Karzi at Boston University Commencement: MP Galloway he is not.

[geckosfeet]

Boston Globe article on Karzi's commencement speech at Boston University.

"Karzai urged the graduates to ''question the notion of national interest, especially when it is narrowly defined and pursued at the expense of other people," and to ''discover how moral imperatives must also drive our actions, even when there are no economic or political motives."

[JDPriestly]

1. Whose moral imperatives?

That's the problem. After all, the Taliban ruled from its moral imperatives. Osama Bin Laden justifies his crimes by what he views as moral imperatives. Sounds like Karzai was talking gibberish -- unless he was more explicit about how to determine what moral imperatives should govern.

[saigon68]

2. The freaking Mayor of Kabul at a Commencement

unreal-- he was/is some kind of CIA operative

His ass would have been blown away long ago if it wasn't for over 1,500 HIGHLY PAID ($2,000.00 A DAY) MERCENARIES.

[JDPriestly]

3. He did have something useful to say at some point.

Karzai added that he was angry about the abuse of prisoners in Afghanistan by the US military, reported in graphic detail in the New York Times last week, and said the US should cede some control of military actions in his country.

''Operations that involve going to people's homes, that involves knocking on people's doors, must stop, must not be done without the permission of the Afghan government," Karzai said.

Boston Globe article

[Briar]

4. Strange that the leak about the failure to curb opium

production happened just as Karzai threatened to bring up the issue of US abuse...

Not that he was ever likely to do a Galloway - it's difficult to let rip with the unvarnished truth about someone if you're sitting in their pocket.

[geckosfeet]

5. Karzai literally needs the US to stay alive,,,

Yes he is in BuschCo's pocket, but he is starting to wiggle a bit. In order to survive he needs some protection. Galloway's position is quite different.

It seems that Karzai is starting to express some dissatisfaction with the way things are playing out. Bush tried to dope slap him into place but Karzai is correct about the military needing to be held accountable for violating human rights in Afghanistan.

Some of his speech in Boston was quite thoughtful, an adjective one rarely uses for a Bush speech.

<quote Boston Globe>
Afghan President Hamid Karzai yesterday told Boston University's 2005 graduates that they cannot let their country ignore human suffering in distant lands, as he said the United States once did in Afghanistan, because doing so will not only harm their own interests but ''violate a part of our humanity."

''We must not turn away when we hear the cries of the hungry. We must not stand by when we see the killing and terrorizing of the innocent,"
<end quote>

Indeed, is he speaking about the current abuse of Afghans under US occupation,,, or former Taliban abuses,,, or former Russian abuse. Is there a distinction to be made between one abuser and the next?

Bush saw fit to denigrate the value of education in his commencement speech:

"Someday you will appreciate the grammar and verbal skills you learn here," he deadpanned to laughter from the audience. "And if any of you wonder how far a mastery of the English language can take you, just look what it did for me."

How proud we are.