Buying Kabul…
2010-10-28 - by
For nine years we’ve been pouring billions into Afghanistan to prop up our hand-picked rascal-President Hamid Karzai. But it turns out our arch-enemies the Iranians have one upped us. For $2 million a year in cash – which they’ve been secretly delivering to Karzai’s office in bulging canvas sacks – they’ve bought our puppet.
In other words, while we’ve been buying the whole country to help Karzai, Iran’s been buying Karzai out from under us.
Karzai, for his part, unabashedly sees nothing wrong with secretly taking cash from the same Iranians who last month blasted us at the UN claiming 9/11 was a CIA plot. As Karzai explained to the New York Times, “Cash payments are done by various friendly countries to help the presidential office – to help with expenses in various ways.” You bet.
Meantime, over in Iraq, the newspapers report since we’re pulling out our hand-picked Prime Minister there, Nouri al-Maliki, is also having a change of heart. We spent even more treasure buying goodwill in Baghdad than in Kubal but, suddenly, since we’re leaving the Iraqi Shiites and Iranian Shiites are singing cum-bay-ya.
This could be a bitter pill to swallow. We’ve fought wars, shed blood, spent untold fortunes and now it looks like when the dust settles all we may have accomplished is giving Iran two more allies. The whole thing may give a new meaning to incompetence.
Buying Kabul…
2010-10-28/
For nine years we’ve been pouring billions into Afghanistan to prop up our hand-picked rascal-President Hamid Karzai. But it turns out our arch-enemies the Iranians have one upped us. For $2 million a year in cash – which they’ve been secretly delivering to Karzai’s office in bulging canvas sacks – they’ve bought our puppet.
In other words, while we’ve been buying the whole country to help Karzai, Iran’s been buying Karzai out from under us.
Karzai, for his part, unabashedly sees nothing wrong with secretly taking cash from the same Iranians who last month blasted us at the UN claiming 9/11 was a CIA plot. As Karzai explained to the New York Times, “Cash payments are done by various friendly countries to help the presidential office – to help with expenses in various ways.” You bet.
Meantime, over in Iraq, the newspapers report since we’re pulling out our hand-picked Prime Minister there, Nouri al-Maliki, is also having a change of heart. We spent even more treasure buying goodwill in Baghdad than in Kubal but, suddenly, since we’re leaving the Iraqi Shiites and Iranian Shiites are singing cum-bay-ya.
This could be a bitter pill to swallow. We’ve fought wars, shed blood, spent untold fortunes and now it looks like when the dust settles all we may have accomplished is giving Iran two more allies. The whole thing may give a new meaning to incompetence.