It's fitting that while I've been dormant on this blog these past two months, tensions have become worse in Iraq, Afghanistan and even East Asia with signs of widening differences involving the U.S., Japan, China and East and Southeast Asia in general.

First, while fighting has continued in Afghanistan and the situation has become so serious that the U.S. military's top leadership is calling for more troops, Asia Times has a crazy article about foreign helicopters ferrying Taliban troops around. The reason: "According to Rahim Rahimi, a professor at Balkh University, America and the United Kingdom are trying to keep all of Afghanistan insecure, so that people feel the need for the foreign forces."

Meanwhile Iraq saw some massive blasts in Baghdad that have come after a relatively long period of relative calm.