US out of Afghanistan, per Karzai's request? Wow!

[TayTay]

Karzai Wants End to U.S.-Led Operations 2 hours, 13 minutes ago

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/afghan_karzai

KABUL, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday challenged the need for continued U.S.-led military operations in Afghanistan such as air strikes and house searches.


Instead, he recommended that foreign governments should "concentrate on where terrorists are trained, on their bases, on the supply to them, on the money coming to them" — a veiled reference to alleged support that militants get from neighboring Pakistan.

Afghan officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan of aiding Taliban rebels and other militants, a charge Islamabad denies.

Karzai said the need for major military operations by U.S.-led coalition forces has eased and that air strikes are no longer effective. He also demanded an immediate end to foreign troops searching people's homes without his government's authorization.

[whometense]

1. Considering our government's

general ineptitude, who can blame him? I imagine that position will win him extra support from his people.

[sandnsea]

2. Rummy on CNN, hmmm

Claiming victory in Afghanistan. I wonder if it's to convince people things are wonderful in Afghanistan and there's no reason for us to leave, or to pave the way for withdrawal to save some money.

Things aren't great in Afghanistan, the warlords terrorized everybody during the elections, no security was provided to female candidates, ten year olds voted. So I don't know what kind of smoke Rummy is blowing today, stay tuned I guess.

[beachmom]

3. He's actually tried this before. I think it was last spring.

He asked to have command of foreign troops, because it had come out that some Afghans were tortured (some killed) by American troops. Bush said no, so he pretended like all was okay. Karzai is a good man, I have no doubt, but he's pretty weak in Afghanistan, and cannot move around without a huge amount of bodyguards and U.S. military. I'm not sure what's going on here -- he may be pressured politically not to look like the puppet that he unfortunately is. I thought I had heard, too, that a lot of U.S. troops were going to pull out of Afghanistan anyway. We'll have to see how this all goes.