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Afghan president says he does not 'trust' US
[Pak Daily Times] Visiting Afghanistan's Caped President Hamid Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... said in New Delhi on Saturday he no longer "trusts" the United States, accusing the Americans of saying one thing and doing another in his troubled homeland. Karzai's statement to journalists came a day after he insisted he would not be "intimidated" into signing a security pact allowing US troops in Afghanistan to stay on after next year. "I don't trust them," Karzai said in a wide-ranging discussion at a local hotel in which he singled out a letter US President Barack Obama We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us... wrote last month assuring him that US forces would "respect" the safety of Afghans in their homes. Karzai was speaking on the second day of a three-day visit to India during which the United States hopes New Delhi can persuade him to sign the troubled troop deal. Karzai, who is due to stand down after elections next year, initially endorsed the so-called Bilateral Security Agreement, or BSA. But he later said the agreement could only be signed after the presidential election in April, warning against a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... presence if it just meant "more bombs and killings". His stance has outraged US officials and politicians, who have threatened a complete forces pullout if Karzai does not sign by the end of the year. "When Obama writes to me that he will respect homes, they should prove it... implement the letter, respect Afghan homes," Karzai said. Posted by: Fred 2013-12-15 |
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