Archive for June 17th, 2008
17th June 2008
Hamid Karzai doesn’t know what he is talking about - official
Yesterday in the statement committing yet more troops in Afghanistan I asked Des Browne what he thought about this incredible interview by Hamid Karzai in Der Spiegel in which he basically accuses Coalition Forces in Afghanistan of having Afghan warlords on their payroll. Browne blames it on Karzai surrounding himself with poor advisers and his playing to the gallery, but you have to wonder a little about the state of mind of the increasingly embattled President.
Being paranoid and delusional may be the only way to cope in Afghan politics but it hardly instills confidence when you hear that he now wants to invade Pakistan. Are we being sucked into a regional war? The little noticed (here) US bombing last week of a Pakistani border post - killing 11 Pakistani military and half a dozens civilians - ostensibly because the Americans were doing what Karzai has threatened to do and following Talibs over the border, suggests we might. And our presence there, far from calming everyone down as Bush suggested in yesterday’s press conference, is actually the light in the tinder box.