Afghans not happy with Hillary’s hard line

The Afghan foreign minister already has beef with Hillary Clinton. In Clinton’s answers to Sen. Kerry’s Questions on the Record, she writes: Afghanistan has turned into a narcostate. […] The Afghan government is plagued by limited capacity and widespread corruption." Clinton’s Afghan counterpart responded over the weekend, indicating that they are a little wary of ...

The Afghan foreign minister already has beef with Hillary Clinton. In Clinton's answers to Sen. Kerry's Questions on the Record, she writes:

The Afghan foreign minister already has beef with Hillary Clinton. In Clinton’s answers to Sen. Kerry’s Questions on the Record, she writes:

Afghanistan has turned into a narcostate. […] The Afghan government is plagued by limited capacity and widespread corruption."

Clinton’s Afghan counterpart responded over the weekend, indicating that they are a little wary of the administration moving into the White House tomorrow. From AP:

Foreign Ministry Rangin Dadfar Spanta said Saturday that it is "absolutely wrong" to classify Afghanistan as [a narcostate], though the minister readily admitted that Afghanistan is a major producer of drugs.

Afghanistan produces more than 90 percent of the world’s opium, the main ingredient in heroin.

"Madame Clinton is a good friend of Afghanistan, a close friend of ours," Spanta told The Associated Press in an interview arranged to rebut Clinton’s classification of Afghanistan.

"But if somebody believes that our government, the government of President (Hamid) Karzai is involved as a government entity in the production of drugs, this is absolutely wrong."

Unfortunately for the Afghans, this is just the secretary designate calling a horse a horse.

Carolyn O'Hara is a senior editor at Foreign Policy.

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