TORONTO – Friday’s Globe and Mail carries a front page story by Campbell Clark that presents what I believe is the most credible scenario explaining the disconnect in Canada’s Foreign Affairs ministry on the Afghan detainee issue.
While most other journalists have concentrated on titillating “he said, she said” stories playing up every minuscule difference of […]
TORONTO — Canada’s minority Conservative government is slugging it out on multiple fronts with the country’s Official Opposition party (the Liberals) over whether or not the government is covering up something in Afghanistan. In an absurdity that could only happen in Canada, the alleged cover up appears to involve something that was (a) never done […]
TORONTO — Just a few “quick hits” in the blog today.
Obama to land in Kabul soon?
With U.S. president Barack Obama currently on a tour of Asia after the APEC conference, and the world waiting for him to announce his decision on a way forward in Afghanistan, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him pop up […]
DUBAI — An article in today’s Los Angeles Times provides good evidence that the new U.S. commander in Afghanistan “gets it” when it comes to counter-insurgency warfare there. The article announces a new U.S. military policy to forego body counts in future press releases.
For some time now, ISAF and U.S. military spokespeople have touted the […]
ISLAMABAD — I returned last night from two and half days in Lahore, where I spent some time socially with a few well-educated business associates and asked their opinions on the war in Afghanistan, the one here in Pakistan and the political mindset of average Pakistanis.
But first, as I sit to eat a late afternoon […]
KHYBER PASS – Well, okay, I was actually about 3,000 feet above the Khyber pass when I noticed the sticker carefully applied to the tray on the seatback in front of me. It was cloudy, you see, so the infamous Khyber looked an awful lot like the prairies of Saskatchewan on a cloudy day. Hence […]
KABUL – Afghanistan and Tajikistan share a number of things in common, but one that I’ve been forced to get used to (again) over the past few days is the reality of living in darkness.
And, by darkness, I don’t mean a forboding mood, or perpetual ecliptic shadows. Rather, I mean that both countries suffer significantly from […]
KABUL — Practically across the street from where I am staying in Kabul, which is not my normal hangout but, instead, a theoretically more secure guest house belonging to the international organization with whom I am working, are two shiny European-style supermarkets that cater almost exclusively to… well… Europeans who want to shop in a […]
KABUL — I was up early today to check out the hotel in Islamabad, having managed to gain privileged access to precisely no Irish Pub facsimiles, and race to the airport anticipating the same heaving mass of humanity trying to squeeze through a single turnstile into the international departures area.
Last time through Islamabad, it took […]
ISLAMABAD There is a certain Zen-like quality to living in a suitcase. As I packed, in late January, for my departure to Egypt, Pakistan and Afghanistan, I selected from an array of “stuff” accumulated over some 44 years of adventures and misadventures, only the most essential items for my travels. I would be living in […]