Dostum Wants a Promotion

Abd ar-Rashid Dostum, the Uzbek warlord form northern Afghanistan who apparently has some support from Uzbekistan, is seeking a senior position in Karzai's government. Dostum is also one of the warlords who helped create a new political party to challenge Karzai in the upcoming Presidential elections. Don't believe anything happening today in Afghanistan is really democratic. What we're seeing is warlords leveraging for personal advantage sometimes backed by foreign powers who will manipulate the semblance of a democratic process to suit their own interests. You might get stability out of it, and it'll probably be better than the Taliban, but these are not great leaders of the people.

UPDATE: Something else I just noticed: Three U.S. soldiers were injured in an attack on a base in central Afghanistan. The continual mantra is that there are only attacks in the south.