An' Karzie, yer doin' a heck of a job: "U.S. To Tolerate Corruption In Latest Afghan Strategy"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Top headline and photo from HuffPo, everything else from WaPo.

:patriot:

U.S. To Tolerate Corruption In Latest Afghan Strategy



U.S. to temper stance on Afghan corruption

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/03/AR2010090305545.html

By Greg Jaffe
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 4, 2010; 1:32 PM

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN - U.S. commanders in southern Afghanistan are adopting a strategy that increasingly places the priority on fighting the Taliban even if that means tolerating some corruption.

Military officials in the region have concluded that the Taliban's insurgency is the most pressing threat to stability in some areas and that a sweeping effort to drive out corruption could create chaos and a governance vacuum that the Taliban could exploit.

"There are areas where you need strong leadership, and some of those leaders are not entirely pure," said a senior defense official. "But they can help us be more effective in going after the primary threat, which is the Taliban."

The issue of corruption in Afghanistan has taken on renewed urgency in recent weeks with the arrest of a senior aide to President Hamid Karzai and new questions about Kabul's commitment to fighting graft. Senior Obama administration officials have repeatedly emphasized the need to root out graft in Afghanistan and have deployed teams of FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration agents to assemble corruption cases. The United States has spent about $50 billion to promote reconstruction in Afghanistan since 2001.

It was not immediately clear whether the White House, the State Department and law enforcement agencies share the military's views, which come at a critical time for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. After an eight-month buildup, the 30,000 additional soldiers and Marines that President Obama ordered to this country are almost entirely in place, allowing U.S. and Afghan forces to conduct sweeps of Taliban strongholds and detain insurgent leaders at the highest levels of the nearly nine-year-long war, military officials said.

[metapunditedgy]

1. Prime opportunity for another country to release a headline:

"Cuba to Tolerate Corruption in Relations with USA"

(Insert your favorite country in place of "Cuba".)

:-)