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| Afghanistan |
| Karzai Says NATO Night Raids in Afghanistan Must Stop |
| 2011-12-25 |
[An Nahar] 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 Saturday Afghanistan will not sign a strategic partnership deal with the U.S. until NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... -led night raids and house searches stop. The president's remarks came after he heard back from a government-appointed delegation assigned to look into civilian casualties sustained during recent NATO "The president stressed that the strategic partnership document will not be signed until the night raids and house searches stop," his office said in a statement. "After hearing the report by the delegation, the president said that the arbitrary operations and house searches by NATO have become a serious problem between Afghanistan and NATO forces and that this has been one of the main obstacles on signing the strategic partnership deal with the United States." The strategic partnership document being negotiated with Washington will govern the relationship between American troops and the Afghan government after the scheduled withdrawal of combat troops in 2014. Night raids have been a persistent sticking point, but Karzai's refusal to sign until the operations end is his bluntest yet. NATO has defended the operations as the safest way of targeting bully boy leaders, insisting they will continue but with the increasing involvement of Afghan Special Forces. It insists that in 85 percent of night raids no shot is fired and they cause less than one percent of civilian casualties. But Karzai has led public criticism of the controversial raids, saying they endanger lives and harass local communities, and repeatedly called on U.S.-led international forces to stop entering Afghan homes. The delegation appointed by Karzai investigated NATO Lead investigator Mohammad Tahir Safi said: "We want civilian casualties to stop. We cannot tolerate any more. "NATO-led ISAF forces have killed Afghan civilians for no reason." According to the United Nations ...what started out as a a diplomatic initiative, now trying to edge its way into legislative, judicial, and executive areas... , the number of civilians killed in violence in Afghanistan rose by 15 percent in the first six months of this year to 1,462, with snuffies blamed for 80 percent of the killings. There are around 140,000 international troops in Afghanistan fighting a decade-long Taliban insurgency alongside Afghan government forces. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #8 "the interest held by the US electorate in conquering, occupying, and/or converting such nations to civilization is at an all-time low" There are other options, AH - particularly for those places that will never allow themselves to be converted to civilization. But I'll leave those options to your imagination, since I don't want to be sink-trapped so early on a Christmas morning. :-( |
| Posted by: Barbara 2011-12-25 10:54 |
| #7 That idiot Joe Biden repeatedly called for the division of Iraq. One could make a much stronger case for dividing Afghanistan. Where's Joe when we need his one idiot idea? |
| Posted by: Steve White 2011-12-25 10:12 |
| #6 Typically, an effective way of handling such problematic types is division. In this case, a north/south division of Afghanistan. Most of the problems are caused by the Pushtun, so carve them off, along with Kabul, as South Afghanistan. If Pakistan wants to consume South Afghanistan for itself, that is okay as well. Probably even better. Not our problem. Then take all the northern peoples as North Afghanistan, in a confederation with Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. No Pushtun allowed. Importantly, the north has a lot of unexploited resources, so in just a few years of no longer being tormented by the Pushtun, they could live in much greater prosperity and peace. Plus, the US would be more than happy to keep its base in Mazar-a-Sharif. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-12-25 08:10 |
| #5 Pakistan,Iran and Saudi was and is STILL the problem re Jihadi conquering ideology! Unfortunately, the interest held by the US electorate in conquering, occupying, and/or converting such nations to civilization is at an all-time low. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2011-12-25 04:24 |
| #4 once we leave, Pakistan and their proxies will take over again! Afghanistan and Iraq were never the problem.Pakistan,Iran and Saudi was and is STILL the problem re Jihadi conquering ideology! |
| Posted by: Paul 2011-12-25 03:37 |
| #3 As I understand it, night raids have been pretty much stopped for a while - except for those run as joint Afghan-US ops. And such raids are done precisely because they result in less collateral damage. Zero should have followed W's lead of 'declaring victory and leaving.' Get our guys out of there - nobody and nothing there worth getting them killed for. Anyone want to wager on Karzai's life expectancy once we leave- |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2011-12-25 03:04 |
| #2 ...the record's stuck...the record's stuck...the record's stuck... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2011-12-25 00:57 |
| #1 Hey, this article is a repeat! I've seen it about ten times already... |
| Posted by: gromky 2011-12-25 00:16 |
