Joshua Foust

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Latest posts by Joshua Foust

Afghanistan: Conflicted Response

Captain Cat is conflicted over the dispute within UNAMA: she thinks they do good work, but their acceptance of the fraudulent election is ruining their credibility.

8 October 2009

Afghanistan: Terror suspect arrested

Afghan PenLog rounds up most of the reporting on the arrest of Najibullah Zazi, indicted in New York on terrorism charges. Zazi supposedly trained in explosives in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

29 September 2009

Afghanistan: Riots in Ghazni

Free Range International reports that there is a fresh round of rioting in Ghazni, Afghanistan. There are rumors the rioters were protesting the abduction and murder of Shams al-Din, a...

11 September 2009

Afghanistan: Conversation with soldier

Captain's Cat, an aid worker in Gardez City, posts a conversation with a young American soldier, where he expresses exasperation at the way Afghan culture works, and admits he only...

8 September 2009

Afghanistan: Animal House in Kabul

Tim Lynch, an American security contractor in Afghanistan, used to work with the now-fired security guards at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. He says: “The problem with the current guard...

8 September 2009

Kyrgyzstan: Presidential Elections Are Over

Tolkun Umaraliev says the opposition candidates claim the election in Kyrgyzstan to be illegal. There is a confusion among media, both local and foreign, that candidates Nazaraliev and Atambaev have...

3 August 2009

Afghanistan: Political Machinations

While Afghanistan's so-called “rape law” has garnered a lot of Western press, there is a lot of domestic debate over it as well. The women's marches have been covered admirably...

20 April 2009

Afghanistan: Chafing Under Talibanization

All is not smooth sailing in Afghanistan, and Azar Balkhi explains why: The Taliban insurgency is historically a predominantly Pashtun movement, still have very little influence among other Afghanistan minority...

11 December 2008

Afghanistan: Meeting Sayed Pervez Kambakhsh

Nasim Fekrat, an independent Afghan journalist, met with imprisoned journalism student Sayed Pervez Kambakhsh in Pul-e Charkhi prison. He seemed disappointed and desperately waved at me. Only for a few...

25 November 2008

Afghanistan: A Slice of Life at FOB Kalagush

Not your typical embed: Andrew Klavan spent a few days with Forward Operating Base (FOB) Kalagush. It's quite well-written: despite the requisite Kipling shout outs (though they make much more sense here, this being the literal setting of a famous Kipling novel and actual biography), he explains well the challenges the U.S. faces.

19 November 2008

Afghanistan: Mired in Combat

An interesting pair of stories in the New York Times illustrate brilliantly just how complex the problems facing the United States in Afghanistan and Pakistan really are. The first is CJ Chivers' look at an embattled outpost in Nuristan...

19 November 2008

Afghanistan: Peace, and Trash

Joshua Foust notes the goings on in the Afghanistan blogosphere: ruminations on trash, reconciliation, and, of course, the messy problems posed by the Taliban. That is, if you can define "Taliban."

7 October 2008

Afghanistan: Seeking Justice

Despite its reputation for a very conservative brand of Islam, Afghanistan is deeply torn. Before the recent decades of war, the country was more known for its mystical Sufism that...

28 July 2008

No Movement on Death Sentence for Afghan Internet User

Journalism student Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh, accused of supposedly copyng text from an Iranian website criticizing Islam's stance on the treatment of women and sentenced to death for heresy, was berated by his own judge at his most recent appeals hearing, according to Jean MacKenzie at IWPR.

9 July 2008

Afghanistan: Bombing in Kabul

There was a massive suicide bombing at the Indian Embassy in Kabul Monday, killing upwards of 40 people and injuring hundreds more. Many expats and locals are confused at why...

9 July 2008

Joshua Foust's space

Joshua Foust studies international relations. In real life he’s spent the vast majority of his adult life doing defense and intelligence consulting for the U.S. government. His writing discusses energy, military, and foreign policy, and the cultural components of contemporary warfare. Joshua is also a regular contributor to The Columbia Journalism Review, where he analyzes American media coverage of conflict zones.

He's lived in Kazakhstan and Afghanistan, and wants to go back to both.

Joshua currently lives in a nameless Midwestern metropolis in America. In 2006 he was named, among others, Time Magazine’s Person of the Year.

Joshua also blogs at Registan.net, which is devoted to Central Asia and the Caucasus.