Afghan President Hamid Karzai continued his attacks on the United States and the West — not long after his high-profile event embracing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, here. Despite demands for explanations of earlier criticism of the U.S., he ramped up the attacks by telling leaders that he would consider joining the Taliban against the U.S., which he accused of “massive fraud” in the country.
Admittedly, I have been a long critic of both of these wars and their cost to our nation. I am particularly disgusted by the impression that our leaders are willing to spend hundreds of billions and sacrifice hundreds of lives simply because it is not politically tenable to withdraw from the conflicts. Obama does not want to be accused of “losing” either war so he has increased the effort.
Now, while our states and cities continue to sell off property and cut programs for lack of funding, we are continuing to pour billions into a country led by a man who openly considers joining the enemy.
This is not about the lack of gratitude. It is about the lack of commitment to values that we support. For Karzai, the Taliban or the U.S. are simply political options to be exercised to keep power — he appeared entirely agnostic on the fact that the Taliban treat women as chattel or engage in terrorism.
One Iraqi at the meeting said that Karzai announced that “if I come under foreign pressure, I might join the Taliban’ . . . He said rebelling would change to resistance.”
Witnesses said that he repeated the threat twice and demanded that the Parliament give him more power.
Witnesses said that Karzai has been pandering to hard-line or pro-Taliban members of parliament.
I doubt that he is serious about joining the Taliban or that they would want him. The most disturbing issue is that Karzai appears to view the Taliban and the U.S. as completely fungible and has no problem stating a possible alliance with a terrorist organization killing both U.S. and Afghan troops.
In an interview, Karzai accused the United States of “massive fraud.” He notably did not back off earlier comments after a call from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Here is the exchange:
Karzai: “What I said about the election was all true, I won’t repeat it, but it was all true,.”
Reporter: “That the US carried out the fraud?”
Karzai: “That’s exactly what happened; I mentioned the elements who did it.”
It is good to have allies.
For that statement, click here.
For the full story, click here.
Karzai RELEASES jailed Taliban kidnapper.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8606492.stm
It’s beginning to look more and more like the Diem brothers scenario. Now the skivvy is being put out that he’s (a) on drugs and/or (b) mentally unbalanced.
I suspect he’s the same guy we backed 8 years ago, but his time has run out.
Maybe the US/NATO did engineer the election fraud. Karzai was they candidate they wanted to win.
Tootie,
A few things:
Oppression of the US domestic population is nothing new: COINTELPRO, Palmer Raids, WWII-era Internment Camps, War On Drugs, etc.
The book of Chomsky’s (and Herman’s) that I cited is about the function and control of the mass media. If you want to discuss Chomsky’s personal politics, that is a different topic (And, by the way, I would disagree with you about him being a “Utopian,” as I guess he would as well. In fact, in the introduction to Rocker’s “Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory And Practice” he explicitly says his political philosophy is _not_ Utopian).
As far as the Democrats expanding state power, that’s hardly a surprise. Only the naive would believe that Obama would usher in a new era of democracy. What he has done is what all heads of state have historically done: try to expand their power. And that comes at the expense of individual freedoms.
White House hints Karzai visit could be in doubt
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.4000fcfd5ea5ea7ec2777c392876c4cb.7c1&show_article=1
FormerFederal,
I just read an article by Justin Raimondo, who is not my cup of tea, over at Lew Rockwell and it goes to my point that it is now democrats who are growing the totalitarian police state they whined about under Bush.
Excerpt:
“… in bad times, the fear overflows into the everyday life of the citizenry, which is viewed with the utmost suspicion by the ruling elite. In Washington, they’re wondering: how long will they put up with it…
…Today, the answer to that question is: not much longer…
…To give you the flavor of the witch-hunting atmosphere being whipped up by the media-FBI complex, get a load of Rachel Maddow, the “liberal” MSNBC commentator, last Thursday night…
… Maddow says: “So, yes, so you can see Roeder as an anti-abortion extremist. You can also identify anti-abortion extremism as one branch of the broader movement of violent, militant, anti-government extremism in this country. We associate that movement with the early and mid-’90s, which is when that tape of Scott Roeder that you just saw was filmed. But just in the last 18 months since President Obama took office, a white supremacist shot and killed a security guard in an attack on the Holocaust Museum in Washington. An anti-tax extremist flew a plane into a building in Texas that housed an IRS office. He killed an IRS worker. Nine suspected militia members [were] arrested for allegedly plotting an attack on police officers as part of a war they wanted to wage against the United States government. A Tennessee white supremacist convicted of plotting to kill President Obama near the end of the presidential campaign in ’08…
…[Raymondo says] note the smearing methodology employed here: the classic amalgam. Grouped together in one intellectual package deal are:
* “antigovernment” activists
* white supremacists out to kill the President,
* antiabortion fanatics out to kill abortionists,
* and crazed anti-Semites out to attack the Holocaust Museum.
And finally:
…How quickly these lefties forget. Intoxicated by power and by the prospect of smashing their political enemies using the mailed fist of the State, modern “liberals” of the Maddowist persuasion either don’t know or don’t want to be reminded of how J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI was used as a political weapon of mass destruction by the Nixon administration to crush political dissidents of the left during the 1960s and 70s. White leftists and black nationalists were infiltrated, disrupted, set up, and jailed – the government used agents provocateurs to initiate violence, and then moved to repress these movements, jailing the leaders, and using massive force against antiwar demonstrators: remember Kent State? …”
But now the US is a totalitarian police state with Fusion Centers, the DHS, the TSA, and militarized police who enjoy torturing old men, women, and children with tasers. The threat by government is worse now than it was 40 years ago.
Who are the extremists among us? The last century provides the answer: it is always government more than small groups of bad citizens.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/raimondo/raimondo75.html
FormerFederal:
I agree with most of your post about US terroristic activities. But I also think that the bad habits you point out are now being aimed at Americans. That is the biggest threat yet to come from the government.
We’ve seen it in with democrat leaders attempting to make their political opponents out to be terrorists. And see it with the Department of Homeland Security, the molestations by government officials of innocent people at our airports, and the Patriot Act.
We see the run up to democide put in place slowly but surely in things like the Fusion Centers and militarizing local police. The democrats have done nothing to fight off the growing tyranny. This is why independents and libertarians have given up on them. Dems complained about Bush’s fascistic habits and have done nothing but solidify them.
Chomski is a Utopian. These folks wreck civilizations in a sincere desire to improve them. To achieve their Utopian goals, people have to be denied liberty. It never works, it never will.
In other words, We the People of the United States of America. We’ll see.
Bdaman,
That is for us to decide. The organized US citizenry is the only check on US politicians’ lust for continued imperialist conquest.
And when his usefulness is completed, will he have the same fate as Noriega or Saddam?
I never trusted Karzai, just as I never trusted Musharraf – this confirms my distrust was, and still is, valid.
So be it. We would save ourselves a lot in terms of lives, money, and time, if we pack up and leave. Unfortunately, it is the Afghani women who will pay the most, but Karzai doesn’t seem to mind.
Nicely written FF-NOTHING. So tell me. Where does it all end.
Mr. Karzai is not the problem in Afghanistan. He is merely a symptom of an American conceit, just as Ahmad Chalabi was a symptom of an American conceit in Iraq. In each instance, an articulate, self-serving man successfully pandered to the egos of U.S. officials. In the instance of Iraq, we became convinced that we could eliminate a secular dictatorship and replace it with a secular democracy, ignoring the truth that the secular dictatorship is what prevented anarchy among sectarian groups who despised each other. The ridiculous surge policy temporarily put a lid on violence for the same reason that adding 20,000 cops to the streets of Detroit would put a lid on crime. But once we have withdrawn, there will be sectarian warfare and the outcome will be either a partitioned country or an Islamic state.
In the instance of Afghanistan, we became convinced that by eliminating the Taliban, we could transform an illiterate tribal society into a democracy. That that has not occurred is hardly a surprise. Mr. Karzai survives solely because of U.S. troops. He recognizes that he is not popular with a majority of his fellow citizens and is now turning against his sponsors to distract attention from his own corruption and to burnish his credentials among those who believe that the presence of U.S troops is a symbol of imperialist aggression.
The only policy that makes sense in terms of lives, money and U.S. interests in the region is complete withdrawal. Will bloodshed follow? Absolutely. But our continued presence only prolongs the day of reckoning in a society that has not yet decided what it wants.
Despite his assurances to the contrary, Pres. Obama has largely continued the ignorant, myopic policies of George Bush and Dick Cheney in Iraq and Afghanistan. A change of occupants in the White House will not make a fundamentally flawed policy succeed.
“It is about the lack of commitment to values that we support. For Karzai, the Taliban or the U.S. are simply political options to be exercised to keep power — he appeared entirely agnostic on the fact that the Taliban treat women as chattel or engage in terrorism.”
Give. Me. A. Break. Women’s rights and terrorism are clearly not priorities of the United States.
Let’s take women’s rights first. If they were such a priority, the US would not be supporting (or at least complaining loudly about) Saudi Arabia, which has a terrible women’s rights record. In fact, you’ve written about this many times on your own blog! I could say the same for Pakistan, particularly, or a number of other hard-line Islamic countries (which, by the way, only came under the sway of such extreme fundamentalism because of Saudi influence). Furthermore, our invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan have not increased but significantly DECREASED the legal protections and cultural respect for women. And I will only briefly mention the woman’s situation domestically, which is surely much better. However, women’s health continues to be used as a political bargaining chip in the US rather than a principle that will not be compromised. The recent health care legislation is an example, where funding for women’s health was specifically blocked.
Now for terrorism. The US can hardly browbeat other countries for participating in terrorism while it continues to be the leader in it. First of all, the US harbors terrorists such as Orlando Bosch and Emmanuel Constant. Second, the US gives active support to countries that terrorize their own and adjacent populations. The US supported Indonesia during the East Timor massacres, Saddam Hussein during his slaughter of the Kurds in Halabja, El Salvador while they were murdering priests, etc. etc. etc. Third and most significantly, our own military and CIA excursions have terrorized the world. For anyone that wants the authoritative reference on this, I recommend “Killing Hope” by William Blum. But you don’t need to be a scholar to recognize this apparent fact; just pay attention to some of the news reports that have come out recently. Like the Wikileaks video from Iraq where an Apache gunship murdered two reporters and some other civilians that were just standing in the street, and then fired on Good Samaritan rescuers. Or in Afghanistan, where special forces took the life of pregnant women and some others for no apparent reason. Or how about how Obama wants to resume shipments of weapons to the Indonesian military unit Kopassus who have a record of political assassination? The list just goes on and on.
Lastly, I will end with an appeal to Prof. Turley. I, and I suspect others, read this blog because it provides good analysis of current events and highlights some news items that don’t get much play elsewhere. I certainly do NOT read it to be propagandized in the ignoble tradition of US MSM outlets. Joining the chorus of domestic media that bash official US enemies and praise (or don’t cover) official US allies, no matter how terrible, certainly does not engender your blog to critical thinkers. If you’re unsure of what I am talking about, please read “Manufacturing Consent” by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman. I hope that in the future you will not look at US foreign policy through rose-colored glasses.
Sounds as though he’s been enjoying too much of his brother’s product.
Carol: from what I understand the problem was with the other people voted into office. Karzai has a parliament which doesn’t support what he does, and especially doesn’t support the Karzai administration taking over the election process (which now has UN oversight).
Karzai is complaining about his legislature (and that foreigners elected them by a corrupt process). I don’t believe a word he says. Just like I don’t believe Obama (except when he threatens us).
and another fairy tale wedding not going well. How about everyone singing here comes Peter Cotton Tale…..Hare today, goon tomorrow.
What choice does the man have?
It’s insane. Get out now. Let these people solve their own problems.
Is he accusing the U.S. of rigging an election he won? And he is so pissed he’s thinking of joining the Taliban?
Great. And we are still in this mess because Obama dosen’t ‘want to be the one blamed’ for losing the war’. I thought that false macho crap was suppose to have walked out the door with “W”.
Anyway we can make saving what’s left of our treasury and military personnel more attractive to ‘losing the war?’