I didn't know what I wanted to write about this week, so I chose to write about the President of Afghanistan in a little bit more detail. His name is Hamid Karzai. He has been a big figure since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. He can speak a variety of different languages, including English. He was a member of the Mujahideen, and he took part in getting the Soviets out of Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion in the 1980s. His father was assassinated, probably by the Taliban agents, in 1999. After this, he swore to get revenge against the Taliban and help overthrow them. In 2001, he tried to get support for the anti-Taliban movement. After the September 11th attacks, he worked with the US military to overthrow the Taliban and get a new government in Afghanistan. In 2006, he stated that Afghanistan was the worst victim of terrorism. He stated that if the money that was being spent on the Iraq war was spent on rebuilding Afghanistan, Afghanistan would be in great condition. This was also said in the book that we just finished in class, 'Come Back to Afghanistan.' He has had four assassination attempts, mainly by the Taliban agents. In 2007, he spoke to the Taliban about trying to bring peace to Afghanistan. A security scare actually forced him to leave the speech. He is seen as a uniting force for all Afghans. I thought these were very interesting facts about him. It was neat to try to connect the book we just finished to some of the things that I read about him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamid_Karzai