Think Long War Journal has just about the right reaction to this non-news.
Pakistan
Better Late Than Never: The Afghan War Handbook
After a decade of war in Afghanistan, there’s a new guidebook out on just who we’re fighting. It’s The Afghan Way of War by Robert Johnson, Oxford historian. It is his subtitle – How and Why They Fight – that should be required reading for the leaders of both the U.S. and U.K., as well as the grunts on Afghan soil. …
The Fog of War, Moon Shots, and Apps for Dying National Leaders
The Pentagon concludes Thursday that the air strike that killed 24 Pakistani troops on the Afghan frontier last month was due to errors by both sides. Soldiers call this “the fog of war,” and it’s real. But the Pakistanis, …
Meanwhile, Back in Afghanistan…
We’ve spent a day noting the formal end to our nine-year distraction in Iraq. Now let’s return to our first post-9/11 war in Afghanistan, where this active-duty Army colonel doesn’t pull many punches. Paul Yingling writes …
Pakistan: Words v. Action
As Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was flying toward Afghanistan earlier this week, he told the reporters flying with him that Pakistan is a critical element in ultimately winning the war in Afghanistan. “Ultimately,” he said, “we …
U.S.-Pakistani Relations Continue Tailspin
So how well did President Obama’s telephoned condolences to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday go over? The call was intended to smooth relations between the two nations ruptured 10 days ago when NATO aircraft …
Live: Pak Death Attack Scene
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Pakistan’s military has released video footage from the scene of Saturday’s mistaken nighttime U.S. air raid that killed 24 Pakistani troops. While U.S. officials believe Pakistan’s civilian government would like to get relations between Islamabad and Washington …
What’s Next for Pakistan?
Attached is a very important essay analyzing the political aspects of the current crisis with Pakistan, written from the point of view of leftist Pakistani intellectual. For those readers who are unfamiliar with the author, Tariq Ali graduated from Oxford, where he studied philosophy, politics, and economics, and was President of the …
Update: AfPak Attack
Saturday’s strike on two Pakistani military outposts by U.S. airpower near the village of Salala isn’t the first time such an attack has been carried out in response to fire from such Pakistani forts into nearby Afghanistan.
This from Pajhwok Afghan News in June:
Afghan officials said the [NATO helicopter] attack in Mohmand
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The Festering Wound: U.S. Air Strike Kills At Least 25 Pakistani Troops
There is no well-defined border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and – all too often amid the fog of war and firefights – there is no well-defined difference between the Pakistani military and anti-American insurgents crowded along that rugged frontier. That’s apparently why a U.S. air attack early Saturday killed at least 25 …
The Haqqani Network Network
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The Haqqani network in eastern Afghanistan is the biggest foe the U.S. and its allies face in that country. Manba al-Jihad, a media arm of the Taliban branch, just released a video of some of its forces in training (edited and posted to YouTube by the private …
Squawking SEAL
CNN chum Barbara Starr has the inside skinny on the new book purporting to detail the inside skinny of how the Osama bin Laden raid went down – as told by a former SEAL. Author Chuck Pfarrer claims to have spoken to some Navy SEALs who conducted the raid. It seems his story has more holes in it than the post-raid bin Laden.
Impact of U.S. Troop Drawdown in Afghanistan Already Being Felt
Bill Ardolino over at Small Wars Journal reports the impact the already-underway U.S. troop pullout from Afghanistan is having in the violent eastern part of the country. He doesn’t like what he sees:
…in truth, the Obama administration’s accelerated drawdown of US forces has undercut a needed infusion of forces from RC South to
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