Bush stooge Khalilzad to become puppet president of Afghanistan?

This is a video about Tony Benn speaking at a demonstration in Manchester, England, against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, 23 September 2006.

From British daily The Independent:

Bush’s former Iraq ambassador to seek Afghan presidency

With Hamid Karzai seen as ineffective, many people are looking to someone with serious influence in Washington

By Kim Sengupta in Kabul

Sunday, 8 June 2008

In his time, he has been President George Bush’s point man in Baghdad, Kabul and the UN, as well as a lobbyist for both the Taliban and international oil companies. Now Zalmay Khalilzad is preparing to run for the presidency of his native Afghanistan.

Representatives of Mr Khalilzad, currently US ambassador to the UN, have discreetly sounded out various factions to ascertain his chances in the election scheduled for 2009. Although the incumbent, Hamid Karzai, is expected to run again, he is increasingly unpopular at home while his Western backers see him as ineffectual against the Taliban.

So, a United States national and Bush administration official as president of supposedly sovereign Afghanistan? How much more effective than Karzai “against the Taliban” will he, ex Taliban lobbyist, really be?

One oil company Khalilzad worked for was Unocal, trying to have a gas pipeline through Afghanistan.