Afghan President Hamid Karzai was due to round up his Washington visit yesterday, after meeting congressional leaders and touring Arlington National Cemetery, where many US war dead from the conflict in Afghanistan are buried.
During the flagship event of the four-day visit intended to mend fences after months spent trading barbs, US President Barack Obama insisted on Wednesday that tensions between the US and Afghan governments were “overstated.”
The leaders met at the White House in the wake of awkward public exchanges that strained their alliance and complicated Obama’s gamble on a 30,000-strong troop surge designed to lay the groundwork for a US exit from the Afghan battlefield.
PHOTO: EPA
“There are going to be tensions in such a complicated, difficult environment and in a situation in which, on the ground, both Afghans and Americans are making enormous sacrifices,” Obama said.
An Oval Office meeting was followed by a press conference that served as both a public bonding session and an effort by Obama to convince the US public that genuine progress is being made.
Karzai put on an assured political performance, at odds with his tirades just weeks ago against foreign interference. He also shrugged off recent spats.
“We are in a campaign against terrorism together, there are days that we are happy. There are days that we are not happy,” said Karzai, wearing his trademark green cloak and sheepskin hat in the ornate East Room.
Only weeks ago, top Obama aides said Karzai’s claims that foreigners plotted fraud in Afghan elections were cause for “genuine” concern
In March, the US president told Karzai during a visit to Kabul that he must do more to fight corruption, but on Wednesday, Obama welcomed “progress” by Karzai on anti-corruption efforts, improved governance, and work toward credible parliamentary elections later this year.
“Of course, President Karzai and I both acknowledge that much more work needs to be done,” Obama said.
Obama said he was confident that slow but steady progress would allow him to meet his stated goal of starting to draw down US troop numbers by July next year, and was also “encouraged” by Pakistan’s actions against extremists.
Karzai later made the rounds on Capitol Hill and pleaded for patience in his much criticized fight against corruption.
He was scheduled to visit Fort Campbell, Kentucky, headquarters of the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division, today. The division deploys to Afghanistan.
Most senators gave Karzai positive reviews.
“We didn’t notice any scars ... Sounds like things are on a very even keel, very positive, we didn’t see any evidence of any lingering problem,” said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, a Democrat.
Obama also voiced support for Karzai’s efforts to woo wavering Taliban members back into Afghan society, but only if they renounced al-Qaeda and violence.
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
As evening falls in Fiji’s capital, a steady stream of people approaches a makeshift clinic that is a first line of defense against one of the world’s fastest-growing HIV epidemics. In the South Pacific nation — a popular tourist destination of just under a million people — more than 2,000 new HIV cases were recorded last year, a 26 percent increase from 2024. The government has declared an HIV outbreak and described it as a national crisis. “It’s spreading like wildfire,” said Siteri Dinawai, 46, who came to be tested. The Moonlight Clinic, a converted minibus parked in a suburban cul-de-sac in Suva, is
A MESSAGE: Japan’s participation in the Balikatan drills is a clear deterrence signal to China not to attack Taiwan while the US is busy in the Middle East, an analyst said The Japan Self-Defense Forces yesterday fired a Type 88 anti-ship missile during a joint maritime exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces, hitting a decommissioned Philippine Navy ship in waters facing the disputed South China Sea, in drills that underscore Tokyo’s rising willingness to project military power on China’s doorstep. The drill took place as Manila and Tokyo began talks on a potential defense equipment transfer, made possible by Japan’s decision to scrap restrictions on military exports. The discussions include the possible early transfer of Abukuma-class destroyers and TC-90 aircraft to the Philippines, Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. Philippine Secretary of
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
RSS