Ex-US spy Karzai warns against foreign interference in Afghanistan

This has to be the most surreal story of the day so far. The head of the puppet government installed by the US, whose writ does not run much beyond the capital Kabul, is bemoaning foreign intervention in the country. Without that intervention Karzai would be hanging from a lamp post by now. And to preempt the pro-war crowd from getting too excited, this is not an argument in favour of the occupation of the country, or the Taliban's medievalism for that matter.

The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, today warned the international community not to meddle in the government of his country as it prepares to go to the polls for presidential elections this summer.

Speaking alongside the Nato secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, at a news conference in Kabul, Karzai said the government's foreign partners should respect his country's independence.

"Afghanistan … will never be a puppet state," he said.

From the Guardian

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