Puppet Karzai momentarily forgets his role

[Castro]

Karzai angry over West's tactics

 

Mr Karzai looked visibly angry Nato and US-led troops are failing to co-ordinate with their Afghan allies and thereby causing civilian deaths, President Hamid Karzai has said.

 

He criticised his Western allies' "extreme" use of force and said they should act as his government asked.

 

"Innocent people are becoming victims of reckless operations" because the troops had ignored Afghan advice for years, Mr Karzai told reporters.

 

He was speaking after a week in which up to 90 Afghan civilians were killed.

 

More civilians have been killed this year as a result of foreign military action than have been killed by insurgents, correspondents say.

 

'Indiscriminate'

 

Mr Karzai was speaking a day after the head of Nato called for an investigation into an air strike in the Afghan province of Helmand in which 25 civilians were killed.

 

The importance of not killing civilians cannot be overestimated

BBC's Alastair Leithead

 

Q&A: Readers' questions

The Afghan leader said foreign bombardment had also killed 62 civilians in the province of Uruzgan.

 

"You don't fight a terrorist by firing a field gun 37km (24 miles) away into a target. That's definitely, surely bound to cause civilian casualties," he said.

 

The south of the country has seen the worst violence since the Taleban were ousted from power in 2001 by US-led troops.

 

Accusing international forces of consistently failing to co-ordinate with their Afghan colleagues, Mr Karzai said that, in future, every military operation should be co-ordinated directly with his government, in accordance with written plans he said already existed.

 

"As you are aware over the past several days, as result of indiscriminate and imprecise operations of Nato and coalition forces, our people suffered casualties," Mr Karzai told reporters in Kabul, looking visibly angry.

 

"We are thankful for their help to Afghanistan. But that does not mean that Afghan lives have no value. Afghan life is not cheap and it should not be treated as such," he said.

 

'One too many'

 

In a separate incident, rockets fired by coalition forces in Afghanistan killed at least nine Pakistani civilians, the Pakistan military said on Saturday.

 

Coalition forces were fighting militants in Afghanistan close to the Pakistan border when a few rockets came across the frontier, hitting a house.

 

Pakistan is demanding an explanation, a spokesman said.

 

Nato said about 60 militants in Afghanistan had been killed in the offensive.

 

There are two international missions in Afghanistan: the Nato-led Isaf, with 37,000 troops from 37 countries including the US.

 

Its aim is to help the Afghan government bring security, development and better governance.

 

The US-led coalition - under the banner of Operation Enduring Freedom - is a counter-terrorism mission that involves mainly special forces.

 

Both have recently been involved in heavy clashes with insurgents.

 

Speaking in Quebec City, Canada, on Friday Nato's secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said no Nato, coalition or Afghan soldier would knowingly take aim at a civilian, and accused the Taleban of using civilians as human shields.

 

"Each innocent civilian victim is one too many," he said. "Unfortunately it happens."

BBC

[BiLaaL]

^I remember reading similar outcries from Karzai not too long ago. Maintaining sanity is the biggest hurdle for every traitor. It seems like Karzai's inner guilt/sense of justice sometimes overpowers him. I don't suppose Yey or Geedi will ever succumb to such tensions or be moved by the blight of their people. These two men are hardcore traitors. Our only choice is to either exile them to the Ethiopian hinterland or to execute them.

[Jacaylbaro]

he is simply acting a movie ,,,, empty words to calm the situation only.

[Allamagan]

It is more to do with publicity stunt than to care about his people.

[Malika]

Oh..lol, you lot cut him some slack, his voice was actually trembling..aaw for Karzai. :eek:

 

"'One too many'" seems to be the norm in the fight against terrorism...the value of muslim life counts to nothing,as long as their carrying their mission..,dont they realise this only fuel more terrorism..?