What is the US government's real agenda in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Is it engaged in anything that contradicts its official alliance with Pakistan? And how big of a factor is natural resources in what the US war machine is doing? Kiren Chaudhry has gone to the region to investigate. In a conversation this past August, she characterized the US military/security effort as chaotic.

What is the US government's real agenda in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Is it engaged in anything that contradicts its official alliance with Pakistan? And how big of a factor is natural resources in what the US war machine is doing? Kiren Chaudhry has gone to the region to investigate. She characterizes the US military/security effort as chaotic.

Pakistan may be the linchpin of the US's so-called war on terror, but it is also, as Tariq Ali notes, a wrecked country. Pakistan's neighbor Afghanistan is also devastated; the continuing war there makes meaningful recovery impossible. In a recent talk, Ali addressed key developments in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq, often dictated by US geopolitical interests.