In a high profile meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai today, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Michael Mullen warned that the military victory in Kandahar would be impossible unless the Karzai government wiped out corruption.
“If we can’t do that there, then we will not be able to success, that’s just a face,” Mullen insisted. Corruption in Kandahar has been rampant since the US occupation began.
The center of the corruption, according to many analysts, is Karzai’s own half brother Wali. The Pentagon has already conceded that Wali would be a “challenge” for the NATO occupation of the city, noting that without his help such an invasion would lack in key intelligence sources.
But while marching tens of thousands of troops into the city, even having given the Taliban four months of advanced notice, is one thing, holding it is quite another. This is where Wali Karzai’s history of corruption and back office dealings will become a huge liability.
Though the US has been issuing growing amounts of pressure on the Karzai government to “target corruption” since his dubious reelection last year, there seems to be little indication that the Afghan president is so inclined in general, and the chances he will turn on his own brother are slim at best.
Thus if Admiral Mullen’s statement is sincere and officials truly believe the occupation to be impossible without the collosal changes, it seems foolhearty at best for NATO to be invading the city to set itself up for an inevitable disappointment.
Ending corruption is a pipe dream of Afghan opium. With the Cash cow the USG and espcially the Pentagon provide to Afghanistan their is no incentive to end corruption there. To think that the Pentagon personnel aren't involved in the corruption is another opium pipe dream by Mulllen. The reason for Iraq and AfPak is corruption, the fleecing of the American taxpayers. It is the fleece market that guides the UGS but of course they call it the free market. American like to be lied to because it is a MINDLESSNESS ignorant, illiterate, lazy society which has been conditioned, especially by TV, for mindlessness, the inability to discern thought from facts. MINDLESSNESS in the USA is MINDLESSNESS TO THE 10th power as Americans take the thoughts of others as their own facts.
“If we can’t do that there, then we will not be able to success, that’s just a face."
Hunh?
The linked article says “If we can’t do that there, then we will not be able to succeed, that’s just a fact."
I fear that Mr. Ditz is overworked. I've been known to get that way after 36 hours with no sleep. Looks like it's time to bump our donations and get him some help.
If the Afghans are not seriously interested in "winning" this "war," then why should we Americans be? And, if Mr. Karzai does not respond to Mr. Obama's admonitions about corruption, then what are we prepared to do about it? Pull out our troops and go home? Fat chance. So where is our leverage? We don't have any.