ForumGarden

Well, what can you say? A corrupt drug baron opportunist collaborating with a locally detested army of occupation, killed by a member of the national resistance movement?

The Poles resisted occupation, the French resisted occupation, the Norwegians and Czechs resisted occupation, history applauds them for it. History does not treat Quisling's memory with much respect. I'm completely baffled that anyone anticipates a long-term benefit from either this Afghan occupation or the one in Iraq (which, I note, Petraeus is anxiously attempting to extend beyond the current legal December Get Out Of Dodge deadline).

Who's going to protect the profiteers once the last occupier leaves, or prevent the re-establishment of hard-line anti-Western government amidst scenes of jubilation?

Farewell Ahmad Wali Karzai, your country didn't need you after all.

Afghanistan is a better place without him?

I doubt it very much. That is, as I understand it, one of the conundrums faced by resistance movements contemplating political assassinations - there's always someone else to move into the vacated job. Czechoslovakia didn't grind to a halt in the absence of Reinhard Heydrich. The Polish resistance assassinated over a thousand people during their occupation, most of them collaborating Poles, but I doubt whether it advanced their liberation by so much as a day. But I also doubt whether anyone can morally blame them who wasn't there suffering alongside them.

I agree!

I note a public comment by the current Afghan PresidentIt's easy to kill and everyone can do it, but the real man is the one who can save people's lives.

BBC News - Afghan president's brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, buried

Rather more relevant to the present situation, I'd have thought, is that "the real man" is one whose country's foreign and financial policy is under the control of its own citizens. The current Afghan President appears to be making no strides in that direction. The Afghan Resistance, on the other hand, undoubtedly sees that as its primary objective. Facing an asymmetric death rate of fifty to one, I don't think their bravery can be brought into question either: "real men" is an unfortunate choice of words.