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Obama Wars Title: Karzai Rails Against America in Diatribe KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai accused the United States on Monday of exporting killing to Afghanistan by giving contracts to private security companies. It was the latest chapter of a bitter battle between the president and his allies in the war against the Taliban that has taken on an increasingly anti-Western tone. Tensions escalated on several fronts as the president confirmed at a news conference that he was receiving money from Iran and refused to back down on his deadline to close the security firms. “The money starts in the name of the private security companies in the hallways of the U.S. government ,” Mr. Karzai said. “The profits are made and arranged there.” The money then goes to private security firms, he said, adding, “then they send the money to kill people here.” The accusations followed a stormy meeting he had on Sunday night with the NATO commander, Gen. David H. Petraeus, as well as other senior Afghan and western officials in which Mr. Karzai stormed out, saying that he did not need the West’s help, according to people knowledgeable about the confrontation. Under a decree issued in August, all private security firms must stop operations by Dec. 17. While the United States and other western governments here have backed the ban, and are attempting to transition to the use of Afghan police and soldiers to protect their military convoys, they have asked for additional time to put it into effect, especially for civilian development organizations. Those organizations say they would not be able to continue work without security for employees, potentially endangering several billion dollars worth of programs and projects. President Karzai has so far refused to modify the ban although he has said that he would consider requests to delay the ban on a case by case basis. In many respects his sharp words reflect a widespread feeling among Afghans, especially in insecure areas, that foreign security firms are running roughshod over ordinary Afghans and intruding in culturally unacceptable ways on their daily lives. In his diatribe against the companies, which he described as funded by the American government, he said they were responsible for a litany of bloody crimes against the Afghan people. “When this money comes Afghanistan, it causes insecurity in Afghan homes and causes the killing of Afghan children and causes explosions and terrorism in Afghanistan,” said Mr. Karzai in the news conference. His calm tone contrasted with the explosive accusations he leveled at Western interests in Afghanistan and the news media, even going so far as to say that the security companies were interchangeable with the Taliban. “In fact we don’t know how many of the explosions are the fault of the Taliban and how much by them,” said Mr. Karzai, referring to the security companies. Mr. Karzai’s distrust and alienation from the Western alliance has increased over the past several months even as more soldiers have flowed into the country and more civilian development workers have begun to carry out projects, leaving diplomats and military officials increasingly frustrated and confused. Western officials said they were disheartened but not surprised by the virulence of his tone and said they would continue to try to find a solution that allowed development projects to continue. “It’s disappointing, but it’s vintage Karzai,” said a western official in Kabul, adding that accusations were hurtful when western soldiers and marines were dying in the field. “But when you are losing the numbers we are as an alliance and then when you got your reliable partner in Kabul saying such things it sticks in the craw a bit,” the official said. The impact is most severe for development companies because they are carrying out projects in insecure parts of the country where , if they do not have private security, it is difficult to get insurance for their employees, who then will be unable to work. The large construction projects done by the development companies are considered crucial by the military for its counter-insurgency campaign. The goal is that once insurgents are ousted from an area, the military can follow quickly with projects that employ local people. Termination of the projects would undermine the military campaign and also reduce services in many parts of the country where western experts are helping Afghan companies. At least one large company, Development Alternatives Inc., is already planning to terminate its projects—about $21 million worth of programs and others have said privately that they will have to do so soon because it will take several weeks to terminate contracts, lay off workers and determine what to do with unused construction materials. The one group of aid agencies that would not be affected are non-profit, non-governmental organizations that work entirely separately from the military and travel without security protection. Laurent Saillard, the director of the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief, said that there are 2,000 national and 360 international NGOs that do not use private security firms and would be able to continue their work. While many of those firms provide services such as health care and education and agricultural training, some do construction projects as well although generally they are less technologically sophisticated ones, said Mr. Saillard. “These new rules on PSC will have no negative impact on the vast majority of humanitarian NGOS,” he said.
Poster Comment: The wheels are coming off the Afghan wagon...indeed! Anyone's guess as to how the US will respond. I fear it won't be the right way, being getting the hell out of there post-haste. Putin is laughing his ass off, without a doubt.
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
Obama has lost Afghan, Pakistan and Turkish support.
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I doubt Putin is 'laughing his ass off'. He has the same problem with radical Islamofacists as we do. That said, we need to get the hell out of there now.
Obama's first all-by-his-lonesome budget, btw, calls for a $1.17 trillion deficit.
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