Strategic Paradigms by Ehsan Ahrari

Reading the pre-final draft of the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) 2010, one is reminded of the old adage, “plus ça change, plus c’est la meme chose,” in the Pentagon’s handling of asymmetric war, counterterrorism, and other related issues. The ghosts of the Vietnam War, of how not to lose another war, are also very much [...]

Assuming that General David Petraeus, the new Combat Commander of CENTO, was victorious over al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI), the question of the hour is whether he can replicate that success in Afghanistan.  However, before answering that question, it should be clearly understood that, despite a marked reduction in violence in the  Sunni-dominated region of Iraq, [...]

The United States has carried out a missile attack on an Islamic School founded by Jalaluddin Haqqani, whom Washington describes as a “friend of Bin Laden.”  The speculations are that the missile attack was aimed at killing a number of Uzbek and Arab fighters who were reportedly using that school as a sanctuary.  However, the [...]