Hamid Karzai: America could have done better in Afghanistan

“And in the name in the war on terror, which everybody knew was to be fought
elsewhere, too many innocent Afghans lost their lives. Too many were
wounded, too many homes were violated.”

America has spent more than half a trillion dollars on the Afghan campaign in
the past decade and around 2,000 of its troops have died.

He thanked America and Nato for bringing better education, healthcare, economic
growth and a measure of stability to Afghanistan, but complained they had
not brought security.

“It did not bring the defeat of terrorism, as we thought it would. It did
not fight the war in terrorism in a manner that we felt was right.

It was fought against our own will, against our own advice,” he told the
magazine.

Mr Karzai has often attacked Nato and US tactics, saying the fight against the
Taliban should not be waged in Afghan towns and villages, but rather the
coalition should address safe havens across the border in Pakistan.

He has also railed against Nato commanders for allowing Afghan civilians to be
killed in bungled airstrikes and night raids.

Tensions had been so high at times that the US and Afghans were “almost
to the point of saying goodbye”.

However he denied his stance was anti-American, explaining that his first duty
had to be to defend Afghan lives and property.

“We are not anti-American,” he told the magazine.

“We are rather pro-American. But I have to protect Afghan homes. The US
media understood it as Afghan belligerence, or opposition to the US. It was
opposition to a method applied to Afghanistan.”

Mr Karzai’s forces will assume the lead for securing the country sometime next
year and will have assumed full responsibility by the end of 2014.

He said he would welcome an earlier withdrawal if “everything is done in
time” and the Nato alliance members wanted to leave.

It would be “good for us and good for them”, he believed. “Good
for us because it’s our country and we must defend it. Good for them because
I don’t want anymore international forces’ lives lost in Afghanistan. I
don’t want their money spent in Afghanistan when the things they are doing
we can do.”

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