Another Not So Smart Power initiative humiliatingly spurned | Cold Fury Oh, but this is rich: Boy Genius makes overtures to “moderateâ€� elements of the Taliban, gets stupid ass spanked — again: Obama’s foreign policy doesn’t seem to be very effective....

The Afghan Supreme Court upholds a criminal conviction for “blasphemy:” KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s Supreme Court has upheld a 20-year sentence for an Afghan university student journalist accused of blasphemy in a case that has alarmed media and rights organizations in Afghani...

There is, of course news of the other sort. But the bad news is easy to find and usually much more widely discussed. Here instead is a round up of the positive news stories from 20 February to 6 March 2009 from Afghanistan. I focus on this, not only to attempt to balance the scales in the tone depar...

Sanjar writes that many people in Afghanistan have turned to the faith of Jesus Christ in recent years. A few of them have done so openly, though most have kept their conversion secret....

Determined to find someone, anyone, to surrender to, President Obama seems to be setting his sights on the "moderate" Taliban. I guess the "moderate" Taliban only wanted to kill 1,000 Americans, rather then the 3,000 lost on 9-11. But, wonder of wonders, experts are skeptical: "Obama's comment resem...

The president will withdraw 12,000 troops from Iraq over the next six months, but where will he send them? Back to America? Ski trip to Aspen? Or perhaps he’ll just airlift the veterans to Afghanistan, where a similar number of reinforcements has been promised over a similar period. Here’...

…that you can help with.  For those of you who didn’t hear the news elsewhere [at Christian’s Ghosts of Alexander, for example], I would like to do my bit to raise awareness for Jennifer McCarthy’s drive to raise funds for a village in Faryab province in the Chahar Wiloyat.Â...

NY Times: After a six-month campaign, the Pakistani military is claiming victory over the Taliban in Bajaur, a northern sliver of the tribal areas, saying the militants have suffered heavy losses and have been pushed over the border into Afghanistan. As evidence, the military this month showed off t...

Bamian is one of those great provinces of Afghanistan that combine a rich history—aside from the giant Buddha statue creches, there are fortresses dating to Alexander the Great—with a permissive security environment. There is even a stunning lake, called Band-i Amir, that has become one ...

New York Times - By Helene Cooper, Sheryl Gay Stolberg - Mar. 08 (News Report) - President Obama declared in an interview that the United States was not winning the war in Afghanistan and opened the door to a reconciliation process in which the American military would reach out to moderate elements ...