Saturday, May 23, 2009

America's Pakistan Policy Not Mature


CNN's Next Hundred Days hosted a panel with David Gergen, Fareed Zakaria, Christiane Amanpour, and Michael Ware. They talked about the difficult challenges America faces in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Gergen suggested dumbing down expectations for success. They group suggested President Obama had a year to make progress or Congress would interfere. Christiane said the lack of patience with nation building was not mature policy.

U.S. tampering is seen in the proposed installation of Zalmay Khalilzad as an unelected Chief Operating Officer for the Afghan government. While Mr. Khalilzad is an Afghan, he spent decades in U.S. governmental and education/advisory roles.

America is back to the great man theory of leadership. The U.S. thought they found one in Ahmed Chalabi of Iraq. Narcissists are hard to control. Khalilzad is on for Afghanistan. Who is on the list for Pakistan and Iran?