Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai’s recent suggestion that the U.S. and Taliban somehow colluded to convince Afghans the American military needed to stick around past 2014 drew strong criticism from Democratic Senator Bob Casey Monday. The Democratic Senator on the Foreign Relations Committee said on Jansing & Co. “what President Karzai said doesn’t make any sense.”
Casey, who sits in the Foreign Relations Committee, said “what President Karzai said doesn’t make sense,” to Chris Jansing Monday.
Karzai said there is a lot of negative propaganda over what will happen after 2014. “Those bombs that went off in Kabul and Khost were not a show of force to America. They were in service of America,” Karzai said.
“I’m afraid what President Karzai said doesn’t make any sense,” Casey responded. “It’s contrary to our strategy. There’s no effort by our forces and by our military to do what he suggests,” Casey told Jansing & Co., “Unfortunately he does this every couple of months.”
The comments came as new Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was wrapping up his first trip as a member of the cabinet. A joint press conference between Hagel and Karzai was canceled, so was the handover of Bagram Prison from the U.S. military to the Afghans.
“I think, though, it’s important we emphasize the critical nature of our working together to get our troops out of there as fast as we can and do it in a way that doesn’t undermine or diminish the goals we’ve achieved. So far we’ve had great progress, but I think that if we keep engaging in arguments with President Karzai, we’re probably not going to get very far, as much as he seems to want to engage in those. It makes no sense and I think he knows that.”
Kristin Donnelly