Although GREG, AS THE team leader, was in effect Karzai’s counterpart, he had his hands full overseeing the infiltration planning, so he designated me to be Karzai’s “go to” guy.
I occupied a room next door to Karzai and he took full advantage of my proximity, often calling out in his clear voice: “Duane, come quick. I have something very interesting to tell you.”
This usually happened immediately after he finished a phone conversation with a political figure who had pledged his support to Karzai or had somehow otherwise encouraged him in his anti-Taliban campaign. When making these calls, Karzai by necessity, and despite international press reports to the contrary, had to maintain the fiction that he was still in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban. To do otherwise, would jeopardize the basis of his appeal for support.
It was through watching him and listening to his telephone solicitations, many of which were in English, that I began to realize the depth of his devotion to ending the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan, as well as its protection of al-Qa’ida. The man was tireless. Every waking moment of the day, every action that Karzai took, every word he spoke centered on one thing—ridding Afghanistan of the Taliban government. His single-mindedness was far beyond anything I had ever witnessed, and at some moment it hit me that I was in the presence of a man who was destined to become a historical figure.
At a personal level, I came to like him a great deal. It was hard not to. His cultured, genteel, and modest manner, reinforced by the crisp “Queen’s English” that he spoke, combined to create an appealing personality. Despite the increasingly obvious fact that his importance and international stature were growing, never during the time I spent with him did he display any behavior that suggested a sense of self-importance—quite the opposite, in fact.
One evening, over a dinner of MRE’s, the military’s version of a “happy meal,” the topic of the dangers ahead came up, prompting me to remind Karzai of the rather obvious point that given the support that was behind him, it was important that he didn’t get himself killed.
“My life is unimportant. It doesn’t matter if I live or die,” was his response. “The only thing that matters is that Afghanistan becomes free of the Taliban.”
One only had to hear the steel in his voice to know the statement was not bravado, but core conviction. I believed him, and why not? Karzai had already risked his life once by going into Afghanistan on a one-man mission to start a rebellion against the Taliban, and he was preparing to do it again. Only this time, he would not be going alone.