Exclusive: U.S. drafts Afghan 'Compact' it hopes will bolster new Karzai government

[unhappycamper]

Exclusive: U.S. drafts Afghan 'Compact' it hopes will bolster new Karzai government
By Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Monday, November 2, 2009

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has been quietly working with U.S. allies and Afghan officials on a package of reforms and anti-corruption measures that it hopes will boost popular support for President Hamid Karzai and erase the doubts about his legitimacy raised by his fraud-marred re-election.

The success of the so-called "Afghanistan Compact" will hinge on Karzai's willingness to take bold actions such as cracking down on official corruption, replacing ineffective ministers and surrendering some power to local authorities, which in the past he's resisted or failed to undertake.

"As long as the population views its government as weak or predatory, the Taliban's 'alternative' style of delivering security and some form of justice will continue to have traction," says a U.S. government document that outlines part of the proposed Compact and was obtained by McClatchy.

"We would have to see some really concrete actions on the part of Karzai to be able to take this seriously," said Marvin Weinbaum, a former State Department intelligence analyst, now at the Middle East Institute. "It looks great on paper."

Bolstering the credibility of Karzai's government is essential to the Obama administration's efforts to curb the worsening Taliban-led insurgency amid growing casualties and shrinking public support for a war that entered its ninth year last month.


Rest of article at: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/78214.html

[IndianaGreen]

1. The Obama Administration is smoking Vietnamese pot

and they are following the failed path of the Johnson Administration in Vietnam.