Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
April 7, 2008
Pg. 13
By Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, hinted Sunday that he plans to run for a second term, saying he has goals left to accomplish.
The comments were his first public indication that he would run for re-election in 2009 despite discontent over his government, which is widely seen as weak.
Mr. Karzai, who was elected in 2004 to a five-year term in Afghanistan’s first post-Taliban voting, said at a news conference that “every human” wants to complete the work he has started.
“I pray to God that the people of Afghanistan are happy with me,” Mr. Karzai said on the grounds of the presidential palace.
But he added: “If you ask my heart, God is a witness that I am not happy to run again.”
In diplomatic circles, Mr. Karzai is sometimes referred to as the “Mayor of Kabul,” a reference to his control of the capital, but weak authority in remote areas of the country.
Earlier this year, Mike McConnell, the United States’ director of national intelligence, said Afghanistan’s central government controls just 30 percent of the country. The Taliban controls about 10 percent, and local tribes control the rest, he said.
The Afghan Defense Ministry denied the assertion.
But last year was Afghanistan’s bloodiest since the 2001 United States-led invasion, and analysts have warned that the Taliban’s resurgence is threatening to turn the international effort here into a failure.
Marvin G. Weinbaum, a former State Department analyst on Afghanistan and now a scholar in residence at the Middle East Institute in Washington, said the United States would continue to back Mr. Karzai despite shortcomings that include a willingness to tolerate corruption within the Afghan government.
As with the Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, the Karzai administration “finds it very difficult to get ahead of the curve, to see the need to transition,” Mr. Weinbaum said. “They are afraid of any kind of change, that the alternative may be worse.”
Although the election is scheduled to be held in about 18 months, no other prominent Afghan leader has stepped forward. The Afghan-born American ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, is often mentioned as a possible candidate, but he has said that he will not run.
Others seen as potential candidates include Ali Ahmed Jalali, who was interior minister from 2001 to 2005 and recently has been teaching at the National Defense University in Washington, and Muhammad Yunous Qanooni, the speaker of Afghanistan’s lower house of Parliament.
It is not yet clear exactly when and how Afghanistan will hold its next round of elections. The vote for president is scheduled for the fall of 2009, with parliamentary elections set a year later.
Each election is estimated to cost at least $100 million, and international donors do not want to pay for two elections. It is not clear if the Afghan government can afford the cost of both.
Meanwhile, the president said the talks that some Afghan leaders were holding with Taliban fighters were good for the country.
Speaking shortly after his return from the NATO summit meeting in Romania, Mr. Karzai said members of the Taliban were part of Afghanistan, and he wanted them to live peacefully in the country.
Talks have been held between the Taliban and leaders of the opposition National Front for the last several months. Mr. Karzai has repeatedly called for talks with the Taliban, but critics in the National Front say that he has not followed up those words with action.
Mr. Karzai has said that insurgents must lay down their weapons and accept the country’s Constitution in order to be welcomed into society. However, he ruled out reconciliation with any militants from Al Qaeda, or hard-line Taliban militants.
April 7, 2008
Pg. 13
By Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, hinted Sunday that he plans to run for a second term, saying he has goals left to accomplish.
The comments were his first public indication that he would run for re-election in 2009 despite discontent over his government, which is widely seen as weak.
Mr. Karzai, who was elected in 2004 to a five-year term in Afghanistan’s first post-Taliban voting, said at a news conference that “every human” wants to complete the work he has started.
“I pray to God that the people of Afghanistan are happy with me,” Mr. Karzai said on the grounds of the presidential palace.
But he added: “If you ask my heart, God is a witness that I am not happy to run again.”
In diplomatic circles, Mr. Karzai is sometimes referred to as the “Mayor of Kabul,” a reference to his control of the capital, but weak authority in remote areas of the country.
Earlier this year, Mike McConnell, the United States’ director of national intelligence, said Afghanistan’s central government controls just 30 percent of the country. The Taliban controls about 10 percent, and local tribes control the rest, he said.
The Afghan Defense Ministry denied the assertion.
But last year was Afghanistan’s bloodiest since the 2001 United States-led invasion, and analysts have warned that the Taliban’s resurgence is threatening to turn the international effort here into a failure.
Marvin G. Weinbaum, a former State Department analyst on Afghanistan and now a scholar in residence at the Middle East Institute in Washington, said the United States would continue to back Mr. Karzai despite shortcomings that include a willingness to tolerate corruption within the Afghan government.
As with the Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, the Karzai administration “finds it very difficult to get ahead of the curve, to see the need to transition,” Mr. Weinbaum said. “They are afraid of any kind of change, that the alternative may be worse.”
Although the election is scheduled to be held in about 18 months, no other prominent Afghan leader has stepped forward. The Afghan-born American ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, is often mentioned as a possible candidate, but he has said that he will not run.
Others seen as potential candidates include Ali Ahmed Jalali, who was interior minister from 2001 to 2005 and recently has been teaching at the National Defense University in Washington, and Muhammad Yunous Qanooni, the speaker of Afghanistan’s lower house of Parliament.
It is not yet clear exactly when and how Afghanistan will hold its next round of elections. The vote for president is scheduled for the fall of 2009, with parliamentary elections set a year later.
Each election is estimated to cost at least $100 million, and international donors do not want to pay for two elections. It is not clear if the Afghan government can afford the cost of both.
Meanwhile, the president said the talks that some Afghan leaders were holding with Taliban fighters were good for the country.
Speaking shortly after his return from the NATO summit meeting in Romania, Mr. Karzai said members of the Taliban were part of Afghanistan, and he wanted them to live peacefully in the country.
Talks have been held between the Taliban and leaders of the opposition National Front for the last several months. Mr. Karzai has repeatedly called for talks with the Taliban, but critics in the National Front say that he has not followed up those words with action.
Mr. Karzai has said that insurgents must lay down their weapons and accept the country’s Constitution in order to be welcomed into society. However, he ruled out reconciliation with any militants from Al Qaeda, or hard-line Taliban militants.