Afghan blogger Mohammad Fahim Khairy asks, is President Hamid Karzai out of touch? On the night of the [suicide] attack, Karzai showed up on national television and announced “The attacker is definitely a foreigner because Afghans do not kill any Muslims in the month of Ramadan.” How easily Karzai dismisses the crimes of the so-called Muslim Taliban that millions of people have witnessed with their own eyes. Karzai is constantly trying to make excuses for and cover the crimes of Taliban. A few days ago, he said that he was ready to hold talks with the Taliban and offer them positions in the government. He added that the Taliban were Afghans and so they do not need to continue fighting with their own country. Ironically, however, when he claimed that Afghans doesn’t kill Muslim another news report showed the hanging of a 15-year old boy in the southern province of Helmand by the Taliban. How can Karzai expect us to believe that a foreigner was responsible for that bus attack? Why would a foreigner want to do such a thing? I thought the foreigners were feeding us and rebuilding our country? Mohammed Fahim Khairy is touching on a very sensitive subject in his blog: whether the government in Kabul is responding appropriately to the recent wave of Taliban attacks in the capital. The attack he refers to were on a bus, and targeted the police (at last count 27 people were killed, but the number may be higher). Atash Parcha relates what it was like just after: I have lost count of the number of suicide bomb attacks in Kabul let alone the number of casualties. Yesterday, another suicide attack took place in Karte Parwan near Cinema Baharistan killing 27 police (numbers continue to rise). Reuters reported 10 killed, a flimsy portrayal of the tragic imposition of the bombing. Other sources immediately reported 27 dead. If the same situation occurred in a western country, the ‘estimation’ would have been doubled increasing social alarm. However, Afghanistan continues to be forlon and Afghan blood continues to spill unnoticed by the world. I will say no more, let the photos speak. It saddens me to think about who have been killed. Men who have joined the army only to provide for their families, recipients of US$70 month wages. Fathers, uncles, brothers. all sole income earners for their families. I have mentioned this before and i will entrench it again, men here play multiple roles in a family. Unfortunately, sadly but truly, women find it formidable to persevere in life without a male figure in the home. My heart goes out for these women. But i also admire the strength, courage and determination of those women who continue to struggle and strive for the future. Women who perpetuate the family name in a dignified and honourable manner. The mothers and wives of Afghanistan. Indeed, the courage of Afghan women is truly remarkable. Nasim Fekrat posts one photo of a burqa'd woman selling bread, ironically perhaps, to feed her family. As stark as it may seem to Western eyes, it is nothing compared to what Afghan women used to face in the 90's, as the Taliban extended their brutal rule. Still, the question remains: is Karzai out of touch? Khairy complains that while the U.S. military steps up its most wanted campaign, Hamid Karzai is holding reconciliation talks with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. He calls them “child games,” all while the national army is infiltrated and corrupted. Perhaps much of the turmoil could be addressed if Afghanistan had a cohesive civic identity. The recent attempts to turn Ahmed Shah Massoud into a hero or saint are a part of this, but there are more banal aspects to it as well: are the Taliban and other militants fighting for “Afghanistan” the idea, or simply for religious and political power? Can the two be meaningfully distinguished? Ronin notes an example of this conflict: In a recent shindig where the emphasis was “knowing about other countries/cultures” the events took a strange turn and it was decided that we ought to get to know each better through renditions of our respective national anthems… I simply didn’t know it. I do know that such a thing exists but I neither have the time nor the inclination to memorize it. Bemused and puzzled looks followed, but I ignored them. After years of traveling with an Afghan passport and treated like a freaking mutant helps one develop a really thick skin… As for me, I related, it is not a question of pride but rather of being tired of going through national anthem after national anthem after national anthem. If one sang the royalist national anthem the khalqis would be exceedingly pissed off, and if one carried as much as a tune or a few matching syllables from the khalqi national anthem the other fuckers would go postal on one’s ass.