[An Nahar] U.S. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you knowKerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a
lucky hat,conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
met again Tuesday with 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...
, a day after they put on a show of unity as they tried to end recent bickering over anti-American comments made by the Afghan leader.
Kerry also met Tuesday at the American Embassy in Kabul with participants in a U.S.-backed women's entrepreneurship program. He heard a succession of concerns from businesswomen fearful of what the 2014 transition will mean for not only for women and girls but for Afghanistan's commerce in general.
Many advocates for women's rights worry that the departure of international troops will lead to a deterioration in conditions for women, who were denied basic rights such as education under Taliban rule.
"After the transition happens, we are hoping for the same attention" as we get now, said Hassina Syed, who runs catering, construction and transportation firms. With the transition approaching "there is a lot of negative effect on the business sector," she told Kerry.
Kerry also spoke with civic leaders preparing for Afghanistan's 2014 elections, telling them he wanted to pay the "respects of everybody in America for the journey that you are on and for the great contribution you're making to your country and the efforts you're making to develop this democracy."
"You're engaged in a remarkable effort and the whole world is watching," Kerry said.