Behind Karzai's outbursts
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By Fareed Zakaria
The U.S. has tired of its longest war, debating only the size of the small force it will leave behind, mostly for training purposes. The Taliban continues to have many strongholds in significant parts of the country. And Pakistan continues to support the Taliban from across the border-support that is likely to expand as America withdraws and Islamabad seeks to fill that power vacuum.
So Karzai might be playing an erratic game of brinkmanship in his negotiations with Washington, but he might also be trying to navigate a post-American Afghanistan. While American troops might well remain and some American aid will continue, Afghanistan is going to look very different in 2015 than it does today.​
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The very fact that the U.S. wants to maintain troops in Afghanistan well after this year proves that the right-wing thugs in Washington have no intention of ending their obscene occupation of that country at any time in the near future! This is obscene in itself!
Karzai wants attention to the real problem = PAKISTAN. He wants US to force PAKISTAN to stop fighting a proxy war with
Afghanistan and USA through Taliban.
The fact remains "Pakistan continues to support the Taliban from across the border-support". The use of technology like drones have now made this a manageable problem. Terrorists truly fear drones. Drones can make the Pakistanis put on their best behavior even after troops pullout. Troops can leave drones can stay.
Such is to be expected from someone like you with your obvious limitations, Silverado! If I were you, I'd be ashamed to show it here or anywhere else. You sound like another war happy, ignorant Tea Partier. Do you have any notion about the human suffering in a war and the horrific destruction caused by one? Obviously not!
Excellent idea.......keeping flying drones, bring the troops and our equipment home. Its a simple solution vs. risking the lives of our military men and women. Plus the upside is the downside and that would be the cost to deploy men, equipment and materials. Both Afghanistan and Pakistan governments are about as corrupt as they come and if the only weapon left behind are drones, so be it. The Taliban and the Pakis' hate drones because they are an effective deterrent. meaning they kill a lot of muslim terrorists.....
Now this is the most ignorant comment I've seen here yet, Dire! It's ignoramuses like you who'll bring this country to it's knees with your unmitigated stupidity. Where is your shame?
Sorry Quinton, I never posted that idiotic comment above. Evidently, somebody's trying to make me look stupid here. Besides, I'd never agree with a jerk like Silverado whose ignorance seems to exceeded only by the pride he takes in it!
Observing the ground realities, I believe P.Karzai is very much committed to share the government with Taliban, of course that would happen with the continuing flow of International funds. Moreover the so called 'election drama' won't bear any fruitful results either.
My name is Emil Kaiypov. I am a citizen of the Kyrgyz Republic, a lawyer, and a father of two children. The proposal for which I am asking your kind support is the suspension of all currently existing hostilities on Earth.
The main goal of my entire project is to save and improve the lives of children who are suffering from the present conflicts and violence.
The challenge is to create a moment of "pause" [a technical term from video language] in hostilities now and in the future, as well as to refusal to restart them at all. I believe that in this context, such "pause" in the war action seems do-able and practical, much more effective than the idealistic and utopian pressing of an imaginary "stop" button. In the future the first action will equate to the second: "pause" will become "stop". In order to alert the international community and potential supporters, I made a demonstration of my own at 18 October 2013 on the territory of Syrian embassy in Beirut, with poster "pause the war".
The purpose of this demonstration, is to show through an example that:
1) one person has the power to perform an action directed to the benefit of all mankind.
2) no one should be indifferent, when war is concerned.
3) war requires us to drop everything else, in order to stop it. Daily activities, against the background of war, look meaningless and empty.
I believe, that this idea will resonate and supporters will wish to join it. The age of information technologies, will help to spread it around the globe. Definitely there will be supporters among the world's famous celebrities. In the event that a large number of ordinary people and celebrities join this campaign, the dream to stop all military actions on the planet will be realized. This will serve as an occasion to announce the call for volunteers in the "international army of peace". It will consist of unarmed "soldiers" who are ready at any time, to go to the hot spot to "pause" the hostilities with the fact of their presence and to encourage the warring parties to engage in dialogue. Ideally, this army should consist of a world-famous and beloved celebrities from all spheres of human activities.
I suggest that countries be ready to support my initiative, in solidarity, by placing on the cloth of their national flags, the well-known pause symbol "II". I believe that in the course of implementation of this anti-war action, the reasons for which the suspended armed conflict began, will be resolved or continued in a civilized manner. This anti-war action will bring about a new peaceful reality, when there will be no state left, which "international army of peace" had not visited.
The termination of all hostilities, will become the point of departure for further continuous progress in all directions.
We are able to bring about the time, when the world will be fairly managed by a workable international organization which will be trusted by all citizens of the earth. When this happens, all kinds of weapons will be transferred to international United Nations control, the purpose of which, will be the preservation of peace and sustainable development of mankind.
We live in a world, when the collective effort makes possible the colonizing of other planets in the foreseeable future. I believe, that we have enough strength and resources for the child born tomorrow to see a world, where uniform international standards of education, labor, pension and medical care, will be established everywhere. A world, where the primary human needs will be satisfied for free.
A world, where nobody talks about freedom, because absolute freedom will accompany each person from the moment of birth, to his last breath. A world, where the happiness and freedom of the individual, will not happen in isolation but will include freedom and happiness of all of humanity. A world without war.
A world without war is undisputed goal, that sooner or later humanity will definitely reach. It is the primary duty of every adult to fulfill a "world in peace"– everyone’s childhood dream. Every child surrounded by the horrors of war dreams that one day somebody will come and say "It is enough!" and by saying it bring war to an end. Then war will stop. That day has come! It's time to combine our efforts in order to make that dream come true.
Well posted, emil. Unfortunately, as long as the U.S., Great Britain and France continue their unreasonably aggressive current policies, your goal will be virtually impossible to realize. This is why we need Russia as well as China to provide a counter balance to these countries. That was proven last summer when the Russians successfully persuaded the Obama Administration not to launch an attack on Syria.
Karzai is so fickle and unreliable that it's a waste of time to deal with him. If Washington shows it's not anxious to deal with him, he would come crawling back
Karzai is corrupt........pure and simple.
No different than the corruption in America, where the Demcoratic party seeks to enslave all of the people, and force its agenda on EVERYONE!
I don't care anymore, he can sign or not sign, blackmail all along, F-16's, M1's, no because it would end up like when the USSR left, Scuds, M-72's, MIG's. If the Indians or anyone else wants to give them that fine. But after all that the deal is done and he won't sign. So I will have a mothership for the southern sectors and a small base in the one of the Stans. JSOC fly in hits, and fly out. I can fly in and set up fire bases if I have too for support, easy. Sign or don't sign, could not careless, I tell you one thing I would not want any of these guys at my funeral or medal ceremony, they go anywhere for a free dinner.