This week’s TIME cover story is an exclusive, detailed feature by Peter Bergen about the final days of Osama bin Laden, who …
pakistan
BattlelandClose-up
Battleland Diary, March 10-16
TIME’s photo editors bring you the best pictures from the front lines and home.
BattlelandClose-up
Battleland Diary, March 3-9
TIME’s photo editors bring you the best pictures from the front lines and home.
BattlelandPakistan
Why Obama’s Military Aid Cut is Unlikely to Change Pakistan’s Behavior
The Obama Administration clearly wants the American public to know it is not allowing Pakistan’s double game in Afghanistan and on militant jihadists to go unpunished: The New York Times reports that the U.S. is withholding some $800 million — one third of the aid designated for the Pakistani military — to send a message that …
BattlelandPakistan
Can a California Salvage Diver Recover bin Laden’s Body?
Talk is cheap. That’s why Bill Warren won’t elaborate on his conspiracy theory regarding bin Laden’s death. Instead, he’s taking action. The Fallbrook, Calif. salvage diver is planning a mission to retrieve bin Laden’s body from the bottom of the Arabian Sea.
Having been in the business of salvage diving for more than 30 …
BattlelandTerrorism
Future grand strategists speak: Why US withdrawal from Afghanistan would stabilize Pakistan
In my continuing role as Head Judge for the online strategy community Wikistrat‘s month-long International Grand Strategy Competition featuring roughly 30 teams from top-flight universities and think tanks around the world, I get to peruse all manner of provocative thought from some of tomorrow’s best and brightest thinkers. And …
BattlelandRussia
US bases in Afghanistan for decades?
Waiting on the Obama speech explaining this one.
Guardian piece Monday predicts that current US-Afghan talks will cement a very long-term deal on presence [hat tip to World Politics Review Media Roundup].
American and Afghan officials are locked in increasingly acrimonious secret talks about a long-term security agreement which
…
BattlelandTroops
The Winter Set Up: Counter-Insurgency in Kandahar
The fighting season in Afghanistan is in full swing, and the early reports indicate this one will be tough. After last year’s surge, American units, and the Afghan Army and police they’re partnered with, will be fighting to hold the areas they paid for dearly a year ago. One of the key provinces will be Kandahar.
In the months …
BattlelandPakistan
Kissinger on the sad strategic reality of US engagement in Afghanistan
Henry Kissinger had a sobering op-ed in the Washington Post Tuesday that laid out the reality of the US position in Afghanistan.
First, the fundamental conundrum of “nation building” in a fake state:
But nation-building ran up against the irony that the Afghan nation comes into being primarily in opposition to occupying forces.
…
BattlelandPakistan
Pakistan: indispensable to US security?
I am amazed at how quickly the Obama administration is going out of its way to assure everyone that we’re sticking with Pakistan for the long haul no matter what. No discussion and little explanation, it’s just assumed that Pakistan becomes the new indispensable partner that anchors US national security, even as every day reveals …
BattlelandNational Security
A Disconcerting Pair…
BattlelandNational Security
Relatively Good News From Pakistan
Hard to believe, but our friends over at the Danger Room blog draw our attention to this interesting item: a Pakistani general who says the CIA’s Predator drone strikes raining down on his country for the past several years are doing some good. “It’s a reality that many of those being killed in these strikes are hardcore elements, a …
BattlelandNational Security
The U.S. Air Wars over Pakistan
The smoke is lifting from the air war the U.S. is waging in Pakistan. Yes, a U.S.-Pakistani probe has found, U.S. helicopters did attack and kill two Pakistani Frontier Scouts — members of the Pakistani military — in a border outpost near Afghanistan on September 30. They fired on the outpost because shots came from it, the …