The Latest from Iran (28 April): Making a Date

2130 GMT: Controlling the Teachers. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty summarises the pressure by Iranian authorities on teachers ahead of Teachers Day on 2 May.

This includes the arrest of two senior members of Iran's teachers union, Ali Akbar Baghani, and spokesman Mohammad Beheshti Langarudi, warnings to activists in several cities, including Tehran and Tabriz, not to take part in any protests, and fines and arrests for demonstrating. It is reported that several blogs and websites on teachers' issues have been blocked.

NEW Iran Document: English Text of Mousavi-Karroubi Meeting (26 April)
NEW Iran: President Ahmadinejad’s Joke of the Day
Iran’s Detained Journalists: EA’s (Vicarious) Confrontation with Foreign Minister Mottaki
Latest Iran Video: Mousavi & Karroubi Meet (26 April)

Earlier this week, the Coordinating Council of the Teachers Trade Unions called for a hunger strike on Teachers' Week (May 2-8) to protest prison sentences and death penalties handed out to teachers. Four teachers are reported to have been jailed in recent months and at least one, Kurdish teacher Farzad Kamangar, is facing the death penalty.


2045 GMT: Corruption Watch. Conservative member of Parliament Ali Motahari has criticized Iran's judiciary for lack of independence and nepotism.

Motahari told the Iranian Students News Agency that, in corruption cases involving relatives of top officials, prosecutors are seeking permission from the officials themselves before even investigating.

1600 GMT: Oil Squeeze Posturing. In an interview with Khabar Online, Ali Vakili, the managing director of Iran's Pars Oil and Gas Company, has warned Royal Dutch Shell and Spain's Repsol that they must declare if they plan to pursue a project, agreed in 2007, to develop liquefied natural gas in the South Pars field.

Shell recently announced that it is suspending all involvement in the project.

Vakili insisted that Iran can develop the South Pars, having overcome financial obstacles, and that it has the necessary technology.

1530 GMT: We've posted a special separate entry: the English translation of Monday's discussion between Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.

1245 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The lawyer for reformist politician Mostafa Tajzadeh has said that Tajzadeh has not yet reported to prison to begin his six-year sentence: “My client was admitted into a hospital in Tehran because of his disc problem (in his back)....During the past 2 days, my client was expected to introduce himself to the prison to continue serving his prison term; however, this has not happened....As soon as his physical condition improves, he will present himself to the authorities.”

0845 GMT: Corruption Watch. Mardomsalari newspaper frets that corruption has become a political issue and warns that "justice" should end it once and for all before foreign ennemies can take advantage of the situation.

0830 GMT: The Subsidy Battle. While there has been a general between Parliament and President over the subsidy cut and spending plans, the fight over implementation continues.

Maintaining that Iran's political, social and economic situation cannot cope with a shock, MP Ahmad Tavakoli has written Ahmadinejad with three propositions: 1) no across-the-board rise in prices, 2) provision of reliable data on familiy's income, and 3) gradual implementation of the plan. ()

0810 GMT: Culture Wars. Rah-e-Sabz claims there will be increased pressure from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance upon people, especially women, to "satisfy the Supreme Leader" on the eve of the election's anniversary on 12 June. The website alleges there are "serious plans" for reeducation from kindergarten to university.

As if to prove the point, Kayhan proclaims that "bad hijab" has to be fought everywhere, from schools to offices.

0755 GMT: Does the Regime Need Legitimacy? An interesting debate, as reported by Rah-e-Sabz: the Supreme Leader's deputy to the Revolutionary Guard denies it is necessary to rely on people's votes, while Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi insists that the Government does precisely that.

0750 GMT: (More) Persistence. Reformist MP Rasul Montajabnia declares that hardliners cannot become an alternative to reformers and replace them: "We are alive."

0745 GMT: Continuing the Labour Theme. Rah-e-Sabz, anticipating May Day, reports that workers' incomes have suffered in the Iranian New Year. There are widespread dismissals and threats to dismiss those who "do not work enough". Meanwhile, protests have increased over the lack of accepted unions and organisations.

Reformist member of Parliament Hajsheikh Alikhani has insisted the government "doesn't give a damn about workers' problems".

0740 GMT: Awards. Hassan Karimzadeh from the banned newspaper Etemade Melli has won 1st prize in the World Press Cartoon competition.

Mahdi Razavi has been given an award by an Italian panel for his No War photograph.

0735 GMT: Labour Watch. Iran Labor Report offers a full summary of preparation for a "Labor Week" around May Day: "The experience of last May Day’s brutal clampdown...has prompted most independent labor organizations to call off May Day gatherings. Instead, they are encouraging workers to celebrate the occasion in small numbers at factories and shop-floors.

0730 GMT: Mahmoud Visits New York? A blog on the Foreign Policy website claims, from "senior UN officials and diplomats", that President Ahmadinejad has requested a visa to attend a high-level conference next week at United Nations headquarters to review progress on the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

0725 GMT: Not Worried (Really). The "hard-line" newspaper Kayhan has asserted that any Iranian using Haystack, the software developed by Austin Heap to allow access to the Internet while avoiding surveillance, will be tracked down by Iranian authorities. Kayhan claimed that the Green Movement is advising followers not to use the software.

0720 GMT: Persisting. The two major Iranian reformist organizations, Islamic Iran Participation Front and Mojahedin of Islamic Revolution, announced that they will continue their activities despite the recommendation of Parliament's Article 10 Commission for the dissolution of the parties. Both factions called for a public hearing in order to defend all their activities.

Leaders of the two organizations have written to the Commission maintaining that the dissolution lacks “legal justification.”

0420 GMT: Time will tell, but Tuesday appeared to be a day to mark in this lengthening crisis. The building series of statements from opposition figures, notably Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, culminating in the emergence that, yes, the two men had met on Monday and, yes, they had called for a demonstration on 12 June, the anniversary of the election.

We'll wait a day or two for follow-up before attempting an analysis, but the obvious issue is whether --- after 2 1/2 months of relative passivity since the 22 Bahman (11 February) moment --- those challenging the regime can seize the initiative.

That follow-up has already begun. Mehdi Karroubi, in comments posted on Mihan News, has set out and defended his political approach, working with a cross-section of opposition groups: "I have talked to a lot of leftists. They did not become Muslim, and I didn't become a Communist." The message is not only for the regime, but for the Green Movement: secular and religious can co-exist in the demand for justice and rights in the Islamic Republic.

The Karroubi-Mousavi accompanies other signs of a renewed challenge to the Government. A Street Journalist has published an English translation of the joint resolution, with 15 demands, issued by a coalition of Iranian labour groups.

Elsewhere, reformist MP Jamshid Ansari has declared that, contrary to its claims, Parliament has not initiated an investigation into the attack on the dormitories of Tehran University on the night of 14/15 June.

In a debate with fellow MP Gholamreza Mesbahi Moghaddam at Tehran University, Ansari said, “You should not expect any report from the Parliament regarding this matter because no committee has been assigned to this task, neither by the Speaker nor by the Parliament.”

The raids by security forces killed several people and caused extensive damage, two days after the elections and hours before the mass march on 15 June.

Iran Document: English Text of Mousavi-Karroubi Meeting (26 April)

From Kalemeh, translated by Khordaad 88:

According to reports by Saham News Agency, the official agency for the National Trust Party, Mehdi Karroubi met with Mir Hossein Mousavi in Karroubi’s residence. Karroubi wished a good and dignified year for Mir Hossein Mousavi and for people of Iran. He prayed to the Almighty to provide the grounds for freedom of political prisoners.


Most of the legislation in the country is aimless and merely for the sake of legislating something

Mir Hossein Mousavi criticized the policies underway and said, “Most of our policies are unplanned and aimless. Unfortunately, our frameworks are like sandholes that cannot hold even a drop of water. Currently we do not have a clear and concise framework or plans. We must think more long-term. The conditions in the government are such that everyone is assumed a conspirator and officials suffer from illusions of conspiracy....

Mousavi criticized the totalitarians and said, “These people don’t understand the bulk of what we talk about. They are only looking at the wordings in our statements and speeches, instead of looking at the concepts we introduce. Unfortunately this is a problem expected from an ideological system. They retell the rumors and illusions that they have created themselves in such a way that they start to believe in it themselves. Then they would fall prey to their own stories, and things come down to what we have that they don’t see the realities anymore."

People would not forget

Mousavi criticized the way Foreign Policy, the Economy, and Corruption are handled in the country and said, “We believe that our people have a collective memory. The government thinks people will forget its actions. People will not forget. What happened for example in those financial scandals that broke out last week? They merely apprehended some low-level names, and named one person, and suddenly grew silent about the whole thing; or how about that video of beating the university students inside the campus? Sadly, they think people will forget as time goes by."

With which crime do they accuse people of being infidel and out of Islam?

Islam does not approve these actions. Every day they call a group of people infidel or out of Islam or what not, just because a group has said something different than the "honourable" men in power. I cannot conceive how they are going to stay [unembarrassed] in front of the Almighty. The situation among our labourers --- their lack of work, their expulsion, and the postponement of their salaries, not to mention the declining rate of investments and many other problems --- all originate from the weak economic policies and incompetent managerial methods. People do forget what you promise, and what you deliver."

Mir Hossein Mousavi added an anecdote to this discussion: “In the early years of the revolution, people looked around and found the person who had ordered the soldiers of the father of the Shah to open fire on people many years before. He was 90 years old. What I want to get across from this story is that people will not forget what has happened in this last year to them."

All the experienced experts of different fields have been pushed away from their institutions

Mousavi criticised the way the country is managed. He alluded to the current weaknesses and said, “In all nations, senior managers and experienced government officials work as consultants to the government. But in this country, where are people like Mr. Khatami, as the ex-President with eight years of experience, and people like you (Karroubi) who headed the Parliament twice, and other leaders of our country? Just because they had different politics ideas, they have been pushed away from all the institutions."

Mousavi added, “I see no light at the end of the tunnel for our economic recovery because all the underlying structure is ruined, supervisory, and monitoring institutions have been taken away, and they do not understand the worth of experts anymore. Even if one of the conservatives speaks out, he is called a traitor."

Karroubi: They think that nobody can hear the opposition. But people can hear

Karroubi agreed with Mousavi and said, “Unfortunately, the trouble that they put people through in the name of Islam damages the reputation of Islam. The current situation of the country is very horrible. They say whatever they wish, accuse whoever they desire, and publish whatever statistics they want. This is because they think that nobody hears the voice of their opposition, but people can listen. People see the economic and political condition that the country has come down to.

"The authorities don’t see what dark destiny awaits them. An example is the recent scandal in the industrial complex of Asalouieh. Many people lost their jobs because of the wrong policies, wrong implementations, lack of direction, and organization. According to official statistics, the numbers of people working in Asalouieh has decreased from 60,000 people to 8,000. Why do we have to lose $30 billion worth of revenues from Natural Gas exports due to lack of management? What is the reason for all this unemployment? Why is the workers’ situation so bad? The "honourable" authorities either don’t know or they don’t want to know what impacts every word they say in the international scene has here at home. Due to sanctions, they had to sign contracts with China, Malaysia and Venezuela and now they had to give (contracts) to the military forces.

Mehdi Karroubi further criticised the hypocrisy apparent in government actions during recent incidents and said, “When I spoke out about the atrocities of Kahrizak Prison and followed up on it, they aggressively tried to frighten me, and threaten me. They lied to discredit my documented evidence. None of these pressures worked on me. In the end, with all the noise they had created around how they are going to follow up on this issue, they produced a small report from the events at Kahrizak, and apprehended and sentenced two hapless low-level police officers and a small-time gangster, or so they say, and closed the file on this. They didn’t even offer a report to the Parliament."

In this meeting, Mr. Karroubi severely criticized the monitoring system and said, “According to one of the letters that one of the prisoners sent to the supreme religious figures, which is still without a response, they have called the spouse of this prisoner and asked the spouse to divorce the prisoner. What law is this? What sort of protection of citizen rights and human rights is this that interrogators allow themselves to interfere with the most personal relations of the prisoners and threaten them? Is this interrogator an official in an "Islamic" government?’ When they say we are a grand and great government, is this sort of actions what they mean?"

Have we preserved our worldwide honor and dignity?

Karroubi addressed Mousavi and said, "You were the Prime Minister of the country during the time of the Imam (Khomeini). As you may recall, the Imam stressed the importance of visiting foreign countries and preserving our national dignity and honour.  Can we honestly say today that our honour and dignity are being preserved? Is this our claim to greatness when we visit foreign countries? Should our greatness only be in the eyes of such countries as Zimbabwe? Is it greatness to be compared to “malaria mosquitoes” or be referred to as the “ruthless executioner” of opponents? Is it because they [government officials] were so victorious that they were insulted at Columbia University? What are these gentlemen thinking? Do they even bother to think?

"When I was head of the Islamic Parliament, we took great pride in canceling trips to countries that belittled the dignity of our great nation. These days they follow one policy one day and another the next. Must they belittle our country to this extent?"

Should our people be exposed to such ridiculous and childish thoughts and behaviour?

Referring to the ruling party’s propaganda machine, Karroubi said: "They demand that we repent. Should they not be repenting for torturing, lying, violating human rights, and squandering our nation’s treasury? One day they claim that we should increase our population, the next day they complain that Tehran is overpopulated and we must expel five million people from Tehran. Another day they predict an earthquake and demand that the people repent in order to prevent the earthquake from coming, and when the earthquake does not occur, they claim that it was an answer to all their prayers. Should our people be exposed to such ridiculous and childish thoughts and behaviour?

"Is the current economic downturn and vast unemployment that plague our country not enough? What specific economic plans have they put in place to support the population growth that they have promoted through their propaganda machine? What is the significance and meaning of the strategy that this present government is proposing?

In relation to human rights violations and the current situation of prisons in Iran, Karroubi added, "Why are the same human rights organizations that were hailed for putting pressure on prisons during Shah’s regime now condemned and convicted for looking into the tragic conditions in our prisons and standing up for prisoners and their families? Would you not have supported the same newspapers that you now refer to as CIA agents because they criticized the unacceptable conditions in our prisons?

"I do not want to mention the names of those who expressed joy, whether imprisoned or free, at the pressures these human rights organizations put on the conditions in our prisons during Shah’s time. Back then we were not the ruling party. Now that we are, we claim that these organizations are suddenly under the influence of the CIA."

Mousavi: All the monitoring and supervisory institutions are either not functional or have been forced to close

Mr. Mousavi voiced his concerns over the management system and the monitoring institutions and said, “All of our monitoring institutions are either not functional or are forced to close like the institution for Budget and Planning. That is why every day these "honourable" men who hold the power design projects like donating one million Tomans (more than $1000) to every child...."

People have grown wiser and more aware

Mousavi said, "Unfortunately there is no organisation left that would produce a report or undertake a project in this condition, although some "projects" are still undertaken very ‘well.’ They detain someone and free them on the condition that they publicly announce some stuff and if they don’t, then they’ll send them back to prison.”

Mousavi emphasised the importance of awareness and said, “Right now it seems that people have grown more aware of the political and social problems. Our society has evolved and people are wiser, and this wisdom and awareness is expanding by the day with an amazing speed. People analyse the situation in more depth but regardless, because all the damage is done in the name of Islam, a great harm come to the religion."

Karoubi in this regard added, “If a representative of people in the parliament, who these "honourable men" in the government too view as representative of people, speaks out in contradiction to the rulers in power, they threaten that they would refuse his candidacy for next elections. With such threats going around, how can a representative of people do his job without fear? What would the generations coming after us say about what we did? What would they write about what we do?

Request of Permit for Demonstrations on June 12

In the conclusion of this meeting, Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi insisted on organising a demonstration on 12 June based on Article 27 of the Constitution and Articles 30, 31, and 32 of the Rules for Parties. They asked all groups to submit their demand for a permit of demonstration to the Ministry of Interior Affairs.

Iran: President Ahmadinejad's Joke of the Day

EA readers will know that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is one of our favourite stand-up comedians, be it his slapstick humour (Ahmadinejad v. Giant Flying Bug sketch from shortly after the 2009 election), his visual games (Mahmoud and His Brightly-Coloured Charts), or his nicknames (world leaders are "Retarded"; the US and UN are "Satanic").

But Mahmoud brought the house down on Monday, saying this to Iran's police forces with a straight face:

“Today wherever we go, waves of people express their love for the Islamic Republic and our dear Supreme Leader; even in Europe and the US. If they do away with censorship, it will become clear how the people of the world are enamoured of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the path of the Iranian nation.”

Fun Censorship Fact: Since Ahmadinejad took office in 2005, more than 20 publications have been banned.

Did You Know? In no-censorship Iran, thousands of websites are filtered.

Punch Line: More than 100 journalists have been detained since 12 June 2009.

EA's Volcano Vacation: A Follow-Up Thank You

Since we're careful with our pennies, we do not normally hand out free advertising on Enduring America, but I wanted to give a hat-tip to Delta Airlines.

During my recent extended stay in the US because of the volcanic eruption in Iceland, Delta's staff were a model of excellence. Unfailingly patient and diligent at a time of great stress, they found a way out of a difficult situation.

This is the second occasion for my gratitude: in December 2008, during an even greater crisis in which a family member's life was in jeopardy, Delta employees in the US were invaluable in their assistance.

So thanks to all at the airline for maintaining the highest standards of professionalism while never failing to be friendly and sympathetic to our difficulties.

Afghanistan: How Many Soldiers Does it Take to Screw in a Light Bulb?

Josh Mull is the Afghanistan Blogging Fellow for The Seminal and Brave New Foundation. He also writes for Rethink Afghanistan:

As the US gears up for its inevitably bloody assault on Kandahar, the plans have hit a bit of a snag. There's a dispute raging between the military and civilian sides of our war effort over, believe it or not, development aid. The Washington Post reports:

Convinced that expanding the electricity supply will build popular support for the Afghan government and sap the Taliban's influence, some officers want to spend $200 million over the next few months to buy more generators and millions of gallons of diesel fuel. Although they acknowledge that the project will be costly and inefficient, they say President Obama's pledge to begin withdrawing troops by July 2011 has increased pressure to demonstrate rapid results in their counterinsurgency efforts, even if it means embracing less-than-ideal solutions to provide basic public services....

Afghanistan: Turning a Blind Eye to Corruption? (Sengupta)

U.S. diplomats and reconstruction specialists, who do not face the same looming drawdown, have opposed the military's plan because of concerns that the Afghan government will not be able to afford the fuel to sustain the generators. Mindful of several troubled development programs over the past eight years, they want the United States to focus on initiatives that Afghans can maintain over the long term.

The dispute is easy to understand. The military wants an immediate impact, while the State Department wants a long-term solution. Because the army has to leave, they need quick solutions or, though it is left unsaid, "we will fail in Afghanistan".

We know that this is not true. Even after July 2011 there will still be combat troops in Afghanistan, just the "special" ones that do the most killing. But framing the aid dispute around the military's needs completely misses the point that the military should n0t even be involved in Afghanistan. The State Department is right: if we care at all about our objectives in Afghanistan, governance, development, human rights, then we need sustainable solutions. And who knows more about that, the civilians or the military?

In the Post article, an anonymous military source crystallizes the debate:

"This is not about development -- it's about counterinsurgency," said a U.S military official at the NATO headquarters in Kandahar, advocating rapid action to help Afghan officials boost the power supply. "If we don't give them more fuel, we'll lose a very narrow window of opportunity."

It's not about development, it's about counterinsurgency (COIN if you're a cool kid).  This is supposedly a fancy new military doctrine for winning the hearts and minds of civilians, including things like $200 million worth of generators.

But COIN isn't new, it's a buzzword for occupation. It even accounts for installing and coercing a puppet government (host nation) and undermining domestic and foreign discourse with propaganda (strategic communication). In other words, it is the exact same cycle of overthrowing foreign governments we've been doing for decades. That's the best thing our military has to offer when it comes to succeeding in Afghanistan: an insidious and illegal foreign occupation.

Why? Because they're the military. They've got aptly-named Predator drones and Hellfire missiles and other tools explicitly designed for hunting down and obliterating human beings. Despite the commercials you see of them rescuing disaster victims and handing out food, they're really what Ted Koppel said during the Iraq invasion, "an awesome, synchronized killing machine". Now, you want something "awesome" like that when Russia's Putin comes knocking on Sarah Palin's door, or whatever military threats might fall upon us.

But in Afghanistan, that's not what we need. At least, those aren't the objectives laid out by the President:

Our overarching goal remains the same: to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and to prevent its capacity to threaten America and our allies in the future.

To meet that goal, we will pursue the following objectives within Afghanistan. We must deny al Qaeda a safe-haven. We must reverse the Taliban's momentum and deny it the ability to overthrow the government. And we must strengthen the capacity of Afghanistan's Security Forces and government, so that they can take lead responsibility for Afghanistan's future.

OK, so the big target is denial of an Afghanistan for al-Qa'eda. That's been done for like a year now. We don't want the Taliban to overthrow the government? Done, the Taliban are negotiating with the government.

But finally, "strengthening the capacity" of the government to "lead responsibility," that one we haven't done. The government is corrupt and broken. That's where all that talk about development, governance, and human rights comes in, which brings us back to the aid dispute above. The civilian side of our efforts wants to continue repairing a dam that could provide a stable power source indefinitely, instead of handing out expensive generators that require fuel local Afghans couldn't possibly afford without welfare from President Tony Montana in Kabul (who can't afford it either by the way). And our diplomats and development agencies actually know what they're talking about.

Let's look at Bangladesh. Like Afghanistan, they have similar energy problems, as my friend Bob Morris writes:

Imagine a city of 13 million with continual blackouts

That’s Dhaka, Bangladesh now. Uncontrolled growth is a primary reason that blackouts now occur every few hours, something which usually shuts down the water supply too. And here I get cranky when the Internet goes down for ten minutes. If you’re reading this on a laptop in a developed country, you are in the global elite.

So, what do we do about it? Send in 100,000 troops to shoot and bomb the hell out of them? Nope, just stuff like this:

USAID aims to:

• 
  
  Strengthen energy institutions, particularly the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission, the Rural Electrification Board and the rural electric cooperatives known as the Palli Biddut Samities or PBSs;


• 
  
  Help develop appropriate market structure and associated rules to ensure a competitive market for efficient market operations and increased consumer benefits


• 
  
  Promote balanced public discussion on reform of Bangladesh's energy sector; and


• 
  
  Improve the legal, regulatory, and investment environment to promote private investment and development of the energy sector.[...]

Complementing these activities is USAID's South Asia Regional Initiative for Energy (SARI/Energy) program. The program promotes energy security in South Asia by facilitating more efficient regional energy resource utilization, increasing transparent and profitable energy practices, mitigating the environmental impacts of energy production, and increasing regional access to clean energy. SARI/Energy focuses on:

1. 
   
   Cross border energy trade


2. 
   
   Energy market formation


3. 
   
   Regional clean energy development

That's a lot of jargon, but essentially it's the same sort of solution that we need in Afghanistan. In fact, it's exactly what the State Department is asking for in the aid dispute with the military:

Instead of buying fuel, Eikenberry and other embassy personnel want the electric utility in Kandahar to do a better job of collecting fees and to use the money to buy fuel for the generators it already has, which would increase supply but not eliminate the shortage. USAID is offering help through its Afghanistan Clean Energy Program, a $100 million effort to promote "green" power in the war zone. The agency plans to install solar-powered streetlights in the city this year.

Rather than unsustainable bribes, help the local population solve their own energy crisis.

Now I know what you're thinking, Bangladesh is not Afghanistan. If we pulled out the military and just left the civilians and aid workers, they'd all get killed by the Taliban, right? Wrong. Bangladesh has many of the same problems: corrupt government officials, extremist infiltration in the military, even jihadi terrorist groups with lots of scary dashes and apostrophes:

Meanwhile, intelligence agencies in Bangladesh have sent a report to the Prime Minister on the existing militant groups in the country. According to the report, at least 12 militant outfits are active in Bangladesh, which have foreign funding links and relations with local political parties. The 12 militant outfits are, Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh [JMB], Harkatul Jihad al Islami [Huji], Hizb Ut Towhid, Ulama Anjuman al Bainat, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, Islamic Democratic Party [IDP], Islami Samaj, Touhid Trust, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh [JMJB], Shahadat-E-Al Hikma Party Bangladesh, Tamira Ad-Din Bangladesh [Hizb-E-Abu Omar] and Allah'r Dal [Hezbollah]. The report however did not mention names of other militant outfits such as Zadid Al-Qaeda, Khatmey Nabuat Movement and Khatmey Nabuat Andolan.

It may be mentioned here that, members of Khatmey Nabuat Movement and Khatmey Nabuat Andolan have been staging massive repression on Ahmedia religious minority group in Bangladesh. Moreover, Mufti Noor Hussain Noonari, leader of Khatmey Nabuat Andolan led dozens of Islamists in destroying a sculpture, which was erected by the City Corporation in front of the Zia International Airport. Members of law enforcing agencies were helplessly witnessing the destructions of State properties by the unruly Islamists in broad day light. Later another group of Islamists attempted to destroy the sculpture in front of the National Flag Carrier's head office. They also threatened to destroy the National Monument, which was erected in memory of the martyrs of the independence war of Bangladesh as well as another monument erected in the memory of Bangla Language Movement. It is learnt that, Mufti Noorani is continuing to give instigations behind such illegal activities.

Yep, that place sounds crazy dangerous, yet our civilians have been able to provide electricity to some 40 million people at a rate of 2,000 new connections per day. That's just one piece of the program; there's still all the other stuff about "market formation" and improving the regulatory environment. And ta da! No Special Forces or Hellfire missiles. Our civilian aid workers and diplomats are highly skilled at operating safely and effectively in failed states, war zones, all kinds of unsafe places, and they don't need military firepower to do it.

It's the military presence that makes it unsafe for aid agencies. The civilians become co-conspirators in foreign domination, and with the military pretending to be interested in construction and development, they become completely indistinguishable from the occupying army. That's why they become targets. We have to completely remove the military from the equation in order for our civilian efforts to work, and thus achieve our objectives in Afghanistan.

And we have to remove the military quickly, because unlike our civilian workers, the military is not only making the situation unsafe in Afghanistan, but they're even unsafe at home. Are you sitting down? Check this out:

Troubling new data show there are an average of 950 suicide attempts each month by veterans who are receiving some type of treatment from the Veterans Affairs Department.

Seven percent of the attempts are successful, and 11 percent of those who don’t succeed on the first attempt try again within nine months.

Holy shit! Excuse my language but that is a staggering statistic. Almost a thousand soldiers try to kill themselves every single month, and that's just the price of doing business. If they manage not to get blown up by an IED, shot by friendly fire, or electrocuted in the shower, then they still have deadly severe post-traumatic stress disorder to deal with. Even if they're over there COINing it up, the environment our occupation creates is so hellish, the atrocities so outrageous, that afterward it completely shatters our soldiers' will to live.

I can't seem to find the same statistics for IREX or USAID. I guess there's not a lot of diplomats commiting suicide because of all the schools and clinics they built.

How many soldiers do we need working in Afghanistan? Zero! We've got to get every last one out of there, or not only will the sickening death toll continue to rise, but we'll never get anywhere near completing our objectives in Afghanistan.

Of course, not everyone agrees with the President's ideas about creating a stable Afghanistan. Intervention in any shape or form is controversial, and we're welcome to have a philosophical debate about Neoliberal Globalization and "Soft Imperialism" and all that fun stuff, but we're nowhere near that point yet. Right now the debate is over this:

Afghan protesters torched NATO supply vehicles in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, hours after allegations emerged that U.S. and Afghan troops had killed three civilians, including two brothers, in their home.

The demonstration occurred in Logar province after a nighttime joint patrol of U.S. Special Operations forces and Afghan soldiers fatally shot three people and arrested two others. NATO officials said the men were insurgents who had displayed "hostile intent." One of those captured was a low-level Taliban commander who planned suicide bombings, they said.

But after daybreak, more than 100 people gathered on a main road in Logar to protest the killings and the death in a separate incident of an Islamic scholar, according to Afghan officials. Military operations at night are deeply unpopular, and Afghan officials have called for them to stop. The furious crowd blocked traffic and set fire to at least 10 fuel tankers using hand grenades, said the provincial police chief, Ghulam Mustafa Moisini.

"If they were insurgents, why are the people so angry?" asked provincial government spokesman Din Mohammad Darwish.

They're angry for the same reason we are. We've got to get the military out of Afghanistan, for our sake, for the Afghans' sake, and for the sake of our national objectives in Afghanistan.