That flexible Taliban strategy

If we can't nail Karzai... we'll just settle for whoever happens to be sitting around.

-- KABUL -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Canadian ambassador Arif Lalani were among the dignitaries forced to take cover Sunday when automatic gunfire erupted during a ceremony marking 16 years since the overthrow of the country's Soviet-backed rule.

Mr. Karzai, his cabinet and foreign diplomats who were present — including Arif Lalani, Canada's ambassador to Afghanistan — were all safe, a statement from the presidential palace said.

But it said a local Shiite Muslim leader was killed and nine others, including two parliamentarians, were wounded.

The capricious, unknowable "Will of Allah."

*