British Prime Minister Gordon Brown may have opened a route for U.S. and British forces to leave Afghanistan. The Times Online reports this morning that Brown has warned Afghan President Karzai that he must clean up corruption or lose international support.
“I am not prepared to put the lives of British men and women in harm’s way for a government that does not stand up against corruption,” Brown said. Corruption in Afghanistan is endemic. Brown said the Afghan government had become “a byword for corruption”.
It is this corruption that presents the opportunity. The U.S. and British need a storyline for pulling out of what appears to many observers to be an unsolvable mess. The Afghan government’s unwillingness or inability to clean up corruption is a defendable cause for pulling out.
Look for the White House to step up tough talk on corruption and increase its focus on the need for Afghans to earn our support. If President Obama and Prime Minister Brown are serious about getting our troops out of Afghanistan they will hold President Karzai to tough standards on corruption that he and his government will be unable to meet. That will be the political solution to how the President meets his promise to get the U.S. out of Afghanistan. From their, our exit becomes a matter for military strategists.
