing menace. It was not possible for the army and the paramilitary Frontier Corps to conduct operations without considerable reinforcement. […]

Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, who is a Sunni Arab, has vetoed the election law recently passed by parliament. Iraq has a president (currently a Kurd, Jalal Talabani) and two vice presidents (the other is Adil Abdul Mahdi, a Shiite from the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq). Al-Hashimi reportedly dislikes […]

Since both the US and China have traditionally been allies of Pakistan, any joint US-China call for better relations between the two major countries in South Asia would likely irk New Delhi. It did. Given that the current Minister of External Affairs, S. M. Krishna, had a long political career representing Karnataka State, with its […]

** Africa population tops a billion **The number of people in Africa has passed the one billion mark, the UN Population Fund says in a report.< http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8366591.stm >

David Kilcullen’s bizarre prediction last spring that the Pakistani government could fall to the Taliban or al-Qaeda within six months was always downright looney, but recent events have underlined the extent of its daftness. The 650,000-strong Pakistani army has made mincemeat of the Pakistani Taliban wherever they have seriously taken them on. On Tuesday, for […]

Since she’s back, so am I. Below is a reprint edition of my essay from September 2008 comparing Sarah Palin to Muslim fundamentalists on select issues. Also check out Going Rouge: An American Nightmare from OR books, in which another of my Salon pieces on Palin is reprinted: Salon.comTuesday, Sep 9, 2008 03:12 PDTWhat’s the […]

Iran’s PressTV says it has caught Israel forging documents in an attempt to implicate Iran in arms smuggling. The Israelis have been maintaining that a ship, the Francop, that their forces boarded near Cyprus originated in Iran and was bringing arms to Hizbullah and Hamas. Many US news outlets published the accompanying picture, which seemed […]

The Times of London reports that French commanders meeting with local Afghan leaders northeast of Kabul were targeted by insurgents with rockets, which killed 12 Afghan civilians and wounded about 38. No French personnel appear to have come to harm, though the French Gen. Marcel Druart was in some danger. The Taliban claimed responsibility. Also […]