U.S. working with Taliban?

I am blogging about the news story: “Afghan Leader Says U.S. Abets Taliban’s Goal”. President Hamid Karzai met with the new U.S. Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, but it was a private meeting, not the joint press conference that was planned. Karzai said that the U.S. was undermining his authority by adding suggesting that Afghanistan will collapse after the U.S. pulls out. The idea that we are helping the Taliban destabilize Karzai after the longest U.S. war in history (excluding Korea, if you count the North Koreans ending the armistice) is just trying to stir up local reaction and appealing to anti-U.S. sentiment. He is either crazy or crafty. I think it is just politics. I understand that he wants us gone; it really has been a long war and a long time to put up with “invaders.” But, he is going about it all wrong. He can support the U.S. exit, but he need not ignore the thousands of U.S. and Afghan soldiers killed in fighting the war that he most benefits from.

17,790 U.S. service members have been wounded in action in Afghanistan, and 1,996 have died, as of September, 2012. The CIA could not be reached for comment, which is just as well with all these casualties. Chuck Hagel just put it off to politics, saying that he knew what it is to be a politician. He did not take it too seriously, and neither should we.