Outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzai used his farewell speech on Tuesday to praise India for its help and take one last swipe at the United States and Pakistan for backing perpetual war in the country.
The only president Afghanistan has known since the 2001 US-led invasion said the United States wanted war in Afghanistan “because of its own interests.” Karzai’s relationship with the US has grown increasingly fragile in recent years, but the US-Afghan relationship may get a reset on Monday, when President-elect Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai will be sworn in.
The US has spent more than USD 100 billion on aid in Afghanistan since 2001 to train and equip the country’s security forces, to pave crumbling dirt roads, to upgrade hospitals and to build schools.