These Are Our Afghan Allies

A billboard of President Hamid Karzai, right, with his running mate, Muhammad Qasim Fahim. Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

Accused of Drug Ties, Afghan Official Worries U.S. -- New York Times

WASHINGTON — It was a heated debate during the Bush administration: What to do about evidence that Afghanistan’s powerful defense minister was involved in drug trafficking? Officials from the time say they needed him to help run the troubled country. So the answer, in the end: look the other way.

Today that debate will be even more fraught for a new administration, for the former defense minister, Marshal Muhammad Qasim Fahim, stands a strong chance of becoming the next vice president of Afghanistan.

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My Comment: This is just the tip of the iceberg. When you look at the Ministers in the Government, Governors, Police Chiefs, military officers ..... you know that you have a problem.

This is Afghanistan's curse, and I cannot blame the Afghans for not being motivated to fight for these guys .... I know that I would not.

But we are "lucky" because the alternative is even worse. If it was not for their rigid brand of Islamic extremism and their years of horrible misrule, Taliban support would be many magnitudes greater than what it is today, and the fight on the ground would be many times greater.