Obama and Afghanistan, Karzai, and the Taliban
I had a long discussion with my spouse about Obama’s decision to make no decision on sending troops to Afghanistan until the problem of an effective partner was resolved. The discussion ended in a stalemate.
Last night I hit upon this quote in yesterday’s Telegraph:
Now there is huge international pressure on Mr Karzai to accept whatever is the result of the ballot-stuffing inquiry. There is also pressure on both him and Dr Abdullah Abdullah, the former eye surgeon and briefly foreign minister who is his challenger, to agree a deal that would somehow avoid a second round of the election, with all the security and logistical problems that would bring. here
The idea of agreeing to a deal would help keep Karzai in power even if he has to accept his former minister as an ally. That makes more sense of Obama’s willingness to wait, assuming he wants to keep Karzai in power. According to the BBC story, John Kerry is even now in Kabul talking to Karzai.
Today I read the BBC’s latest report on the elections in Afghanistan which states that the Election Complaints Commission verifies
“that Hamid Karzai scored less than the 50% necessary to avoid a second round with his main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah.” here
Karzai’s long history with the U.S. can be read in the Wikipedia entry, but it goes back well into the 1980’s.
Karzai was involved in helping to provide financial and military support for the Mujahideen during the 1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan.[9] The Mujahideen were secretly supplied and funded by the United States, and Karzai was a contact for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) at the time. here
In the meantime, the Obama administration has begun discussions with a former “enemy combatant” to bring the “friendly,” less militant Taliban members into the mix. According to the Wikipedia article, Karzai once said “there were many wonderful people in the Taliban.” He was refering to the moderate Taliban members who stopped fighting and decided to join the new government of his nation. His nation?
Perhaps, the Obama administration is looking for a partnership between Karzai, Abdullah, and the Afghanistan Taliban to help bring peace to Afghanistan and to defeat al Qaeda
“The Taliban accept weapons and money from al Qaeda for their war,” he [Arsalan Rahmani, 70, who was Islamic affairs minister under the Taliban but is now a senator in the Afghan parliament] said. “But if the Taliban had a good relationship with the government they would get rid of al Qaeda because then they wouldn’t need them any more.”
Read the articles and make your own decision, but don’t pass too swiftly over this paragraph in the Telegraph selection.
Meanwhile, Western diplomats in the Afghan capital no longer enthuse about women’s rights, democracy and nation-building; but they do talk about working with “traditional figures” – a new Kabul euphemism for the warlords expected to win a place within a re-elected government led by President Hamid Karzai.
My spouse and I will be continuing our discussion tonight.
10/20
I just received an email from NEWSY containing a video which is relevant to the post, so I am adding this link: http://www.newsy.com/videos/panel_rules_afghan_poll_results_fraudulent Let me know if you like it and I might link to them again.
