On His Own

Photograph by Yuri Kozyrev for TIME

The isolated leader Karzai has become a virtual prisoner of the presidential palace, cut off from his country

Afghan President Hamid Karzai wants to know exactly what the U.S. wants from his country. It's simply not possible, Karzai suggests over the course of an hour-long interview with Time, that after 10 years and more than $533 billion, the world's most powerful military hasn't been able to subdue a ragtag militia. And then there is the matter of the botched 2009 Afghan presidential election. International election observers reported massive fraud conducted on behalf of Karzai's winning re-election campaign, but the 54-year-old accuses the West of trying to rig the election against him. "That makes me think as to...

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