KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S. Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton's use of the term "narco state" to describe Afghanistan in a recent Senate testimony has caught the attention of her Afghan counterpart.
Foreign Ministry Rangin Dadfar Spanta said Saturday that it is "absolutely wrong" to classify Afghanistan as such, though the minister readily admitted that Afghanistan is a major producer of drugs.
I can appreciate the stooge minister's concerns. President-in-all-but-Oval Office-occupancy, Barack Obama, had promised to send more soldiers to Afghanistan as part of what looks increasingly like a CYA mission. The next station on the Change We Can Believe In express is minatory hand wringing and dark complaints that the stooge government is incapable of making effective use of the assistance because, you know, they're so corrupt and incompetent. After that, regime change, with hopes that better stooges can manage to stand up so we can stand down.
I think they're missing a trick. What they need is a Carl Levin-style demand that the stooge government give them some of the opium money to help fund the occupation.
Comments (5)
This is old but remains valid, esp. given the unchanging realities of Afghanistan and colonial rule.
Posted by sk | January 17, 2009 3:47 PM
Posted on January 17, 2009 15:47
Thanks, sk, for posting that link. I hadn't read it before.
Posted by Al Schumann | January 17, 2009 4:45 PM
Posted on January 17, 2009 16:45
Don't make me get all Rangin Dadfar Spanta on your ass.
Posted by LA Confidential Pantload | January 18, 2009 11:46 AM
Posted on January 18, 2009 11:46
"a few islands of grotesque capitalist imaginary reality.."
nice phrase
one thinks of lon nol's phnom penh
circa 73-75
Posted by op | January 18, 2009 7:38 PM
Posted on January 18, 2009 19:38
one thinks of lon nol's phnom penh
circa 73-75
Here's an excerpt from the biography of another statesman of the day:
Guess what? Not too long ago US military internal documents somehow surfaced that described Hamid Karzai's younger brother in these terms: a guy who "receives money from drug lords as bribe to facilitate their work and movement."
Posted by sk | January 19, 2009 7:30 PM
Posted on January 19, 2009 19:30