Posted on 05/04/2009 1:28:34 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
KABUL – President Hamid Karzai chose a powerful warlord accused of rights abuses as one of his vice presidential running mates on Monday, hours before leaving for meetings in Washington with President Barack Obama and Pakistan's president.
The selection of Mohammad Qasim Fahim, a top commander in the militant group Jamiat-e-Islami during Afghanistan's 1990s civil war, drew immediate criticism from human rights groups.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Afghan President Hamid Karzai (C) speaks after registering as a candidate for presidential elections as controversial warlord Mohammad Qasim Fahim (L), candidate for vice president, and current vice President Karim Khalili (R) look on in Kabul. Karzai registered to run for a second term in August elections, including on his ticket a controversial warlord despite concerns from Afghanistan's allies. (AFP/Shah Marai)
btw, the Afghan gubamint has 2 VPs.
Talk about biased, “warlord”, eh?
How about commander of the Northern Alliance forces.....
Fahim brings in the Tajiks of the North.....
Afghan men harvest opium in a poppy field in a village in Golestan district of Farah province, May 4, 2009. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic (AFGHANISTAN SOCIETY IMAGES OF THE DAY)
Sounds good to me.
Better a warlord than a PC stooge hand-selected by Obammy.
A U.S. Marine keeps watch as others search Afghans for weapons during a patrol in the Golestan district of Farah province, May 4, 2009. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic (AFGHANISTAN CONFLICT IMAGES OF THE DAY)
I think there are accusations he is more a druglord than warlord anyway, but that goes with the territory in Afghanistan.
.
Afghan women stand and U.S. Marines patrol in front of a poppy field in a village in the Golestan district of Farah province, May 4, 2009. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic (AFGHANISTAN CONFLICT)
The best proposal I read was to take the monopoly Turkey has on legal opium and transfer it to Afghanistan.
Turkey is far more advanced and may need the revenue less, while the Afghans can’t be blamed for growing opium - figs may get you 200 bucks an acre for the crop while the poppy brings in 10 times that (imaginary numbers to prove the point, why do Afghanis grow poppy).
Anyway, Karzai (despite Biden’s juvenile outburst against him last summer) is still our best bet, and this move may be in anticipation of a real shindig in the area, if Pakistan becomes explicitly jihadi, then the Tajiks will be sorely needed as fighters.
Sounds like the right man for the job there.
Afghans can’t be blamed
—
Heck No. Opium’s one of the few things that will grow there and is part of the economy that has existed there for years.
.. and Karzai has taken a lot of flak but like Maliki has survived as well amidst shots from both sides of the aisle and behind his back.
Ten minutes after our troops leave Iraq and Afghanistan they will become brutal Islamic clones of Iran.
There is only one way to stop the criminal insanity of Islam and trying to civilize them with freedom, freindship and foreign aid isn’t it.
There is an official government in Afghanistan, and the real one. The so-called "warlords" are the real regional governors of the country. Karzai is a warlord in his own right, in that he controls access to American money and fire-power, but he needs the support of the regional warlords too. This is a tip of the hat to reality.
BBC: Taleban face human shields charge ( Pakistan getting serious?)
He’s only discredited in your mind.
What’s your beef against Fahim? Any specifics or just regurgitating AP’s take on the “warlord”.
Well, didn’t mean to go off on ya......betcha Fahim’s not a plagiarist, and I’d like to see Biden have a temper tantrum in front of him, Karzai was and is too much a gentleman to do anything but politely nod. Biden apparently stormed out of the meal.
Some comparions are simply too odious.
In Biden we have a world class loudmouth doofus. No damn Afghani warlord could match a US senator in pompous arrogance.
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