Karzai Slams West, Threatens to Join Insurgency
The speech appears to have centered chiefly on attacking the US and its NATO allies, and parliament itself, warning that if they didn’t assent to his takeover of the Electoral Complaints Commission it would give the impression that Afghanistan was Western dominated and grant legitimacy to the Taliban. The MPs present say that Karzai even threatened to join the insurgency at one point. One Afghan official called Karzai’s comments “shocking,” and US officials, still irked by Karzai’s claims last week that the massive vote fraud in his favor was a Western conspiracy against him, are complaining that the Afghan president is becoming increasing[ly] erratic headstrong and difficult to "work with" [less subservient].