There is no doubt that Karzai is correct about the corruption and bribes. He was, however, by all accounts a willing beneficiary. But the idea that the U.S. was pursuing a war against the Afghan people is absurd any way you look at it. The U.S. restricted its military with absurd rules of engagement. It spent billions on building schools and hospitals and highways for Afghans. It even implemented a Sharia constitution because it was anxious to win over the Afghan people. The war there was not in any effective sense a war fought to defeat terrorism, but it certainly wasn’t a war against the Afghan people, either. Karzai is just trying to keep himself alive in the Taliban’s Afghanistan.
“‘Big corruption was clearly a US thing’: Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai,” ANI, December 27, 2022:
Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday he took responsibility for corruption in the country while admitting that the United States was involved in it.
“[I take] full responsibility for the corruption and bribes in the delivery of services … But the big contracts, big corruption, in hundreds of millions of dollars or millions of dollars, was clearly a United States of America thing,” Karzai told US-based The Washington Post.
The US newspaper said the former president lives in Kabul where he is closely watched by the Taliban which does not let him leave the Afghan capital . Karzai, however, said he had made the right decision to stay in the country even after the Taliban takeover in August 2021.“I was not sure of my own safety. But I would have never left and I will never leave. This is my country,” the former Afghan leader said.
The Washington Post reported that the Taliban see Karzai as their adversary as he was “the first individual who worked with the Americans for the occupation of Afghanistan”.
Karzai claimed that the United States bears ultimate responsibility for the fate of Afghanistan.
“The war in Afghanistan was not our war,” Karzai told The Washington Post, adding, “I was not a partner of the United States in that war against Afghan villages and homes. I changed from the moment I recognized that this war that is fought in the name of defeating terrorism is actually a war against the Afghan people.”
“I called the Taliban ‘brothers’ for that reason,” he said….
wpm says
I though it was reported that as the American troops were with drawn he left Afghanistan to some country North of there ,Turkmenistan ,or Uzbekistan ,or Tajkistan ?It was reported at the time in Sept 2021 that he left the country with a couple of pallets of American currency load into 20 SUV heading North to cross the border there with his family in tow? All his trained armed “soldiers ” lay down their weapons and changed back into Islamic official rags of the Talban. Which paper is now reporting he is still in Afghanistan ,what is their proof when no one in the west is sending any information without it being filtered threw the Talban?
David M says
I thought the same thing wpm, according to wiki though:
“following the Fall of Kabul in 2021, Karzai decided to remain in Kabul with his daughters and he appealed to the Taliban to respect his life and that of his family as well as the civilians in Afghanistan.[128] While he met with Hekmatyar to discuss the formation of a future Afghan government, it is unclear whether Karzai will serve any role in such.” I’m sure he still pilfered millions though.
He was playing both sides, being friendly to both the Taliban & the west.
ElderlyZionist says
Karzai was President of Afghanistan from 2002 through 2014. He was succeeded in 2014 by Ashraf Ghani, who held office until the Taliban’s victory, when he fled.
David M says
Thanks, that’s my problem, I confused Karzai with Ashraf Ghani. Ashraf Ghani took the money & ran, Karzai was already out of power. I’d like to check Ashraf Ghani’s bank account balance, I’m sure it was a hell of a lot of American money he fled with.
wpm says
Meet the new boss same as the old boss ,I would think both of them as thieves ,rulers high muck and mucks. That Karzai is still alive in a Talban controlled country and able to talk to outside media about how “poorly the mean old Americans treated his people” shows how much money ,blood and time American has wasted in that mudhut country .I wonder if he pays the Talban daily extortions payment in dollars every month to be to still be breathing and remain in the land of the living ?
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Not to mention, they named Kabul Airport after him, rather than some other Afghan historic figure
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Another exhibit of why the war in Afghanistan was actually over by December 2001, and why US troops should have been completely withdrawn in 2011. Also, the US should have done nothing in terms of ‘re’-construction (never mind that Afghanistan was never a country w/ modern amenities in the first place), much less helping them write a new constitution
Good job, Presidents Bush & Obama!
James Lincoln says
Infidel,
At the very least, it should have been game over in 2004 regarding US involvement in Afghanistan.
The 2004 Constitution established an islamic Republic, recognizing islam as the national religion.
https://constitutionnet.org/country/afghanistan
Also:
“Article One:
Afghanistan shall be an Islamic Republic, independent, unitary and indivisible state.
Article Two
The sacred religion of Islam is the religion of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Followers of
other faiths shall be free within the bounds of law in the exercise and performance of their
religious rituals.
Article Three
No law shall contravene the tenets and provisions of the holy religion of Islam in Afghanistan.”
http://www.afghanembassy.com.pl/afg/images/pliki/TheConstitution.pdf
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Yeah, how was Afghanistan worse off before they had that constitution? Had the US pulled out most troops in January but kept in Special Forces to keep hunting for Osama in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, it would have made more sense. Also done nothing to ‘stabilize’ either country: full blown civil wars there would have kept their people to busy to wage jihad elsewhere
Reason I mentioned 2011 is that getting Osama was a goal, and once that was achieved, there was not even that reason to remain in Afghanistan. We could also have gotten Zawahiri much earlier like we did this year
Deodata says
Ask the Afghan people if they are happy with American troops being replaced by the Taliban
wpm says
The Afghan people voted in sharia law when we had control of the country ,I do not care what they think. The majority of them like the majority of practicing Moslems all over the world hate us and want our people and cultural removed from planet earth. The Afghan war marked another great mistake that both Democrats and Republicans are responsible for , costing alot of blood and money over a 20 year period.
I agree with infidel post above we should have gotten out in 2011 I remember Obama talking about in his first term and nothing coming from his talk no surprise there. Bush got us in thinking he could cut off the head of the Talban , and could bribe the savage jihad spirit of the Moslems into loving us if we bought them “pretty things”.! Every President up to the demented one now in charge has bungled it ! What progress what goals have been meet “nation building” helping the Afghan people “embrace democracy” help protect America from “terrorist threats”? Now the Talban are back in charge with billions in up grade weapons more cash, more positive press from the Islamic jihadist world at large. We are still sending money to this hell hole why?
Scotsman48 says
Im still trying to figure out what exactly the people of Afghanistan, and Iraqi, did to the people of America in order for Uncle Sam to bomb the living crap out of them as The King of Afghanistan asked why was America bombing his country, he of course had been living in Exile in Italy for decades.
I told a guy in Texas just before US Troops entered Afghanistan that by doing so will make the American War in Vietnam look like a walk in the Park and that once you are in Kabul you will have a really hard time getting out and you will be stuck there for decades… He laughed at my idea…I guess he aint laughing now.
He couldnt even tell me a country that bordered on a country he wanted to invade for some weird ass reasons.
We must get out of these endless wars and stop being the Policeman of the World while sending Billions of US$ to countries that openly despise us and start using that money to rebuild American infrastructure…President Donald J.Trump….
And the ”peaceful” war protesting Far Left, like Neil Young, called Trump a danger to the World at large… Go figure..