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TechnoratiAfghanistan Just Got Messier
The mess that is Afghanistan just got messier for Washington.
Abdullah's withdrawal from the presidential runoff leaves Hamid Karzai in power but without legitimacy.
He's widely perceived to have rigged the last election, and Abdullah took himself out, he says, because he couldn't be assured that Kazai wouldn't do it again.
And then they cancelled the election with only Karzai in it, citing security and cost reasons. But maybe they didn't want to deal with the embarrassment of Karzai running unopposed, or the even deeper humiliation of a tiny turnout.
As a result, though, Karzai has become further delegitimized.
He was already in the soup. People in Afghanistan recognize that he's corrupt. And Malalai Joya, the outspoken feminist who was booted from parliament, has been denouncing him for years now for surrounding himself with drug lords and warlords and war criminals. Even his own brother is involved in the drug trade.
In Afghanistan, Joya says, Karzai is seen, correctly, as a Washington stooge. And we're seen there, correctly, as an occupying power.
We've been down this road before.
In Vietnam, the United States propped up one illegitimate leader after another, but that didn't help the war effort at all. It only further alienated the people of Vietnam.
We're seeing the same thing happening in Afghanistan right now.
Karzai is our guy in Kabul, but that's about it. Many if not most people in Afghanistan disdain him. And the more he plays ball with Washington, the less support he has at home.
The United States can't defeat an insurgency by backing an illegitimate government.
And the United States can't defeat an insurgency when the American people are already opposed to the war.
Obama needs to realize all this, reverse course, and head for the exits, before he makes matters even worse.
12 Comments so far
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Yes, Barak Obama needs to head for the exit, but he's too busy "wading knee deep in this new big muddy" to do that.
He's raising the ante like any losing gambler in a high stakes card game with the last raise going all the way against him.
AD
Yes, Barak Obama needs to head for the exit, but he's too busy "wading knee deep in this new big muddy" to do that.
He's raising the ante like any losing gambler in a high stakes card game with the last raise going all the way against him.
AD
The US imperial command prefers Afghanistan (and every other resource-critical country in Central Asia region) to be destabilized permanently rather than allow independence from US imperial command. There will be no stability unless it is US-dominated.
If the neutron-bomb can be perfected, look for extermination of all indigenous populations in that region.
For the US imperial command, it is better that the world be destroyed than for anyone to live free.
Democracy has kicked the bucket in Afghanistan - and what else you can expect? Things are happening in the usual manner! We need some elected government to assert that Afghanistan is a democracy now - however flawed that assertion is :-)
Hamid Karzai is head-2-toe corrupt - and I don't think Abdullah would have been any better. Abdullah was once the spokesperson for the "Islamic State of Afghanistan" and maintained a kind of moderate stand compared to the Taliban! Nothing else in favor of him.
Ban Ki-Moon anyway rushed to Kabul to legitimize things on behalf of the so-called International Community. And really you don't want to spend another round of money in a second election given that the possibility of same frauds like massive ballot stuffing still remains :-)
Anyway or the other - it brings out the fundamental question again that whether the country is ready for democracy at all or it should function - as it always did in the past - as disjoint regions controlled by local leaders (war-lords). The point is that there is no guarantee. History is not an insurance agency. But surely a western model of democracy may not justify it's correctness (appropriateness) in the context of the Afghan people. The idea of privileged access to the power for those with the knowledge of salvation in this primitive (tribal) society - we may need to think in this line only!
The salvation is anyway related to economy - a hard fact that can't be denied. Economic phenomena - because of their greater generality - makes a greater contribution to the historical process; and no progress can be made in the social and cultural order unless the economy is organized in a favorable way. And that's one of the biggest drawbacks - that the current government is fully corrupt - and that the Taliban and war-lords are making money out of drug trades to sustain their so-called war!
Just engaging the Taliban and other Islamic extremists with more and more NATO troops, and maintaining a corrupt and opportunistic government as a show-piece of democracy does not seem to be an effective strategy in the long run. With its previous history of chaos, its tribal tradition, its almost non-existing educational system, its corrupt political institutions, and above all its people - everything in Afghanistan stands as a model defying democracy :-)
Mathew doesn't seem to realize that it was the Obama Administration that forced Abdullah to back out for fear of his very life. They figured that was less 'messy' for the US puppet masters.
Sadly, it all comes down to the bottom line. If we commit peace, it cuts into the profits of the MIC, and they won't have it! An endless war is profit they can count on.
They will not allow any of their bought and paid for public officials to interfere with that.
Remember to drip!
Don't
Reelect
Incumbent
Politicians
Stay away from out of office professionals, too! None of them represent We the People (unless we are billionaires).
Better still:
Don't
Elect
Conservative
Politicians
Saying Afganistan just got Messier is like saying Paris Hilton just got Skankier. An impossibility. Like saying infinite just got bigger.
Most of us have known this is an unfixable mess since 2002. At least there is good news for the junkies....the US Government is now subsidising their high.
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
Karzai Diem.
Nice!
· Yr Obd't Servant