Khalq Out

A riddle solved, with a solution that sounds like good news: The anti-Iranian militia/cult/terrorist group/dessert topping Mujahideen-e-Khalq agreed last week to surrender all its weapons, even sidearms. U.S. officials decline to call the disarmament a "surrender," preferring the term "voluntary consolidation." The Khalq will be permitted to keep their uniforms. It seems clear that this is the end for the Khalq, and that the State Department's plan to eliminate the group as a fighting force has trumped hints that the U.S. might use it as a proxy force against Iran. In the Daily Star, one Mahan Abedin has a valuable analysis of the disarmament and a quick battle history of the Khalq's final defeat. Abedin writes up the tactical decision on whether to use the group or reduce it as part of the familiar debate between the Defense Department trust and the State Department/CIA trust. If so, it reverses the terms of the discussion wherein the State/CIA types are craven realists looking to get cozy with any bastard, while the Defense types are straight-shooting idealists. Unless you count the Iranian government, rather than the Khalq, as the bastard in this instance.