How About Using American Power?

Ready for this one?  Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan, has announced that his nation recognizes the Russian annexation of Crimea and he calls it the will of the people.  As far as Ukraine and Russia are concerned, this action taken by good old Ham is meaningless.  No one in Crimea will care one way or the other what the Afghan president thinks or does.  No, Ham's actions are important for what they signify about the relationship between Afghanistan and the USA.  Clearly, this recognition of the annexation of Crimea is meant as a slap in the face of president Obama and the USA.  This is the same point as the one made by Ham when he refused to sign the status of forces agreement that would allow American troops to stay in Afghanistan. 

It is time for Washington to stop playing by Ham's rules.  We never got his permission to come into Afghanistan and spend thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars to get rid of the Taliban and let Ham get elected as president.  We don't need his permission to stay if we so choose.  President Obama should use America's power and our control in Afghanistan to "explain" to Ham that he can either sign the agreement or bad things will be likely to happen.  To use the old Godfather phrase, we should make him an offer he cannot refuse.

There is no reason for America to accept all this sass from a corrupt man whose goal has been to enrich and empower himself rather than to help his people.  Ham does not have a major power base among the Afghan people.  He needs to be reined in and controlled.