In a sign that Afghanistan’s embattled leader is finally acting on promises to purge corruption, President Hamid Karzai is expected replace up to 21 of 26 cabinet members any day now, according to government insiders.
A thorough house-cleaning would temporarily placate Western diplomats, who have been threatening to revoke aid dollars unless Mr. Karzai roots out government graft following his controversial victory in the disputed presidential election.
The risk in such a move is that Mr. Karzai could alienate the cadre of alleged warlords and drug kingpins in his cabinet who wield considerable influence above and beyond their portfolios. If scorned, they could pose a threat to democracy’s unsteady foothold in the country.
“That is the great fear among the people,” said Khalid Pushton, an MP with ties to Mr. Karzai. “But that fear is outweighed by the hope that he doesn’t pick the warlords and drug lords again.”
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Karzai’s complete change of cabinet coinciding with the just announced new offensive as the drones target the insurgents would mean a significant plan is afoot — the war’s on toward the end goal. It’s clear that retaining domestic securities is being taken seriously again. Good thing.
I don’t know if Karzai has sufficient influence to significantly clean up the venal elements in his government. If he pushes too hard, the warlords will replace him. It could get ugly…
Everyone moans about Karzai and corruption. He’s the best of a bad lot and to pretend that any government can be pure like the driven snow is laughable. Karzai may be a “smooth and dishonest politician”, but he is “our smooth and dishonest politician”. To hold him to a higher standard than the leaders of countries that surround Afghanistan, is naive and pie in the sky. This is not a PTA council meeting being held in Canada to discuss the allocation of funds from the pop machine. Its life and death and perspective needs to be exercised. Cheers.
Karzai cannot be trusted until he provides better shelter for the Detainees.
He needs to put them up in a Kabul Four Seasons Hotel and we should have its Canadian founder Issy Sharp manage that hotel. We want fresh cut poppies in the lobby every day.