Word: karzai
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...soldiers are busy hunting down the Taliban and al-Qaeda, and some 5,300 NATO troops are required for security in Kabul. That is because 30,000 unruly, battle-hardened and under-paid Northern Alliance soldiers remain in the city, and their commanders, who despise Afghan President Hamid Karzai, have ignored the allies' polite requests that they leave. Manpower is not the only problem. NATO, for all its wealth and might, has only three working helicopters at its disposal in Afghanistan. And the U.N. and other aid agencies, citing security concerns, have suspended operations in the impoverished south and east...
...Karzai, who in June 2002 was confirmed in his job by a tribal assembly called a loya jirga, was a royal chieftain from the majority Pashtun tribe who, with some U.S. arm twisting, was found acceptable by the minority Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras. Having no army of his own, he was unthreatening to the country's warlords. With his fluent English, stoic bearing and good fashion sense, he seemed a comforting figure to the U.S. and the U.N. But as he nears the two-year mark on the job, the Karzai model is barely working for Karzai himself...
...front door of his Kabul office. The national army and the police force are still new and feeble. Most of his provincial governors are viewed as corrupt, and all are toothless in the face of regional warlords who rule life outside the capital. Far from appreciating the esteem that Karzai enjoys in the West, many Afghans see him as an American puppet. Most are either more loyal to or more frightened of the well-armed warlords...
...Some of Karzai's troubles stem from conflicts with the U.S. He wants to build an infrastructure, disarm the warlords and stop drug trafficking, but the U.S., already distracted by Iraq, has focused on hunting down al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. Yet despite this, both groups are making a resurgence. In the Zabul and Kunar provinces, governors have faced assassination attempts...
Some Afghans believe Karzai is too much a gentleman, failing to curb the excesses of the warlords within his own Cabinet. Like the Iraqis, Afghans are accustomed to strong men. --By Michele Orecklin. Reported by Tim McGirk/Islamabad