WP: U.S. seeks to prop up Kandahar governor, sideline troublesome power brokers

[laststeamtrain]

U.S. seeks to prop up Kandahar governor, sideline troublesome power brokers

By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, April 29, 2010; A09

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- The governor of Kandahar, Tooryalai Wesa, is an outsider with little sway in the province's politics, a mild-mannered academic who spent more than a decade in Canada and is considered by many Afghans to be ineffectual.

Below him in rank but far more powerful in reality is provincial council chief Ahmed Wali Karzai, a half brother of the president who has amassed a business empire fed by foreign aid and, many allege, the opium trade.

It is a power balance that U.S. officials are trying to upend.

In the hope of pushing power brokers such as Karzai to the sidelines, American officials are trying to infuse Wesa and his government with more clout and credibility. They see better governance as a central part of a U.S.-led effort that has brought thousands of troops to the region for a summer offensive against the Taliban.

But the government headed by Wesa has severe problems of its own. It remains understaffed, is viewed by many as corrupt and does not reflect the province's tribal mix. Karzai and other allegedly corrupt political bosses who dominate Kandahar show no sign of giving way.

"Wesa is a weak governor," said Rahmatullah Raufi, a former general and Kandahar governor. "If Ahmed Wali Karzai wants him to die, he will die. If he says, 'Live,' he'll live."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/28/AR2010042805449.html

[ShortnFiery]

1. And here we thought that it was only Arizona with an incurable DISEASE of ...

White Man's Burden? :wow: :crazy:

This view proposes that white people consequently have an obligation to rule over, and encourage the cultural development of people from other ethnic and cultural backgrounds until they can take their place in the world by fully adopting Western ways. The term "the white man's burden" has been interpreted as racist, or taken as a metaphor for a condescending view of non-Western national culture and economic traditions, identified as a sense of European ascendancy which has been called "cultural imperialism".

[laststeamtrain]

2. Soon the youth of Afghanistan will be sexting at the mall.

Maybe they'll have a stock exchange. They can trade sheering sheep for being shorn by Wall St. sleazoids.