Dive into the archives.
- Why States are Important in the WoT
One major and poorly explained reason for the invasion of Iraq was not the the physical presence of WMD but the willingness of a state with WMD capability and/or weapons to train and equip terrorists and possibly provide them with said weapons. While little serious diplomacy had been attempted with Iran and North Korea, Iraq [...]
- OIF Original Aims
Five years and going, the Iraq War has been subject to more spin, hyperbole and misinformation that anything else in our time. According to Douglas Feith, in his new book War and Decision, the two biggest errors of the Bush administration were: (1) Not communicating clearly the multifaceted reasons for going to Iraq and (2) [...]
- Being realistic about maritime terrorism
EagleSpeak offers a quick and dirty Q&A on maritime piracy that is both enlightening and practical. I found his statement on the link between piracy and terrorism particularly concise:
Piracy as practiced today can be political (Nigeria in some instances) but mostly seems to be a revenue raiser. AQ’s statement may be mostly propaganda and relates [...]
- Back to Iraq?
FP Passport notes an article in the Turkish news regarding military preparations for further strikes within both Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkish Kurdistan.
The TSK is currently developing its strategy for the operation, which will most likely be launched in the middle of March. The ground operation is planned to be the final strike against the terrorist [...]
- Tuareg Rebellion
For our readers out there who’ve read Robert Kaplan’s latest books, the Tuareg Rebellion in Mali and Niger isn’t wholly unknown. Adrian over at Politics & Soccer is a masters student in Security Studies and is researching it for his thesis. If any of our readers have expertise to offer, he would surely appreciate it.
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- Breaking: Bhutto Killed in Suicide Blast
Breaking story:
Benazir Bhutto ‘killed in blast’
Pakistani former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been killed in a presumed suicide attack, a military spokesman has announced on TV. Earlier reports said Ms Bhutto had only been injured and taken to hospital. Ms Bhutto had just addressed a pre-election rally in the town of Rawalpindi when the bomb [...]
- PKK in Kansas Update
As as a follow up on my previous post on rumors that the PKK is moving to Nagorno-Karabagh, Jamestown has a new article on the same subject that is well worth reading.
Reviving a Forgotten Threat: The PKK in Nagorno-Karabakh
By Anar Valiyev
The decades-long war between the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Turkish army has [...]
- The Right People, The Wrong Way?
Recent news reports the release of several former Guantanamo prisoners of British and and update on more of French nationality. But it didn’t make the news because of the controversy surrounding their detainment, but instead because they seem to indeed have been rightly jailed. According to the BBC:
Five Frenchmen who spent time at the US [...]
- Helping Both Sides?
Today’s German Tagesschau hints at something (German link) I’ve also been wondering, namely, why the Turks are claiming such wild success having deal “strong blows” and stood up against terrorists when almost nobody has been killed and no proof has been given that anything of value was hit.
It is one thing for the Kurds [...]
- PKK to Kansas?
Since the founding of the Republic, Turkey’s archenemies have been those whose who harbor legitimate claims against their territory: Greeks, Armenians and Kurds. Ankara’s deepest fears always involve some conspiracy consisting of several of the aforementioned groups collaborating against them to dismantle modern Turkey.
Usually these claims are nonsense, if not utterly absurd.The plot of [...]
