Hamid Karzai
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"Hamid Karzai" served as President of Afghanistan for almost a decade, from 7 December 2004 to 29 September 2014. He comes from a politically active family, Karzai's father, uncle and grandfather were all active in Afghan politics and government. Karzai's father, Abdul Ahad Karzai, was the head of the Popalzai tribe of the Durrani tribal confederation.

In the 1980's Karzai was active as a fundraiser for the Afghan mujahideen who were fighting to expel Soviet Union troops during the Soviet war in Afghanistan (1979-1989). After the Soviet withdrawal the Islamic State of Afghanistan was established and then it was replaced in 1996 when the Taliban came to power and established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. In July 1999 Karzai's father was assassinated and Karzai succeeded his father as head of the Popalzai tribe. In October 2001 the American invasion of Afghanistan began and Karzai became a dominant political figure after the removal of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan/Taliban regime in late 2001. During the December 2001 International Conference on Afghanistan (2001)/International Conference on Afghanistan in Germany, Karzai was selected by prominent Afghan political figures to serve a six-month term as Chairman of the Afghan Interim Administration/Interim Administration.

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Terrorism as a force is gone. As individuals they are all around and we will continue to look for them.

Thank you very much, Mr. President, for that.

His presence there, I'm sure, will add to stability and peace in Afghanistan.

Without the partnership between our two nations.

We have a constitution that we have today which is the most enlightened in that part of the world, ... And that constitution has been made possible because of the liberation that you helped us gain and because of the stability that the United States helped us have in Afghanistan.

This visit today will I'm sure further promote the brotherly links between the two countries.

Close doesn't count, ... I suspect that we'll find that it is accomplished at some point in the future, and I wouldn't have any idea when.

The fight, this war, this fight against the remnants of terrorism will go on for some time, ... The News Hour with Jim Lehrer.

It will not end this year. It will not end next year. We may have it for many years to come. So Afghanistan will continue to have security incidents as it builds its security institutions.