It was past midnight when the insurgents crossed into Afghanistan’s Dur Baba district on the border with Pakistan and began their descent. In the valley below, relatives of the district governor, Hamisha Gul, a tall, handsome man in his late 40s, had gathered at his compound to celebrate the impending marriage of his cousin Nawshir.
Tag Archives: troops
Why the Pakistan Army Won’t Fight Afghanistan’s Taliban
President Barack Obama is about to announce his new strategy for Afghanistan, but the success of whatever option he chooses will depend heavily on Pakistan acting to stop its territory being used to attack Western forces next door. And that’s bad news, because the demands of its own domestic counterinsurgency campaign, doubts about the duration of U.S
Sam Manekshaw
It took Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw only 14 days to secure his place in Indian history.
The World: Bangladesh: Out of War, a Nation Is Born
JAI Bangla! Jai Bangla!” From the banks of the great Ganges and the broad Brahmaputra, from the emerald rice fields and mustard-colored hills of the countryside, from the countless squares of countless villages came the cry. “Victory to Bengal! Victory to Bengal!” They danced on the roofs of buses and marched down city streets singing their anthem Golden Bengal
The End of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’: A Gay Officer Offers An Inside View of the Military’s Rush to Adapt
What a fascinating time to be a gay man in the U.S.
The Trouble with Democracy: Albania’s Worrisome Vote
While much of the world can only dream of democracy, other places have trouble making it work. Tiny Albania emerged from communist dictatorship in 1990 only to tumble into a rough world of gangsters, fraudulent financial machinations and incompetent governance, exacerbated by lawless capitalism and devil-may-care politics
The Abu Ghraib Scandal You Don’t Know
American soldiers often have a tough time with Arabic names, so to guards, he was just “Gus.” To the world outside Abu Ghraib prison, he became an iconic figure, a naked, prostrate Iraqi prisoner crawling on the end of a leash held by Private Lynndie England, the pixyish Army Reserve clerk who posed in several of the infamous photographs that made the name Abu Ghraib synonymous with torture. Now, it emerges, there may be another dimension to Gus’ story and certainly to the horrors of Abu Ghraib.
The Prisoners of Syria: What Detainees Can Expect from Assad
Unconfirmed reports that Syrian army troops were battling each other were an indication of how divided the country is regarding dealing with political dissent. The Damascus regime’s reputation for brutality is fearsome.
Afghan Officer Fires on NATO Troops, Kills Several
— Eight NATO service members and a contractor are dead after an Afghan military pilot opened fire on the foreign troops following a dispute at the airport in Kabul. Wednesday’s shooting was the deadliest incident in which a member of the Afghan security forces turned against coalition forces
The Congo: The U.N. Drives Implacably Ahead
Belgian Cement Worker Albert Verbrugghe was driving his wife and another woman down a quiet street in the copper town of Jadotville one day last week, when he suddenly heard the clatter of gunfire.