America wants 9 bases in Afghanistan

[Wowra]

Manzareh - there isn't much wealth to the nation, other than the accessibility. Lapus lazuli was once the most precious stone in the world when they were put in King Tut's eyes, but those days have since passed. Bamyan has natural gas, but so does everyone else. Afghanistan is settled strategically as a pathway for a pipeline from Turkmenistan to the warm-water gulf, though. Since those oil pockets became for sale, America has long been interested. Our Unical had an office in khandahar across the street from Mullah Omar and a few blocks down from Osama bin Laden throughout the 90s. Its more about location than stuff. Strategic location for Iran's isolation. Strategic locations if Pakistan goes full rogue nation and a buffer for the oil lands of Central Asia.

Talal -

Don't get too hung up on CIA. Their black ops are little more than fat bureaucrats passing bags of cash to people. Remember its nothing more than another arm of the American government that still loses your mail and can't figure out how to streamline the DMV. The Americans in the employ are just as risk adverse as most Department of State diplomats and often as ineffective as Veterans Affairs.

[Talal]

Talal -

Don't get too hung up on CIA. Their black ops are little more than fat bureaucrats passing bags of cash to people.

Maybe you need to ask the Africans about CIA, they'll tell you what those wads of cash do to nations. Its the worst kind of sickness there is, for a country to get addicted to.

[randolph85]

Karzai, you have done it again.

just when you think this guy can't stoop any lower. why doesn't he just give the americans his wife and kid while he is at it.

[Wowra]

Talal -

I'm certainly not condoning it - those black bags of cash hurt as much as helped Afghanistan through the 80s. I'm just saying that some people get hung up on intelligence agencies as though they are super being capable of flawless conspiracy.

Randolph -

I hear in the Pashtu to English dictionary, daus just has a picture of Karzai.

[Kushan Prince]

They way he (karzi) is talking, it smells fait accompli. Traitor indeed, in your eyes and mine, but many business people have been cautiously waiting before investing further in afghanistan, for the green light for american presence. I wonder if adbullahx2 or ghani or qanuni or meliti ilk would have denied the americans. For sure the hard core rag tag lashkars from qwata to farah would not have entertained the yanks to put it mildly, but at a cost. Sadly it all costs, one way or the other. Broken, isolated, tumble weed dust bowl with izzat intact or broken (as in tamed) with izzat pushed up our aces. There is a middle way, but it needs a calculating leader who can extract the $$$ from all the pledgers , invest it on the infrastructure and people of afghanistan and cohere the nation with transparent benevolence, and rough back the dirty politics till diginity and prosperity trikles into the soil. I had hoped that karzai despite being allotted puppet, he would have dug deep into his Pashtun soul and rebelled against the puppeteers and done good for the nation . . . .
He probably justifies it as doing the nation a favour, where as the nation knows he has done himself a favour.
I still hope he can throw one his tantrums and do some thing better.

Money is the root of evil I guess. Didnt you notice the Popal were the only Pashtun tribe to sell Afghanistan and betray their Ghilzai brothers (*cough cough mirwais hotak*) and sided with sha rukh and and his Persian cronies? They all seem to be curroput.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

I suspect karzai and shah shuja ul mulk share one thing; being sadozai-popalzai.

Interesting article bcz this is a first for me to see a western commentator trace karzai's shajra to shah shuja, and deconstruct the charade of karzai's tantrums and US feigning disapproval. that is clear, to me, just as the collusion of US and Pakistan military, over the use of drones (to keep the masses at bay so the puppets in pakistan can loosen their ties and pull their collar with a finger for relief, and enjoy slugging black label served by their batman in the isi mess).

Can karzai counter the ignominy? of his jad, the Popalzai Shuja losing peshawar, the kohinoor, and displacement as ruler at hand of his brother from another mother, Mahmoud, that treaty with Elphinstone and exile in Hind, in a modern day turn around, of rejecting US demands of the naha pozi adde and secure all the international financial pledges, forge the nation with transparent benevolence in distributing the aid for developing infrastructure, thereby helping people achieve the normality of health, education and freedoms enjoyed by some in our region.

It is a difficult task, I also wonder what would, say abdullahx2, or dr ghani saeb, or qanuni would have said or done, and knowing full well that the rag tag lashkars from qwata to farah would have never entertained the idea of these nine adde. Of course the kwata shura would have done it at a cost, nothing is for free, either a broken afghanistan of tumble weed dust bowl with topakyan claiming triumph of izzat OR a broken (as in tamed) afghanistan with its izzat shoved up its ace.

There is always another route, a better more effective route of rehabilitating a nation, it requires a sort of marshall plan with marshall aid, afghans are not german nor japanese, two were destroyed and were built again, better, stronger, faster . . . . and both have exceeded themselves since then; we need a clever leader, benevolent and transparent, who can unite afghans, who can siphon the financial pledges directly into infrastructure projects, allowing hope and confidence to trickle into our soil.



http://www.sikhreview.org/pdf/july20...ontroversy.pdf (re kohinoor)

Shah Shuja (shuja runs east from peshawar, elphinstone)

Afghanistan 1747-1809: Sources in the India Office Records (time line from baba ahmad abdali to shah shuja)

Torkham Lala,

Not so. Karzaay village and the Karz family are Shamizai Popalzai NOT Sadozai.

Karzai et al do not comment much on this... he tried to emulate Ahmad Shah Abdali's coronation in our ancestoral village when he had a local malang tie a dastur around his head in the same spot that Ahmad Shah Baba had it done.

There is no more the concept of the "paramount" Khan like there was way back in the day when Haji Jamal and his son and Ahmad Shah were alive. So there was not really a strong Sadozai surrogate except some descendents distantly of Ahmad Shah Baba. The press repeatedly, in the build up to 2001 kept calling Karzai THE Khan of the Popalzai. This is simply not true as there were many strong families within the Popalzai tribe that were even more might power brokers.

But he for sure is NOT Sadozai and is Shamizai Popalzai.

[Talal]

Talal -

I'm certainly not condoning it - those black bags of cash hurt as much as helped Afghanistan through the 80s. I'm just saying that some people get hung up on intelligence agencies as though they are super being capable of flawless conspiracy.

In today's world they are agents of chaos, murder and instability.

Mossad, ISI, CIA, RAW, KGB you name it

[torkham]

Torkham Lala,

Not so. Karzaay village and the Karz family are Shamizai Popalzai NOT Sadozai.

Karzai et al do not comment much on this... he tried to emulate Ahmad Shah Abdali's coronation in our ancestoral village when he had a local malang tie a dastur around his head in the same spot that Ahmad Shah Baba had it done.

There is no more the concept of the "paramount" Khan like there was way back in the day when Haji Jamal and his son and Ahmad Shah were alive. So there was not really a strong Sadozai surrogate except some descendents distantly of Ahmad Shah Baba. The press repeatedly, in the build up to 2001 kept calling Karzai THE Khan of the Popalzai. This is simply not true as there were many strong families within the Popalzai tribe that were even more might power brokers.

But he for sure is NOT Sadozai and is Shamizai Popalzai.

So by eliminating that connection to sadozai-popal, the tenous link becomes a red herring and Kazi saeb has nothing to uphold or defend of past dishonour - its not in the equation. So his actions goes back to defending wealth and sourcing further (wealth).

KZ dances Limbo, you know how low can you go . . . .

Wow, i need to see this, the hired malang crowning the dastur on KZs head.

[Admin Khan]

torkham,

In the city of Kandahar, Kandaharis, know the direct descendants of Ahmad Shah Baba, rest assured Karzai is not a node in that that tree. Families know each other, someone can't just claim they are from location X in Kandahar, related to person Y, Kandahar is a tiny city and everybody knows each other.

[khushal]

Money is the root of evil I guess. Didnt you notice the Popal were the only Pashtun tribe to sell Afghanistan and betray their Ghilzai brothers (*cough cough mirwais hotak*) and sided with sha rukh and and his Persian cronies? They all seem to be curroput.

This is wrong. Dost Mohammad, Wazir Akbar Khan were a popal. Don't judge the whole clan by one family. Plus most of the Karz village has been left out and is poor, the guy is such a dawus, he hasnt even done anything for his village.

[Admin Khan]

Money is the root of evil I guess. Didnt you notice the Popal were the only Pashtun tribe to sell Afghanistan and betray their Ghilzai brothers (*cough cough mirwais hotak*) and sided with sha rukh and and his Persian cronies? They all seem to be curroput.

Easy there buddy. Don't judge Pashtuns with a single bad Pashtun. This is why I hate tribalism.

[khushal]

Easy there buddy. Don't judge Pashtuns with a single bad Pashtun. This is why I hate tribalism.

Tribalism brings competition. If you can guide that competition towards something constructive, there is nothing wrong with it.

[Kushan Prince]

Easy there buddy. Don't judge Pashtuns with a single bad Pashtun. This is why I hate tribalism.

Tribalism is an easy to tell who is Pakhtun or not. It's that, some Pakhtuns don't know how to use it correctly.

[Kushan Prince]

This is wrong. Dost Mohammad, Wazir Akbar Khan were a popal. Don't judge the whole clan by one family. Plus most of the Karz village has been left out and is poor, the guy is such a dawus, he hasnt even done anything for his village.

Dost Mohammad was heavily persianzied and relied on Persia to keep his empire stable. Shah Shuja was a big traitor when he helped the British and Sikhs advance into Peshawar. I don't judge a whole tribe due to the action of a few, but if you look at it, the popal's have generally "welcomed" invaders.


This is exactly the excuse tajiks like to use and call all Pashtuns "watan forosh" because of this kuni karzai.

[Manzareh]

Manzareh - there isn't much wealth to the nation, other than the accessibility.

I disagree, in 2010 the US discovered that there is about 1 trillion $'s worth of minerals in Afghanistan including gold, copper and lithium.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0