Afghan People

Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president whose success or failure in his fractious country may stand as a crucial test of the Bush administration's antiterrorism strategy, displayed one trait yesterday that has helped him survive this far. "An honest man in any government, especially in my government, will not claim responsibility for any achievements," said a modest Karzai, wearing the green robe that has become his global trademark. "It is the Afghan people who have achieved this. " In an interview during his 24-hour trip to Philadelphia to accept the 2004 Liberty Medal, Karzai pointed to achievements he called remarkable but also bemoaned his challenges, starting with the faltering support from the West that some analysts believe may set the stage for a new crisis.

DAILY NEWS writer Dan D. Wiggs has insulted the entire Muslim world with his article suggesting that people dress like Afghan women for Halloween. The Afghan people are Muslim and we Muslims in America are united with them. The Afghan people have done nothing to harm the citizens of America. I have a better suggestion for a Halloween costume. If you must engage in this pagan celebration, then why not disguise yourself as an American woman? Here's how: First, put on makeup, fake hair, fake nails, fake breasts, fake eyelashes, get a fake sun tan and put on fake contacts that change your eye color.

On July Fourth, President Hamid Karzai received the 2004 Philadelphia Liberty Medal at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Because of his leadership in moving Afghanistan toward stability, democratic governance and gender equality, President Karzai was certainly the right choice for this award. The people of Afghanistan share this honor with President Karzai. We see this award as recognition of the struggle of the Afghan people for the democracy, prosperity and human rights denied to them for a quarter of a century by war and violence.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Three U.S. senators visiting Kabul said Sunday that they are worried that President Obama's planned withdrawal of 33,000 American troops by September 2012 could undermine Afghan morale, embolden the insurgency, and hamper efforts to defeat the Taliban. John McCain, Joseph Lieberman, and Lindsey Graham said they are heartened by the progress of Afghan security forces, but are concerned that Obama's withdrawal plan could deplete American military strength before dealing a decisive blow to the Taliban, especially in eastern Afghanistan.

Six years ago, Soviet armed forces invaded Afghanistan, killed the president and installed a puppet regime. Since then, the occupation has grown in size and brutality. Supported by tanks, artillery and air power, Soviet troops have increased to about 120,000; Soviet losses already exceed 30,000. Yet the conflict shows no sign of abating. Indeed, recent reports indicate that Moscow is preparing for a protracted war of attrition. Despite overwhelming odds, the Afghan resistance has continued its extraordinary war of liberation.

President Obama is caught on the horns of an Afghan deadline dilemma. In December at West Point, the president pledged that "after 18 months, our troops will begin to come home. " He never spelled out the pace at which they'd leave, and he talked of a "responsible transition. " But Afghans took him to mean we were heading for the exits. This made the Taliban bolder and less likely to agree to a negotiated settlement. In other words, setting the 7/11 deadline made it less likely that it could be met. "The timeline is cutting our own throats," said David Kilcullen, author of the new book Counterinsurgency and an adviser to Gen. David Petraeus on strategy in Afghanistan and Iraq.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan has achieved political stability, yet Afghans still do not feel personally secure in their daily lives, President Hamid Karzai said in an interview to be aired on Sunday. "The international coalition and the Afghan government have been able to provide, in the past 10 years, political stability to Afghanistan," Karzai said on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS . "But we have not been able - the United States, NATO, and Afghan government together - to provide the Afghan people with their individual personal security.

By James Carroll 'I extend to you and the Afghan people my sincere apologies. " President Obama sent this message to Afghan President Hamid Karzai last week in the thick of mass protests after U.S. personnel burned copies of the Quran. NATO commander Gen. John R. Allen had earlier offered "sincere apologies ... to the noble people of Afghanistan," but the demonstrations raged on. Members of Afghanistan's parliament called for jihad against Western forces, at least two coalition soldiers were shot dead, and multiple civilians were killed in the violence that accompanied the protests.

The United States tightened its noose around the Taliban regime in Afghanistan yesterday, airlifting troops to its northern border and rejecting a new plea for negotiations. Meanwhile, the United States continued laying the groundwork for a massive international effort to rebuild the battle-scarred nation after the fighting stops. In Kabul, Taliban forces fired on a mystery airplane that flew high over the city, tweaking the Afghan capital's nerves just as residents who fled in panic after Sept.

KABUL, Afghanistan - The Afghan president said Monday that a meeting of the nation's elders should convene to decide whether U.S. troops staying in the country after 2014 would be immune from prosecution under Afghan law. President Hamid Karzai's remarks were his first since returning from Washington, where he met last week with President Obama about the future of the alliance between the two countries. This was also the first time Karzai has floated the idea that Afghans should hold a "loya jirga" - a national assembly of elders - to make the decision on U.S. troop immunity.

KABUL, Afghanistan - The Afghan president said Monday that a meeting of the nation's elders should convene to decide whether U.S. troops staying in the country after 2014 would be immune from prosecution under Afghan law. President Hamid Karzai's remarks were his first since returning from Washington, where he met last week with President Obama about the future of the alliance between the two countries. This was also the first time Karzai has floated the idea that Afghans should hold a "loya jirga" - a national assembly of elders - to make the decision on U.S. troop immunity.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's president said Saturday the United States had put the two countries' security pact at risk with a unilateral air strike that killed 18 civilians, and a Taliban suicide bomber killed four French soldiers responding to a tip-off about a bomb hidden under a bridge. The violence and the dispute highlight the muddled nature of the international mission in Afghanistan as NATO coalition countries try to shift to a training role in a country still very much at war. The majority of NATO and U.S. forces are scheduled to leave the country by the end of 2014, but the exit is looking far from neat at the beginning of the hot summer months, when fighting typically surges.

WASHINGTON - The weekend massacre of Afghan civilians, allegedly carried out by a U.S. soldier, newly undermines the rationale for a war that a majority of Americans already thought wasn't worth fighting. But the Obama administration and its allies insisted Monday the horrific episode would not speed up plans to pull out foreign forces. President Obama called the episode "tragic," and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called it "inexplicable. " Obama told a television interviewer Monday that the killings underscored the need to hand over responsibility for security to Afghans.

By James Carroll 'I extend to you and the Afghan people my sincere apologies. " President Obama sent this message to Afghan President Hamid Karzai last week in the thick of mass protests after U.S. personnel burned copies of the Quran. NATO commander Gen. John R. Allen had earlier offered "sincere apologies ... to the noble people of Afghanistan," but the demonstrations raged on. Members of Afghanistan's parliament called for jihad against Western forces, at least two coalition soldiers were shot dead, and multiple civilians were killed in the violence that accompanied the protests.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan has achieved political stability, yet Afghans still do not feel personally secure in their daily lives, President Hamid Karzai said in an interview to be aired on Sunday. "The international coalition and the Afghan government have been able to provide, in the past 10 years, political stability to Afghanistan," Karzai said on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS . "But we have not been able - the United States, NATO, and Afghan government together - to provide the Afghan people with their individual personal security.

KABUL, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai received a resounding endorsement Saturday from a traditional national assembly to negotiate a security agreement that could keep a U.S. military presence in Afghanistan past 2014, when most international forces are to have left. The size of the force is subject to negotiations, but a future deal could keep thousands of U.S. troops there for years. The nonbinding resolution issued at the end of a Loya Jirga assembly also suggested some conditions for the talks between Afghan and American officials, including an end to unpopular night raids by military forces searching for insurgents.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Three U.S. senators visiting Kabul said Sunday that they are worried that President Obama's planned withdrawal of 33,000 American troops by September 2012 could undermine Afghan morale, embolden the insurgency, and hamper efforts to defeat the Taliban. John McCain, Joseph Lieberman, and Lindsey Graham said they are heartened by the progress of Afghan security forces, but are concerned that Obama's withdrawal plan could deplete American military strength before dealing a decisive blow to the Taliban, especially in eastern Afghanistan.

Will the killing of Osama bin Laden really be "a game-changer" in the Afghan war? Defense Secretary Robert Gates said it may be. And this is the big question I'll be exploring on a trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan, starting this weekend. Will bin Laden's demise speed the U.S. troop exit? My gut tells me it will make a difference, but not as big as Congress and a war-weary public would like. The state of play in Afghanistan was already shifting before the Navy SEALs found bin Laden.

President Obama is caught on the horns of an Afghan deadline dilemma. In December at West Point, the president pledged that "after 18 months, our troops will begin to come home. " He never spelled out the pace at which they'd leave, and he talked of a "responsible transition. " But Afghans took him to mean we were heading for the exits. This made the Taliban bolder and less likely to agree to a negotiated settlement. In other words, setting the 7/11 deadline made it less likely that it could be met. "The timeline is cutting our own throats," said David Kilcullen, author of the new book Counterinsurgency and an adviser to Gen. David Petraeus on strategy in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The debate is heating up over whether we should send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan if our commanders request them. However, there's virtually no debate over the need for a "civilian surge" in Afghanistan. Top administration officials - and the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal - say they need more American civilian experts to create jobs and improve the lives of Afghans. If we can't "hold and build" after clearing an area, young Afghans will continue to join the Taliban for a paycheck.