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Tue 7 Aug, 2007 10:00 am
Bush to Karzai: Will You Just Shut Up About Iran?
John Nichols
Things got a little testy at the Camp David Summit between Afghan President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and American President George Bush.
Karzai, who when he is in the U.S. is expected to act as a puppet of the Bush administration, made the mistake of actually speaking his mind. In a CNN interview broadcast Sunday, the Afghan president said terrorism in Afghanistan is getting worse, that the hunt for al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is at a standstill and, then, he described Iran as a positive player -- "a helper and a solution" -- in the region.
All of these statements are objectively true.
But George Bush does not deal in the realm of truth. And he certainly does not like his puppet presidents getting off their strings.
On the eve of the summit, Karzai told CNN that:
1. "The security situation in Afghanistan over the past two years has definitely deteriorated. The Afghan people have suffered. Terrorists have killed our schoolchildren. They have burned our schools. They have killed international helpers."
2. "We are not closer (to catching bin Laden), we are not further away from it. We are where we were a few years ago."
3. "So far, Iran has been a helper (in the fight against terrorism)."
All of those statements, made by Karzai in an interview with Wolf Blitzer on the eve of his trip to Camp David, were corrected by Bush upon the Afghan president's arrival.
On the security situation, Bush told Karzai not to believe what he was seeing on the ground in Afghanistan. "There is still work to be done, don't get me wrong," Bush said. "But progress is being made."
On the bin Laden search, Bush spoke of how the hunt is progressing and declared that, "With real actionable intelligence, we will get the job done."
On Iran's positive role in the region, Bush again told Karzai not to believe his own experience but instead to accept the neoconservative version of events. "I would be very cautious about whether or not the Iranian influence there in Afghanistan is a positive force," the American president pointedly told the Afghan president.
So there you have it, a meeting of the minds Bush-style.
A foreign leader from a region of supreme interest to the United States comes to Camp David to brief the American president on what is going on. The foreign leader speaks his mind, offering his best assessment of the experience he is living. Then the president tells the visitor from abroad that he is wrong.
As Bush famously declared at a policy session in 2005, "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."
And it is just so damned inconvenient when a puppet who is supposed to help spread the propaganda instead messes everything up by talking about what is really happening.
We'll keep an eye out for the Krauthammer/Kristol/Hannity address to these remarks.
Note the Christian Broadcast Network's coverage here...
Quote:CBNNews.com
August 6, 2007
CBNNews.com - President Bush said Monday that right intelligence will allow U.S. and Pakistan governments to take out al-Qaeda leaders camping on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area.
"With real actionable intelligence, we will get the job done," Bush said.
Bush was at Camp David for two days of meetings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
The two discussed pervading problems in Karzai's country, including civilian killings, drug trade, and the resurgence of the Taliban.
Karzai said that he and Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf would discuss how to tackle the problem of lawlessness and extremist hideouts along Pakistan's borders.
conference with President Bush, Afghanistan President Karzai
Top tribal leaders from Pakistan and Afghanistan are expected to meet this week in an effort to resolve tensions between the countries. Musharraf and Karzai are likely to attend.
Bush noted Afghanistan's progress since the defeat of the Taliban, but stressed that serious problems remain.
"There is still work to be done, don't get me wrong," Bush said. "But progress is being made, Mr. President, and we're proud of you."
Karzai acknowledged a resurgent Taliban. But he said that it is not a threat to his government. Karzai is Afghanistan's first democratically elected president.
"We have a long journey ahead of us but what we have traveled so far has given us greater hope for a better future for a better life," Karzai said.
The United States has about 25,000 troops in Afghanistan and is spending $10.1 billion this year on Afghan security and development.
Not a hint of Karzai's remarks.