BANGING ON KARZAI

The President has been in Afghanistan recently,
urging and warning that country's president to
clean up the corruption there. Obama is wasting
his time. What he is doing is like beating a dead
horse: any power K. has is derivative and extremely
limited. Karzai serves only with the permission and
backing of the warlords, and because he is the conduit
of money from the U. S. to said warlords. One of
them is his own brother, who is also on the U. S.
payroll and enrolled in the booming herion trade
as well. He is reputed to own a high-rise office
building in Dubai. Corruption is the way of life (and
death) in Afghanistan -- part of the air they breathe.
Karzai, although not known to be personally corrupt,
rides the wave of corruption there, and is helpless to
stop it. We are carrying our precious water there in an
extremely leaky bucket over a very long road indeed!