But what is the alternative, from Democracy Project

Submitted by Brent Tantillo (United States), Oct 29, 2009 at 21:49

Daniel Pipes reports that Hamid Karzai's brother is on the CIA's payroll, and this is evidence that Karzai is a kept politician, among others in the Middle East, i.e. Iraq's Nuri al-Maliki, Lebanon's Saad Hariri, and the Palestinian Authority's Mahmoud Abbas. Pipes notes that Washington didn't have any kept politicians in the Middle East prior to 2000, but now we have four. Well there was 9/11.

Pipes isn't too optimistic about the fate of these four, he thinks they'll go the way of the Shah of Iran, but frankly what is the alternative? Many of these leaders were democratically elected, for what it's worth. And to not prop up some form of moderate leadership in the region only leads to radical forms of Islamic rule.

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