Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Karzai and Obama: Biting the hand that feeds

By Eric Walberg
Online Journal Contributing Writer

Apr 6, 2010

"....An editorial in the New York Times goes as far as to suggest that Karzai is losing his marbles with his latest “rambling speech” full of “delusional criticism,” that at times he seemed to be having a conversation with himself, saying that he needed to let go of his anger over the election, but was unable: “We have a knot in our heart; our dignity and bravery has been damaged and stepped on.” Karzai apparently thinks “that American lives are being sacrificed simply to keep him in power. It’s hard to think of a better way to doom Afghanistan’s future, as well as his own.”

Fighting words, those. Has Karzai read his Vietnam history and the fate of nationalist premier Ngo Dinh Diem, who was murdered in a coup sponsored by the CIA in 1963? Closer to his heart -- and neck and other appendages -- is the gruesome fate of his predecessor Mohammad Najibullah. By openly criticising the occupiers and reaching out to his old friends, like Allawi he is desperately refashioning himself as the grand compromiser, hoping to strike a deal with enough of the Taliban to bring the insurgency under control. No matter how much he badmouths his patrons, he still figures it is less likely he will die at their hands than at the hands of the Taliban. Karzai is right to think that “after me the deluge,” that the US has no one else remotely credible to take over. Waiting in the wings is runner-up in last year’s presidential election, the mysterious Abdullah Abdullah, a native Tajik from the Northern Alliance, unswerving foe of the Pashtun-majority Taliban, who will incite outright civil war......"

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