The Rundown - February 19

News & views on RFE/RL's broadcast region

Afghanistan
#
Jean MacKenzie on the ongoing offensive in Marjah
# Zalmay Khalilzad on Taliban reconciliation

Pakistan
#
"The Hindu" on upcoming India-Pakistan talks
# Padraig Belton looks at Pervez Musharraf's role as a pundit
# The "Washington Post" reports on greater cooperation between the U.S. and Pakistan
# The Pakistanis didn't know they had arrested Mullah Baradar
# Mustafa Qadri hopes Musharraf doesn't get back into politics

Iran
#
Roger Cohen on censorship in Iran
# Iason Athanasiadis says Iran is "between dictatorship and Hobbesian free for all"
# Laura Rozen on the latest UN report on Iran's nuclear program
# The "Wall Street Journal" editorializes on U.S.-Iran relations
# Bill Powell on China's Iran dilemma
# Mark Weisbrot bemoans the U.S. strategy towards Iran

Iraq
# The U.S. operation in Iraq is now called "Operation New Dawn"

Russia
#
Adam Daniel Rotfeld on the 2008 Russia-Georgia War
# Masha Lipman discusses recent protests in Russia
# Vladimir Kara-Murza thinks the Ukrainian elections put the spotlight on Russia
# The "FT" reports on Medvedev's sacking 18 senior police officers


U.S. Politics/Foreign Policy
#
Al Kamen's "In the Loop"
# Embassy Row from the "Washington Times"