Karzai flees gunfire at Afghan ceremony

The Taliban claims responsibility for attack, saying 3 members were killed

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan President Hamid Karzai escaped unhurt on Sunday after an assassination attempt by Taliban fighters who fired guns and rockets at an official celebration in the capital, Kabul.

Karzai, government ministers, former warlords, diplomats and the military top brass ducked for cover after gunfire sounded at the celebration to mark the 16th anniversary of the fall of the Afghan communist government to the mujahideen.

Karzai later appeared on state television.

Karzai has survived several assassination attempts since he came to power after U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in late 2001 for failing to hand over al-Qaida leaders behind the September 11 attacks on the United States.

But Taliban insurgents regrouped and relaunched their insurgency two years ago and now fight daily battles with Afghan and foreign troops mainly in the south and east and have launched scores of suicide attacks throughout the country.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24332573/

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{ I have been saying for years that if either Karzai of Afghanistan or Miliki of Iraq ever went for a walk in their neighborhoods they would be dead within minutes at the hands of their own people. Some forced democracy the Bushites have built in these nations.....huh? "Nations" is not a word that can easily be said about these places anymore. "Failed Nations" is probably a better term. Both governments are seen as puppets of America by most of their citizens and few of them really care at all about democracy in spite of the famous "purple fingers". Karzai is President of Kabul and Miliki is Prime Minister of the "green Zone" in Baghdad or at least the part of it the Americans allow him to claim. The rest of the failed nations are controlled by various assortments of insurgents, bandits, local chieftains. war lords and the military of several nations trying to make some sense of the inexplicable.

Why can't the Taliban be destroyed in Afghanistan? Because the people support them. Why can't the insurgents be beaten in Iraq? Because the people hate foreigners in their land far worse then they hate the insurgents.

These two failed nations are the pristine example of the botched foreign policy of the Bush/Cheney/Neocon administration.

It is not time that American support for both Karzai and Miliki be withdrawn? What good are they? What have they done for their countries? The status quo does not work and never has and it's time to wake up and smell the coffee. Let them stand or fall on their own and let the peoples of these places decide their own fate. I am not Karzai's or Miliki's keepers.....are you?}

Rose