Well, there's a return on investment. More on this story. "Karzai surrounding himself with anti-US advisers," by Kathy Gannon for the Associated Press, June 23:
KABUL, Afghanistan – President Hamid Karzai is increasingly isolated and has surrounded himself with an inner circle of advisers who are urging him to move closer to Iran and Pakistan as the U.S. draws down its role in Afghanistan, several friends and aides tell The Associated Press.
We speak frequently of "Pakistan's double game," but Afghanistan's equivalent under Karzai is becoming ever more strident.
Their advice is echoed in Karzai's anti-West rhetoric, which has heightened both in his public speeches and in private. He met recently with Iran's defense minister, and constantly cautions against trusting the U.S. to have Afghanistan's best interests at heart.
Several of Karzai's close friends and advisers now speak of a president whose doors have closed to all but one narrow faction and who refuses to listen to dissenting opinions. They say people allowed to see the president are vetted by an inner circle of religious conservatives who belong to a nonviolent wing of Hizb-i-Islami, a radical Islamic group whose relentless attacks on American soldiers forced the U.S. to withdraw from bases in northeastern Kunar and Nuristan provinces.
The group's leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, was once an American ally but has since been declared a terrorist by the United States.
Although Hekmatyar shares the Taliban's goal of an Islamic regime, his men have also fought Taliban militants over the past year, and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is said to despise him. When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, Hekmatyar spent five years in exile in Iran.
Inside Afghanistan's presidential palace, Iran, Pakistan and China are most often referred to as reliable allies, according to Karzai's friends and advisers. Last year, Karzai openly acknowledged taking "bags" of money from Iran to finance his administration.
"A lot of Afghans are very concerned about the direction the country is taking, moving away from the international community ... toward a more conservative practice in which the religious people and warlords have more power," Human Rights of Afghanistan Commissioner Nader Nadery said.
"Consistently his aides are pushing him toward Iran and Pakistan," Nadery said. "All those who are managing and controlling his schedule, providing appointments, all see the advantages of breaking with the international community."
Karzai seemed to go out of his way to snub the United States in the days leading up to President Barack Obama's address Wednesday announcing an initial withdrawal of 30,000 U.S. soldiers by next summer.
He stood shoulder to shoulder this week with Ahmad Vahidi, the first Iranian defense minister to visit Afghanistan since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. He also announced he would attend an anti-terrorism conference in Tehran later this month, while at the same time questioning the sincerity of U.S. and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan....
So what do we have? VP Cheney spoke repeatedly about how "we freed 50,000,000 people in Afghanistan and Iraq." Really? As predicted, the Iraq adventure turned the country into a cultural ally of Iran, while destroying Christian Mandean and Chaldean communities, and putting the lives of tens of millions of Kurds and Sunnis in mortal jeopardy. In Afghanistan, the Northern Alliance rout was blunted by extreme pressure to surrender to Taliban-lite. While working against Secularism in Iraq, Bush Jr promoted Karzai family elements to continue their Opium industry payouts (15%) to the same Taliban/al-Qaeda groups who murdered American soldiers during the annual "Summer Offensive." There wasn't a single Heroin factory in Afghanistan, until the US commenced the jihad subsidy. When the last US troop leaves, so will end all protection for Northern Aliance remnants. Genocidal Taliban will be restored immediately, and the sauds and paks will once again recognize their former ally. And al-Qaeda will once again operate its Genocide camps.
I condemned Bush Jr from the instant that oil-patch dypso proclaimed "islam is peace," while surrounded by islamonazis on Sept 15, 2001. Watching the last 10 years, is like reading part 2 of Gibbon's "Decline and Fall." Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind. Hopefully, once Americans are out of the pashto terrorist entity, nukes will fly against Taliban/al-Qaeda. Of course, common sense would have to again have currency for that to happen.
Karzai is surrounding himself with anti-American advisors???
Will someone tell me how this differs from our own president?
Let's consider two seemingly separate points. 1) Karzai has been moving toward Islamism for some time now, and his public statements make it evident that his vision of the future of Afghanistan is alignment with Islamofascists. 2) Obama just announced a major drawdown of troops in Afghanistan, pulling the rug from beneath the Afghanis who support a more liberal and open society and signaling the Taliban and other assorted terrorists that if they remain patient their triumph will be assured.
Is there anyone on Earth who can reasonably contend that Obama has not, from day one of his misbegotten administration, tilted toward the Islamofascist world and betrayed every ally of America and the West?
"They say people allowed to see the president are vetted by an inner circle of religious conservatives who belong to a nonviolent wing of Hizb-i-Islami, a radical Islamic group whose relentless attacks on American soldiers forced the U.S. to withdraw from bases in northeastern Kunar and Nuristan provinces."
Call yourselves non-violent. We judge you by the company you keep.
Mark, don't blame Obama for "pulling the rug out" from under the Afghanis. They've had ten years to fight for a peaceful and open society. It's time they accepted responsibility for their own fate. That's what comes with being a sovereign nation. They hate foreigners, so maybe it's time they took care of themselves.
"Mark, don't blame Obama for "pulling the rug out" from under the Afghanis. They've had ten years to fight for a peaceful and open society. It's time they accepted responsibility for their own fate. That's what comes with being a sovereign nation. They hate foreigners, so maybe it's time they took care of themselves."
Ditto, Obama ain't to blame, the idiots who thought Karzai was an ally are just as responsible. Maybe the southern Afghans don't want a peaceful and tolerant society? Maybe they want a totalitarian religious theocracy. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. If the southern Pashtuns aren't willing to make democracy work then they aren't willing, maybe a couple of decades of suffering under the Taliban will convince them that an Islamic Emirate is a terrible system of governance.
This is a very good excuse for us to start a complete withdrawal from Afghanistan, and for our allies there to do the same. After all, the body of Usama Bin Laden sleeps with the fishes and his soul burns in Hell.
A while back i thought that option was fopr karzei to pack up his bags and buy plane tickets to anywhere else once the americans leave. Now it looks like option 2. throw in the lot with the islamo nazi regimes of Porkiestan and Iran. make friends of your enemies so that you can fight your other enemies.