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Afghanistan
Stop killing civilians or strategic pact is off, Karzai tells US
2012-05-08
[Iran Press TV] Afghanistan's Caped President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai
... 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 Pashtun face 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...
says the strategic pact signed by Kabul and Washington will be at risk if US-led forces continue to kill Afghan civilians.

On Monday, Karzai summoned the commander of 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...
forces in Afghanistan, General John Allen, and US Ambassador Ryan Crocker to warn them that civilian casualties in military operations threatened the pact, AFP reported.

On May 1, 2012, Washington and Kabul signed an agreement to extend the US military presence in Afghanistan to 2024.

Shortly after arriving in the war-torn country in an unannounced trip late at night on May 1, US President Barack Obama
Why can't I just eat my waffle?...
met Karzai, and both signed the deal that authorizes the presence of US troops for a period of 10 years after 2014, which was the original date agreed upon for the departure of all foreign combat troops from Afghanistan.

A statement from Karzai's office said that since Saturday, dozens of Afghan civilians, including women and kiddies, had been killed in NATO Arclight airstrikes in four provinces -- Pashtun-infested Logar and Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
in the south, Kapisa in the east, and Badghis in the northwest.

The statement said that President Karzai signed the pact with the US to protect the lives of Afghans and if civilian deaths are not prevented, the pact will lose its validity.

"If the lives of Afghans are not protected, the strategic partnership will lose its meaning," the statement quoted Karzai as saying.

US-led troops have been fighting in Afghanistan since 2001. Their initial offensive removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity continues to rise across the country despite the presence of about 130,000 foreign forces.
Posted by:Fred

#7  "No. No money, forget it. We'll pull out. Have fun with your Taliban buddies, dead meat."
Posted by: mojo   2012-05-08 13:07  

#6  Translation: Send money, bitches.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike   2012-05-08 11:59  

#5  Get out now. No long term commitments. Leave this dirtbag to the civilians he so wants protected. Let them know that if any trouble comes to us from there we won't be as nice the next time we return.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2012-05-08 10:27  

#4  Interesting that he doesn't blame the taliban for committing the war crime of co-mingling with civilians.

Seems like the Taliban ARE civilians, as are al Qaeda; neither are uniformed, they tend not to answer to a military heirarchy, etc.
Posted by: Glenmore   2012-05-08 09:41  

#3  Interesting that he doesn't blame the taliban for committing the war crime of co-mingling with civilians.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2012-05-08 08:26  

#2  Looks like somebody in Afghanistan wants more US econ goodies = handouts, just like somebody else wants the same in Pakistan.

Either way its not a good outcome for IRAN vee avoiding war wid the US.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2012-05-08 00:46  

#1  I can think of one "civilian" I'd like to see them kill...
Posted by: tu3031   2012-05-08 00:24  

00:00