Karzai: NATO bombs kill kids

With his lips quivering and voice breaking, a tearful President Hamid Karzai lamented in a Dec. 10 speech that Afghan children are being killed by NATO and US bombs and by terrorists from Pakistan–a portrait of helplessness in the face of spiraling chaos. In a heartfelt address that brought audience members to tears, Karzai said the cruelty imposed on his people "is too much" and that Afghanistan cannot stop "the coalition from killing our children." "We can't prevent the terrorists from coming from Pakistan, and we can't prevent the coalition from bombing the terrorists, and our children are dying because of this," he said. The president, who turned tearful after relating stories of children maimed by bombings, took long pauses between sentences and at one point covered both eyes with a white handkerchief. "Cruelty at the highest level," he said, his lower lip quivering. "The cruelty is too much." The taped speech was shown later on state TV, though that broadcast and other news shows did not show Karzai crying. Karzai's spokesperson, Khaleeq Ahmed, said the president was saddened over the deaths of a two-year-old child and two Afghan teachers on Dec. 9–"and it really got to him." Karzai turned emotional about 10 minutes into the speech, after talking about an Afghan boy left paralyzed by a NATO air strike in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar province. "Every day our children are dying," Karzai said, noting that two children were killed in Musa Qala recently. He said girls are afraid to go to school and that NATO bombs have killed entire families. He noted that two teachers were killed by Taliban militants in the eastern province of Kunar on Dec. 9. "Our life is living with suffering," he said.