Advice from the Saudis on Afghanistan
In this morning's Washington Post Prince Turki al-Faisal of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, former director general of their intelligence service and also their former ambassador to the United States offers President Obama some advice on how to proceed in Afghanistan with which I find I am in almost complete agreement. His advice consists of six action items: There is ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 9, 2009 11:34
Why We Drive on the Right – And Others Don’t
Monday, Samoa will switch to driving on the left side of the road in order to benefit from cheap used cars from Australia and New Zealand. This gave Time's Randy James to explain, "Why Don't We All Drive on the Same Side of the Road?" It's especially odd that two-thirds of the world drives on the right, since most of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 4, 2009 08:15
Money Is Fungible: Pakistan Edition
Do you recall the aid we've been sending Pakistan so that the Pakistani government will let us supply our troops in Afghanistan via Pakistan, secure their nuclear weapons, and oppose the Taliban and Al Qaeda being harbored within Pakistan's borders? Apparently, Pakistan is seizing the opportunity to build up its nuclear arsenal: WASHINGTON — Members of Congress have been told ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 18, 2009 08:27
“Look upon My Works, Ye Mighty!”
Shelly's poem Ozymandias is forced to mind when reading this piece from the Herald-Tribune of Sarasota, Florida. It makes perfect economic sense---cheap, useful cars with good gas mileage---but does it ever speak volumes about the inevitability of change... Indian car company readies Sarasota showroom Toni Whitt SARASOTA COUNTY - While working for General Motors in the 1980s and early 1990s, Pawan Goenka discovered ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 13, 2009 08:28
The New Plan for Afghanistan
In anticipation of next week's NATO meeting in which the issue of Afghanistan will be front and center, President Obama has briefed Congressional leaders on his plans: WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to further bolster American forces in Afghanistan and for the first time set benchmarks for progress in fighting Al Qaeda and the Taliban there and in Pakistan, officials said ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 27, 2009 10:15
Mumbai Attacks Planned in Pakistan
Yesterday Pakistan acknowledged what the Indians have been saying all along, that the terrorist attacks in Mumbai last November were planned in Pakistan and executed by Pakistanis with the assistance of the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistani officials took what could be a decisive step forward in the country's fight against Islamic extremism Thursday, publicly admitting for the first ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 13, 2009 09:18
‘Slumdog Millionaire’ Tanking in India
The critically acclaimed "Slumdog Millionaire" is not doing well in its native India, Madhur Singh reports for TIME. For many Indians, the film's subject and treatment are familiar to the point of being banal. A lot of Indians are not keen to watch it for the same reason they wouldn't want to go to Varanasi or Pushkar for a holiday — ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 26, 2009 11:14
Second Shoe Drops in Indian Outsourcer Scandal
Over the last several months a scandal has been emerging in India that's received precious little attention over here: the Indian information technology services outsourcing giant, Satyam Computer Services Ltd., has been found to have been cooking the books, overstating its financial and business strength over the period of nearly a decade. Now the next shoe has dropped ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 25, 2009 10:32
America and the World After Bush: Economics and Globalization
On Barack Obama's second day in office, the Bush administration is fast fading into memory. As accidental tax evader Timothy Geithner prepares to take over at Treasury in an administration where transparency and the rule of law will be touchstones, it's an excellent time to begin looking at the global economy. To do that, we'll once again turn to Thomas ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 22, 2009 16:05
America and the World After Bush: Diplomacy and Security
Barack Obama has been president for more than 24 hours now. America is once again beloved by one and all. Hubris and overreach are things of the past, as the inmates of Gitmo have been freed and the troops are all home from Iraq, participating in rebuilding the infrastructure at home. Or, certainly, change is in the air. As we ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 21, 2009 15:54
The Scenarios of the India-Pakistan Confrontation
There's an article over at Reuters listing some of the possible scenarios that might emerge in the confrontation between India and Pakistan. I think the article is best described as an editorial. A mixture of opinion and superficial analysis, if it had a by-line it would be an op-ed. It's not a news article since it's not reporting the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 16, 2009 09:47
The Roiling India-Pakistan Situation
There have been a couple of interesting developments in the tense exchange of words between India and Pakistan that's been going on since the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November. Pakistan has responded angrily to the claims by India's prime minister of involvement of the Pakistani government in the attacks: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Pakistani leaders say Indian ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 7, 2009 09:46
Terrorism as a Policy Tool
India's Prime Minister has characterized Pakistan's actions as using terrorism as a tool of state policy: India's prime minister accused Pakistan of using terrorism as a policy tool and said the Mumbai attackers must have had the support of some official Pakistani agencies, allegations that appeared to dim any prospect of cooperation between the two countries in probing the attacks. A statement ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 6, 2009 13:59
Links Between Pakistan and Mumbai Attacks
Indian officials have been saying it all along but now Pakistani officials, too, are pointing to links between last month's terrorist attacks in Mumbai and the Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba: ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's own investigation of terror attacks in Mumbai has begun to show substantive links between the 10 gunmen and an Islamic militant group that its powerful spy agency spent years supporting, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 31, 2008 10:32
Double-Talk from Islamabad
Apparently the troops Pakistan has transferred from the border with Afghanistan to the border with India are just going there for a nice Christmas holiday: ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Pakistan again said on Saturday that it did not want war with India, as the international community tried to defuse tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours after Islamabad moved troops to the border. The White ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 27, 2008 10:40
