Karzai’s Xmas Gift to the U.S.: Resistance to Troop Buildup
It wasn’t long ago that Afghan president Hamid Karzai stunned observers by telling U.N. officials that it was nearing time to set a timeline for withdrawing
Jul 31, 2020354 Shares354.3K Views
It wasn’t long ago that Afghan president Hamid Karzai stunned observers by telling U.N. officials that it was nearing time to set a timeline for withdrawing U.S. forces. Now he’s expressing skepticismon the wisdom of increasing that presence by the planned 20,000 to 30,000 new troops. This is via Tim Fernholz(and through him, Mike Crowley), who comments:
“„Though his statements may be intended to serve his own internal political purposes — Karzai is running for another term as president next year — his critique should still give Americans pause.
This is something you often hear from U.S. officials in reference not only to Karzai and Afghanistan but about Iraq — especially about the Status of Forces Agreement that caps the U.S. occupation. And it’s basically a way of saying that opposition to U.S. policy can be safely ignored because it’s merely a sop to foreign publics. (Tim, I know you don’t mean it that way. I had been meaning to get at this point sometime as it was and you helped me out here.) And that’s insane, arrogant and self-defeating. Even assuming it’s in fact true, it should tell you something barometrically significant if Afghan or Iraqi politicians *have *to demonstrate that they’re not American puppets.
When I was in Afghanistan in the fall, I didn’t hear any Pashtun tell me the U.S. had to get out. But if Karzai has to say stuff like this, maybe I need to consider selection bias.
Hajra Shannon
Reviewer
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