Word: talibanize
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Responding to a spate of attacks by Taliban militants that killed more than 100 people in the first three weeks of October, Pakistan's government launched a new offensive in insurgent-plagued South Waziristan that it dubbed Operation Path of Riddance. Pakistan's army chief requested the support of the area's Mehsud tribe, whose members fill many of the Taliban's top posts. Thousands of civilians fled the region, where 30,000 troops were fighting...
...General George B. McClellan was the country's primary political battle; nor was the contest between Karzai and Abdullah the key conflict in Afghanistan. Instead, Afghanistan is in the grip of a civil war that pits a U.S.-backed political establishment, which includes both Karzai and Abdullah, against the Taliban...
...that light, the main legitimacy problem with the August vote was not the 1 million-plus fake votes that were cast mostly for Karzai but the 12 million-plus votes claimed by the Taliban. No one actually voted for the Taliban, of course, and its call for a boycott of the poll was enforced by threat of death. But whether out of fear, political choice or sheer indifference, 12 million voters - representing 70% of the electorate, compared with just 30% in 2004 - stayed away from the ballot stations. A runoff election was expected to see an even smaller turnout...
...cheated again and probably recognizing that he was never likely to win even a clean election against Karzai, made clear his intention to boycott the runoff early on. The runoff was unlikely to help stabilize the country or resolve its fundamental conflicts, and canceling it simply denied the Taliban another opportunity to demonstrate its strength by ensuring an even lower turnout. (Read "Karzai Declared President As Afghan Runoff Canceled...
...Iran who fear independence may be out of reach campaign for expanded freedoms and guarantees to preserve their language and culture within the Pakistani and Iranian states. Others have taken up arms over the years. Suggestions made by some Pakistani officials linking Baluch separatism to the activities of the Taliban are wrong, says Harrison. Baluch nationalism has always been a secular project; its militant fronts warring with Pakistan, like the Baluch Liberation Army, descend from a tradition of Marxist-Leninist guerrillas that took root in the 1970s. Jundullah, though an avowedly Sunni group, articulates its identity as a rejection...