Afghan President Hamid Karzai Calls for a New "Contract" with America
Monday, July 27, 2009 at 10:50AM 
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, facing a tough fight for reelection, is perpetually caught between a rock and a hard place.
While he is completely reliant on NATO support to maintain his fragile government in power, the very nature of the foreign presence in his country fuels the Taliban and other extremists who would seek to overthrow him.
Concurrently, the rising toll of NATO deaths in the battle against the insurgency would seem to argue for an even bigger presence of foreign troops in the country - the very gasoline that fires the rebellion.
Decades of civil war, foreign invasions and millennial memories going back to at least the invasion of Alexander the Great in the 3rd century B.C., has made Afghanis weary of any foreign presence in their country.
Not for nothing, Afghanistan is commonly called "the graveyard of empires".
At the same time, it is assumed that for most of the country's citizens a return to the 9th century social and government polices of the former Taliban regime is not wanted or aspired.
Hamid Karzai is now asking for a "new contract" in his country's relationship with the U.S. and the NATO allies.
Presumably, this agreement based on mutual respect and support would seek to minimize civilian casualties even as it focuses on wiping out the Taliban insurgency. A hard task indeed when one of the top Taliban strategies is to hide among the civilian population.
Here's the president on his ideas for what this relationship would look like:
Hamid Karzai, afghanistan, barack obama, foreign policy, taliban, u.s., war 
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