Quirky Asia Files: Getting From Point A To Point B

It all just makes me want to stay home, ha!

2012: A Retrospective of Foreign Policy Follies

Reason picks its top 5 foreign policy flops.  Just 5?

Land Grabs: Maps and Territorial Disputes

Bring it on!  Well, at least it's better than Apple Maps.

Blast From the Past (Literally)

Hurricane Sandy is a history-making storm.  Take a look at 6 other tempests that changed history, from the "divine wind" typhoon that saved Japan from a Mongol invasion fleet in 1281 to the storm that wrecked the Spanish Armada and thus saved England in 1588 and more.

Lara Logan on Al Qaeda & the Taliban in Afghanistan

CBS chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan has something to say.  You may remember that she was assaulted in Cairo when she was covering the Tahrir Square unrest.  By the way, that charming accent is South African.  Note: she's not technically giving a report as much as sharing her perspective and opinion, though some people seem to have a problem with that.

 

RELATED: Richard Engel in Egypt.  See too Dignified Rant's post "Is Afghanistan Doomed?"

Walter Russell Mead on the "War That Nobody Wants"

Take a look.  It begins with a huge salvo of sarcasm:

As everybody knows, there is no such thing as a global war on terror anymore. Instead we live in a harmonious world of interfaith comity with only the occasional criminal act that is quickly and competently handled by law enforcement officials. As a result we can cut our defense budgets and get on with the real business of life, which is to say watching TV, going to the mall and voting to re-elect the strategic geniuses whose wise decisions and firm but thoughtful leadership gave us this tranquil world order.

Quote of the Day: Culture Wars in the Middle East

From an op-ed with a Pakistani background:

Salman Rushdie’s book — Satanic Verses — sparked global outrage in the late 1908s and since then, we have increasing polarisation between those who view freedom of expression as an absolute value, and extremists within Muslims who think violence is the only way to ‘save’ Islam from such attacks. Millions of Muslims are trapped between the two ends of this hate-spectrum. Despite the offence caused by such provocation, they will not resort to violence or support wanton destruction of life and property. But are these voices represented and articulated through credible leadership? The answer is no because the hold of clerics and merchants of political Islam is gaining more and more traction across the globe.

We Humbly Apologize For Your Bad Behavior

We're running apology ads in Pakistan now?  The stupid "Innocence of Muslims" video inspired a mob freak-out, and I'm pretty sure this Obama-Hillary Clinton video is going to make everything OK ... not!  Get ready for more hate, this time spiked with contempt.  The haters will go on hating, because at the end of the day, their problem isn't with a video.  The video's just a catalyst for a far bigger problem.  

You know, I'm reminded of John Wayne as Captain Nathan Brittles in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon:  "Never apologize.  It's a sign of weakness."

Old Glory and Karma?

Or you call this poetic justice?

Remembering Pakistan's Outcast Scientist Abdus Salam

You'd think he'd be a national hero, being Pakistan's only Nobel Prize winner and the scientist whose work contributed to the Higgs boson research.  But nope!  The physicist has been purged from the textbooks and his gravestone ordered defaced by a magistrate(!) because ... This is too depressing.  Just read the news story.  UPDATE: More here.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali on the Persecution of Christians

Oppression all too readily forgotten.  As I have said before, you don't have to be a Christian yourself to be horrified.

India's Progress Against Polio

Once India led the world in polio cases (5000 cases recorded since 2000).  Now here is the happy news that with India's immunization efforts, since January 13 of 2011 no new cases were recorded.  Pakistan now takes the dubious title of world's most polio-prone nation.

With Friends Like These ...

From the Washington Post and the Financial Times: 

"Pakistan gave China access to the previously unknown U.S. “stealth” helicopter that crashed during the commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May despite explicit requests from the CIA not to."  

Caveat: the story needs confirmation.  On troublesome Pakistan, you may remember this and this.

The End of Bin Laden: "Geronimo E.K.I.A.”

Read the whole riveting account, right down to the Navy SEAL on the radio: "For God and country."  Indeed.

You know, my sentiments haven't changed at all since the great moment when the news broke that Bin Laden was dead.  The guy wanted to be a symbol, and he got his wish -- though not, in the end, as he fantasized it would be.  His exit was a great moment for all decent people everywhere.  Related posts here.  I don't even care that this New Yorker piece seems oddly timed to highlight the president's one (admittedly) great success even while just everything else is going to hell in a handbasket, especially the economy.

Foreign Affairs Explained With Cows

Brilliant.  See the follow-up too.

Satire Alert: Onion Headline "Pakistani Intelligence Announces Its Full Cooperation With U.S. Forces During Upcoming Top Secret June 12 Drone Strike On Al-Qaeda At 5:23 A.M. Near Small Town Of Razmani In North Waziristan"

Leave it to the Onion to make a pointed statement about Pakistan while making us laugh too.  Oh, and we do laugh.  We laugh because there's truth in that satire.

Nerd Analysis: Professor Mead on Pakistan, "This Unsatisfactory Ally"

Oh, my!  With friends like these ...?  Here's a blurb:

The Assassination in Abbottabad was a strategic catastrophe for the military rulers of this slowly and painfully failing state.  On the one hand, it leaves the reputation of Pakistan as an effective partner against fanatical terror groups in ruins.  The debate in Washington and around the world now is whether the Pakistani state is in league with Al Qaeda or whether it is so weak, divided and incompetent that rogue factions within the state have escaped all control.  The rich intelligence haul the US gathered in Osama’s lair will help the US learn more about Osama’s protectors in Pakistan; in the meantime it is transparently clear that whether incompetence or malfeasance is more to blame, the government of Pakistan cannot safely be trusted — by anyone, on anything.

Well, OK, and all, but maybe not having Pakistan as an ally is even worse?

Steve Coll on Osama in Pakistan

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist (and Bin Laden biographer) Steve Coll has some thoughts about the circumstances of Bin Laden's discovery -- i.e., that he was found mere yards from Pakistan's equivalent of West Point.  Yeah, we've all got some thoughts and questions on that front.  Is it possible that Pakistan didn't know Bin Laden was living there for years? In Coll's words, "It strains credulity."  I guess it involves who knew what when.  But somebody knew something in the tangled mess of Pakistani government and society where, as we've seen lately, there are both good people fighting for freedom and extremists bent on advancing their own radical agenda.

Watch the full episode. See more FRONTLINE.

Salman Rushdie on Osama and Pakistan

A few thoughts.

Nerd Analysis: Fouad Ajami on the Weak Horse

Read this.  The weak horse and, literally and metaphorically, yesterday's news?  UPDATE:  Read this too.