Leader of Afghanistan Finds Himself Hero No More

[tekisui]

Source: NY Times

KABUL, Afghanistan — A foretaste of what would be in store for President Hamid Karzai after the election of a new American administration came last February, when Joseph R. Biden Jr., then a senator, sat down to a formal dinner at the palace during a visit here.

Between platters of lamb and rice, Mr. Biden and two other American senators questioned Mr. Karzai about corruption in his government, which, by many estimates, is among the worst in the world. Mr. Karzai assured Mr. Biden and the other senators that there was no corruption at all and that, in any case, it was not his fault.

The senators gaped in astonishment. After 45 minutes, Mr. Biden threw down his napkin and stood up.

“This dinner is over,” Mr. Biden announced, according to one of the people in the room at the time. And the three senators walked out, long before the appointed time.

Today, of course, Mr. Biden is the vice president.

The world has changed for Mr. Karzai, and for Afghanistan, too. A White House favorite — a celebrity in flowing cape and dark gray karakul cap — in each of the seven years that he has led this country since the fall of the Taliban, Mr. Karzai now finds himself not so favored at all. Not by Washington, and not by his own.

In the White House, President Obama said he regarded Mr. Karzai as unreliable and ineffective. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said he presided over a “narco-state.” The Americans making Afghan policy, worried that the war is being lost, are vowing to bypass Mr. Karzai and deal directly with the governors in the countryside.

At home, Mr. Karzai faces a widening insurgency and a population that blames him for the manifest lack of economic progress and the corrupt officials that seem to stand at every doorway of his government. His face, which once adorned the walls of tea shops across the country, is today much less visible.

more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/world/asia/08karzai.html?bl&ex=1234242000&en=e18a41b004ed4e18&ei=5087%0A

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Things are brewing in Afghanistan. The drug trades are about to be hit, Karzai has lost popular support inside and outside of his country. He now wants to negotiate with the Taliban to maintain power.

[Hippo_Tron]

1. I don't think Afghanistan was really a single nation to begin with

It has been fragmented for quite some time.

[tekisui]

2. As it is, now, Karzai is basically mayor of Kabul.

[Hippo_Tron]

6. I've heard that phrase a lot and can't say I disagree

[Idealism]

3. Karzai has two options in front of him

He can either find an acceptable replacement that the U.N. should approve (who am I kidding, the US will be the only one who needs to find approval).... OR... he can endorse democratic elections that see him not on the ballot. The man is a cancer in the region. He may not have militant aspirations, but he lets others get away with murder- literally- which makes him no better.

[tekisui]

4. At any rate, his days a head of state are numbered.

The sooner he steps aside, the better he'd be.

[Idealism]

5. The sooner he steps aside, the better Kabul will be

Hopefully, that one day will mean the better Afghanistan is.

[scarletwoman]

7. He can go back to being an oil company "consultant". (nt)

[Canuckistanian]

8. Karzai has never had the support of Afghanis

He was installed by Bush as a reward for his many years of service to Unocal.

Among Afghanis, he's known as "the mayor of Kabul" for all the influence he's had over the whole country.