Hamid Karzai – Obama's Bush
Problem
November 19, 2009
Karzai was chosen by Bush to run Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002 though deals
brokered by him with the Northern Allience and others. It was so typical of
Bush to select someone without morals and thoroughly corrupt, similar to his
administration. By selecting and then supporting Karzai, the Bush
administration validated the Afghanistan government’s criminal activities
and corruption.
Karzai surrounds himself with criminals and resists any effort to change his
mind about that. For example his half- brother is in the heroin trade and
the the VP is into drug trafficking. It does not get better from there.
Karzai is incompetent, corrupt and not anyone's ally except to himself. He
can not provide basic services to his people even after receiving billions
in aid. The money disappears and he and his cronies get richer.
Now
Obama has inherited this problem.
He
has to deal with a corrupt “leader” who stole the 2009 elections and
eventually “won” after his opponent refused to participant in the run off
election.
To
add to the diplomatic woes the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan,
Karl W. Eikenberry
recently sent Obama two cables warning him not to send more
soldiers because of the Karzai's corruption.
Despite these “character flaws” Obama will
probably increase troop strength in Afghanistan, putting more American lives
on the line. Why should they fight and defend such a corrupt government? The
Taliban,Al Qaeda and Karzai have similar moral characters, no wonder our
soldiers there have low morale. They see the problems first hand and don’t
like it.
Unfortunately Karzai
will not give up his cronies many of whom are Taliban. They help him
maintain power and make him richer. These are great reasons for him to keep
the status quo.
Frustratingly, we will loose more American lives to prop up a corrupt and
ungrateful Afghan government. Why?
-------------------------
References:
Karzai info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamid_Karzai
Eikenberry and the cables:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/11/12/eikenberry.profile/index.html
