Word: karzai
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...delegation went on to a briefing at NATO's military headquarters in the capital, followed up by lunch with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Over a traditional meal of mutton baked with rice, carrots and raisins, Karzai and the Senators spoke on a broad range of issues, according to presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada. "The discussions focused on significant progress we have made, but also on the unmet challenges that are still ahead...
...candidate John McCain, who has already visited Afghanistan, has accused Obama of making uninformed foreign policy plans. This weekend's visit may go a long way towards establishing Obama's foreign policy credentials, but it is questionable how much he will actually learn while on the ground. Like president Karzai, who rarely leaves the palace for fear of assassination attempts, Obama will be equally sheltered from the real Afghanistan. According to the Associated Press but as of yet unconfirmed by the US military, Obama visited US troops in the relatively safe province of Nangahar. While not exactly a Potemkin village...
...policy challenge. Not that many in the country even knew he was planning a visit. You might call it the invisible man approach to building foreign policy credentials. While security around the presidential palace in the capital was amplified in anticipation that Obama would meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, no one at the palace, in the US embassy, at NATO headquarters in the country or in the US military would confirm his pending visit...
...understandable precaution - security in the capital has reached an all time low. On July 7 a suicide bomber rammed his explosives laden truck into the gates of the Indian embassy, killing 41 in the capital's worst terrorist attack. In April assassins attempted to kill Karzai at a national day parade, and in January militants conducted a sophisticated raid on the country's only luxury hotel, killing 9. This year in Afghanistan as a whole has been the bloodiest ever. For two months running foreign soldier casualties in Afghanistan have topped those in Iraq, Obama's anticipated next stop...
...cynicism is not unusual in a country where politics often trump policy. Obama's candidacy has been embraced by the National Front of Afghanistan, the country's largest opposition party, and the party most likely to field a promising candidate against Karzai in elections slated for September 2009. Spokesman Hussain Sancharaki supports Obama's pledge to send more troops and funding, but mostly he is thrilled by a comment Obama made to CNN a few weeks ago that seemed to question Karzai's leadership, one that may make the senator's first meeting with the Afghan president a bit awkward...