Pakistan

On January 13, a U.S. missile strike on the Pakistani village of Damadola, intended to kill Al-Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, missed its target but killed at least 17 other people, probably including Al-Qaeda members but certainly including local women and children. If it had succeeded, this would have been a notable coup in the struggle against Al-Qaeda. Instead, this violation of Pakistani territory has humiliated the administration of President Pervez Musharraf and compromised his government's assistance to the United… more

The White House will soon start lobbying Congress to approve its recent nuclear deal with India. Even before President Bush returned home, his foreign policy team was touting the economic payoffs from access to the Indian market, India's democratic credentials and the common interest India and the United States have in checking China's influence.

The problem is that key members of Congress and the vocal nonproliferation pundits don't buy these arguments. They're already gearing up for a fight, claiming… more

A tearjerker from the 1970s starring Ali McGraw and Ryan O'Neal popularized the adage "Love Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry." That maxim may work in romance -- although even that is doubtful -- but it is certainly not good for dealing with a weak and critical ally.

Alas, that's precisely the course the Bush administration has followed in the wake of a US airstrike on a Pakistani village near the Afghan border. The attack was meant to kill… more

A pattern has established itself in Western coverage of so-called "people power" revolutions. The revolutions themselves are reported on television and on the front page of newspapers, and extensively praised and analyzed on the editorial pages. Distinguished staff correspondents fly in to cover the story. The revolution is described as part of a growing wave of democracy sweeping the region or the world. The latest examples of this treatment have been the Western responses to the "colored" revolutions in Georgia,… more

Both critics and admirers of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf will agree on one thing: The man does not lack boldness or an appetite for risk-taking.

Consider some examples. In 1999, as army chief, he seized power from the elected -- if rather ineffectual -- government of Nawaz Sharif after the prime minister had tried to oust him.

After 9/11, Musharraf abruptly broke with the Taliban, which had acquired and retained power in no small measure thanks to support… more

This past April in Quetta, the bleached-gray, drought-stricken capital of the Pakistani border province of Baluchistan, I awoke to explosions and gunfire. In search… more