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TIME: do you think the fact that it has taken so long has eroded confidence in your government, or in you personally, among the people?
Karzai: Not at all. With ordinary people our expectations were too high. My own expectations were too high. We came, we thought the neighbors were going to be good with us, that terrorism was gone, that everybody was cooperating, that the little politics around the region was no longer there to sabotage the process. That we would strengthen our administration. We concentrated on the political aspect and we succeeded very well in that. We had the emergency loya jirga, the constitutional loya jirga, and the presidential elections, the parliamentary elections—all that. We concentrated on health, a lot of success, from 10% of the population getting medical services to 70% today. Road building was a success. We began to pay attention early on to the army, which is now much better than what it used to be. We did not focus attention in time in strengthening the police, the institution that actually is in daily contact with districts for security. That's where we should have focused strongly. That's where I began to focus very strongly two years ago, and unfortunately I did not get support from our partners. In spite of repeated pleas. In spite of a very clear plan I presented. I proposed that we must have more police in the districts. Now whether that support, that police is in the form of recruitment from the cities or from the villages, we need it to strengthen the community with more police. Unfortunately it was misinterpreted very wrongly by the international community as us asking for militias. No, that is not what it is coming from. We are simply trying to have more police from the communities.
TIME: For the Afghan and international community it has been hard to understand some of the decisions you have made in terms of putting former warlords and suspected drug smugglers in positions of power. Aren't you creating a bigger problem this way?
Karzai: No drug smugglers, clearly, that I know of—that I have been told that so and so is a drug smuggler, I would definitely take action, never. Never. Those that we refer to as warlords have done a service to this country. They fought the Soviets. They fought the Taliban. They were partners with the coalition. They have a desire to help us. Now whether some of them are capable of delivering the services that we require today or not is a different matter. But we cannot shun away those who have served this country and throw them into nothing. That will bring us into another form of instability. 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. Including in the war on terror. I began to warn the international community four and a half years ago, just as we had begun. Of some of the cultural sensitivities of the country, of the environment in the neighborhood of Afghanistan. Of where we should go and look for terrorism. Of the sources of terrorism, of the places where they get trained, of the places where they get money.