Originally published August 26, 2011. Recovered from the archives and republished here, unedited.
First thing first, I do not like Karzai. I really don’t, but I can’t help feeling sorry for him at times. When he chose the job, he probably thought that he would go to Afghanistan, help NATO in capturing Osama and Mullah Omar. Subsequently, he thought he would get some high-profile jobs and government contracts for his relatives, make some cash in the process. He probably genuinely thought things will go better, US will leave and he would become the saviour of Afghans.
Didn’t work well for him, did it?! Well, he did most of those things. But, now nobody likes or trusts him. Northern alliance think he is helping Pakistan; Americans think he has a little too much sympathy for Taliban and Taliban know him as servant of America. People are sick of him because his government is very corrupt and incompetent. I would hate to be in his position right now!
He knows the issues and he knows that he is nobody’s favourite anymore. He tries to change things but it is too late for him. Constantly, he asks NATO to schedule a withdrawal of their troops, he encourages Taliban to make peace, he even once confronted his own brother about his illegal activities months before he was killed. But nothing seems to be going his way anymore. Early in 2002, Karzai seemed to do some positive things. Since he inherited a fairly peaceful Kabul city and surroundings. No one believed American occupation would last this long. At that time at least people in Kabul kind of liked him, because they copped it worst from Taliban’s social and recreational restrictions.
I am not a political analyst, but the way I see, the whole thing is one big mess. To be honest I do not see anything that is happening over there in a positive light. It is dim and grim; US is supposedly staying until 2024 now, which by the way indicates how badly they have failed, insurgents have changed their strategy and are doing more targeted damage now and it is very clear from the recent assassinations that they are picking up momentum, corruption is through the roof, poor is getting poorer and rich is getting richer. Well, actually the last one is true about everywhere in the world.
Right now, I do not believe anyone has a solution for Afghanistan. It looks like they are letting chips fall wherever they may and nobody has a sense of direction. As a matter of fact there is no destination to have a sense of direction for. Walking blind and hoping the next step is the right one, or do we even care if the next step is the right one?
