Karzai given 6 months to clean up his act?

Times:

President Karzai has six months to sideline his brother and reduce corruption or risk losing American support, Afghan officials have told The Times.

Senior palace insiders said that President Obama delivered the ultimatum when he congratulated Mr Karzai on his re-election on Monday. Top of his demands was action against corruption, the appointment of “reform-minded ministers” and several high-profile scalps to prove Mr Karzai’s commitment to cleaning up his Government.

“If he doesn’t meet the conditions within six months, Obama has told him America will pull out,” said an official with access to Mr Karzai’s inner circle. “Obama said they don’t want their soldiers’ lives wasted for nothing. They want changes in Cabinet, and changes in his personal staff.”

It is extremely unlikely that British troops would stay in Afghanistan if US forces were withdrawn.

The President’s half-brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, has repeatedly denied claims that he controls Afghanistan’s billion-dollar heroin trade. As head of Kandahar’s provincial council, he is the main powerbroker in the south of the country, but the President has refused to remove him, insisting that there is no proof of wrongdoing.

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I am somewhat skeptical that this demand was made and even more skeptical that it could be accomplished if tried. Of course it is reasonable to demand that the host government not be corrupt, but picking up your marbles and going home will not serve our interest either. We are not there to effect a pristine Jeffersonian democracy. We are there to deny the enemy a sanctuary from which to attack us. What we can do if the Afghans central government remains corrupt is decentralize our resource allocations and do a bottoms up counterinsurgency that focuses on the people and supports them.