Hey,Pal
by digby
While I appreciate the fact that Tom Friedman isn't saying that the Aemricans should be running around Afghanistan shoving their guns in people's faces and telling them to "suck on this," I really wish someone could tell him not write embarrassing things like this:
We have been way too polite, and too worried about looking like a colonial power, in dealing with Karzai. I would not add a single soldier there before this guy, if hedoes win the presidency, takes visible steps to clean up his government in ways that would be respected by the Afghan people.
If Karzai says no, then there is only one answer: “You’re on your own, pal. Have a nice life with the Taliban. We can’t and will not put more American blood and treasure behind a government that behaves like a Mafia family. If you don’t think we will leave — watch this.” (Cue the helicopters.)
No tin-horn dictator is gonna tell us what tah do!
He's right that Karzai is corrupt and that he has no legitimacy. And he's right that our latest quixotic nation building exercise, if it were possible, which it isn't, would depend upon a functioning, legitimate government. (Of course, it would depend upon an existing nation as well.) But threatening Karzai with bad Sopranos dialog isn't going to make the difference.
More importantly, I thought we understood that this kind of adolescent, swaggering attitude turned out not to be the best way to deal with the rest of the world. I guess it's a sign of maturity that Friedman isn't advocating shock and awe this time, but it's clear he hasn't yet grokked the fact that the US can't rely on bombast and bombs to deal with foreign governments, legitimate or not.
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