The Taliban have appointed Mullah Mansour's replacement, and he's one of the two guys who were considered the favorites for the job. Thankfully, I think, he's the one who isn't Sirajuddin Haqqani: Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, a prominent religious scholar and deputy to the killed leader, will head the militant movement, which has been in disarray … Continue reading Meet your new Taliban emir

Everybody who protested against the Vietnam War in the 1960s must be so proud today to know that the last vestige of that terrible conflict is now behind us: President Obama lifted a decades-long American arms embargo on Vietnam on Monday and touted a new friendship with the United States' former enemy. "Just a generation ago, we were … Continue reading Happy Arms Sales (War Is Over)

One very interesting sidelight to the tragic death-by-drone (well, alleged death, there's never a 100% certainty in these kinds of cases) of Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour over the weekend involves Pakistan. Mansour was killed in Pakistan's Baluchistan province, see, and along with Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar that makes three pretty serious enemies … Continue reading Another country heard from

Five suicide attacks and two car bombs killed at least 148 people in the Syrian cities of Jableh and Tartus earlier today. The attacks were all carried out by ISIS. Buzzfeed has aggregated photographs of the aftermath along with some specific details about each attack. I mention this first because that's a hell of a … Continue reading ISIS kills at least 148 in Latakia, where people live

The operation to wrest the city of Fallujah from ISIS has begun, according to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi: A statement from the military said counterterrorism forces, police, tribal fighters and popular mobilization units — which include an array of Shiite militias — will be involved. U.S.-supplied F-16 jets already have begun bombing targets in … Continue reading Iraq: will Fallujah fall before the government?

The NeverEnding Story Global War on Terror saw some big news over the weekend: An American drone strike on Saturday in a restive province of Pakistan killed Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, the White House confirmed on Monday. Calling the death “an important milestone,” President Obama said in a statement, … Continue reading Be careful what you wish for

Two days after it crashed, with wreckage and human remains now reportedly being found in the Mediterranean, no group has yet "credibly" claimed responsibility for bringing down EgyptAir Flight MS804, though Egyptian authorities seem to have decided that this was in fact a terrorist attack. In the abstract that's not unusual; the vast majority of … Continue reading Why no claim?

I'm sorry to keep repeating myself, but I’m trying to get back to some regular blogging after an extended break. But in order to do that, I’ve got to make some sense of what’s been going on while I’ve been away–for my own sake far more than for yours. This is part of a series … Continue reading Catching up: Afghanistan

https://twitter.com/EGYPTAIR/status/733129477941788672 The flight, an Airbus 320 carrying 59 passengers and 10 crew, is now about an hour several hours overdue. Obviously too early to even hazard a guess as to what happened or is happening to it. I'll update as new information comes in, though it's almost 11:30 here so sleep is going to interrupt … Continue reading BREAKING: EgyptAir flight en route from Paris to Cairo disappears from radar

Forgive me for being a couple of weeks behind on this story, but Iran held the second round of its parliamentary election on April 29. This was a runoff round for 68 seats for which no candidate was able to get at least 25% in the first round, held on February 26. The result, as … Continue reading Everything’s coming up Rouhani…for now