Juan Cole

NATO and Afghan troops raided a bomb-making cell of insurgents in the southern Pushtun province of Helmand, killing 19 guerrillas, it was announced on Saturday. Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai praised President Obama’s plan for Afghanistan on Saturday, and was especially happy about two elements– going after militants hiding out in neighboring Pakistan, and reaching out […]

The USG Open Source Center translates an Afghan editorial criticizing elements of President Obama’s new plan for Afghanistan. It displays the gravest doubts that he will find any moderate Taliban with whom to negotiate, but also rejects the idea of an influx of further Western troops. It also decries the tendency of Western politicians to […]

In Pakistan, Taliban detonated a bomb in a mosque at Jamrud in the Khyber agency near the Afghanistan border on Friday, killing 50 and wounding 100. The mosque is frequented by paramilitary troops who man a nearby government checkpoint, and who were probably the target of the blast. There is a sense in which Taliban […]

I was on Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC television news show on Friday evening, commenting on the Pakistan bit of President Obama’s plan. She referred to it as a drone war. I said I didn’t think we were at war with Pakistan so much as with some Pushtun tribes on either side of the Hindu Kush. And […]

The USG Open Source Center translates Pakistani editorials in the Urdu press that condemn US Predator drone strikes on targets inside Pakistan. In a recent poll, Muslim publics, including that in Pakistan, overwhelmingly rejected US military presence in Muslim countries. A year ago, an opinion poll of Pakistanis found that “most Pakistanis do not believe […]

Part I of President Barack Obama’s major policy speech on Afghanistan, Pakistan and al-Qaeda on Friday, 3/27: And Part II: Full text of prepared remarks available here. A Guardian Television report suggests that 75% of the 80,000 Afghan army troops are regular marijuana users. Many are alleged to be village juvenile delinquents who were kicked […]

A car bombing in a market district of Shaab, Baghdad, killed 26 and wounded 37 on Thursday, the fifth large bombing in March. The LAT underlines that blast walls separating Shiite Shaab from nearby Sunni Arab areas have recently been removed. But it should be remembered that Shaab used to be mixed and is now […]

As the Obama administration announces that it will send 4,000 further troops to Afghanistan to train the Afghan army, the USG Open Source Center translates a talks show from Islamabad that alleges that US predator drone strikes on Pakistan are increasing hatred of the US in Pakistan Karachi Geo News television in Urdu at 1400 […]

Hamza Hendawi of AP says his interviews and on-the-ground researches in Baghdad support my contention that the Iraqi capital is now only 10 percent to 15 percent Sunni (in 2003 it was roughly 50/50 Sunni and Shiite): ‘ Among the statistics obtained by the AP: — Only an estimated 50,000 of 300,000 displaced families — […]