Karzai calls for more money
2008-09-24 09:31
New York - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has a message for the next US president: Send money, planes and equipment to strengthen the Afghan army in its fight against extremists.
"In other words," Karzai said on Tuesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly's annual meeting, "enable us to defend ourselves and to fight the bad guys".
When either Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain replaces President George W Bush in January, he will be dealing with an increasingly vicious battle against a determined insurgency opposed both to Karzai's government and to the presence of foreign troops.
Karzai said at the Asia Society that he agreed with the senior US general in Afghanistan, David McKiernan, who recently said there are not enough US ground forces in the country.
"The force is undermanned and understaffed," Karzai said.
The United States has about 33 000 troops in Afghanistan, and Bush has ordered an Army brigade of about 3 700 soldiers that had been preparing to deploy to Iraq to instead go to Afghanistan in January.
Karzai praised the rise to power of Pakistan's new democratic government, which replaced Pervez Musharraf, a former general and close US ally who took power in a 1999 coup.
Afghanistan and Pakistan have long squabbled over how to deal with extremists who have made their shared border a base for attacks on US-led forces and others.
But Karzai said the inauguration of Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari offers a "ray of hope" that the region can move beyond the days where extremism was used as "an instrument of policy".
Karzai also told the audience that, in addition to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the Norwegian prime minister, he met on Tuesday with McCain's running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
McCain's presidential campaign has shielded the first-term governor for weeks from spontaneous questions from voters and reporters, and the event's moderator, Thomas Freston, a member of the Asia Society's board, drew laughter when he said: "You're probably the only person in the room who's met Governor Palin."
Karzai said he "found her quite a capable woman. She asked the right questions on Afghanistan".
- AP