Hi,

I have made a new blog and have been posting there for a while now. If you are interested, you could always check that out.

The address: Http://dailyniteowl.com


Thank you for all the support here and hope to see you all there too.

Josh

Finally, after years of pressure from Afghans and from concerned world organizations, NATO has decided that it's enough. From now on, NATO troops are going to use brute force to stop drug barons from cultivating opium and fueling the insurgency that is claiming both Afghan and NATO lives.

According to the Associated Press, ["With regard to counter-narcotics ... ISAF can act in concert with the Afghans against facilities and facilitators supporting the insurgency," said NATO spokesman James Appathurai, referring to the NATO force.]

The U.S. has increasingly sought other NATO members in Afghanistan to use their forces in hunting down drug barons since the U.S. forces are fighting insurgents and keeping the peace in the major cities and in the capital. So far, however, the Europeans had ignored the pleas. However, in the recent months, several dozen NATO casualties forced the resolution on Friday. Although it doesn't come without conditions.



According to the AP, NATO forces will only be able to act when the country that sent them to Afghanistan authorizes them, the mission will be temporary and will end when Afghan forces are deemed competent for taking care of the business. Because of reservations by Germany and Spain the authorization already comes in late. The current limitations, are probably going to make the operation even more complicated.

However, it is a significant shift in EU policy towards actively engaging in combat operations to secure Afghanistan from terrorism. With over 50.000 troops, NATO along the U.S. is mostly in-charge of keeping the country intact as the central government in Kabul grappling with internal conflicts between various factions. This is surely going to create a new schism within the government.

Several high-profile government officials - including the president's own brother - are proven drug barons with revenues in millions of dollars annually. Some grow opium, others provide security for the crop and many others are involved in smuggling the drug outside the country. In the past decade, opium production has steadily increased in Afghanistan with 2007 being the worst. Afghanistan produced more than 93% of the world's opium last year.




But so far the EU has not agreed to take the steps necessary for ridding the Afghanistan off drugs. The current plan by NATO authorizes NATO troops to only go after drug barons that are suspected of financing the insurgency. These drug barons are mostly local warlords and in some cases, local civilians. A few serve in the parliament. However, none of them are big fish in the game.

Instead of relying on a few large suppliers, the Taliban tend to expand their efforts into the countryside, providing local farmers with shelter in return for a share of their crop. The total revenues for the Taliban last year was more than 100 million dollars.

Although, the current plan shows a positive change in NATO's attitude, doesn't address any of the major drug problems. It is highly unlikely that provinces in the north of Afghanistan will be covered by the program - including Badakhshan, the second largest producer of opium in Afghanistan. On the other hand, major warlords will be spared because of their allegiance to the central government. The targets are eventually going to be the poor who are already trying to make ends meet in an economy that relies heavily on opium production - about half the GDP.

Recently, several high-profile world leaders have been buzzing about the same old thing. Something I have written about extensively over the years. First when I was a journalist inside Afghanistan and now as a small-time blogger in America - AFGHANISTAN NEEDS MORE FOREIGN TROOPS!

Yesterday, Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations Organization (By the way, I believe when it was conceived, people thought it was gonna turn into something like a General Government for the World) said that the situation in Afghanistan is worsening. Mr. Ban added that more foreign troops were required to keep the peace in Afghanistan and eradicate the threat of Taliban and al-Qaeda.

His statement comes after similar statements from top generals in the U.S. high command. The past week in the United States has been spent mostly on whether the 700 billion dollar bail out plan is going to work and what would happen to Afghanistan. McCain and Obama went at it in their first debate, both arguing that they knew best how to deal with Afghanistan. Obama stressed that there should be a troop surge and McCain stressed his commitment to Iraq and Israel and mentioned Afghanistan as a point of interest.

The American and the world public are both starting to think about Afghanistan and a troop surge. Everyone seems to think that the problem in Afghanistan is a lack of combat forces to root out the Taliban and al-Qaeda. This is common man's wisdom now. However, the Afghan media and the Afghan public have been begging the international community to add to the number of foreign troops currently in Afghanistan since the Taliban were ousted.

There are several reasons as to why there should be a substantial troop surge. I am only going to list a few of them:

1. The Taliban and al-Qaeda are far superior numerically. 50,000 foreign troops plus 100,000 Afghan rag-tag fighters aren't enough to clean up a country the size of Texas and as populous.
Afghanistan is full of mountains. Unless there is an overwhelming force that crushes the insurgency, the Taliban and al-Qaeda are just gonna wait the current forces out and at the same time, keep on terrorizing Afghans and the rest of the world.

2. A key part of stopping the Taliban and al-Qaeda from getting away after attacks is stopping them from entering Pakistani territory. With more troops stationed closer to the border, insurgents won't be able to hit and run so successfully. This would also solve the tensions with the Pakistani leadership who's been increasingly irritated by U.S. incursions into Pakistani soil.


3. Last but not the least, more troops would mean President Karzai and the central government would be able to exert influence on provinces and regions that are currently under total control of warlords. This has been a problem for several years now. The current Afghan Rag-Tag Army is composed mainly of supporters of these warlords. There is no way the central government could control vast regions of the north, west and east of the country without help from the international community.

I believe buzzing about a subject really doesn't make a difference unless it is followed by swift action. For the past several years we've heard people talk about adding more troops to Afghanistan. Some countries have actually increased their troops in Afghanistan by as much as 10%!!! But a realistic goal would be something like double the number of troops that are in the country right now. That would mean an additional 50,000.

There are two ways this could be achieved with: a) Vast deposits of oil and natural gas are found directly underneath the areas that are currently under warlord and Taliban control, forcing the international community to secure those areas by sending additional troops. b)The international community is enlightened through divine intervention that the people of Afghanistan have suffered enough and as their brothers in DNA and chromosome, the rest of the world ought to help Afghanistan's fragile democracy.

Let's hope on of the two is true!

Stumble It!


A couple of days ago, Pakistani government officials - on condition of anonymity of course - disclosed that Pakistani troops had shot down a U.S. spy drone inside Pakistani territory. As it turned out, the drone was found inside Afghan soil on the border with Pakistan and had merely malfunctioned. However, recent stories emerging from the region show that even though the drone had malfunctioned, it is quite possible that Pakistani troops fired at it as well.

Yesterday, Pakistani officials crowd foul and defended their troops firing on US choppers hunting al-Qaeda operatives. According to Akram Shaheedi, the spokesperson for the government of Pakistan, his country wouldn't let anyone violate the territorial integrity of Pakistan - not even its ally in the War on Terror. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari - the widower of slain leader Benazir Bhutto - said that not even the U.S. could violate Pakistan's territorial integrity.

The incident described by the media as this: "In the first serious exchange with Pakistani forces acknowledged by the U.S., American helicopters and Pakistani ground troops briefly traded fire Thursday on the border. The aircraft were not hit and no one was hurt." The report doesn't really elaborate on the story, however, it goes on to add that Pakistan claims it has killed hundreds of al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives in the past month.

Here is the full story:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080926/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan_us_22

Here is a picture I made showing where the attack actually took place. The yellow area highlighted in the map inside the Pakistan border is where all intelligence agency believe al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives train. The area also houses Osama bin Laden and other top terrorist leaders.




Now the question that has been bugging everyone is that for the past seven years, the U.S. and the rest of the world waited and watched as Pakistan claimed that it was fighting al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives in the region. This came as the U.S. poured more than ten billion dollars of U.S. taxpayer money into Pakistan to encourage it to do more. YES - TEN BILLION DOLLARS worth of U.S. taxpayer money was given to Pakistan to help it fight the Taliban and al-Qaeda. That matches or is a little more than the money given to the Afghan government to fight the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

In the past seven years, instead of catching Osama bin Laden (Who is still hiding in Pakistan's northwestern region) the Pakistani government has actually closed its eyes leaving the terrorists to regroup inside Pakistan. The clearest example of that is the current bloodbath that Pakistan is going through itself. If in the past seven years, the Pakistani military that boasts of defeating a giant like India had done something, militants wouldn't have been able to blow up the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad or take over the Red Mosque there for weeks.

The government of Pakistan that claims a seat in the Security Council because China sent nukes to them - and they subsequently claimed it was their technology - has had seven long years to do something about the terrorists hiding in its northwest region. In the past seven years, no positive outcome has been reached. I mean seriously, even the surge in Iraq worked better than the Pakistani troop surges inside its own borders.

Now there could only be two reasons as to why terrorists are still in Pakistan's northwest, planning attacks on the rest of the world:

1. Pakistan's military and intelligence are incompetent and cannot fight the terrorists.

2. Pakistan simply doesn't want to do anything. It wants them to stay there and destroy Afghanistan as it sucks out more $$$ from the U.S. and the rest of the world.


If it is the first case, then Pakistan has no right to stop the rest of the world from cleaning up the dirt Pakistan is responsible for cleaning. The rest of the world doesn't have another ten years to capture Osama bin Laden or shut down his training camps in Pakistan. If Pakistan cannot do anything, than it should step aside and let the rest of the world do that job for it.

If it is the second case, than the Pakistani elite are the biggest liars in modern history. Instead of targetting Taliban operatives, the rest of the world should impose broad-ranging sanctions on Pakistan until it yeilds the terrorists or destroys them. Another ten years would mean thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of others suffering.

Stumble It!

Recently a bomb in the Marriot Hotel in Islamabad killed more than 53 people including the Czech Ambassador to Pakistan Ivo Zdarek. The bombing totally wrecked the hotel and the fires started by the bomb reminded one of the hellish nightmare of 9/11. For me personally, it was shocking since I've seen the hotel intact. Once a beautiful icon and one of the busiest places for foreigners in Islamabad today stands as a reminder that the War on Terror is slowly englufing more and more states and civilization as we know it is in serious danger of being over-run by Islamic extremism.

As radical encroaches upon Pakistan, however, the Pakistani elite and political circles should not be surprised by how deeply their country is going to be affected. After all, they were the ones who armed and prepared these men in the first place! Truly, for anyone living in Pakistan, this really doesn't come as a surprise.

I remember back in 1999 when I went to school in Peshawar - currently the city closest to the Taliban in Pakistan's area of operation - the streets of Peshawar were teeming with Taliban headed for Afghanistan. Everywhere you went, you saw turbanated beardos prowling the streets proudly. They had an office in the heart of the city where conscripts in the Civil War in Afghanistan were registered, sent to training camps and came back for R&R. Sounds Shocking? Not to me.

The Taliban brought their wounded to Pakistan for treatment with seemingly abundant funds. An area in the eastern part of Peshawar where most Afghan doctors practiced medecine for treating the millions of refugees of the war was the busiest. By virtue of living their, I've met one-eyed, one-legged and one-handed Taliban who entered Pakistan freely, got treated and were sent back to fight the Afghan resistance against the Taliban.

At times, I even interacted with them since it was impossible to be the son of a doctor and not meet Taliban. Out of fear of reprucussions, all the doctors were forced to treat Taliban patients who came in the dozens behind pick up trucks. These men were essentially friendly fighters as Pakistan did nothing to stop their flow into Pakistan or their activities there.

As the grip of terror tightens around Pakistan, the politicians should ask themselves whether the decision they made in the 1990s coming back to bite them. True, the Taliban were able to destablizie Afghanistan and as a result the social, economic and political structure collapsed. But they weren't done yet. It seems they've turned their sights towards Pakistan. If Pakistan were serious, they would finally heed internaitonal calls and being fighting the War on Terror a bit more aggressively, otherwise, the international community and Pakistan's civilians themselves are going to further.

A new recommendation by Pentagon officials suggests that the U.S. would be moving a small number of its present troop strength to Afghanistan starting next year. The story in the New York Times The recommendation was presented to President George W. Bush by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States.

According to the proposal, an Army brigade and a Marine battalion will be added to the existing troops in Afghanistan that would total at about 4,500. That would take up the troop strength. The total number of ISAF and NATO troops in Afghanistan is about 52,700 at this moment. The new additions would take the number to about 58,200 troops. Now keeping in mind that about half of those troops that make up the ISAF are not engaged in any sort of combat operations, you are looking about 30,000 international troops trying to control escalating violence in a country slightly smaller than the U.S. state of Texas, with a population about the size of Texas.

Iraq currently has about 146,000 U.S. troops alone. The current numbers are the highest in two years because of a reinforcement plan enacted by President Bush early last year to curb growing violence. As the number of troops surged, the violence slowly began to die down. At current, Iraq seems to be at least marginally at peace because of the international force present there.

The situation, however, is deteriorating in Afghanistan. Dozens of people have died in the past month alone, including several international troops. 10 French soldiers were killed about an hour from the capital in an area that has been relatively safe early last month. This comes at a time when because of the Taliban's tactics of intimidation, Afghan locals are being forced to shelter them. In pursuit of the Taliban, dozens of people have so far died because they come in the line of fire between international troops and the local people.

As uplifting as the recommendation sounds like, it is most probably going to do very little to help restore peace and calm in Afghanistan. Afghanistan and Iraq are comparable in size and population. Iraq is far richer and it's army is far more organized than Afghanistan. However, it gets most of the international attention as it controls a large chunk of the oil in the MidEast. Afghanistan on the other hand, has nothing but rocks and mountains.

If President Bush is really serious about helping Afghanistan, then he should come up with a reinforcement plan for Afghanistan too. Sure, such a plan would require a lot of money and thousands of more soldiers, but it will bring lasting peace to Afghanistan and buy the U.S. a long-lasting ally in the form of the Afghan people.

I was shocked and overjoyed when I found out about Afghanistan's first olympic medal ever being earned. It wasn't too shocking to know that it was taek wondo. The winner, Rohullah Nikpa (who's last name is spelled Nikpai everywhere for reasons unknown to me) is a young man from the Hazara ethnic group. The win not only was an awesome surprise for me, but also for a nation of 30 million still wondering if they'll ever be able to get past the bloody wars and start rebuilding a nation from scratch.

When I was younger, my dad always told me that the Hazaras were mere animals (My dad is a typical Afghan), but I always tried to win the argument and explain to him how all men were equal. His reply, "No, all men are not equal." We never got over that fact and to this day, we refrain from talking about politics. What a shame! 

Sports was and remains one of very few fun things a young man can do in Afghanistan (Young women have nothing fun to do besides learning how to cook and take care of kids - afterall, that's what they'll do for the rest of their lives anyway). Martial Arts have been one of the more popular sports in the past few decades. Why? Afghans love to fight. If you don't believe me, just read the history of the country. I, too, once practiced taek wondo, but had to give it up because my relatives thought I was at risk of being molested by my sensei. I later found out that they just weren't comfortable with me doing what I liked to do.

Coming back to Martial Arts, the win signifies the fact that Afghanistan has talent. Well, d'oh, people like Rumi and Avicenna were born in what is today a country that ranks probably at the top of the illiteracy graph. The happening is even more significant when you factor in Pakistan's medal-less olympic saga. With a population more than five times the size of Afghanistan and with opportunities far more numerous, Pakistani athletes failed to win a single medal.

Most of my journalist friends called and talked to me more about how Pakistanis were losers than how an Afghan actually managed to win a medal. For a time, I thought they were investigating whether the Afghan Olympic Association paid money to earn the medal. Afterall, the head of the association is a former (I'm adding that former up only because he says it's so) warlord. You can still bribe your way. I don't know how effective it is with the Chinese, though.

So here goes for the olympic win for Afghanistan.


(This entry was a spur of the moment and without much muckraking)

During his first trip as the Prime Minister of Pakistan Sayed Yousaf Raza Gilani again reitriated his country's 'commitment' to helping defeat terrorism in the world. Mr. Gilani repeated the same words that were uttered by Pakistan's former dictator and current president General Pervez Musharraf word by word. He simply copies his stance and said it in his own words:

1. Pakistan is an ally of the U.S. and wants to fight terrorism.

2. Pakistan wants peace in Afghanistan and easing of tensions with India.

3. Pakistani is a moderate Islamic country and seeks to stay that way.

4. Taliban and al-Qaeda are enemies of Pakistan.

5. Pakistan is doing 'everything' it can to help the U.S. and it's allies.





Here are some of his statements and the truth about them which he gave in an interview with CNN.

Gilani insisted his government was "committed to fight against those extremists and terrorists who are destroying and making the world not safe."

I think Mr. Gilani is a little lost in translation. He wants to say the truth, but maybe his English skills won't permit him to convey the reality. FiGHTING? Excuse me? FIGHTING? You have done nothing, but negotiate with the terrorists and al-Qaeda inside your own country for the past several years. Haven't you understood that there can never be peace with an entity who's only intention is to destroy the world that we call home.

You have only fought them when they've taken up arms and come down to take territory under federal control. You've NEVER actually tried to secure the areas on the border with Afghanistan. You've been negotiating with people who are continuously plotting the disrupt peace not just in Afghanistan, but around the world. All the while your excuse has always been that you have no control over the tribal areas. Excuse me for saying this, but if you don't have any control over them, than how can your ports of transit with Afghanistan be under your control? Aren't they situation in those areas too? How can you control them and still claim you have no control at all over the tribes?

The truth Mr. Gilani is that you are not committed at all to fighting them. You are not committed to your responsibilities as a U.S. ally and as a member of the United Nations. If it were not for your resiliance and support, al-Qaeda would have never been able to hide thousands of fighters inside your territory, including Osama bin Laden and Aiman Al-Zawahari. The truth is, you have no desire to either catch them or let anyone else catch them.

Asked about the missile attack in a CNN interview, Gilani said: "There should be more cooperation on the intelligence side, so that when there is credible and actionable information given to us, we will hit (it) ourselves."

Oh yeah, the same old lame excuse. You want other people to tell you what is going on inside your own territory. You want the CIA to provide you with information about the whereabouts of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters and their training camps inside your own territory. Are you kidding me Mr. Gilani? Are you even remotely intelligent? Do you understand what this means? Do you mean to say that your own intelligence agency which was responsible for the creation of the Taliban has no idea where they might be hiding or who they are?

Give me a FUCKING break. You intelligence agency, the ISI, knows these people and knows their hideouts too. Haven't you read thousands of reports about how the ISI is directly involved in terrorist training? Do you take us to be fools Mr. Gilani? Do you think your rosy words will make us believe you?

The truth Mr. Gilani is that you have never wanted to share YOUR intelligence with the rest of the world. If you had done that, Osama bin Laden and all his henchmen would be in Guantanamo by now, the Taliban would have never been able to regroup in Afghanistan and finally, your own people wouldn't be dying at the hands of these terrorists.

And Finally,

Mr. Gilani stopped short of making any concrete public promises about exactly how Pakistan would deal with militants in its border areas.

So you expect us to believe that somewhere in the terror ravaged city of Islamabad, a few dozen intelligent brainiacs are sitting with your top generals discussing what you should be doing with these people? You have had seven YEARS to forge a strategy to fight them. You still don't have anything yet? You still don't have the guts to say the truth huh?

Well I'll do it for you. The truth Mr. Gilani is the fact that you do have a plan. The plan is simple and concise. The plan is: let the terrorist roam freely in the tribal areas of Pakistan, train other terrorists, build camps for insurgents that would steal the peace from Afghanistan and continue to support Muslim extremist organizations that are operating in India. The truth is, you have no desire to help the world achieve peace. You are happy with how things are going on around the world. The more volatile India and Afghanistan are, the better the prospects are for your country. You will continue to get aid from the rest of the world in the name of fighting terrorism, all the while, using some of that money to ACTUALLY fund and support those terrorists.

You don't believe me? Well, check out the follow articles:


ISI's Taliban Secret
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/afghan2/Afghan0701-02.htm

ISI's Role in Terrorism
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/kpsgill/terrorism/08June07Pio.htm

Pakistan helping Taliban and Terrorists
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/migrationtemp/1530040/Pakistan-denies-helping-terrorists.html

You see, when you say things like that Mr. Gilani, we laugh at you because we know the truth.

Producing 93% of the world's opium last year, Afghanistan sits atop the undisputed number one position it has held for several years as the country most responsible for making people high around the world. This status has both brought infamy and fortune to Afghanistan. UN estimates put the share of drugs in Afghanistan's economy at around 30-50 percent. At the same time, the rest of the world views Afghanistan not just a place of lawlessness, but a haven for drugs, druggies and drug-dealers. According to the UN almost 60 percent of all the opium is turned into heroin within factories inside Afghansitan.

But a recent comment by a key UN official brings with it news that Afghanistan isn't as bad as it is portrayed after all.

The Associated Press reported the official saying this. "You often hear that Afghanistan is the root for all the evils in terms of drugs problems in the world," UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) country representative Christina Oguz told reporters." "I think this is wrong. It is not correct to blame Afghanistan alone for the heroin problem in the world," she said.

She claims that the chemicals needed to process the opium into heroin are smuggled or 'supplied' to Afghanistan's drug-dealers by their friends from Russia, China, South Korea, Europe and some other countries. According to her, these chemicals are sent for other purposes, but then diverted and smuggled to Afghanistan through Pakistan, Iran and other neighboring countries.

At a time when Afghanistan meets most of Europe's heroin demands, it seems like the world is slowly understanding that cutting heroin from Afghanistan is not just important because it helps the Taliban, but because it's also degrading their own population. However, It doesn't help when the UNODC speaks about this. The UNODC has for years talked about this issue. It has submitted reports, made requests and literally begged other countries to take action. No one, however, seems to follow. r

While the drug mafia continues to reap benefits from Afghanistan, the world seems to be paranoid at what to do. Cut the cultivation in Afghanistan and stop this menace or continue to tolerate it because people will die from hunger?

The option for the moment seems to be letting it loose and hoping it doesn't cause as much damage. But while most people simply think drugs are helping Afghanistan because they bring a little more than a billion dollars into the country, it truth is far from it. Of course, Afghanistan's economy is being helped by opium, but it's society is being ripped to pieces by it's effects. Not only are drugs helping the Taliban fight an insurgency, they are also turning Afghanistan's population into one of the most substance abusive on the planet.



Walking through the streets of Kabul one could see dozens of men laying in the parks, on the sidewalks and in destroyed property. In the provinces, the situation is worse. Men have been using these drugs for recreational purposes for generations, but not in the form of heroin. It is slowly destroying the social fabric of Afghanistan's society. Maybe it is bringing a billion dollars to Afghanistan, but it's taking away it's young population's energy and drive from it. More than half of Afghanistan's population are under the age of 18. This workforce is the most viable natural resource Afghanistan possesses. And drugs are turning this asset into a liability. A recent UN report suggests that about a million people in Afghanistan out of a total population of 30 million. Yet those numbers are based on rough estimates. No one knows how many people are really in the grip of this menace and independent observer believe that the number is much higher than that.

Here is a story on this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7439340.stm

At the same time, however, the drugs are causing problems in the countries where they end up as well. The increase crime, decrease productivity and increase the cost of health care for the average citizen. Sure, Europe and the U.S. might think that they are helping Afghanistan by letting it cultivate opium, but do the people of these countries really want it at a cost like this? Itally alone has over 300,000 addicts. The numbers are much higher in the Eastern Bloc nations.

They need to seriously start cutting the cultivation in Afghanistan and make sure that Afghanistan doesn't turn into a narco-state. This will include making sure that those chemicals never get to Afghanistan. Sure, Afghanistan's security forces aren't good enough to stop those chemicals once they are in the country, but its neighbors have those resources to stop the smuggling of them into Afghanistan. The West needs to take action on that immediately.

If Europe and the U.S. think that this is helping Afghanistan it is not, and it's not helping them either. The drug money is killing Afghans and Westerners in Afghanistan. The drugs themselves are killing people around the world. If the total estimates of the damage are assessed, they will turn out to be billions of dollars more than it is contributing to the Afghan economy. If Westerners really want to help Afghanistan, they need to help Afghanistan by revitalizing it's economy and ridding it off of durgs. Otherwise, the long-term consequences are going to be grave for both Afghanistan and the West.

Here's the original story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080729/wl_asia_afp/afghanistandrugsun_080729003815

From the day Mr. Hamid Karzai has been the ruler of Kabul and a few other areas around the capital of Afghanistan, he's been busy. Here's a look at the things that happen when he's busy.

He's usually busy when these things happen and drags his feet:

1. When there's a confrontation between poor Kochis and devastated Hazaras leave dozens of people injured and dead.

2. He's busy when the Ministry of Education prints books that have entire pages missing!

3. He's missing when warlords take over people's lands. He was totally busy when Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf's fired on people when they were protesting against his illegal land acquisitions.

4. He's busy when people go to his office complaining about how his brother Ahmad Wali Karzai is cultivates hundreds of thousands of acres of land with opium.

5. He's busy when people's homes are being destroyed AFTER they've been given land by his henchmen. I witnessed one such horrible incident in during my career in 2005 in Eastern Kabul.



However, the President is free when:

1. A journalist writes about the opression of women in Afghanistan. He's promptly jailed and sentenced to death. Mohaqiq Nasab was lucky to get away that time.

2. Afghan TV stations show women wearing pants or skirts. He finds time to instruct government officials to punish them. Watching TV Afghanistan is hillarious since you can only see the torso of women wearing skirts or tight jeans. The lower half is blurred.

3. An Afghan man converts to Christianity. He finds time to prosecute him. What a shame! You were installed by Christians? You recieve billions in aid from Christians. Yet you cannot see an Afghan converting to Christianity?

4. He's free when it's that time of the month when he threatens Pakistan with retaliation for its supporting of islamic extremists and Taliban, as if Afghanistan has advanced weapon systems that could somehow penetrate and destroy Pakistan's nuclear capabilties.

5. And of course, he's always free to go abroad and cash in on his fashionable image. The man termed the most fashionable president is no wonder the lousiest president in the world.

Not a great day for me personally, but here goes.

I went to the Pizza shop where my brother works and hung out there for a while today. The first thing I heard from one of the workers in the Pizza shop who happens to be an ethnic Pashtun was that the Stupid Hazaras have again started a war over the poor Kochi's (Afghan nomads) and have stopped them from grazing their animals on the pastures that they have been grazing them for hundreds of years. I looked at him and asked him a very simple question, "Who doesn't have problems with the Kochis?" He just got embarrassed.

As soon as I got to a computer, I looked online to find more info on the subject. Here's the full story if you want to read it for yourself.


http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/220546,thousands-of-hazaras-protest-in-kabul-over-land-dispute-with.html


The synopsis is simple: Hazaras inhabit the central highlands of Afghanistan that are green with grass this time of the year. The Kochi are various Pashtun tribes that have been living a meager life by following the grass with their animals year round. In the process, they go through territories that are inhabited by the Hazaras who are financially the most devastated people in the Afghanistan. Throughout the past 25 years, the two ethnic groups, Pashtuns and Hazaras, have been at war. As the Kochis walk into areas inhabited by Hazaras, they are either intimidated or their cattle walk onto agricultural land and Boy, there's a bang.

The problem has been intensified by the fact that both sides, especially the Kochis, are heavily armed with AK-47 and such. Every confrontation leaves several people on both sides. It happened this year like every single year since the Taliban - during the Taliban the Hazaras were heavily persecuted so there was no question about them raising a voice against anyone. A confrontation in the Behsud region of Wardak province which is populated by Hazaras left several Hazaras dead - and as I know both sides really well I'm sure several Kochis were killed too. Thousands of Hazaras protested in Kabul blaming the Kochis for the destruction of their land and the killing of their people.

Here's a map of Behsud and where it lies in Afghanistan.

 
President Karzai again took one of those meaningless measures that he has been famous for. He declared a ceasefire between the two sides and asked the Kochis to leave the Behsud region. That practically does NOTHING for the people who were killed or the crops that were destroyed. At the same time, it doesn't help the Kochis' problems either.

For the past several years, this happens over and over again. Kochis go to a pasture and they are confronted, tensions increase and there are demonstrations and nothing happens. No one looks at the core of the problem. The Kochis blame everyone else and everyone else blames the Kochis. The government watches. I talked to a friend of mine in Kabul earlier and his view was simple, "Kochis are just inhuman. (This guy is a respected journalist) They just need to get a life and stop fighting."

Stop fighting and start dying I guess?

Lets face the facts, as par the UN there are anywhere between several hundred thousand to two million Kochis in Afghanistan. These people are mainly Pashtuns, although isolated pockets of Kochis from other ethnic groups also exist in this land of blood and rock.
Kochis are overwhelmingly illiterate, without any other viable means of livelihood or a piece of land to live on, no health care, no education and crippling poverty.

They are born in the wilderness and they die in the wilderness. Don't feel too rosy about it, the wilderness in Afghanistan is 90% dry, rocky, mountains and hot. Since the day the new government has come to power, it has done nothing to solve the problems of the Kochis. Several people, including Latif Pidram, an influential Tajik nationalist politician, have time and again asked President Karzai to tackle the issue seriously for long-term piece. Yet, the government hasn't budged.

I just talked to someone else in Kabul who complained about the protests that happened, but had could do nothing, but sympathize with the situation. Afterall, unless the Kochis are given an alternative means of livelihood and the people of the country are disarmed, nothing will happen. The bloodshed between the Kochis and the rest of the people will continue.

As citizens of Afghanistan, they deserve a better life. Their children deserve to go to school. Their sick need hospitals. Their men need jobs. And finally, they all need homes. If the government had started working on the issue when it came to power more than six years ago, this issue would have been largely resolved. Until concrete measures are taken, expect the bloodshed to continue - on both sides.

I have been watching U.S. presidential candidates, NATO generals and political pundits talk veraciously about Afghanistan in the past week or so. Yet everyone seems to be talking about the same thing over and over again - violence has soared! Well, D'oh! everyone knows that violence has soared in Afghanistan. Everyone knows that Afghanistan is a dangerous place. Everyone knows that Afghanistan is one of the key places for terrorist and Islamist training. Yet very few people seem to be talking about the fact that Afghanistan is the world's largest exporter of opium - a plant the sap of which is used to make morphine and heroin.

Well, so what, countries like Cambodia, Laos and a few isolated areas in Latin America also produce opium. The trouble is, Afghanistan produces about 90% of the world's opium. Most of the world's opium needs - legal needs that is - are met through opium cultivated in France, the UK, Australia, even the United States and India. What the 90% of Afghanistan does is it meets the needs of people who wish to use products like morphine and heroin just for fun.

In the past decade, Afghanistan's opium production has sky-rocketted. The more isolated and volatile the province, the more opium cultivation and drug trade in a given province. But this isn't just some normal drug trade, according to a UN report published earlier this year,  "Afghanistan [not only] supplies some 90 percent of the world's illicit opium, andthe Taliban rebels fighting the U.S.-led forces receive up to $100 million from the drug trade,"

The UNODC, the UN's office that deals with issues related to drugs and crime, has raised alarms about this for years - to no avail. "Indeed, it is the insurgents, the Taliban, that are deriving an enormous funding for their war by imposing ... a 10 percent tax on production," Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the U.N. agency told reporters earlier this year.

Here is a map to better illustrate this. The areas south of the white line are traditional Taliban heartland.




Even though the government of Afghanistan has repeatedly blasted such reports and the Afghan President Hamid Karzai had vowed to start a 'War on Drugs' a few years ago, there are no signs of any results from such operations. In the year 2007, the area under cultivation increased by 14 percent. This year, it rose 34 percent from the previous year because of rainfalls in the south.

An even more alarming piece of information, according to the UN report is the fact that although total area under cultivation had fallen elsewhere, in the Taliban strongholds in the South and East of the country, the total area under cultivation of opium has increased. The situation has gotten so bad that Thomas Schweich, a former top State Department official, bluntly called Afghanistan a narco-state in a piece written for the New York Times. According to him, although President Karzai knows that the Taliban insurgency is being fueled by the drug trade, he is reluctant to take any steps against the trade because his supporters are reaping even larger profits.

So why doesn't anyone in the tops talking about this issue? Maybe the general public doesn't really know much about it and it is not a top political issue. But meanwhile this continues, the Taliban and the al-Qaeda operatives within Afghanistan are getting financed by selling morphine and heroin to kids in Europe and the U.S. So on the one hand, the Taliban and al-Qaeda are killing people with guns, they get their guns by killing people by engaging in the drug trade. The UN report alleges that the Taliban tax opium profits in their area of control by as much as 10%.

It's time for people to learn more about Afghanistan. It's not just the public in countries that want to see a safer Afghanistan for a safer world. It's up to their leaders as well. Candidates and top officials need to do more to not just make people aware of this problem, but actively make plans to stop the spread of such a calamity.

If President Karzai is not taking action or 'can't' take action, then NATO troops in Afghanistan should not just fight the Taliban, but also fight a war on the drugs in that country. When Iraq was invaded, Saddam's oil supply was cut so he won't be able to fund his defenses. Opium is like oil to the Taliban. Stopping opium cultivation in Afghanistan would dry up most of the Taliban's internal funding and make it harder for them to supply their recruits.

Wow, this has gotta be something. I mean, I just started writing this blog about three days ago and already, I'm getting hate mail. Here's one I just got:


"you are murtad (Murtad in Islam is someone who leaves Islam after being born into it) now and you will burn in hell insha'allah. you have time to convert back and Allah (j) will forgive you for your past sins. if you dont you will die like a kafir by moslems and burn in hell till the day of judgment. then you will burn in hell again for eternety."


Well, yeah, not that I don't know of that already. You know what's worse than someone who's going to burn in hell for all eternity? Someone who cannot spell the word 'E-T-E-R-N-I-T-Y". I thought at least some of you extremists are smarter than that. As for you hate mail, I expected it. Where's your religion of peace when someone leaves your religion? I know Christians who've left Christianity. I know Buddhists who have left Buddhism. I know Hindus who've left Hinduism. But none of them get bashed up by their family or friends. They don't get hate mail that threatens them.

I mean sure, you'll get an email where a Christian will tell you to reconvert because its in your best interest. They don't threaten you to death. Why has it got to be Muslims? This is your religion of peace? This is your tolerance? This is your understanding? I always why the Pope opens religious dialogue with Muslims. DON"T! It's no use. You open religious dialogue with someone who is tolerant of what you have to say. Someone who is not offended when you tell them that their prophet was a liar. Someone who would have the common sense to understand the the Quran is nothing but a distorted version of the Bible with some add-ons from the glorious Arab culture.

This is exactly why I left Islam. Seriously, if you doubt me, then wait for my posts in the future. A religion that doesn't allow its followers to investigate and question its basis is not a religion, it's a CULT! A religion where you have no right of dissent cannot be the religion that I want to be a part of. Not that I didn't try, but who's gonna tolerate someone who wants equality of race, gender and sexuality? Who is going to tolerate someone who questions the very existence of Gods? Yeah, Gods, who told you Allah was the only God.

Just a snippit of how wrong you are is your understanding of the name Allah. You are taught from day one that Allah is the personal name of God if you are born in a non-Arab country. You want to know the truth? Allah is NOT the personal name of the Islamic God. Have you ever met Christian Arabs? Do you know what they call the Father? Allah! Big shock huh?

Allah in Arabic simply means The God. Ilah means god and Al is an Arabic prefix that is the equivalent of the English THE. In time, Al-Ilah turned into Allah. Ilah comes from the Semitic root El. El = God. So all this time you've been calling your god Allah and thought it was a name like Mohammed or Osman or John or Matthew. No it's not. Your God doesn't even have a special name. How special is that?

Furious? Burning with rage? Shaking with Anger?

Well, save it for later. I'll have much more to say in future posts.

Peace

In Afghanistan, Barack Obama made statements that really made people like me dizzy for a second. REALLY!? Does he really mean what he says? Here's the shocking revelation,

"The Afghan government needs to do more. But we have to understand that the situation is precarious and urgent here in Afghanistan. And I believe this has to be our central focus, the central front, on our battle against terrorism," Obama said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation."

For the past seven years, most Afghans like me have asked, pleaded and BEGGED the American government and it's NATO allies to do more in Afghanistan. A combat force of less than 70,000 is not nearly enough to defeat the Taliban or control the warlords. Yet while Iraq got more than 150,000 troops, Afghanistan slowly bled. Now Obama thinks he has a solution. Media reports that Obama is planning on sending another two U.S. army brigades to Afghanistan are both hopeful and disappointing.

On the one hand, it gives Afghans hope that finally the Taliban will face an enemy that is agressive and really means business. It is disappointing, however, when you look at the numbers. Another two brigades won't do anything to help the situation. It's a country almost the size of texas with a terrain more rugged than Utah. How do you seriously expect two more brigades to help the situation substantially?
In the mean time, pundits are blaming the U.S. for the 're-organization' of the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

I really don't buy the whole "Taliban got a chance to re-organize" mantra that's on the mouth of every pundit. The Taliban were never disorganized. They never ceased functioning. Yes, they limited their activities to a few southern provinces, but they never ceased to operate freely whenever they wanted. They just bought themselves some time. While the U.S. and it's NATO allies continue to funnel billions of dollars in peace-keeping missions, the Taliban live off villages and their families.

They waited and waited until they had a chance to strike and now they are doing it. They know that the wars are unpopular in the West. They know that funding for the wars is drying up. What better time to do it than now? I am deeply shocked at how some of these pundits and so-called political analysts act as if they know what's going on in Afghanistan when they've never been anywhere near the real action.

If Senator Obama really wants to help Afghanistan, he needs to study the Soviet invasion, study their strategies and look at their troop numbers. Maybe he'll be able to make a better statement the next time.

A lot of people who haven't been exposed to an extremist culture are wondering why the Taliban and other Islamists related or unrelated to Al-Qaeda manage to kill themselves in suicide bombings? We see that in the news on a daily basis. It's not just young men, it's women too. It's heartbreaking when I read stories related to suicide bombings because it appalls me how I and they have both gone through the same system and they seem to have no regard for other people's lives. It's not a puzzle to me why they do it, though.

It doesn't take a Mullah to convert someone to go and blow himself up. It takes YEARS and YEARS of education that simply teaches them to disregard human life for Islam.

Here's a snippit of how it works.

I went to school in a refugee camp in Pakistan in the late eighties. The Persian alphabet starts with Alif, Beh, Peh, Thay, The, Jeem, Heh, Khe, and so on. This is what we learned in order to practice the letters.  I'm quoting the text in the book here.

Alif: Allah Yak Ast. (Allah is one!)

Beh: Baba Namaz Mekhanad. (Grandpa prays to Allah)

Peh: Padar Kaar Mekonad. (Daddy works.)

Teh: Mujahideen Tufang Darand. (The Mujahiddeen have Guns)

Thay: Namaz Khandan Thawab Darad. (Praying is a good deed.)

Jeem: Musolmanan Jahad Mekonand. (Muslims Fight.)

Heh: Hajj Kardan Farz Ast. (Doing Hajj Is Compulsory.)

Khe: Man Sob Az Khaab Mekhezam O Namaz Mekhanam. Khalqi Ha O Parchami Ha Sobh Wakht Az

Khaab Namekhezand O Namaz Namekhanand. (I wake up Early in the morning and pray. The

communists don't wake up early and don't pray.)


In math, this is how the written examples and problems were.

1. Commander Isa has five bullets. He borrow five bullets from his sub-commander. How many bullets does he end up with?

2. Mustafa fired fifty rounds of AK-47 on the enemy, he had 90 rounds. How many does he have left?


Apart from that, we had at least three Islamic subjects from grade 1-12. One of the subjects required you to learn at least one of the thirty parts of the Koran every class. Now most students found this extremely difficult since reading the Koran is a helluva a job for a young kid. It's like teaching your English speaking child to read Hebrew in school. Most children would go to the mosque closest to their homes and studied in the Madrassahs. I went to a Madrassah for about a month. Until my dad found out and pulled me out because of all the child-abuse cases stemming out of Madrassahs.

As far as I know, the same curriculum existed until the fall of the Taliban government at the end of 2001. Well into 2002, the same curriculum was taught to children.

Here, I'm talking about moderate Muslims. LIke really really moderate Muslims. The ones that were a little more conservative would send their children for years to a Madrassah. My neighbors' kids that I played with regularly went to a Madrassah for at least five years.

Finally, the orthodox and the poor wouldn't send their kids to school at all. They'd directly send them to a Madrassah. Imagine if Berkley and Yale teach Creationism, what would they be teaching kids in the community colleges and at churches?

When people come out of this system, they have been so thoroughly brainwashed that getting them to walk that extra mile for Islam and becoming a militant or a suicide bomber is not a big deal AT ALL!

A lot of people that find out I am from Afghanistan and just moved here to study two years ago ask me two questions. It's always the same no matter who the person is - as long as they're not from Southern Asia or the Middle East.

Q1: REALLY!?

My reply is usually, "Yeah, I mean if I were from Mars I'd have horns and stuff, right?" and trust me, that really gets all the girls interested at first and then they start shying away from me like I'm some kind of a plaguing bearing monkey - unless we're all drunk. I've never disputed the fact that I'm a monkey. If ya think otherwise, you better revisit The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. So now that you know my strategy of picking up chicks, we can move on.


Q2: So, what's it like there?

This question's been asked so many times and by so many people that the answer's just right there, "Like any other place where humans are in charge?!" I mean c'mon man, we deserve better than that. Yeah, the question seems straight-forward, but it's not the question, it's that look in there eyes. The one that's more like, "I'm really surprised, but scared shitless cuz you guys have been known to blow up!" Correction, Osama bin Laden? Saudi Arabia. Aiman Al-Zawahari? Egypt. Khaled Sheikh Mohammad? Pakistan and the list continues.

Good old Mullah Omar - the ruler of Afghanistan during Taliban - could barely see with his one good eye. How could he possibly pull one of the deadliest crimes in all human history with such accuracy? I was once listening to BBC's radio programming from Afghanistan with my dad back in the late ninties and a journalist asked him what he was gonna do about the Afghan economy. Mullah Omar's reply? "We are mere mortals. Things like this are in the hands of Allah. If he wants, the economy will be good. If he doesn't we can't change a thing."

Why would he care anyway? He was getting all his funding from rich Arab sheikhs and sheikhas. The money from the oil and gas underneath the Arabian peninsulas wrecked us all, finally!

But the issue at hand is really what it is like in Afghanistan?

Economically speaking, it is the same as everywhere except for Brunei's Shellfare system. Work -> Earn -> Provide -> Consume and um well ...  Excrete.

Socially speaking, it all depends on what the religious leaders see fit. No matter where you are in Afghanistan, it's the Mullah's interpretation on which you are 'live' your life. I don't know if you could call it living, but that's we call it back there.

Politically speaking, you GOTTA have a few gun-holding men. If ya don't, yer dirt. The more men you got, the better. If you don't have men holdin guns, might as well join the crowd. And yes, money gets you guns.

Sexually speaking, learn masturbation if you are a man. And if you are a woman, I hope you never read this blog because you'll get ideas and get yourself killed out there sister. Seriously!

Educationally speaking, it don't matter. No matter how educated you are, gotta have those men with guns. Not that the education provided is the awesomest in the world, but having it is better than not having it.

Emotionally speaking, it's one goddamn place where you never want to be born. But if you are, you can never cut your heart from it. It's always there. ALWAYS!


I hope that answers a few questions next time you want to impress a girl about your knowledge about Extreme Places!

Good night or good morning, depending where you are.