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US's dalliance in Beijing is short-lived
In a joint statement, United States President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao this week pledged to "strengthen communication, dialogue and cooperation on issues related to South Asia". It took Washington a matter of hours to start backtracking; any enterprise to mount ill-fated Sino-American ventures in this region could seriously disrupt American business interests. - MK Bhadrakumar (Nov 20, '09)

The elephant in India and Iran's room
Try as India and Iran may to halt the downward slide in their relations, cooperation in the all-important energy sector remains stuck in a rut. Negotiations between the two countries during the recent visit of Iran's foreign minister made "good progress", though apprehension over drawing American ire ultimately stands in India's way. - Sudha Ramachandran (Nov 20, '09)

A town with a tale to tell
The more elderly inhabitants of Tawang, the town plumb in the heart of disputed territory between India and China, have lived under four national flags - British, Tibetan, Chinese and Indian. These indigenous people, the Monpas, have strong views on which country they believe would now best serve their interests. - Saransh Sehgal (Nov 20, '09)



Nuclear fallout rocks Pakistan
Reports of the United States attempting to take an active role in helping safeguard Pakistan's nuclear arsenal could not have come at a worse time for President Asif Ali Zardari. He is already marginalized by his military, now his political opponents - including revitalized former president Pervez Musharraf - see a weakness. A crucial showdown is due next month, precisely the time the Pakistani Taliban plan their own fireworks. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Nov 19, '09)

Leak fuels fears over India's ID project
Fears that India's plans for an identity database for its more than one billion citizens could lead to government snooping, corruption and identity theft have not been helped by the leaking of the project's working paper; nor by statements in the document admitting that the system will be "susceptible to attacks and leaks at various levels". - Raja Murthy (Nov 19, '09)

New York readies for the 'Gitmo Five'
News that the "Gitmo Five" will be tried in New York has raised fears of an increased possibility of terrorist attacks in the city. The Lower Manhattan court, however, apart from having the legal pedigree to handle the cases, is also one of the safest civilian courthouses in the United States. (Nov 19, '09)

Sri Lanka hastens Tamil camp clearance
The Sri Lankan government has announced that the thousands of displaced Tamils still living in camps will be resettled within two months, a decision widely viewed as a public relations move prior to elections that will now take place after a radical change in the political firmament. - Feizal Samath (Nov 19, '09)

Tax offers Pakistan escape from poverty
Within days of the White House giving the go-ahead to a controversial US$7.5 billion aid package to Pakistan, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lambasted Islamabad's dismally low tax revenues. Tighten the tax net, on landowners, banks, textile companies and others, and the extra income would dwarf most, if not all, aid figures. - Tarique Niazi (Nov 19, '09)

Taliban tap into Afghanistan's roots
The insurgency in Afghanistan will continue to gather momentum as long as Afghans believe the insurgents have more compelling answers than Western powers or the government of President Hamid Karzai. The Taliban's fusion of religion, state and army presents a compelling case that foreigners will be expelled, Pashtun pre-eminence will be maintained, and that there will be a return to a golden age under Islamic law. - Brian M Downing (Nov 19, '09)

One-two punch for India's opposition
Following hard on its defeat in national elections, India's main opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party, has been trounced in three state polls. While the results further strengthen the ruling Congress party, the big loser, beyond the BJP, is India's move towards a broad two-front political system. - Neeta Lal (Nov 18, '09)

Afghanistan runs on well-oiled wheels
Every day, trucks carry diesel from Turkmenistan to the Afghan capital, Kabul, where some of the fuel is used in electricity power stations. Influential people are making a lot of money from the venture, which is financed by American tax dollars and is part of a fine-tuned system of nepotism and corruption that works a treat. It is not about to change. - Pratap Chatterjee (Nov 18, '09)

Political impasse takes Nepal to brink
Leaders of Nepal's Maoists are threatening more mass protests and to turn the nation "into another Afghanistan" should their demands for limits to presidential powers not be met. As the political turmoil drags on - not helped by an apparent China-India tussle for influence - some see hope in the formation of a unity government. - Dhruba Adhikary (Nov 17, '09)

Militants change tack in Pakistan
After a month-long operation, Pakistan's military is chasing shadows in the South Waziristan tribal area. The militants being sought so desperately by the army - and the United States - are scattered in remote surrounding areas, including in Afghanistan. Previously, the next step would have been to negotiate a ceasefire. Not this time. In a major switch, the militants want a long-term insurgency against the security apparatus across the country. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Nov 17, '09)

US boosts India's anti-terror efforts
India's decision to increase information-sharing with United States intelligence agencies since last year's Mumbai terrorist attack is paying off, witness the Federal Bureau of Investigation's operation uncovering a plot to attack important sites in India, including the Taj Mahal. - Siddharth Srivastava (Nov 17, '09)

'Northern Taliban' threatens Central Asia
Taliban counter-moves against United States coalition efforts to forge a supply route from Central Asia to northern Afghanistan have ended the relative calm in that part of Afghanistan and could drag Central Asian states into the conflict. As more foreign fighters from groups like the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan join the ranks of the emerging "northern Taliban", the issue is rapidly climbing up the coalition's agenda. - Sanobar Shermatova (Nov 17, '09)

A Bonapartist in the Indian Ocean
Sri Lankan democracy may never be the same again now that swashbuckling army chief Sarath Fonseka has abruptly discarded his uniform to run for president. Fonseka is entering uncharted waters. But the United States Green Card holder knows that he has the full backing of a Washington seeking a malleable power structure in Colombo. - M K Bhadrakumar (Nov 16, '09)

An anxious wait in Afghanistan
While the United States agonizes over its Afghan policy, even with the re-election of President Hamid Karzai now settled, the country remains in limbo. Warlords and powerbrokers jockey behind fortified walls in the capital, while the United Nations and other organizations keep their heads down. Only the Taliban appear unfazed. - Derek Henry Flood (Nov 16, '09)

Sino-Indian rivalry fuels Nepal's turmoil
As Nepal's Maoists intensify efforts to paralyze the central government, the group's mass protests and provocative acts over a political impasse threaten to plunge the nation back into civil conflict. With the Maoists claiming the support of China, and a pro-India government in place in Kathmandu, a barely concealed proxy contest is developing between Beijing and Delhi for a strategic advantage in the Himalayas. - Peter Lee (Nov 13, '09)

Welcome home, war
Wars, even the most distant ones, come home in strange, unnerving ways - as Americans have just discovered with the killings at Fort Hood. In less noticed but no less crucial ways, America's wars are now coming home, with techniques developed in the crucibles of Iraq and Afghanistan migrating from Baghdad and Kandahar. - Alfred W McCoy (Nov 13, '09)

US air supply drop turns deadly
An American air supply drop that went horribly wrong is the latest incident to provoke Afghan anger. Up to 25 United States and Afghan personnel, plus several civilians, were reportedly killed or injured in insurgent-riddled Bala Murghab district, with everything going from bad to worse when two paratroopers went missing in a fast-flowing river. - Mustafa Saber (Nov 12, '09)

Sri Lanka split over war honors
A widening rift between Sri Lanka's armed forces chief General Sarath Fonseka and President Mahinda Rajapaksa over who should take credit for the defeat of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is adding spice to competition ahead of a presidential election, and increasing concern for the country's democratic future. - Sudha Ramachandran (Nov 12, '09)

Afghans fear infiltration from Iran
Every day, scores of refugees return to Afghanistan from Iran through a small, poorly supervised border town in Herat province. Most of them have been kicked out by Tehran, which, say helpless border police, is also sending across both Afghan and foreign fighters to join the Taliban-led insurgency. - Zia Ahmadi and Mustafa Saber (Nov 12, '09)

Indian stocks face power shortage
Strong gains in Indian equity markets have been helped by government stimulus spending, inflows of foreign cash, and improved company earnings. The driving power behind all three could soon be running on empty. - Kunal Kumar Kundu (Nov 12, '09)

Complacency creeps back in Mumbai
Life is buzzing again in Mumbai, almost back to normal nearly a year after Pakistani-trained gunmen rampaged there, killing more than 200. But there are doubts the city has learnt from the violent attacks. Regular government pledges of vigilance and anti-terrorism conferences may help create some sense of urgency, but the sight of under-trained, dozing policemen does not. - Raja Murthy (Nov 12, '09)

SINOGRAPH
A sacrificial lamb
Discussions between India and China on disputed border issues could be hastened by Washington's need to find a political solution for Afghanistan, something that could compromise the cause of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader who donated "his" Tawang to New Delhi. - Francesco Sisci (Nov 11, '09)

Afghans reap bumper harvest
Farmers in the north of Afghanistan who survived years of drought are now reaping a bumper wheat harvest. The gains are spreading to villagers in the region, while the surplus from the country's bread basket is helping to cut the need for imports. - Abdul Latif Sahak (Nov 11, '09)

Drones: A slam-dunk weapons system
In Afghanistan and Pakistan, drones seem to be the only things that "work". They are not, however, the first wonder weapons so hailed. The atomic bomb, Vietnam's electronic battlefield, Star Wars, "smart bombs" and "netcentric warfare". All failed, just as drones will. But it made no difference, all "succeeded" at home; yet another mini-sector of the military-industrial complex was born. - Tom Engelhardt (Nov 11, '09)

Pentagon starts an Afghan building boom
Salsa and karaoke nights for United States troops have been cut in Kandahar province, but elsewhere in Afghanistan the Pentagon is digging in with massive construction contracts to private companies that will make life all the more comfortable, and safer, for ever more troops. - Nick Turse (Nov 10, '09)

Afghan cash starts going to China
Metallurgical Corp of China has started work on developing the vast Afghan copper deposits at Aynak, south of Kabul. That is good news for the hundreds of Chinese workers at the site, protected by Afghan and US forces. Critics say it is not such good news for the country, despite the millions of dollars that will go to the Afghan treasury. - Syed Fazl-e-Haider (Nov 10, '09)

India probes Maoists' foreign links
Indian security forces poised to launch a major offensive against Maoist rebels say there is growing evidence of foreign support for the insurgency. It is emerging that remnants of Sri Lanka's Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam are training the Maoists, funds are arriving from Nepal and weapons from Myanmar, Bangladesh and possibly China. - Siddharth Srivastava (Nov 10, '09)

Maldives faces up to extremism
A puritanical version of Islam is taking root in the Maldives, driving the tropical paradise towards a path to religious extremism. Not only are cultural practices changing, but an increasing number of Maldivian youth are being drawn into global jihadi groups, with many now fighting in Pakistan and Afghanistan. - Sudha Ramachandran (Nov 10, '09)

Dalai Lama calm in the eye of a storm
While the visit by the Dalai Lama to the disputed area of Arunachal Pradesh in India has not helped already frosty relations between India and China - some even talk of war - the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader is possibly closer to the reality when he points out "my visit here is non-political". - Saransh Sehgal (Nov 10, '09)

'Undeployables' sent to the Afghan front
As the United States debates whether to send tens of thousands of extra troops to Afghanistan, an already overstretched military is struggling to meet its deployment numbers. One place it is targeting is military personnel who go absent without leave, and who then are caught or turn themselves in. Many of these soldiers are already "damaged or even broken". - Dahr Jamail and Sarah Lazare (Nov 9, '09)

Dalai Lama at apex of Sino-Indian tensions
Along with the tension created by the Dalai Lama's visit to the disputed Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, shifts within the Tibetan movement, India's evolving geopolitical stature and the United States' growing economic ties with China are converging to create dangerous instability in Sino-Indian relations. - Peter Lee (Nov 9, '09)

When war comes home
The massive Fort Hood military base in Texas, where a major last week gunned down 13 people, is one of the most heavily deployed facilities for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fort Hood soldiers have also accounted for more suicides than any other army post since the invasion of Iraq in 2003; this year alone, the base is averaging over 10 suicides a month. - Dahr Jamail (Nov 9, '09)

It's payback time in Kabul
In return for their pledges to guarantee huge majorities for Hamid Karzai in the August 20 election, the Afghan president had to make promises to a number of power brokers and warlords in the provinces of key ministries in the next government. Now Karzai has to deliver. - Gareth Porter (Nov 9, '09)

Sri Lanka in race to keep trade pact
Thousands of Sri Lankan garment jobs are at risk as Colombo faces the loss of European trade concessions if the country is found not to be implementing numerous international conventions covering human and labor rights and other issues. (Nov 9, '09)

'Cronies and warlords' wait in the wings
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has pulled no punches in saying that "cronies and warlords" should have no place in the future of a democratic Afghanistan. But the point is, cabinet and provincial governor appointments are a part of a complex political contract in Kabul and it is extremely doubtful that Karzai is in a position to oblige Britain, or any other country, even if he wanted to. - M K Bhadrakumar (Nov 9, '09)

UNDER THE AFPAK VOLCANO, Part 2
Breaking up is (not) hard to do
The Pentagon well knows that AfPak is the key land bridge between Iran to the west and China and India to the east; and that Iran has all the energy that both China and India need. The balkanization of AfPak would neutralize China's drive for land access from Xinjiang across Pakistan to the Arabian Sea, via the port of Gwadar in Balochistan province. - Pepe Escobar (Nov 6, '09)
This is the concluding article in a two-part report.PART 1: Welcome to Pashtunistan

India on brink of Maoist offensive
More than 70,000 paramilitary troops are poised to begin Operation Green Hunt, a massive offensive against Maoist rebels in India's northeast "Red Corridor", should a final appeal to the Maoists to sit down with the government for talks fail. - Ranjit Devraj (Nov 5, '09)

US puts its faith in Pakistan's military
A deal hatched between the Pakistani military and United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cleared the path for Hamid Karzai to be re-elected for a second term as Afghanistan's president. With Karzai's challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, now out of the picture, Pakistan's military will actively mediate between Washington and the Taliban. Along with Abdullah, the big loser is Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari. - Syed Saleem Shahzad
(Nov 5, '09)

UNDER THE AFPAK VOLCANO, Part 1
Welcome to Pashtunistan
A rough beast, its hour come at last, Pashtunistan is already being born across the strategic corridor straddling eastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan. If the Pakistani Taliban and their Pashtun allies manage to establish full control, with or without jihadi support, an Islamic emirate will for all practical purposes be constituted. - Pepe Escobar (Nov 5, '09)
This is the first article in a two-part report.

Russia, India and China go their ways
Despite its best efforts, Russia failed at a recent trilateral summit to get India and China to agree to a common regional initiative regarding Afghanistan. This failure ensures that the United States can now press ahead with its own strategy of striking grand bargains individually with these key players. - M K Bhadrakumar (Nov 4, '09)

Obama's world outreach teetering
Just months after well received speeches in Turkey and Egypt, setbacks from Afghanistan to the West Bank to Pakistan, Iraq and Iran have seen belief plunge in the Muslim world over United States President Barack Obama and his plans for progress. With this, anti-US sentiment is back on the rise. - Jim Lobe (Nov 4, '09)

Jaipur blaze challenges oil priorities
A week-long fatal oil inferno close to the famed Indian "Pink City" of Jaipur, soon after a similar blaze in Puerto Rico, has raised concerns about placing oil depots close to population centers and local authorities' failure to limit residential and other developments in their proximity. The priorities of Indian Oil Corp's management are also being challenged. - Raja Murthy (Nov 4, '09)

The polling booths are finally closed
The Independent Election Commission in Afghanistan has vigorously defended its decision to hand President Hamid Karzai a second five-year term following the withdrawal of his challenger, Abdullah Abdullah. At the same time, the commission makes it clear the matter is not up for debate - it's time to move on, like it or not. - Derek Henry Flood (Nov 3, '09)

Fighting the 'good' war
Afghanistan is not Washington's "good war", though it is now characterized in that fashion not only by the Republican right wing but by President Barack Obama and many Democrats who were critical of the "Bush" Iraq war. - Jack A Smith (Nov 3, '09)

DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
Afghanistan as a bailout state
In Washington's terms, the disaster unfolding daily in Afghanistan is not the definition of failure. In economic lingo, it now falls into the category of "too big to fail", which means upping the ante; America's leaders always opt for more in counter-insurgency disasters rather than cutting their losses. - Tom Engelhardt (Nov 3, '09)

Now it's a one-horse race
In Kabul's cavernous loya jirga council tent, built to signify the hope and reunification of Afghanistan, Abdullah Abdullah's dramatic withdrawal from the presidential race has set the stage for even more discord and instability; people are in a more vulnerable place than before the start of the election. - Derek Henry Flood (Nov 2, '09)

Sikhs take stock of 1984
In October 1984, the assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi led to the massacre of thousands of Sikhs. India now has a Sikh premier and ruling Congress party leaders say they have won the hearts of the Sikh community. But not all Sikhs are appeased; they are still waiting for justice. - Sudha Ramachandran (Nov 2, '09)

US goofs the Afghan election
Presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah's withdrawal from a runoff that he had scant chance of winning ends what had become a mere sideshow to more significant events unfolding in Kabul. President Hamid Karzai can now firmly take center stage. He has turned the tables on Western powers that would have seen him vilified and overthrown, and, if the rift worsens, he could yet blow the lid on an explosive issue: the role of foreign troops in the narcotics trade. - M K Bhadrakumar (Nov 2, '09)

Al-Qaeda has plans for its new recruit
With the recent appointment of Ilyas Kashmiri as head of its military committee, al-Qaeda has recruited a veteran who learned his trade on the battlefields of Afghanistan and during the insurgency against India in disputed Kashmir. Ilyas also took with him his elite 313 Brigade, which al-Qaeda claims it now wants to unleash. A foiled plot in Denmark could be a prelude. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Nov 2, '09)

SPENGLER
The idiot twins of American idealism
It is mad to believe, as the George W Bush administration did, that the United States can remake the world in its own image. It is even madder to turn foreign policy into an affirmative action program for disadvantaged or dying cultures. In such lean times, Washington's "realists" do not seem focused on what should be a core interest, fostering viable partners for the future and jettisoning those that are beyond viability. - Spengler (Nov 2, '09)

Why Pakistanis see US as the bigger threat
Most Pakistanis are anti-Taliban, but they are even more anti-United States, as United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton learned during her visit to the country last week. The view persists that Pakistan is fighting an American war; that before 2002 there was no terrorist threat in Pakistan; and that the threat will vanish once US forces withdraw from the region. - Muhammad Idrees Ahmad (Nov 2, '09)

NATO forces turn to warlords
Afghan warlords are earning millions of dollars from North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces to guard forward operating bases and supply convoys. These ruthless private armies are reviled by much of the public, and are likely to turn their rifles on NATO forces should the protection money dry up. - Gareth Porter (Oct 30, '09)

Europe stoops to conquer the Uzbeks
A controversial decision by Europe to lift an arms embargo on Uzbekistan comes as alarm bells are ringing in Central Asian capitals over a possible spillover of the Afghan war. Tashkent may be the key to a northern supply corridor, but regional leaders - increasingly skeptical of the West's will to win and the prospect of "Afghanization" - are bracing for a Taliban victory. - M K Bhadrakumar (Oct 29, '09)

Strong messages in Pakistan
The primary job of United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her visit to Pakistan is to relay the message to both its civilian and military leadership that it would be wise to join the US in fighting extremists as part of the war in Afghanistan. The massive car bomb that killed 105 people in Peshawar on the day of her arrival is the militants' message. (Oct 29, '09)

SPEAKING FREELY
Hamid Karzai: Afghanistan's Diem
Fresh revelations of the Hamid Karzai government's opium trade links and the alleged involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency render the United States role in Afghanistan more murky and contradictory. With all the attention on General Stanley McChrystal's troop increase demand, historical perspective has been lost. We are back in Ngo Dinh Diem's Saigon of 1963. - Michael Wallach (Oct 29, '09)

Peshawar blast adds to investor woes
The Peshawar car bomb blast that killed at least 105 people on Wednesday will add further pressure on overseas investors to turn their backs on strife-torn Pakistan, after foreign direct investment tumbled by more than 58% last month from a year ago. - Syed Fazl-e-Haider (Oct 29, '09)

Rivals fiddle while Kabul burns
As President Hamid Karzai and his rival Abdullah Abdullah scramble to secure political alliances and argue technicalities ahead of next month's presidential runoff, a brazen attack on a United Nations guesthouse in Afghanistan's capital highlights the Taliban's resolve to derail the vote. Monday's violence underscores that even a resounding win for Karzai does not guarantee he will form a strong, credible government. - Abubakar Siddique (Oct 29, '09)

Bollywood gets political
Times are changing in Bollywood. No longer just a song-and-dance film industry, India's massive movie machine is moving ahead of the curve both politically and socially, with recent productions, one featuring box office star, Shahrukh Khan, pushing viewers to address issues of communal relations and religious intolerance. - Noor Iqbal (Oct 29, '09)

Britain's Afghan role in question
The British government has hinted that the Barack Obama administration's "wavering" on the war in Afghanistan is hampering progress there. This ignores the fact that Britain's own military contribution is undermined by its unfavorable colonial legacy, poorly received anti-narcotics campaigns and tense relations with a key Afghan player, Iran. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Oct 28, '09)

Taliban take over Afghan province
Following the withdrawal of United States troops from key bases, the Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan's Nuristan province. It is now under Qari Ziaur Rahman, a Taliban commander with strong ties to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. With this haven, the Taliban's first goal is to disrupt next month's run-off presidential election, then to assist militants in Pakistan. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Oct 28, '09)

India-China nudge forward on climate issues
An agreement between China and India to increase their cooperation on renewable energy and power efficiency indicates their desire to tackle climate-change concerns, even as they continue to oppose Western demands for binding cuts to greenhouse gas emissions. (Oct 28, '09)

US report tarnishes Sri Lanka victory
A United States report on human-rights abuses during the Sri Lankan government's final offensive on the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam finds that while the rebel group used child soldiers and human shields, the government shelled civilian populations and badly neglected refugees' rights. (Oct 28, '09)

Helicopter rumors refuse to die
The United States is battling yet another rumor in Afghanistan, that Western forces are using helicopters to transport Taliban fighters from the volatile south to the north of the country. Officials have dismissed the claims as rubbish, but locals are sticking to their stories. - Ahmad Kawoosh (Oct 28, '09)

India lost in 'love jihad'
Religious groups in India's Kerala state say young Muslim men are luring non-Muslim girls into marriage as part of an organized campaign of forced conversions to Islam. Dubbed "love jihad", the phenomenon has sparked police investigations and national security fears. It has even united Hindu and Christian groups previously at loggerheads over the sensitive issue of religious conversions. - Sudha Ramachandran (Oct 27, '09)

Welcome to 2025
An affiliate of the United States Central Intelligence Agency has predicted that America's global pre-eminence will gradually disappear over the next 15 or so years. Six recent developments - including reports on America's economic rivals exploring a diminished role for the US dollar and Chinese rebuffs of the US over strengthening sanctions on Iran - indicate we are already entering that era. - Michael T Klare (Oct 27, '09)

Kerry argues for counter-insurgency lite
The death on Monday of 14 United States troops in two helicopter accidents - the single-deadliest day for US forces in Afghanistan in more than four years - only adds to the urgency for the administration of President Barack Obama to settle on its war strategy. Democratic Senator John Kerry, following an extended visit to the country, spells out his vision for counter-insurgency operations. - Jim Lobe (Oct 27, '09)

Afghan fury at Koran burning claims
Allegations that American forces burned copies of the Koran during a recent raid in central-eastern Afghanistan have led to a series of protests, including two in the capital, Kabul. The United States military denies the charges, saying Taliban insurgents are behind the burnings. - Abdullah Obaidi (Oct 27, '09)

India's nuclear drive sparks safety fears
Since the civilian nuclear deal last year with the United States ended India's decades of isolation from the international atomic market, New Delhi has begun a vast drive to significantly increase its use of nuclear energy. The promise of clean and affordable power has strong government backing, but fears remain over the nation's patchy nuclear safety record. - Siddharth Srivastava (Oct 26, '09)

NATO plays a waiting game
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization faces a crucial decision on Afghanistan, with the top United States commander in the country, General Stanley McChrystal, asking the body for 40,000 more troops. Until next month's re-run of Afghanistan's presidential election comes to a close, NATO's defense ministers aren't committing to anything. (Oct 26, '09)

DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
Failed war president or prince of peace?
Should he take the peace-maker route, United States President Barack Obama stands a chance of success. History suggests that the path of war will be a surefire loser. The past half-century makes clear what the US military can achieve - destruction and mayhem; and what it has failed to do in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan - deliver a genuine and lasting victory. - Nick Turse (Oct 26, '09)

Toxic alert as US ship heads for India
Indian environmentalists claim a United States ship on the way to the country's ship-breaking "graveyard", Alang, is the latest toxic vessel engaged in trickery to avoid port-of-origin detoxification laws. Eyeing profits, the 4,000 unskilled laborers who would tear the possibly mercury- and asbestos-laden vessel apart with basic tools don't seem to share their concerns. - Sudha Ramachandran (Oct 23, '09)

Where Pakistan's militants go to ground
The Pakistani military is taking the fight to militants in the South Waziristan tribal area, even as the United States takes its Afghan fight to Pakistan. This draws Pakistan into an ever-deepening quagmire, one in which militants are carving havens. One of these is the Lyari area of Karachi, where an odd assortment of groups - including the Iranian Jundallah and anti-Shi'ite terror outfits - rub shoulders beyond the reach of the law. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Oct 22, '09)

The spy who lost his thumb drives
American space scientist, missile defense expert and leading lunar researcher, Stewart Nozette, arrested this week in a Federal Bureau of Investigation sting, is known to have expressed his willingness to work for Israeli intelligence. What is not known is what he did with two thumb drives he took to "Country A", which is speculated to be India. - Peter J Brown (Oct 22, '09)

Islamabad dismayed by 'dithering' US
The view that the United States will eventually abandon Pakistan, leaving it alone to fend off insurgent groups and suicide bombers, is pervasive in Islamabad. And when US President Barack Obama appears perplexed over questions on Afghanistan such as "How many troops?" and "For what purpose?", it does nothing to instill confidence in a besieged ally. The fine line between "rethinking" and "dithering" is fast fading. - Zahid U Kramet (Oct 22, '09)

America, condoms and the Taliban
The United States didn't seem to care that it was unprecedented for a tribal chief like Afghan President Hamid Karzai to be made to admit defeat in front of his people - as he did in a press conference to announce a run-off election. Whether Karzai was efficient or corrupt is no more the issue. The crux now is the Afghan perception that Westerners use their friends like condoms - to be discarded after use. - M K Bhadrakumar (Oct 22, '09)

China's navy sails past India's dock
Three Chinese naval vessels do not make a fleet, but they do make a statement. By sending them to patrol off the coast of Somalia as part of the multinational force operating there, in effect, China is saying to India, "We're back." - Peter J Brown (Oct 21, '09)

Iran trapped in a ring of unrest
Whether the United States directed Jundallah to conduct the weekend's terrorist attack in Iran is irrelevant. What is significant is that the Americans have created - through their actions in Afghanistan and Pakistan - a strategic environment in which such attacks are both practically and ideologically possible. If Iran is to rid itself of Jundallah, and the close ties the group has to organized crime, it has to actively lobby for the exit of foreign forces from the region. - Mahan Abedin (Oct 21, '09)

Herat mourns a rebel commander
The funeral of a powerful rebel commander, Ghulam Yahya Akbari, killed this month in a firefight with foreign and Afghan troops in Herat province in the west of the country, drew over 5,000 people. Labeled a dangerous insurgent by the government and foreign forces but revered by locals, the question lingers: was he a hero, a villain, or a bit of both? - Mustafa Saber (Oct 21, '09)

DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
A 'long war' in the blowback world
America tends to think of "blowback" as something in the past, something that ended with the attacks of September 11, 2001. But in the Greater Middle East, one lesson seems clear enough: for 30 years, the United States has been deeply involved in creating, financing and sometimes arming an entire blowback world that will strike again. - Tom Engelhardt (Oct 21, '09)

THE ROVING EYE
Jundallah versus the mullahtariat
Sunday's suicide bombing in Iran has set off a war: it's the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps against Pakistani Balochistan-based Jundallah and the massive drug trafficking network in the area. In terms of the turbulent, internal political equation in Iran, the show of force against a key element of the mullahtariat could not be more devastating. - Pepe Escobar (Oct 20, '09)

China opens a new front in Kashmir
China, by issuing residents from Indian-administered Kashmir visas different from those given to Indians from other parts of the country, is treating the disputed area as a sovereign entity. This is a surprising departure from Beijing's traditional policy of leaving the Kashmir issue to India and Pakistan to resolve. Delhi suspects a hidden agenda. - Sudha Ramachandran (Oct 20, '09)

For whom the Afghan poll tolls
Once viewed as a chance to give Afghans a political voice and as a signpost of progress for the international community amid rapidly deteriorating security and governance, Afghanistan's vitiated elections now seem an altogether different animal. Lost in the whirlwind of fraud and politicking are the millions of Afghans who did risk their lives to vote, only to find backroom deals and decision-makers steal their right to choose. - Aunohita Mojumdar (Oct 20, '09)

India's stocks in overreach mode
The strength of India's stock markets, with the benchmark Sensex more than doubling since early March, has not been backed by any substantial improvement in corporate performance and there is little indication that company revenues are going to improve. - Kunal Kumar Kundu (Oct 20, '09)

SPENGLER
When the cat's away, the mice kill each other
It is most astonishing that official Washington seems oblivious to the crack-up of American influence occurring in front of its eyes. Without America to mediate and restrain, each of the small powers in the Middle East has no choice but to test its strength against the others. Those who wish to reduce American power may get what they wish for, but they might not like it. (Oct 19, '09)

A new battle begins in Pakistan
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)

CHAN AKYA
Us and them
Controlling the renewed menace of the Taliban will involve actions in the United States and Europe to destroy the demand for heroin and oil; the twin fuels of Islamic fundamentalism. Getting this achieved may not be the most popular course of action, but it is more likely to succeed than mere adjustments to the current war strategy. Historical evidence involving the decline of the British Empire favors the notion, too. (Oct 19, '09)

UN's caste declaration riles India
A decision by the United Nations to make caste discrimination a human-rights abuse is opposed by New Delhi. It's a sword that will cut both ways for India as it will hopefully improve opportunities for Dalits, but it simultaneously underscores the country's feudalistic and discriminatory ethos. - Neeta Lal (Oct 19, '09)

Going 'deep', not 'big', in Afghanistan
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. - Gareth Porter (Oct 16, '09)

The Dragon spews fire at the Elephant
Indian lobbyists - with an eye on profiting from arms sales with the United States worth billions of dollars - are whipping up war hysteria and xenophobia over China, and Delhi is playing along. Against this electrified diplomatic backdrop, the state-run People's Daily tore into India this week. The relationship could nosedive further if the Dalai Lama's approved visit to India's disputed areas with China goes ahead.- M K Bhadrakumar (Oct 16, '09)

Pakistan aid bill has explosive impact
The same day that United States President Barack Obama signed a bill that triples the current level of non-military aid the US provides to Pakistan, the Pakistani Taliban mounted the latest in a 10-day series of devastating attacks on key army and police facilities that highlight Washington's concerns about the threat posed by the militants. - Jim Lobe (Oct 16, '09)

Sri Lanka budget challenge for IMF
The International Monetary Fund, returning to Sri Lanka after a more than two-year absence, faces an immediate challenge to its latest support program as the government seeks to postpone passing a budget until after forthcoming elections. (Oct 16, '09)

Maoists go on pilgrimage in China
Nepal's top Maoist leader and former prime minister, Prachanda, took time out on his trip this week to China to visit the birthplace of Mao Zedong. Prachanda has a deep-seated interest in original communist concepts, and in comparing them with present-day realities. Beijing is looking for a dependable ally in Kathmandu, and Prachanda believes his Maoists can take on this role, he tells Asia Times Online. - Dhruba Adhikary (Oct 15, '09)

India takes off against 'Red Taliban'
The Indian Air Force has requested government permission to fire in self-defense should its helicopters or crew operating in Maoist areas come under attack, marking a significant change in India's counter-insurgency strategy against what are now being called the "Red Taliban". - Sudha Ramachandran (Oct 15, '09)

Taliban have a free ride in Kunduz
Once one of the most stable provinces in Afghanistan, parts of Kunduz are falling under Taliban control, so much so that the insurgents ride around with impunity in captured police vehicles. The governor of Kunduz blames Pakistan for the emergence of the insurgents, while others point fingers at the United States. - Gul Rahim Niazmand (Oct 15, '09)

AN ATol EXCLUSIVE
Al-Qaeda's guerrilla chief lays out strategy
The top field commander of al-Qaeda, in an exclusive interview with Asia Times Online, not only proves he is alive and well after repeated drone attacks and delineates in broad strokes al-Qaeda's strategy. The Afghanistan trap, baited on September 11, 2001, has been sprung, says formidable guerrilla leader Ilyas Kashmiri, and events from Gaza to Mumbai should not be seen in isolation but as part of the master plan to bloody the United States and its proxies. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Oct 14, '09)

Obama beset by America's far right
Neo-conservative heavyweights are working overtime to paint United States President Barack Obama's foreign policy as designed to weaken and constrain American power by abandoning the more aggressive policies of his predecessor, George W Bush. The Nobel committee's decision to honor Obama, they say, only hastens America's decline. - Jim Lobe(Oct 14, '09)

Hawks still link Taliban to al-Qaeda
The relationship between Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and the Taliban has been a central issue in White House discussions on Afghanistan strategy that began last month, with security officials insisting that Afghan insurgent groups have "much closer ties to al-Qaeda now than they did before 9/11". - Gareth Porter (Oct 14, '09)

Tough guys don't need to dance
If United States President Barack Obama could silence the endless cries for more troops and more war emanating from the military and foreign policy "experts" around him, he would hear the voices of today's Norman Mailers, of today's tough-minded dissenters. Were he to do so, he might yet avoid repeating Lyndon B Johnson's biggest blunder - and so avoid suffering that president's political fate as well. - William J Astore (Oct 13, '09)

Kerry-Lugar bill a Catch-22 for Pakistan
Conditions attached in the United States Congress to the Kerry-Lugar bill - which grants Pakistan US$1.5 billion annually over the next five years - have rubbed some in Islamabad the wrong way. Leading voices berate the bill as turning Pakistan into an American neo-colony. The dilemma is whether to align with the US to combat militancy, or take a principled stand in support of a weak democracy. - Zahid U Kramet (Oct 13, '09)

Pakistan warns India to 'back off'
New Delhi has the capacity to play a decisive role in crushing the Taliban insurgency, which is what makes the Pakistani military establishment extremely anxious in the developing political scenario on the Afghan chessboard. When the Taliban struck the Indian embassy in Kabul on Thursday, killing 17 people, the timing may have been coincidence, maybe not. - M K Bhadrakumar (Oct 9, '09)

IAEA's not-so-secret satellite game
Iran's decision to reject a protocol enabling the International Atomic Energy Agency to conduct spot inspections of its nuclear sites means enforcing safeguard agreements will become more risky and more satellite-driven. Israel's desire to engage India's space-based surveillance assets is also likely to intensify. - Peter J Brown (Oct 9, '09)

War of the Worlds redux: Kabul, 2009
Sometimes it takes 66 pages to tell the story of a foreign invasion - as in the case of Afghan War commander General Stanley McChrystal's recent report to the United States Congress. Sometimes a century old novel can do the trick. H G Wells' 1898 sci-fi classic The War of the Worlds, old as it is, offers a rare example of how Afghans may see the high-tech American war machine. - Tom Engelhardt (Oct 9, '09)

Rural India set to ring in 3G
The expansion of faster mobile-phone services to India is expected to help transform business practices, boost growth and add another dimension to education in rural areas. (Oct 8, '09)

Heads or tails, Obama loses
Proponents in the United States of an increased counter-insurgency (COIN) in Afghanistan want more troops. Those favoring a focus on counter-terrorism want to maintain force levels while stepping up special operations. President Barack Obama will be damned whichever option he chooses; perhaps he'd best flip a coin. - Jim Lobe (Oct 8, '09)

Tortillas taste just great in zero gravity
Space food has evolved since the toothpaste-tube purees of the early days, with Japanese noodles, Chinese "moon cakes", Indian curries, and popularly, tortillas on offer to astronauts. But the 21st-century versions do little to ease the difficulties of eating in zero gravity, according to the world's first celebrity space chef. - Raja Murthy (Oct 7, '09)

US balks at Pakistan war-zone factories
A plan to establish factories in strife-torn areas of Pakistan to produce goods for duty-free exports is being held up in the United States over concerns the goods will undermine jobs in America. - Syed Fazl-e-Haider (Oct 7, '09)

THE ROVING EYE
Stuck in Kabul, with Saigon blues again
What is now being performed for Washington galleries is the dance of the generals by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, National Security Adviser retired General Jim Jones and top man in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal. The Pentagon and its experts argue the US should "Afghanize" the war - but the staggering financial black hole is just getting bigger as the US slouches towards "Chaos-istan". - Pepe Escobar (Oct 7, '09)

India plays down Chinese incursions
Reports of Chinese incursions into Indian territory are on the rise, with alleged firefights, air space infringements and graffiti. But New Delhi has downplayed them, saying there are diplomatic mechanisms for such issues. At the same time, the Indian military is making its own assessment. - Priyanka Bhardwaj (Oct 6, '09)

US stands right beside Islamabad
The Barack Obama administration now believes that the Pakistani Taliban have effectively over-reached and that Pakistan's elite, including the army, has come to see it and its al-Qaeda allies as a much greater threat to the country than ever before. - Jim Lobe (Oct 6, '09)

More power to Afghan warlords
The West's strategy of promoting democracy in Kabul while taking on the Taliban in the field with unproven Afghan troops and overstretched allied forces has left it staring at defeat in Afghanistan. The plan ignores an alternative that succeeded spectacularly in 2001: arming tribal warlords and turning them loose on the Taliban. - Richard M Bennett (Oct 6, '09)

Pakistan goes for militants' jugular
The pieces are all in place for Pakistan to launch an all-out attack on the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda in the Waziristan tribal areas on the Afghan border. The formerly reluctant military is fully on board, the United States is actively assisting with intelligence, and most important, the financial lifeblood of the militants is being squeezed as never before. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Oct 6, '09)

Sex and security in Afghanistan
Apart from rollicking romps at the United States Embassy in Kabul, allegations have emerged of private security contractors in Afghanistan frequenting brothels notorious for housing trafficked women. - David Isenberg (Oct 5, '09)

Manmohan's smile masks Indian woes
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's rare relaxed manner at the Pittsburgh Group of 20 summit reflected well his own and India's growing international stature. At home, there is less to cheer, with vital mega-buck industrial projects bogged down amid opposition from marginalized citizens and Maoist militants. - Santwana Bhattacharya (Oct 5, '09)

India and China profess brotherhood
With flashy ads and eloquent statements, India congratulated China on its 60th anniversary, with Beijing in turn touting its commitment to India's economic development. Beneath the surface, however, a number of issues simmer, particularly border disputes. Sreeram Chaulia (Oct 2, '09)

CHAN AKYA
One man's terrorist ...
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)

China maps an end to the Afghan war
A senior Chinese official has publicly put forward an unusually forthright and timely view on the Afghanistan conflict, proposing concrete steps to be taken towards unlocking the stalemate there. This, he argues, is an Afghan issue, while al-Qaeda is not a big factor. Not the least important: US troops should go home. - M K Bhadrakumar (Oct 1, '09)

If Afghanistan is its test, NATO is failing
As it celebrates its 60th birthday this year, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is cracking, with its internal politics having become fractious to the point of dysfunction. What was once billed as the most powerful military alliance in history will surely outlive its failures in Afghanistan and its adjustment to new global threats. But it may survive in name alone. - John Feffer (Sep 30, '09)

Obama looks escalation in the eye
President Barack Obama faces a fateful choice over a Pentagon request for an additional 40,000 American troops for the war in Afghanistan - an increase of nearly 60%. Much like a turning point in the Vietnam War in 1965, the decision will be shaped by fears in the military and the White House of being blamed for defeat. - Gareth Porter (Sep 29, '09)

A new cold war in Kashmir
The Kashmir dispute ranks with Palestine as one of the oldest, most intractable disputes in the world. That does not mean that it cannot be resolved. Only that the solution will not be completely to the satisfaction of any one party, one country, or one ideology. Negotiators will have to be prepared to deviate from the "party line". - Arundhati Roy (Sep 29, '09)

US orchestrates Pakistan-India talks
Officially, the high-level talks between Pakistan and India at the weekend did not result in any agreement for the resumption of the stalled peace process between the countries. Behind the scenes, though, with Washington pulling the strings, the groundwork has already been laid for a process that could see Islamabad and Delhi settling their differences, especially over Afghanistan. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Sep 29, '09)

India plans all-out attack on Maoists
New Delhi is putting the finishing touches on a huge offensive aimed at the long-running Naxalite insurgency in India's east, with tens of thousands of troops preparing for a coordinated assault with the air force and elite ground units. The Naxalites, with their stranglehold on the country's critical coal industry, are often described as India's gravest internal threat. - Siddharth Srivastava (Sep 28, '09)

Pakistan pushed to its limits
An annual US$1.5 billion assistance program for Pakistan is expected to soon pass into law in the United States. At the same time, a meeting in New York of high-powered donors has pledged aid to the country. In return, Pakistan appears ready to go where it has so far feared to tread - into the South and North Waziristan tribal areas, home of the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Sep 25, '09)

Obama makes a plea for Pakistan
Insurgency is spilling into Pakistan from the war in Afghanistan and experts fear a full-scale terror campaign that engulfs the whole country. In this scenario, American resources would be insufficient, so President Barack Obama is using this week's UN meeting to drum up international support. It's a tough sell, and the US could find itself increasingly alone in Islamabad. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Sep 24, '09)

T Rex dinosaur tale gets a China twist
It turns out the legendary Tyrannosaurus Rex has a 125 million-year-old Chinese ancestor. Skeletal remains of a relatively tiny three-meter-long "Raptorex Kriegsteini" - also known as "jaws on feet" - smuggled out of China have shaken established evolutionary theories about one of the most powerful creatures to have ever walked Earth. Raja Murthy (Sep 24, '09)

US perches in an Afghan eagle's nest
When President Barack Obama spiked plans for a missile shield in Europe, the international community was taken aback. Yet, Washington is leaving nothing to chance. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently spoke of a "defense umbrella" in the Persian Gulf if Iran refuses to agree to nuclear inspections. Most likely, this "umbrella" will be a quick-striking military force overseen from US bases in Afghanistan. - Zahid U Kramet (Sep 23, '09)

The US on a new mission in Pakistan
General Stanley McChrystal, the top United States commander in the Afghan war, has given a blunt warning of possible mission failure. Now the Barack Obama administration has adopted a two-prong approach towards Pakistan, which it sees as inseparable from Afghanistan, to prevent any such failure there. Aid will continue to flow into Pakistan, and expect some unusual guests in Washington. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Sep 23, '09)

BJP gets much-needed ballot boost
Despite a massive defeat at the hands of the ruling Congress party in the May general elections, India's Bhartiya Janata Party has pulled in surprisingly good results in recent state polls, grabbing nine of 14 available seats. These by-elections don't alter political equations in Delhi, but they have immense value as a psychological blow for the Congress. - Neeta Lal (Sep 23, '09)

The general and his Afghan labyrinth
The leaked assessment of the war in Afghanistan by top United States commander General Stanley McChrystal, obviously an effort to force President Barack Obama to agree to a significant increase in US troops, presents a highly discouraging picture. Even more pessimistic are McChrystal's views on the Integrated Civilian-Military Campaign Plan, which he agreed to just weeks ago. - Gareth Porter (Sep 23, '09)

Nepal beset by chaos and conjecture
Maoists in Nepal are taking every opportunity to spark public chaos as means of breaking a complex political impasse. Contrary to their pledge in 2006, to abandon armed insurgency for the world of competitive politics, Maoist cadres are now carrying out attacks - both verbal and physical - on their rivals, leaving innocent people vulnerable and a government in turmoil. - Dhruba Adhikary (Sep 22, '09)

Businessmen feel the pain
Abductions of businessmen in Balkh have prompted many company bosses to suspend trade and take their money out of Afghanistan. And with the ongoing standoff between the Balkh governor and the central government, people fear violence beyond kidnapping could break out at any moment. - Ahmad Kawoosh(Sep 22, '09)

INTERVIEW
'Now, we don't cry anymore'
During his time as Afghanistan's deputy security chief from 2006 to 2008, Lieutenant General Abdul Hadi Khalid specialized in border policing and internal security, and oversaw the largest drug seizure in history. Still a leading thinker on ethno-politics and crime, he explains why the United States must "Afghanize" the war, and why Uzbekistan is the most important nation in Central Asia. - Derek Henry Flood (Sep 22, '09)

Blood and thunder in embattled Balkh
In Afghanistan's Balkh province, the governor supports a rival of President Hamid Karzai and accuses Kabul of distributing arms to various warlords in the province. Kabul charges that the governor is creating a fiefdom and killing off rivals. And the Taliban? They appear to not even be a factor in the battle for Balkh. - P J Tobia (Sep 22, '09)

US wins minds, Afghan hearts are lost
Why is it that Afghan Taliban fighters seem so bold and effective, while the Afghan National Police are so dismally corrupt and the Afghan National Army a washout? Because American military planners and policymakers believe Afghans can be transformed into scale-model, wind-up American marines. That is not going to happen. No amount of American training, mentoring or cash will determine who or what Afghans will fight for, if they fight at all. - Ann Jones (Sep 21, '09)

Congress faces test in Andhra Pradesh
India's ruling Congress party is struggling to replace the chief minister of its key Andhra Pradesh state, Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who died this month. There are growing calls from Reddy's large number of influential followers for his son to take charge. But allegations of sleaze, violence and political inexperience make this an unlikely choice. - Neeta Lal (Sep 21, '09)

Pakistan works the crowd
Ahead of a United Nations meeting in New York, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is making all the right noises about his country's pivotal role in the fight against the Taliban-al-Qaeda nexus; he's even making goodwill gestures to India. What is left unsaid are the growing difficulties Zardari has with his military. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Sep 21, '09)

Taliban put their heads together
In a significant development, rival Taliban commanders - including some of the most powerful in Afghanistan and Pakistan - have agreed to cooperate in the fight against coalition forces. They have also resolved to bury their differences in the Pakistani tribal areas, where security forces and United States drones have been exacting a heavy toll. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Sep 18, '09)

Goddess Durga and odes to Asia's Paris
The tales of Durga, the goddess who rides a tiger, the death of American actor Patrick Swayze and two coffee-table books were intertwined this week in Kolkata, a city that can be compared to an unforgettable, warm friend whose cranky, erratic nature tests one's patience to the utmost. - Raja Murthy (Sep 18, '09)

Tea dispute may drive up price of cuppa
Sri Lanka's tea plantation owners are demanding higher productivity in return for better pay for their workers, in a business where one in three wage-earners live in abject poverty. Their dispute is hurting the country's main commodity export and could drive up the price for a cuppa around the world. (Sep 17, '09)

A dangerous new Afghan road opens
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has blueprints for several new supply routes through Central Asian countries into the north of Afghanistan as an alternative to the current - and vulnerable - main route via Pakistan. The Taliban-led war, though, is spreading from the south to the until recently relatively harmonious northern belt. A new strategic front is opening up. - Derek Henry Flood (Sep 17, '09)

Dalai Lama caught in Sino-Indian dispute
Border tensions between China and India over the disputed Arunachal Pradesh state - which China refers to as "Southern Tibet" - were already high before the Dalai Lama announced plans to visit there. Beijing is likely incensed by his plans to visit Tawang, a strategic piece of Indian real estate that China reportedly covets above all others. - Sudha Ramachandran (Sep 17, '09)

THE ROVING EYE
More questions on 9/11
Last week, on the eighth anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington, Asia Times Online posed 50 unanswered questions about the immense, mysterious 9/11 riddle. Due to overwhelming reader response, here's a follow-up with 20 more questions - with a hat-tip to all readers who joined the debate. - Pepe Escobar (Sep 17, '09)

India steps into economy class
In keeping with its slogan of being one with the common man, the ruling Congress party wants government officials to slash their pricey travel budgets. Party leader Sonia Gandhi led the way by traveling economy class on a flight from New Delhi to Mumbai. Others are not so thrilled about joining her in "cattle class". - Siddharth Srivastava (Sep 17, '09)

Obama faces backlash over Afghanistan
United States President Barack Obama faces one of the most difficult political questions of his first year in office as the country begins to doubt its role in Afghanistan. Obama will be forced to decide whether to grant a significant troop increase at the risk of alienating many in his own party. - Jim Lobe (Sep 16, '09)

'New' Bagram rules under fire
Legal experts and rights advocates say Washington's new measures meant to empower the 600-plus inmates in Afghanistan's Bagram prison are actually identical to the procedures created by the George W Bush administration for detainees at the soon-to-be-closed Guantanamo prison in Cuba.
(Sep 15, '09)

Drama in a theater of despair
Pakistan's decision to grant Gilgit-Baltistan a higher level of autonomy has been dismissed by many as a sleight of hand that changes nothing for the remote area that borders Afghanistan, China and both sides of divided Kashmir, even as the region emerges as a new haven for militants. - Ajai Sahni (Sep 15, '09)

Harley-Davidson joins India market
Harley-Davidson motorcycles recently took to the roads in New Delhi, as the US company entered the world's second-biggest two-wheeler market two years after a mangoes-for-machines trade agreement with the Indian government. - Raja Murthy (Sep 14, '09)

Politicians' crashes prompt air crackdown
The recent death of Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy is the latest in a line of aviation accidents involving Indian politicians. Experts now want stricter controls on the use of helicopters and small aircraft by politicians in a hurry, especially on pilots who flout the rules to please their demanding passengers. - Ranjit Devraj (Sep 14, '09)

Afghan peacekeeping overshadowed
Every month, Afghanistan descends further into a widening spiral of violence. Now that force protection has become a priority for the United States military, rather than robust peacekeeping, the number of civilian deaths can be expected to increase. - Melek Zimmer-Zahine (Sep 14, '09)

Why the US is afraid of 'Afghanization'
The weakest link in the United States' Afghan strategy has been its handling of the calculus of power in Kabul. Now, any US strategy to salvage the war can only work if its central axis is a strong, authoritative government in Kabul. In other words, "Afghanization", which means leaving President Hamid Karzai and his new team in the cockpit. While Washington has its own hidden agenda, Afghans expect a single, identifiable fountainhead of power.  - M K Bhadrakumar (Sep 11, '09)

BOOK REVIEW
US hegemony slips into history
The Future of Global Relations by Terrence Edward Paupp.
The Barack Obama administration, dealing with the fallout of ongoing efforts to preserve Washington's unipolarity since the end of the Cold War, is facing unprecedented challenges. The author of this book traces the downward trajectory of US power and forecasts a very different future for the international community. - John Feffer (Sep 11, '09)

India taps US for a security boost
Anti-terror ties between India and the United States are deepening, with the prime minister's complex in New Delhi given a full security revamp by American experts and India's home minister visiting Washington to meet top officials. Dismayed with Islamabad's response to last year's Mumbai attack, India is also questioning Washington's continued military aid to Pakistan. - Siddharth Srivastava (Sep 10, '09)

Chinese shun Pakistan exodus
As security concerns and a poor economy encourage many foreigners to quit Pakistan, the number of Chinese engineers working there has more than trebled this year. Railway projects that will help link the two countries and China to Afghanistan are an important part of their work. - Syed Fazl-e-Haider (Sep 10, '09)

THE ROVING EYE
Fifty questions on 9/11
It's eight years since the fateful day that terror struck at the heart of the United States. The rebranded "global war on terror" still rages, with the epicenter now back where it began, in Afghanistan. After all these years, unanswered questions remain over both the events of September 11, and what followed; they're food for serious reflection. - Pepe Escobar (Sep 10, '09)

Blinded in the fog of war
Amid the endless cant and rhetoric that followed the United States-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the original purposes of the wars can be lost. The first casualty is said to be the truth; the second might well be remembering that wars should increase national security. - Brian M Downing (Sep 10, '09)

Bhutan tells Japan how to be happy
Newly elected Prime Minister Jigme Y Thinley of the tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan was at no loss for words during a recent visit to Tokyo. Among the advice he gave Japan, the world's second-biggest economy, was that it "rethink its growth model". Bhutan, he pledged, would be more than happy to teach Tokyo how to lighten up. - Catherine Makino (Sep 9, '09)

India's rain brings crop of doubt
Late rains in India have eased concerns over the drought that earlier seemed likely to engulf the country - or so some politicians and experts would have farmers and grain suppliers believe. - Santwana Bhattacharya (Sep 9, '09)

DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
Afghanistan by the numbers
This month, the Barack Obama administration will deliver a set of "metrics" to the US Congress for measuring "success" in Afghanistan (and Pakistan). It's not known what metrics Obama will choose, but there is one list - from "war-fighting" to "contractors" to "the presidential election" - that makes for fascinating, and tragic, reading. - Tom Engelhardt (Sep 9, '09)

Afghan war reaches a tipping point
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization's air strikes in the northern province of Kunduz on Friday, which killed or injured more than 100 people, have left Afghan blood equally on the hands of all NATO countries. The incident shows this is no mere fight against terrorism; it is about NATO's role as a global political organization and the "unfinished business" of the Cold War - as well as about defining the new world order. - M K Bhadrakumar (Sep 8, '09)

India mourns a tireless lynchpin
Indian remains in a state of shock following the death in a helicopter crash of the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh state, Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. His slavish devotion to the welfare of his people was the backbone of his massive popularity, which translated handsomely into the power base of the ruling Congress party in Delhi. His will be a hard act to follow, even for his son. - Santwana Bhattacharya (Sep 8, '09)

THE ROVING EYE
Enduring Freedom until 2050
In only 450 days, the number of troops in Afghanistan has swelled from 67,000 to 118,000. Since 2001, the United States has spent $179 billion in the country, while its European allies have burned $102 billion. The tragicomedy is clear: the US and its allies will do - and spend - whatever it takes to implant military bases on the doorstep of Russia and China, and to get their gas pipeline on track. - Pepe Escobar (Sep 8, '09)

Spooks spill blood in the Hindu Kush
An era that could be Afghan President Hamid Karzai's second presidency got off to a bloody start on Wednesday with the highly professional killing of Dr Abdullah Laghmani - a popular figure in the Afghan security establishment and a member of Karzai's inner circle. He was destined to occupy a key post in any new government under Karzai, and there will be many in Kabul who will want to avenge his murder. - M K Bhadrakumar (Sep 3, '09)

New Delhi receives mixed report card
In the first 100 days of its second term, India's Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance has pushed through important education, tax and social security legislation, but has been accused of going soft on terrorism. Stern tests loom in the shape of skyrocketing commodity prices and truant monsoon rains. - Neeta Lal (Sep 3, '09)

Pakistan acts to guard Chinese interests
A change in status for Pakistan's Northern Areas, now known as Gilgit Baltistan, reflects a desire to improve security for China's growing financial stakes in the strategic region. - Syed Fazl-e-Haider (Sep 3, '09)

Indian economy drier than forecast
The Indian government argues that the worst is over for the economy, with the prospect of at least 6% growth this year, based on the latest quarterly figures. Stripped down, the data, like the deepening drought whose impact has yet to be revealed, are far less friendly. - Kunal Kumar Kundu (Sep 3, '09)

Kandahar presents critical Afghan test
Whoever is elected as the next president of Afghanistan, Kandahar will be his critical first test. Security is at an all-time low as the Taliban and tribal rivalries tear the region apart. If Kabul loses control here, many believe it will have lost the country. - Abubakar Siddique (Sep 3, '09)

India battles with nuclear fallout
The debate in political and scientific circles stirred by scientist K Santhanam's claims that India's 1998 nuclear tests had more "fizzle" than fission just won't go away. If one of Santhanam's aims in going public now was to prevent India from being railroaded into signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, he's done a good job. - Ninan Koshy (Sep 2, '09)

Poll's fate hangs on a probe
The contest for Afghanistan’s next president is far from over. While most polling stations have yet to announce results, fraud complaints keep rolling in. If the more serious of the allegations now under investigation turn out to be true, the outcome - and whether or not a runoff vote is needed - will be severely affected. - Lal Aqa Sherin (Sep 2, '09)

Washington's Afghan clock ticks down
With support in the United States for the war in Afghanistan at an all-time low, the call by a prominent right-wing pundit for Washington to pull out has raised something of a storm - especially among his fellow hawks. President Barack Obama might be considering even more troops for Afghanistan, but he needs results - and quickly. (Sep 2, '09)

DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
Bush's third term? You're living it
Imagine if George W Bush had served a third term. He would have continued his policy of "extraordinary rendition", proposed the largest military budget in the history of the world, kept on Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and re-appointed Ben Bernanke to run the Fed. He might well have surged in Afghanistan. These, in fact, are the first-term acts of President Barack Obama. - David Swanson (Sep 2, '09)

THE ROVING EYE
US 'arc of instability' just gets bigger
In 2007, a former US ambassador to Colombia was sent to Afghanistan to implement a counter-insurgency disguised as a war on drugs. It makes some sense: Afghanistan is to opium what Colombia is to cocaine. And inevitably that's where the North Atlantic Treaty Organization comes in. The only part of the world where NATO is still not active is ... South America. The New Great Game will soon stretch from AfPak to Mexico. - Pepe Escobar (Sep 2, '09)

India drops anchor in the Maldives
India jumped at the opportunity when the tiny Maldives asked for assistance in protecting the seas in which its more than 1,000 islands lie. Delhi wasn't just being a friendly neighbor. The Indian Ocean area holds vast military, transport and commercial interests, and China already has a foothold. - Siddharth Srivastava (Sep 1, '09)

In Afghanistan, war trumps elections
Regardless of the outcome of Afghanistan's presidential elections, ballot boxes won't make peace. Nor will purple fingers and billions of dollars in economic assistance. The fighting has gone on long enough and the Taliban aren't actually a legitimate global threat. Now would be a good time to negotiate an end to the war that president George W Bush started and which Barack Obama inherited. (Sep 1, '09)

Satellites flying in formation over Asia
Over the next two or three years, China, the United States and the Europeans as well as Japan and India plan to launch smaller and more advanced formation-flying satellites. At the same time, concerns are mounting about the "dual use" dimensions of this technology. - Peter J Brown (Sep 1, '09)

Wizards and wives drive Afghan election
President Hamid Karzai, called the "wizard" for his ability to outwit opponents, insists he is the rightful winner of the Afghan presidential election and won't face a runoff just to satisfy American demands. His challengers - Dr Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani - are too-soft technocrats that Afghans may come to call "Obama's wives". As days pass, the standoff gets messier and messier. - M K Bhadrakumar (Aug 31, '09)

Clinton has her own problems
As United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reacts to changing realities abroad, most recently in Japan, the Department of State itself warrants her close attention. In the process, she will have to wear many hats, including a few that may not fit too comfortably as she addresses problems involving staffing, security and strategic communications. - Peter J Brown (Aug 31, '09)

India reels under explosive nuclear charge
Claims by a senior Indian scientist that the country's nuclear tests in 1998 went off with a whimper rather than a bang have caused not just outrage, but major concern that the hard-won India-United States civilian nuclear deal could now be in jeopardy. - Neeta Lal (Aug 31, '09)

Warmongers in China, India miss the mark
Alarmists in the Indian and Chinese media warn of imminent war between the two countries over their long-running border dispute. Officials in both capitals have dismissed the reports for the nonsense they are. Such turbulence is inevitable between two rising powers, with people losing sight of the fact that there is nothing wrong with healthy competition. - Bhartendu Kumar Singh (Aug 28, '09)

Kabul draped in a veil of uncertainty
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)

Afghan elections expose US war doubts
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. (Aug 27, '09)

Raw Indian nerves exposed
The expulsion of former Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh from his Bharatiya Janata Party over his book on the events leading up to India's partition in 1947 cannot hide the fact that he has raised some pivotal issues. Not the least of these are his partial exoneration - in Indian eyes - of the architect of Pakistan's creation, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, and the evolution of the Hindu-Muslim divide. - Santwana Bhattacharya (Aug 27, '09)

Opposition party adds to its disarray
By kicking out Jaswant Singh, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has reinforced its image of being intellectually intolerant. It has also deepened the splits that led to its failure in national elections this year, and shown that its preoccupation with the past makes it completely out of tune with the present. - Sudha Ramachandran (Aug 27, '09)

Nepal and India agonize over China
The visit of Nepal's Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal to India was noteworthy in what was not accomplished, such as addressing key issues that rankle. These include water concerns, encroachment and armed insurgent groups. This ensures that ties between the countries will remain tense, especially as Delhi continues to fret over what it perceives as China's interference in Nepal. - Dhruba Adhikary (Aug 27, '09)

Cops turn robbers on India's roads
India plans US$70 billion of investment to develop its road infrastructure over the next three years. Much of the increased efficiency the government seeks could be achieved more cheaply simply by stopping policemen from stealing US$4.5 billion annually from truckers. - Raja Murthy (Aug 26, '09)

India on a tiger hunt in China
China's insatiable demand for supposedly libido-enhancing tiger parts from India fuels an illegal cross-border smuggling trade now second only to narcotics trafficking. As poaching decimates India's tiger population, Delhi's new environment minister is on a mission to sensitize China's consumers and save his country's national beast. - Neeta Lal (Aug 26, '09)

Australia approves gas megaproject
Developers of the vast Gorgon natural gas project off Western Australia have won environmental approval from the Australian government to proceed. That is good news for PetroChina and India's Petronet, which have agreed to take more than US$60 billion of the fuel. Japan is another key customer. - Robert M Cutler (Aug 26, '09)

Water recklessness worsening drought
India's poorest monsoon in seven years is laying bare more than just parched soil. Excessive groundwater withdrawal for government-led intensive farming threatens to exhaust vital supplies, while the use of water-guzzling hybrid crop varieties further exacerbates arid conditions. (Aug 26, '09)

A United States-Iran opportunity arises
United States special representative for AfPak, Richard Holbrooke, and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki posed for the cameras in Turkey on Tuesday while attending a meeting on Pakistan. The next step is for the two to engage over the country that is much more on their minds - Afghanistan. Tehran has a simple proposal: if the Barack Obama administration gives up its interference in Iran's domestic affairs, Iran will talk with the US on Afghanistan. - M K Bhadrakumar (Aug 26, '09)

US steps up its Central Asian tango
An axis with Uzbekistan influence in northern Afghanistan and Islamabad playing a role in the country's south and southeast is required by the United States as it addresses the Taliban's reconciliation and return to political life in Afghanistan. But President Barack Obama has also to reach for the door that opens engagement with Tehran. He may find the answer in the bazaars of Central Asia. - M K Bhadrakumar (Aug 24, '09)

Karzai's rival cries foul play
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. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Aug 24, '09)

Pakistan seeks US, China aid on energy
Pakistan, its cities suffering power cuts on a daily basis as the country struggles through its biggest energy crisis, is turning to both the United States and China for help in building a more viable energy platform for its industrial sector. - Syed Fazl-e-Haider
(Aug 24, '09)

Seven steps to peace in Afghanistan
The ballots are still being counted in Afghanistan's elections, but a far more important vote has already been decided. Contacts with the Taliban are well underway in the first of what could be seven steps towards reconciliation. A key negotiator, a former Taliban minister of religious affairs and now a senator, Moulvi Arsala Rehmani, believes the only stumbling block is Taliban leader Mullah Omar. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Aug 21, '09)

BOOK REVIEW
India renews its tryst with destiny
Imagining India by Nandan Nilekani
Weaned off a half-century of dependency on quasi-socialist ideologies, India may now be poised for a major role on the global stage if it can overcome its internal divides, the author argues. With demographic and other advantages over economic rival China, he writes, India's resurgence could even fulfill the heady promise of its founding. - Dinesh Sharma (Aug 21, '09)

INTERVIEW
From microfinance to social shake-up
Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus, after revolutionizing the way in which credit is disbursed among the poor, has now set his sights on universities, arguing that students need to get their hands dirty - not only for their own benefit, but also for the advancement of rural folk. (Aug 21, '09)

Wary India frisks North Korean freighter
Another mystery has surfaced concerning a North Korean cargo ship, nuclear paranoia and a boatload of intrigue. After a tense six-hour chase, North Korea's Mu San was dragged to India's Andaman Islands, where the ship and its crew are now in custody. Delhi, which recalls North Korean ships carrying missile and nuclear parts to Pakistan and Iran, has sent an unmistakable signal not to snoop in its waters. - Sreeram Chaulia (Aug 20, '09)

Politicians have their day in Afghanistan
Afghanistan's presidential and provincial elections got off to a bang on Thursday, with Taliban rocket attacks on a number of cities. The runup to the polls has seen its own fireworks in the form of some strange alliances, especially by President Hamid Karzai. The big challenge is to turn this political expediency into a viable front to deal with the Taliban. - Syed Saleem Shahzad
(Aug 20, '09)

Karzai's fraud scheme could backfire
Evidence of fake registration cards, ghost voters, threats and intimidation suggest Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his powerful warlord allies plan large-scale voter fraud for Thursday's presidential election. Critics say the reported scheme means the widely anticipated poll is more likely to damage the government's credibility than boost it. - Gareth Porter (Aug 20, '09)

Powers line up to stir Afghanistan's pot
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. - M K Bhadrakumar (Aug 19, '09)

THE ROVING EYE
The Afghan pipe dream
Washington says success in Afghanistan involves "diplomacy, development and good governance" - but all that the world sees is the 96,500 - and counting - coalition troops now on the ground to "fight the Taliban". As for the election, who cares who's the winner - President Hamid Karzai, Abdullah Abdullah or anyone else? Afghanistan will be ruled by Barack Hussein Obama anyway. - Pepe Escobar (Aug 19, '09)

The US has a plan for Afghanistan
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)

Concerns over post-poll unrest
Concerns over the likelihood of widespread poll fraud have led some of the challengers in the presidential race to promise mass protests if their suspicions are realized, but they have stopped short of pledging violence. - Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi (Aug 18, '09)

Chopping it up with Karzai's challenger
Abdullah Abdullah, former foreign minister, ex-Northern Alliance spokesman and once an eye surgeon, has emerged as President Hamid Karzai's only substantial challenger. Asia Times Online accompanied Abdullah on his campaign deep into remote provinces in a bid to undercut Karzai where it counts. "I am with the people," Abdullah says, but can he beat the Karzai machine? - Derek Henry Flood (Aug 17, '09)

A fog swirls in the Hindu Kush
As the Pentagon prepares to expand its Afghan mission well beyond the Barack Obama administration's early focus, President Hamid Karzai's re-election bid presents it with an uncomfortable challenge. The United States needs an Afghan leader in step with its overarching goal of an extended stay in Central Asia - not one working against it. - M K Bhadrakumar (Aug 17, '09)

Taliban rooting for Karzai's defeat
The Taliban are warning voters in the strongholds of President Hamid Karzai to stay away from Thursday's voting - they perceive that a defeat for the incumbent will play into their hands. For people still planning to go to the polls, the Taliban have a special message for them. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Aug 17, '09)

Educating Sita no easy feat in India
Sixteen years after a Supreme Court ruling made elementary education a fundamental - and free - right for all Indians, it has only now become law. Hurdles lie ahead, such as the contentious issue of finance and infrastructure, with many remote areas lacking a school. - Santwana Bhattacharya (Aug 17, '09)

Afghan race becomes Karzai's cliffhanger
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)

US tweaks its rules of engagement
With record numbers of its soldiers dying in battle over the past two months, the United States is yet again broadening its strategy in Afghanistan. Civilian experts from the fields of governance, media, terrorist-financing and agriculture will be assigned to complement the ongoing military efforts. (Aug 14, '09)

India's election machine under fire
The flawed paper ballot system may have made way for electronic voting machines, but election losers in India are still crying foul. Poll authorities have rushed to the defense of their prized machines, which they claim are infallible due to their high technology. - Santwana Bhattacharya (Aug 14, '09)

Life has new meaning in the Himalayas
A 10-year search by scientists in the eastern Himalayan regions of India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and Tibet has unearthed 353 new species - one of the biggest-ever series of discoveries of new life forms. The startling results have focussed attention on how many more unknown species await to be found in the vast, deep depths of the oceans. - Raja Murthy (Aug 14, '09)

China calls halt to Gwadar refinery
China has shelved its multi-billion dollar refinery project at Gwadar, in Pakistan's insurgency-troubled Balochistan province, casting doubt also on plans for a fuel pipeline running the length of Pakistan to China's far west. Lack of progress is the given reason. - Syed Fazl-e-Haider (Aug 13, '09)

Karzai suffers an election blow
Afghan President Hamid Karzai's alliance with ethnic Uzbek strongman General Abdul Rashid Dostum's Junbish-e-Milli party is in tatters, just over a week before August 20 polls. The split plays right into the hands of the president's main rival, Abdullah Abdullah. - Ahmad Kawush (Aug 13, '09)

India recovers, then falters
The weak monsoon in India, which threatens agricultural output, figures large in accounts of recent stock-market declines, overlooking weaknesses in the government's budget, among other factors. On the plus side, resilient internal demand will stand the country in good stead. - R M Cutler (Aug 12, '09)

Pakistan, US look across the border
Compared to the situation a few months ago, Pakistan, with active help from the United States, has taken big strides towards containing militants in the tribal areas. Yet the root cause of this militancy lies across the border in Afghanistan, and that is where Islamabad and Washington are intensifying their efforts to reconcile with rank-and-file Taliban. - Syed Saleem Shahzad(Aug 12, '09)

The politics of building statues in India
The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati, has embarked on a vast statue-erecting spree, with some 10,000 planned - mostly of herself - for her impoverished, underdeveloped state. She says the statues will embolden India's lower castes; others see it as a huge waste of public funds. - Siddharth Srivastava (Aug 11, '09)

BSNL - the undoing of a giant
India's largest telecommunications company, BSNL, is being kept alive by interest payments on unused cash reserves even as private rivals expand and prosper. Government interference does not help, but bloated payrolls and gross inefficiency tell their own story of corporate ineptitude. - Kunal Kumar Kundu (Aug 11, '09)

Tigers get a boost at the ballot box
A political party regarded as a proxy for the devastated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has scored a surprise victory in the first elections held in post-war Sri Lanka. To be sure, the victory came in a small, local election, but given the desperate situation in which the Tigers find themselves, even this win will come as a shot in the arm. - Sudha Ramachandran (Aug 11, '09)

More of the same for Baitullah's fighters
Baitullah Mehsud's Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan is a loose nexus of militant groups bound by an ideology that pits them against the United States-aligned Pakistan state and its military. The groups enjoy a very high degree of independence, which will continue even if reports of Baitullah's death in a US missile attack turn out to be true. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Aug 11, '09)

Hope's gone AWOL in Echo platoon
United States soldiers caught absent without leave are often consigned to Echo platoon - a special "holding" group at Fort Bragg, North Carolina - to await trial. Platoon members say it's a bleak state of legal limbo, with dire living conditions and verbal abuse. Traumatized by past combat, many refuse the fastest route out - redeployment. - Dahr Jamail and Sarah Lazare (Aug 10, '09)

Guessing games over Taliban leader
Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud has been variously described as "dead and buried", "gravely ill" and "alive and well" following a drone missile attack on his South Waziristan region last week. It could be he is simply lying low to take some of the heat out of Islamabad's intensifying crackdown on militancy - it's a tactic al-Qaeda and the Taliban have used before. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Aug 10, '09)

Pakistan piles on IMF debt
An increase to US$11.3 billion in International Monetary Fund loans to Pakistan brings the total to 6.3% of the country's gross domestic product. Critics say this merely increases the country's debt-servicing obligations and squeezes resources meant for development. - Syed Fazl-e-Haider (Aug 10, '09)

Kerala fights clock in ASEAN free-trade deal
India's lush Kerala state is racing the clock to delay India's free-trade deal with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. New Delhi claims the pact, to become operative in January, will boost efficiency and open new markets. Kerala says it will decimate the agriculture and fishing livelihoods of its people. (Aug 10, '09)

Baitullah: Dead or alive, his battle rages
Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud has been reported killed in a United States Predator drone attack in his South Waziristan tribal area. Baitullah is the glue that binds al-Qaeda, Pakistani militants, tribal militants and the Afghan Taliban. Although he would be a hard man to replace, he has built a network that will carry on his uncompromising brand of resistance. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Aug 7, '09)

New Tiger chief does not pass go
It was an extremely short stint as leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam for Selvarasa Pathmanathan, arrested in Southeast Asia this week and shipped back to Sri Lanka. The capture of the elusive legend who ran the Tigers' lucrative international operations is a coup for Colombo, but it may have sabotaged any chance that the LTTE would reinvent itself as a political force. - Sudha Ramachandran (Aug 7, '09)

BOOK REVIEW
Australia's plucky blonde jihadi
The Mother of Mohammed by Sally Neighbour
Referred to as the "Elizabeth Taylor of the jihad", Rabiah - born Robyn - Hutchinson was an Australian doctor who ended up marrying a leading al-Qaeda ideologue and member of Osama bin Laden's inner circle. This book investigates her past and present with flair, candor and wit. - David Wilson (Aug 7, '09)

The West has its own suicide bombers
From the Bay of Tripoli in 1804 - where American seamen introduced the use of the suicide bomber in a battle against Muslims - to Will Smith in the futuristic vampire movie I Am Legend , Westerners in reality and in popular culture have acted as suicide bombers. The West has its suicide bombers - they're called heroes. The culture of indoctrination is called  basic training. When Westerners kill civilians, it's called collateral damage. - John Feffer (Aug 7, '09)

India's air carriers spin loss riddle
Indian airlines, burdened by high fuel taxes that are helping to drive up losses, called off a threat to halt services after the government showed "willingness to enter into dialogue". But are some running an essentially free service merely to collect taxes - or is there other mischief afoot? - Raja Murthy (Aug 7, '09)

SPEAKING FREELY
Jundullah a wedge between Iran, Pakistan
Jundullah - a Sunni fundamentalist group with ethnic separatist goals - has impaired relations between Iran and Pakistan. Unless the United States and Pakistan crack down on this terrorist outfit, it may succeed in bringing Tehran and Islamabad to the brink of war, and in energizing the Taliban. - Raja Karthikeya (Aug 6, '09)

India and US build stronger ties in space
Greater India-United States cooperation in space will likely intensify competition between India and China - if Delhi's space sector suddenly surges ahead as a result of the American connection, Beijing will be more than slightly annoyed. - Peter J Brown (Aug 6, '09)

Kashmir carpet industry hit by recession
The Kashmiri carpet industry is struggling to survive amid the global economic downturn. Concerns are growing that artisans will have to turn to other sources of income and the skills necessary to produce the world-renowned carpets will be lost before tourists and buyers return to the area. (Aug 6, '09)

US shrugs off Pakistan-Taliban links
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. - Gareth Porter (Aug 5, '09)

Gayatri Devi, the last of the maharanis
With the death of Gayatri Devi, the last of the notable Indian queens, a link has been severed to the days of royalty, palanquins and cruel animal hunts. (She admitted to killing 27 tigers.) Bloated royal egos live on, though, in a political class that makes it its business to harass and trouble citizens. - Raja Murthy (Aug 4, '09)

A search for motives in Christian attack
Al-Qaeda and linked groups are being blamed for riots in which seven Christians were torched to death at the weekend in Pakistan's Punjab province. The area, though, is the stronghold of the country's leading opposition party, and politics can't be ruled out. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Aug 4, '09)

Helmand's 'dagger' cuts three ways
The governor of Afghanistan's Helmand province believes the United States-led Operation Dagger is running smoothly, with no civilian casualties. A Helmand member of parliament, meanwhile, says over a dozen civilians have been killed, with many more displaced. The Taliban describe the offensive as the last nail in the coffin of the US's Afghan strategy. - Wahidullah Mohammad (Aug 4, '09)

Clinton's India visit a low-key success
The visit of United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to India was dominated by talk of nuclear cooperation, expanding military ties and convergent geopolitical interests. Behind the scenes, Clinton - a self-confessed fan of all things Indian - was quietly establishing the economic, technological and societal links that will be the foundation of a new era in US-India affairs. (Aug 4, '09)

US's $1bn Islamabad home is its castle
The United States is forging ahead with a US$1 billion upgrade of its embassy in Pakistan's capital city of Islamabad. Washington dismisses charges the expanded facility will house hundreds of marines, but there is no disputing it will serve as a hub for the US's ambitious regional plans - plans for which the Taliban and al-Qaeda are already preparing. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Aug 3, '09)

Japan looks for zone boost in Pakistan
China's plans, led by the giant Haier Group, to boost its role in the Pakistan economy through a special economic zone are being dogged by land acquisition and financing issues. That may offer a chance for a counterpunch by Japanese manufacturers about to start work on their own exclusive industrial zone. - Syed Fazl-e-Haider (Aug 3, '09)

Ten steps to liquidate US bases
If Washington continues to operate in the role of a global hegemon, with its military inventory of 865 facilities in more than 40 countries and overseas US territories, it could well follow in the former Soviet Union's footsteps and become a crippled economic power. - Chalmers Johnson (Aug 3, '09)

India struggles with dossier controversy
The ongoing India-Pakistan bilateral engagement is now dominated by an odd focus on dossiers - some real, some imaginary and others still in the making. Particularly unfortunate for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is talk of a dossier handed to New Delhi on Pakistan's Balochistan province - it appears to have gone missing. - Santwana Bhattacharya (Aug 3, '09)

Gas clash fuels Ambani divide
India's fabulously wealthy Ambani brothers are stepping up their game of familial hate, this time with claims by the younger Anil of a US$10 billion gas-pricing scandal pitted against a defense by the elder Mukesh of bureaucratic necessity. Into the soup is thrown a government ministry and the Supreme Court. One thing not in the mix is corporate trust. - Raja Murthy (Jul 31, '09)

Ghost of former premier haunts India
New Delhi's refusal this month to release details on the suspicious death of former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in the Soviet Union 43 years ago has re-ignited interest in his story. Where would India be if New Delhi had continued the Shastri legacy of efficient, honest public life instead of descending into unending sycophancy and corruption? - Raja Murthy (Jul 31, '09)

Indian ingenuity saves moon craft, for now
The burnout of a key navigational sensor on India's maiden moon satellite, which left it virtually blind, had scientists scrambling. Hardened by decades of technology sanctions and shoestring budgets, though, they quickly developed an innovative work-around. The snag may reduce the satellite's lifespan, but it's done little to dampen India's appetite for space glory. - Sudha Ramachandran (Jul 30, '09)

Police and thieves pillage Helmand
The major United States and British military offensive in Afghanistan's Helmand province is aimed at wresting the US$3 billion drug epicenter from the Taliban by bringing back Afghan army and police. But as Western troops depart, police linked to a local warlord are committing systematic abuses against the population, including the abduction and rape of pre-teen boys. - Gareth Porter (Jul 30, '09)

Musharraf misses his day in court
Former Pakistani president, retired General Pervez Musharraf, failed to show up in court in Islamabad on Wednesday to explain why he fired the judiciary and imposed emergency rule in November 2007. Musharraf, now living in England, may yet decide to account for his actions, but the case already has senior military figures shaking in their boots. - Syed Saleem Shahzad
(Jul 29, '09)

Terrorist Kasab and the journey of death
Following his shock confession, Mumbai terrorist Ajmal Amir "Kasab" has requested to be hanged quickly. He says he is haunted by the face of every man, woman and child he killed. In Buddhist thought, this repentance may have come too late - its laws of cause and effect ensure terrorists are not rewarded with virgins in heaven, but destined for the miserable realms of the asuras (demons). - Raja Murthy (Jul 28, '09)

Pakistan turns on its jihadi 'assets'
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)

A lesson in imperial paranoia
The British a century ago - and the United States today - came to believe that rebellious Pashtun tribes in the borderlands of what is now Pakistan could imperil the empire. Indeed, there are comparisons between Washington's attitudes toward the Pakistani Pashtuns (all those fantasies of Taliban armed with nuclear weapons) and similar British fantasies from the early 20th century. - Juan Cole (Jul 28, '09)

Beleaguered Tigers name new chief
Two months after being crushed by the Sri Lankan military, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebel group has a new leader. But Selvarasa Pathmanathan's attempts to forge a moderate path are undermined by his criminal past, the grim reality of the LTTE's current capabilities, and his weak level of support among Tamil hardliners. - Sudha Ramachandran (Jul 27, '09)

India's 'enemy destroyer' sets sail
New Delhi has launched its first indigenously built nuclear-powered submarine for sea trials, bringing India a step closer to second-strike capability. This makes India the sixth country in the world to develop its own nuclear submarine, a feat that completes New Delhi's nuclear weapons triad. - Sudha Ramachandran (Jul 27, '09)

Escalation and appraisal in Afghanistan
As the test phase of Washington's ambitious - and some say impossible - counterinsurgency program gets underway in the Afghan province of Helmand, its viability is in question. Troops must clear villages of Taliban, build local military forces and deliver medical and construction services. Then do it all over again in other parts of the country. Fortunately, confidence is an essential part of military culture. - Brian Downing (Jul 27, '09)

Pakistan exports 'threat to US jobs'
A plan for factories in Pakistan's strife-torn northwest to export clothing to the United States duty free is aimed at creating jobs and reducing the attraction of extremism. American manufacturers and unions claim the move will cost US workers their livelihood. - Syed Fazl-e-Haider (Jul 27, '09)

Xinjiang riots confound Islamists
That China has so far escaped major jihadist attacks in spite of its harshness towards its ethnic-minority Uyghur Muslims is not due to superior counter-terrorism strategies, but rather to confusion among some Islamists and cooperation from others. China's image as a staunch rival of the West confuses hardline Muslims, while Beijing's rising clout may have kept Iran's fire-spewing ayatollahs silent. - Sreeram Chaulia (Jul 27, '09)

Karzai accused of media stranglehold
A media-monitoring unit has claimed that incumbent President Hamid Karzai is unfairly dominating the airwaves only a month ahead of Afghanistan's elections. In fact, it seems the state-run media find his every meeting, trip, signature or speech totally newsworthy. More than just bad television, during a presidential campaign the Karzai-mania reeks of media bias. - Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi (Jul 24, '09)

Learning to forget at Camp Lejeune
Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, a first stop for United States Marines returning from overseas combat, is a snapshot of small-town life in America. Hot dogs sizzle on the grill, a cotton-candy machine spins and Credence Clearwater Revival's Fortunate Son fills the air. Occasionally, however, the sound of rifle fire will crack the silence, reminding the men that the safety is only temporary. - Sara Schonhardt (Jul 23, '09)

For New Delhi, a week that wasn't
Any damage done to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government, considering its iron-clad position in parliament, would have to be self-inflicted. This week, it duly abused itself. Accused of "bartering away India's interests" in a defense deal with the United States and in unpopular concessions on Kashmir and Pakistan, the past few days of foreign policy gaffes have breathed life into a battered opposition. - Santwana Bhattacharya (Jul 23, '09)

India-Kashmir rail link lurches forward
What could be Asia's most spectacular railway, or its most dangerous, has made a renewed lurch towards completion thanks to a recommendation that building should resume on the world's highest bridge - despite doubts that the terrain will carry its weight. - Haroon Mirani (Jul 23, '09)

Pakistan-US plan falls into place
For Pakistan and its United States ally, the military establishments of the two countries are marching in step, the foundations of the civilian government in Islamabad are being strengthened and closer Pakistani ties with India are planned. The overall objective is an all-out offensive against militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the Taliban have been making some smart moves of their own. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Jul 22, '09)

Last chance saloon in Helmand
More surprising than the Taliban's meek counter-punch in Helmand has been the warm reception for United States troops fighting Operation Dagger Thrust there. For Helmandis, battered by eight years of air strikes, oppression and betrayal, this is the US's last chance to prove itself. Meanwhile, the Taliban say the real fight is yet to come. - Aziz Ahmad Shafe, Mohammad Ilyas Dayee and Aziz Ahmad Tassal (Jul 22, '09)

Sri Lanka secures IMF lifeline
After months of being at the receiving end of international criticism for human-rights violations, Sri Lanka has clinched agreement with the International Monetary Fund for a standby credit facility of US$2.5 billion. (Jul 22, '09)

DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
Serial war as a way of life
From American humanitarian intervention and wars of choice to President Barack Obama's present Af-Pak war - and finally to wars beyond the horizon - wars have become an American way of life. Yet, one cannot continue as free people while accepting the fruits of conquest and domination: the passive beneficiaries of masters are also slaves. - David Bromwich (Jul 22, '09)

Jihadi confession rocks India, Pakistan
The decision by a Pakistani militant to plead guilty to his part in the terror attack on the Indian city of Mumbai last November - after insisting in court for 65 days that he was innocent - has stunning implications. Not only has Mohammad Ajmal Amir "Kasab" revealed gory details of the rampage by the 10 gunmen, he has provided an opportunity for Delhi and Islamabad to get back to peace talks that were so violently interrupted by the incident. - Neeta Lal (Jul 21, '09)

Air India bows in shame
The Maharaja of Air India is still bent at the waist, not in a bow of courtesy but in shame at having to beg and borrow to keep going. Behind the carrier's request for a US$2 billion bailout lies a dismal story of mismanagement and wasteful purchases. - Santwana Bhattacharya (Jul 21, '09)

A failure of state and military in Afghanistan
Three decades of fighting, treachery, reprisals and collaboration have spawned much hatred and mistrust among Afghans, while the absence of a coherent government makes Kabul incapable of creating and directing a viable military. This means Afghanistan's counter-insurgency operations will continue to be led by Western forces - the least desirable option. - Brian M Downing (Jul 21, '09)

Nepal's king reflects beyond the throne
Nepal's deteriorating law-and-order situation and political uncertainty have many doubting the country’s peace process will be completed anytime soon. Looking on from the sidelines is former king Gyanendra, who points out the people have got what they voted for. As for reports he is becoming more "ambitious", he does not rule out making himself available should his services be required for national unity. - Dhruba Adhikary (Jul 20, '09)

Clinton delivers unwanted tidings to Delhi
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's first high-level visit to India - which started in Mumbai on Friday - brought with it startling tidings. Indians are dismayed to learn the Obama administration's priorities now lie elsewhere. Clinton - though upbeat - made it clear the US-India relationship is a bit like a marriage, where one partner simply needs some space. - M K Bhadrakumar (Jul 20, '09)

India plays catch-up in the great game
To the United States, Central Asia is a region of crisis, whereas to China it is a region of opportunity to realize its political, strategic and economic aspirations. If India is to catch up in this region, where it has for years been known for its "masterly inactivity", it needs to come to a mutual understanding with China. - M K Bhadrakumar (Jul 17,'09)

Pakistan wields a double-edged sword
Refugees are slowly trickling back to their homes in the Pakistani tribal areas after several months of military operations against Taliban militants. Islamabad touts this as proof that its heavy hand is doing the job. The reverse is closer to the truth, as the bullets and bombs are turning previously sympathetic tribal leaders into resolute opponents of the army. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Jul 17,'09)

Lies and illusions in Afghanistan
The heart of Kabul is now hidden behind grey sandbags protecting men out of their depth, projecting also their fears. A new documentary film shows how hard it is to recognize an enemy or help a friend in Afghanistan, where citizens fear to tell the truth and Americans can't bear to look it in the face. - Ann Jones (Jul 17,'09)

China stalls on the AfPak road
The few terror attacks or attempted plots China has experienced are only a minute sample of what will hit the Asian giant if United States efforts collapse in Afghanistan and Pakistan's government crumbles under the Taliban. This calls for a redesign of Beijing's platform in the AfPak struggle. - Walid Phares (Jul 16,'09)

China eyes Pakistan steel sector
Chinese metals company MCC, already involved in producing copper in Pakistan's Balochistan province, may invest more than US$2 billion in modernizing the country's only integrated steel-making company. - Syed Fazl-e-Haider (Jul 16,'09)
ATol Specials

  Syed Saleem Shahzad in Pakistan's Swat Valley (May '09)

  By Syed Saleem Shahzad
(Jan '09)




Syed Saleem Shahzad reports on the Afghan war from the Taliban side
(Dec '06)

A series by Syed Saleem Shahzad


 
 

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