Karzai left out

Not without me!


Karzai suspends talks after Taliban, U.S. agree to meet without him

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Afghan president on Wednesday suspended talks with the United States on a new security deal to protest the way his government was being left out of initial peace negotiations with the Taliban meant to find ways to end the nearly 12-year war.
The move by Hamid Karzai could derail the peace process even before it has begun.
In a terse statement from his office, Karzai said negotiations with the U.S. on what American and coalition security forces will remain in the country after 2014 have been put on hold.

The statement followed an announcement Tuesday by the U.S. and the Taliban that they would pursue bilateral talks in Qatar before the Afghan government was brought in.

Though the Taliban have dismissed Karzai as an American puppet for years, they indicated Tuesday when opening a new political office in Doha, Qatar, that they would be willing to talk with the Afghan leader.
But both the American side and the Taliban said they would first meet together before any talks with the Afghanistan government.
In another incident highlighting the fragile situation in Afghanistan, only hours after announcing they would hold talks with the U.S., the Taliban claimed responsibility Wednesday for an attack on the Bagram Air Base in which four American troops were killed.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the insurgents fired two rockets into the base outside the Afghan capital, Kabul, late on Tuesday. American officials confirmed the base had come under attack by indirect fire -- likely a mortar or rocket -- and that four U.S. troops were killed.
Also Tuesday, five Afghan police officers were killed at a security outpost in Helmand province by apparent Taliban infiltrators -- the latest in a string of so-called "insider attacks" that have shaken the confidence of the nascent Afghan security forces.
The opening of a Taliban political office in Doha with the intention of starting peace talks was a reversal of months of failed efforts to start negotiations while Taliban militants intensified a campaign targeting urban centres and government installations across Afghanistan.
President Barack Obama cautioned that the peace talks with the Taliban would be neither quick nor easy but that their opening a political office in Doha was an "important first step toward reconciliation" between the Islamic militants and the government of Afghanistan.

I've been watching this for a couple of days and man, its a mess.  The Taliban killed 4 of our troops and yet we've agreed to meet with them to discuss peace talks.  (Sounds like Vietnam...and Korea). 

Meanwhile Karzai is miffed because he's been left out of this whole thing.  But he's taken billions from us, yet treated us like garbage for years.  He's a thug.  So I could care less about him.

I wanna leave, but don't want leave in such a way that it appears we are being driven out.