Not surprisingly, the United Nations — which maintains a foreign troop-backed mission in the country — sees it differently.
To avoid loss of life and destruction of Afghanistan's infrastructure, a foreign-troop withdrawal should take place after Afghans agree on how to keep their state intact.
But Karzai himself does not appear to want his legacy to include a commitment to a longer foreign troop presence in his country.
Bamiyan only had a small foreign troop contingent from New Zealand.
Such a massive foreign troop withdrawal puts tremendous pressure on fledgling Afghan security forces, both military and police a pullback also seemingly premature.
In 2003, following a series of negotiations, all foreign troops withdrew and a power-sharing transitional government was formed in preparation of the 2006 presidential and legislative elections.
The Iraqi national-security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, who chairs a high-level committee in Baghdad on American withdrawal, gave the same forecast that was mentioned by a planner on General Abizaid's staff, at Central Command: fewer than a hundred thousand foreign troops in Iraq by the end of this year, and half that number by the middle of 2007.
It ends with 2,224 American soldiers killed, according to an AP tally, out of a total of some 3,500 foreign troop deaths.
Even before it began, Mr. Karzai opened another chasm with his allies, once again raising the prospect of a far more drawn-out foreign troop presence before Afghans would be able to assume full responsibility for their own security.
The tentative step toward full peace negotiations aimed at ending more than 13 years of war came hours after suspected Taliban suicide bomb attacks in the Afghan capital struck a convoy of foreign troops and a compound of the country's intelligence agency.
