Hamid Karzai
Current President of Afghanistan.
My problem is that I am perhaps too much of a democrat for this time of the country's life. If you need a dictator, then go to the Afghan people. Let them elect a dictator. I am not one of those.
On my graduation there was a party by the junior students, and I was given a hair brush as a gift — if I take off my hat, you know what I mean.
Suffering in other parts of the world will continue to undermine your security and prosperity unless you seek to address it.
Now if the poppy income for Afghanistan is between $2 billion to $2.5 billion, when it reaches international markets it reaches $50 billion. So where is the rest of the money? Who benefits more? There is a lot of difference between 2.5 and 50. Where is that $48 billion going? And do you think that $48 billion will allow us to destroy poppy in Afghanistan?
The United States, Pakistan, Iran and everybody should know that this time Afghans will not become refugees. I would be one of those Afghans who would not become a refugee again.
Lets admit that today's terrorists are a mutation of our past mistakes. We must learn our lessons. We must learn that using and nurturing extremism as a tool of government policy has never yielded the betterment of any nation, and it never will.
When you see on the news or read in the newspaper that so many people were killed in places far away, do not let these numbers become mere abstractions to you. These are real people, like you and I. They are families, friends; they have pain, they have grief.
We have no other choice, we have no power to stop the [U.S.] planes, if we could, if I could ... we would stop them and bring them down.
We Afghans have the right to stand with full dignity and self-confidence in front of the people of the world and say that this immortal phoenix, this beloved Afghanistan, once again rose from the ashes of invasion and subjugation; we have the right to declare to all those who aspire the destruction of our soil, that this country will never vanquish.
Not very far from here stood two towers that symbolized freedom, prosperity and progress. Half way around the globe stood two magnificent Buddha's that represented a culture of tolerance and a nation with a rich history. These symbols have been linked together through the global scourge of terrorism. Terror may have demolished these physical structures, however it strengthens the willpower of the international community never to let down the spirit and determination with which these icons were built.
Afghanistan was a dilapidated extremely poor country.It neither bought from the west or the rest of the world nor had anything to sell to them. So Afghanistan in terms of the economics of today and in terms of the ways the world work today was irrelevant to the world. A country that doesn´t buy from you and that does not sell to you. The society that does not have much to sell to you or to buy from you is not relevant to the consumer world of today.
Any effort to divide Afghanistan ethnically or weaken it will create exactly the same things in the neighboring countries. All the countries in this neighborhood have the same ethnic groups that we have, so they should know that it is a different ball game this time
Today, while celebrating the jihad victory, we once again invite those who have sided with aliens because of seduction against their nation, to give up sedition and evil and join peaceful life.
If you don't fight these terrorist here ,you will have to fight them in your capitals in Europe and America and where not.
On behalf of the Afghan people, I pledge today that we will be a dependable asset to the security of the region and of the world.
Democracy as a system of government may indeed be unprecedented in Afghanistan, but democracy as a way of life, a set of principles and values, is deeply embedded in our society.
My job here is to try to move forward, keeping this very delicate jar of the Afghan peace process and reconstruction and institution building in my hands through troubled waters. Through minefields, through stormy conditions, through areas that don't have proper light and keep this jar intact and safe, and take it to the distant place. Along the way I may have to do things that some in the international community may not like. But I have my Afghan judgment and that is what I use. And that Afghan judgment does not need to be understood by the international community.
It has to be very, very clear. That is why I am talking so clear. This is my conscience speaking, the conscience of an Afghan person.
I don't know anyone who is more admired and respected in the international community than President Karzai, for his strength, for his wisdom and for his courage to lead this country, first in defeat of the Taliban and now a democratic and unified Afghanistan. And I can tell you I am with foreign ministers and with heads of state all over the world. I sit in the councils of NATO. I sit with the EU. I sit with people all over the world and there is great admiration for your president and also for what the Afghan people are doing here.