Afghan Ambassador Lashes Out at Defeatist, Racist Allies

Jawad Urges Peace Talks With Taliban Delayed

by Jason Ditz, March 12, 2009

Said T. Jawad, Afghanistan’s Ambassador to the United States, launched a tirade against the government’s western backers today, condemning them for pointing to the failing effort to pacify the ever growing insurgency in the nation.

Jawad lashed out at the “total negligence” of the backers in trying to prop up a sustainable Afghan police system, and “under-investment” in the nation’s military. He also condemned “defeatist and reductionist media statements” from western governments, declaring “to suggest that Afghans do not deserve peace, pluralism and human rights is wrong and racist.”

The ambassador also seemed to break from President Hamid Karzai’s support for talking to moderate Taliban members, saying “NATO and US forces are saying that we are not winning in Afghanistan, implying that the Taliban are not losing. If they are not losing, why should they talk to us?”

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