With Hamid Karzai's presidential term set to end next year, the deteriorating security situation in parts of Afghanistan appears to be harming his chances for reelection.
Although a date has yet to be set for Afghanistan's next presidential election, skeptics are already questioning whether they should be held at all.
The attempted reopening today in Islamabad of the Red Mosque complex that saw a bloody confrontation between security forces and militant Islamic radicals on July 10-11 is a reminder of the challenges confronting Pakistan's embattled President Pervez Musharraf. The event was descending into rioting as Islamic hard-liners sought to retake the facilities.
If you can't beat them, talk to them: Afghanistan's embattled government is now espousing this approach as it struggles to contain the Taliban insurgency and keep reconstruction from going completely off the rails.
The pace of the "Talibanization" in Pakistan's tribal areas bordering Afghanistan appears to be accelerating this spring. The trend has been obscured by recent internecine fighting, pitting mainly Pashtun militants against fighters affiliated with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.
As he prepared to return to his homeland after 15 years as a refugee, Hazratullah, a native of Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province, was more anxious than happy. "I don't have a house there and I don't know if I will find any work," he told EurasiaNet about his fears.
Many of Pakistan's anomalies are evident in its sprawling capital, Islamabad the name means an "abode of Islam." Since late January, a group of stick-wielding female students of the Jamia Hafsa Madrassa, or Islamic seminary, have occupied a state-owned children's library.
