Tag Archives : Hamid Karzai

US President Obama’s troop pledge to send thousands of additional troops to Afghanistan rests on a gamble on unreliable and dubious allies supposedly working towards the pressing goals in that country. The troop surge will have to rely on the corrupt Karzai government, perceived to be one of the most corrupt political administrations in the world [...]

US President Obama’s decision to send 30k troops to Afghanistan will ‘determine the outcome of the eight-year U.S. engagement in Afghanistan and perhaps even the broader state-building process.’ The fresh troop surge points to ‘gradual expansion of the international military mission under McChrystal’s strategy.’ Even the American general [...]

The bedrock principle in the debate on the war in Afghanistan rests on the idea that whatever military action the US undertakes in the country will only serve as ‘a prelude to, rather than a substitute for, Afghanistan taking over the security job.’ That is saying that the ‘White House wants to make sure surge will enable handover.’ The Obama [...]

Former ambassador Ronald E. Neumann says, “The argument that we could pull out of Afghanistan if Karzai doesn’t do what we say is stupid. We couldn’t get the Pakistanis to fight if we leave Afghanistan; we couldn’t accomplish what we’ve set out to do. And Karzai knows that.” Fraudulently-elected Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan received an ultimatum [...]

It’s the classic tight spot between the devil and the deep blue sea. Afghans are caught between having a corrupt and election-cheating Karzai as president and a historical scenario dominated by the likes of Mullah Omar, languishing in a civil war, or the Soviet regime. By Afghan standards, these are better times in Afghanistan. In fact, given the [...]

Whether the US wants Hamid Karzai for Afghanistan leadership or not is now moot. Karzai’s opponent backed out of the runoff and the country is left with no choice but to accept Karzai’s ‘reelection,’ amidst prevailing speculation of massive electoral fraud. ‘Nearly a third of the votes cast in Mr. Karzai’s favor in presidential elections [...]

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown today issued perhaps one of the most stern warnings to the government of Afghanistan, stating that, Mr. Hamid Karzai, the reelected President of Afghanistan needs to curb corruption in the country and bring in reforms that are expected from him or Afghanistan stands to lose support from the United Kingdom, including [...]

In yet another incident highlighting the sympathetic behavior of the Afghanistan security forces towards Taliban, a rouge Afghan police officer shot and killed five soldiers of the British contingent of the coalition forces currently stationed in Afghanistan. Today’s incident has cast serious doubts over the allegiance of Afghan forces towards [...]

‘Democracies make elections, elections don’t make democracies.’ This applies particularly to Afghanistan that has been trying to be a democracy since the Bonn Agreement that created the country’s post-Taliban government in 2001. Even more desperate than this attempt are the never-tiring efforts of the West, especially the United States, [...]

Both the al-Qaeda and the Taliban are feeding on the current dissatisfaction with the war in Afghanistan. It seems that people are more dismayed about what is going on with the war than the fact that Hamid Karzai rigged the elections in his favor. The terror groups have developed ‘sophisticated foreign-recruiting networks’ resulting in an increasing [...]