From Time Magazine’s website:
In her new book, Seeds of Terror, journalist Gretchen Peters makes the compelling argument that the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan have evolved (or devolved) from purely religious terrorist groups into narcoterrorism syndicates with religious overtones. The drug trade nets them $500 million a year in profits, resources the militants use in their fight against Western forces. Until that supply of cash is cut off, Peters argues, Western forces cannot defeat the militants.
Read the full interview here.
John R. Schmidt, a former foreign services officer who was based in Pakistan and who now teaches at George Washington University, has written an insightful analysis of the political backdrop in Pakistan that has contributed to its current unravelling. Read it here.
I thought his analysis of the land- or manufacturing-based elite that have swapped power with the Pakistan military since the country was founded was right on, as well as his remark, on page 33, that the lawyer’s movement could represent:
“the first stirrings of a civil society that could in time challenge the system.”
Schmidt also carefully dissects the complex and not always friendly relationship between Pakistan’s military and intelligence forces and the various militant Islamic groups they have at times fostered and at times fought.
It’s worth a read.
