There are some interesting developments around Afghanistan where pipeline promoter Karzai, currently mayor of Kabul, is getting a bit uptidy.
Despite the wishes of the U.S. and UK he rejected ‘Lord’ Paddy Ashdown as viceroy.
His people claim this was not because of Ashdown’s personality – as international "high representative" Ashdown ran Bosnia like a Raj – but because of his envisioned role:
The Afghan government had however had concerns about the powers of the job, which had previously been that of special representative of the United Nations but which international circles had wanted to expand.
Initial suggestions that it would grow so the envoy would become the leading representative of the UN, NATO and the European Union were "not acceptable," [Afghan Foreign Minister] Spanta said.
Most likely both issues, Ashdown’s proposed role and personality, are relevant here. Karzai certainly had reason to be concerned about each of those.
Newsweek spreads rumors that Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. ambassador to the UN and former Unocal adviser, wants Karzai’s job. This makes some sense because Karzai never got that pipeline deal done. Khalilzad is a pure neocon with a U.S. and an Afghan passport and may think he has better connections to bribe the right people to finally let the central asian spice flow into the U.S. economy.
The Financial Times adds to the fight by pointing to a "serious reason" why Karzai might want to resign:
Recently there have also been concerns about Mr Karzai’s health with many believing he is politically isolated and overworked, particularly in the wake of two other big run-ins with the international community.
I am sure Karzai took note about such "concerns over his health" – a barely covered threat of an imminent assassination. Just in case he didn’t ‘get it’ the Telegraph reminds him:
Mr Karzai must live with the knowledge that every one of his predecessors for the past 107 years, whether kings or presidents, was overthrown violently. You have to go back to King Abdur Rahman, who died in 1901, to find an Afghan leader who managed to avoid being ousted or assassinated.
All of this is reckless imperial gambling over an already lost cause. Khalilzad running a deeply religious tribal society with a drug economy in the very backlands of the planet would even be funny to watch if not for all the people killed by further NATO and U.S. bombing before the Talibs would shut him off.
The Guardian reports today that "Senior UK Foreign Office Officials" combine the Ashdown, Khalilzad and Karzai stories and suggest that Khalilzad urged Karzai to reject Ashdown as a step to replacing him. (Did Khalilzad bet on the MI6 or CIA to kill Karzai over the Ashdown rejection?)
That doesn’t make much sense to me, but it lays bare the "western" confusion, infighting and desperation over the lost war on Afghanistan.
There are some initiatives to "rescue" the certain strategic defeat. As Pakistan gets "hot" and is likely, at a point, to cut off the logistic line of support for U.S. troops in Afghanistan, Centcom commander Admiral Fallon bowed to the dictator of Uzbekistan to develop an alternative transport route. (He probably should have talked to Putin who has some real influence on that issue …)
Meanwhile Canada is pissed that its soldiers die in Afghanistan to no avail and wants other NATO countries to have their people killed there too for the same reason. Or, the Canadian Prime Minister threatens, it will pull out. Harpers said something like: "If you don’t finally start behaving as stupid as we do, we will have to stop doing so."
Somehow, that would be fine with me ….