Afghanistan’s parliament has dealt a stinging rebuke to President Hamid Karzai by rejecting 70 per cent of his nominees for a new cabinet.

The Saturday voting in which 17 of 24 nominees were turned down confronts Karzai with a severe challenge as he tries to get his second term in office into full swing.

Not really surprising, but the first comment I saw on the post was near perfect.  Here it is, thank you ‘appraiser from Ontario’:

“Karzai is widely viewed within Afghanistan as an American puppet. It should be no surprise that most of his choices for cabinet have been rejected.

There should be riots in the streets over the blatant corruption and ballot-box stuffing that has ocurred. But having hundreds of thousands of NATO troops and various other U.S. friendly foreign mercenaries on Afghan soil tends to dampen dissent. The entire situation is a complete fraud, propped up by the imperial war machine that is America.”

I don’t think I could have said it better myself.