In a Pakistan television interview over the weekend, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said, “If fighting starts between Pakistan and the U.S., we are beside
Pakistan. . . . If Pakistan is attacked and the people of Pakistan need
Afghanistan's help, Afghanistan will be there with you.”
The comments raised such a shitstorm that by Monday Karzai's office was distancing him from them, claiming they were misinterpreted.
That was not enough to satisfy Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove), a ranking member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic
Forces, senior member of the Committee on Homeland Security and vocal foe of U.S. military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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“These comments are especially frustrating given the
United States continues to invest endless amount of resources–including our young men and women–for the people of Afghanistan,” reads a statement her office also released Monday.
“More
than 2,700 Americans have lost their lives in Afghanistan and $467
billion taxpayer dollars have been spent to support a corrupt government
that does not support us. It is in our best national security interest
to exit Afghanistan and move to a more effective counterterrorism
strategy to protect our nation.”
If Karzai and his fellow Afghans do not appreciate the toll the war has taken on the U.S., Sanchez added, the investment of taxpayer money would be better used “domestically to power the recovery of our
struggling economy, support our schools and critical social services,
and help unemployed Americans find jobs.”
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.