Originally posted at Bullets and Ballots . Another thwarted fake terror plot. That’s right, we’re a bit safer.

The Justice Department alleges that Nafis came to Queens, New York, in January from Bangladesh on [...]

Originally posted at Bullets and Ballots . The Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting again reignited the one-sided debate over whether or not such incidents should be labeled as acts of terrorism. In a must-read post, Juan Cole argues that the media tends to make a distinction between “terrorists” — foreign, generally Muslim violent actors — and “extremists” — American killers [...]

Originally posted at Bullets and Ballots . CIA providing guns to Syrian rebels. What could possibly go wrong? According to the  Los Angeles Times  some “critics” believe that the lack of a CIA presence in Syria is fueling the growing influence of jihadis in the uprising:

U.S. officials have worried that some of those groups may be linked to, or [...]

Originally posted at Bullets and Ballots . I have been referring quite a bit lately to al Qaedaization as a rhetorical devise among Western counterterrorists. However, Salafist and Islamist militants and ideologues are also in on the game. Ironically, the two sides collaborate in creating a “reality” of global jihad that exists  to a large degree  in discourse. Mohamed al-Zawahiri, a veteran [...]

Originally posted at Bullets and Ballots . In this month’s issue of the  New Statesman , Afghanistan scholar Michael Semple interviews a senior Taliban commander — referred to as Mawlvi — providing insight into the thinking of at least some segments of the Taliban. Much of the comments made by the commander bear on the possibilities for a peace settlement [...]

Originally posted at Bullets and Ballots . As a sociologist, I often find it difficult to account for the role of personalities in historical processes. But as a human being, I cannot deny the fact that  people make history — though perhaps not under conditions of their own choosing, to paraphrase Marx. Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s new book,  Little America: The War within [...]

Originally posted at Bullets and Ballots . Last week, the head of AFRICOM, General Carter Ham,  issued a dire warning about increased cooperation between various African jidadi groups, particularly Nigeria’s Boko Haram, Somalia’s al Shabaab, Mali’s Ansar Dine, and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb:

“Each of those three organisations is by itself a dangerous and worrisome threat,” Ham told [...]

Originally posted at Bullets and Ballots . Is the Afghan peace process starting up again? If so, why are both the Taliban and the Obama Administration downplaying recent developments? Over the weekend, a representative from the Afghan Government’s High Peace Council met with emissaries from the Taliban Hizb-i-Islam in Kyoto, in what may signal the revitalization of the Afghan [...]

Originally posted at Bullets and Ballots . I was wrong. In a moment of uncharacteristic optimism, I suggested that the drone debate had gone mainstream . It didn’t in fact go anywhere. Instead, we got a ” Leak War .” No discussion of anything substantive, nothing about the use of drones. When the news cycle passes onto the next inconsequential debate, the imperial presidency [...]

Originally posted at Bullets and Ballots . The argument that drone strikes may be counterproductive is nothing new. Left critics of the Obama Administration have been consistently making this argument for the last few years, Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill foremost among them. But, something seems to have occurred over the last few weeks: the mainstream media appears to [...]

Originally posted at Bullets and Ballots . The death of counterinsurgency continues. According to the  New York Times , the relative merits of the doctrine, with its relative ineffectiveness in Afghanistan, is driving a rethink among West Point’s nerds of militarism. (I use the term “nerd” as an academic, therefore as a nerd. So, it’s OK.) I am more interested [...]

Governments lying about terrorism? Surely I jest…

Originally posted at Bullets and Ballots . Sometimes a specialized community debates a topic that the general public considers a no-brainer. For example, the “decapitation thesis”: Is the assassination of “terrorist leaders” effective? Does it result in less violence and the demise of insurgent groups? “Duh,” says the man on the street, “Why are my tax dollars funding [...]