Quote Originally Posted by Steve the Planner View Post
Slap:

One point he makes is that Afghanistan's leader must be Pashtun, and therefore, must be Karzai. Implicit in that statement is, I assume, that force of arms must be used to impose Karzai/Pashtun solutions on the non-Pashtuns.

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His logic is flawed.
In order to win in Afghanistan, we must win the Pashtoon population. This is a fact.
To win the pashtoon population, you don't need (IMHO) a Pashtoon president. You need a government that respects and protects Pashtoon culture and local leaders. A Dostum doesn't work, but a Massoud might. Karzai certainly doesn't do it. His gubenatorial (sp?) appointments have been heavy handed and counter productive. Regardless, Karzai is not a popular leader among the majority of Pashtoons and is especially disliked in Kandahar City. That we focus so much on Helmand and ignore Kandahar (we will see if we are serious about fixing that situation soon) is one of our many blunders.

As noted earlier, we missed our opportunity to start fresh after the elections. Although I believe installing Abdullah ^2 would have worked against us in the South.

However, the bottom line the longer Karzai remains in power the worse the situation is going to become in the South unless he quickly changes course in many areas.
Foremost is reigning in his little brother.
Allowing Governors to be if not popularly elected, at least popular vetted at a Shura or Jirga.
Release control of Provincial Police to Provincial Governors. Maintain control of ANCOP only at MOI level.
Replace Tajik dominated leadership in the ANA in 205 corps to Pashtoon leadership.
Eating a bullet (OK, wishful thinking)