Karzai Denounces U.S. In Farewell Speech While Thanking China and Iran

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.