Between a “disappointed rebel,” an “angry” president, a “jester” advisor and a “traitor” ambassador, the Taliban movement has scored a major goal in the net of the American-NATO troops, which were able without any effort to annihilate the campaign on Kandahar despite all the wagers of American President Barack Obama. Unfortunately for the president, after he thought that the Taliban will be dragged to the negotiations table while fully submissive, two scandals detonated in his face within a few hours. The first was the corruption cancer in Afghanistan and the delinquency of the cousins and entourage of Afghan President Hamid Karzai who trade with everything in the name of protection. Indeed, the first scandal which was exposed by the report of a Congressional subcommittee revealed that the American and NATO forces, which are fighting the extremists of the Taliban and the terrorists of Al-Qaeda, are demanding the protection of their supplies from corrupt warlords, who are then selling them and dividing the money with armed men and extremists. This American-NATO funding of terrorism has consequently become the biggest scandal, fueling the Taliban and its dreams of seeing the “occupation forces escape” just like the “Soviet” forces did before them. On the other hand, whether or not President Obama dismisses the commander of the allied forces in Afghanistan, U.S. General Stanley McChrystal, the second scandal which was detonated by an article written by the latter who was burdened with bitterness and disappointment vis-à-vis a 10-minute meeting with Obama had a resonating impact – despite the seriousness of the mission assumed by the first in a course that is supposed to define the success or the failure of the American administration's strategy in the region. In this context, while the president's anger is definitely justified in light of the “disobedience” of one of his most prominent army generals, especially since the article was one notch away from describing Obama as being an idiot or an ignorant in regard to the priorities of McChrystal's mission, Karzai cannot rely on the bridge of friendship which he recently mended with Washington in order to convince it to forgive a military leader whom he always considered as being outstanding and capable of breaking the hegemony of the Taliban in Helmand, before negotiating with the moderate figures in the movement. It was clear in the article carried by the American Rolling Stone that a general who exposes major disputes between the Pentagon and the White House over the management of the war in Afghanistan and disseminates the most hideous attributes to the symbols of Obama's administration, will likely be dismissed or resign, just like other heads are expected to fall due to the repercussions of the scandal in Kabul and Washington. Before finding out the nature of these stormy repercussions in the United States, as they did not give the American president the chance to catch his breath following the oil spill catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, it is clear – especially in light of the global financial crisis – that Washington's allies will lower the number of their troops in Afghanistan in preparation for their departure, at a time when the Kandahar operation was blown away by the two scandals and the American-British dispute over the management of the Afghanistan file. This is bad news for the region and good news for the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Obama can certainly not rely on the patience of the Europeans who are tightening the belts of austerity in their countries, at a time when others are spending excessive amounts of money on the purchase of protection for the supplies of the NATO forces from the Taliban - even if by proxy - and while the military commander of the allies is “rebelling” against his supreme leader in Washington and the movement is counting the coffins of the latter each time it goes overboard with the planting of bombs while wagering on the Helmand “curse.” For his part, Karzai can claim not to care about the presidency, considering that his salary only exceeds $500 by little. However, the taxpayers in America and Europe now know the fate of the hundreds of millions of dollars that were spent in Afghanistan on the training of their forces, the spread of education and the fight against the drugs and opium of corruption. Therefore, American Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke who got his share of McChrystal's arrows, can brag all he wants about the “retreat of the capabilities of Al-Qaeda organization” in the border regions between the two countries, but he will definitely not argue about the possible revival of the organization's grip if Afghanistan were to fall in the hands of the extremists and the hardliners and if the scandals were to hasten the pace of the NATO forces' pullout. In this case, neither Karzai's “asceticism” nor his wager on moderation in the ranks of the Taliban will do Obama any good. As for the warlords, they are always ready to move their rifles from one shoulder to the other and sell protection to whoever is willing to buy in the jungle of arms and violence. However, it is definitely a booby-trapped protection.
