August 2021
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Myra MacDonald on Pakistan and Afghanistan
The author links an interview with Myra MacDonald on Pakistan and Afghanistan, held on his Substack; it is gated for now and will open to non-subscribers in two weeks.
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General Bajwa, please retire
Republished from 2019, the post argues that General Bajwa’s army-chief extension crowns a tenure of rolled-back civil liberties and media freedom, and that Imran Khan’s government abandoned its governing responsibilities…
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America’s Brilliant Strategy in Afghanistan
Major Amin argues the US exit from Afghanistan is a brilliant strategic move that leaves the problem to Pakistan, China, Russia and Iran; the poster, uneasy at such cynicism, asks…
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Pocket Review: The Dharma Forest
A pocket review of Keerthik Sasidharan’s The Dharma Forest, first of a planned trilogy retelling the Mahabharata through nine characters. The reviewer admires its philosophical depth and modern-readable psychology, while…
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30 days? That’s an excuse to run consulate shredders — Kabul’s government won’t last the week
As the Taliban box in Kabul, the author argues that US intelligence timelines were absurd, that the fall of northern cities has ended illusions of an orderly withdrawal, and that…
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Is the Mesopotamian world for elephant ‘Dravidian’?
The author links a Nature paper arguing that the Mesopotamian word for ‘elephant’ points to a Dravidian language in the Indus Civilisation; he leans towards agreeing but finds the chain…
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What Happened to the Afghan Army?
Major A. H. Amin argues that critics of the Afghan National Army forget armies take centuries to build, holding that the traditional Afghan army was destroyed by a joint US-Pakistan…
