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Is Everything Fair in War?
January 17, 2012 | Dilawar Sharzai
The wars always bring with themselves myriads of problems, evils and harms. It has the capability to destroy human civilization within no time. Decades of developments can turn to ruins once these giants turn wild and grasp the world in its deadly grips. There have been many wars in the human history and all of them have their ...
A Modern Class of Entrepreneurs - A Must for Afghanistan
January 17, 2012 | Mehdi Rezaie
The post-Taliban Afghanistan is a colorful gallery of achievements, failures, mistakes and blunders. From the international community to the government of Afghanistan every single entity within this large set-up has had its own share of mistakes and blunders as well as achievements. A grave mistake committed in Afghanistan, and for that ...
The Power of Social Networks
January 17, 2012 | Naeem Yaghoobi
It would be surprising to know one-fifth of all the internet users, visit and use one or more of the online social networks. According to new research done, online social networks have about 1.2 billion users. Most of them are young people between the ages of 15 -25 years. Facebook and Twitter are the most popular social networks and ...
Talks of Federal System
January 16, 2012 | Abbas Daiyar
After Taliban's confirmation of opening an office in Qatar, the domestic Afghan debate on talks with the Taliban has intensified among the political circles of Kabul, media, civil society organizations and ordinary Afghans. It is optimistic to see the efforts of talks for a political settlement with the insurgents to end the ...
Violence Resurge in Iraq
January 16, 2012 | Jawad Rahmani
Iraq is regressing in the security and political spheres. On Saturday, Jan 14, Shiite worshipers were targeted by suicide bombers in the city of Basra. The attack killed more than 50 people and injured around hundred people on one of the holiest days in Shiite calendar. Though against the hopes, it smelt sectarian violence and ...
“We don’t Need Nuclear Power”
January 16, 2012 | Mohd. Ahsan
On Saturyday, January 14, 2012, around 2000 protestors marched in the streets of Yokohama, Japan, chanting slogans against the nuclear energy and its negative impacts on environment and life. The protestors were chanting, "We don't need nuclear power. Give back our hometown. Protect our children." Japan is one of the ...
Durand Line: The Future Time Bomb
January 15, 2012 | Mohammad Younas
On November 12, 1893, King Abdur Rahman Khan and Sir Henry Mortimer Durand (British Envoy) agreed on seven points known as Durand Line Agreement to demarcate the line between Afghanistan and British India approximately 2,640 kilometers long (presently much of Baluchistan, large parts of the Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa Province and the...
In Search of a Painted Childhood
January 15, 2012 | Mehdi Rezaie
The BBC Persian service ran a small but profoundly moving story on how a number of children and adolescents in Mazar-e Sharif experience with painting and drawing in "Balkh Cultural café". This is something that very few children in Afghanistan of today ever hear of or actually get the ...
Ambiguity Surrounds the Palace
January 15, 2012 | Mohd. Ahsan
These days a very pathetic condition seems to be prevailing in presidential palace. The Karzai administration is trying to exhibit itself as 'important' in the process where the US is trying to enter a deal with Taliban. But the palace and the High Peace Council (HPC) – specially established to facilitate the peace ...
A Paranoid Government Stifles Constructive Dialogue
January 14, 2012 | Mehdi Rezaie
The recent meeting in Berlin, Germany, organized by the Aspen Institute, which brought together a number of prominent Afghan leaders, has drawn harsh criticism from the government of Afghanistan. The meeting, named Afghanistan 2014: Opportunities and Challenges, in actuality, was a platform ...
About Talks with the Taliban
January 14, 2012 | Abbas Daiyar
The Western media punditry after Taliban confirmation of opening a "political office" in Qatar paints the future of a political settlement for the end of conflict in Afghanistan very optimistically. After years of denial and doubts when the idea of negotiations with the Taliban were proposed seriously for the first ...
The Social Network
January 14, 2012 | Jawad Rahmani
We are in living in the so-called information era. Information revolution and globalization are two main topics discussed thoroughly across the globe. The earth is shrinking too fast, changing into a small village. Resistance does not work. Countries, which try to build cyst around, finally understand that the most they t...
Need to Overcome the Phobia of a New National Dialogue
January 12, 2012 | Sher Alam Saqib
In the era of new waves of democratization, Afghanistan cannot return to a form of political system and government other than democracy. After the fall of Taliban regime in late 2001, the country opted for democratic system and process to manage the ...
Promoting a Favorable Business Environment
January 12, 2012 | Mehdi Rezaie
Afghanistan ranks as a country with one of the worst domestic environments for doing business according to reports published by a number of international organizations including the World Bank. The "business environment" in Afghanistan, although having improved significantly over the past one decade, remains unsuitable ...
Sahar Gul’s Story - A Clear Image of Women’s Life in Afghanistan
January 12, 2012 | Basir Ahang
On December 27, 2011, 15 year old Sahar Gul was discovered imprisoned in her in-law's musty, dark cellar by the Baghlan Province Police. Seven months earlier, while living in Badakhshan Province, Sahar had been forced into marriage. The police report stated the young girl had been imprisoned, tortured and violently beaten by the husband ...
What about Foreign Military Presence, Mr. President?
January 11, 2012 | Jawad Rahmani
Water in the ditch of Kabul of and Washington relationship is getting colder and colder and keeping swimming there is increasingly turning a bad idea. Its linkage has been caught of fresh water and, thus, it gets dustier. Recently, I have written extensively about Kabul and Washington relation and particularly ...
Taliban Policies are Tricky!
January 11, 2012 | Mohd. Ahsan
Before the present image and meaning of Taliban, the word Talib (plural or Taliban) was perceived positively. Talib is a student of religious schools called Madrassa who after studying for certain years will become a Mullah. In the past there was much respect for Mullahs. However, their involvement in politics and activities other than ...
The Ticking Time Bomb in the Middle East
January 11, 2012 | Mehdi Rezaie
It has been more than three decades since the Islamic revolution in Iran toppled the Pahlavi Dynasty and its last monarch, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. The era that followed has seen the Islamic Republic in Iran at an uneasy relationship with the West. The recent controversies over the Strait of Hormuz and Iran's threats to block the Strait ...
Mullah Omar is Only a Spiritual Leader, Not Taliban’s CEO!
January 10, 2012 | Mehdi Rezaie
The news of peace parleys and the incremental flow of progress that comes out of Qatar and Germany have kept the media here in Afghanistan on the hook. The Dari and Pashtu language media here are abuzz with much excitement and activity with the flow of "commentators" and "political affairs experts" a non-stop feature ...
A Better Choice to Make
January 10, 2012 | Dilawar Sharzai
With the international economic deceleration getting serious and a tiredness of decade of war, US does not seem to be in position to support a very lucrative budget for military purposes and has to bring about important changes in its strategies – especially the military ones. President Obama in this regard seems to be favoring ...
What to Expect from Peace Talks with the Taliban
January 10, 2012 | Ahmad Shuja
The idea of putting a negotiated end to the Afghan conflict is finally gaining some traction. The Taliban recently reversed a long-held position and agreed to open an office in Qatar from which they could negotiate. That same day, Hizb-e-Islami Gulbuddin (HiG) – the other insurgent group – sent a delegation to Kabul to talk ...
Afghan Government to Support Migrants in Greece
January 09, 2012 | Dilawar Sharzai
In order to support the Afghan migrants, mostly the illegal ones, there are reports that Afghan government is going to open an embassy in Greece, most probably till the end of the March. There are thousand of people who have left Afghanistan and have moved to other countries for the sake of better...
The Potentials for Change or Backfire in Arab World
January 09, 2012 | By Ali Reza Sarwar
Regime change and political restructuring in Arab countries is the most current and critical development that has amused everyone, especially political strategists and scholars throughout the world. In less than a year, the home-grown and street demonstrations led by people, particularly ...
Counter-Narcotics Struggle
January 09, 2012 | Jawad Rahmani
One of the principle challenges is opium cultivation and drug- trafficking. More than any other country, Afghan people suffer largely as drug addicts have crossed a million and many more are added on regular basis. Years of counter-narcotic struggle has not given the intended results. One of the measures that Afghan government...
The Ecstatic Moves
January 08, 2012 | Nasruddin Hemati
According to a statement issued by president office, Afghan government had asked its US counterparts to hand over control of Bagram prison to the Afghan forces. The demand has come amid all-out efforts to start talks with the Taliban representatives who are said to have stationed in their political office in Qatar. Bagram prison holds ...
Prioritizing High-Quality Primary and Secondary Education
January 08, 2012 | Mehdi Rezaie
The new educational year in Afghanistan will start with the advent of the new solar calendar year. According to statistics provided by the Ministry of Education of the Government of Afghanistan, there are about three million school-age students remain out of schools. This ministry recently announced that within ...
US Leads the Peace Process This Time
January 07, 2012 | Jawad Rahmani
The peace process with the Taliban militants is getting complicated in a strange way. Afghan government more than ever is irritated about its marginal role in the process which is largely led by US, Germany and Qatar this time. Indeed, opening a diplomatic door with Taliban was not the idea of foreign allies from the start. Instead, during past years, they stood strongly ...
The Dormant Hydro-Power Industry
January 07, 2012 | Mehdi Rezaie
Afghanistan is well-endowed with abundant surface water resources. For an electricity-starved country with a growing economy, these surface waters are a unique resource. Afghanistan is, thus, well-placed in a unique position to harness these resources and generate energy not only for its growing domestic consumption but also for its immediate neighbors ...
On Recent Developments in Talks with Taliban
January 07, 2012 | Sher Alam Saqib
Afghanistan appears to have been catapulted into another complex and difficult situation. Ten years of constant but ineffective fighting against terrorists and cruel insurgents are being replaced with a negotiation process of uncertain outcome and end state. Taliban and other insurgent groups were viewed as destructive ...
Hereafter, It is up to Iraqis and their Rulers
January 05, 2012 | Jawad Rahmani
Last month, when the last unit of American combatant troops was leaving from the country, it was clear that behind those joyful and cheerful faces deep down something was forcedly hidden: worry. Though Iraqis deemed American military presence as national humiliation, but the future, reeking with sectarianism and proxy ...
The Mass Destruction of Nuclear Weapon
January 05, 2012 | Abdul Samad Haidari
Nuclear weapon is booming and settling the fate of great protracted conflicts like World War II, and increases the fear among nations around the world. It perhaps, spoils the peace process, instead enriches the conflicts as the fear of natural destruction that relatively brings the world to further hatred and economical ...
The Looming State of War
January 04, 2012 | NasruddinHemati
An adventurous, tense and contentious year has just passed and an expectedly more precarious one has begun. The year 2011 brought about considerable gains for human community as well catastrophic occurrences and unpleasant events. The world was shaken by brave, pro-democracy uprisings in many Arab countries. The global ...
China’s Financial Challenge
January 04, 2012 | Mehdi Rezaie
China's economic growth and the pace of it have been impressive over the past two decades. It has lent China considerable political and economic clout on the global stage while lifting more than two hundred million people out of poverty over a matter of two decades. China's economic diplomacy ...
Judicial Solution Leads to Political Chaos
January 04, 2012 | Farman Nawaz
Although confession is not a tradition in Pakistan but since restoration of judiciary few very prominent and impartial leaders of the lawyers' movement have openly criticized the same judiciary which got freedom because of their sincere efforts. Some journalists and politicians were raising questions about the independence of judiciary ...
Our Drifting Democracy
January, 03 2012 | Mehdi Rezaie
Afghanistan's experience with democracy has seen many twists and turnovers in the past one decade much like the history of this nation through ages and centuries. It has been a relatively new experience for an Afghanistan that stands, virtually, as a historical gallery of various political experimentations over the 19th, 20th and ...