rssKarzai to U.S.: Well Take A Look At Me Now
Monday, May 04, 2009 at 10:16 am
- 5 Comments
Building on that last point about micromanaging Pakistan, take a look at Afghanistan. President Hamid Karzai is looking like he’ll win reelection. Following on Erin Simpson’s concerns, I worried in March that the Obama administration was repeating a mistake of the Bush administration’s from the opposite perspective: while Bush overpersonalized Afghan policy by embracing Karzai wholeheartedly, the Obama team did the same thing by visibly disrespecting him. The Wall Street Journal’s Jay Solomon and Peter Spiegel get a pithy quote summing that up:
“We’ve not completely burnt that bridge, but it’s black, and timbers are out,” said a former senior U.S. military official who consults with the administration on Afghan strategy.
For more on that, see Phil Zabriskie at True/Slant. My understanding of this week’s U.S.-Afghan meetings in Washington is that they’re going to focus on deliverable paths to increasing Afghan governance and development around the country, rather than the top-level strategy concerns of the last round. Maybe that’s a way of depersonalizing bilateral relations. But you couldn’t blame Karzai if he rolls into Washington this week bumping Phil Collins.
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5 Comments
Comment posted May 4, 2009 @ 8:51 am
Hasn't the conventional wisdom always been that Karzai was probably going to be reelected? What were they thinking?
Comment posted May 4, 2009 @ 10:35 am
when the Afghan government is corrupt,Afghan people suffer alot and blame the US for it because the US supports the Afghan government.In order that all US sacrifices not be wasted in Afghanistan, The US must insist and indeed compel the Afghan gov. to eradicate corruption openly,daily,and forcefully just like conducting a battle. Establish anti corruption agencies run by the US and allies,disclose corrupt officials on TV and other media,run under cover operations to detect corrupt officials,bring to trial and establish hard labor camps where the guilty are put in long ,hard labor in building projects –this will convince the corrupt Afghans that they will pay a high price for corruption.This is surest way to restore American credibility and the achievement of the US goals there.Talebans and their thugs will also be defeated by following above procedure rigorously. AN afghan leader who can cooperate with the US to achieve this issue of corrution which is poisoning the entire operation there is a must-the current Afghan government is best to be replaced as it has lost the trust of Afghan people by allowing corrution to get out of hand. If corruption is not eradicated in Afghanistan, the US goals will not be achieved there and the whole opreration there will end in failure–it is that serious!!
Pingback posted May 4, 2009 @ 12:57 pm
[...] President Asif Ali Zardari will be in Washington this week. The Washington Independent’s Spencer Ackerman speculates on recent political developments in Afghanistan, as well is that subject of the [...]
Comment posted May 4, 2009 @ 3:51 pm
Hasn't the conventional wisdom always been that Karzai was probably going to be reelected? What were they thinking?
Comment posted May 4, 2009 @ 5:35 pm
when the Afghan government is corrupt,Afghan people suffer alot and blame the US for it because the US supports the Afghan government.In order that all US sacrifices not be wasted in Afghanistan, The US must insist and indeed compel the Afghan gov. to eradicate corruption openly,daily,and forcefully just like conducting a battle. Establish anti corruption agencies run by the US and allies,disclose corrupt officials on TV and other media,run under cover operations to detect corrupt officials,bring to trial and establish hard labor camps where the guilty are put in long ,hard labor in building projects –this will convince the corrupt Afghans that they will pay a high price for corruption.This is surest way to restore American credibility and the achievement of the US goals there.Talebans and their thugs will also be defeated by following above procedure rigorously. AN afghan leader who can cooperate with the US to achieve this issue of corrution which is poisoning the entire operation there is a must-the current Afghan government is best to be replaced as it has lost the trust of Afghan people by allowing corrution to get out of hand. If corruption is not eradicated in Afghanistan, the US goals will not be achieved there and the whole opreration there will end in failure–it is that serious!!
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