The Taliban have spread their reach so broadly in Afghanistan that President Hamid Karzai's government could fall after U.S. forces leave the country, according to a new report by the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit think tank that studies conflict zones. "If Karzai wants his government to survive past 2014," says the report's lead author, Candace Rondeaux, at Foreign Policy, he'll have to stamp out favoritism and cronyism, and show that the law applies to everyone equally. Is the Afghan government really headed for disaster?
Karzai can't hold on: If 150,000 American troops couldn't defeat the insurgency once and for all, says Bette Dam at CNN, Hamid Karzai doesn't stand a chance. His government has been "digging its own grave with enormous corruption and patronage," which has only encouraged more rivals to take up arms. No wonder many Afghans think Karzai will be "the first person to flee when the troops withdraw."
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