In today's news that I did not expect, apparently Afghan President Hamid Karzai is considering membership in the Taliban; that is of course unless we ease the pressure on him to crack down on corruption. After Karzai was re-elected in early November, I blogged; "in the wake of Hamid Karzai's re-election victory in Afghanistan, I would like to go on the record saying that I was cheering for him to lose". Ultimately we did not have much choice but to accept the election results and try to introduce improved oversight for the next round of ballots. If Karzai's people juiced the ballot boxes, the best thing we can do is try to make sure that it never happens again.
In February our Minister of Foreign Affairs pressed Karzai to rein in corruption and allow more international monitors in their electoral process. Now as a response Karzai is threatening to join the Taliban unless we ease pressure to end corruption. I think he is overestimating the warmth of the welcome he would receive if he crossed enemy lines, and I would certainly warn our "ally" that threatening the solders currently fighting for the freedom of the Afghan people is not an effective diplomatic means of gaining permission for corruption. He is not going to endear himself to anyone, friend or foe.
This is one of the main problems with Afghanistan. The warlords, and anyone with any power whatsoever will trade alliance at the drop of a hat. It comes down to what benefits them at that moment.
ReplyDeleteI just finished "Jawbreaker" about the CIA's role in the opening days of the Afghan war, and the problems he had in dealing with various factions to get them to work together to defeat the Taliban. They were amazingly close to getting bin Laden at Tora Bora. With only a handful of special forces holding down the bulk of the retreating Taliban by guiding in airstrikes on their caves in the mountains, they almost got him. Lack of airpower at a critical point let bin Laden and what was left of the Taliban escape over the mountains.
http://www.amazon.com/Jawbreaker-Attack-Personal-Account-Commander/dp/0307237400
I say if he wants to join them let him but remind him that we shoot Taliban soldiers every day and if he joins up he will be a target.
ReplyDelete"In February our Minister of Foreign Affairs pressed Karzai to reign in corruption "
ReplyDeleteThe word is "rein" as in reining in a horse, the other,"reign" means the Canadian Government encouraged Karzai to be corrupt, "reign in corruption".
We should have sent Jack Layton over there to run for Karzai's job.
Afghanistan deserves him.
DMorris
Nice catch. Sadly I don't have an editor, but you are correct that "g" does significantly alter the meaning of the sentence.
ReplyDeleteUnless Karzai cleans up his act,we are leaving and taking our marbles with us.Over 100 soldiers have died there and for what?So this Karzai character can turn it over to the taliban?We arent fools.We have other tools we can use to take out terrorist networks.
ReplyDeleteJoshua
Iceman - I heard a "rumour" today from an American girlfriend of mine. After reading my post on Karzai, she recalled reading somewhere that there is speculation that after Obama's trip to Afghanistan something has happened to enrage Karzai and that something is in line with "Chicago" politics... I don't know if Karzai made those remarks after the visit or before or during.
ReplyDeleteMaybe things are not like they look and Karzai is made to look like an ingrate and a buffoon for some ulterior reason. Time will tell.