Hamid Karzai is a Gangster . . . Revisited Posted by Michael Cohen

So a couple of months ago, I wrote a DA post where I compared Hamid Karzai to Hyman Roth. It was based mainly on the fact that Karzai basically stole the Afghan election and at the same time got the US and NATO to pat him on the back for a job well done. Quite simply, he played it beautifully.

But these days, I'm beginning to wonder if Hamid is looking a bit more like Michael Corleone. And I don't mean the Michael Corleone who slaughtered the heads of the Five Families, took care of Carlo, Tessio and Moe Green and then became Don . . . I mean the Michael Corleone at the end of Godfather II, who was increasingly isolated, was losing the loyalty of his inner circle and was striking out at perceived enemies all around him. 

What else there is to make of Karzai's speech yesterday to the Afghan Electoral Commission - a 50 minute diatribe that featured attacks on US and NATO allies, accusations that the West orchestrated fraud in last year's election (that's rich) and even intimations that the US and its Allies are invaders of Afghanistan - rhetoric that is eerily familiar to that used by the Taliban.

I mean the next thing you know Wali Karzai is going to be "sleeping with the fishes" at the bottom of the Helmand River. 

Perhaps the worst part about this speech is that comes a mere five days after President Obama flew half way around the world to gently remind our friend Hamid that the United States might need some help if we're going to win this whole insurgency thing.

I've been something of an advocate of the "Let Hamid Be Hamid" school, but this is ridiculous. How can anyone in this Administration argue that he is a reputable partner for a counter-insurgency effort. 

Along these lines, I can't help but be reminded of a quote from an anonymous Administration official last November:

We’re going to know in the next three to six months whether he’s doing anything differently — whether he can seriously address the corruption, whether he can raise an army that ultimately can take over from us and that doesn’t lose troops as fast as we train them.

You know what? I think we have our answer. 

In the President's meeting last weekend with Karzai he laid out several areas where he wanted to see more progress from Karzai. They included, "formulating stricter rules against corruption, establishing long-expected guidelines about how to proceed with persuading insurgents to switch sides, and keeping foreign members on the Electoral Complaints Commission, the body that investigates voting fraud." Color me skeptical that we're likely to see much progress on these fronts. And if we don't see progress how can the US continue to pour troops into the fight - and wage a population-centric counter-insurgency - when it's abundantly clear that we have a extremely reluctant partner in Kabul?

It seems clearer than ever that relying on Hamid Karzai to be the effective ally we need him to be is a fool's errand.

Comments

[Don Bacon]

The US has over a hundred thousand troops committed to war in a remote, mountainous country on the opposite side of the earth to combat a guy in a cave by countering an "insurgency" against a corrupt criminal that holds on to power via crooked elections -- what's wrong with this picture?

Hey, lots of people are making tons of money -- what's not to like? --The business of America is business.

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The problem with the Times article is that it focuses too much on the CIA connection and not enough on all of the dirty pies that Ahmed has his dirty little fingers in. Pretty sure that its CIA policy to have at least one paramilitary group per country and the guys that run them generally have some skeletons in their closet (or back yard, neighborhood sewage plant, etc.). The real story would be to prove the drug connection beyond the Quack Standard. Get Hamid’s brother on tape doing his Ahmed Escobar shtick and you win yourself a Prize...

[dom youngross]

Not Hyman Roth. Hamid Karzai is Ngo Dinh Diem, who also had a gravy-train brother (Ngo Dinh Nhu). Obama resembles Michael Corleone.

Trying to prevent that Vietnamistan fate through hedge bets is why Karzai is currently woofing on the West and building separate-deal coalitions and alliances with war-/druglords, 'moderate' Taliban, Ahmadinejad, Singh, and Medvedev/Putin.

You'll know Karzai's time has run out when news stories proliferate over how 'disappointed' President Obama is with Karzai's performance, and how 'betrayed' both President Obama and SOS Clinton feel. That will be the particular case when the story is spun as Bush's fault -- again -- that Bush stuck Obama with Karzai -- the way the French stuck the US with Diem -- and Obama had no other choice but to stick with Karzai. That will be the PR setup for CIA operation Look The Other Way, Part Diem Deux.

In Part Diem Deux, if the locals won't step up to the plate, the CIA will. President Obama has a 2012 re-election campaign schedule to keep and objectives to meet. Obama won't let Karzai stand in that way. Just as in 2008, in 2010 and beyond Afghanistan for Obama isn't about helping the Afghans out, it's about serving himself politically.

$200 billion taxpayer dollars say that the Karzai brothers are in exile or dead before President Obama begins to draw down US troops in Afghanistan.

Another $200 billion taxpayer dollars say that supporting Abdullah becomes the new PR reason for continuing the non-declared Afghanistan war far past President Obama's mythical 2011 draw-down date.

That mythical 2011 draw-down date was for US fool consumption. Afghanistan is a 20-year deal that started at the tail end of 2001. Mid-summer 2011, before the half-way point, is Karzai's drop-dead date.

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IMHO, Karzai seems to be becoming dangerously unhinged. If the guy is going nuts, he is a menace to Americans and Afghans.

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