[WSJ] The U.S. suffered a major blow in Afghanistan as 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...
made a surprise demand that the American-led coalition pull its troops from villages back to bases, opening a new rift that threatens the U.S. strategy in the country.
That's a perfect cue to pull all the troops out by Saturday and leave Karzai to his Najibullah moment.
U.S. officials said they are planning no changes in U.S. deployments, however, and played down Mr. Karzai's request, which came as Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
...current SecDef, previously Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993....
left Kabul after meetings officials described as cordial.
The Afghan president's demands showed the extent to which a series of offenses against Afghans by American forces--in particular the killing on Sunday of 16 villagers, mostly women and kiddies--have roiled U.S. efforts to seek an orderly way out of the 10-year war.
At about the same time as Mr. Karzai's statement, the Taliban also challenged Washington, saying they had suspended their negotiations with the U.S.