Friend or Foe?

I can't stand this indecision
Married with a lack of vision
--Everybody Wants to Rule the World,
Tears for Fears
________________

Afghan President Hamid Karzai recently "led mourners during a burial ceremony for a former Afghan president killed in a coup three decades ago that led to 10 years of Soviet domination."

President Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan and 17 family members and associates were executed inside the presidential palace in Kabul during a communist-inspired coup in 1978. Their bodies were discovered last year (7 Afghan Militants killed in US-led Coalition Raid).

Khan established Afghanistan as a republic with himself as president after overthrowing the monarchy of Mohammed Zahir Shah in 1973. It was a return to strongman rule, and any resistance to Khan was suppressed. Khan purged his army, installing acolytes. So the person being honored by international representatives was actually a revolutionary and strongman militant insurgent.

Why is he being honored if this is what we are fighting against in Afghanistan? This guy is their hero, yet he is the same type of person we are killing today. Why don't we just let the Afghanis play their own little internal power games and get our armed forces out of this family feud?

Why is our ambassador recognizing a dictator, when our stated purpose is to install a democracy?