Karzai's CNN Interview

During an interview with CNN's Fared Zakeria in February, 2009, President Karzai was asked about his brother's involvement in the narcotic trade in Afghanistan. Karzai paused and then stated that each time he protests the killing of civilians in Afghanistan by American forces, the next day the American media goes after him with these kinds of allegations to shut him up! Is this how Karzai views American media? Is this the way the American media is? My understanding of the American media is quite the opposite. During the coverage of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse in Iraq, the American media did not go after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki when he protested the abuse in that prison. The American media is not looking for ways to defend US foreign policy. In fact, quite to the contrary, the US media can be criticized for being too critical of US foreign policy.

The point is not that Mr. Karzai's understanding of American media is wrong. The point is that Karzai made this absurd claim as a head of state on an internationally televised interview that the rest of the Islamic world—and many more people who are critical of anything that America does—are tuned in to. Karzai's ridiculous claims only serve to fuel the hatred because they place doubt in the minds of millions of people around the world, or worse, cause them to believe that perhaps Americans knowingly and purposely are killing civilians in Afghanistan. People around the world tend to view Karzai as an American guy, or at least as an insider friendly to America, and they will very likely take him seriously on his accusations of American troops deliberately killing civilians. 

The US General in Afghanistan, in a television interview in September, 2009, said, "Our goal is to win Afghan skeptical minds and hearts." Why then do we not try to win at least Karzai's "skeptical mind and heart?" And each time Karzai claims that our troops are killing innocent Afghan civilians, how many more Afghan hearts and minds become skeptical! Is this the kind of guy we should be spending millions of dollars to install as a leader in Afghanistan? I know with certainty that American troops are ten times more careful than Afghans not to kill civilians.

Revenge for Wali Karzai

President Karzai has been begging the Taliban for peace for the last ten years. In response, the Taliban have been performing suicide attacks, detonating roadside improvised bombs and firing missiles on fellow Afghans. The Taliban have killed tens of thousands of innocent Afghans and hundreds of American and NATO soldiers. Despite this, Karzai continues to give pleas for peace, initiating bribes to remove brutal Taliban leaders from the blacklist of the UN. The bribes release hundreds of their captured followers from prisons. 

So far, it has been the innocent Afghan people that have been victimized by the Taliban killing machine. President Karzai has not given concern to this issue. Instead, he has been committed to his so-called "peace talks." But as soon as he loses a brother to the Taliban, his mood changes a little, and for the first time, instead of peace speeches, he talks of revenge. 

On July 17, 2011, a Karzai spokesperson in a press conference quoted Karzai: "We are committed to fight against those who carry out this sort of cowardly actions, so that revenge of the death of elders and protectors of Afghanistan is taken," he said. "But again we want peace and stability in Afghanistan and we won't turn our back on the way to peace in our country." 

The Personal Reasons Behind Wali Karzai's Assassination

From the evidence I have gathered about Wali Karzai's assassination, I can confidently say that his death had nothing to do with the Taliban. The Taliban wanted, rather, to opportunistically claim responsibility to show how deep their influence could penetrate. 

Wali Karzai's assassination, instead, had some personal reasons attached to it. The first possibility was that Wali had sexual relations with either the president's sister, wife, or son. In the area where Wali hailed from in Afghanistan, men commonly molest children. Wali acted as a bodyguard for the president's family, having an extremely close familial and personal tie with them. I project that there was a 90% chance that the occurrence of a sexual affair was the reason Wali was assassinated. 

The other 10% of possibility was related to drug money shares. Sardar, who assassinated Wali, was not an unknown bodyguard without status. He was very involved as a businessman and well connected in the business community. Sardar, perhaps, was part of the drug smuggling business, and Wali was unfair in giving him his shares.

Why I did I say that the Taliban were not behind Wali's assassination? Because Sardar was not a member of the Taliban movement. Also, he didn't carry the same ideology as the Taliban. That is why he was involved with Wali for close to a decade. 

Could it be money? No, because Sardar was already making better money with Wali alive. If he had wanted to bring about the death of Wali for money, he didn't have execute his mission at the perpetrator's home where he had known for certain that he would have been killed. You can sell a lot of things for money, except your life.

But why did President Karzai and his family assert that the Taliban was behind Wali's killing:

1) They wanted to score some credit with the international community, demonstrating that they had dedicated their lives to help NATO.

2) They knew the real reason, but didn't want spread shame on their family.

Wali Karzai Assassination

Many people around the world mistakenly think that the Karzai brothers are on the opposite side of the Taliban in the Afghan conflict. No - the Karzai brothers are friendly with the Taliban. It is the Taliban who are anti-Karzai. It has been ten years that President Karzai has been sincerely and unilaterally begging the Taliban for peace. But it is the Taliban whom are answering it by shooting missiles at the Peace Loya Jirga (grand assembly), doing more suicide bombing attacks, detonating more improvised roadside bombs, and shooting thousands of innocent people.

Yes, it has been ten years since the Afghan people have fallen victim to this shockingly wrong peace policy of the Karzai brothers and thousands have lost their precious lives. This was the first time that Karzai - the president and the biggest associate of this so-called "peace with Taliban" - lost a brother to the brutal Taliban! And yet, even at the grave site of his brother, while he just finished burying his brother, assassinated by the Taliban (at least they claimed the responsibility), he still begged the Taliban one more time: "Once again, I call on the Taliban, my dears, my brothers and friends, come and join me in building the country. Stop destroying the country."

Karzai keeps telling people that he is doing this because Afghan people are thirsty for peace! No doubt about that, but peace with who, how, and why? Ten years of begging is not enough?

But I personally don't blame the Karzai brothers - I blame the American government. There are three things the American government did not do in Afghanistan which has propelled the Afghan War further:

We didn't cut opium production.
We didn't stop trusting Pakistan.

We didn't stop begging the Taliban for peace.

It has been ten years, but in the last few months, this peace talk with the Taliban has taken the highest priority for the American government. The assassination of Wali Karai by the Taliban (or the claiming of it) is a big blow to the American peace talk policy with the brutal Taliban. Any peace with the Taliban is like giving back Afghanistan, the whole army which we trained and built, and all the police and secret service which we spent billions of our tax payers dollars to the Taliban, and indirectly to Al Qaeda. Above all, it would be giving back the Afghan nation which stood by America since 2011, helping us up and fighting against the Taliban side-by-side with our soldiers' back to the Taliban.