Atlantic Council Senior Adviser Harlan Ullman writes for the Huffington Post on Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s recent visit to Washington, DC:
Last month when Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu made his ill-advised plea to Congress to scuttle the nuclear negotiations with Iran, fringe Republican elements in Congress, along with right wing fellow travelers, called Bibi the 21st century’s version of Winston Churchill. Clearly they must have been referring to Churchill’s flip-flops to and from the Conservative Party as Netanyahu would do vis a vis opposing the two state solution. Possibly they may have been referring to Churchill’s tenure as First Lord of the Admiralty and the disastrous Gallipoli assault he initiated in 1915 or his five years as Chancellor of the Exchequer after World War I and the monumental economic blunder he made returning the pound sterling to the gold standard.
But surely the link could not have been with Churchill the brilliant, gallant and steadfast wartime leader who, by dint of character, will and language, turned near defeat into victory. Instead, that association surely should be applied to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani who visited Washington last week. In full disclosure, the president is a good friend and colleague of many years standing.