Scramble POTUS - What's News Tonight

Scramble POTUS - What's News Tonight

POTUS dashes to Kabul for a few hours to press the reluctant kleptocrat Hamid Karzai for obedience to the grand bargain. The deal is that Kabul fall into the condo run jointly by the ISI (Islamabad) and the IRGC (Tehran). In exchange, Karzai gets money and a longer term for his brothers and partners to control the opium trade. I am told that POTUS wants an exit from AfPak asap, and that handing Kabul off to its adversaries is an agreeable conclusion. What POTUS needs is a semi-credible government in Kabul on order to declare a success for the surge. The rush is on for a summer 2011 exit. Pakistan is designated as local cop. What has gone wrong with the deal, why POTUS flew to Kabul for five restless hours on the ground, is that Karzai will not take the deal.