Guerrilla chiefs to undercut Karzai

[acmavm]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1212/p01s02-wosc.html

Afghanistan's Soviet-era guerrillas will control a majority at the constitutional loya jirga, scheduled to open this weekend.

By Scott Baldauf | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

<snip>

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Afghanistan's constitutional convention, scheduled to start Saturday, was supposed to be a break from the feuds of the past, a made-for-TV demonstration that the war-torn country had united around a blueprint for democracy.

Now a coalition of powerful guerrilla commanders is poised to wrest control of the proceedings and redraft the new Afghan constitution according to their own wishes.

<snip<

To the dismay of the American government, the mujahideen have the numbers on their side. Of the 500 delegates selected during the past few weeks for Saturday's constitutional loya jirga, or grand council, more than 70 percent are associated with mujahideen parties, according to a survey by Agence France Presse. Among the remaining 30 percent, some are aligned with Karzai, while others are monarchists, who favor some official role for the elderly king.

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It is now official. Shrub & Co. have screwed up EVERYTHING they touch. Afganistan is not gone. Out of control. The people who controlled it before we went in are going to control it again. What a damn waste of lives, time, and money.

[pasadenaboy]

1. THIS IS A SUPER IMPORTANT STORY

You are reading the story wrong. The warlords want a parlimentary system, Bush wants a system where the chief executive retains most power. So, we are opposing the democratic system. I think its actually encouraging that they want a participatory parlimentary democracy.

Bush sucks!

[Johnyawl]

3. I don't think so

These are the people who were running things BEFORE the Taliban took over. They're the ones that screwed things up so bad that the Taliban were able to take control. They want a weak central government, and a chief executive with no power, so there is no one to question how each petty warlord runs his personal fiefdom. The "participatory parlimentary democracy" they're hoping to create will be nothing but a weak, powerless committee, endlessly debating nothing, serving only to forestall the government taking any action to limit the power of the warlords.

What the hell does bush expect; you lay down with dogs you're bound to get fleas. We're the ones who rescueed these warlords from the Taliban, armed them, used them to help us overthrow the Taliban, and put these dispicable assholes back in power.

[Nlighten1]

2. Oops

Change 1001 for the Bush team.

[Nancy Waterman]

4. This is a huge story!!

But the writer isn't sure what to believe. He begins with the premise that is is a bad thing and that weakening Karzai further and strengthening the warlords will create chaos. But then at the end he talks about how people are hopeful and want the constitution and a parlaimentary system. It isn't really clear what to expect from this. But I think it is potentially huge and could be very destabilizing.

[acmavm]

5. No, I read this over and over and the take I get on it is like the song

says "Meet the new, same as the old boss." Afganistan has been a battleground for multiple nations for millenia. No one has ever made any headway here. And if we had a icicles chance in hell (which I really doubt that we did), we would have had to focus all our attention on Afganistan. But what did we do? We went after the oil for the neo-cons in the Bush* Administration, and let Afganistan slide back into the dark ages of war lords and rampant drug cultivation (although I don't know what else marketable the Afgans have besides the poppy plant).

This is not what was touted by the Bush* Administration as the future government of Afganistan. This is not going to be a government that in any way, shape, or form resembles a democracy. It will be a theocratic government run by the same thugs as before. And it is not bode well for Afgani women. These guys are not pro-women's lib.