The Corruption of Karzai

Listening to: Olivia
Mood: Blah

I haven’t really been keeping right up on top of politics as of late, but I have been trying to hit up the BBC for my daily dose of what’s happening in the world. One of the major stories that my favorite news network has been covering is the elections in Afghanistan, and how president Karzai fixed the election and is now insisting that everyone just move on with life as they knew it.

For some odd reason, this really disappoints me. I couldn’t tell you why. After all, this is Afghanistan, great granddaddy of Pakistan’s craziness. I guess it’s just a little disappointing to see everything revert to craziness in spite of everything that has been done to try and counteract it. In a country famous for nuttiness, disorder, and rampant corruption, is it really so much of a surprise that a US backed leader would be true to his roots and revert back to running things in a way that benefits him. This all lies on the assumption that the charges are true. Anyone really want to dispute this? Didn’t think so. I think the really tragic thing is that no one will do anything about this. In all reality, what can be done? Even so, this sends the unfortunate message to both the Afghani people and others around the world that if you are backed by the most powerful people, corruption is sanctioned. This directly counteracts the message of democracy that we are trying to beat into others, and last time I checked, corruption was distinctly undemocratic.

Becky