Afghan Reformists are fearing the worst tonight, after Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced his new cabinet, which looks remarkably the same as his old cabinet.

Though he is only keeping about half of the cabinet members, he is keeping almost all of the top ministries intact, including warlords and top US favorites. It had been hoped that Karzai would “clean house” so to speak, replacing his corrupt cabinet with reformers.

Even the incoming cabinet members show a decided preference for power brokers and Western favorites, with few if any members with any reformist credentials.

Karzai has been under intense pressure to crack down on corruption, likely an unrealistic expectation considering he retained power in a fraudulent election. There had been hope that post election “power sharing” deals would net positions for some of his rivals. Ultimately, this appears not to have been the case.

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