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Karzai's Government Too Rotten to Back

Sending more troops won't work if they're protecting a tainted government

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 14, 2009 1:19 AM CDT
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(Newser) – No counterinsurgency campaign can succeed without a good government to work with, and Hamid Karzai's operation is nowhere near good enough, writes Thomas L. Friedman. Karzai's government is thoroughly corrupt and his election victory deeply tainted, Friedman notes in the New York Times. Much of the insurgency is now fueled by anti-Karzai animosity instead of Islamic extremism, Friedman notes, and the US risks being seen as the enforcer of his corrupt government.

To have any chance of success in Afghanistan, Friedman argues, the US must order the Karzai government to clean up to become acceptable to the Afghan people, and threaten to pull out if Karzai balks. "It doesn’t have to be Switzerland, but it does have to be good enough—that is, a government Afghans are willing to live under," Friedman writes. "Without that, more troops will only delay a defeat."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai gestures to journalists after giving a press conference at Presidential Palace in Kabul.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai gestures to journalists after giving a press conference at Presidential Palace in Kabul.   (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
Workers of the Afghan Election Commission gesture among suspicious ballot boxes during the recounting possess at the main election office in Kabul, Afghanistan last week.
Workers of the Afghan Election Commission gesture among suspicious ballot boxes during the recounting possess at the main election office in Kabul, Afghanistan last week.   (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
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When you are mounting a counterinsurgency campaign, the local government is the critical bridge between your troops and your goals. If that government is rotten, your whole enterprise is doomed. - Thomas L. Friedman

I am not sure Washington fully understands just how much the Taliban-led insurgency is increasingly an insurrection against the behavior of the Karzai government—not against the religion or civilization of its international partners.
- Thomas L. Friedman

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 5 comments
Reader372
Oct 15, 2009 11:35 AM CDT
KARZAI SHOULD BE REMOVED WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE AT ALL DELIBERATE SPEED.
oldgoat
Oct 14, 2009 11:09 AM CDT
While I believe in the Afghanistan war I can also see where if the Karzi gov is so corrupt we are in a losing position, no matter how many troops we put in there.
alkaseltzersammich
Oct 14, 2009 7:53 AM CDT
Afghanistan is owned by the corrupt warlords. I don't think it really matterswhich gov't is in charge if they can't do something about the war lords.
Politics • US • World

 
Taliban • Hamid Karzai • corruption • disputed election • Afghanistan war • counterinsurgency • Afghanistan election

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