Karzai demands end to air strikes...

This is from antiwar.com.

Karzai of course knows that the US and NATO are still deaf to his pleas about air strikes. They no doubt save US and NATO occupiers' lives and that is what is important not Afghan civilians. No doubt he hopes to show he is not in effect a puppet. Of course he is a puppet but one that is misbehaving and that the US would love to replace. However, they don't seem to have manufactured a suitable replacement acceptable to the existing power structures in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile the puppet is dancing ever more dangerous tunes including a move to share power with a warlord who is on the US terrorist list. Even so perhaps the US would be happy enough to strike him off the list if he would only join the Karzai govt. and accept the occupation..


Karzai Demands End to US Air Strikes
Record Toll of Farah Attack Renews Outrage Over Bombing Villages
by Jason Ditz, May 08, 2009

Ending his visit to the United States, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has demanded that the United States end its air strikes in his country, saying that the rising death toll was infuriating the public. “We believe strongly that airstrikes are not an effective way of fighting terrorism, that airstrikes rather cause civilian casualties,” Karzai declared.
Karzai has long been at odds, first with the Bush Administration and now with the Obama Administraiton, about the policy of air strikes launched in Afghanistan. The issue really came to a head this week, however, after an air strike against two villages in Farah Provinces killed 147 civilians, nearly doubling the previous record for most civilians killed in a single attack.
President Obama has promised, as the previous administration so often did, to “be more careful” about not slaughtering hundreds of civilians with US air power. Yet less than nine months after officials were promising much the same policy changes when the Herat strike had killed 90 civilians, the most striking thing is how little has actually changed.