Free Soil Party Blog

7 Responses to “Karzai Makes Mockery of Democracy”

1. Aletha Says:
   July 9th, 2009 at 10:56 pm

   There is mixed reaction to the announcement of revisions to this law. The most overtly objectionable sections apparently will be removed after all, after nearly a three month review by the Ministry of Justice. This AP story is from Yahoo News

   Afghanistan tones down contentious marriage law
   By RAHIM FAIEZ and HEIDI VOGT, Associated Press Writers
   Thu Jul 9, 3:16 pm ET

   KABUL – Afghanistan’s government has revised a law that stirred an international outcry because it essentially legalized marital rape, officials said Thursday. The new version no longer requires a woman submit to sex with her husband, only that she do certain housework.

   The changes, which parliament is expected to approve, likely reflect a calculation by President Hamid Karzai that his reputation as a reformer is more important than support from conservative Shiites who favored the original bill.

   Presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada said the revisions show that Karzai has followed through on a pledge made in April to expunge the offensive parts of the marriage law, which applies only to minority Shiite Muslims.

   Women’s rights activists welcomed the new draft, but many said the government had not done enough and that little will change in day-to-day life.

   “We need a change in customs, and this is just on paper. What is being practiced every day, in Kabul even, is worse than the laws,” said Shukria Barakzai, a lawmaker and vocal women’s rights advocate.

   Even within this conservative Muslim society, a host of academics and politicians signed a petition condemning the law, and women took to the streets of Kabul in protest.

   After the firestorm of criticism, Karzai ordered a Justice Ministry review, which took three months.

   Two of the most controversial articles have been drastically changed, according to documents supplied by the ministry. An article that previously required a wife to submit to regular sex now requires her only to perform whatever household chores the couple agreed to when they married. The revised version makes no attempt to regulate sexual relations between husband and wife.

   A section that required a wife to ask her husband’s permission to leave the house has also been deleted. In its place, an article states that a woman is the “owner of her property and can use her property without the permission of her husband.”

   Shiites comprise 10 to 20 percent of Afghanistan’s 30 million people; the majority are Sunni Muslim. Nonetheless, the measure caused an uproar because it harkened back to Taliban-era rules. The Taliban, Sunnis who ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, required women to wear all-covering burqas and banned them from leaving home without a male relative.

   Aleem Siddique, a spokesman for the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, said the amendments would “ensure Afghanistan meets international obligations.”

   “The United Nations has had concerns about parts of the law that do not conform with international law, particularly in regard to the rights of women,” Siddique said.

   Although many Afghans criticized the law, their voices were often overwhelmed by conservative Shiites who said the legislation protected their right to live according to their interpretation of Islam’s holy book, the Quran. At a protest in April, supporters of the law shouted insults and threw rocks at women who opposed it.

   Before Karzai came out strongly against the law, his critics said he might be using the legislation to court Shiites in the Aug. 20 presidential election. Approval of the changes before the vote would put Karzai on the side of the reformers.

   Even so, Roshan Sirran, who heads a group that informs women of their rights under Islamic and international law, said the new version still relies too much on agreements entered into at the time of marriage. Such contracts aren’t a traditional part of an engagement or marriage in Afghanistan, she said.

   “This is not implementable in our society. There will be no agreement on any conditions at the time of the marriage between husband and wife,” Sirran said. Others said men have too much freedom to marry second wives without consulting their first wives. Islam allows men up to four wives.

   Parliament is in recess and will not convene again for nearly two weeks. Hamidzada, the presidential spokesman, said Afghanistan’s influential clerics council and civil society leaders will also have to sign off on the revised law.

   I must confess I did not expect Karzai to do anything about this law. Perhaps the pressure behind the scenes got to him, or perhaps his lead in the polls made him less concerned about support from reactionary Shias. I do not believe his story about not being aware of these provisions in the original bill. The Karzai government is notoriously corrupt and indifferent to the concerns of women. This action I think was done to cover his ass; he cannot afford to thumb his nose at Western governments, since their troops are keeping him in power.

   This is Malalai Joya, posted on RAWA News on July 4

   Afghanistan: ‘The truth cannot be killed’
   “The situation for women in Afghanistan today is like hell”, Afghan feminist, pro-democracy activist and illegally suspended parliamentarian Malalai Joya told Green Left Weekly.

   The invasion was carried out “in the name of human rights and women’s rights”. However, Joya said: “The US has imposed the Northern Alliance fundamentalists on our people. They are the criminal mujaheddin from the 1992-96 civil war with the same mentality as the Taliban, but with suits and ties talking about democracy.”

   The mujaheddin combined violent and misogynist religious fundamentalism with violent and misogynist banditry, with mass rape their favoured military tactic. This made the civil war period as dark as the Taliban rule that followed.

   “We do not have liberation”, Joya said. “These Taliban were created by the US … in the religious schools in Pakistan, with the support of Saudi Arabia, but the Northern Alliance is also the product of the US government.

   “In the Cold War, they wasted lots of money on them as puppets, but they became like mice when the Taliban came to power. They just crept into their holes.

   “But after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the US again made them wolves —in the skin of lambs to deceive the world.

   “The democratic parties are not able to publish magazines, they are underground.

   “Today, under the eyes of thousands of US and other foreign soldiers, the main problem for women — and men — is security. The prominent case of Pervez Kambakhsh is enough to know about injustice in Afghanistan.”

   Kambakhsh is a student who, in 2007, was arrested for downloading an article on women’s rights. “They put him in jail and announced he’ll be hanged”, Joya told GLW.

   Protests in Afghanistan and worldwide resulted in a sentence of 20 years jail instead — “while criminals are free”.

   When visiting the West, Joya is frequently asked whether a Western troop withdrawal would mean a further descent into civil war and allow the Taliban to return to power. She rejected this reasoning.

   “This is what the media want to make people think”, she told GLW. “But what’s going on today is like civil war. People are squashed today between two enemies: an internal and an external enemy …

   “That’s why its better if the foreign troops leave as soon as possible. People are saying: we don’t expect anything good from you, just stop your wrongdoing.

   “Bombs falling from the sky are killing our people. On the ground, the Northern Alliance and Taliban are killing our people. From both sides our people are the victims — especially women and children.”

   She cited a May 4 US air-strike in her native Farah province. “The mainstream media wants to throw dust in the eyes of the world. Over 150 people were killed. I spoke to a young woman who lost 20 members of her own family.

   “This was a massacre. I was banned from giving a press conference. But the US government and media said only 20 were killed.

   “Our people hate warlords, don’t support Karzai and his puppet government of war criminals and drug lords who now want to negotiate with the Taliban. Our people hate the Taliban.

   “If the troops withdraw, then it is easier fight with one enemy. Now we are fighting with two enemies: occupation forces and these criminals.

   “A superpower like Russia could not occupy our country, and the US, whose occupation is a war crime and a mockery of democracy, one day they will face the resistance of my people. Despite the lack of security, after the Farah massacre there were demonstrations in Farah and of students in Kabul — huge demonstrations of people from all provinces.

   On August 20, Karzai is up for re-election. He has chosen two notorious warlords, Mohammed Qasim Fahim and Karim Khalili, as his vice-presidential running mates.

   While the Western media is describing the elections as a test for Afghan democracy, Joya is scathing. “The elections are under the warlords, drug lords, awful corruption and the occupation forces. To talk about free elections is not only ridiculous, it has no legitimacy at all.

   “Most of the candidates are discredited faces. At most, one puppet can be replaced with another puppet. It’s just for the US to deceive people around the world.

   “There’s a saying that it’s not important who’s voting, but who’s counting. We have a proverb: same donkey, different saddle.”

   Are you listening, President Obama? He should be. Other recent articles from RAWA News cite a new UN report about widespread rape and violence against Afghan women, which is hardly a high priority for the Karzai government. This one was posted July 7

   Violence against Afghan women, including rape, widespread and unpunished, says UN
   Police and judicial officials are often not aware or convinced that rape is a serious criminal offence, the report says, adding that “Investigating a rape case is rarely a priority.”

   A new UN report on women in Afghanistan, issued Wednesday, describes the extensive and increasing level of violence directed at women taking part in public life, as well as the “widespread occurrence” of rape against a backdrop of institutional failure and impunity.

   The 32-page report, issued jointly by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), notes that “violence, in the public and private spheres, is an everyday occurrence in the lives of a huge proportion of Afghan women.”

   “This report paints a detailed and deeply disturbing picture of the situation facing many Afghan women today,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay. “The limited space that opened up for Afghan women following the demise of the Taliban regime in 2001 is under sustained attack, not just by the Taliban themselves, but by deeply engrained cultural practices and customs, and – despite a number of significant advances in terms of the creation of new legislation and institutions — by a chronic failure at all levels of government to advance the protection of women’s rights in Afghanistan.”

   While touching on the full range of violence affected Afghan women – including so-called “honour” killings, the exchange of women and girls as a form of dispute-resolution (often in connection with land or property issues), trafficking and abduction, early and forced marriages and domestic violence – the report focuses on two principal issues: the “growing trend” of violence and threats against women in public life, and rape and sexual violence.

   Women participating in virtually all sectors of public life, including “parliamentarians, provincial council members, civil servants, journalists, women working for international organizations… have been targeted by anti-government elements, by local traditional and religious power-holders, by their own families and communities, and in some instances by government authorities,” the report says, citing a number of individual examples of targeted killings of professional women, as well as a litany of discrimination, threats, intimidation and harassment aimed at prominent or working women and their families.

   Why should USA support this government? What purpose could it serve? Is Malalai Joya incorrect to say the US occupation is a war crime and a mockery of democracy? I think she is right on the money. There is no way sending more troops is going to rectify this situation. Neither is dropping more bombs on Pakistan. The Obama strategy is at least as immoral and counterproductive as the Bush strategy. Same donkey, different saddle.

2. Aletha Says:
   July 23rd, 2009 at 11:41 pm

   Afghan women and human rights groups seem unimpressed with the changes made to this law. This story is from the Guardian

   Women: Afghanistan women outraged at proposed family planning law
   Janine di Giovanni
   The Guardian, Friday 24 July 2009

   A few days after the Taliban were toppled in 2001 I was in Kabul. The city was jubilant and full of hope for the future, and I remember talking to some laughing teenage girls in the street. One was excited because she could now go back to school. Another sang terrible disco songs and showed me dance steps she had been practising for five years in secret. A third debated whether to take off her burka. “Is it safe enough yet?” she asked me. “For five years, I lived inside this prison.”

   Eight years later I returned, but the Afghanistan I found was far from jubilant. Despite the money poured into reconstruction and development, it is one of the five poorest countries in the world. There is 40% unemployment – nearly 80% in some parts of the country. A third of children under five are malnourished. Life expectancy is 43 – and it is one of only three countries in the world where women die earlier than men.

   I arrived to meet women before the presidential elections next month and to talk about a new law, which if brought in, could have drastic repercussions for women. The Shia Family Planning law was signed last March by President Hamid Karzai in an attempt, many believe, to appease powerful mullahs. The Afghan constitution allows Shias to have a separate family law from the Sunni majority based on traditional Shia jurisprudence, and some think the law is linked to the August elections and the Shia electorate who would have to abide by it (they could form up to 20% of the electorate).

   The proposed law led to furious protests from women’s groups. It sanctioned marital rape and brought back Taliban-era restrictions on women by outlining when a woman could leave her house and the circumstances in which she has to have sex with her husband; Shia woman would be allowed to leave home alone “for a legitimate purpose” only which the law does not define, and could refuse sex with their husbands only when ill or menstruating.

   Following international outrage, Karzai backtracked and said the law would be reviewed. This month it was amended and re-signed by the president, but has not yet been ratified by parliament. Human rights groups say it is unclear how much the amendments have done to improve the law. And the law has already achieved its aim – instilling fear and insecurity among an already traumatised female population.

   Soraya Sobhrang, a human rights activist I meet in her Kabul office, says, “The law will affect all women if it goes through. It opens the door for other repressive laws to be passed, for Sunni Muslims as well as Shia.” A young doctor friend, Najeeb Shawal, says he is seeing more female patients who were depressed since news of the law emerged. “They have the kind of hopelessness that comes with knowing your life is incredibly repressed. And might become more so.”

   Karzai’s initial (ridiculous) defence was that he had not read the law before signing it the first time. Most women here are cynical of his about-turn. “It’s an election year,” Seema says. Business developer Meena Sherzoy, 49, whom I meet a few days later, says, “What is he supposed to say to the west? It makes him look like a radical fundamentalist. “

   The fact that a law like the family planning law could even be conceived in 2009 – even if it did come through Iranian-influenced radical mullahs as many believe – is surprising to most Afghans.

   “The speed of which this law has gone through [to the president] has shocked me” says Soraya Sobrhang, . “It’s not a law – it is theft.” In April, Sobrhang and some of her colleagues staged a protest. “Suddenly, about 200 students from the madrassa surrounded us.” The women were stoned – Sobrhang , a grandmother, was hit on the shoulder and nearly knocked to the ground. Their banners were torn as the angry men blocked them from moving towards the parliament. I keep thinking of this image – of the tiny grandmother and her brave colleagues surrounded by hissing madrassa students. Soraya says she is not afraid.

   But other people are – for the future of their daughters. Back in Kabul, Seema Ghani organises a lunch for her friends – all powerful, emancipated women. It is true that they are a small class within Afghanistan, but they have very different backgrounds. Some were educated in the west; some lived in America. Some like Aziza Momman, who ran girls schools during the time of the Taliban, or Fahima Barati, who runs a school for dressmaking, hold traditional views. But they are united on one point: the law stuns all of them.

   As they talk it sounds like the kind of banter I could hear at home in Paris. A middle- aged woman recounting how her husband left her for a younger woman; an overworked mum talking of her daughter resenting her job; a single woman complaining about finding a man in your 40s. Except these stories have a deeper resonance: the husband leaves his wife for a younger second wife; the daughter is embarrassed by her feminist mother who does not wear a burka and is threatened by the Taliban; the woman in her 40s complains that an Afghan man is happy to have a spirited intelligent lover, but when it comes down to it, “they want the virgin!” “The glass ceiling is very thick here,” admits Katrin Fakiri, “those who break it have to be exceptional.” And Meena Sherzoy, who runs her own business, says, “If we had female leadership, this law would not be going through . . . would not even be raised.”

   It seems the changes in this law are cosmetic, meant as a smokescreen to placate Western sensibilities. I must ask again, what is the point of propping up this regime? Is Hamid Karzai such a useful puppet? With friends like these, who needs enemies?

3. Aletha Says:
   August 17th, 2009 at 9:46 pm

   Karzai approved the law by decree a month ago during a legislative recess, preventing further debate. This AP story is from Yahoo News

   Women activists condemn Afghan marriage law
   By HEIDI VOGT, Associated Press Writer
   Mon Aug 17, 4:16 pm ET

   KABUL – Women’s rights activists alleged Monday that Afghan President Hamid Karzai has used a constitutional loophole to enact a law that allows minority Shiite Muslim husbands to refuse food and money to their wives if they deny them sex.

   The activists suspect Karzai took the step to appease conservative Shiite clergy ahead of Thursday’s presidential election. Nearly 20 percent of Afghans are Shiites and could become an influential voting block as Karzai contests for a new five-year term.

   The legislation, which governs many aspects of family life for Afghanistan’s Shiites, has been sparking controversy since Karzai signed an earlier version in March. Critics said the original legislation essentially legalized marital rape and Karzai quickly suspended enforcement after governments around the world condemned it as oppressive and a return to Taliban-era repression of women.

   But the revised version, made public in July, riled activists all over again because many restrictive articles remained, including one that appears to give a husband the right to starve his wife if she refuses to have sex with him.

   Female parliamentarians said they thought they would get the chance to fight for revisions, only to discover in recent days that Karzai had taken advantage of a legislative recess to approve the law by decree. Parliament has the right to examine and change the law when they reconvene but the law stays in effect in the meantime.

   The new law includes a section saying that a husband must provide financially for his wife. It also says that he can withhold this support if she refuses to “submit to her husband’s reasonable sexual enjoyment,” according to a translation of the article supplied by New York-based Human Rights Watch.

   In Afghanistan, where most women are uneducated and depend on their husbands for food and clothing, the article could be used to justify a husband starving a wife who refuses to have sex with him.

   The legislation was passed by presidential decree in mid-July and published in Afghanistan’s official gazette on July 27, which brings the law into force, according to Human Rights Watch. Lawmakers confirmed the process.

   Shinkai Kharokhel, a lawmaker who has been involved in reforming the legislation, said no one from the administration told her that the law was being approved without further debate. Instead, she had to learn thirdhand that the law she had been fighting was now in effect.

   “I was called by a friend, and then a few people from the embassies. And I said, ‘I have to check with the minister.’ I was really shocked,” she said. “My understanding was that it would be sent to parliament. I never thought it would just be published.”

   With a large backlog of legislation to debate and the sensitivity of the issue, it’s unclear if parliament will revisit the Shiite marriage law anytime soon.

   “I think the chances of this being discussed in parliament in the next year or so are low and the chances of improvements being made are lower. So as far this law, I think we’re stuck with it,” said Rachel Reid, an Afghanistan researcher with Human Rights Watch.

   Kharokhel said she felt like the women of Afghanistan had been pushed to the side to appease powerful Shiite men who were worried that legislation would not get passed if they waited until after Thursday’s election.

   “I am sure it is Shiite leaders pushing the president of the country so that as soon as possible they would get a law,” she said.

   Although the law applies only to Shiites, women activists fear the law is a step toward the Taliban’s draconian treatment of women.

   Meanwhile, President Obama urges patience.

   “The insurgency in Afghanistan didn’t just happen overnight and we won’t defeat it overnight,” he said.

   “This will not be quick, nor easy. But we must never forget this is not a war of choice, this is a war of necessity.”

   No, this was always a war of choice, and now it is his choice to escalate it, despite its utter futility. Obama is not trying to defeat an insurgency, rather the popular resistance to an illegal occupation. The Taliban never attacked USA, nor threatened to, but did in fact offer to turn over Osama bin Laden if Bush provided some evidence he orchestrated the attack on Sept. 11, 2001. Bush claimed to have plenty of evidence, but he chose to start a war instead of attempting to negotiate with the Taliban government. I do not say this because I doubt bin Laden had a role in that attack, but Obama likes to evade the reasons Muslim fanatics have for wanting to fight this empire, and he is contributing mightily to those reasons. The only reason the US army has not been utterly routed out of Afghanistan is the unpopularity of the Taliban, whose tactics of brutalizing and intimidating the Afghan people make US policy seem almost forgivable by comparison. Regardless, Karzai has shown once again that whatever kind of democracy Obama says it is necessary to defend, it is at best only meaningful for Afghan men. For the women, it is a cruel mockery.

4. Aletha Says:
   August 20th, 2009 at 8:04 pm

   Malalai Joya wrote an editorial for the Guardian about this farce of an election.

   Malalai Joya: Don’t be fooled by this democratic façade – the people are betrayed
   Thursday, 20 August 2009

   Like millions of Afghans, I have no hope in the results of today’s election. In a country ruled by warlords, occupation forces, Taliban terrorists, drug money and guns, no one can expect a legitimate or fair vote. Even international observers have been speaking about widespread fraud and intimidation and, among the people on the street, there is a common refrain: the real winner has already been picked by the White House.

   President Hamid Karzai has cemented alliances with brutal warlords and fundamentalists in order to maintain his position. Although our constitution forbids war criminals from running for office, the incumbent has named two notorious militia commanders as his vice-presidential running mates – Karim Khalili and Mohammad Qasim Fahim, both of whom stand accused of brutalities against our people.

   Deals have also been made with countless fundamentalists. This week saw the return from exile of the dreaded warlord Rashid Dostum. And the pro-Iranian extremist Mohammad Mohaqiq, who has been accused of war crimes, has been promised five cabinet positions for his party in exchange for supporting Mr Karzai.

   Rather than democracy, what we have in Afghanistan are back-room deals among discredited warlords who are sworn enemies of democracy and justice.

   The President has also continued to absolutely betray the women of Afghanistan.

   Even after massive international outcry – and brave protesters taking to the streets of Kabul – Mr Karzai implemented the infamous rape law, targeting Shia women, to gain support of the fundamentalist elements in the election. He had initially promised to review the most egregious clauses, but in the end it was passed with few amendments and the barbaric anti-women statements not removed. As Human Rights Watch recently stated: “Karzai has made an unthinkable deal to sell Afghan women out in return for the support of fundamentalists.”

   All of the major candidates’ speeches and policies are very similar. They make the same sweet-sounding promises, but we are not fooled. Afghans remember how Mr Karzai abandoned his campaign pledges after winning the 2005 vote.

   We Afghans know that this election will change nothing and it is only part of a show of democracy put on by, and for, the West, to legitimise its future puppet in Afghanistan. It seems we are doomed to see the continuation of this failed, mafia-like, corrupt government for another term.

   The people of Afghanistan are fed up with the rampant corruption of Karzai’s “narco-state” (his own brother, Wali Karzai, has been linked to drug trafficking in Kandahar province) and the escalating war waged by Nato. In May of this year, US air strikes killed approximately 150 civilians in my native province, Farah.

   More than ever, Afghans are faced with powerful internal enemies – fundamentalist warlords and their Taliban brothers-in-creed – and the external enemies occupying the country.

   Democracy will never come to Afghanistan through the barrel of a gun, or from the cluster bombs dropped by foreign forces. The struggle will be long and difficult, but the values of real democracy, human rights and women’s rights will only be won by the Afghan people themselves.

   So do not be fooled by this façade of democracy. The British and other Western governments that claim to be bringing democracy to Afghanistan ignore public opinion in their own countries, where growing numbers are against the war.

   In my tours to countries that have troops in Afghanistan, I’ve met many bereaved parents who have lost their loved ones in the war in my home. I am very sorry to see governments putting the lives of their soldiers in danger in Afghanistan in the name of bringing democracy. In fact the soldiers are serving the strategic and regional interests of the White House and the consequences of their occupation so far have been devastating for my people.

   Karzai and his strongest rival have declared the election a success, despite poor turnout in many areas of the country. For whom? For Karzai, perhaps. For Obama, perhaps. Not for the women of Afghanistan, not by a long shot. Heart also posted this editorial today. Afghanistan: Warlords and Fundamentalists Win; Women Lose, Damnit Is Anybody LISTENING?
   Unfortunately, not in the halls of power, where politicians spin this facade into a triumph of democracy.

5. Aletha Says:
   August 27th, 2009 at 11:23 pm

   Today it is reported that Karzai has been issued stern warnings that US patience is running out! What, has it now become so abundantly clear that democracy in Afghanistan is a sham? This story is from Reuters

   US warns Karzai on fraud, corruption, militia ties
   Thu Aug 27, 2009 9:53pm EDT
   By Adam Entous

   WASHINGTON, Aug 27 (Reuters) – U.S. envoys and lawmakers have bluntly warned Afghan President Hamid Karzai that American patience is running out, citing concerns about allegations of fraud and corruption and attempts to prejudge the outcome of last week’s election, participants said on Thursday.

   Karzai met twice with U.S. President Barack Obama’s envoy to Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, after the Aug. 20 presidential election, including a private lunch in Kabul that turned “tense” when the U.S. envoy raised the possibility of a run-off.

   After that confrontation, the two finished dessert and shook hands, officials said.

   U.S. tensions with Karzai, in meetings with Holbrooke and a visiting delegation of U.S. senators, reflected both election-time stress and growing discord in American relations with the man who has been leading Afghanistan since the Taliban was overthrown in 2001.

   Endemic government corruption and his close ties with former militia leaders have eroded Karzai’s support, both with the Afghan people and with Washington policymakers.

   The Obama administration was particularly disturbed by Karzai’s last-minute alliance with Uzbek General Abdul Rashid Dostum, officials said.

   Tensions flared the day after the election, when Karzai’s campaign drew Washington’s ire by declaring victory even though none of the results had been released by the independent election commission.

   Washington fears such declarations undercut the commission and cast doubt on the election’s legitimacy.

   At their lunch meeting, Holbrooke urged Karzai to respect the election process, particularly given the possibility of a run-off. Karzai, who has told Washington that a run-off risks igniting ethnic violence, became angry, officials said.

   Holbrooke has said Washington would make the fight against corruption a central focus after the election, a move that could further stoke tensions with a Karzai administration.

   U.S. officials fear allegations of fraud will undermine Afghan public support for whatever government emerges after the election.

   “There’s been wholesale fraud to the benefit of Karzai in the past but there is no evidence that he was personally involved in fraud,” a U.S. State Department official said after the vote.

   A new Washington Post-ABC News poll showed most Americans believe the war in Afghanistan is not worth fighting and only a quarter say more troops should be sent there.

   So much for this war of necessity, as Obama refers to it. Karzai may have been installed as a US puppet, but sometimes such puppets rebel, whereupon USA generally decides they have outlived their usefulness. Whatever will Obama do if Karzai decides to disregard these warnings? The proportion of gullible citizens buying his spin about his version of the war on terror steadily shrinks, along with his approval rating. Obama had best think of some plan to get out of Afghanistan before its similarity to the Vietnam fiasco becomes apparent to everyone. There is no evidence Karzai was personally involved in wholesale fraud that worked to his benefit? All that means is that Karzai covered his tracks well enough so that no smoking gun has yet come to light. Wake up, Mr. President, the war on terror Bush bequeathed is as unwinnable and outright wrong as the war on Vietnam. Even if the Afghan government was worth supporting, increasing the presence of occupying troops will not solve anything.

6. Eric Says:
   November 17th, 2009 at 4:20 pm

   You ladies really need to settle down. Just stick to issues in the kitchen and let the Men figure out how to run the world.

   Don’t want to send you little ladies into fits of hysteria now, do we?

7. Aletha Says:
   November 17th, 2009 at 11:20 pm

   Oh, that is rich. Are you saying men need more time to figure out how to run the world? Sorry, men have had way too much time for that already, and the results are perfectly clear; the world is a total mess, and getting worse all the while. Or did you mean, fits of hysterical laughter at your silly admonitions?

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