There were recently major riots in Kabul following a car accident involving U.S. troops. I think that says a lot about the atmosphere of what's happening in Afghanistan. During my presentation, I insisted on saying “extremist elements”, but there are not only extremist elements; there are also opportunistic elements. The whole Karzai government machine has been set up to try to include some people who used to be, or at least were thought to be, war criminals and profiteers of different sorts--
On June 13th, 2006. See this statement in context.