"It's on the defensive but it's far from defeated," said a former CIA officer working for a US think tank, one of many experts who believe the death of Osama bin Laden should be viewed as little more than a setback for al-Qaeda.
How can we bring development to Afghanistan if we don’t have security? asks Benjamin Gilmour, a writer and filmmaker.
The law, banning senior Mubarak-era officials who served in the past 10 years from running for office, is finally up and running, writes Vickie Smiles, a writer and resident of the Egyptian city of Alexandria.
Apart from the escalating rate of civilian deaths, from Taliban and Western forces, the rise of private security armies has defined the war, resulting in numerous contractor crimes against Afghan civilians.
Listening to Gillard’s speech on the “process” of the gradual withdrawal of Australian troops from Afghanistan had Shakira Hussein searching out the famous Gorchakov memorandum on Russian imperialism.
The evidence that our continuing role, that the continuing loss of the lives of young Australians, the continuing expenditure of billions of dollars, will make any difference to the long-run outcome in Afghanistan remains thin.
Neither Gillard nor Obama has the political capital to stare down public opposition forever.
Ben Bella represented a type now largely extinct in the Middle East -- the left-wing, authoritarian secular nationalist, of which Egypt's General Nasser was the most influential.
Whoever gets the job will need a cool head to handle the military’s transition back to the barracks, writes Vickie Smiles, a writer and resident of the Egyptian city of Alexandria.
It may be the season in Palestine but we are a long way from last year’s Arab Spring uprisings, writes Nigel O'Connor, a freelance journalist and writer in Palestine.
