Karzai: Independent Leader or Bush Shill?

Karzai is distancing himself from the Coalition as he approaches election.

While it's unclear what "progress" Karzai wishes to claim for his own, it follows the course taken by Musharraf in distinguishing himself as something other than a puppet maintaining power by the decree of Western nations. Karzai's predicament is even more precarious than that of al-Maliki in Iraq.

Lord Ashdown has distinguished himself as the most prominent British leader unwilling to parrot the Bush script in Afghanistan. Perhaps this newfound assertion of power on Karzai's part is merely a further illustration of his dependence on the Decider and his willingness to be a shill for Bush's delusional sucess scenario. Karzai hardly even controls the capital, Kabul. In recent months he has struggled, with mixed success, to pay his army and the civil servants that shake down the Afghan populace on a daily basis for bribes in order to conduct their lives. Bombers have struck with impunity inside Kabul, and near-riots have arisen in response to Coalition troops killing civilians within the city. Outside of Kabul, authority shifts constantly between warlords who ignore Karzai, Taliban forces, or foreign troops with their own agenda. The warlords refuse to pay taxes due to the government. The Taliban want to overthrow his government. The foreign troops freely and cheerfully ignore his dictates about killing civilians and have no regard for enforcing his rule beyond the capital. Everyone ignores him, but he can still keep Ashdown from representing the UN in Afghanistan. See how powerful he is?

story from The Daily Telegraph

Lord Ashdown rules out Afghan envoy role

By David Blair, Diplomatic Editor
Last Updated: 12:31pm GMT 27/01/2008

Lord Ashdown, the former Liberal Democrat leader, has ruled out becoming an international envoy in Afghanistan after President Hamid Karzai blocked his appointment.

No final agreement was reached on the powers of Lord Ashdown's possible job as Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General.

Mr Karzai believed that Lord Ashdown would have undermined his own authority and become a competing power centre inside Afghanistan.

Facing an election next year, the Afghan leader is at pains to assert his independence from the Western powers and make clear that he is the public face of efforts to rebuild his country.

Last week, Mr Karzai told an Afghan cabinet meeting that "some vagueness" surrounded the proposed job for Lord Ashdown and unless the UN clarified matters, the Briton could not take up the post.

"The administration is trying to resolve the issue with UN consent," said Mr Karzai, according to the Kabul Times.

Another Afghan newspaper pointedly said that Lord Ashdown "should know" that his sole responsibility would be to coordinate "UN programmes in Afghanistan" and he would be "void of competence to determine our policy".

Lord Ashdown has now told Ban Ki-Moon, the UN secretary general, that he no longer wishes to be considered for the position. "This job can only be done successfully on the basis of a consensus within the international community and the clear support of the government of Afghanistan," said Lord Ashdown.

"It is clear to me that, in Afghanistan at least, the support necessary to do the job effectively does not exist."

Lord Ashdown served as the international community's high representative in Bosnia after stepping down as Lib Dem leader in 1999. During his four years in Sarajevo, he wielded exceptional power - a precedent which appears to have worried Mr Karzai.

The former Royal Marine has written widely on post-conflict reconstruction and last year he gave warning of the possibility of failure in Afghanistan.

At first, Lord Ashdown was being considered for a uniquely powerful coordinating role in Afghanistan. British officials said the first proposal was that he would have served as the joint envoy of the UN, Nato and the European Union.

But this combined, "triple hatted" proposal was dropped for lack of support. Lord Ashdown was then considered for the role of representing the UN. But even this scaled down proposal was not acceptable to Mr Karzai.