“We will not build permanent bases in this country, nor will we be patrolling in cities and mountains,” Obama said. “That will be the job of the Afghan people.” But so narrow is the political base of the Karzai regime, which was elected by a small minority of Afghans and whose corruption is endemic, that its ability to lead a credible counterinsurgency fight against the Taliban remains seriously in doubt. The problem is not simply that the Afghan forces lack sufficient training, or that the Afghan government can’t afford to pay for the indigenous army that NATO has created to keep it alive; the problem is fundamentally one of motivation. How many Afghan troops are really ready to fight and die to keep President Karzai in power? One troubling indicator might be the by-now routine incidence of Afghan friendlies turning their weapons on their U.S. and other Western mentors — an incidence the AP claims the military is systematically underreporting. LINK
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Exit A La Vietnam
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An Afghan Spring?????????
ReplyDeleteKarzai has always skated on thin ice.
He was an outsider [worked for big oil in America] then was handed his puppet strings.
The Afghan people are not stupid.
They have been doing this for a long time.
Karzai must be hearing foot steps in his sleep.
Beware of your shadow.
I'm just waiting to hear how Obama and company will put more time on their clock after the alarm goes off.
ReplyDeleteThere is no snooooooooze button for them to hit.
ReplyDeleteThis is a rude awakening waiting to happen.
They are all in on thinking that the Taliban will accept Western air, and ground bases in Afghanistan for the infinite future.
They will not.
What O did not say.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/afghanistan/120501/obama-kabul-security-taliban-kapisa-province
Is there a heli-port on top of the American Embassy in Kabul?
I noticed some media comments yesterday about Karzai 'stabbing America in the back'. Maybe this is just excuse making before the debacle gets even worse. But what about the numerous times the US has undermined Karzai? You know, little things like Koran burning, child burning, corpse desecration, hundreds (if not thousands) of botched night-raids and the rest. I have no time for Karzai, but his position, such as it is, has often been made impossible by his 'partners'.
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