Afghan President Karzai entered his second term with public support at the level of President Bush post Hurricane Katrina. Consider Karzai's recent words:
"We must have a second round (a runoff vote)...If we don't do that we'll be insulting democracy."
There was no second round. Hamid Karzai was sworn into office. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had this to say:
"The inaugural speech that President Karzai gave today set forth an agenda for change and reform. He was particularly strong on the steps that he intends to take regarding corruption," Clinton told reporters after the speech. "We think that the issue now is to ensure that it is implemented, that we see results."
Change? That sounds familiar. One Western official in Kabul offered a different take:
"We've heard all of these sentiments before. If you compare his last inauguration to this inauguration, you'll see that there's almost a 90 percent overlap in the issues that were raised."The Afghan people have five more years of failure, similar to Bush II. I didn't think W.'s stock could drop further after Hurricane Katrina, but the financial crisis precipitated a final implosion. Unfortunately after Bush left, America got Karzai level change and reform.
