This doesn’t sound very encouraging: [quote]“If you and the international community pressure me more, I swear that I am going to join the Taliban,”[/quote]This was in response to criticism about his proposed new election laws which would give him the power to appoint all the members of the Electoral Complaints Commission.
And now he’s blaming the election fraud from the last election on the very guy who was blowing the whistle on him, Peter Galbraith. Chutzpah!
Could never really have expected much though, could you? Aside from the best fashion sense among world leaders, and good relations with the CIA, what did he have to offer?
He learnt about democracy from Bush.
you’re right. He’s just nipping out down the shops.
Nipping what?
I was listening to CBC’s As It Happens (April 5), and they were interviewing Galbraith. Galbraith blamed Bush for setting the precedent of low expectations - said that in one of the frequent video conferences he would have with Bush, Bush would ask a couple of questions, get a couple of evasive answers, and then go straight to “So how are the kids and grandkids? Everyone doing ok?” It was that hands-off approach that lead Karzai to believe that he was unaccountable. After Obama took office, he wasn’t treated with kid gloves any more, and now he’s bristling.
The real questions is, if not Karzai, then who? I’m glad I’m not Afghan.
It is about vested (wested) interests…if you take that away and care about the peoples of Afghanistan, I am sure a good substitute can be found.
[quote]The real questions is, if not Karzai, then who? I’m glad I’m not Afghan.[/quote]Karzai has never been in control. He’s just been a pretty face on American and NATO country building. He has zero control and zero power, outside of how the money is spent and that is what matters. He’s only around because it is felt that a local face as leader makes everything go smoother. The Afghan army can’t project power outside of Kabul. The Afghan police are reviled and hated.
Let him join the Taliban and see how far that gets him. I think he figures that the Obama administration is easy to roll. He might also see a drop in earnings as the Marines start gearing up and showing how it is done properly.
Asia Times today reported that Karzai is starting to woo China – if the West won’t keep him in power, maybe Beijing will. It just goes to show what i’ve been saying for ages – the US invasion of afghanistan is simply making central asia safe for Chinese expansionism.
It is about vested (wested) interests…if you take that away and care about the peoples of Afghanistan, I am sure a good substitute can be found.[/quote]
Yeah the Taliban had much better control till the Yanks stepped in.
What were we expecting to happen over there? It seems to me that Karzai has done a lot more than many predicted back in 2001. Things could be a lot worse. I’m thinking the Bush approach made a lot more sense.
In fairness, your quote in the OP Maoman would be more accurate as below:
[quote]At the meeting, Mr. Karzai stepped up his anti-Western statements, according to a Parliament member who attended but spoke on condition of anonymity.
“If you and the international community pressure me more, I swear that I am going to join the Taliban,” Mr. Karzai said, according to the Parliament member.
A spokesman for Mr. Karzai, Waheed Omar, could not be reached for comment on Sunday.[/quote]
[quote=“Maoman”]
The real questions is, if not Karzai, then who? [/quote]
How about a nice retired General.
Hey. If China wants to take over Afghanistan, I’m all for it. But if the US or President Obama does not want that to happen, I doubt it will. Maybe it’s part of the trade off; 800 billion in debt and China picks up more neighborhood security concerns.
It is about vested (wested) interests…if you take that away and care about the peoples of Afghanistan, I am sure a good substitute can be found.[/quote]
Yeah the Taliban had much better control till the Yanks stepped in.[/quote]
Yeah and the Taliban was created by Africans!
China doesn’t want to go there; they’ve got enough trouble in the country’s west and this would only make it worse. India, on the other hand, just might be able to quietly make a real difference, and has an interest in doing so given the movement of troublemakers across the Afghan-Pakistan border, the influence of those same troublemakers within Pakistan, and Indian-Pakistani relations.
Galbraith et al are acting like this is all a shock, but there was plenty of warning during the lead up to the elections that it was being stolen by Karzai and his goons, and they didn’t do shit about it. Let’s face it - so much horse trading is done behind closed doors, we don’t know the half of the story. They probably let Karzai run on at the mouth to make it look to the extremists in his population that he’s handling the US - but he still keeps the bases open, lets the drones fly, lets the special forces teams roam the country.
Thomas Friedman had a good opinion on this situation a couple of days ago here:
Also:
Karzai’s a fucking joke, but apparently the US doesn’t have a better puppet to put up there, or they damn well would have cashed another guy to the top. So they holler and cry about how shitty Karzai is, but in the end, the US forces still have their way over there until the US brings em home.
Wasn’t the guy who ‘won’ the latest election the first hand-picked puppet that the US wanted?
We pick em like a drunken sailor on leave at a whorehouse in Manila - i.e. we generally end up with dick
Sometimes you are so eloquent, tongue-tongue.
this from the Aussie ABC:
[color=#000000]Karzai may have drug problem: Ex-UN envoy[/color]
‘Questions about mental stability’: Afghan president Hamid Karzai (Reuters : Ahmad Masood )
Afghan president Hamid Karzai’s “mental stability” is in doubt and he may even be taking illegal drugs, a former top UN envoy to the war-torn country told MSNBC television. Peter Galbraith, etc etc.
“he may even be taking illegal drugs” That’s rich.
The guy is as corrupt as most of the other politicians …