Outgoing Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai denounced the United States in his farewell speech and insisted that, despite tens of thousands of wounded and dead American service personnel (and over a trillion dollars in aid), the United States has been a curse upon his country. Instead Karzai showered praise on Iran and China as great allies for Afghanistan. This is the man who the CIA openly gave regular suitcases of cash to and led a government where billions simply disappeared.
The Obama Administration insisted on the money continuing to flow into Karzai’s pockets even as he attacked the U.S. and Americans as “demons”, and moves to shift alliances to Iran and China.
After a trillion dollars and 13-years in this country, Karzai again declared the United States as an enemy to his country while praising China and Iran. While we gave hundreds of billions in aid to his country, Karzai worked to give contracts and benefits to the Chinese. We have looked like utter fools for over a decade in pouring money into the country while our schools and domestic programs have been curtailed due to budget shortfalls.
Karzai insisted that it was the United States that continued the war and “the war in Afghanistan is to the benefit of foreigners. But Afghans on both sides are the sacrificial lambs and victims of this war.”
Also singled out for praise was India, Japan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Germany. The United States was conspicuously not included in even a praising thank you.
Our Afghanistan ambassador James Cunningham called the comments “ungracious and ungrateful.” I really do not care how a corrupt puppet like Karzai feels about us. What I really care about is looking (and acting) like a country of chumps in continuing our massive commitment of money and manpower in that country.
In the meantime, the U.S. is pouring more money into the country in an effort to keep U.S. advisers and trainers in the country. Ghani Ahmadzai has said he will sign the agreement (which Karzai refused to do) so that we can spend more billions.
Notably, even a critic of Karzai (who said that the attack on the United States was unwise) seemed more concerned about losing money than failing to thank the U.S. for any sacrifice. Samehullah Samem, a member of parliament warned that “We are completely dependent on the international community. We need the support of the international community, especially the United States of America.” In other words, we need not to criticize the U.S. because they give us money. That is the best that we can expect from a country where thousands of service members have died and over a trillion dollars has been lost.
I haven’t read all the comments, so forgive me if this is redundant. Watch “Wilson’sWar” a movie about our supplying Afghans with weaponry to fight Russia. No one in Congress understood that the country was mostly young, with few elders for guidance. So, we walked away. Whereas we could have been a partner, our desertion gave us the Taliban. Have we learned anything from that? Probably not.
That nation building thing of invading nations under the guise of freed’m and democursee is really going well. But after all it’s the American taxpayer who gets the bill and the military industrial complex gets all the profits.
Karen, I read about that. Savagery.
Maybe the Taliban will have a shot at him, now.
People talk about the US buying Karzai as if it was unusual. At least in Iran, bribery is ubiquitous. If you don’t bribe your post man, you don’t get mail. If you don’t bribe the trash man, your trash doesn’t get picked up. You bribe from dawn to dusk, and if you get a call in the middle of the night, you bribe again. I suspect that Iraq is the same in this regard.
I disagree with the US subscribing to the system, however shocking it would be to officials who expect it.
Oh my God. Speaking of Islamic extremists, ISIL “arrested” (kidnapped is more accurate) a human rights lawyer in Iraq for criticizing ISIL on FB for their destruction of religious sites, among other things. They tortured her for 5 days and then murdered her. Savages. Can’t we do some targeted drone strikes yet?
My heart grieves for that poor woman, and what she went through, just for speaking her mind.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/09/25/iraqi-woman-activist-killed-by-isis/
Voters are responsible for the people they elect. Allowing big money and big religion and the NRA to convince one to vote for Congress members and Senators who dance for the corporations is the fault of voters.
On your specific suggestion, punishing family members for the failures of their relatives is a notion that is abhorrent to me. It sounds like something North Korea does. I am pretty sure you don’t mean it.
Three generations of imbeciles are enough. Carter, Bush, Bush II, Obama. Sterilize all their offspring. What do you think Justice Holmes?
Maybe Halliburton will rehire Karzai and move him to Dubai. I guess we didn’t pay him enough. Maybe his friends the Taliban will give him a warm welcome.