White House looks to freeze out Hamid Karzai

[Bragi]

The White House is exploring ways of isolating Hamid Karzai by channelling aid and military support directly to Afghan provinces, amid concerns about the Afghan President’s erratic behaviour and performance.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7091082.ece

That should do the trick, for sure. Give all the money directly to the drug barons, war lords and religious medievalists who have been running the place for the last 200 years or so. No problem I can see.

Seriously, the London Times article above is worth reading. It shows how badly Obama erred when he escalated this war, and the mess this has created.

My favorite part is here:

“Nobody in the Administration had any illusions about Karzai,” Bruce Riedel, a former adviser to Mr Obama on Afghanistan, told The Times. “They’ve always recognised that he is not an ideal partner but they really don’t have a viable alternative. They are stuck with Karzai whether they like it or not.”

That is why Joe Biden, the Vice-President, argued against the surge ordered by Mr Obama last year, because of his misgivings about Mr Karzai. He was backed by Karl Eikenberry, the US Ambassador to Kabul, who wrote to Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State, that “President Karzai is not an adequate strategic partner”.

Obama needs to end his pointless war before it dooms his administration.

- B

[asphalt.jungle]

1. posting articles from Rupert Murdoch papers and then passing them off as enlightened foreigners

isn't worthy. at the end of the day it's just another rupert murdoch outlet. i'll go looking for what fox news and the wall street journal thinks so that I can add them to this thread. oh i don't because they will soon be reporting the same thing. that's how it works. it starts with the murdoch paper across the pond and finds it's way over here so that the fox news tv crowd can say "well the LONDON times is reporting" and not our "sister paper in london."

and yes i admit that i'm attacking the source, because i don't believe anything rupert murdoch reports.

[Bragi]

3. Head in sand strategy not always best /nt

[asphalt.jungle]

4. when it comes to murdoch and his "news" outlets, i'll gladly bury my head

that's why he's such an effective opinion maker, people treat his media outlets as credible.

[Vinnie From Indy]

2. Truly an amazing thing to behold

America is sacrificing trillions of dollars and thousands of soldiers in an effort that will surely end the same whether they leave tomorrow or in 1o years. It is pretty clear that these wars continue because there is too much money there for the stealing by the merchants of death. It is madness!

On a lighter note, who said being a drug addict ever kept a person from rising to the top. Just look at Rush, Smirky and Karzai.

[Tutonic]

5. Yeah but isn't Karzai's brother a big drug lord? I could be wrong

but I thought I had read sometime ago that there were several close members of his family that were heavily involved in the drug trade and that was having a direct bearing on actions taken by Karzai.

[Bragi]

10. Yes, his brother is a drug lord, in fact...

His whole administration is comprised of corrupt officials, gangsters, warlords, etc. They run the country now, have done so for a very long time, and will continue to run the place long after Obama wakes up and ends this war.

[global1]

6. Does Anybody Think That Karzai Speaking Out Against Westerners & The U.S. Is To Give Him Cover......

when the U.S. military this summer begins their planned offensive in the Taliban heartland of Kandahar?

Do you think when Obama was with Karzai recently - that they schemed this up so as to provide Karzai some cover by his own people. You know - make it look like he was not backing this offensive and that the U.S. is doing this without his approval. So as to give him some credibility that he isn't supporting the U.S. going into Kandahar and the resultant death & destruction.

Just a thought.

I never liked Karzai. He was handpicked by BushCo. My other theory is that he is still being puppeted by Cheney and he said the things he said recently - just to embarrass and make things tough for Obama.

My feeling is we should just pull out of the country and let Karzai fend for himself. Keep the pressure on the Pakistani/Afghan border with the drones, etc. Still try and ferret out Osama Bin Ladin and his crew - but get out of Afghan ASAP to prevent any more of our troops from dying for no apparent reason.

My guess is that if we do pull out - it will be sometime after this summer offensive in Kandahar. They say what a rousing success it was - and that this would be an appropriate time to start withdrawing our troops - because we successfully whittled down the Taliban to where they are very weak. Just a thought.

[lordcommander]

7. 1000000 nt

[Jennicut]

8. Possible. But Karzai certainly is not trustworthy and makes a lousy partner.

Biden in particular warned Obama about this.
Karzai seems to think we crave Afganistan as a permanent base for fighting terrorism in the middle east. Bush and Cheney probably would have liked that.

[Bragi]

9. Yours is a plausible theory

Karzai is definitely looking for cover for the upcoming offensive in Kandahar because the offensive will be highly unpopular within Afghanistan. That said, I don't think his threat to join the Taliban is part of a scheme he's running with Obama.

Your suggestion that Obama may be able to tactically begin his retreat after the summer offensive is over is interesting and plausible.

The main problem I see, though, is that it may be hard to position this offensive as a success if the Taliban, as is their habit, simply fade and blend into the scenery until the offensive ends.

For me, I will welcome the retreat whenever it comes, and hope that minimal needless harm comes to Americans and Afghanistanis in the meantime.