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Editorial / Commentary / Opinion

 

 

 

Scott Sullivan :
Obama's confusion on Afghanistan and Russia

President Obama has created considerable new confusion over Afghanistan policy in the last 48 hours. Even as most observers were hoping for stability in Afghanistan policy, readers of the Washington Post were shocked yesterday to see a prominent anti-Karzai story, obviously leaked by the Obama administration, with details of financial corruption in President Karzai's administration. Moreover, in another story on the same page, CIA Director Panetta took aim at Karzai's well-advertised peace initiative by stating that the Taliban will express interest in political reconciliation with Karzai only after they lose on the battlefield, not before. This is another way for CIA to demand that Karzai terminate all political contacts with the Taliban. Later on in this same news story, Panetta implies that Karzai is selling out Afghanistan to Pakistan with his peace initiatives, which is unfair because CIA is Pakistan's leading cheerleader by far in Afghanistan. Panetta's comments are also unfair because they ignore the totality of Karzai's policy, where he has undertaken some pro-Pakistan initiatives but has undertaken far more significant anti-Pakistan initiatives, such as the Afghan-China agreement to replace US peacekeepers in Afghanistan with Cinese peacekeepers in 2012, not Pakistani peacekeepers.

Obama is creating confusion because these news stories raise a large number on unanswered questions about Obama's own policies in Afghanistan. Does Obama want Karzai removed from power? Does Obama want Karzai reduced in power so that he is no longer effective in office, which opens the way to his replacement, chosen by the US? Does Obama want Obama so reduced in power that he will be forced to align Afghanistan with the Iran-Pakistan Axis, despite Karzai's strong opposition?

Meanwhile, on a related topic, the US created confusion yesterday by rolling up an elaborate Russian espionage network operating on US territory. Was the US justified in taking this harsh action against Russia? I say no, that such a harsh and well-advertised US retaliation against Russia is inappropriate at a time when  President Obama is asking communist Russia and its close ally communist China to take the lead on containing Mahoud Ahmadinejad's Nazi regime in Iran, as well as Hugo Chavez's fascist regime in Latin America, Finally. President Obama needs Russia as a US partner in Afghanistan and in Syria, as a means of containing Iran and Iran's Pakstani ally. By all means, the US should apprehend and expel all Russian spies. However, US policy should not stop at this point but should be extended to a policy of US-Russian intelligence collaboration against common enemies --- Iran, Pakistan, and Venezuela.

Scott Sullivan is a former Washington government employee and was the Senior Advisor for International Economics at the Crisis Management Center of the National Security Council, 1984 - 1986. Petroleumworld not necessarily share these views.

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Petroleumworld News 06/29/2010

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