Karzai: Afghans Must Resist ‘US Agenda’

Says Trump's Strategy Is to Sew Regional Disharmony

Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai spent most of his time in office at odds with the US on specifics of war strategy. He’s out of office now, but he’s increasingly vocal about his opposition to President Trump’s new escalation.

Karzai was very critical in particular of President Trump’s policy centering on criticizing Pakistan while encouraging India to be more heavily involved in Afghanistan, saying a plan to sew regional disharmony isn’t a realistic way to win the Afghan conflict.

If they genuinely want to fight extremism and terrorism, they cannot do it by creating rivalry here in this region,” Karzai warned, cautioning that they’re just adding to the number of different conflicts Afghans are going to be stuck with.

Karzai also made attempts during his time in office to try to court more support from India, and also had problems at times with Pakistan, but was never so overt in linking the issues, and appears to believe Trump’s strategy is making Afghanistan a more direct part of the region’s biggest conflict.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.