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Civilian Casualties and Taliban Attacks
January 31, 2012 | Mehdi Rezaie
Afghanistan of today has been at the receiving end of more than ten years of generous international aid and assistance and would still need many more years of sustained assistance. The military component of the international community's engagement in Afghanistan has been the most extensive and the most controversial. The ...
“A New Phase”
January 31, 2012 | Dilawar Sherzai
There have been dissatisfactions, ambiguities, concerns and distrust about the war against terrorism not only within the opposition Afghan parties but within the Afghan government authorities, as well. Soon after there were reports of Taliban office in Qatar, the Afghan government, especially President Hamid Karzai, was ...
Haste Makes Waste
January 30, 2012 | Dilawar Sherzai
Keeping in mind the history and socio-political scenario in Afghanistan, one can conclude that the current relative stability has been earned hardly. So, it must be cared for and all the indications of worsening of situation in the country must be dealt with, seriously. In the ongoing transition period there are indications of the worsening ...
Taliban Folklore in Pakistani Media
January 30, 2012 | Abbas Daiyar
The dominant discourse in mainstream Pakistani media on issues of foreign policy and national security has always been based on the narrative of the military establishment. Most Pakistani analysts, both right-wing and liberal, believe that Taliban is a nationalist movement motivated by Pashtun alienation in current power structure of ...
Suspension of the Mission
January 30, 2012 | Jawad Rahmani
The situation in Syria is getting tougher and tougher as the protestors increasingly have gone from a peaceful protest towards an armed struggle against the regime. Day by day, the situation turns abysmal as protestors are coming into understanding that the regime would not stop killing unless they stop their peaceful protest for ...
Local Governance and Short-comings in Afghanistan of Today
January 29, 2012 | Mehdi Rezaie
Afghanistan, no doubt, is an extremely complex environment and this complexity has been one factor that has rendered only partially successful the efforts of the international community in Afghanistan over the past one decade. Many of the stakeholders in Afghanistan project such as the ISAF, the international aid agencies ...
Can Strategic Agreements Prove to be a Panacea?
January 29, 2012 | Dilawar Sharzai
As the transition period is going on in Afghanistan and the withdrawal of international forces are going to be completed in 2014, there are concerns about the capability of Afghan authorities to shoulder the responsibilities of carrying on the security and governance of the country ...
Economic Sanctions to Avert Military Intervention
January 29, 2012 | Nasruddin Hemati
After all, both parties are trying to avoid using military means to end the quarrel in Iranian case of nuclear program. The United States has been struggling to convince world powers to go together with it to make Iran's religious leaders accept the fact it can no more stand against international calls to stop its nuclear ...
Taliban and the Future of Afghanistan
January 28, 2012 | Mehdi Rezaie
It is such a bitter irony that at a time when the entire Muslim world is reveling in the Arab Spring and the buzzword everywhere is democracy, pluralism and tolerance, Afghanistan, itself part of the Muslim world, continues to shiver in a winter of Taliban and increasing Talibanization. The so-called 'national peace and reconciliation' process, being a deeply ...
An Unavoidable Political Reform
January 28, 2012 | Sher Alam Saqib
Among other political agenda and issues, there is a need for political reforms to be discussed, initiated and implemented in the country. These political reforms include changing the presidential system into parliamentary democracy. Over the last ten years, international community has been helping Afghan (Karzai's) government ...
Struggle to Undermine Tehran’s Nuclear Ambition
January 28, 2012 | Jawad Rahmani
Seemingly, the western countries are really disappointed of diplomatic means to get Islamic Republic to suspend its nuclear Program in exchange to political and economic incentives in a quantity that they were ready to pay. Indeed for a long period, they used to seriously try to persuade Tehran ...
Obama’s Address and Class Disparity
January 26, 2012 | Dilawar Sharzai
In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, January 24, 2012, US President Obama showed his concerns about the growing economic disparity in US and had a great emphasis on economic equality and equal opportunities for different classes in the society. He emphatically admitted that only by guaranteeing swift ...
The Forgotten Story
January 26, 2012 | Abbas Daiyar
It's an irony to see high-ranking anti-corruption officials making tours around the world to attend seminars on 'how to fight corruption', but having no single case of success, in large-scale corruption that has plagued the Karzai Administration top to bottom. To their credit, we always top the list of shame in ranking among ...
Afghan Women’s Quest for Their Rights
January 26, 2012 | Mehdi Rezaie
In the post-Taliban Afghanistan, "women rights" is the new buzzword. Improving the conditions and social standing of women in today's Afghanistan has found devout champions in both the Afghan government and outside in the fledgling Afghan civil society. Numerous institutions have been set up tasked with protecting ...
Strategic Agreements with European Countries
January 25, 2012 | Mehdi Rezaie
The government of Afghanistan is gearing up to sign three strategic agreements each with the governments of the U.K., France and Italy in an upcoming tour of these European countries by President Hamid Karzai. Another strategic agreement is being worked out by the European Union and will soon be submitted to the Ministry of ...
Reasons behind EU’s Sanctions Against Iran
January 25, 2012 | Jawad Rahmani
As anticipated, European Union agreed in the Brussels meeting to ratchet up pressure against Islamic Republic of Iran over its so-called suspicious nuclear program. The members approved to intensify sanctions against the country —— the brinkmanship to get Tehran change its current defiant status and suspend the uranium enrichment ...
Agriculture and Forestry in Afghanistan
January 25, 2012 | Abdul Samad Haidari
Afghanistan is a traditional agrarian society, with rural Afghans wildlife, typical of each micro-ecosystem in the mountains they inhabit. Constituting well over 80% of the population live in rural areas before the Soviet invasion since 1979, agricultural products have decreased by 50%. To compensate for this loss, rural people have ...
Afghanized Reconciliation and” Change in System”!
January 24, 2012 | Dilawar Sharzai
The cold war between the opposition and the Afghan Presidential office is getting very intense. The planned and controversial reconciliation process has widened the gap between the both. In fact, the process has given rise to a lot of ambiguities as it has not been very much transparent. Most of the Afghan people and dominant political ...
The Kingdom of Kabul
January 24, 2012 | Abbas Daiyar
While inaugurating the new session of National Assembly after its winter break, President Karzai spoke in reference to the meeting of some Afghan politicians and US congressmen in Berlin. Leaders of National Front Ahmad Zia Massoud, Haji Muhammad Muhaqiq, Abdur Rashid Dostum and former ...
The Government’s Resistance to Change
January 24, 2012 | Mehdi Rezaie
The political war between the government of President Karzai and the main opposition bloc, Afghanistan's National Front, has found a new issue and a new battleground. The call by a number of leaders from the National Front to make a shift to a parliamentary form of democracy has been the hotbed of a new wave of controversies. Some prominent ...
Is ‘Justice’ the will of the Powerful?
January 23-2012 | Dilawar Sharzai
Most of the political philosophers and analysts believe that justice is one of the basic pillars on which the building of a political system can be constructed. Justice, in simplest words, is 'to give what a person deserves' or 'it is what the courts offer' or else 'it is what law tends to achieve'. But these definitions of justice are too simplistic and ...
The Euro Crisis and Sustainability of the System
January 23-2012 | Jawad Rahmani
Right after 2008 financial crisis, all countries have been engaged in severe battle to control the fallout and restrict its consequential effects. While part succeeded but many are still writhing in sludge and have no idea how to stop. Generally speaking, countries supported two different approaches. One, which largely ...
An Uncertain Future for Afghanistan
January 23-2012 | NaeemYaghoobi
The international conference on international assistance to Afghanistan is scheduled to be held in Tokyo, Japan in July of 2012. The Tokyo international conference is scheduled to focus on international economic assistance to Afghanistan for development and reconstruction during the decade 2014-24, which is supposed to be ...
No Way Out of This Financial Crisis - Collapse Inevitable
January 22, 2012 | Mehdi Rezaie
The financial and economic crisis that has engulfed the developed world in Europe and North America is unprecedented in the history of humankind in terms of both depth and breadth of the problems that underpin the crisis. Never before in history has the world been so integrated with the financial markets truly global and every crisis ...
Int’l Efforts Fail to Cut Taliban’s Biggest Source of Income
January 22, 2012 | Mohd. Ahsan
'Better Security' in Afghanistan has been a top priority of international community. But it would be like glossing over the fundamental facts pertaining to Afghanistan, if one articulates the US and its allies' efforts are triumphing here. The Afghan government and its international partners have, with no single doubt, failed to ...
The Hard Journey to Sanction Iranian Oil
January 22, 2012 | Nasruddin Hemati
Amidst rising concern in United States of America, Europe, Israel and certain Arab countries over Iran's ambiguous moves to enrich Uranium at a higher level, in more arsenals and with more number of centrifuges, the quarrels over how to deal ...
Talks with Taliban Within a Flawed Model
January 21, 2012 | Mehdi Rezaie
Recently, the Taliban announced that talks and negotiations with the U.S.-led international community do not mean that they would drop weapons and embrace peace. This statement might have surprised many in the West including some in the Obama Administration, who have pinned all their hopes on finding "a negotiated, political ...
Bankruptcy of the Existing Power Structure
January 21, 2012 | Sher Alam Saqib
In addition to the negotiation with Taliban and other insurgent groups, the new campaign for decentralization of power launched by some major political parties and alliances has become a prevalent discussion in Afghanistan, whose translation into real political reform can determine the future course of political stability in the ...
What Would Be the Next Step?
January 21, 2012 | Jawad Rahmani
A month-long mandate of Arab monitoring team expired lately this week and its chief Mr. Mohammad al-Dabi is still working on the report to represent to League's leaders likely within few coming days. The team was deployed to the country last month in the wake of suspension of Syria's membership in the League. The suspension came ...
Fiscal Sustainability and Dwindling Foreign Aid
January 19, 2012 | Mehdi Rezaie
Afghanistan currently stands at the bottom of the United Nation's Human Development Index. This shows the extent of the under-development, poverty and the abysmal conditions of living for a majority segment of the population. The efforts over the past one decade in reducing poverty and creation of jobs and employment have ...
Suffering, Shivering Afghans
January 19, 2012 | Dilawar Sharzai
Afghanistan is one of the countries that suffer from lack of development and basic requirements of life. Millions in the country can hardly acquire basic necessities of life. Through most part of its modern history the country has been dominated by wars and conflicts. Little efforts have been made in improving the standard of ...
The Trend has Taken a New Turn
January 19, 2012 | By Jawad Rahmani
No doubt, it has been centuries that European and North American countries have been the founder, epicenter and engine of almost everything in the world, ranging from economics, to politics, to social and cultural relations and etc. whatever the reason behind, they were deeply engaged in promoting and expanding those abstract ...
Warlords and Amir-ul-Momaneen
January 18, 2012 | Abbas Daiyar
The Taliban have issued a statement in Farsi on their website condemning the conference in Berlin attended by key opposition figures and leaders of National Front Ahmad Zia Massoud, Rashid Dostum, Muhammad Muhaqiq and former NDS Chief AmrullahSaleh. Since the meeting last week in Berlin, which was organized by Aspen Institute, there ...
What are our Rights?
January 18, 2012 | Dilawar Sharzai
Whenever a government is formed in a state, one of its top priority matters is maintaining the rights of its citizens. In today's world of ours when the nations of world claim to be civilized and they have formed democratic systems of government the rights of the subjects have been emphasized to a great extent. Moreover, today the ...
Living in the Age of Corruption
January 18, 2012 | Abdul Samad Haidari
After the collapse of the Taliban, Corruption has gone from bad to worse, from the time when the United States installed the so-called government despite hundreds and thousands of promises and oaths to get Afghanistan rid of these messes and save its people from injustice and paralyzing criminal warlords but yet no comprehensive...