What Is Afghan President Karzai Thinking?

Massoud Hossaini / AFP - Getty Images

Reading Between President Karzai's Lines -- Times Online

Behind the Afghan leader's stomach-churning platitudes lies a history of mistrust and rancour
Someone has been having a quiet word in Hamid Karzai's ear. To judge by the schmaltzy, idiosyncrasy-strewn vernacular used by Afghanistan's President in his Christmas thank-you letter to Britain , published in The Times on Monday, it was Borat. The clichéed evocations of seasonal religious symbolism, merged with gushing congratulation, were so unwittingly patronising that they could easily have been written by the fictional Kazakh TV journalist.

But on closer inspection, after reading Mr Karzai's expressions of gratitude at how British soldiers die so readily in Helmand, his plea to remember that they do so to save us all from terrorist attack, and his warning that the situation could worsen without Britain's support, it becomes clear that diplomatic advice lies behind the letter.

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My Comment: The question is .... is Karzai the right man for the job? For the moment .... there is no one on the scene to replace him.