Thursday, March 10, 2011

"Oops, We Goofed," and Other Infamous Last Words

The NATO forces goof. A lot. There was our "complicated" air-strike last year that killed several Afghan soldiers, Yemeni schoolchildren being killed, nine Afghan boys being shot...it's just not good. The latest goof strikes a bit close to home for one of our "friends." We accidentally killed Hamid Karzai's cousin, and he's understandably a bit miffed.

Now, I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the NATO soldiers involved. I mean, obviously, when you're out in the dark on an Afghan side-street, your trigger finger is going to be a bit tense, and you might see one man as a threat. Unfortunately, Karzai isn't taking it so lightly.

""The president sees this as another lamentable case of loss of life," Omer said. "This was the result of an irresponsible and unnecessary night raid. His message is that they have to stop these irresponsible night raids that kill innocent Afghans.""
Karzai has apparently often condemned the night raids, and has decided that he's not going to stand for it anymore.

I think that within five years, our actions are going to drive Karzai over the edge. He's going to try to kick us out of his country, with the support of most Afghans. Of course, we're not going to be able to stand for that, because we can't just leave the Afghans to their own governance, now can we? They might degenerate into chaos. (But hey, at least it would be their chaos, and not ours.) So then, naturally, our forces will have to unseat Karzai, because we can't leave the Afghan people in the hands of such a brutal, freedom-hating man.

Irony, enter stage right.