And Now, Mr. Karzai, you may go

Home with your tail tucked between your legs.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.S. President George W. Bush signed a document yesterday on a "strategic partnership" between their countries.

Pentagon officials say the agreement shows Afghanistan's willingness to allow U.S. forces to continue using installations like the Bagram Air Field north of Kabul as a key logistical center.

[...]

The document on a "strategic partnership" restates the existing procedures on operations by forces in the U.S.-led antiterrorism coalition. It says U.S. and coalition forces will continue to have the freedom of action needed to conduct "appropriate military operations based on consultations and pre-agreed procedures."

Bush was emphatic that U.S. forces would take orders only from their American commanders.

[...]

"In terms of more [Afghan government] say over our military, our relationship is one of cooperate and consult," Bush said at a brief White House news conference with Karzai.

[...]

Karzai said on 21 May that he wanted Bush to ensure that U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan consulted with his government before raiding Afghan homes and villages in the search for Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters.

  Radio Free Europe article

Rich. Very rich. Perhaps we'll now at least tell him when we're going to crash a town. Perhaps.

George Bush ruled out handing over command of United States troops in Afghanistan to the government there.

Mr Karzai also got no promise of a quick repatriation of Afghan prisoners now in US custody at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and elsewhere.

  Scotsman article

Thanks for coming, Hamid. Come back again some time and we'll do it again.

Karzai also said he thinks a series of bloody demonstrations in Afghanistan recently were not prompted by a "Newsweek" magazine article -- since retracted -- that had suggested that U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo had desecrated the Koran. Instead, Karzai said he thinks the protests were organized by opponents of a long-term strategic partnership between Afghanistan and the United States.

  Radio Free Europe article

And what the hell would he know?

Senior U.S. officials -- including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld -- have denounced the article and blamed its publication for the deadly demonstrations.

Rumsfeld's conclusion was supported by Radek Sikorski, a former deputy foreign minister and deputy defense minister of Poland.

That's more like it. How can you expect a native president of Afghanistan to know more about what his people intend than an American and a Pole?

Sikorski, who studies Afghanistan at the American Enterprise Institute, a private policy center in Washington, pointed out that the U.S. military often is careful in the way it trains its personnel working in foreign countries to ensure that they don't offend local sensibilities.

Supply your own comment to that one, but here's some help:

Sikorski also said U.S. forces should heed Karzai's concerns when they want to raid Afghan homes and villages.

"When I was in Kabul last year, people told me that when Russians, during their occupation [of Afghanistan] during the 1980s, searched Afghan houses, they would send women to search the female quarters of a house -- the officers' wives, for example -- whereas American soldiers would just barge in and search the female quarters of houses, which Afghans find very offensive. Now, surely, if the Russians could do it, so could [the United States]." [H]e concluded, relations between Kabul and the United States will remain strained until U.S. soldiers learn to act in accordance with Afghan culture.

So which is it, asswipe? We make sure we don't offend local sensibilities, or we barge in and offend? Perhaps the key word was "often".

One of the two Newsweek journalists behind the retracted article alleging that U.S. interrogators desecrated the Quran at Guantanamo Bay said he dropped the ball by not properly corroborating his anonymous source.

Michael Isikoff, addressing the furor in an interview broadcast Monday night on "The Charlie Rose Show," said he regretted the possibility that his article, which has been blamed for violent protests in Muslim countries, may have spurred riots.

  Wired article

Good boy. Just as Dumsfiend and Poland would have it.

And while we're on the subject, a friend of Rich's (American and ex-military) lives and works as a helicopter pilot trainer in Saudi Arabia. Back home for a quick visit, he told us last night that he will be calling his employer before getting on a plane to go back to his job, since he may no longer have a job. He says the Saudis may be tossing the Americans out of the country, "because we desecrated the Quran."

P.S.

When do we get the White House's retraction for not properly corroborating their (known liar Chalabi) source for WMD?

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.