Karzai Is Said to Doubt West Can Defeat Taliban

[WestVirginiaRebel]

NY Times:

KABUL, Afghanistan — Two senior Afghan officials were showing President Hamid Karzai the evidence of the spectacular rocket attack on a nationwide peace conference earlier this month when Mr. Karzai told them that he believed the Taliban were not responsible.

“The president did not show any interest in the evidence — none — he treated it like a piece of dirt,” said Amrullah Saleh, then the director of the Afghan intelligence service.

Mr. Saleh declined to discuss Mr. Karzai’s reasoning in more detail. But a prominent Afghan with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Mr. Karzai suggested in the meeting that it might have been the Americans who carried it out.

Minutes after the exchange, Mr. Saleh and the interior minister, Hanif Atmar, resigned — the most dramatic defection from Mr. Karzai’s government since he came to power nine years ago. Mr. Saleh and Mr. Atmar said they quit because Mr. Karzai made clear that he no longer considered them loyal.

But underlying the tensions, according to Mr. Saleh and Afghan and Western officials, was something more profound: That Mr. Karzai had lost faith in the Americans and NATO to prevail in Afghanistan.

For that reason, Mr. Saleh and other officials said, Mr. Karzai has been pressing to strike his own deal with the Taliban and the country’s archrival, Pakistan, the Taliban’s longtime supporter. According to a former senior Afghan official, Mr. Karzai’s maneuverings involve secret negotiations with the Taliban outside the purview of American and NATO officials.

“The president has lost his confidence in the capability of either the coalition or his own government to protect this country,” Mr. Saleh said in an interview at his home. “President Karzai has never announced that NATO will lose, but the way that he does not proudly own the campaign shows that he doesn’t trust it is working.”
________

If true, then Karzai has lost his grip on reality, and it's time to cut him loose and "Go big" one more time before we get out.

[Valin]

But underlying the tensions, according to Mr. Saleh and Afghan and Western officials, was something more profound: That Mr. Karzai had lost faith in the Americans and NATO to prevail in Afghanistan.

 

Given "The One" will start pulling forces out of Afghanistan, can you blame him?

[SrWoodchuck]

Karzai sees the handwriting. We have a Muslim president [self-avowed] that has completely debased American military strategy, and should be tried for treason.

 

We are postponing the Kandahar offensive until the Fall [if ever], due to failure in Marjah. The Pakistani ISI has so infiltrated the Taliban, that senior membership in the Taliban requires ISI membership as well.

 

They [iSI] are supplying he Taliban with training, weapons, intelligence & even stipends to the family members of suicide bombers that target US & Nato forces [possibly paid for with our own aid to Pakistan.]

 

"Someone" has supplied the Taliban with surface to air hand held missiles; meaning we don't hold an air edge, with helicopters & low-flying aircraft, unless we are ready for losses in men & aircraft {think Russian defeat.}

 

Our latest captured Al-Qaeda/Taliban bigwig was a gimme, since he already supported the peace initiative & was essentially out of their "need to know" loop. Read about it here:

 

A-stan Fail

 

BTW: Osama Bin Laden has been safe in Iran for 5-years. Read about it here:

 

Osama bin Laden's-5 year Vacation in Iran