It's rough playing in the Great Rich White Oilman's Game, as Hamid Karzai discovered the other day, because if you don't follow all the daily rule changes issued in the Presidential Daily Briefing, Cheney's Instant Karma's gonna get you!

It all began when Karzai attempted to take his job title as "president" of Afghanistan seriously, criticizing the US and the UK in particular for stirring up the Taliban hornets outside Kabul when the real terrorist threatwas hiding in Waziristan, across the border with Pakistan. Karzai claimed that the current policy of arresting Taliban militants in Afghanistan has just driven them across the border, where "president" Musharraf's ISI protects them from any serious interference. Karzai was careful not to implicate the new Pakistani government, however, stating that he was confident of their good intentions and that "things will improve".

Karzai's concerns have adherents within the American military, with a top U.S. military commander, Major General Jeffrey Schloesser, observing that Afghanistan could see record levels of violence this year, with new attacks coming from these same "safe areas" across the Pakistani border. In fact, Pakistan's military just made things a bit more accommodating by lifting the roadblocks which impede travel in the region.

But, echoing the famous margarine commercial from several decades ago, "it's not nice to fool with PNAC's nature!", this incident is leading Pakistan's domestic media to ask, "who really runs the country?"

In a move which smacks of dealing with two separate problems simultaneously, Karzai was warned by the whizzing rounds to return to his assigned spot as American puppet ruler and to resume his expected sycophantic behavior via the deaths of two Afghan MPs shot during this "assassination attempt". I expect to discover that local Shiite leader Fazel Rahman Samkanai, along with Daud Zazai from Paktia, were seen as being a little too close to Iran for Washington's taste, and were the real targets. Qezir-bash tribal leader Naseer Ahmad Latifi may also have been considered "a bit difficult", and his death might well serve as a warning to the northern tribes against joining the rebellion against the occupation of Afghanistan, which lately seems to be spreading into their regions.

The others who died - an Afghan soldier and a ten-year-old boy - were merely "collateral damage".

Considering how one's "allies" act as if they belong on the other side, the Russians - who have some experience at playing this New Great Game at this particular casino, are posing the question that just maybe George's NATO frat party is getting a little out of hand. Britain's Liberal Democratic leader Lord Paddy Ashdown tends to agree, calling Afghanistan lost.