One person was giddy with excitement upon hearing President Obama’s announcement that all of America’s combat troops would depart from Afghanistan by 2014: Hamid Karzai.
“A moment of happiness for Afghanistan,” exulted the incurably corrupt, inept, weak, and pompous Afghan president. Our leaders put this ingrate in power, and the lives of our soldiers and billions of our tax dollars have been spent to prop-up his sorry excuse for a government – yet he’s the one saying “good riddance.” It puts the dumb in dumbfounding.
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The dumbest and most shameful aspect of America’s 10-year Afghan war is the pretension that Karzai represents some flowering democracy. Nonsense! Installed in the presidency by dictate of the Bush-Cheney regime in 2002, he is widely despised and ridiculed by Afghans and has clung to power through fraud and autocratic power plays. For example, in last year’s parliamentary contest, Karzai was PO’d that 62 candidates he favored lost or were disqualified by the country’s independent election commission because of fraud. So, Hamid haughtily set up his own special court to review those results.
The day after Obama’s withdrawal announcement, Karzai’s kangaroo court disqualified the 62 parliamentary winners, replacing them with his chosen ones. Of course, the 62 winners are refusing to budge from their seats, which has created a governmental stalemate. But this suits Karzai perfectly, for the stalemate allows him to rule without parliament. As a top opposition leader puts it: “Karzai does not believe in the rule of law; he thinks democracy doesn’t work in his favor.”
It’s both insane and immoral for our leaders to cause even one more American to die for Karzai. Tell Obama to bring all of our troops home, pronto. The White House comment line is 202-456-1111, or www.whitehouse.gov/contact.
“Mixed Reactions to News of U.S. Troops Reduction,” The New York Times, June 24, 2011.
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