Pakistan is having a really rough time. Promenient NGOs have upped their concern to urgent need, citing nearly 1500 deaths and 2000 injuries, with doubtless more to come. The UN is trying desperately to intervene, trying to corral member nations into providing much-needed monies and aid to assist the thousands of people displaced by the [...]

One of the real weaknesses of despots and dictators is their methodology for the transition of power. One result of this is they very often die in office. Because their hold on the leadership role is inherently illegitimate, they find themselves throughout the history of their regimes beset on all sides by schemers, usurpers, disloyal [...]

When you think about it, it’s not hard to understand why Hamid Karzai can be a bit, well, prickly at times. I don’t think anyone aspires to grow up to be President of their home country while it is host to foreign armies and additional legions of diplomats and technocrats, all of whom can either [...]

It was a quiet week here at Attackerman. Or something. Spencer checked in from Afghanistan here, here, here, here, here, and here. Be sure to check out that second “here.” Adam checked in with the Wikileaks kid, Jenn talked about military recruitment and the recession, and we had a little tete a tete with don’t [...]

Encountering one of these drones is a bewildering experience. I suggest reading Danger Room in the near future for more on the circumstances that got me this close to an instrument of war that looks like H.R. Geiger designed it. Behind me and to my left is the bay where the Hellfire missile goes. I’m [...]

Depending upon their willingness to demonstrate a straight-up, full on bigotry or a kinder and gentler sort of discrimination, opponents of the Cordoba House project will tell you it’s about Islamists, Muslims, or the victims of 9/11. Their opponents counter that it’s about freedom of religion, the constitutional guarantees of liberty and basic human values [...]

Two things worthy of comment this morning. First, there are credible reports that the Germans are set to announce significant reductions in the size of their army and an end to conscription. This is a move that not only makes good sense for Germany, but contributes to a potentially developing trend toward the overall reduction [...]

Just as soon as Omar Khadr’s trial began, it’s stopped; Khadr’s lawyer, Lt. Col. Jon Jackson, collapsed in the courthouse late yesterday. Doctors suspect it is related to a surgery Jackson had six weeks earlier, but nonetheless the judge ordered a thirty-day recess. This is, of couse, on top of the several years’ delay Khadr [...]

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — So it turned out that I couldn’t get to some of the places out east in Afghanistan that I wanted to see, through no fault of the efforts of very hardworking public-affairs officers who tried to facilitate it. As a result, I’ve had a limited ability to acquire ground truth [...]

Christopher Hitchens has a powerful and moving piece in Vanity Fair, in which he talks about his cancer diagnosis. I strongly recommend it – it’s well worth your time. I’ve often disagreed with Christopher Hitchens, but I’ve always admired him, and I’ve willingly succumbed to an overwhelming urge to like him. He’s like an irascible [...]