The Man Who Would Be King…Errrr President
Topic: War on Terror|The most unusual information floating around the blogosphere lately is the presidential election of 2009. That would be the presidential election in Afghanistan. As the situation in Iraq has improved in the past few months, the war in Afghanistan has deteriorated. Much of the blame for the recent setbacks there are being laid at the doorstep of the current president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai. The next election for president there is planned for 2009 and the one who is rumored to run against Karzai is the US Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad. Khalilzad was born in Afghanistan. The implications of having an American run the country of Afghanistan should make any of the readers here pause. This sounds like something that comes right out of the 19th century imperialism playbook. Granted, this is just a rumor but the prospect of having Zalmay Khalilzad as president of Afghanistan would have some interesting implications and sets up a plethora of unintended consequences for America’s war on terror. Our commitment in Iraq may be limited but our effort in Afghanistan will most likely be long term. If Khalilzad decides to throw his pakol (Afghani hat) into the ring, the pros and cons of his presidency will be fiercely debated by experts in the coming months.
