Is President Karzai the new Diem of Vietnam

The New York Times: Reports how President Karzai of Afghanistan has loss support of the Obama Administration due to the failure of his Administration to reform Afghanistan, the lack of reform has also effected his standing with the people of Afghanistan. This does recall the Kennedy Administration view of the Diem Government of South Vietnam before November 1963 when Diem was overthrown with the approval of the Kennedy Administration. The USA is not going to overthrow Karazi, he still the only national leader known to the International Community, but the lack of support could be taken by ambitious politicians as a green light to take power in Afghanistan. Lets recall the end of the Diem Government did not solve the problem, Diem was killed but the Governments came and went in Vietnam. The War that Kennedy enlarged with thousands of military advisers become an American War in 1964. It should be noted that we are at this stage since 2001, with the attacks of 9/11, the USA and the UK went in to Afghanistan to finish off the terrorists threat, Iraq divert attention but Iraq has been won in many respects, Afghanistan is still a problem. The terrorists are back, no Empire our country has had a good result in Afghanistan, thus the pause by President Obama is to be praised, he wants an Exit after a surge. The best exit is not to have a surge, keep Afghanistan on the low burn, use special forces, get the NATO allies to send more troops to the bloody place. As Fox News reported the Obama Administration wants it options open for leaving Iraq, in other words, Iraq has worked, sending more troops to Afghanistan would make it Obama's War. Thus can President Karazi prevent his fate being the fate of Diem, Diem was assassinated, lets hope he is a good political operator, we need Karazi we don't have that many options in the West.

Modern Iraq

Washington Post: Has an interesting article on how stable Iraq has become; of course there are still problems; but on the whole as the recent provincial elections have shown Iraq after the violence has become in some respects what Bush 43 wanted for Iraq in 2003, but only worked after his surge of troops. The Elite Media seems to have come around to the fact that Iraq after the Bush surge has worked, the Iraqi Army is taking up the security burden, the deal with the USA takes US Troops out of the towns, the majority of combat troops will be out of Iraq by 2011. Iraq after all the violence and death has a chance to become a beacon of regional peace in a War torn region. Read of the Day.

The USA and Afghanistan

BBC News: Reports that the Obama Administration sees Afghanistan as a problem harder to solve that Iraq. Its good to see that the new Obama Administration is taking its time when it comes to Afghanistan, the London Times Reports that President Obama wants to know Exit route out of Afghanistan thus a delay in sending troops to the region. This is Obama's LBJ moment, after the 1964 Presidential Election LBJ could have written off Vietnam but he followed the domino theory, that if he lost Vietnam the rest of South Asia would come under threat, thus more troops in to Vietnam. In the case of Afghanistan the argument is that if the west leaves the country the terrorists will come back and we get another 9/11. Thus the argument for more troops. Of course should the West leave the terrorists will come back, they are coming back now through Pakistan, thus it would not make much difference if the West was in Afghanistan or not. It can be argued that the USA and the UK should follow the old British Imperial Policy, do a deal to open Military bases in border badlands of Pakistan, this would allow the West to clean out this region, prevent the terrorists coming back over the border, but also allow them to keep a air patrol over Afghanistan, any building that is not approved by Kabul should be bombed. Any group meetings that are not approved by Kabul should be bombed. Thus we could take the troops out but keep troops on the ground to go back if we need to attack the terrorists but also use Air Power. As stated before it does not matter how many troops you have in Afghanistan you cant win, its that simple, we the UK have tried the USSR tried, thus the need for new ideas, if you cant win through conventional military means then one has to try a steel hand in a velvet glove.