Poem for Iran

NPR: Iran's National Poet Speaks Out On Recent Events In Her Country & Recites 2 Poems

June 28, Video from Iran

June 28 Iranians rally at Ghoba Mosque (also spelled Qoba) on Shariati Street, Tehran

Dust in Your Eyes (Song for Iran)

Afghanistan makes me nervous...

Actually, it's not Afghanistan that makes me nervous. It is the United States presence in Afghanistan, Seven (7) years and counting. The Russians fought with and in it for ten years and that's a decade. In my world a decade is a lot.

Less time than having an occupying force in South Korea, but more than the course of U.S. involvement in World War II.

Plus, we have some pretty weighty and extremely challenging economic issues and domestic prioritization issues at home.

Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Adviser to President Carter, discusses the U.S., Afghanistan and the future.

I watched it. I still feel nervous. It is most definitely 'don't screw this thing up time'.

The last eight years have really wreaked havoc on the margin of error. President Obama barely has any margin to work with.

Here's a bit of that article that Rachel talks about with the last Russian General back across the border at the end of the Russian-Afghan ten year, no win situation war that it really feels like the United States is putting a great deal of effort into reliving.

In retired Gen. Boris Gromov's view, the valor was shown in an unwinnable battle.

"Afghanistan taught us an invaluable lesson ... It has been and always will be impossible to solve political problems using force," said Gromov, the last soldier to leave Afghanistan two days after the Kabul pullout.

He told reporters that U.S. plans to send thousands of new troops to Afghanistan would make no difference against a resurgent Taliban, who came to power in 1996 in the chaos after the Soviet withdrawal.

"One can increase the forces or not — it won't lead to anything but a negative result," Gromov said. source: Yahoo News/AP

I have been thinking about Afghanistan a lot lately. The thing that really keeps me from wanting my country to bail on it completely is the women and children, especially girls.

In Afghanistan, particularly in poor rural communities, child slavery and debt bondage practices are growing, but are often disguised as marriage, labour or family affairs not requiring state intervention.
...
“These practices - the selling of children and servitude - have the very characteristics of modern slavery which have been overlooked by the government and other actors,” said Ajmal Samadi, an analyst of the Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM), a local rights watchdog. source: RAWA - The Reality of Life in Afghanistan

For things to change, we must change.

Olbermann honored at 2009 HRC Dinner, New York

source: The Political Carnival