The Bidens and inteqal

The Bidens are on air with Larry King on CNN, and I have just heard Jill Biden say, paraphrasing to the extent that I don't remember this exactly word by word: "so they brought the troops out of Iraq, and now they are starting to bring them out of... of... Afghanistan." The positive: at least she was not entirely certain when she said this, and looked at her husband for a second. A smooth inteqal, everyone.

Back to the future of Afghanistan: some more additions

Christine Fair discusses India's interests in Afghanistan in a two-part article series - this link goes to the second instalment. Brief comment: one understands India's concerns about insurgencies and terrorism, but I am not sure how the extensive Indian military involvement in Afghanistan, envisioned by some commentators, would mitigate India's problems. Sino-Indian relations, for example, cannot be left out of the equation, and talk and practice of Central Asian power projection might invoke the flexing of muscles by Beijing, too, where a new breed of leadership is emerging.

In other words, with harmonious Sino-Indian cooperation, tackling challenges in Afghanistan would be a lot easier, to say the obvious. In a parallel universe/reality...

Meanwhile, here is a good review/overview of recent (amazing + kinda-sorta scary) developments in robot warfare to ease your concerns. I am being ironic of course, in noting how going over-the-horizon while the Indian Army might try something more intensive back beyond that horizon does not necessarily add up to a working recipe of peace-building. Though, one must add, such a recipe perhaps does not really exist.

Anwar al-Awlaki, the "head guy"

That (the title) is basically all there is, to this post. Perhaps it should have been just a tweet... Yet I feel it deserves to be emphasised in this way, in the context of the recent parcel bomb plot story. Anwar al-Awlaki was once again referred to on Sky News as the "head guy" for al-Qaida in Yemen. Brings back memory of how earlier this year CNN once discussed whether al-Awlaki might be the "new Osama bin Laden." With the difference in mind that al-Awlaki even speaks good English...! Which reminds one of how many books some people should read. Which then reminds one of how that would not be very helpful in and of itself, because what is missing in the first place is the basic ability of these people to care about what's happening beyond a cursory level. No, discussing how much more aid Yemen would require specifically in the wake of terror plots, and mostly then only, is not equal to the kind of sensitivity implied here.