By Barry Rubin

When the authors of the Democratic platform’s sections dealing with the Middle East — I dealt with the section on Israel in a previous article — finished it they were no doubt quite satisfied. They felt that they had built a strong case for reelected President Barack Obama along the following lines:

America is more secure and popular. Al-Qaida and the Taliban are on the run. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are ending. America is supporting democracy, women’s rights, and gay rights around the world. Isn’t this great leadership? How could anyone not vote for Obama?

(more…)

by Mark Durie*

In the past two weeks at least nine Americans have been killed by their Afghan allies in what is known to as “insider killings.” Members of the Afghan army, having been trained and armed by NATO forces, are turning their weapons in increasing numbers against their foreign allies, killing at least 40 NATO troops this year so far.

These killings are demoralizing, not only for the troops, but also for the folks back home. They make people war-weary. Mrs. Marina Buckley, the mother of Lance Corporal Gregory Buckley who was killed by one of his Afghan allies just before he was due to return home, spoke for many when she said: “Our forces shouldn’t be there. It should be over. It’s done. No more.”

(more…)

by Alexander H. Joffe*

Preserving the past has costs. Much of the world shares the belief that the past has intrinsic value, which is encoded into laws and regulations that imperfectly protect, preserve and study historical and archaeological remains.

Contributions, admission fees and taxes pay for the upkeep of monuments from the Parthenon to the Liberty Bell. When highways are constructed they are diverted around historical landmarks, or the landmarks are moved. Archaeological excavations slow construction everywhere. But are we willing to kill or die for the past?

(more…)

by Wahabuddin Ra’ees*

U.S. president Barack Obama entered office with a bold plan to combat Afghanistan’s escalating insurgency, empower its government, encourage a political resolution of the conflict, and secure the cooperation of neighboring Pakistan—all in time for U.S. troops to withdraw by the end of 2014.

This new Afghanistan-Pakistan (AfPak) policy has yet to deliver on its promise. While the U.S. military surge swept insurgents out of their southeastern strongholds, the rebels have responded with terror attacks and assassinations reaching into the heart of Kabul. Washington has accelerated its training of Afghan security forces, but most U.S. aid still circumvents the central government, weakening its authority. With a political settlement nowhere in sight and Pakistani support for armed extremists unabated, Washington’s options for preventing a Taliban takeover have narrowed.

(more…)

… Evidence so far indicates that no malice was intended in the Koran-burning at the [Afghan] air base, Doug Wilson, the Pentagon’s assistant secretary for public affairs, said today.

“We do not believe that this was something where those involved intended to burn the Koran as a religious document,["] Wilson said. …

“After 10 years, incidents such as this have been extremely rare,” he said. “No matter how serious this was, no one should necessarily extrapolate a broader trend about how our armed forces in Afghanistan are poised to treat religious and cultural materials.” …

- Bloomberg, Feb 23, 2012

President Obama has completely lost it. His “perspective” is reversed — upside down. Intolerant Muslim savages are again on a murderous rampage simply because some American kid accidentally burned a book. Remember Muslim madness over the silly Mohammed cartoons? A crazed Afghan killed two American soldiers today because of this non-”incident,” and all’s Barack Obama can do is apologize to whom; the Taliban? 1,883 American soldiers have been killed trying to bring civilization to Afghanistan. It is the Afghan president and civic groups who should be apologizing to the U.S. for their own barbarism and bigotry. The book which was burned was the Koran, but nonetheless, just a collection of paper pages. President Obama should be ashamed of his “apology.”

Oh, ye of little (nonexistent) faith. Are your “Islamic” beliefs so shallow that you would once again commit murder because some icon or object is accidentally destroyed? People of true faith have the strength and courage to remain civilized in the face of any tribulation — because their beliefs are rooted in their hearts, minds, and souls, and not dependent on mere objects. True believers are also unshaken by the acts of hooligans. Do these barbaric Afghans even know what they are rampaging about? Do they have any feelings of conscientiousness, forgiveness, and/or compassion? Do they only understand violence and hatred? You can’t shake my faith by burning my flag or my Bible or my Constitution — I’ll only dig my heals in because my faith tells me that civilization and the pen are mightier than any sword.

In 2001, the Taliban terrorist group so popular among Afghans, destroyed, “all ancient sculptures [in their country]. Explosives, tanks, and anti-aircraft weapons blew apart two colossal images of the Buddha in Bamiyan Province, 230 kilometers (150 miles) from the capital of Kabul.” Buddha was the Prince of Peace. Just read his words. He never condoned violence or intolerance.

Afghanistan was the staging ground for the 9/11 atrocity where the Taliban gave safe haven to the evil al-Qaeda plotters. These Afghan terrorists have murdered thousands of innocents and are the ultimate misogynists: “No place has been more synonymous with oppression of women in recent history than Afghanistan under the Taliban…” They stoned a woman to death for “being seen out with a man.”

To heck with Afghanistan and President Obama. If the Taliban hurt us or our friends, we can carpet bomb them from the air. President Obama should be voted out of office for his misjudgement and cowardice. Oh, by the way Mr. Obama, your “apology” — your weakness — will only encourage more violence: “Taliban leaders called on Afghans to ignore the apologies and step up attacks against Americans.”

(more…)

by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi*

As U.S. military operations in Afghanistan drag on inconclusively, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the Taliban insurgency is gaining ground. In the first six months of 2010, for example, there was a 31 percent rise in civilian casualties while the Shari’a was implemented in areas hitherto inaccessible to the Taliban.[1] Insurgent attacks in the first quarter of 2011 grew by 51 percent compared with the previous year[2] while the Afghan security forces have been increasingly penetrated by the Taliban.[3]

(more…)

by Oren Kessler*

One of the principal beneficiaries of the Arab uprisings has been Al Jazeera television. Viewers are praising the English and Arabic channels’ comprehensive coverage of the revolts while the Obama administration continues to court the network as part of its signature foreign policy goal of improving ties with the Arab and Muslim worlds.

(more…)

By Harsh Pant

Pakistan is facing a serious crisis today and despite the proclivity of the nation’s elites to blame external forces, the wounds are largely self-inflicted. India is not the biggest danger Pakistan faces today. It is the extremist groups that the security establishment has nurtured over the years that have turned against the Pakistani state. The Pakistani army has yet to reconcile itself to the idea that Afghanistan should be something other than its strategic backyard, under the control of its proxies such as the Taliban, and continues to struggle with its paranoia that India is encroaching on Afghanistan to encircle its old enemy. As a result, Pakistan is unable to take corrective measures that can bring some semblance of stability to a conflict-ridden nation.

(more…)

by Jonathan Schanzer*

In its final report of July 22, 2004, the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (commonly known as the 9/11 Commission) charged that Congress had failed America. In the commissioners’ judgment, Congress had “adjusted slowly to the rise of transnational terrorism as a threat to national security. In particular, the growing threat and capabilities of [Osama] bin Laden were not understood in Congress … To the extent that terrorism did break through and engage the attention of the Congress as a whole, it would briefly command attention after a specific incident, and then return to a lower rung on the public policy agenda.” Indeed, the commission was unequivocal about “Congress’s slowness and inadequacy in treating the issue of terrorism in the years before 9/11.”[1]

(more…)

September 11: A Decade Later

by Dov S. Zakheim*

Everyday American images of the war on terror — the legacy of 9/11: Government buildings surrounded by ugly concrete blocks. Pennsylvania Avenue, the street that the White House — once known as the “people’s house” — faces, no longer open to traffic. ID cards required everywhere. Airline passengers waiting patiently in line to take off their shoes, belts, jewelry — and to have their bags searched and perhaps their bodies as well. Fans searched as they enter football stadiums. People on the watch for suspicious characters — including those who might take photos of bridges and tunnels. People fearing to retrieve lost bags in case they are booby trapped. Increased government surveillance of individual Americans, including their telephone calls overseas.

(more…)

by Daniel Pipes*

“Do the Democrats have a double-standard for Obama?” My reply to this roundtable question follows below. For replies by Bernard A. Weisberger, Michael Lind, Kenneth W. Mack, Rick Shenkman, and Gil Troy, please go to http://hnn.us/

While it is certainly true that Democrats cut Obama slack on policies where they would slam Bush or McCain, as a fair-minded Republican I note that the reverse holds true as well: Republicans slam Obama and go easy on Bush. I will establish both points in my areas of expertise, the Middle East and Islam.

(more…)

by Phyllis Chesler

There they all stand, guilty as sin, Afghan Taliban terrorists disguised in women’s burqas — but exposed when they were captured by the Afghan Border Police. Their photo (or rather photos) were taken by an Afghan photographer somewhere near Jalalabad and have just been seen worldwide.

(more…)

by Stephen Schwartz*

At the end of a week in which U.S. military forces in Pakistan carried out the execution of Osama bin Laden and the Afghan Taliban declared that the death of “Sheikh Osama bin Laden will give a new impetus to the current jihad against the invaders in this critical phase of jihad,” a stunning display of Islamist insensitivity and arrogance took place at the University of California, Berkeley. On Friday, May 6, 2011, Ebrahim Moosa, a South African Muslim and professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University in North Carolina, speaking at a UC Berkeley workshop on “Religious Norms in the Public Sphere,” defended Deobandism, the madrassa-based radical ideology that inspires the Taliban.

(more…)

by Harsh V. Pant*

As the Afghan war enters its final and most decisive phase, India’s strategic position in the country has turned a full circle. Having maintained a close relationship with the post-Taliban government for years, New Delhi suffered a humiliating setback last January when its warning against the folly of making a distinction “between good Taliban and bad Taliban” was summarily ignored by the Afghanistan Conference in London.[1]

At a stroke, Pakistan squeezed its nemesis from the evolving security architecture by persuading the West that the time had come to incorporate the “moderate” faction of the Taliban into Afghanistan’s future state structure and to give Islamabad a key role in mediating this process.[2] Meanwhile, despite its best attempts to keep a low profile, India and its nationals have been increasingly targeted by extremist forces in Afghanistan. The Indian embassy in Kabul was struck twice over the past two years, and guest houses frequented by Indians were attacked with nine Indian nationals killed.[3]

(more…)

by Raymond Ibrahim*

After mentioning the sort of atrocities Christians in Pakistan suffer — including being killed by “blasphemy” laws, constantly “abused in public and harassed in the street by groups of Muslim youths,” ostracized and impoverished by the government — a recent Fox News report reminds us that Christian persecution is further exacerbated by anti-Americanism:

(more…)