Recently released images show massive destruction and monstrous, devouring clouds of dust that are normally reserved for Hollywood blockbusters. Of course, the reality of it all is what makes the viewer gasp.

Several former army soldiers are either fighting in Afghanistan or training Taliban forces and formulating strategies to counter the war on terror.

Washington-based Erum Haider looks back at US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Pakistan in analysing the trust deficit between two partners in the war on terror.

Why does Pakistan defer to Saudi Arabia when it is hypocritically puritanical and corrupt?

It’s as if a switch has been pulled in the Muslim psyche. It’s hard to say whether something has been switched on or something else has been switched off. This urge to indiscriminately take the lives of others is, naturally enough, considered unacceptable outside the fold of Islam

“Religion can be abused like any other human activity,” says author Karen Armstrong.

Though Pakistani security sources claim that the plan to blow up airliners over the Atlantic was a home-grown British plot, a sms originating from Lahore and ties to the shadowy Al-Jihad group make Pakistan’s involvement indisputable.

Islam is under threat, not so much from its purported enemies, as from bigots who are intent upon hijacking it for their own nefarious designs, says Mahir Ali.

“We need to focus on the sources from where terrorism is originating,” says Afghan President, Hamid Karzai.

Who will gain the most from the arms transfer deals promised to the region – India, Pakistan, or the US?