Pakistan | The last battle | Economist.com: "The government’s long reluctance to use force at the Lal Masjid had a simple explanation: it wanted to avoid bloodshed. But it has prompted other, less charitable, interpretations. The two brothers and their father, who founded the mosque, had close connections with Pakistan’s powerful intelligence services. As a reminder of the extremist danger, the Lal Masjid helped bolster General Musharraf’s image as a bastion of “enlightened moderation” in Islam. So too, without belittling General Musharraf’s undoubted courage, did the latest attempt on his life, by machine-guns aiming at his distant helicopter."
Broken Spring? : Information Clearing House This is a sequel to my June 2011 article, ‘After the spring’, on the upheavals in the Arab world. It is an article that has been painful to write, because it brings bad tidings and offers a pessimistic analysis of the upheavals, at least in the short term, in a number of Arab countries. The outcomes and potential outcomes of these uprisings have also acquired new, very significant dimensions. These include a complex entanglement with the accelerated preparations for a possible attack on Iran, and a poisonous, sectarian aspect that could have the consequence of ripping Syria and the Middle East apart.
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