Outgoing Afghan President Karzai Says U.S. Betrayed Him

In an interview with The Washington Post, the departing president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, said that "Afghans died in a war that's not ours."

In the interview, Karzai sought explain his harsh criticism of the 12-year-old U.S. war effort in Afghanistan. The Post reports that Karzai said he is deeply troubled by all of the casualties he has seen, including those of U.S. military, and that he felt betrayed by what he calls an insufficient U.S. focus on targeting Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan.

"In Karzai's mind, al-Qaida is 'more a myth than a reality,' and the majority of the United States' prisoners here were innocent. He's certain that the war was 'for the U.S. security and for the Western interest.'"

Karzai also discussed his refusal to sign a security agreement his government negotiated with the U.S. as well as the upcoming presidential election in Afghanistan.

The interview was Karzai's first in two years to a U.S. newspaper.

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