Three Words The Exit Strategy Fetishists Never Mention: Iran, Jihadism, Victory.
Alan Johnson in World Affairs Journal:
"All this demoralising 'endgame' talk is already changing the calculations of the democratic leadership inside Afghanistan. They believe that if Karzai proceeds on this course of “exit at any price,” and if he continues to be encouraged by exit-strategy obsessions in the West, then everyone will be headed back up to the mountains again. The critics—Fawzia Koofi, Abdullah Abdullah, Amrullah Saleh, Atta Noor, and others—are being ignored in the rush to the exits. Some fear a politically correct face is being put on what is at its core a surrender to some negotiated despotism triangulated between Islamabad and Tehran. . ."
A splendid analysis. Not just because he calls me "astute" either.
"All this demoralising 'endgame' talk is already changing the calculations of the democratic leadership inside Afghanistan. They believe that if Karzai proceeds on this course of “exit at any price,” and if he continues to be encouraged by exit-strategy obsessions in the West, then everyone will be headed back up to the mountains again. The critics—Fawzia Koofi, Abdullah Abdullah, Amrullah Saleh, Atta Noor, and others—are being ignored in the rush to the exits. Some fear a politically correct face is being put on what is at its core a surrender to some negotiated despotism triangulated between Islamabad and Tehran. . ."
A splendid analysis. Not just because he calls me "astute" either.
posted by Terry Glavin at 7:04 AM
3 Comments:
Astute? I thought you were Irish;)
Iran, come to think of it, is on the ascendancy; diplomacy renewed with Egypt, friends in Latin America, exploiting its influence with the Shia majority in Iraq, and presenting as a supportive 'friend' to Afghanistan; didn't Hamid Karzai remind the West that Iran is a valued neighbour?
Pakistan, the source of the Taliban success, may see its hoped-for influence vanish completely now.
Pakistan's influence should not be expected to vanish or even wane in the face of Khomeinist expansionism. They're carving up Afghan sovereignty between themselves.
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