Karzai Shows He'll Cast Lot With a Corps of Warlords

[maddezmom]

By CARLOTTA GALL
Published: June 8, 2004


KABUL, Afghanistan, June 6 - President Hamid Karzai has accepted the support of powerful mujahedeen leaders for the presidential elections scheduled for September, indicating he will continue an alliance with them in a future government. His move has dismayed many Afghans who were hoping that the nation's first democratic elections would herald an end to the power of the warlords, who have dominated politics for the past decade.

Mr. Karzai is far and away the leading candidate to win a five-year term as president, with Afghanistan's first pre-election opinion survey putting his approval rating at 85 percent. The leaders of the powerful Northern Alliance faction have already said they will not field a candidate and will support Mr Karzai, who is scheduled to meet with American soldiers at Fort Drum, N.Y., on Tuesday to personally thank them for their help in Afghanistan.

Mr. Karzai met last Thursday with the former president and leader of the Jamiat-e-Islami party, Burhanuddin Rabbani; the leader of the Ittehad-e-Islami, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf; and with some of the most powerful mujahedeen commanders, including Gov. Ismail Khan of Herat Province. All pledged support for him. The education minister, Yunus Qanooni, also publicly expressed his support this week. The defense minister, Marshal Muhammad Qasim Fahim, and four other important Pashtun mujahedeen party leaders have done the same, presidential aides said.

Mr. Karzai insisted Thursday that he had not made a deal with the faction leaders and was opposed to a coalition government. Yet it is clear that Mr. Karzai, rather than testing his popularity by standing alone, has opted to join forces with the mujahedeen, men who fought the jihad, or holy war, against the Soviet occupation in the 1980's and who have been his traditional allies over the years.

~snip~
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/08/international/asia/08afgh.html

[thebigidea]

1. he does kinda want to stay alive, after all...

good luck, Ben Kingsley - though you're gonna need more than that to survive.

[0007]

10. That's what this is all about, isn't it? Plus a bumper poppy crop!

[w13rd0]

2. I thought that said...

...Karzai shows he'll cast lot with a corp of warlocks...

I was gonna say, now there's the drama i've been waiting for...

[MajorFlaw]

3. My money is on Abdul Rasheed Dostum ending up on top. He seems

to be the Afghan version of Chalabi. He's been campaigning for the job since 9/12.

[thebigidea]

4. he'll be "defense minister" or something.

Suffocating prisoners, running drugs, brutality - what's not to love?

[Disturbed]

5. Another puppet Govt of the USA...

just like in Iraq. Don't even dream that the Dems will oppose either Govt. The Dems like US Puppet Govt.s as much as the Republicans.

[thebigidea]

6. all the while we'll hear swill about Karzai "making good progress"

Laura will mumble something about girls going to school.

Forget all that opium stuff.

And that the Taliban that somehow manage to stage attacks despite Rumsfeld's claim that they were "eviscerated."

Just enjoy "democracy"!

[MajorFlaw]

9. Uh, I think he already is Defense Minister. n/t

[thebigidea]

11. Uh, yes, And what is Karzai currently? I was talking about the "democracy"

Which conveniently, will probably end up being exactly like the puppet government.

[MajorFlaw]

12. Karzai is effectively the mayor of Kabul.

The best we can hope for Afghanistan is that it disintegrates back into the tribal alliances that poorly ruled that godforsaken land before the Soviets and then us screwed things up even more. We had better keep an eye on Dostum; in ten years he may grow into a Saddam. Nice planning all round.

[thebigidea]

13. what's funny is that they trot out Afghanistan as a "success"

[MajorFlaw]

15. Well, we did topple their non existent government pretty

easily. The video of our SOP's invading Afghanistan on horseback sort of tells it all. But I have to admit that Afghanistan had to be done. I'm just pissed off that we moved forces away from chasing down AQ and to wards Iraq, which was never going to be a threat to us. You could even argue that removing the Taliban and returning the country to its traditional form of "government" was a success. That we haven't really succeeded at anything is almost irrelevant. AQ chose the one country in the region which doesn't have petro assets. And we all know that without oils revenue, our friends Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, our new friend Qadaffi, and some in betwens like Iran, would all be settling their religious difference in the middle of the desert on camel back. I am not trying to take and sort of ethnic "shot" on any peoples, but, if they didn't have oil, we wouldn't pay any attention to what happens there.
/rant

[Betty The Younger]

7. How much is the Bush admin paying the warlords?

They're not supporting Karzai out of the goodness of their black hellish hearts. THAT is the reason Karzai can say he's not made a deal with them, Bush has.

[saigon68]

8. Bribes and Graft all around

Thanks to the tax payer

[CHIMO]

14. Doesn't Taste Good

If this is correct then there is no need for the UN or NATO countries to be present as the country has decided and it is self governing.

[dArKeR]

16. Rumors of bargain with warlords puts Karzai on defensive

AP , KABUL, AFGHANISTAN
Thursday, Jun 10, 2004,Page 5

With President Hamid Karzai in the US for talks with his chief international backers, speculation grew at home that he was planning an electoral pact with Afghanistan's most powerful warlords.

Critics charge he is betraying the hopes of millions of Afghans who have suffered more than two decades of war and turmoil by aligning himself with the powerbrokers. Many of them were behind that fighting and still control much of the country.

Karzai has, however, insisted that such leaders, several of them in his current government, were "part of the reality of this country."

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/06/10/2003174484