Obama’s Afghan visit: laying down the law to a US puppet

The recent visit by President Barack Obama to Afghanistan, and its subsequent coverage in the American media, have helped clarify the nature of Washington’s relationship to the Kabul regime.

What did the US president tell Karzai during their discussions Sunday night? Did he remind the Afghan leader that the American government and military had installed him in power in December 2001? Did he point to the billions of dollars in US aid that had flown into Kabul since that time, much of it ending up in the pockets of Karzai’s relatives and cronies? Did he threaten the Afghan president, or even hint that he might end up like Ngo Dinh Diem, the Vietnamese president of South Vietnam, and long-time US asset, assassinated in a CIA-organized coup in 1963?