Afghan president chooses warlord as running mate
May 4th, 2009 . by TexasFredAfghan president chooses warlord as running mate
KABUL (AP) - President Hamid Karzai chose a powerful warlord accused of rights abuses as one of his vice presidential running mates on Monday, hours before leaving for meetings in Washington with President Barack Obama and Pakistan’s president.
The selection of Mohammad Qasim Fahim, a top commander in the militant group Jamiat-e-Islami during Afghanistan’s 1990s civil war, drew immediate criticism from human rights groups.
A 2005 Human Rights Watch report, “Blood-Stained Hands,” found “credible and consistent evidence of widespread and systematic human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law” were committed by Jamiat commanders, including Fahim.
Karzai was “insulting the country” with the choice, the New York-based group said Monday.
Full Story Here:
Afghan president chooses warlord as running mate
It has often been said, when you lay with dogs, you rise with fleas.
For those that don’t know it, President Hamid Karzai was nothing more than the most powerful, and the most acceptable war lord available at the time of the elections in 2004. Karzai cleans up well, he’s fairly well educated, he is articulate, he is, for the most part, pro America, and WE are the reason Karzai is in power today.
Under Afghan law, the president has two vice presidents.
Given the number of political assassinations, and all around civil unrest in that part of the world, it’s not a bad idea to have a vice president with an alternate *plan B* vice president as well. You’ve got to admit, these folks do assassinations well, and their internal security is not the greatest either.
The choice of Fahim could be an issue for Western countries invested in Afghanistan’s success, said Mohammad Qassim Akhgar, a political columnist and the editor-in-chief of the independent Afghan newspaper 8 a.m.
“Perhaps if Karzai wins the election Western countries are going to use this point as an excuse and limit their assistance to Afghanistan,” he said. “This is also a matter of concern for all human rights organizations who are working in Afghanistan and working for transitional justice.”
This might be an issue for the president, his hard line stance on torture, and the insistence that U.S. officials will not use torture. This may well play into a human rights quandary for Obama. How do you insist that WE don’t torture if we’re supporting those that do?? Don’t take me wrong, I personally don’t have an issue with enhanced interrogation, Obama and Company do, and we can’t have a POTUS that exhibits gross hypocrisy now, can we??
Aziz Rafiee, the executive director of the Afghan Civil Society Forum, said Karzai’s latest change of heart begged a question.
“If (Fahim) was a good choice, why did (Karzai) remove him” in 2004? Rafiee asked. “And if he was a bad choice, why did he select him again? The people of Afghanistan will answer this question while voting.”
Only time will tell, but that may be an excellent question…
After reading through the article, I went back and reread it. One thing that popped out at me was that after the Embassy says they won’t comment, there was this: “However, a U.S. statement said, “We believe the election is an opportunity for Afghanistan to move forward with leaders who will strengthen national unity.”
Other than actually commenting, when they said they won’t, how on earth do they believe selecting such a …..person…. as a running mate will strengthen national unity? Perhaps I’m missing something.
No, I think you have the picture pretty well in focus!!
Hamid Karzai,,,,,Whhhaaaa, I knew him personally when he pumped gas at a Shell Station in Orange County, California back in the early 80″s.
Yep, same guy. He knew me first hand, and always greeted me by name when I would pull my patrol car in fo a fill-up. They just loved the Federal Govt. credit card as he knew they would be paid. I am sure today he would know me.
He always asked why I had an AR-15 beside the riot shotgun in electrically controlled gun rack between the front seats standing vertical.
I always told him so I could shoot his raggedy ass if he was over a 100 yards away, where the shotgun wouldn’t reach him.
He always laughed loudly and was always friendly.
Who knew,eh,,,, that he would return back to his home country and be the head cheese there.
No, I do not ever have plans to go over for a visit.
I am not politically correct, never have been, just an ornery old TEXAN now retired.
Now back to the subject,,,, Afghanistan never has been worth spit or a hill of beans to me. I never understood why fellow TEXAN Congressman Charlie Wilson sought so much of it.
Not me. Never, not for a second.
Maybe my experiences saving the asses of the Vietnamese from 1961 thru half of ‘64 has somehing to do with it.
But, never trust a raghead arab muslim with anything!!!!!!
Muslim religion teaches their young to go out and kill all non-believers of the Koran. This is their Sharia law.
So, all you Arab lovers, don’t come around my place or me,,, or I will just have to turn back into the Hamlet pacification and Chieftain interrogaror that I was way back then.
I have never forgot how to do this.
WB Fred…. and all that’s missing here is an official endorsement from Hussein Obama himself, after all, the warlords endorsed him, so what comes around blows up around the world of Muslim politics
Quote from article:
“To see Fahim back in the heart of government would be a terrible step backwards for Afghanistan,” said Brad Adams, the group’s Asia director.
Ha Ha give me a break. Everybody knows that Muslims or Sand Ni99ers never ever want to move forward. They love the way their religion allows them to stay back in time thousands of years. They HATE AMERICANS, HATE CHRISTIANS, and HATE AIR. And Hate Deodorant too. ha
They’re HOPELESS.
Terrible step backwards? You can’t pull these Ruthless, Assholes forward with a big tractor. Forget it.
My grandfather had an old saying similar to yours TexasFred,
“If you play with a turd you will get shit on your hands.”
Welcome back Fred! Now all obama has to do to make it official is to bow to them like he did the Saudi king.
I see that “Obama’s War”, otherwise known as “Obama’s Vietnam”, is getting under way rather nicely
JDL
I think I’m liking warlords more and more.
The non comment comment fits the genre of a highly deceptive group of moosetwits.
Naturally, Czarboni will accept one of his cousins to aspire to power seeing that he authorized, approved of and set into place Shari’a Law in the regions of Pokeestan which are now threatening to topple Pokeestan.
Eck, if you believe some of the other stuff I have read on these Internets, Pakistan conflicts will spill into the international spotlight well before Obama’s Afghanistan gets old.
One of the scenarios that I suspect is likely; the Obama administration is already in talks with Iran according to an Israeli source, one of the items on the table is to allow American military air/ground through Iran to get to Afghanistan. It is very likely our troops will be sitting ducks to become hostages, if Iran is true to form. They would of course be used as human shields and of course any agreement would add to the pressure from Obama’s administration on Israel not to attack Iran. I do believe Israel will attack when they feel they have no choice, and if Obama puts our troops in harms way, they may be victims of Israel defending themselves from a nuclear Iran.
Afghanistan, Pakistan and India could wind up in conventional conflicts. I would expect the Obama administration to hamstring the military in Pakistan, leaving India no choice but to increase their involvement thus increasing the possibility of nuclear exchanges in the region. And with 10’s of thousand of our troops in the area, if that where to happen our casualties could be staggering.
So between the current budget cuts to the military, troops/equipment in the Iraq and possibly caught in Iran, and resource in Afghanistan and caught up in Pakistan, our mainland will relatively undefended.
Now, I would say we can hold off ground forces, ie. Mexico, but China or Russia could possibly be in a position to better us, convincingly sadly. And Briton, Germany and France may turn their backs on us, considering we are doing what we can to disrespect them.
There is a whole lot of not good out there!
And our administration is 180 degrees out of phase on all of the majors, we need to be spending more on the military, we need to close our borders, we need to at least have wells drilled for North American oil production, we need to keep food food, and discrete well secured nuclear facilities for power.
My head hurts.
And Fred, thanks again for all that you do!
Maybe it’s just me but I have worse feelings about Pakistan and Iran than I do Afghanistan proper…
The nukes in Afghanistan, the nukes in India, the nukes that Iran wants and could easily acquire if Pakistan falls…
This is a nightmare scenario and we have a Chicago crook at the helm…
Damn…
Interesting comment #3 “Hamid Karzai,,,,,Whhhaaaa, I knew him personally when he pumped gas at a Shell Station in Orange County, California back in the early 80?s.”
I also knew (not by name) a 911 guy that worked in a gas station in Massachusetts about a year or so before he went to Florida for flying lessons…I did’t make the connection until after 911.
First, I’ll observe that it’s immaterial that Afghanis torture — as far as Obama and the DEM are concerned, it’s only important that AMERICA not torture.
And second, there are two cauldrons about to overboil: Pakistan and Iran. Israel isn’t too terribly far from activating their plan to bomb suspected nuclear sites in Iran proper. Pakistan isn’t far from having Jihadists take actual control of the nation and whatever rests within its arsenal.
BZ
Here’s wishing that a certain African born street worker from Chicago named Soetoro would return to his home country and run for leader….