That seems pretty clear

Parliament hears directly from the Afghan President.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai spoke directly to the Canadian people Friday, thanking those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in his country and assuring Canadians that their efforts have made a dramatic difference.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr. Karzai – who was greeted with standing ovations before and after his remarks – also praised Canada as a model to the rest of the world and extended his condolences to the family and friends of troops who have died working to ensure the security of his nation.

President Karzai goes on to state that Canada's presence in Afghanistan has been a watershed event in it's often violent history.

“Thanks to Canada's contributions, Afghanistan today is profoundly different from the terrified and exhausted country it was five years ago,” he said.

“Today Afghanistan has the most progressive constitution in our region, which enables the Afghan people to choose their leadership for the first time in their history through democratic elections.”

Funny, this seems to be a fairly positive reaction to Prime Minister Harper's decision to hold the line in Afghanistan.

It definitely doesn't have any of the melodramatic foreboding of the "KARZAI BURNS HARPER" post at Pinko Central which states...

Karzai says: “Bombings in Afghanistan are no solution to the Taliban. You do not destroy terrorism by bombing villages. You do not destroy terrorism by launching military operations in areas where only the symptoms have emerged.”—Afghan President Hamid Karzai, speaking at the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, CBC Newsworld, 21 September 2006

Now the blurb above intimates that President Karzai is really upset with Canada... akin to the NDP motion calling Canadian soldiers "terrorists". That got me wondering, "Is the President of Afghanistan schizophrenic, or is this quote twisted out of context."

So I zipped over to the Council on Foreign Relations website and lo and behold, there's an article on President Karzai's speech that night.

Karzai stressed the importance of tackling the root sources of terrorism—the madrassas [Muslim religious schools] and training camps, many of which lie outside Afghanistan’s borders in Pakistan and other neighboring states—rather than simply targeting young Taliban fighters. “Bombings are not the solution,” he says. “You do not destroy terrorism by destroying villages.”

“Terrorism,” he continued, “has only enemies and knows no boundaries. The only course is to kill it. You cannot train a snake to bite someone else.” His comments appeared to be directed at Musharraf, with whom he has exchanged veiled barbs all week over the growing violence in Afghanistan.

Geez... it has nothing to do with criticising the Prime Minister or Canada at all.

It's just another case of taking a single remark out of context and twisting it until you can make it suit your purpose. It's low and deceitful... and not that different from the rest of this guy's propaganda.

Update: Blogosphere's Big Pink off his meds again

You could kind of see it coming when he started thinking that calling the Prime Minister "PMS" was humourous.

Anyway, it seems to me Jack Layton accomplished more during his brief conversation with President Karzai than PMS has over the past 8 months. It’s also clear that both men have quite a few ideas in common when it comes to what Canada should be doing for Afghanistan.

Yep, it's just incredible. Idealogically they're like identical twins.

FURTHER: BBC spanks Taliban Jack

If you're gonna be a dufus, might as well be a world famous one.

The BBC's Lee Carter in Toronto says Mr Karzai will not be meeting the leader of the New Democratic opposition party, Jack Layton, who has called for Canadian troops to be withdrawn from their combat role in Afghanistan.

Mr Layton said that despite repeated attempts to set up a meeting with the Afghan president, none was scheduled.

Layton pleading finally pays off.

Earlier in the day, Karzai skipped a speaking engagement to sit down with Layton, who has been calling for Canadian troops to be withdrawn from southern Afghanistan.

Technorati Tags: myblahg.com, Hamid Karzai, deceit