US Puppet Cuts His Strings

Published on Sunday, April 11, 2010 by The Toronto Sun

US Puppet Cuts His Strings

Thwarted by the American government on compromise with Taliban, Karzai has begun openly defying his patrons

by Eric Margolis

Henry Kissinger once observed that it was more dangerous being America's ally than its enemy.

The latest example: the U.S.-installed Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, who is in serious hot water with his really angry patrons in Washington.

The Obama administration is blaming the largely powerless Karzai, a former CIA "asset," for America's failure to defeat the Taliban. Washington accused Karzai of rigging last year's elections. True enough, but the U.S. pre-rigged the Afghan elections by excluding all parties opposed to western occupation.

Washington, which supports dictators and phoney elections across the Muslim world, had the chutzpah to blast Karzai for corruption and rigging votes. This while the Pentagon was engineering a full military takeover of Pakistan.

The Obama administration made no secret it wanted to replace Karzai. You could almost hear Washington crying, "Bad puppet! Bad puppet!"

Karzai fired back, accusing the U.S. of vote-rigging. He has repeatedly demanded the U.S. military stop killing so many Afghan civilians.

Next, Karzai dropped a bombshell, asserting the U.S. was occupying Afghanistan to dominate the energy-rich Caspian Basin region, not because of the non-existent al-Qaida or Taliban. Karzai said Taliban was "resisting western occupation." The U.S. will soon have 100,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, plus 40,000 dragooned NATO troops.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/04/11-2

You give financial and military assistance when requested but you also relinquish control when the government also requests it. As the patron, you may not endorse subsequent decisions and policies of that new regime, but it isn't your choice.

A sovereign nation is free of influence and coercion by another other nation.

A takeover by a military commander who liked cooperating with the U.S.