The Afghan interim government's Prime Minister Hamid Karzai met U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House on Monday. Among the important issues discussed by the two sides was the manner and length of U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.

Karzai has suggested that U.S. military presence should be part of an international peacekeeping force under the UN supervision, but Bush has explicitly refused this proposal. The U.S. opposition to this offer is mostly due to its unwillingness to comply with international rules and regulations, which an international peacekeeping force is bound to obey. Even if its military presence were to form part of an international peacekeeping force, Washington is unlikely to respect Afghan people's interests, beliefs and cultural values.

Since Washington has been almost universally vilified for its inhumane treatment of Taleban and Al-Qaeda prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. has called for changes to the international law, or a so-called modern interpretation of the Geneva Convention, which the U.S. officials are not willing to observe in their treatment of captives from the Afghan war.

Also, during the past three and half months of U.S. attacks on Afghanistan, Washington has violated international regulations by refusing to stop its bombardment of residential areas.

After the Taleban and Al-Qaeda were ousted, the U.S. officials, especially the presidential envoy to Afghanistan Zalmy Khalilzad, who has dual nationality, considered Afghanistan a free zone to promote Washington's interests. In fact, the foreign members of Al-Qaeda network had the same idea about Afghanistan until three and half months ago!

Although the Bush Administration claims to be an advocate of Afghan rights, it is impossible to deny that the policy it has adopted will never promote Afghanistan's national interests or security. Even the small amount of U.S. financial aid pledged to Afghanistan, which stands at only 50 million dollars, has been considered as a move to scorn Afghan people. It is worth mentioning that the Islamic Republic has pledged 560 million dollars for Afghanistan's reconstruction.

Afghan people now rightly ask themselves why the U.S. Administration is not even ready to pay for the reconstruction of airports, infrastructure and residential areas that it has destroyed by its air raids on this impoverished country for the past few months.