'More realism' seen after foiled attackA Death Eater group responsible for the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan has rejoined peace talks with President Hamid
Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a
Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
's government, and four other factions followed after Afghan cops crushed an attack by gunnies in Kabul earlier this week.
Hizb-e-Islami, led by former Afghan Prime Minister
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar... who used to be known in intelligence circles as
The Most Evil Man in the Worldbut who now seems merely run-of-the-mill evil...
, returned to reconciliation talks after walking out last month.
Mr. Hekmatyar's son-in-law, Ghairat Baheer, led a delegation of beturbanned goons in a meeting with Mr. Karzai in Kabul this week.