Thursday, August 27, 2009
My mother always told me
That we are known by the friends we choose. On that basis, we are in deep shit in Afghanistan and should just pull out and let the local good old boys have at it. Everyone knows about Hamid Karzai, our boy at the top, but do you know about his soon to be VP?
It was a heated debate during the Bush administration: What to do about evidence that Afghanistan’s powerful defense minister was involved in drug trafficking? Officials from the time say they needed him to help run the troubled country. So the answer, in the end: look the other way.We get into these messes saying all the right and righteous words, but we seem to gravitate to the worst elements of whatever society we are engaged with.
Today that debate will be even more fraught for a new administration, for the former defense minister, Marshal Muhammad Qasim Fahim, stands a strong chance of becoming the next vice president of Afghanistan.
In his bid for re-election, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan has surrounded himself with checkered figures who could bring him votes: warlords suspected of war crimes, corruption and trafficking in the country’s lucrative poppy crop. But none is as influential as Marshal Fahim, his running mate, whose trajectory in and out of power, and American favor, says much about the struggle the United States has had in dealing with corruption in Afghanistan.
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