According to our government, we are in Afghanistan to prevent the Taliban from retaking the country. Yet, the Karzai government’s policy is to invite Taliban leaders back into the government, a policy that the U.S. government supports.
Now, President Karzai is blaming the U.S., among others, for the fraud in the recent Afghan presidential election. Karzai won that election, notwithstanding the fact that the monitoring commission found that fraud permeated the vote in Karzai’s favor, and called for a new election.
However, there was no rerun because Karzai’s opponents decided not to challenge the results. So, now the U.S. is keeping in place a repudiated Afghan leader for another five years with our soldiers used as a Roman praetorian guard.
We have also OK’d Karzai’s policy on maintaining the right of Afghan farmers, at least in Helmand province, to continue to grow and manufacture opium from which heroin is made.
The heroin is ultimately sold in the U.S. with domestic consequences to our society, while the profits of the opium trade go, in large part, to the Taliban.
Adding insult to injury, Karzai is lashing out at the U.S., as reported in an April 3 New York Times article: “The rambling speech of President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan on Thursday was alarming. His delusional criticism of the United Nations and governments whose troops are risking their lives by fighting the Taliban complicates the difficult effort to stabilize Afghanistan.
"And it undermines the fragile public support for President Obama’s strategy, which focuses on protecting and improving the lives of Afghan civilians as well as on defeating the Taliban. That effort depends on credible leadership in Kabul. It has long been unclear whether Mr. Karzai can provide it, and his latest comments do not help. Rather than acknowledge his failings and seek to correct them, Mr. Karzai decided to accuse others of falsely criticizing him.”
Worse still, over the weekend, President Karzai is reported in the April 5 Times as having said, “If you [the Afghan Parliament] and the international community pressure me more, I swear that I am going to join the Taliban.”
For such a leader and “ally,” and for such a country, we continue to spill the blood of young American soldiers? Bring our troops home now.
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