Afghanistan War Was 'Not In Our Interests', Says Karzai

Afghanistan man wounded in violent flare-up in the aftermath of NATO attacks that resulted in the deaths of four civilians in the northern region of the country. US/NATO forces have sparked anger due to the deaths of thousands in bombing raids., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Afghanistan war was 'not in our interests', president Hamid Karzai says

Afghan leader expresses gratitude to American people, but ‘extreme anger’ towards US government

theguardian.com, Sunday 2 March 2014 22.32 EST

Expressing “extreme anger” toward the US government, Afghanistan’s president Hamid Karzai says the war in Afghanistan was not fought with his country’s interests in mind.

“Afghans died in a war that’s not ours,’ Karzai said in the interview with the Washington Post, published on Sunday, just a month before an election to pick his successor.

He was quoted as saying he was certain the 12-year-old war, launched after the attacks of 11 September, 2001, was “for the US security and for the western interest”.

Karzai’s refusal to sign a security deal with Washington that would permit foreign troops to stay in Afghanistan beyond this year has frustrated the White House, and Barack Obama has told the Pentagon to prepare for the possibility that no US troops will be left in Afghanistan after 2014.

The US president told Karzai in a phone call on Tuesday he had given the order to the Pentagon. The phone call was the first substantive discussion between the two leaders since June.

But staking out a new position, the White House said in a statement it would leave open the possibility of concluding the bilateral security agreement later this year.

“It’s good for them to sign it with my successor,” Karzai told the Post. He has insisted the United States must jump-start peace talks with Taliban insurgents and end raids and strikes on Afghan homes before he signs the deal.

The NATO-led force in Afghanistan has a current strength of more than 52,000 soldiers, including 33,600 US troops. More than 3,400 coalition forces have been killed in the fight against the Taliban, including more than 2,300 US troops.

In the interview, the Afghan leader said he was deeply troubled by the war’s casualties, including those in US military operations, and felt betrayed by what he described as an insufficient US focus on going after Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan rather than in Afghan villages.

Civilian casualties in Afghanistan dissipated his country’s “common cause” with the United States, Karzai told the newspaper.

Criticising his US allies was the only way to secure a response by Washington to his concerns, he said.

The Post said Karzai told his interviewers as he escorted them out of his office on Saturday night: “To the American people, give them my best wishes and my gratitude. To the US government, give them my anger, my extreme anger.”