Word: karzai
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President Bush shouldn't expect much mirth and bonhomie around the dinner table Wednesday when he hosts Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf and Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai. While both guests are considered key U.S. allies at the very epicenter of the war on al-Qaeda, neither man considers the other a friend, or even an ally. Karzai accuses Pakistan of enabling the massive Taliban resurgence inside Afghanistan - which has left his fledgling democratic administration unable to function as an effective government in much of the country. On Tuesday, he called on Musharraf to close the radical Islamic madrassa schools...
...time. Pakistan-U.S. relations are tense at the moment, particularly on the question of how deeply committed Musharraf is to rooting out al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists and capturing Bin Laden, who's believed to be hiding in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has complained that Pakistan's tolerance of extremists operating from its territory has helped them gain a stronger foothold in his own country, is furious that Musharraf recently signed a truce with pro-Taliban Pakistani tribal leaders in the North West Frontier Province. That truce calls for Pakistani troops...
...East have been dramatic, and we see the results in this chamber. Five years ago, Afghanistan was ruled by the brutal Taliban regime, and its seat in this body was contested. Now this seat is held by the freely elected government of Afghanistan, which is represented today by President Karzai. Five years ago, Iraq's seat in this body was held by a dictator who killed his citizens, invaded his neighbors, and showed his contempt for the world by defying more than a dozen U.N. Security Council resolutions. Now Iraq's seat is held by a democratic government that embodies...
Even those critical of Karzai sympathize with the demands he faces: working 14-hour days, he hasn't taken a vacation in five years. Karzai's burdens are compounded by his isolation. He rarely leaves his compound, although he says he recently slipped out of the palace in an unmarked car to press the flesh in Kabul. For all his ebullience, he can't help sounding weary from having to shoulder so much of the responsibility, and the blame, for Afghanistan's turbulent rebirth. "Our expectations were too high. My own expectations were too high," he says. "We came...
...next Afghan presidential election is in 2009, and Karzai has said he doesn't plan to run again. But he hedged on that vow at the end of our interview. "If there is an alternative three years from now that I can be comfortable with, who is patriotic, good and deserves to be elected, I would definitely quit in his favor." That's hard to imagine, both because of Karzai's ambitions and because the country's survival depends on the international support that only Karzai can guarantee. But sooner or later, both will run out. Karzai's biggest test...