Afghanistan’s president Hamid Karzai and his gutless parliament can’t stop the poppy growth and drug trade but they do want to stop US airstrikes while blaming our armed forces for civilian deaths.

The US National Security Advisor James Jones responded that Washington will not hamper its forces in Afghanistan by banning air strikes but will redouble efforts to limit civilian casualties.

Eleven Taliban suicide bombers attacked government buildings in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, sparking running gunbattles that killed at least 20 people and wounded three U.S. troops, officials said. U.S. and Afghan troops freed 20 hostages taken by the insurgents.

The assault began around 10 a.m. when a suicide bomber in a burqa attacked the governor’s compound in Khost, an eastern city on the border with Pakistan that houses a major American base. That blast was followed soon after by a suicide car bomb explosion, said Wazir Pacha, the spokesman for the provincial police chief.

We suppose many of the dead and injured were civilians as were the the hostages US troops freed. Imagine that!

Khost residents hid from booming explosions and running street clashes that lasted until 5 p.m. At least eleven insurgents and nine others — including police and civilians — died, the Defense Ministry said. (Emphasis LCs)

If the Afghans want the US in their country they must not attempt to tell the world’s greatest and most qualified armed force how to do their job.

No comment from Karzai about the current civilian deaths and condemning the Taliban. Indeed!