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Islamabad dismayed by 'dithering' US

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By Zahid U Kramet - Oct. 22 (News Analysis) - As White House officials continue to debate the call of the United States' military chief in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, for an additional force of 40,000 to win the war against Taliban insurgents in the Afghanistan-Pakistan war theater, the overall impression in Pakistan is that rather than any decisive victory, the US and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are now looking for a face-saving exit to leave Pakistan to face the brunt of the fallout - once again.

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A new battle begins in Pakistan

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Oct. 19 (News Analysis) - Pakistani troops are pouring into the South Waziristan tribal area for a conflict against militants that they have little chance of winning outright. The offensive does, though, emphatically shift the focus from Afghanistan, which is what the United States has wanted for some time. Iran, following Sunday's attack on commanders of its Revolutionary Guards Corps, also has Pakistan on its mind. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Oct 19, '09)

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Going 'deep', not 'big', in Afghanistan

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By Gareth Porter - Oct. 16 (News Report) - An analysis making waves in Washington by a veteran United States officer calls for the withdrawal of the bulk of United States combat forces from Afghanistan over 18 months, warning against General Stanley McChrystal's counter-insurgency strategy. Lieutenant Colonel Daniel L Davis says that it is already too late for US forces to defeat the insurgency.

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October surprise in US-Iran relations

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By Kaveh L Afrasiabi - Oct. 02 (News Analysis) - The meeting on Thursday between Iran and the six countries dealing with its nuclear case resulted in agreement for a follow-up encounter, in itself an important development, given the heated atmosphere in the lead-up to the talks. As significant, the United States and Iran made an initial direct contact, raising hopes of a real breakthrough. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Oct 2, '09)

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Online :: South Asia news, business and economy from India and Pakistan

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By Chan Akya - Oct. 02 (Special Report) - Behind the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka and the killing of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud are stories of countries creating bands of terrorists to do things that were impossible for those in power to be seen to be doing directly. In this dangerous game, blowback is inevitable. (Oct 2, '09)

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Middle East News, Iraq, Iran current affairs

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By Jim Lobe - Sep. 28 (News Report) - Iran, as if on cue, ahead of international talks this week on its nuclear program, on Sunday and Monday test-fired both long-range and short-range missiles. Coming hard on the heels of reports of a second Iranian plant to enrich uranium, Tehran has some explaining to do.

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Afghan elections fuel US war doubts

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - Aug. 27 (News Report) - As United States President Barack Obama leans toward an escalated counter-insurgency campaign in Afghanistan, a growing number of critics in the foreign policy establishment and among the American populace have begun to question whether defeating the Taliban and building a strong Afghan central state is a war worth fighting.

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Kabul draped in a veil of uncertainty

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - Aug. 27 (News) - As results slowly roll in from last week's elections, Afghans enter a holy month gripped with equal parts of uncertainty, doubt and resignation. President Hamid Karzai has stayed relatively out of sight, even as his challenger, Dr Abdullah Abdullah, remains defiant and cries voter fraud. In this fluid situation, the talk in Kabul's dusty lanes is of a possible coalition government. - Derek Henry Flood (Aug 27, '09)

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Karzai's rival cries foul play

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Aug. 24 (News Report) - On the eve of the announcement of the preliminary results of Afghanistan's presidential elections, Abdullah Abdullah, the main challenger to President Hamid Karzai, is crying foul. All the same, he will wait to see how complaints are dealt with before acting. One thing is clear, though - he won't take part in any power-sharing deals.

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Powers line up to stir Afghanistan's pot

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By M K Bhadrakumar - Aug. 19 (News Analysis) - If Afghan President Hamid Karzai secures a clear-cut victory in the first round on Thursday, he will bring into power a coalition that the United States will find extremely hard to control. As such, regional capitals are concerned the US might now engineer a post-election "Iran-like situation" to muddy the waters and install a surrogate power structure in Kabul.

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The US has a plan for Afghanistan

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Aug. 18 (News Analysis) - With an unexpected boost from a heavyweight Uzbek warlord, Afghan President Hamid Karzai's chances of winning re-election on Thursday have significantly increased. Pakistan and the United States, though, are looking beyond the polls to the creation of a broad-based administration that would include all the major players - and a sprinkling of Taliban. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Aug 18, '09)

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Afghan race becomes Karzai's cliffhanger

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By M K Bhadrakumar - Aug. 14 (News Analysis) - By ostentatiously distancing itself from former ally President Hamid Karzai in recent days, the United States has sent a clear signal that its preferred candidates in next week's Afghan election are former finance minister Ashraf Ghani and ex-foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah. Inside Afghanistan, there is a growing conviction Washington is fixing the election to suit its geopolitical priorities. - M K Bhadrakumar (Aug 14, '09)

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US shrugs off Pakistan-Taliban links

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By Gareth Porter - Aug. 05 (News Report) - When the US Congress last month approved US$6 billion in aid to Pakistan, there was no mention of evidence linking Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kiani to a major military assistance program for Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan and Kashmir

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Pakistan turns on its jihadi assets

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By Syed Saleeem Shahzad - Jul. 30 (News Report) - The high-profile jailing of a former member of parliament in connection with the beheading of a Polish engineer is a significant first step in Pakistan's crackdown on the jihadi assets its intelligence services raised in the 1990s for asymmetric warfare against India. There will be a backlash from militants, but Islamabad has made it clear it has taken Washington's desires to heart. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Jul 28, '09)

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US misunderstanding on Iran lingers

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By Ali Gharib - Jun. 26 (Opinion) - ... much of the attention in Washington and elsewhere in the US is often misplaced, misguided, or completely detached from the realities currently embroiling Iran in its most significant crisis since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

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World powerless to stop North Korea

Tue, 26 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By Santaro Rey - May. 26 (News Analysis) - North Korea's decision to carry out its second nuclear test on Monday could have far-reaching consequences, if South Korea and Japan conclude that nothing can be done to persuade Pyongyang to denuclearize. Under such circumstances, developing their own nuclear weapons might become increasingly desirable for Seoul and Tokyo.

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Pakistan reels under Swat offensive

Thu, 14 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - May. 14 (News Report) - All of Pakistan's major political parties have given their support - along with the United States - to the operation, but with no exit strategy in place, the unfolding humanitarian crisis looms as a bigger threat than the Taliban.

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Holbrooke reaches out to Hekmatyar

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Apr. 10 (Interview) - The recent meeting between a deputy of Richard Holbrooke, the United States special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and an emissary of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA), is by all accounts a landmark move in the United States' stated aim of involving militant groups in ending the conflict in Afghanistan.

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US sinks deeper into Sunni-Shi'ite struggle

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By Gareth Porter - Apr. 02 (News Analysis) - Maliki has cleverly exploited the partnership between the US military and the Iraqi army to draw the United States into such a campaign. One of the characteristics of that relationship is that the US military command in Iraq is very reluctant to be separated operationally or politically from its Iraqi counterparts.

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India's virtual vigilantes

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By Neeta Lal - Mar. 31 (Special Report) - A new form of vigilantism - cyber-activism - has gained currency in India as a powerful tool to mobilize public opinion, strengthen civic engagement, invite democratic participation or even encourage "electronic" civil disobedience.

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Dollar Crisis In The Making, Part 3

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By W Joseph Stroupe - Mar. 18 (Special Report) - There is mounting evidence that China's central bank is undertaking the process of divesting itself of longer-dated US Treasuries in favor of shorter-dated ones.

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Justice on Comedy Central

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By Julian Delasantellis - Mar. 17 (Opinion) - You might think that Americans, inheritors of an economy that has dominated the world for most of the last century, might take pride in the extent of their being up-to-date on current economics and business affairs, but that is not the case. They certainly don't get their news on finance from newspapers; those that are still existent lost the raison d'etre for their business pages about 40 years ago, when the large metropolitan dailies stopped publishing late-afternoon editions with closing Wall Street stock prices in them.

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The not-so-safe haven

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By W Joseph Stroupe - Mar. 17 (Special Report) - Like it or not, the US dollar still constitutes the de facto central framework of the present global financial order - the dollar is its fundamental support structure, much like the steel framework that supported the Twin Towers in New York. The global crisis is sending shockwaves of ever increasing intensity throughout the present order. Few thought the shaking would reach its present intensity and scope, and no one really knows how powerful and destructive the shaking might get before the crisis is over.

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Dollar crisis in the making

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By Joseph Stroupe - Mar. 13 (Opinion) - Investors, both private and official, around the globe have generally given in to a crisis reflex psychology of extreme risk aversion and have been clutching the US dollar ever more tightly, massively running into Treasuries as a refuge in the mounting storm. This fact would seem to imply that global confidence in the dollar is still fundamentally sound, despite the well-documented bruises it has received over the past few years. The truth is that the potential for a global dollar panic is becoming greatly heightened, in spite of (and in part, actually because of) the dollar's recent significant gains as a refuge for investors, the bulk of whom continue to be distinctly risk-averse. Ironically, this massive piling onto the dollar opens yawning new vulnerabilities and risks that either did not exist before, or were at most very minimal.

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Iran's security concerns weigh heavy

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Asia Times - By Kaveh L. Afrasiabi - Feb. 19 (News Analysis) - When asked what signal the Pakistani government was sending by releasing Khan, he answered that in his opinion this was a signal both to India and the US to pay more attention to Pakistan's needs, or else have fears of "loose nukes". The Tehran professor added, "Another Mumbai [terror attack] and the whole region will be in flames, we are that close to a potential nuclear Armageddon."

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