Comments
This is "must see TV." I have no idea where GEN P. stands on this, but I know where I stand.
Addressing the perceptions of Legitimacy of the Afghan Government is the number one priority issues, IMO, for turning the corner on stability in that challenged land. The obstacles to achieving a writ of sovereignty from a populace so diverse, with so much baggage born of generations of infighting, and a culture of patronage that bans the losers to poverty and political irrelevance while the winners take all, is no easy task.
Reconciliation is a critical step in this process; but just as important as bringing excluded Pashtuns into the fold is; it is equally important to not alienate those of the Northern Alliance (Tajiks, Hazzara, etc) who generally recognize the Karzai regime's legitimacy currently. In a no-trust, all or nothing system, reconciliation is far trickier than any of us who did not grow up within can ever imagine. I had an opportunity to sit and discuss this with a panel of representatives and academics from this community, and was struck by how critical this issue was for them.
Hand in glove with this issue is the Afghan Constitution. Designed to prevent what the West perceived as the greatest problems in Afghanistan (Warlords and Militias); it created the far greater problem control so overly centralized in one man that national-scale corruption and illegitimacy of Provincial and District Governance is inevitable and legend in scale.
My 2 cents: Press hard for reconciliation, but do so with caution as well to not alienate one team in the pursuit of the other; make a constitutional convention a cornerstone of this process to create a system and processes designed not to counter what we feared in the beginning, but to facilitate what is needed for the future.