As the United States' ongoing stupefyingly ill-advised Afghan war moves resolutely forward toward that light at the end of the tunnel, the old blind Gray Lady apparently stumbled upon an acorn.
Seems the Bush boys have been busily hiding our involvement in warlord Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum's mass murders in Afghanistan while on the CIA payroll:
After a mass killing of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Taliban prisoners of war by the forces of an American-backed warlord during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, Bush administration officials repeatedly discouraged efforts to investigate the episode, according to government officials and human rights organizations.
American officials had been reluctant to pursue an investigation — sought by officials from the F.B.I., the State Department, the Red Cross and human rights groups — because the warlord, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, was on the payroll of the C.I.A. and his militia worked closely with United States Special Forces in 2001, several officials said. They said the United States also worried about undermining the American-supported government of President Hamid Karzai, in which General Dostum has served as a defense official.
The story takes a turn for the worse when you realize that Obama's band spanking new super-plan to turn the disaster that is Afghanistan into a shining city on the hill will have to deal with blowback fron Dostum's reinstallation by Karzai, our current designated puppet in the volatile region:
The question of culpability for the prisoner deaths — which may have been the most significant war crime in Afghanistan since the 2001 American-led invasion — has taken on new urgency since the general, an important ally of Mr. Karzai, was reinstated to his government post last month. He had been suspended last year and living in exile in Turkey after he was accused of threatening a political rival at gunpoint.
"If you bring Dostum back, it will impact the progress of democracy and the trust people have in the government," Mr. Prosper said. Arguing that the Obama administration should investigate the 2001 killing . . . There is always a time and place for justice."
Well, you could have fooled me. My understanding of offical White House policy is justice must take a back seat to political expediency if we are to more forward. Would Obama or his lackey Eric Holder dare to initiate meaningful investigation of war crimes in Afghanistan while totally ignoring them in Gitmo or Bagram? Or would any investigation whatsoever indicate a lack of a certain, shall we say, bi-partisan spirititude?