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...
called on US and Nato troops to stop their operations in Afghanistan.
The President made the call on Saturday during a speech in eastern Kunar while visiting families of the nine young boys mistakenly killed in a Nato air strike.
Experts warned that President Karzai's comment will cause the Taliban to grow stronger.
President Karzai made the Kunar visit after Commander of Coalition forces Gen. David Petraeus and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates expressed apologies for the incident.
"I respectfully and humbly, and not arrogantly, ask the US and Nato forces to stop their operations in our land," President Karzai said yesterday at a gathering in Kunar province.
... which is right down the road from Binny's house in Chitral...
Supporting President Karzai's call on foreign forces to take the war beyond Afghan borders, experts emphasised that it is also important that Nato continues its counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan.
General Abdul Hadi Khalid, a former deputy to the Afghan Ministry of Interior is one of those supporting continuation of Nato operation in the country.
"To call on foreign forces to stop their operations means to leave the battleground for the Taliban, and the Taliban would easily be able to retake highways and many districts," Mr Khalid said.
Lack of a clear strategy and proper coordination on the war against terrorism has created some challenges in Afghanistan, experts believe.
"Afghan government has dual policies for its own survival, but only the Taliban will benefit from such policies and the Afghan people will be the ones to suffer," Gen. Amanullah Aman, an Afghan military expert, told TOLOnews.
Afghanistan's Caped President Hamid Karzai has also repeatedly urged foreign forces to stop their night raids.
But Afghan and foreign military officials have said the night raids have been efficient in breaking the Taliban's momentum.