US Should Clean Up Own Corruption Before Pointing Fingers At Karzai

I recovered from a bronchial haze this weekend, read headlines like these, and got sick all over again.

The word here is that the US and Europe are pressuring newly re-elected Afghan President Hamid Karzai to clean up the corruption riddled government during his second term in office. Actually, scratch that. According to one European diplomat, the coalition isn’t so much interested in actual fighting of corruption, but rather wants “A couple of high-profile heads on a platter.” The heads in question belong to people like Gen. Rashid Dostum, a brutal warlord from northern Afghanistan who Karzai welcomed back into government over the summer. (See the Afghan Desk profile on Dostum here.) US President Obama has  called for an anti-corruption commission to perform the proverbial decapitations.

Launching such a purge (though largely symbolic) would show that Karzai is at least making a half assed hearted effort to do away with corruption that has destroyed the credibility of the Kabul government.

But here an Afghan perspective is useful and as always, surprising.

Melek Zehine–my boss at the Afghan magazine Killid Weekly–wrote an Op/Ed this week saying that Afghans are none-too impressed with the US and coalition track record of transparency and fair play in Afghanistan. (The piece isn’t online yet, otherwise I’d offer a link.)

Melek highlights the  widely held Afghan view that western powers are basically hypocrites:

Why should Karza–let alone the Afghan people–take Obama’s request for an anti-corruption commission seriously when the United States and its partners have mismanaged and wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on over priced, ill-planned reconstruction projects? And speaking of commissions, the coalition has yet to establish an official commission to review their near trillion dollar war, to say nothing of mismanaged, corruption riddled development projects since that war began.

Melek also points out that many of the men now getting the stink-eye from Washington and London were the darlings of the west just a few years ago. Dostum for example, was a key ally of the CIA and US Special Forces before the fall of the Taliban government. Says Melek:

To now condemn President Karzai for having individuals such as his brother, Dostum and Fahim in positions of power, when the US and its partners empowered these people in their fight against Al Qaida and the Taliban is highly disingenuous.

She is absolutely right and I’m not just saying that because she pays me. Melek is equally harsh on Karzai ( as are the majority of Afghans that I know) and advocates for a truth commission to weed out Karzai’s drug and warlord palls from positions of influence.

The US and coalition don”t have a whole lot of credibility on the Afghan street right now. If they want to push Karzai, on any issue, they need to do so very, very quietly.