in the balance

NYT magazine: COIN operations in an Afghan valley
"By now, seven years of air strikes and civilian casualties, humiliating house searches and arbitrary detentions have pushed many families and tribes to revenge. The Americans then see every Afghan in those pockets of recalcitrance as an enemy. If you peel back the layers, however, there’s always a local political story at the root of the killing and dying. That original misunderstanding and grievance fertilizes the land for the Islamists. Whom do you want to side with: your brothers in God’s world or the infidel thieves?...

Just before I left, Kearney told me his biggest struggle would be holding his guys in check. 'I’ve got too many geeking out, wanting to go off the deep end and kill people,' he said. One of his lieutenants wanted to shoot every Afghan in the face. Kearney shook his head. He wished he could buy 20 goats and let the boys beat and burn them and let loose their rage. He tried to tell them the restraints were a product of their success — that there was an Afghan government with its own rules. 'I’m balancing plates on my goddamn nose is what I’m doing,' he said. 'All it’s gonna take is for one of these guys to snap.'"

WP: trying to govern Mosul
NYT: and Basra
WP: Sadr extends militia cease-fire for 6 months
"But Sadr's ability to enforce the truce hinges on his control over the unruly, decentralized militia. Many senior Mahdi Army leaders and politicians loyal to Sadr have called for the cease-fire to be lifted because they said it was being exploited by Iraqi and U.S. forces, and Sadr's political rivals, to arrest his followers. In some areas of Baghdad, militiamen have ignored Sadr's orders and continued to commit atrocities."

Atlantic: the intensifying religious cleavage in Nigeria
"No one knows what happened first. Someone shouted arna—infidel—at the Christians. Someone spat the word jihadi at the Muslims. Someone picked up a stone. 'That was the day ethnicity disappeared entirely, and the conflict became just about religion,' Abdullahi said. Chaos broke out, as young people on each side began to throw rocks. The candidates ran for their lives, and mobs set fire to the surrounding houses."

LAT: the FARC increases its presence in border towns -- on the Venezuelan side
"'The rebels live and move clandestinely but are very present in the countryside,' [Jesuit priest Father Belandria] said. 'There is no court or prosecutor here, so the rebels serve that judicial function, intervening in family problems, settling property and business disputes.'

They recruit Venezuelan youths, whom they "seduce with promises," and check on what schoolteachers are telling the children, Belandria said.

Rebels extort a "war tax" on farmers and business owners, typically demanding a cow or $20 a month. Those who don't pay are killed, said Belandria, who estimated that there was a killing a month in his parish, with the victims usually local people who hadn't paid up.

'The level of violence is very strong. The rebel groups fight among themselves over ideology and turf,' Belandria said.

'Every day there are more dead. So people are selling everything they own and leaving.'"

NYT: paco, a crack-like new form of cocaine, reeking havoc in Argentina and Brazil

Slate: the (ir)relevance of the (il)legality of torture

WP: tough times in Toledo
WP: and even tougher times in Zimbabwe with 100,000% inflation
NYT: no good for the opposition in Russia either

Slate: discovering and describing ancient civilizations