Rattlesnake Ridge      

 
      BFF

“US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has encouraged Afghanistan’s wary leadership and civic leaders to keep up Taliban reconciliation efforts and boost counterterrorism co-operation with Pakistan, as the Obama administration presses ahead with troop withdrawal plans. On an unannounced visit to Kabul, Clinton told civic leaders on Thursday that the US would not abandon Afghanistan and pledged that reconciliation would not come at the expense of women’s and minority rights. Clinton, who arrived in the capital on Wednesday, was to see President Hamid Karzai and other top Afghan officials to repeat her message later on Thursday. She assured women’s rights activists, educators and politicians that their concerns “are being heard at the highest levels of the US government”. “These are some of my heroes,” she told reporters before the start of a meeting at the US embassy……. Clinton’s trip comes after Karzai expressed frustration with attempts to woo Taliban fighters away from the fighting amid increasing attacks by the Taliban-allied, Pakistan-based Haqqani network. In her meetings with Afghan officials, Clinton was also to underscore the importance of linking Afghanistan to its neighbours, a consideration for a regional conference in Istanbul, Turkey.………”

Apparently Clinton read Karzai parts of the riot act (long overdue). But keeping minority and women rights, such as they are, will be hard with the Taliban in government. Meanwhile Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has delayed his own approach to Kabul until she leaves. His jet was practically in a holding pattern as he follows her into the Afghan capital.
Come to think of it, Ahmadinejad has away of descending onto Kabul right on the heels of departing American potentates. I recall hims descending into Baghdad right after Dick Cheney had left: the difference was that he entered the city in broad daylight. He did the same in Kabul once: arriving just as Cheney left. Do you suppose he is trying to send a message with his stalking (well, not him, but his mullah bosses)? It is possible he was trying to tell Cheney that Iran will always be lurking across the border: to the northeast of Iraq, to the West of Afghanistan.
They say Hillary is heading to Pakistan. I wonder what Ahmadinejad’s post-Kabul travel plans are.
Cheers
mhg


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