U.S. General Fired For Telling The Truth About Karzai and the Afghan Government

U.S. Major General Peter Fuller, Nato's deputy commander in charge of training in Afghanistan, was recently fired for being uber-candid about President Karzai and the situation in Afghanistan. Thing is, he was absolutely correct, and although he probably should not have made public those sentiments, he verbalized what most people think about Karzai's nebulous leadership skills, and major lack of gratitude.

About a month ago, Karzai had claimed that trying to deal with the Taliban was pointless, and blamed Pakistan for harboring militants.  Then just weeks later, he turned around and said that if the U.S. were to engage in a war with Pakistan, he would side with Pakistan, since Afghans would "never betray their brothers."

Of course Karzai would side with his Muslim brothers over infidel Westerners, in spite of the fact that the U.S. (and its allies) has been fighting their terrorists for all these years and pumping money into a losing battle.  In response, Fuller said of Karzai in an interview on politico.com:

“Why don’t you just poke me in the eye with a needle! You’ve got to be kidding me … I’m sorry, we just gave you $11.6 billion and now you’re telling me, ‘I don’t really care’? When they are going to have a presidential election, you hope they get a guy that’s more articulate in public”

A recent meeting Fuller had with Afghan generals revealed how utterly clueless they are.

“I said, ‘You guys are isolated from reality.’ The reality is, the world economy is having some significant hiccups. The U.S. is in this [too],” Fuller told POLITICO. “If you’re in a very poor country like Afghanistan, you think that America has roads paved in gold, everybody lives in Hollywood. They don’t understand the sacrifices that America is making to provide for their security. And I think that’s part of my job to educate ’em.”

According to Fuller, the Afghans had requested  battle tanks to

“put them on a flat bed and drive them around in a parade. You can teach a man how to fish, or you can give them a fish. We’re giving them fish while they’re learning, and they want more fish! [They say,] ‘I like swordfish, how come you’re giving me cod?’ Guess what? Cod’s on the menu today.”

$11.6 billion is a hell of a lot of money to be diverting from a country in need (the U.S.)  to a country that would rather side with a nation that has been prolonging the war on terror by harboring terrorists and thereby contributing to the continuing chaos in that land.  Had either Afghanistan or Pakistan truly wanted to rout terrorism from the region, it would have happened billions upon billions of dollars ago.

At least someone had the guts to tell the truth.