Barack Obama was so shocked to learn that there is political and financial corruption that he had to temper his personal congratulations to election winner Hamid Karzai with a lecture to clean up his act.
Meanwhile, Obama’s underlings arranged Abdullah Abdullah to voluntary withdrawa from the election process, which was bought and paid for by American taxpayers, along with CIA funding for Karzai’s brother, and countless other people on the US payroll.
“Shock and Awe” are relative terms when corruption is the topic of discussion.
American politics are as pure as the driven snow. Money is not the grease that allows the wheel of American politics to turn — money is the wheel itself.
Both American political parties long ago sold out to the corporations and the powerful elite.
The whole system is so corrupt that there is absolutely no possibility of reform, just as there is no possibility of reform of the American health care system.
Can a tiger change its stripes? Can a crocodile learn kindness and gentleness?
Afghans are more honest about their corruption than Americans. Corruption is honorable. In America, political corruption is officially shameful and plausible deniability is used relentlessly — another word for it is hypocrisy.
American Republicans and Democrats are so hypocritical that they dare not deeply criticize each other.
Superficially, they can whine a bit, but they join together in counting their profits from their totally corrupt ways.
Elections are not even within the range of consideration of citizens of average means. Bloomberg-size fortune can help you to become a mayor of New York. However, in order to become a President of the United States of America, one needs way more than that.
In Afghanistan, a billion dollars goes a long, long way. How refreshing to see low-stakes corruption for a change!