Tag Archives: taliban

A Moderate Muslim Interviews a Suicide Bomber

This Pakistani television interview, with English subtitles, I think emphasizes the importance of Westerners not to make blanket and stereotyped observations about “what Muslims believe” as a group. As with the majority of Christians and Jews, the majority of Muslims are … Continue reading

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Barack Obama and Critical Thinking

According to the New York Times today, President Obama’s decision to send an additional 30,000 troops into Afghanistan was the product of a painstaking process of deliberation, dialogue, reading, debate, and general critical analysis: The three-month review that led to … Continue reading

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Get out of Afghanistan Now?

That’s former NY Times foreign correspondent Chris Hedges’s advice in an essay posted yesterday at TruthDig.com. Chris Hedges thinks that we’re in a quagmire in Afghanistan, and that we are, by meeting violence with violence, creating more problems for ourselves … Continue reading

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Afghan Crossed Lovers: Romeo, Juliet, the Taliban, and GAY MARRIAGE

Yes, there are real monsters in the world. This today in the Guardian: A young couple who tried to elope in one of the most lawless and conservative parts of Afghanistan have been publicly executed by Taliban gunmen after their … Continue reading

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David Kilcullen Says WATCH PAKISTAN

The Washington Post interviewed David Kilcullen this weekend: Why is an Aussie anthropologist coaching American generals on how to win wars? David Kilcullen, an Australian army reservist and top adviser to Gen. David H. Petraeus during the troop surge in … Continue reading

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Is Afghanistan a Quagmire?

So suggests Spiegel today: Afghanistan is on the brink of chaos: That is the stark message from local leaders, the US military and development workers in the troubled country. The elected government, they warn, can no longer compete with the … Continue reading

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