Jim Hightower

Isn't it great that America is standing so forcefully for fundamental principles of democracy around the world? We're standing side by side with some of the most notable, incredible, and astonishing democratic leaders on the globe today. Specifically, of course, I'm referring to Hamid Karzai.

Karzai? What a goofus! As the sitting president of Afghanistan, this guy is only notable for being an astonishingly-arrogant incompetent with no leadership credibility whatsoever. Yet we have tens of thousands of American troops over there – fighting, bleeding, and dying – to shore up Karzai's ridiculous and corrupt regime.

How ridiculous and corrupt? Let's remember that he flat-out stole last year's presidential election. The thievery was so rampant and blatant that his top opponent quit the race in disgust, declaring that there was no way for people to get a fair vote. Still, our government sanctioned this fraud, declaring that we had extracted promises from Karzai that he would stop the corruption and allow an independent commission to oversee future elections.

We might as well have tried to make a snake tap dance. With parliamentary elections coming up in September, this slippery autocrat has unilaterally dismissed the independent commission, decreeing that all new members will be handpicked by him. A Karzai spokesman noted that three of the disposed commission members were appointed by the United Nations and were "creating problems for us." Yeah, impartial election monitors can be a problem for petty tyrants. That's why they're there.

The spokesman claimed that Karzai's usurpation of the election office was merely part of "the process of Afghanization" of the government. What's happened to the democratization of the government? What's really happening is the Karzai-ization of the government – and not even one more of our soldiers should have to die for that.