So is Osama bin Laden’s death likely to end his brand of terror in southeast Asia? Unfortunately, according to Maria Ressa, an expert on the topic, no. Check out her interview with colleague Emily Raulala on Time’s Global Spin blog.
The Vexing U.S.-Pakistani Relationship Heads South, Post-bin Laden
Pakistan is a recipe with all the ingredients for disaster: start with an engineer who steals blueprints for nuclear weapons, and succeeds in constructing the Islamic world’s first atomic bomb. Then he peddles those schematics to pretty much anyone will to pay. The country, a fragile democracy, is actually run by the army, part of …
The politics of nukes and why the U.S. can’t dump Pakistan
In June 2009, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, the former leader of al Qaeda in Afghanistan, was asked what might happen to Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal if that country’s government destabilized into chaos. This might set off a mad scramble for parts of Pakistan’s significant nuclear arsenal, possibly even causing the United States to execute …
U.S. wants to go back and chat with bin Laden’s wives
It seems the United States is seeking — and may get — the opportunity to interview the three wives who were holed up with Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad.
These are the same three wives in the compound the night of the raid. Why didn’t U.S. forces just take the wives then? One of the couriers was apparently unarmed when shot also. He …
Piracy Pays…
We tend to think of the pirate tales out in the Indian Ocean as a throwback to earlier times of clipper ships and gold doubloons. But in 2010, it was a big — make that huge — business. According to a piece in Business Daily Africa on Monday, Indian Ocean pirates cost the world economy as much as $12 billion in 2010 in ransoms, …
China $yndrome
It was a month ago that we noted in the dead-tree version of Time the insanity of borrowing money hand-over-fist from China to help fund the U.S. government, including the American military (the U.S. is borrowing 40% of what it spends, much of it from Beijing). “We are borrowing cash from China to pay for weapons that we would …
Global Reach = Global Power
Inside Navy SEAL Team 6
The first rule of Navy SEAL Team 6 is you don’t talk about SEAL Team 6. In fact, the U.S. military has never publicly acknowledged its existence. But over the past week, tales of the Navy’s most elite squadron have blazed like wildfire, as the SEALs’ takedown of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, has generated white-hot …
Let’s Not Get Carried Away Here…
The Navy Says “I Do” To Same-Sex Marriages
Last Monday, the Navy was the hero across America, for the exploits of its SEALs in bringing Osama bin Laden to justice. This Monday, the sea service was zero in certain quarters for saying it will permit same-sex marriages within its hallowed chapels. It marks the first of what is likely to be many thunderclaps associated with the …
Obama: Behind the Scenes With the SEALs
Time‘s own White House correspondent Michael Scherer gives us a peek.
Some Things About War Never Change
Every other day in Afghanistan or Iraq, a U.S. soldier or other service member loses a leg or arm to an IED, or other kinds of battle trauma. In 2010, the rate of 16.4 amputations per month was more than double the 2009 rate of 7.3. That’s a growing audience for the latest item slated for display at the U.S. Army Medical Research and …
Morale plummets in Afghanistan, Taliban lay siege to Kandahar
A startling new study about U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan shows the lowest morale of the past five years among soldiers fighting there. USA Today reports that less than half of the troops there describe morale as high — a 20 percent drop from 2005. Troops there also report more intense fighting in Afghanistan now than during the …