Anyone remember Ngo Dinh Diem? (In fairness Karzai does seem to be going off the rails and I do not say Harper was wrong to say what he did -- but if I was Karzai I would be watching my Generals...).
http://tiny.cc/8j7d5
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has upbraided Afghan President Hamid Karzai for threatening to throw in his lot with the Taliban.
Mr. Karzai’s remarks, part of a growing rift with the West, are objectionable to Canadians at a time when their troops are risking their lives in Afghanistan, the PM indicated.
“I have not seen the context of President Karzai's remarks, but what I have seen reported is completely unacceptable,” Mr. Harper told reporters after making an infrastructure announcement in Mississauga.
“We have men and women who are over there putting their lives on the line to help the population in its struggle against the Taliban.
“These remarks are not helpful and in the context of the dangerous work our people are doing, they are completely unacceptable to Canada and, I'm sure, the same is true for all of our allies.”
3 comments:
James, your bias is showing again...
Let's see Karzai is basically a puppet, he cheated during the last elections and you never criticized him even during his "rapprochement" to the Taliban - now that there is a remark about him "joining" the Taliban he's going off the rails...
It's a real slap in the face to this Canadian:
Grant Kippen, the Canadian who ran the watchdog Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) last year, said if Karzai has evidence of impropriety in the August vote, "either Afghan or international," then he has a responsibility "to back this claim up with evidence."
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/04/01/afghanistan-karzai-election-complaint.html#ixzz0kSgWaH48
I think it's worth revisiting why we went into Afghanistan in the first place.
The war was launched as a result of 9-11, and was intended to remove terrorists that were being sheltered by the Taliban government of the country.
This is no longer the case. The terrorists were allowed to escape to Pakistan. And the Taliban has lost control of the country, at least for now.
I don't recall any part of our original mission being to prop up and support through fraudulent elections a puppet regime little better than those he replaced.
Nor do I recall it being a part of the original mission to hunt down every last Taliban until he or she (mostly he) recants or is dead.
At some point, wars end. All wars end. And not all - very few, actually - result in the extermination of the opponent.
So - maybe it's time to think about ending this one. That's what Karzi is thinking, and that's what NATO members (before being branded as traitors) were thinking as they talked about a negotiated peace.
I think the message we've sent to the world is pretty clear - that you can oppress your own citizens as much as you want, so long as your campaign of violence doesn't touch North American shores.
And I don't think we're going to get better than that - at least, not until we stop supporting petty dictators and fraudulent elections in nations around the world.
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