While the terrain is, indeed, extremely rugged, the area along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border is heavily populated, contrary to popular belief. The area of the FATA has millions of Pakistani residents, and most of them are ‘extremely conservative and hostile toward the Pakistani government.’ In 1998, South Waziristan had a population of nearly half a million [...]

The Obama administration faces some big risks in the impending escalation of the war in Afghanistan: soldiers are asked to ‘clear huge areas of insurgent fighters who look exactly like the civilian population, and establish “control” of places that have never been controlled by a central government at any point in their history,’ and driving [...]