FUBARistan

The WikiLeaks diplomatic communique scandal has revealed a stark picture of Afghanistan and our war there, one that our leaders have been working hard to conceal from their people back home.  We're being scammed and our soldiers are being fed into the grinder - for very little or nothing.

The colloquial term "FUBAR" comes to mind.  It's an acronym meaning F__ked Up Beyond Recognition.   For Afghanistan it could be tweaked to mean F__ked Up Beyond Redemption.  Hell, the country itself should be renamed FUBARistan.

Few of us were not aware that Afghanistan has a corruption problem.  We've heard about that ever since we showed up there.   We just didn't know that Afghan corruption has metastasized into a terminal disease.  It's incurable and it will be fatal to any but the most brutal regime conceivable which is what will quickly emerge from the civil war that will follow our departure.

We know the Afghans despise us as we do them.  Karzai's outbursts don't just happen when he's failed to balance his meds.  Poor old Hamid.  I figure he's already got his bags packed ready to scram in a real big hurry.   As Gwynne Dyer put it, Karzai has a date with a very short rope tied to the end of an elevated tank barrel if the rebels get their hands on him.

In The Guardian today we learn that both Karzai and the Americans freely ridicule Britain's effort in Helmand province.   The Americans feel the Brits haven't attained their own level of magnificence.   Karzai is pissed off because the British blocked his strenuous attempts to appoint a drug lord to become the governor of Helmand province.

We learn that Iran is bribing financing many top Afghan leaders and, supposedly, training Taliban fighters.  Karzai's VP caught in Dubai with a suitcase containing $52-million?   His money or Hamid's?  Apparently top level skimming is rampant and the Americans are powerless to stop it.   These are people who are not looking to a victorious outcome in their civil war with the Talibs.

And those wily mercenaries contractors, America's shadow army, are up to no good, hiring dancing boys dressed up like girls to entertain stoned Afghan cops.  Maybe we should just call that "bummage" on the monthly expenses report.

This is a good one.   The Karzai clan feared Hamid might have failed to rig the last elections successfully.   U.S. diplomats reported two of his brothers were planning to seek asylum in the States while other family members had kept themselves and their money safely out of the country pending the outcome.  Jeebus it's no wonder Hamid acts so paranoid - everybody is out to get him, not just the Talibs either.

Oh yeah, all that business we've heard about peace overtures to the Taliban, invitations for them to take their rightful place alongside their fellow Afghans in the central government?  Bullshit.  Karzai and the Americans utterly reject the idea of guys like Mullah Omar getting into their government.   The only thing they're extending to him is the opportunity to surrender - as it.   Karzai believes he's enough of a draw to get rank and file Talibs to desert Omar and come over to him.

Worse still is that Karzai has betrayed his non-Pashtun, ex-Northern Alliance warlords.   He needed their backing to win votes from their tribes but handpicked weak candidates to represent them who predictably lost shutting those tribes and their warlords out of power.   That is why there is so much unrest among the northern tribes and reports of a possible northern uprising against Karzai.

There's so much more and it's all rancid.   This hellhole is FUBARistan, beyond redemption.   No surprise there.   This is what happens in this sort of conflict.  You have to get in with overwhelming force, get the place secured and a legitimate government in place, and then just as quickly get out.   We didn't.  Karzai has become a warfare-welfare bum, an incompetent, corrupt and untrustworthy parasite on Tehran's payroll to boot.

What are we doing in Afghanistan?   Why are we staying there in any capacity?  This place is so bent it's beyond salvation.  Even our guys are rotten to the core and, in Afghanistan's time-honoured tradition of treachery, would turn on us in a Kabul minute.

The only justification for keeping Canadian forces in that failed state is NATO solidarity but, in the NATO context, we've already done far more than our fair share.  Ignatieff and Rae got this ball rolling and Harper, with great feigned reluctance, jumped on it.   I don't even understand how a Liberal could possibly support these supposed Liberals.