San Francisco Chronicle Letters to the editor

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

The editorial “Karzai: friend or foe?” (April 6) reflects a mind-set that assumes the United States should be occupying and “nation-building” in Afghanistan because the Taliban represents a threat to the United States, when in reality the Taliban is an indigenous, grass-roots Pashtun movement interested primarily in ending the foreign occupation – and supported by Pakistan because of its fear of India.

The United States should step aside and let Hamid Karzai work out a solution with the Taliban. That is the only way he can integrate his power base of corrupt, drug-dealing warlords that the United States gave him when it first put him in power.

Tom Miller, Oakland