• The long Karzai goodbye: Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said that despite previous suggestions he might try to change the Afghan constitution to let him serve a third term, Hamid Karzai is now telling people privately he’ll leave power in 2014. What the nature of America’s presence in Afghanistan would be without Karzai is hard to say; whatever comes of the fight against the Taliban, the government he’s been running is thoroughly corrupt, if much less brutal than the alternative. Neither has his alliance with the U.S. seemed in good faith at times — remember when he threatened to join the Taliban, or admitted his administration was taking literal bags full of cash from Iran? Here’s hoping a different leader can stem the tide of corruption. source

Posted by Chris Tognotti • Permalink