Kabul's loose cannons

Prompted by concerns that the Karzai administration is hopelessly corrupt, a US congressional panel has withheld billions of dollars in aid to Afghanistan. There is this long-held perception that Afghan government officials steal away a significant chunk of foreign assistance.
But what brings the Karzai government's corruption under sharper focus now is the scandalous quashing of a wide-ranging corruption probe by Zia Salehi, a close presidential aide. Zia is said to be also a mole working for the CIA, along with many other employees in the Karzai palace, who according to the Washington Post, were being paid regularly "to maintain sources of information, for it the (CIA) believes President Karzai has limited grasp of developments".
That may be the case, but no one should doubt President Karzai's expertise in deflecting such pressures. He is too shrewd to be caught on the wrong foot - a personality trait that underwrites his political survival. So now that he is again under the pressure of the US-led coalition governments to do something to curb and control corruption, President Karzai and his aides are out in the field to raise deflecting antes.
They vehemently reject the suggestion that rampant corruption is impeding progress in the war against insurgents, alternately shifting the blame on President Obama for announcing the July-2011 pullout date and the Pakistan government for what they allege is its failure to smash the Taliban hideouts.
On Thursday, President Karzai was no less forgiving; he complained to the visiting Centcom chief that the 'US is not doing enough to stop Pakistan from supporting the Taliban. His National Security Advisor, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, has gone a step further. He has urged the US government to place sanctions against Pakistan and 'refuse visas to Pakistani generals'. The central issue, he told the Post in an interview, is the war against Taliban and 'their ability to take refuge in Pakistan, and not the rampant corruption in Afghanistan'. But the Americans are much less eager to rise to the bait, firmly rejecting Spanta's plea not to put the corruption issue "at the top of all other issues".
In the fullness of time, the Americans would look back at their engagement in Afghanistan as one of their gravest mistakes. Nine years on, after losing tens of hundreds men and women and wasting billions of dollars, what the United States has in its hands is a corrupt regime whose writ doesn't run beyond the walls of Kabul. And there is no hope either that the regime will gain public support and strength to stand on its own two feet.
No wonder, President Karzai is asking the Obama administration not to go away, and let him enrich himself (Karzai) more through corruption and misrule. The choice is with the Americans: to stay back and keep fighting to prop up corrupt Kabul rulers or accept the dictates of history and negotiate with the people of Afghanistan; not necessarily from the position of strength, as some of the coalition generals want. Even the Afghan Taliban want peace to prevail in their country; that is the current reality.