And How Does the Afghan President Feel?

Surely if we are to have some success in Afghanistan in stabilizing the country, we need the prime minister to be on the same page with us.

Is anybody happy? Aside from the US "defense industry" and some generals, I mean.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Bye Bye, Karzai

Outgoing Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai denounced the United States in his farewell speech and insisted that, despite tens of thousands of wounded and dead American service personnel (and over a trillion dollars in aid), the United States has been a curse upon his country. Instead Karzai showered praise on Iran and China as great allies for Afghanistan. This is the man who the CIA openly gave regular suitcases of cash to and led a government where billions simply disappeared.

The Obama Administration insisted on the money continuing to flow into Karzai’s pockets even as he attacked the U.S. and Americans as “demons”, and moves to shift alliances to Iran and China.

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We have looked like utter fools for over a decade in pouring money into the country while our schools and domestic programs have been curtailed due to budget shortfalls.

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In the meantime, the U.S. is pouring more money into the country in an effort to keep U.S. advisers and trainers in the country. Ghani Ahmadzai has said he will sign the agreement (which Karzai refused to do) so that we can spend more billions.

  Jonathan Turley

"We don't have peace because the Americans didn't want peace," said Karzai, who will officially give way to President-elect Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai when the latter is sworn in Monday.

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Karzai's words were met with a furious response by the American ambassador to Afghanistan James Cunningham, who called the comments "ungracious and ungrateful."

"It makes me kind of sad. I think his remarks, which were uncalled for, do a disservice to the American people and dishonor the huge sacrifices Americans have made here and continue to make here," Cunningham told a gathering of journalists.

  Fox News

”True though they are,” he did not say.

Karzai's spokesman Aimal Faizi told The Washington Post that while the president appreciates the efforts of U.S. troops and taxpayers to rebuilt the war-torn country, he also believes that the U.S. did not do enough to confront Pakistan-backed militants in the country and that Washington and Islamabad "sabotaged" efforts to reach a peace deal with the Taliban.

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In his final year in office, Karzai refused to sign a security agreement with the U.S. that would set the legal framework to allow about 10,000 American military advisers and trainers to stay in the country next year. Ghani Ahmadzai has said he will sign it.

And that was Karzai’s final straw. He had to go.

Mr. Obama Is Having a Really Bad Month

The US was scrambling to salvage a plan to open peace talks with the Taliban on Wednesday amid a diplomatic row between Washington and the Afghan president Hamid Karzai over how the process was announced.

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Earlier on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported president Karzai would not now continue peace talks with the Taliban unless the US stepped out of the negotiations. He also suspended talks with the US about handing over security to Afghan forces, citing the Taliban naming of its office as one of Kabul's concerns.

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Repeated phone calls by John Kerry, the US secretary of state, appeared not to have mollified Karzai, who accused the Obama administration of duplicity.

  UK Guardian

Karzai’s a little late to that party.

The Taliban also claimed responsibility for a rocket attack on the Bagram air base that killed four Americans on the same day that the tentative deal about talks was announced.

Meanwhile in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The 29-year-old engineering student was standing outside his classroom here on Saturday morning when he said two pickup trucks full of armed men pulled up. The men, said to be members of a C.I.A.-backed Afghan strike force, grabbed him, tied his hands behind his back, draped a black hood over his head and drove him to an undisclosed location.

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Mr. Qayum, who lives in a village that the Taliban frequently visit, said he was interrogated for hours at what Mr. Karzai called an American prison. The captors asked if he knew any Taliban commanders. They asked specifically about his neighbor, a farmer, and whether he could bring the man to them.

“I told them that just because the Taliban are coming in our village, seeking food and shelter and sitting with people, it doesn’t mean I am working for them,” Mr. Qayum said. “I told them if they find any sort of evidence that I am involved in any activities, big or small, then you are allowed to punish me.”

 They punished him anyway, he said, punching him repeatedly and whipping his legs and back with a cable. He said they placed a blanket over his head and sat on him, making him feel like he was suffocating.

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The American-led military coalition here said it had no involvement in any such event. The C.I.A. could not be reached for comment.

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The episode seems to have struck a nerve with Mr. Karzai, a Kandahar native. He told a crowd of journalists at the presidential palace on Sunday that “something horrible happened,” adding that he worked until midnight to free Mr. Qayum.

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The student’s daylong detention was cited by President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan at a news conference in Kabul, the capital, on Sunday as part of his justification for a ban announced later in the day on foreign forces from entering any Afghan school or university. He said other students had also been detained at the behest of American-controlled Afghan forces.

  NYT

Later, his spokesman said Mr. Karzai had asked that the C.I.A. hand over the Afghan forces that carried out the arrest and interrogation.

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Among Mr. Karzai’s critical comments on Sunday, which came at an early-morning news conference in honor of women’s day in Afghanistan, he charged that the American government and the Taliban, while using different means, had in effect colluded to keep Afghanistan unstable to justify a continued American military presence.

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In recent days, Mr. Karzai has been the most critical about some of the policies that American officials have described as most important to their mission here, including the widespread use of Special Operations forces and a continuing say in how battlefield detainees are vetted and released. He has seized on both as violations of Afghan sovereignty, barring American commandos from Wardak Province and bristling at critical terms in a negotiated agreement on Bagram Prison.

A result was a last-minute refusal by American officials on Saturday to hand the Afghan government full control of the prison.

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“His prestige as president was degraded in the eyes of the public by the Americans’ refusal to hand over responsibility of the prison to the Afghans,” said Atiqullah Amarkhel, a former Afghan Army general and a military analyst. “I think it drives him crazy when he sees it’s not happening.”

Mr. Amarkhel added: “It also shows a deep sense of distrust between two onetime allies. To the public, it means all the power is with foreigners.”

  NYT

Really?

We're Now There for the Afghan Women

“Let there be no doubt — even as the US role in Afghanistan changes in the next few years of transition, we will continue to stand with and work closely with Afghan women."

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US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed Wednesday never to accept a peace agreement in Afghanistan that rolls back women’s rights, despite reaching out to the Taliban for talks.

  

The Taliban? How about the guy we installed in the presidency?

This week, Karzai endorsed an edict from the Afghan Ulema Council — Afghanistan’s highest Islamic authority — that women are worth less than men and supporting “Sharia-compliant” beatings of women.

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The edict states that “Men are fundamental and women are secondary.” It further demands segregation of men and women and prohibits women “mingling with strange men in various social activities such as education, in bazaars, in offices and other aspects of life.” It also suggests that women should not work or go to university and should wear a “full Islamic hijab.”

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Of course, those low-value, secondary women in our military forces have been fighting to keep Karzai alive so he can sit in his palace and proclaim them to be inferior human beings.

  Jonathan Turley

Afghan women and public interest groups are opposing an effort of Afghan President Hamid Karzai to take over all of the shelters for abused and battered women. You may recall Karzai’s earlier feminist agenda when he initially support the legalization of rape. The new move is viewed as a way for the government to satisfy hardliners in blocking access to some women to shelters. The government is also expected to close some shelters entirely.

Not only are many shelters expected to be closed under Karzai’s plan but women will have to be subject to a medical review to be admitted to shelters and will be prevented from leaving the shelters.

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Karzai (who has repeatedly said that he wishes he had supported the Taliban and not the United States) is cracking down on shelters to appease the Taliban and eventually entice them to join his government.

  Jonathan Turley

Oh, and by the way...

In the meantime, human rights groups have issued a report that the situation for women in Iraq is worse since the United States took over the country.

We Should Be Very Proud

This week, [Afghan President Hamid] Karzai endorsed an edict from the Afghan Ulema Council — Afghanistan’s highest Islamic authority — that women are worth less than men and supporting “Sharia-compliant” beatings of women. That is the model government that we have created with the loss of both our men and women as well as hundreds of billions of dollars. We are still spending billions on the country as it embraces the Taliban and harsh Sharia principles.

  Jonathan Turley