Karzai Vows to Regulate Foreign Troops in Reelected

Scrambling to shore up voter support for next month’s presidential election, Afghan President Hamid Karzai today laid out his platform. Among other things Karzai promised, if reelected, to make the international forces in the nation sign a framework regulating how they operate, particularly in an effort to limit civilian casualties.

Karzai faces a difficult balancing act in his campaign. His popularity has largely come from ongoing criticism of US and other forces for enormous civilian casualties in air strikes, but his inability to do anything about it to this point has harmed his credibility.

Likewise, his condemnation has raised tensions with the US, and the Obama Administration has hoped to see him replaced with a less critical president. That tension has also led the US to emphasize accusations of corruption, which have harmed Karzai’s image.

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