Afghan President Karzai (REUTERS/Ahmad Masood)
A Top Iraqi Official’s Advice to Karzai? Take America’s Deal -- New York Times
KABUL, Afghanistan — With one of the most important chapters of Afghanistan’s history open before him, President Hamid Karzai took time this month for a personal meeting with the longtime foreign minister of Iraq, Hoshyar Zebari.
It had been years since an Iraqi official had been to Afghanistan, and the trip was nominally meant to ease the passage of Afghan Shiites to holy shrines in Iraq. But it came right as Mr. Karzai had chosen to dig in and delay signing a security agreement with the United States, leaving long-term Western military support, and billions of dollars in aid, hanging in the balance.
In a moment of candor, Mr. Zebari offered a piece of advice to the president that would have been unthinkable from an Iraqi official just two years ago: Get over your differences with the Americans and sign the deal.
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My Comment: The parallels between Iraq and Afghanistan are striking, but if I was a betting man I would bet that U.S. forces will be out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014. The reason why is simple .... like Iraq in 2011 domestic politics are now in play in Afghanistan .... and the fact that most Afghans want foreign forces out of their country will probably result in people like Afghan President Karzai playing to this constituency without appreciating the consequences of what may happen when foreign security forces .... and the billions in aid that they provide .... are out of the country. But if this is what they want we must still respect their decision and hope that the hellish sectarian violence that is now gripping Iraq does not find another home in Afghanistan.
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