Recent content by Drongo

Does anyone know how to get tickets for this?

I also think there's no chance of this leading to a war. I'm more interested to see if it will just blow over in a few months and it will be back to business as usual or it actually signals a fundamental change and Qatar adopts a new set of foreign relations. I think the first one is more likely.

I'd want to see some more detail before saying this makes sense at all. If he wants to occupy the country by seizing the money-making resources, how is that going to affect the state building/terrorism denying aspect of the mission? And if that isn't part of the mission, why even have a war in...

Climate change really isn't a political issue, and building your opinion on it along a "left vs right" argument is naive.

It's a good position, refreshing to see another state refusing to gang up against Iran which just provokes further insecurity.

Looks great, I hope I can visit this area one day.

You're just making yourself sound silly, the whole world knows the US isn't going to attack Iran. Instead of waving around empty threats it would make more sense to stop provoking them into building bigger and better weapons which just makes you complain even more.

Calling the President powerless is a bit silly. He has a lot of influence. What you and many other people fail to realise about Iran's ruling elite is that they have a healthy fear of their own populace and know that they can't afford to completely discard their sentiments. Sure they managed to...

The problem is if they didn't give the warlords official positions the government wouldn't have survived six months after 2001. I agree there should have been much more done to sideline or assimilate them as soon as possible though.

Does it work the same for the thousands of Pakistanis currently serving in the militaries of GCC countries? Legitimately interested since I'm writing about this now.

It's a bit ridiculous to pretend the US has no interest in what's happening in the SCS. Beyond whatever strategic considerations there are, it's obviously indicative of the power balance in the region and the region as a whole does notice who gets the upper hand.

Hi all, I'm writing an article looking at the cultural/historical/religious/political links between Pakistan and gulf Arab states and how they result in Pakistani citizens joining the army or police in these countries. I have some information on the Omani army recruiting soldiers from...

Haha this is hardly news. When I was in Afghanistan ANA soldiers would be patrolling with an RPG over the shoulder while smoking a joint, and picking weed from the fields as they walked past - which they justified as tax since the farmers don't pay any. Not that I blame them, spending years in a...

It still isn't capable of differentiating between a terrorist and a civilian, so unless it is set up in an uninhabited area that isn't used by villagers it probably won't achieve much. Hilly terrain also makes it much less sensitive.

You can hardly discount what India says about the development when they are the ones developing it; you aren't going to get a better source. And sure Gwadar is developing more quickly, I'm not denying that. As for Iranian interest in CPEC, it is a different matter. It makes sense for them to...