Afghanistan’s President Is Furious at the Way the U.S. Has Conducted the War

Hamid Karzai says he's in two minds over whether the war was worth it

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Mohammad Ismail / Reuters

Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul on Nov. 30, 2013

In an emotional interview with the Washington Post, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has opened up about his disappointment with the way the U.S. has fought the war in his country, saying the high number of civilian casualties made him question whether the war had been worth it.

Karzai has been known for his at times vocal and adversarial stance toward the U.S. military, saying that noncombatant deaths had eroded what “common cause” Kabul and Washington had.

“I had no other weapon to resort to, no other means to resort to, but to speak publicly and get attention that way,” he told the Post. “In other words, I was forced to yell.”

The U.S. military’s efforts to reduce civilian casualties have not mollified Karzai, who said, “Afghans died in a war that’s not ours,” and added that his emotions would not subside until “two, three or five years from now.”

Leading the reporters out of his office, Karzai told them to give the American people “my best wishes and my gratitude” but to send “my anger, my extreme anger” to the U.S. government.

[Washington Post]