Karzai upsetting the sponsors
Washington Post/Reuters
Afghan President Hamid Karzai is losing support from many Afghans and some foreign governments as a Taliban-led insurgency escalates and his government fails to stem endemic corruption, the Washington Post reported on Monday.
"The president had a window of opportunity to lead and make difficult decisions, but that window is closing fast," the Post cited an unidentified foreign military official as saying.
"President Karzai is the only alternative for this country, but if he attacks us, we can't help him project his vision," the official is cited as saying. "And if he goes down, we all go down with him."
On Thursday, Karzai complained about what he called a lack of full cooperation from his foreign allies, saying U.S.-led forces had adopted the wrong approach in Afghanistan and urged the international community to provide more help in training and equipping the Afghan army and police.
The Post said Karzai had bristled at international criticism that greeted his recent naming of 13 police officials, some of whom have been accused of human rights abuses. Foreign officials and analysts said the appointments were intended to create ethnic and political balance and were not based on professional qualifications, the newspaper said.
"He's making decisions for short-term stability that go against his own interests and the long-term interests of building the country," an unnamed European official told the Post. "As a result, international support for him is eroding and it could become a real rift at the worst possible time."
Several European governments are expressing serious concerns about Karzai's leadership, the Post reported, without singling out the countries by name.
"There is an awful feeling that everything is lurching downward," a Western diplomat told the newspaper. "Nearly five years on there is no rule of law, no accountability." Link
db: Is this a warning to Karzai that he should keep his mouth shut and his nose out of NATO's business - the mass killing of 'the spoilers'? He had said last week "It is not acceptable for us that in all this fighting, Afghans are dying. In the last three to four weeks, 500 to 600 Afghans were killed. (Even) if they are Taliban, they are sons of this land," For him to suggest that Taliban were 'sons of this land' must have pissed a few people off - the last thing you need people to believe is that the Taliban are human too [with families, kids and stuff].
It's interesting that a story appeared last week in what looked more like PSYOP than scoop, via ABC News, who claimed to have obtained a computer flash drive containing secret US military documents from a street bazaar outside Bagram air base in Afghanistan. The documents, which ABC said the US military had stated "appear to be genuine" claimed that Dr. A. Wali Karzai - professor in Biochemistry - and brother of the President of Afghanistan - "receives money from drug lords as bribes to facilitate their work and movement".
Afghan President Hamid Karzai is losing support from many Afghans and some foreign governments as a Taliban-led insurgency escalates and his government fails to stem endemic corruption, the Washington Post reported on Monday.
"The president had a window of opportunity to lead and make difficult decisions, but that window is closing fast," the Post cited an unidentified foreign military official as saying.
"President Karzai is the only alternative for this country, but if he attacks us, we can't help him project his vision," the official is cited as saying. "And if he goes down, we all go down with him."
On Thursday, Karzai complained about what he called a lack of full cooperation from his foreign allies, saying U.S.-led forces had adopted the wrong approach in Afghanistan and urged the international community to provide more help in training and equipping the Afghan army and police.
The Post said Karzai had bristled at international criticism that greeted his recent naming of 13 police officials, some of whom have been accused of human rights abuses. Foreign officials and analysts said the appointments were intended to create ethnic and political balance and were not based on professional qualifications, the newspaper said.
"He's making decisions for short-term stability that go against his own interests and the long-term interests of building the country," an unnamed European official told the Post. "As a result, international support for him is eroding and it could become a real rift at the worst possible time."
Several European governments are expressing serious concerns about Karzai's leadership, the Post reported, without singling out the countries by name.
"There is an awful feeling that everything is lurching downward," a Western diplomat told the newspaper. "Nearly five years on there is no rule of law, no accountability." Link
db: Is this a warning to Karzai that he should keep his mouth shut and his nose out of NATO's business - the mass killing of 'the spoilers'? He had said last week "It is not acceptable for us that in all this fighting, Afghans are dying. In the last three to four weeks, 500 to 600 Afghans were killed. (Even) if they are Taliban, they are sons of this land," For him to suggest that Taliban were 'sons of this land' must have pissed a few people off - the last thing you need people to believe is that the Taliban are human too [with families, kids and stuff].
It's interesting that a story appeared last week in what looked more like PSYOP than scoop, via ABC News, who claimed to have obtained a computer flash drive containing secret US military documents from a street bazaar outside Bagram air base in Afghanistan. The documents, which ABC said the US military had stated "appear to be genuine" claimed that Dr. A. Wali Karzai - professor in Biochemistry - and brother of the President of Afghanistan - "receives money from drug lords as bribes to facilitate their work and movement".
posted by exoplanet at 12:45 AM
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