How does he finesse the corruption allegations surrounding Afghan leader Hamid Karzai?
Before he withdrew from the contested Afghan presidential election, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah pronounced that his rival, Hamid Karzai, was crippled by the corruption surrounding his regime. “That government cannot bring legitimacy, cannot fight corruption,” Abdullah said, adding that it “cannot deal with all the challenges, especially the threat of terrorism, security problems, poverty, unemployment and many others.” Karzai’s increasing alienation is a problem for Obama, though, especially because Americans like to be on the side of the good guys. The more widespread allegations become of Karzai’s corrupt rule and rigging the election, the more difficult it becomes for the president to convince voters that American troops are fighting and dying to, in effect, protect his government and set the stage for a U.S. handoff to Karzai in coming years. “For the moment, we don’t have a reliable partner,” GOP Sen. Richard Lugar said of the Afghan government on CNN Sunday. Look fo
