Juan Cole

Town under siege: 6,000 camels to be shot – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) There are a million camels in Australia’s outback, and the camels were key to developing it. And the camels and cameleers of the 19th century came from . . . Afghanistan! The site notes: ‘ Without the Afghans much of the […]

Daily Times – Leading News Resource of Pakistan – opinion: Training the Afghan army —Brian Cloughley Brian Cloughley warned last September: ‘In Kabul last week, “an American service member and an Afghan police officer got into an argument because the American was drinking water in front of the Afghan police, who are not eating or […]

Iraq inquiry: Tony Blair told ‘days before invasion’ WMD had been dismantled – Telegraph What I remember is that knowledgeable inspectors and expatriate Iraq scientists were saying this all through 2002 and into early 2003. Here is Imad Khadduri’s piece from that winter: “Iraq has no N-weapons, claims expatriate scientist 06/01/2003. (Via my posting, at […]

In the midst of the state visit to Washington of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, President Barack Obama at a brief news conference announced that he was going to “finish the job” in Afghanistan. He cautioned, however, that down the road, Afghanistan would have to provide for its own security. As for the strong divide […]

Four US troops were killed Sunday and Monday in Afghanistan in bombings or attacks. On Sunday, about 9 Afghan civilians were killed by bombings or shootings. During his state visit to Washington, D.C., Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pressured President Barack Obama not to execute a hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan. Singh said, “I have no […]

US should focus on energy efficiency and renewables not nuclear, says report | Energy Efficiency News Money para.: ‘Starting from scratch, it could take ten years or more to construct a new reactor, claims the group. Even if the US did make an unprecedented investment of the estimated $600 billion needed to construct 100 new […]

US pours millions into anti-Taliban militias in Afghanistan | World news | The Guardian Didn’t Reagan already try this in the 1980s? End/ (Not Continued)

The government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Sunday aired the confessions of three men, members of the Baath Party, that it captured after the October 25 bombings that killed 125 persons and destroyed several government buildings. Baghdad said that the men had come from Syria, but stopped short of accusing the Baathist government of […]

Reuters reports that the UN Security Council is considering sanctions against the Horn of Africa nation, Eritrea, for its financial, arms and logistic support of the Al Qaeda-allied Al Shabab movement in Somalia. Our guest columnist, Dr. Gregory Alonso Pirio, explains how the “international community” is mounting a major initiative to curb piracy and terrorism […]