'A Surge Is Good'

With the security situation in his country steadily deteriorating, and Taliban activity on the rise, Afghan President Hamid Karzai sat down in New York last week with NEWSWEEK's Lally Weymouth to discuss the future of Afghanistan. Excerpts:

WEYMOUTH: How is the situation in your country? Reportedly the Taliban is gaining strength and the NATO position is deteriorating. Is that an accurate assessment?
KARZAI: The Taliban are not strengthening, [but] we are not doing things that we should be doing.

Such as?
Such as, we did not pay attention in time to the sanctuaries of the Taliban.

Do you mean sanctuaries in Afghanistan or in Pakistan?
Sanctuaries in the region. I am trying to be very careful now.

Are you saying the international community should have paid more attention to the tribal areas?
Absolutely.

What should they have done?
They should have done all that was needed to be done—political and diplomatic, the right concentration of both.

You mean they should have gone in there militarily?
Not militarily. They should have used and kept open all options in order to bring security to Afghanistan.

Didn ' t former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf try quite a few options?
Maybe he did try, maybe the West did try it with him, but we did not see the results. And as we see now, unfortunately, the problem has gone deeper into Pakistan. The bombing recently in Islamabad [of the Marriott hotel]—unbelievable, shocking. I've had so many lunches and dinners in that hotel.