War of words breaks out between Nato, Karzai govt

[FarCenter]

WASHINGTON, Jan 18: Nato chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has denounced Afghanistan’s “ineffective” government and said the authorities there are almost as much to blame for the country’s plight as the Taliban. And in response, the Afghan government has said its foreign allies must share the blame for the dire straits the country finds itself in.

The comments by the Nato secretary-general, in an opinion piece for The Washington Post newspaper on Sunday, were an unusually strong expression of the alliance’s dissatisfaction with the government of President Hamid Karzai. Mr Scheffer did not mention Mr Karzai by name, but his remarks came at a politically sensitive time for the Afghan leader who is due for re-election this year.

Analysing the situation in the country seven years after the toppling of the Taliban regime, Mr Scheffer argued that the Afghans and their western allies “are not where we might have hoped to be by now”. While the country’s north and west were largely at peace, the south and east were “riven by insurgency, drugs and ineffective government”, he wrote. Adopting a rather harsh tone, the Nato leader went on to insist that “the basic problem in Afghanistan is not too much Taliban; it’s too little good governance”. “Afghans need a government that deserves their loyalty and trust; when they have it, the oxygen will be sucked away from the insurgency,” he added. Mr Scheffer said the international community must still step up its support for Afghanistan. “But we have paid enough, in blood and treasure, to demand that the Afghan government take more concrete and vigorous action to root out corruption and increase efficiency, even where that means difficult political choices.”

<snip>

As he underscored the importance of Afghanistan for the West, Mr Scheffer also hinted that the patience of Nato member nations might not be limitless. “The populations in countries that have contributed troops to the Nato-led mission are wondering how long this operation must last -- and how many young men and women we will lose carrying it out,” he wrote.

<snip>

http://www.dawn.com/2009/01/19/top2.htm

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A major miscalculation of the Bush Adminstration was to betray the mostly non-Pashtun Northern Alliance by installing the Pashtun Karzai.

[Idealism]

1. BushCo should be put on trial for many things

One of them would be their amazing ignorance of religious beliefs and arguments between different sects of society in the countries they make war in. The ethnic cleansing that happened between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq prior to "the surge" is because the Rumsfeld dismissed intelligence claims of how deep the hatred ran between these two groups. Couple that with some ill-timed suicide bombings, you had a civil war erupt. Great foresight by Bush Co not to only blind themselves to the possibility of this happening, but then to pretend that it didn't occur after the fact.

[acmavm]

2. It's not just ignorance. The bush** admin just didn't give a damn. They

figured they'd take the powerful US war machine and go in and pound everything into dust. Anyone that was left standing had just better fall in line or they'd be arrested and dealt with as an enemy combatant. Pure brute force is all they had and all they thought they needed.

Simple minded thinking by simple minded thugs. Yes, they should be on trial. For many things.

[JackRiddler]

5. Do you really believe the following?

The ethnic cleansing that happened between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq prior to "the surge" is because the Rumsfeld dismissed intelligence claims of how deep the hatred ran between these two groups.

Moqtada's role on the Shiite side aside, the insurgency was Sunni. To deal with it the US and Iraqi government adopted a death squad strategy, deputizing the main Shiite militias as Interior Ministry soldiers and letting them massacre and displace Sunnis, until the Sunnis were ready to stop fighting take a monthly US dollar payoff (a.k.a. "the surge").

How do you know Rumsfeld "dismissed" these claims? On the contrary, it looks likelier the US strategy exploited the claims of hatreds, to encourage ethnic cleansing as a tool against the insurgency. (One also must wonder about the real origins of the countless bombings of random Shiite civilians all around the country during the same period, almost all of which the US press instantly and rather ludicrously attributed to "Zarqawi.")

[Idealism]

6. There were several articles after the surge speaking of it

Rumsfeld denied that the two groups would fall into a civil war type conflict with the lack of an iron fist secular dictator keeping them under control. Bush thought they would welcome freedom rather than kill each other. It was widely published at the time

[bushmeister0]

3. Well, who propped up Unocal allumn Karzai in the first place?

He signed off on the Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India pipeline, his job is done.

[Javaman]

4. the honeymoon and the free rides are over for the karzai gov.

I give him about 6 more months before he's booted out. he's not even prez of Kabul anymore. he's like the mayor of his street.