The US hopes to install their new man in Afghanistan after the next Afghan elections Zalmay Khalilzad. Haven't you noticed all the bad-mouthing of Karzai in the MSM lately?
cheers, k hanly
Blog: http://kenthink7.blogspot.com/index.html Blog: http://kencan7.blogspot.com/index.html
--- On Sat, 11/29/08, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] peaceniks silent as Obama assembles team of hawks
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Saturday, November 29, 2008, 2:26 PM
> So I started wondering how the Obama fans would justify an
> escalation in Afghanistan when Karzai's been saying he
> wants us out. E.g.:
>
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/27/world/asia/27afghan.html>.
>
> > President Hamid Karzai bluntly rebuked NATO on
> Wednesday for its faltering campaign against the Taliban and
> Al Qaeda and demanded a timetable for the seven-year war
> here to end.
> >
> > ...
> >
> > In recent months he has adopted, at least in public,
> an increasingly adversarial posture toward NATO and American
> forces deployed here, denouncing what he has called
> heavy-handed bombings and house raids that have caused
> civilian casualties, offended cultural sensitivities and
> undermined popular support for the war that routed the
> Taliban in late 2001.
> >
> > He has also criticized the detention of hundreds of
> suspects for years without trial at Bagram air base and at
> Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
> >
> > While many in the foreign diplomatic community
> attribute the president’s criticisms to the 2009
> elections, he has struck a supportive chord with many
> Afghans who have lost patience with the NATO-led effort,
> especially because of the civilian casualties.
> >
> > On Wednesday, Mr. Karzai said that if he could, he
> would ground American warplanes before they could inflict
> civilian casualties and destroy villages.
> >
> > “We have no other choice, we have no power to stop
> the planes,” he said. “I wish I could intercept the
> planes that are going to bomb Afghan villages, but that’s
> not in my hands.
>
> So, this being Thanksgiving weekend, I got to ask an
> aunt-in-law, a prototypical Volvo-driving, Harvard-teaching
> liberal Democrat, how to handle this. Her answer:
> "He's just saying it for the election." (Um,
> wasn't this supposed to be about "democracy"
> promotion?) When the election is over, he can drop the
> rhetoric. I can't wait to hear more of this.
>
> Doug
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