By Tim Shoemaker
The New York Times reported today that over the weekend, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai stepped up his anti-Western rhetoric in a speech to roughly 60 members of Parliament, mostly his supporters. According to one member Mr. Karzai said, “If you and the international community pressure me more, I swear that I am going to join the Taliban.”
Last Thursday, Karzai publicly accused the West and the United Nations of perpetrating fraud against him in the recent Presidential elections. The outcome of the election resulted in Karzai securing another 5-year term.
The US and Nato propping up an unstable regime, in an unstable, war-torn, impoverished, tribal region will never result in a “secure”, centralized, pro-western state as the Western powers would like to see. Nation-building is foolishness in and of itself and attempting it in a country such as Afghanistan is madness.
Almost a decade after the war began we are no closer to seeing “democracy” emerge in Afghanistan. There are fewer than 100 al-Qaeda in the country and the “Taliban” that exists there today is not even the same group that was around in 2001. How many more lives must be sacrificed to save face on an impossible mission?