A new puppet president planned for Afghanistan

If anyone ever thought the U.S. was really interested in an independent Afghanistan this article should disabuse him or her of that idea. It is already being arranged that a new puppet with better connections should be "democratically" chosen as the next president. Karzai has sometimes been a bad puppet criticizing the U.S. and yet being unable to influence Washington. As the article points out it is Washington not Afghanistan that is important and that is why Khalilzad would be the right man for the job.
We now know what we are fihting for in Afghanistan is to create a country seemingly sovereign but really controlled by the U.S. with a president who spent most of his life in the U.S. and was a servant of the Bush administration. Way to go Canadians. Bush will love us.



Bush's former Iraq ambassador to seek Afghan presidencyWith Hamid Karzai seen as ineffective, many people are looking to someone with serious influence in WashingtonBy Kim Sengupta in KabulSunday, 8 June 2008In his time, he has been President George Bush's point man in Baghdad, Kabul and the UN, as well as a lobbyist for both the Taliban and international oil companies. Now Zalmay Khalilzad is preparing to run for the presidency of his native Afghanistan.Representatives of Mr Khalilzad, currently US ambassador to the UN, have discreetly sounded out various factions to ascertain his chances in the election scheduled for 2009. Although the incumbent, Hamid Karzai, is expected to run again, he is increasingly unpopular at home while his Western backers see him as ineffectual against the Taliban.Three meetings have been held with opposition groups in recent months to promote Mr Khalilzad, pictured, as a "unifying" candidate in a country where deep divisions have begun to emerge between the Pashtun communities of the south and the Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras of the north.Mr Khalilzad, a Pashtun, was born in Laghman province in the south-east of the country, but raised in Mazar-i-Sharif in the north. He is on good terms with some former leaders of the Northern Alliance who have split from the Karzai government.Speculation about the 56-year-old Mr Khalilzad's political ambitions sparked into life when he gave a TV interview, saying he was placing himself "at the service of the Afghan people". He was also said to be considering resigning from his post at the UN. The highest-ranking Muslim in the US administration, he was made the effective viceroy of Afghanistan after the 2001 invasion by President Bush before being moved on to Iraq to sort out the mess left by Paul Bremer.The candidacy of Mr Khalilzad, a Rhodes scholar who has spent most of his adult life in the US and has an American wife, may come as a surprise, but many Afghan commentators say he would enjoy a high degree of support."A lot of people in this country feel that things were getting done while he was in charge and have deteriorated since he left," said Waheed Muzhda, a leading political analyst. "He kept the warlords much more in check, the Taliban had not come back and corruption was nothing like as bad as it is now. His close connection with the US government is actually in his favour. Many see Karzai as a US puppet anyway, so the feeling is, why not have someone who has got some actual influence in Washington, and can do some good for Afghanistan?"Diplomatic sources agree that Mr Khalilzad seems to be using his UN post to pave the way for a run at the Afghan presidency. He was accused of undermining the prospect of Paddy Ashdown becoming the UN representative in Afghanistan because he didn't want a heavyweight international figure, controlling a huge budget, as a potential rival.

U.S. envoy may challenge for Afghan presidency

This is from the Telegraph. So let us see! What are we doing in Afghanistan. We are supporting Karzai a president chosen by the U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad. However Khalilzad no doubt thinks that he should be in on the game and will start a private business in Afghanistan and perhaps also run for the presidency. If he wins a U.S. citizen will be running Afghanistan. That should please the Americans and surely is worth Canadians paying and dying for.

US envoy may challenge for Afghan presidency
By Thomas Coghlan
Last Updated: 1:41am BST 10/04/2008



The Afghan-born US Ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, has signalled that he will run for the presidency of Afghanistan in elections next year.

Mr Khalilzad is a senior figure in the Bush administration who served as ambassador to Kabul before becoming ambassador to Iraq and then the UN.

He holds US citizenship, is married to an American and is a former professor at Columbia University.

advertisementHe has fuelled speculation of a run by announcing on Afghan television: "I will resign from my official work in the next few months and start a private business."

Asked if he would stand for the presidency, he replied: "I have said earlier that I'm not a candidate for any position in Afghanistan, but I am at the service of the Afghan people."

Sources close to Mr Khalilzad within the Afghan establishment insist that he is considering a run for the presidency and has been putting out feelers to political factions within the country.

"He is under pressure to stand from within Afghanistan," said one source. "His comments are genuine in that he will come to Afghanistan and work in the private sector, but he will reassess towards the end of this year whether he has a chance to take the presidency."

Mr Khalilzad is rumoured to have long had his eye on replacing President Karzai, the man he picked to become Afghanistan's first president in 2004.

Mr Khalilzad's supporters are alleged to have sounded out Pashtun tribal chiefs in the south as well as figures within the Northern Alliance, which now calls itself the National Unity Front.

The popularity of President Karzai has waned as disquiet at government corruption and the resurgence of the Taliban has been felt across the country.

Mr Karzai has become increasingly critical of the international community in an apparent attempt to bolster support at home, most notably by attacking Britain and blocking Lord Ashdown, the British diplomat, for the position of UN envoy in Kabul.

The Afghan president let slip his own intention to stand for re-election this week.

Following his return from the Nato conference in Bucharest on Sunday, Mr Karzai said: "I want to complete the work that I started - if they vote for me."