Karzai’s Futile Campaign

Control of Afghanistan has been considered the key to power in Asia for centuries. The British and Russian empires fought for its barren cliffs, as did the Soviet army and the CIA. For the sake of that key, an entire British expeditionary force was totally wiped out as were 16,000 Soviet soldiers, not to mention hundreds of thousands of Afghan civilians. Compared to that, losses suffered by todays “peacekeepers” have been minimal, but they persist in the vain search for the key to power and stability, at least for Afghanistan itself.

Now Washington has begun to openly question the wisdom of keeping its troops there for the long term. The allies have been trying to avoid increasing their presence for a long time. Hamid Karzai, Afghan President by the grace of the United States, is considered a figurehead of little significance. Even his attempts to align himself with Moscow, becoming increasingly blatant by the day, have met with little success. As much as the Kremlin enjoys watching America fail, Afghanistan makes even the Russians shudder.

Since the withdrawal of the broken Soviet army in 1989 at the latest, Afghanistan has been a synonym in Russia for permanent and horrible chaos: unbeatable holy warriors, the medieval squalor of a permanent economic catastrophe, unmanned drone attacks that mangle little children, rival warlords selling the firepower of their private armies along with their heroin and a government apparatus falling apart from corruption.

Of course, nobody in Russia admits this openly. But they’re all delighted that they have nothing more to do with the question of who’s winning in Afghanistan.